Aikido and the Dynamic Sphere: An Illustrated Introduction

Rating:
Summary: Good for beginners, and middle range
Review: I just bought this book and it's great. It doesn't only teach you techniques but the bases (spiritual) of the art. It surprise me when I read the section of ethics. It has give me new insights that'll push me to practice harder and with more determination. I recomend this book to students who wants to take seriously this art.

Rating:
Summary: very good book on fundemental Aikido
Review: I am a seven year student of Korindo Aikido which is a style of aikido based on the teachings of hirai rather than Ushiba. Despite the differences in style and martial thought, I found this book to be very good in describing the basics and the techniques are well illistrated and explained. This is a good book on Aikido and the writers seem to know the system from within rather than describing from the outside.

Rating:
Summary: Great book with lots of info, but.....
Review: I really enjoy reading this book. Note the present tense here, as this is a book I often pick up and re-read sections of. The first time I read part of it a few years ago, I found it very 'academic' and thought it difficult to understand, but that was before I began to practice aikido. Since them, I still find it a little 'bookish', but now have some physical experience to match with what the authors were attempting to describe. I think that this is one of the only books that attempts to systematize aikido training, or at least systematize some of the various techniques used in aikido. It provides a great under-pinning to ones mat-work by putting a bit of theoretical base and structure to what you learn while on the mat. I only gave this a 3-star because I think it could do with a bit of spruce-up given that it has been over 20 years since it was first published, and much has happened in the world of aikido since then. This is definitely not a work that a beginner will get much out of at first, but should be part of any serious practitioner's collection!

Rating:
Summary: An excellent book
Review: This is an excellent book with a lot of illustrative pictures. Very easy to read and understand. You can almost start fighting your opponent in your head right away.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent Choice!
Review: This book is greatly detailed on the art of Aikido. It makes a great reference book for those who already study the art, and very informative for those who don't.

Rating:
Summary: A classic
Review: A classic book. The intro part is well done, the philosophy of aikido. The fashion-plate-type illustrations do the trick too, somehow making the movements more obvious than photographs may. A tight classic of the Ki society. I wish the authors had done a comprehensive book of technique to follow up, as the technique part is a shade skimpy, but that was not this book's purpose. A great text!