Karate Fighting Techniques: The Complete Kumite

Rating:
Summary: Tradition and Kumite ! Oss!
Review: Hirokazu Kanazawa, President of Shotokan Karate-do International Federation, has complied an outstanding book that balances history and tradition with the different forms of kumite. This book is not the normal primer. If one does not know at least the basic punches and kicks, do not get this book as a novice guide to learning karate. Kanazawa's approach assumes the person has these basic techniques down. If you are one of those people, still buy the book only if you plan on learning karate in the future when the opportunity arises.

In addition, while this book is primarily a Shotokan text, he does review the major Okinawa/Japanese karate styles, goes over terminology, and a particularly nice paragraph on p. 19 on the "verbal greeting `Oss'" The photos are of high quality, which is important in a text that demonstrates many sparring steps via pictures. The explanations are thorough enough to get the point a cross, but not unnecessarily tiresome and too detailed to loose the reader or make the book overly cumbersome.

A nice companion martial texts to a martial artist's library.


Rating:
Summary: Kanazawa's Complete Kumite
Review: This book details and organizes kumite from basic to advance practice. It includes what many karate books leave out: good photos, both in terms of the techniques themselves (as demonstrated by Kanazawa) and various poses.