Martial Arts Writings....

[jks9199]

This was posted elsewhere:

That is a dissapointing response. Every major religion in the world had a tomb codifying its teachings even if it is open to literal

and or metaphorical interperatation(s). Ironically, not a single martial arts system I know of has sought to put to paper it's teachings in this way in the modern age. With the mediums other than paper available to us in this age, this is inexusable. Living and practicing is a far better teacher than reading, but reading could greatly suppliment the learning. I too would go about learning the forms by first understanding them.

It's a bit off topic in this thread -- but that's quite far from accurate. Many Japanese arts have scrolls of teachings that are for the most senior students; in fact, The Book of Five Rings is one of them! There are extensive books about Karate (like Karate-do Kyohan), and many other arts have lots of writings about them. American Kenpo has their Big Red Book...

In fact... I think I'm stealing your question and topic and taking them over to the General Martial Arts to see how many we can come up with!

So... How many other books can you come up with? I'll add a few private press publications about Bando to the list for a start. Sorry -- limited distribution on them, but the Boar System has been documented by the late Dr. Dwight Scherban, Grandmasters Manley and Davis have documented their training in Dynamics of Bando... and we have U Ba Than's Manual of the Bando Discipline as a guide.

There are several manuals of Krav Maga on the market, as well...

 

[arnisador]

Remy Presas created several for his art, Modern Arnis--most famously, the "pink book"!

 

[Jean Marais]

Thanks for picking this us. Great community by the way, I'm living it.

Sorry, tome..not tomb (my bad). And to qualify further I meant specifically literature explaining the compendium of forms in a modern form (scrolls format is not supported by my iPhone and I can't buy it on eBay).

I think I would learn forms far better, if there was a manual to go with it.

If anyone knows of such a thing for Siu Lim Tau, please share.

 

[Chris Parker]

This was posted elsewhere:

That is a dissapointing response. Every major religion in the world had a tomb codifying its teachings even if it is open to literal and or metaphorical interperatation(s). Ironically, not a single martial arts system I know of has sought to put to paper it's teachings in this way in the modern age. With the mediums other than paper available to us in this age, this is inexusable. Living and practicing is a far better teacher than reading, but reading could greatly suppliment the learning. I too would go about learning the forms by first understanding them.

It's a bit off topic in this thread -- but that's quite far from accurate. Many Japanese arts have scrolls of teachings that are for the most senior students; in fact, The Book of Five Rings is one of them! There are extensive books about Karate (like Karate-do Kyohan), and many other arts have lots of writings about them. American Kenpo has their Big Red Book...

In fact... I think I'm stealing your question and topic and taking them over to the General Martial Arts to see how many we can come up with!

So... How many other books can you come up with? I'll add a few private press publications about Bando to the list for a start. Sorry -- limited distribution on them, but the Boar System has been documented by the late Dr. Dwight Scherban, Grandmasters Manley and Davis have documented their training in Dynamics of Bando... and we have U Ba Than's Manual of the Bando Discipline as a guide.

There are several manuals of Krav Maga on the market, as well...

Kind of a side note, but the Gorin no Sho, although written for a senior practitioner, is really not something designed to teach the forms of the Ryu it's written for...

That said, there are many, many, many systems and teachers who have written books, produced DVDs, and more about their arts methods... off the top of my head, there are numerous books from Hatsumi detailing a large percentage of the waza found in the Bujinkan, I know of perhaps 50 books and DVDs on Iaido, some dozen or so videos on Katori Shinto Ryu, with another dozen plus books, entire books on Aikido methodology, Judo methodology, karate kata, a range of other sword systems, Daito Ryu, and so on and so forth... while my interest is primarily in the Japanese arts (hence my list being, well, entirely Japanese systems...), that is not meant as an implication that only Japanese arts do this. I've seen books and DVDs from a large range of other arts from other cultures, but the ones I'm listing from Japanese arts I know what the contents are, and can attest to them detailing the systems methodology itself.

The catch is, of course, that in almost all of these cases (if not all of them, really), these books and DVDs are best used as references, and really can't be used as teaching methods or resources.

 

[Jean Marais]

Can anyone recommend
Titel: Wing Tsun Kuen
Autor: Leung Ting
Verlag: Wu Shu Verlag Kernspecht
ISBN 3-927553-00-x
?

 

[lklawson]

This was posted elsewhere:


So... How many other books can you come up with? I'll add a few private press publications about Bando to the list for a start. Sorry -- limited distribution on them, but the Boar System has been documented by the late Dr. Dwight Scherban, Grandmasters Manley and Davis have documented their training in Dynamics of Bando... and we have U Ba Than's Manual of the Bando Discipline as a guide.

There are several manuals of Krav Maga on the market, as well...

A crap-ton:
http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/lawson

Peace favor your sword,
Kirk

 

[Xue Sheng]

There are a lot of books out there for just about every style you can think of but they do not codify (arrange [laws or rules] into a systematic code.) anything as far as CMA goes.

To use a quote from Barbosa "the code is more what you'd call "guidelines" than actual rules" at best

 

[pgsmith]

I suggest you do what countless other students have done through the ages and make your own notes on the forms as you are taught. Wanting someone else to give you ready made notes is counter-productive and lazy.

Just my opinion, and what I tell my own students.

 

[Chris Parker]

I suggest you do what countless other students have done through the ages and make your own notes on the forms as you are taught. Wanting someone else to give you ready made notes is counter-productive and lazy.

Just my opinion, and what I tell my own students.

Absocompletelydamnlutely agreed.

Aside from the reasons Paul gives, just because you have someone else's take on things written down (or on video) doesn't mean that it's the same as the way you do it in your kwoon. I train in an Iai system, and have a number of DVD's on it... and none of them do things the same way I have been shown them (the same kata, but a range of differences from subtle to incredibly obvious). I use them as references to remind myself of the overall sequence, and to kick-start my brain every now and then on the important details my teacher gives me on them... but if I did things the way they are shown in the DVD's, I'd be pulled up pretty quickly!

That's not exclusive to Iai, of course... I was discussing the various lines of Wing Chun with a workmate who trains in the system... and the first thing he brought up when comparing the different schools and teachers is how they do Siu Lim Tau in each.... so, unless your personal teacher has put a book out, it most likely won't match up completely, so relying on it can be an issue.

 

[Jean Marais]

After a bit more study on the internet I have come to the same conclusion. My second conclusion is that I will need to make my own sence out of what each move means.

 

[Jean Marais]

This was quite good...for those who like to think outside the box. Sorry it's in German.

http://www.wingchunkungfu.de/downloads/file-51.html

 

[cedarwood560]

Depends on the martial art.

I'm into Japanese martial arts, so "Kudokan Judo" by Jigoro Kano is a staple. "Budo Mind and Body" by Nicklaus Suino is also an excellent read.

 

[Jean Marais]

Has anyone read
Parting the Clouds

http://www.amazon.de/Parting-Clouds...1384896631&sr=8-3&keywords=parting+the+clouds

I would love to hear his take on fist rotation with a punch.

 

[Langenschwert]

Books are very important for martial study, and this has been recognized for a long time:

"...none [of my pupils]...ever possessed a book on the art of combat, with the exception of Galeazzo da Mantova. Galeazzo used to say that without books, nobody can truly be a master or [good] student of this Art. I, Fiore, agree with this; for there is so much to this Art that even a man with the keenest memory in the world will be unable to learn more than a fourth of it without books. And a fourth of this Art is not enough to make one a master...I, Fiore, know how to read, write, and draw, and have books on our subject, which I have studied for over forty years. Yet, I don't consider myself to be a perfect master of it..." - Fiore dei Liberi, 1410

My own personal favourites are the manual attibuted to Sigmund Ringeck and the VonDanzig manuscript (both from the 1400's), which contains the works of selection of masters, notably the most detailed explanation of Liechtenauer longsword and the most complete version of Ott's wrestling. I also get a lot of mileage out of Leckuchner's 1482 manual, a monstrous and fully illustrated manual on combat with the langes messer, and the Codex Wallerstein (from about 1500), particularly the grappling section, which is pretty amazing. For pedagogy, Joachim Meyer's 1570 opus is awesome, even if it is somewhat late in time compared to my primary sources. That being said, you could, using only his manual, achieve a level of completeness in German martial arts that no single earlier source could provide.

For modern sources, the DVDs out out by the group Ochs are a great visual reference for both German longsword and messer.

-Mark