The most influential books you've read on MA

Thanks for all your replies! it has been interesting and informative, and I believe I have a new christmas list hehe. MSTCND, thank you for your kind words, and youre very welcome for the topic! I am eager to learn from everything, even books that dont have anything in particular to do with martial arts. As long as I can apply it to my training, im good.

I look forward to more responses, thanks again!

Keith
 
For me, it was a book called "Full Contact Karate" by Jean Yves Theriault. I was a black belt in my late teens in a traidition TKD school when it came out in the mid 80's. Theriault was a world champion fighter on ESPN all the time. This book was an introduction into basic boxing & kicking. The boxing part of the book openend my eyes to a bigger part of MA than I'd been exposed to.
 
Bruce Lee The Art of Expressing the Human Body compiled by John Little. It is all about the training methods Bruce used to achieve his incredible abilities. It has tons of journal exerts, qoutes, and rare photos.
Every time I read this book I get really motivated to train and work out.
 
Shotgun Buddha said:
2. On Killing, The Psychological Cost of Learning to Kill in War and Society, by David Grossman

A brilliant book concerning how minds are conditioned for and affected by violence, and the various ways this influences the individual and society.
Its very much worth reading.
Click to expand...

Great Book

The Tao of Jeet Kune Do - Bruce Lee
The Art of War - Sun Tzu
The Book of Five Rings - Musashi
Aikido and the Dynamic Sphere - Westbrook and Ratti
 
Zen in the Martial Arts (Hyams)
Infinite Insights series (Parker)
Tao of Jeet Kune Do (Lee)
Book of 5 Rings (Musashi)
 
I almost forgot my favorite technical manual-

Analysis of Shoulin Chin-na by Dr. Jing Jwing Ming

;) good book, detailed explanations and good pictures. Also shows counters and escapes, which is very cool...
 
The most influential book I have read is Ninpo Secrets by Shoto Tanemura, I must have read this book at least 20 times.
Sincerly
Matthew Damignani
 
Karate-do

My Way of Life

Author – Ginchin Funakoshi

An incredible autobiography of the man most credit as a father of modern Karate. A fascinating account of karate spanning the late 1800’s to the mid 1900’s, the beginning of the Meinji Restoration to WW2. Everyone should read this!

2nd

Bubishi- The Bible of Karate

Author – Patrick McCarthy

A translation of a classic (almost mythical) ancient Chinese Martial Art Text. Referenced by numerous icons such as Miyagi Sensei
 
Living the Martial Way - Forrest Morgan. Simply a fantastic book on developing the warrior within you through training.

Shotokan's Secret - Bruce Clayton. Very interesting look at the development of linear Shuri-te style karate on Okinawa.

Bunkai-Jutsu - Iain Abernethy. Easily the best technique-oriented book I've read.

On the Warrior's Path - Daniele Bolelli. Very entertaining writer with a strong philosophical bent.
 
Mastery by George Leonard

This is a reread and I just finished. I just happened to come across it buried behind much bigger books in one of my bookcases.

I read it probably 12 or 13 years ago and it made a difference then but it is interesting to see how much I changed over the years by the way the same book affects me differently today.
 
I guess for me it would be LIving the Martial way and the book of five rings
 
Old post I know but I think it deserves a resurrection and I was rereading it and I have to say I will have to change what I originally put down although they were both quite influential at the time I would not say they were the most influential. There are other books that I have read most recently that are influential as well but again not the most influential

I will have to post these as the most influential over all and in this order. However 3 is blank because I cannot remember the exact title off the top of my head and I believe it is now out of print, I will post that latter

1) Comprehensive Asian Fighting Arts (Bushido--The Way of the Warrior) by Donn F. Draeger and Robert W. Smith, first edition
2) Zen in the Martial Arts by Joe Hymams
3)
4) The Secret Power Within by Chuck Norris

Comprehensive Asian Fighting Arts was by far the most influential book on my MA training and it was the first real book on MA I ever bought waaaaaaay back in the early 70s
 
Thanks for resurrecting this post so that I can learn some good ideas for new reading material!

My personal most influencing MA books are as follows

Dead or Alive - Geoff Thompson. (Brilliant no nonsense self defence book.)

Ch'ang Hon Taekwon-do Hae Sul - Real Applications to the ITF Patterns Vol 1 - Stuart Anslow. (Ground breaking TKD book! Not just for the pattern applications but also lots of opinion articles and myth busting articles)

No Holds Barred Fighting: The Ultimate Guide to Submission Wrestling - Matt Hatmaker and Doug Werner. (Excellent book with lots of useful grappling tips)


The Official Tae Kwon-do Association of Great Britain Training Manual (I have to put this in because I use and refer to it all the time - however not much use to those outside the TAGB!)

I'm sure that this list will grow as I continue along my MA journey.
 
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