Customer Reviews

Winning Karate

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is a pretty good start-up book for anyone just entering a karate class. It's filled with the basic technical stuff, like stances, kicks, and blocks, but also has some good information that can prepare one for competition, including entire training regimens for kata and sparring. The conditioning that is covered ranges from weight training to stretching to some traditional karate excercises. There is also a chapter on self-defense, which looks like a lot of stuff featured in books of that era (high kicks and such, little grappling), but it's definetly worth looking at, and includes weapons defenses. The book also gives some introduction in weapons katas and breaking, and has a final chapter on choosing the right school. Some other highlights include the author showing different sparring combinations, and telling what parts of the body to target with different body weapons (like the palm or forefist). It's a good book for anyone studying karate, and serves as a great introduction to those new to the art.

This book was a great insight on mostly how to train for karate. It also had other great stuff like even environmental self defense! It was a great all around book with many little helpful things that you can't find in other books.

I found the book to be to a bit predictable and more than a little underwhelming. The author focused almost exclusively on the basic movies (fists & kicks, plus a few throws), the various stances and counters inherent to his style, and discussion about weight training, katas and kumite ... but he neglected to focus to any meaningful degree on the mental and philosophical aspects of his art. Sadly, a lot of people take relatively little interest in such things, but they meant (and still mean) a lot to me, and unfortunately the author glosses over such things.

There are plenty of other books out there that take a much more ambitious approach, with the material, and as a result are much more satisfying to read and ponder. Seek them out.

This book is a good supplemental guide for those already training in the martial arts. It focuses mostly on physical training, especially weight training and streching. I felt it lacked slightly for technique insight.