Stick Fighting

Rating:
Summary: A Work of Art!
Review: This is one of the best martial arts books I have ever seen. The clarity of thought that this book represents is enlightening. You can't help but marvel at the skill of Soke Hatsumi while studying this book.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent Stuff! But NOT for a beginner.
Review: When I first got this book, I was just beginning to study martial arts. I looked through it for a few days, but found that even the simpler diagrams were confusing, even when practicing with a partner. If you are a super fast learner when it comes to books, this book is ideal for you. But since the diagrams are just black and white photographs, they are sometimes hard to put into prospective. However, this contains many useful techniques for using sticks. You will get more techniques then wasted filler stuff on the philosophy of stick fighting. To sum it up: This is an excellent book for visual learners.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent Stuff! But NOT for a beginner.
Review: When I first got this book, I was just beginning to study martial arts. I looked through it for a few days, but found that even the simpler diagrams were confusing, even when practicing with a partner. If you are a super fast learner when it comes to books, this book is ideal for you. But since the diagrams are just black and white photographs, they are sometimes hard to put into prospective. However, this contains many useful techniques for using sticks. You will get more techniques then wasted filler stuff on the philosophy of stick fighting. To sum it up: This is an excellent book for visual learners.

Rating:
Summary: Great little classic
Review: When I was a young martial artist 40 years ago, I always looked forward to any new books by Draeger or Chambers. You could always count on them for books on rare or interesting topics that weren't being covered by anyone else. For example, their two books on Indonesion Silat are classics and were the first published in the English speaking world on this fascinating art.

This book by Chambers and Hatsumi is another example of that, and it's a testament to it that it's still around after 34 years. Back then I remember looking at the locking technqiues with the stick and deciding they were too hard to learn from a book. Then many years later I took up kali and escrima, which has many of the same techniques, and recently when I picked up a copy of this book and look at the chapter on those techniques, I found they weren't so difficult to understand anymore, so I guess I've learned something after all. :-)

Actually, this isn't such a little book, because it contains 58 techniques, divided into about half a dozen different categories. These are techniques against fist attacks, foot attacks, wrist holds, sleeve and lapel graps, seizure from behind, stick holding, and immobilizations. Each category has at least 6 or 7 techniques, although some have more, so there's a good selection of techniques of each type. One nice feature is a section devoted to jutte techniques, a rarely seen art that I know very little about. The section on basic techniques includes footwork diagrams, something often lacking and neglected in many books on martial arts.

After a brief intoduction and description of the stick arts in the Japan and a short discussion of the basic concepts, the authors devote most of the book to the vaious techniques. Despite the plates probably being pretty old at this point, the photos are still pretty clear and although slightly lacking in contast. However, if I remember right, this was the case with the first edition 30 years ago. At the end there's a brief glossary of Japanese terms.

With over 300 photos, easy to follow text and photos, and almost 60 techniques, this is an excelent introduction to the Kukishin-ryu art of stick fighting.