Customer Reviews

Mu Tau: The Modern Greek Karate

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Mu Tau: The Modern Greek Karate is Jim Arvanitis' first book written in 1979. This book, by the Pankration popularizer, is often hard to come by and can be expensive (if memory serves I paid $60) but if you're a rare book collector like me, I'd say it's worth owning this piece of history.

The book begins with a history and basic philosophy of Mu Tau. The book then progresses to the physical and mental attributes, such as strength, speed, agility, and endurance, and how to improve each of these attributes, though he is a bit vague here on exactly how to do this. The third chapter deals with fighting positioning and distance. The fourth, the various bodily weapons at your disposal. The fifth and sixth, various defensive maneuvers and counter-attacking. Chapters seven and eight, some tips on street fighting, fighting strategies, and psychological attributes and training tips.

The book is actually very similar to Bruce Lee's Tao of Jeet Kune Do, as it's main purpose is to give a brief overview of the techniques and training methods of Arvanitis' fighting system. It's well written and, like the Tao of Jeet Kune Do, it has similar drawings demonstrating each technique, and this is where the book gets even more interesting.

If you look closely at many of the drawings, Arvanitis clearly traced drawings from Bruce Lee's Tao of Jeet Kune Do, such as several of the grappling maneuvers as just one example on page 118. If you compare MuTau's grappling section with Lee's Tao of Jeet Kune Do many of the drawings are exact.

That is one of the most fascinating facts about the book in my opinion and it's a treat to have such a rare book by a legend in the martial arts world.

"Mu Tau: The Modern Greek `Karate'" was Jim Arvanitis' first book on pankration and it is indeed a work of art. The quality of the written content was way ahead of the times, when classical karate and kung-fu ruled the roost. It gives us our initial glimpse of the ancient Greek combat sport and many of the principles that Arvanitis had developed early on based on that of his ancestors. It is fully illustrated with occasional photos here and there of Jim working out or sparring.

As a longtime follower of Grandmaster Arvanitis I must disagree with some of what was said in a previous review by PrimeTruth. First of all Jim did not "clearly trace drawings from Bruce Lee's Tao of Jeet Kune Do." Lee was not the only one who drew from various sources as many tend to think. It's obvious that he actually traced much of his grappling section from judo books that predate the Tao. Also, there are many wrestling techniques such as the guillotine (aka "twister") and others that were not in Lee's material, this coming from Arvanitis' long association with wrestling. Again, there are some images that are alike, but this is perhaps due to both authors extracting the same drawings from their chosen references.

Although the more recent books written by Arvanitis have evolved in its format and quantitative scope, this one is essential to anyone's library. It not only exposed pankration to mainstream martial arts, but paved the way for mixed martial arts. It deals with fighting, not the fancy forms, board breaking and routines that most confided in at the time. Obviously Jim was way ahead of the curve and envisioned something that the rest of the martial arts world did not.

The format is a large 9x12 with 193 pages worth of fascinating information from a legendary martial arts pioneer.