bad martial arts books

Originally Posted by Randy Strausbaugh
Not kidding about the "Dr. Professor Grandmaster Soke" part.

Wow, that's kind of like wanting to wear all of your Tournament Medals at once. Very cumbersome...

No, I picture it more as a guy wearing scrubs, fresh in from the operating table, with a bunch of lecture notes for his afternoon class and a chessboard with a box of pieces and some notes for a column on the Sicilian defense sticking up out of his medical bag... someone who can't figure out whether he should run an MRI on you, scold you for your critical sloppiness in your last research paper, or play a kingside or queenside pawn opening against you... some weird type of multiple personality disorder, in short...
 
I am hesitant to post this title here because I like to think that anyone who writes a book means well and I would really hate to upset them but someone gave me an old book last week on Tai Chi because they know I do Tai Chi and I do appreciate the sentiment but the book is just plane bad. The postures are bad some of the posture names are not correctly translated and the translation of the I Ching do not appear to be entirely correct either. The book was published in 1974 and I doubt it is still in print but I recommend avoiding it if you want to know about Tai Chi

Tai Chi Ā– A Way of Centering & I Ching
 
I am hesitant to post this title here because I like to think that anyone who writes a book means well and I would really hate to upset them but someone gave me an old book last week on Tai Chi because they know I do Tai Chi and I do appreciate the sentiment but the book is just plane bad. The postures are bad some of the posture names are not correctly translated and the translation of the I Ching do not appear to be entirely correct either. The book was published in 1974 and I doubt it is still in print but I recommend avoiding it if you want to know about Tai Chi

Tai Chi Ā– A Way of Centering & I Ching​


It's kind of amazing how good-meaning friends and family can give inappropriate gifts, sometimes. They just don't know the difference, and don't even realize that there is a difference.
 
Since they called it Tai Ch-eye when they gave me the book I know they know little about it but they did mean well. So when I am later asked what I tought I will say not bad and I will not by lying because to be truthful it is awful and not good enough to be bad
 
The worst martial arts book that I ever read was The ninja training manual (1996) by Christopher Hunter.
This book was previously published as The book of the Ninja (1980).
I have no idea why they decided to reprint it because it is absolutely worthless.
 
Yes I have made the same mistake several times, especially :angry: Ashida Kim :angry: has the habit of reprinting over and over again, some examples :
Ninja secrets of invisibility from 1983 is reprinted as The invisible Ninja in 1997 ; Forbidden fighting techniques of the Ninja from 1984 is reprinted as Forbidden weapons of the Ninja in 2000 ; Dragon lady of the Ninja from 1984 is reprinted as Ninjitsu for woman in 2000 ; Ninja cloak and dagger from 1987 is reprinted as Ninja cloak of invisibility in 1998 ; Iron body Ninja from 1997 is reprinted as Secret Ninja alchemy in 2000 ; Ninja Dim Mak from 2008 is basically the same book as Instant Self Defense also from 2008 and finally Ninja magic from 2007 is the same as Ninja levitation from the same year. Also from Dojo Press Ron Collins who reprinted his previous books Black dragon Ninjitsu from 2000 and Black dragon Taijitsu from 2006 into a new book called Black Dragon Ninjitsu complete course handbook in 2006. Also from the Ashida camp Anonymous who published in 1986 The making of the Ninja. Ashida Kim's training camp and reprinted it in 1995 as How to become a Ninja. Other examples are from Haha Lung Shadowhand the history and secrets of Ninja taisavaki from 2000 is reprinted as Ninja shadowhand : the art of invisibility ; The black science from 2001 is reprinted as Mind manipulation in 2002. These are also all potentially bad martial arts books. Buyer be aware!!!!
 
It's sad but a lot of terrible books have been published under the banner of Ninjutsu. The trend continues, one of the worst in recent times is "Spiritual Practices of the Ninja" by Ross Haven. Nothing at all to do with Ninpo!

David
 
I found Peter Ralston's Effortless Power to be pretty unreadable and devoid of any real information. I understand it was compiled from some lectures or something that he gave about internal martial arts. But it seemed to me he just sort of rambled, and talked about what he was going to talk about. I kept waiting for him to get to the information, but it just never came.

So was his other book "Zen Body-Being"
 

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