Shotokan is well known for using rigid(not having a flowingtechnique) fighting in order to overcome an agressor. However, thisbook gives some pretty good insight into Japanese self defence.

Enoeda sensei is one of the most famous experts on free fighting in the Shotokan world. This book is an excellent reference for an intermediate-to-advanced student. The early chapters teach basic techniques, and provide descriptions and photographs explaining each. As the book progresses, combinations for attack and defense (counterattack) are introduced, as well as a discussion of one of the more difficult points of free-fighting, continuation. The emphasis in this book is clearly on Shotokan as a sport and an art, and not so much on self-defense, but successfully applying one to the other is really just a matter of practice. I would strongly recommend this book to anyone studying Shotokan -- beginners will benefit tremendously from the early chapters, and more advanced students will derive great benefits from the free-fighting lessons. Particularly, this would be a good resource for anyone training alone -- the chapter layout can be translated almost directly into training sessions.

Dr. Lowry has added some color to the realm of Civil War History with his two books, Sex in the Civil War, and Tarnished Eagles. Lowry does a great job in picking out the interesting cases that also represent a good cross section of Civil War Justice. I heartily enjoyed this work. I'm not too sure of just how scholarly this is, but it certainly makes the soldiers appear much more human.

Far too many writers addressing the Civil War are guilty of childish romanticism. While that tremendous conflict certainly had its noble heroes and ample demonstrations of courage and self-sacrifice, any war--or human crisis of any sort--has its cowards and fools, its liars, thieves and rogues. This fine, factual book serves as a much-needed (and highly readable) balance to pulp fiction and pulp history heroics. It tells the stories of some of the officers who went wrong, either from deficiency of character or circumstance. In doing so, it enriches our understanding and visceral sense of the Civil War in ways that the next dozen adulatory biographies of mediocre generals will not. While I am a long-time fan of co-author William C. Davis, Dr. Lowry deserves special praise for his continuing literary efforts to describe the dramas and tragedies around, between and, sometimes, in the great battles. As a former soldier who served a full career, I can guarantee any reader that this book shows soldiers as more than a few of them really are--not gallantly charging the enemy, but energetically looking after themselves. While this book concentrates on some of the darker aspects of the war, those aspects are exactly the ones that are lacking in too much of what passes as history or historical literature. I would also recommend any of Lowry's or Davis's other superb Civil War books.

An extremely informative & detailed read! Stevens iterates a tragic event in Marine Corps history with a direct, thought provoking style. As the current Commanding Officer of the Recruit Training Regiment at Parris Island, I am encouraging my officers & drill instructors to read this book in order to better understand how close we, the Marine Corps, as an organization, came to being disestablished because of the actions of just one man. Another book of interest on the same subject matter is Keith Fleming's, "The U.S. Marine Corps in Crisis: Ribbon Creek & Recruit Training." Another important book in helping to understand how the recruit training process has evolved.

I want to begin my comments by saying this is an excellent balanced book and that Stevens deserves a lot of credit. I would further recommend it to any Marine or others interested in Marine Corps history.

I will also state it is my opinion that S.Sgt. Matthew McKeon was a good man who made a tragic mistake. The factors leading up to the events of the evening of April 8, 1956 are manifold and can only be fully understood by reading Stevens' book.

My personal perspective comes from having served in the USMCR and the USMC from October 1956 until August 1962 when I was Honorably discharged as a Corporal E-4. I went to Parris Island in early February of 1957 and my recruit training virtually overlaps the events of a year earlier, putting me at the rifle range at about the same time of year.

Like all of us who went though boot training, I too pulled butts at the range. The discipline and control there was far different than back at main side so on several days I took the opportunity to spend my entire lunch break walking all over the Ribbon Creek area. I wanted to understand this incident.

Definitions from Webster...

Marine: Of or relating to the sea.

Amphibious: Able to live on both land and in water.

Swim: To propel oneself in water...To float on a liquid...

DI Motto: Let's be damn sure that no man's ghost will ever say "If your training program had only done its job."

And from Chesty Puller we learn the mission of Marine Corps training! "...success in battle..."

When I got to Parris Island, I was shocked to see recruits who could not swim had joined a service called the Marine Corps. I also thought it strange the USMC would accept anyone who could not swim, but I guess the Navy does too. How much W.W.II footage have you seen with Marines wading ashore under heavy fire when the Peter and Mike boats could not make it to the beach? Or, in jungles up to their chests and necks in water at Guadalcanal and then all over the south Pacific and Vietnam as well.

HELLO! This is the mission!

In training "...the nonswimmers had been taught how to float, tread water, and dog paddle. All recruits in the platoon had received ten hours of swimming instruction before April 8."

Platoon 71 got themselves into trouble by not following McKeon and by "joking, kidding, and slapping others with twigs while yelling "Snake" or "Shark! Suddenly there was a cry for help and panic broke out..."

I had looked closely at Ribbon Creek while at the rifle range and my "vivid" reaction then was someone would need to be retarded or radically incompetent to drown in that area! Several in platoon 71 fit this description.

"About three-fourths of the platoon was squared away. But the remainder were foul balls." "For example, eight of the men in Platoon 71 were either illiterate or had General Classification Test scores - approximately equivalent to an IQ test - below 70."

McKeon's colorful assessment that 25 percent of the platoon were "foul balls", may not have been far off the mark based on the testimony of several members of the platoon at the trial and in later interviews"

"The quality of some of the men under McKeon's tutelage may also be measured by their behavior after completing boot camp. At the time of the court-martial, two men were AWOL from Parris Island, one was AWOL from Camp Lejeune, one had deserted, one was in the brig, and one was awaiting punishment by his commanding officer." Remember these men did not complete their recruit training under McKeon, so other DI's also had a chance to make these guys good Marines.

SDI Staff Sergeant Huff had basically washed his hands of the young men under him...Stevens states "McKeon was failing, and he knew it." I think it was SDI Huff who was failing.

As far as the charges of being drunk the testimony is flawed and inconclusive. "Not until the court-martial nearly four months later would Dr. Atcheson admit that there was no clinical evidence of intoxication."

His own recruits "...testified that there was no evidence that Mckeon was drunk or impaired by drinking". Of all the recruits in the platoon who had made statements "...not one...had anything negative or critical to say about Sergeant McKeon".

McKeon was victim of being a nice guy by helping Scarborough with his bottle, allowing him to leave it in the barracks, driving Scarborough to the NCO club and accepting congratulattory drinks he never finished. Granted, McKeon used bad judgement but he was certainly not a bad guy.

S.Sgt. McKeon was the first person in the water and he was the last one out. He was leading, not just ordering recruits into an unknown situation. It is empirically obvious that if they had just followed him, as instructed, they all would have gotten back safely. Basic for military training!

Bottom line, McKeon was a new junior DI carrying virtually the whole burden of squaring away this platoon. When I got there a year later there was a "Motivation Platoon". I don't know if this approach existed in 1956 but what I saw of the "Motivation Platoon" regimen would have straightened out these "foul balls".

Although busted to Private, McKeon was allowed to stay in the Marine Corps. He attempted to rebuild his career, capitalizing on his W.W.II carrier experience. He worked with an all-weather fighter squadron and supplemented his private's pay by working nights in the kitchen of the EM club. Remember he had a wife and kids!

Earlier that year he had earned his squadrons "Marine of the Month" award.

"With one exception, all of the men interviewed forty years later spoke as highly of their former drill instructor as they had at the trial."

Enough said!

I am so glad to have found this book. I am the illegitimate daughter of Charles Reilly whom I knew nothing about since he died one month before I was born. This book not only took me through the trial but also gave me incite to the person he was. Through the years I have only had a home town newspaper article of the incident and was never recognized by his family.
I am sure McKeon did not march the whole platoon into the marsh with the intent that some would surely die and do feel that he has been justly punished for his bad judgement on that fateful night. I could almost feel like I was at the trial by the way Stevens writes. As a former wife of a Marine who spent four years living the "life", I, too, would like to see this depicted on film. I would also like to locate some of the surviving members of Platoon 71 who might have more information of any kind about my father.

This is on Ok book. It lacks in two things: 1. Proper editing. I don't believe words are mistranslated- they are misspelled. This is the editors fault. 2. Better pictures- The pictures on the outside cover of the book are great- but the insided pictures leave a lot to be desired. They are grainy black and white photos that look like old newspaper photos. They allow you to get the general idea of a posture or stance but details of a particular technique are lost.

It's a shame that this book couldn't have been cleaned up a bit. The translation is awkward, and the pictures are too light. Having said that, I must admit that I really like this book. Books on Hsing-i are not as hard to find as they used to be, but most today choose to cover the same old material. The five fists are included here, as well as the twelve animals, but the author goes on to further cover a couple of forms not available in other English language books. The photos are excellent in CONTENT, but as I said before, they're too light. Still one may overlook the shortcomings of the book and concentrate on the positives. This book would be best read after reading Robert W. Smith's book on the same topic (preferably the original version, if you can find it).

This book isn't perfect, but it shows Xingiquan as really practiced. Sun Lu Tang's book is a classic and deals with some of the more esoteric elements. Shou and Yang's book is heavy on song of..., the 5 thises, the 6 thats, etc. and is missing some of the basics. For Hebei style, this book is great and should be in every practitioner's library.

I expected more; I exepect a "this the Sun-Tzu paragraph; this is how and why is applied to martial arts".
It has good content, and reflects the Sun Tzu work and martial arts.. in a dissasociated way. I found the book like the author says: I read the book of Sun-Tzu, lets take the subject of each of the 13 books, and let me develop it from a martial view.
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Esperaba m‡s. Esperaba un "este es la frase de Sun-Tzu; esto es como y por qŽ se aplica a las artes marciales".
Tine buen contenido, y si relaciona el trabajo de Sun Tzu con las artes marciales.. en forma disasociada. EncontrŽ el libro como si el autor hubiese dicho: Le' el libro de Sun-Tzu, ahora tomemos cada uno de los temas de cada libro, y desarrollemoslo cada uno desde el punto de vista marcial.

This is an excellent text on military strategy and use of tactics to control people. It is over 2500 years old and is still relevant today. It is a book studied world wide by most military forces and some police agencies. As a police officer survival skills instructor I teach many of Sun Tzu's techniques and tacics for dealing with crowd control and riots. It is also serves some purpose as a practical guide for use in self-defense training. Author has done a simple and effective job translating and presenting the ideas and concepts of Sun Tzu.

Stephen F. Kaufman does an excellent job explaining the brutal and merciless strategies of war. Like any warlord, Kaufman refrains from the usage of unnecessary metaphors and allegories, and makes a deliberate attempt to explain Sun Tzu's classic as bluntly as possible. Definitely a guide for any warrior attempting to achieve and maintain an alpha male/female ranking in society.

This book has little useful information relating to the modern sport. Absolutely NO attention is paid to the rules, concepts of right-of-way, or direction. The book spends all its time on the mechanics of movements with no attention paid to tactics. Furthermore, figures are sparse, and few illustrations are present to detail the evolution of the movements. The book uses the Italian hand positions rather than the easier to understand and more prevalent (in my experience) French numbering. Too much attention is paid to relaxed, exhibitionist movements rather than the overall goal: to score touches and win. Finally, the preference for all things Italian is excessive and unhelpful with insufficient translation.

This is an excellent book for those not serious about or have no interest in competition. Do not buy this book otherwise as it is useless to you.

This book is a truly excellent work that should be read by every serious fencer. This is the best book on the classical Italian style of fence that I have seen so far. Anybody who is a serious student of fencing and knows the difference between the flashy, mindless "flick-filled" sport of today and real fencing will undoubtedly find this book enlightening. The Science of Fencing covers all of the basic and advanced techniques of the foil, sabre and epee, and also includes drills, history, tactics, sample lessons, helpful glossaries and appendices, a bibliography, and the synoptic tables after the section on foil, which basically describe every attack, a parry that defeats it, an evasion for said parry, etc. The wealth of information to be found in the synoptic tables alone is well worth the price of the book. Some may say that the book is too technical; this may certainly be true for some. If you are not already at least slightly familiar with fencing in some way, this book may be a little difficult to understand. To those with experience, it should prove to be a great help in understanding the "how" and "why" of many techniques regardless of style (it should be remembered that the French and Italian classical styles are actually much more alike than many people would believe). If you are looking for a quick fix, learn-the-basics-in-a-day, modern jumping and yelling style text with flashy pictures and an utter lack of real good information, this is not the book for you; there are a thousand other books like that already out there. For those truly interested in learning about the real art and science of fencing, however, this work should prove invaluable. Maestro Gaugler has providid a truly wonderful work that will be of great benefit to fencing coaches, teachers and students alike.

Trained by self-made "coaches" contemptuous of formal teacher training, it should come as no surprise that American fencers have seen no Olympic Gold in an entire century. Ask them what thrusts or feints are to be used in blade seizure, how to oppose an action in countertime, or which counterattacks can be executed with priority and you'll get a blank stare. Their "coaches" will defiantly insist, "That's old-fashioned, we don't do that any more." Well, perhaps they don't, but it's clear that American fencers' eminently successful European adversaries, prepared with a strong foundation in classical fencing theory and technique, know better. In the United States the one resource that holds the key to success is Dr. William M. Gaugler's "The Science of Fencing." Based upon the works of Parise, Pessina and Pignotti, its importance is not overlooked by the Germans, Austrians, and Swiss who now use the German edition. In Italy the Italian edition is widely employed, while Gaugler's "Dictionary of Universally Used Fencing Terminology" and "The History of Fencing" are required reading for all candidates who hope to become fencing masters. For those fencing either solely for recreation or with serious Olympic aspirations, this book is indisensable.

Looking like an attempt to follow in Son Duk Sung's works, the author wastes a little bit of paper. If you have never read Son's text, this book may be worth more to you. Some forms are detailed (Pyong An's) but it looks like the author has changed Pyong An 1. For the price, I guess it is okay, but not the best contribution to Chung Do Kwan Tae Kwon Do / Korean Karate.

I was pleased with this book. As a long time practitioner of Chung Do Kwan, I thought it captured the style very well. It also had a lot of ideas to help improve technique and it made me think more deeply about what I do. I especially liked the forms chapter which showed ways of getting more out of forms. It was interesting to see the original Pyong An I for historical interest. Genreally well done and insightful.

This book offers all the basics of Chung Do Kwan along with many helpful tips and useful insights. The instructions are very clear and the pictures are easy to follow. It shows the strengths of this great style and guides people in how to do it. I think anyone interested in this style or martial arts in general will find this book a useful addition to their library.

If you are getting ready to learn the Yang style Taiji sword, then this book should be on your shelf. If you are trying to learn on your own- go out and get a real teacher.

There are several things in this book that help suplement the instruction you can find in many Taiji schools that teach the sword. But this book is a supplement, not a replacement for that instruction.

Many schools only teach the form, not the reality behind it. They will give you a sword and say, "do it like this." Going through the motions does not mean that you understand what is going on. This book can help fill in the gaps.

A typical experience of someone learning the taiji sword is to come home after a long session and then find he/she can not even remember the sequence that the form is supposed to be in. This book can help jog your memory and help you in the sessions between training. But, again, if there are no training session with a teacher, you should just leave this book aside for now.

I should point out that this book is for the traditional form and not the 32 sequence form that seems so common now.

The book is a great source for the Yang tai-chi sword, easy to follow and filled with exercises and some applications, but, you also need the video, because always is good to see other people doing the form.

This video is one of three that I have by master Hernandez on Filipino Kuntao, and he is certainly a fine and competent and teacher of these arts. In this video he shows specific applications to knife and gun hold-up situations. He demonstrates dozens of possible scenarios and the responses to them. All of the techniques are well done and no doubt devastatingly effective.

That having been said, I've spent many years (about 30) working on and thinking about the issue of dealing with the knife, and the problem with every book or video I see is that they're all too complicated for the average student of the martial arts. If you're an experienced martial artist, most of these techniques are no problem. But unless you're fairly skilled all these defenses are going to be too much to learn and too technical to be of any use. I have a suggestion for a better beginning video below. And some of the info is just wrong.

A good example of this was the book put out by Michael Echanis some years ago. While I respect Echanis, his book of knife-defense techniques was really not practical. The defenses shown in the book will really only work when an opponent commits himself to one main attack--something an experienced knife-fighter won't do--since he'll probably stalk you, waiting for an opening.

Echanis also demonstrated a number of spinning and leaping techniques. This is also dangerous when dealing with a knife situation. You should keep footwork simple when facing a knife, since a slip here could be fatal.

But getting back to Hernandez's approach, I liked the video, but it's really only for fairly advanced martial artists. I recommend beginners pick up Marc "Animal" MacYoung's two videos on How To Survive a Knife Fight. They will teach you the basic moves and concepts, and from there you can branch out into the more advanced Hernandez videos if you want to. They will give you a better grounding in the basics--what the realities of knife encounter in the street are really like, and such important concepts as distance and interval, and so on. He also debunks a lot of silly myths--such as thinking you're going to be able to disarm a skilled knife-fighter, and how to deal with that.

Also, he points out that most "knife fights" today are rarely that--they're really more assassinations, in which the victim is surprised by the knife-wielder and his accomplice. The accomplice distracts the victim from the front while the knife-wielder attacks unseen from behind, so the victim really doesn't have much of a chance. The idea that two people will just whip out their knives and start fighting in a back alley, as MacYoung points out, is pretty absurd.

I had a couple of final comments. Although the Filipino flow drills such as the sombrada for medium distance and the hubad for close in are excellent training methods, it must be pointed out that in a real fight, no one is going to remain at sombrada distance or hubad distance for more than one or two attacks with the knife. To remain longer would be absurd and very likely suicidal. The wise fighter will break out to lagomano or long distance as soon as possible, giving him more distance and time to deal with an attack. Paul Vunak actually mentions this in one of the five excellent knife-fighting videos of his that I have, but I don't think even he gives it enough emphasis, although he does point out that the drills are ultimately for allowing you to buy enough time to turn and run or to get in a hit and make the attacker pause momentarily for you to get away.

Most Filipino martial artists also seem to practice the hubad only for upper-level attacks. They should add middle-level and lower- level attacks to the hubad flow drill to make it more realistic. Fortunately the sombrada already does this. However, the problem with the sombrada is that all the angles of attack seem to get practiced in the same order, from what I've seen. They should randomize the sombrada attacks and practice them that way, too.

The bottom line is that when facing a skilled knife-fighter, who will be more likely not to close with you such as in the sombrada and hubad drills, and will probably stalk you at long range, you need to take a somewhat different approach to training. This requires that you have finely honed blocking, parrying, trapping, and evading skills, etc., along with the ability to deliver lightning fast strikes when the opportunity arises.

Martial artists need to practice this sort of attack and defense situation, where the opponent tries multiple attacks and feints while you defend, attempting to stop or evade the knife attack while you get in a quick strike. The problem with the typical Filipino flow drills is that they're entirely defensive and don't force the defender to do the quick strike when the opportunity occurs--which might only be on every fifth or even tenth attack, depending on the knife-wielder's skill and that of the defender. But all you need is one quick strike to get away--a palm heel to the face, say--so that you can stun him momentarily and then hopefully disable him completely from there or run.

Although I'm mainly a karate man, my personal preference for this is the "splashing hands" or fast, slapping blocks from the southern kung-fu styles to quickly deflect the knife, and then to attack from there--assuming that you have to let him close with you and can't just run away. I recommend adding these useful techniques to the Filipino flow drills for an even more effective training combination.

This book is the typical product of pop psychology--while it is interesting and informative, the academics are a bit soft and the main premise based more on the teachings of well known authorities and personal opinions and less on historical or scientific fact. For example, there are sweeping statements of personal opinion like "Buddhism--probably the most advanced spiritual discipline known to man" used to bolster the author's case.

I do not mean to discredit the purpose of this book, which is to explode myths surrounding the art it is trying to defend. Rather, I applaud this effort. But, a compelling defense needs to be a bit stronger and leave out sweeping statements which are based on the authors opinion. The aim of this book should be more sharply focused on changing the minds of people who are not as open-minded to the ninja as perhaps I am. After all, the type of people who are likely to buy a book which is titled "Mind of the Ninja: Exploring the Inner Power" are martial arts enthusiasts. And the photo art depicts the author striking poses in his various costumes. Clearly he was trying to aim at the ninja boom market to increase readership, which was probably good in the 80s for attracting who? You guessed it--martial arts enthusiasts. The point I'm trying to make is that he is trying to dispel myths in his book, but the title and book art attract people who probably would support his argument anyway. It all adds up to a total package that would be scoffed at by any serious intellectual.

I realize ninjutsu is more a mind/ body/ spirit art than it is an intellectual affair, but the book is trying to bring the art into the intellectual realm, and so it needs to play by the rules of the game. If ninjutsu is to be discussed amongst people with the power to outlaw it, who will be backed by intellectuals, a better book needs to be written. Still, if you like psychological theory (mainly that of Carl Jung), and you are open to a new perspective without the need for heavily documented scholarship, you will enjoy this book. Just remember that it is one man's perspective. Even Stephen Hayes, author of the foreward, makes this important distinction. Additionally, if you want to read books about ninjutsu, try the Grandmaster's books. They are focused on the essence of the art rather than on intellectualism. They alone provide a more highly compelling argument than anything anybody else has written on the subject. And, they are works of art in themselves.

Excellent book, explains a lot, but a little boring in places. Really explians a lot about what the ninjas of old believed. As a ninjutsu practitioner, I highly recommend this book for anyone.

This is one of the best Ninja books I've read! Kirtland Peterson describes in depth why the public still views ninjas as violent, deadly, assassins. He describes other various ninja stereotypes. There is a lot of ninja history in this book. Kirtland refers to Masaaki Hatsumi, Stephen K. Hayes, Jack E. Hoban, Bud Malmstrom, Glenn J. Morris, and Christopher Hunter/Ashida Kim. Stephen Hayes does a excellent foreword in this book. I won't spoil the rest of book for you. If you like this book, I suggest reading anything by Masaaki Hatsumi, Stephen K. Hayes, Jack E. Hoban, Doron Navon, Glenn J. Morris, Charles Daniels, Bud Malmstrom and Richard Van Donk