What martial arts books are in your collection?

But more importantly, which of them have proven to be useful? There are so many books out there, and I've purchased a few only to find them less than impressive in total collective knowledge. Which martial arts books have impressed you?

 

I only have a couple.

Dojo by Norbert Donnelly.

My sensei studied with Donnelly in the early days of their training, and the book touches on the 60's and 70's karate culture in the US. It's a pretty simple read but there are some interesting tips he shares.

Kodokan Judo: The Essential Guide to Judo by Its Founder Jigoro Kano

This book has helped me really get my head around certain throws and principles that I've learned since starting Judo. It has techniques broken down into simple step-by-step instructions

.[ame="http://www.amazon.com/Kodokan-Judo-Essential-Founder-Jigoro/dp/4770017995/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1284098283&sr=8-1"]http://www.amazon.com/Kodokan-Judo-Essential-Founder-Jigoro/dp/4770017995/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1284098283&sr=8-1[/ame]

 

"The Book of Five Rings", "The Art of War", "Official Taekwondo Training Manual"

They are all useful in their own way. The TKD manual just for keeping me honest when teaching my students their Poomse...I tend to chagne them to suit my liking, and forget that I changed it.

 

LOL! I have a feeling I'd end up doing that very thing

I just ordered the TKD manual. It's encouraging to hear you have it as well. I ordered it specifically for the forms assistance after finding 18 variations on youtube I figured I'd just go to a more definitive source.

I also have the book of five rings, the obligatory copy of sun tzu, zen and the martial arts and a nice hard cover version of Bruce Lee's fighting method just cause it looks cool on the book shelf, lol

 

I've actually been paring down my martial arts book collection a lot. I'm trying to avoid the "meta-hobby" (collecting books about martial arts in lieu of actually doing martial arts). Though hanging out on forums is also meta-hobby, the laptop takes up a lot less space than my book collection did.

I sold off or gave away a lot of volumes on JKD, Filipino martial arts, martial arts in general, etc.

I actually gave away several of the books regarded as "classics" at MAP. Zen and the Martial Arts, Living the Martial Way, Tao of Jeet Kune Do, Bruce Lee's Fighting Method, etc.

What I've kept tends to focus on either the cultural/historical dimensions of martial arts or training methods (versus technique). I'm currently working on Combat Sports in the Ancient World, a survey of boxing, wrestling, pankration, and stickfighting in ancient Rome, Greece, and Egypt.

On the technical side, I'm trying to keep myself to training advice ("here's how many rounds you should do and how long to rest in between" versus "here's how to throw a round kick"). I feel like my technique is pretty decent, but my understanding of training routines, coaching, fitness, etc. is lacking. Obviously, there's some bleeding over into technique throughout both of these. But generally, I'm avoiding collecting thousands of pages detailing "what to do when... "


Stuart

 

If that's Hyam's "Zen in the Martial Arts" the classics bar must be pretty low here.Tho' not a bad read.

I've culled more than once over the years and have to again.If you saw my LARGE bookshelves(yes,that's plural) you'd see why.

I don't buy many these days,although I'm always open to good historical work.Outside of that I limit myself to good works relating to things I do or have done in the past.I'm way behind in all catagories.

Here's some good works off the top o' my head

Beginning Karate-Tonny Tulleners useful for beginners of many things other than Karate.

The Way of Karate:Beyond Technique(current title The Heart of Karate-Do)-Shigeru Egami quite interesting

Bruce Lee's Fighting Method Vol II-Ohara Publications- good basic stuff

Yang Style Applications-Yang,Jwing-ming-lots and lots of variations.

The T'ai Chi Boxing Chronicle-Guttman very good (but don't bother unless you really know technical stuff about TC shen fa or a lot of the TC specific descriptive terminology will be totally incomprehensible).

Strategy in Unarmed Combat and What the Masters Know-Paul Maislak OK,the second book sounds pretentious but it's not.Pretty decent stuff overall w/emphasis on positional theory.Even included some ground work,a rarity in a stand-up book in those days.

Classical Bujutsu,Classical Budo,Modern Bujutsu and Budo-Donn Draeger Still classics after all these years.

Fighting Karate Vols I and II-Ashihara no nonsense from one of Oyama's boys

and finally,tho I could go onandonand..

BOXING-Edwin L. Haislet Still the absolute best basic work on the subject I've ever read.Excellent explanation of mechanics.Was finally reprinted in the 90s.Also own an expanded U.S.Navy version made decades later which includes more on training,drills w/pads,etc.

 

I was looking through my books over the weekend and I remembered one I'd have to mention. The first "fitness" or rather lifting book I ever bought was 'Power Training in King fu and Karate'. First printed in 1974 the book takes a very basic approach to weight training but even today some 30+ years later, when I look through it, nothing is obsolete or would seem ridiculous. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that if all you had was that book today and followed it exercise for exercise you'd lack for nothing. WELL worth the money for any martial artist or for anyone on a budget that wants a great beginners reference guide to weight lifting and I still recommend it today.

 

I don't really like technique books. I can get stuff from videos but I struggle to apply techniques from books, even when theres pictures.

My top five are:

1) A Fighter's Heart - IMHO the best book on martial arts ever written. And written by an 'average' martial artist, which is rare.

2) The Book of Five Rings - its not about business, its about fighting. Lots of concepts to help your sparring.

3) Angry White Pajamas - Very well written book about training in Akido in Japan. Insightful on the culture as well.

4) A Fighter's Mind - wrestlers, chess players, tai chi push hands champions, world champion boxers and others give their input in a superb book on the mentality of a fighter.

5) Waking Dragons - A biography of a karateka leading up to the bigest challenge of his life - the brutal 30 man kumite (sparring) line up. Very interesting and again great on the mental preperation needed to push yourself to fight, even when your body is telling you to stop.

I've read a load of others but those five are the best.

 

Any of the books on Cimande Pencak Silat written by William Sanders

"Hsing I" by James McNeil.

I have studied Silat and Hsing I either from the above or their students. I also have "The Weapons and Fighting Arts of Indonesia" by Donn Draeger which is a pretty good reference book. I have some FMA books as well.

 

Oh I agree. It's only a classic in the sense that everyone's had a copy of it. I thought it was alright. But definitely not a "must have."


Stuart

 

Chinese Martial Arts Training Manuals: A Historical Perspective by Brian Kennedy
A fantastic and despite the title very readable book half of which discusses famous Kung Fu manuals, half of which discusses their context and wider TCMA themes. Very good book for understanding the reality of CMA history and for tackling BS.

 

Dynamic kicking Method...By Masfumi Shiomitsu

Tae Kwon Do.. By Yeon Hee Park,Yeon Hwan Park and Jon Gerrard

Basics of Acupuncture ..By G Stux and B Pomeranz. "Note" some really great body charts and pressure point meridians in this book.

Vibrational Medicine..By Richard Gerber M.D "Note" this book is very intense and a hard read but i am interested in the subject.Not so much martial arts related but health wise i think it is important and a new field of thought in a way.

I have a few others but those are the ones i have been reading lately.

 

'Taekwondo: The Art of Self Defence' (Choi Hong Hi)
'Taekwondo: Traditions, Philosophy and Technique' (Marc Tedeschi)
'Taekwondo Patterns: From Beginner to Black Belt' (Jim Hogan)
'Effective Taekwondo Sparring' (Jim Hogan)
'Taekwondo: Personal Trainer' (Jason Corder)
'Taekwondo Grading Syllabus: White Belt to Black Belt' (TAGB)
'Taekwondo: The State of the Art' (Dae Sung Lee)
'Official Taekwondo Training Manual' (Soon Man Lee and Gaetane Ricke)
'Chang Hon Taekwondo Hae Sul - Real Applications to ITF Patterns Vol 1' (Stuart Anslow)
'Taekwondo' (Kevin Hornsey)
'A Killing Art: The Story of Taekwondo' (Alex Gillis)
'Complete Taekwondo Poomsae: The Official Taegeuk, Palgwe and Black Belt Forms' (Sang H. Kim)
'Taekwondo' (Dave Oliver)
'Taekwondo: Techniques and Tactics' (Yeon Hwan Park and Tom Seabourne)
'Taekwondo' (Charles Stepan)
'Competitive Taekwondo' (Yong Sup Kil)
'Taekwondo Kyorugi: Olympic Style Sparring' (Kuk Hyun Chung and Kyung Mung Lee)
'No Holds Barred Fighting' [complete series] (Mark Hatmaker)
'Muay Thai: Advanced Thai Kickboxing Techniques' (Christoph Delp)
'Muay Thai: The Most Distinguished Art of Fighting' (Kraitus)
'Muay Thai Advanced Boran: Fighting Art of Kings' (Ajarn Marco De Cesaris)
'Thai Boxing Dynamite' (Rebac Zoran)
'Muay Thai' (Tony Moore)
'Kickboxing: From Beginner to Black Belt' (Justyn Billingham)
'Kickboxing Sparring' (Justyn Billingham)
'Complete Kickboxing' (M. Sprague and Keith Livingston)
'Kickboxing: Framework for Success' (Pat O'Keeffe)
'Kickboxing: Complete Guide to Conditioning, Technique and Competition' (Christoph Delp)
'Advanced Kickboxing' (Pat O'Keeffe)
'Kickboxing' (Eddie Cave)
'American Freestyle Karate' (Dan Anderson)
'The Ultimate Kick' (Bill Wallace'
'Best of Bill Wallace' (Bill Wallace)
'Dynamic Stretching and Kicking' (Bill Wallace)
'Fitness for Full Contact Fighters' (Christoph Delp)
'The Anatomy of Stretching' (Brad Walker)
'Stretching' (Bob Anderson)
'Stretching Anatomy' (Arnold Nelson and Joke Kikkonen)
'Dynamic Stretching' (Mark Kovacs)
'Facilitated Stretching' (Robert McAtee)
'Ultimate Flexibility' (Sang H. Kim)
'Stretching Scientifically' (Tom Kurz)
'Secrets of Sports Training' (Tom Kurz)
'Relax into Stretch' (Pavel Tsatsouline)
'Super Joints' (Pavel Tsatsouline)
'Beyond Stretching' (Pavel Tsatsouline)

All been helpful in their own way.

 

What, no Wah Lum Praying Mantis??

LOL, I crack myself up

 

Passing The Guard
The Guard
The Strategic Guard
- Ed Beneville

Fedor
- Fedor Emilianenko

Kodokan Judo Throwing Techniques
- Toshiro Daigo

Judo Formal Techniques: A Complete Guide to Kodokan Randori No Kata
-Donn F. Draeger

Jiu Jitsu Unleashed
- Eddie Bravo

All excellent because they delve so much further into the techniques and into the strategy underpinning them than you can in class. All of them have directly contributed to my understanding and ultimately my ability. I would add three video's to that list as well:

Functional Half Guard
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6822004334951860548#
- Indrek Reiland and Jorgen Mats

The Triangle
- Rigan Machado

Grip Like A World Champion
- Jimmy Pedro

Anyone that says you can't learn anything useful from books needs to watch these vid's and see if they still think that.

 

Part of my job is to proof read things for accuracy so Im certain no one else caught it but you made me chuckle a little with the sentence above

It's the unintentional stuff like that which leaves me chortling at my desk all day, lol. Please don't be offended by that?

 

I will add a link to one of the books though:

http://books.google.com/books?id=HG...esnum=1&ved=0CDIQ6AEwADgK#v=onepage&q&f=false

 

I am slowly building up my collection, being a relative newcomer, but so far it includes:

Falling Hard by Mark Law - just a fun and interesting look at the history of judo (admittedly, at least, from my non-judoka's perspective).

Jiu-Jitsu University by Saulo Ribeiro - I honestly can't get enough of this book. A friend of mine had loaned me his for a bit, and I realized I needed my own copy. A very coherently presented picture of the fundamentals, as well as ideas and themes to tie it all together.

Guerrilla Jiu-Jitsu by Dave Camarillo - my throws/takedowns are my weakest point, but they suck slightly less because of the fact I drill some of the stuff in this book with competent and more senior training partners.

 

Books, i just can't get enough of 'em!
'Introduction to Karate' and 'Katas of Wado Ryu' by Shingo Ohgami- basic texts for us Wadoka.
Patrick McCarthys 'Bubishi'
Lu Shengli's (sp?) 'Combat Techniques of Bagua, Tai chi and Hsing i'
So many others, i am currently extending my PMcC collection (Okinawan Karates), particularly looking at different versions of Kushanku Kata.