Martial Art Book Reviews

Martial Art Book Reviews

This is a review of different martial arts books about varying martial arts by various authors. As time goes by I intend to add more and more book reviews all of which i assure you Ive read personally. Although Ive read and own a great number of books on the Martial Arts Im always on the look out for more, I feel even if a book is poor if you pick up just one thing that improves you either in martial arts or outside I feel its been worth the read, you of course are welcome to draw your own conclusions.

I am a 1st Dan Black Belt in Kick boxing and am a fully qualified instructor and both train and assist the British Karate and Kickboxing association run by Dave Cartawick and also the British Combat Academy run by Pete Lakin, a long time student of Peter Consterdine, I have trained in kickboxing since 1999 and have also cross trained in various other styles mainly mixed martial arts, karate and Ju-jitsu.

I will also be adding reviews as I return to browse or reread books Ive previously already read.As the size and hopefully the quality of my reviews increases Ive given each there own hub find them in the links section below.

Kickboxing Sparring

Justyn Billingham

ISBN 978-1-84797-130-2

Marks 8 out of 10

Dynamic Kicks

Chong Lee

ISBN 0-89750-017-2

Marks 5 out of 10

The Fence

Geoff Thompson

ISBN 1840240849

Marks 9 out of 10

Nunchaku Karate Weapon of Self Defence

Fumio Demura

ISBN 0897500067

Marks 6 out of 10

Unleash the Lioness

Robin Houseman

Though not exactly a martial arts book this is a useful little guide on self defence aimed primarily at woman but with several good points and techniques that are relevant to anybody The author Robert houseman was a former member of the S.A.S. and now runs his own security business The book looks into the pschology of would be attackers showing there possibly misalined methods of thinking and using several examples (taken mainly from the press but now somewhat out of date). He goes into a detailed method of how to react should these situations occur, though I would think most of them need some practise to put into use. Theres several basic techniques for self protection (though these are far from most martial art style techniques) though intially seemingly violent Im sure in a them or you situation these techniques would be highly useful.

ISBN 0-340-59180-3

Unleash the Lioness: Woman's Guide to Fighting Off Violent Attack

Marks 3 out of 5

Bruce Lee's Fighting Method Self defence techniques Volume 1

Bruce Lee/M. Uyehara

  Although I am a big fan of Bruce Lee and the fact he brought martial arts into the main stream spotlights, Im sorry to say although an excellent book and incite into Bruce Lee's thoughts its not the best training manual out there. Theres a brief introduction about who Bruce Lee was (like you didnt know) and the reasons he was reluctant to publish these books whilst he was alive. After this the book divides into several chapters with names such as Defence against suprise attacks and defence against unarmed assailant you will be getting the idea by now. Each chapter breaks down into a series of techniques shown mainly with "freeze frame" type photographs with a small ajoining text as found in many martial art magazines and this theme is repeated through out the book, there is also some useful snippets contained in these little texts. However some of the techniques shown appear a little unrealistic and pre determined and although I am sure bruce may have been able to pull them off I doubt the average martial artist would. Several techniques involve kicks above the legs again something I would recommend against in self defence situations. Also the book only details the actual fighting techniques with a passing reference to awareness and over areas.

ISBN 0-89750-050-4

Bruce Lee's Fighting Method: Self-Defense Techniques Vol. 1

Marks 3 out of 5