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Type of bind: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 796.8153
EAN num: 9784770028723
ISBN number: 4770028725
Label: Kodansha International
Manufacturer: Kodansha International
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 192
Printing Date: April 09, 2004
Publishing house: Kodansha International
Sale Popularity Level: 250939
Studio: Kodansha International
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Product Description:
Hirokazu Kanazawa is the renowned karate master in the world today, and a close disciple of Gichin Funakoshi, the father of modern karate and founder of the Shotokan School. Having earned his impressive reputation in Hawaii, the mainland United States, and Europe as an official trainer for the Japan Karate Association, Kanazawa founded Shotokan Karate-do International Federation in 1979. This association now has branches in more than 90 countries throughout the world.
This book is Kanazawa's very first complete guide to kumite, or sparring. The karate training process comprises four areas: basics, kata (forms; prearranged movements and techniques), kumite, and competition. Kumite-'the art of grappling with opponents,' as it might be called-is the application of kata, and is the key to sucess in karate tournaments.
Karate Fighting Techniques teaches all the various kumite techniques, and presents a systematic approach to applied kumite that is designed to provide essnetial information for match-style kumite and tournament kumite. The author also writes with great affection of his experiences with Master Gichin Funakoshi, and offers some insight into the true spirit and teachings of Shotokan karate.
With 700 photos of the author, his students, and some rare photos of the late Gichin Funakoshi and his famous disciple Masatoshi Nakayama (author of the popular Best Karate series), Karate Fighting Techniques is the very first book of its kind to provide such a comprehensive guide to kumite and its role in Shotokan karate. It will be an indispensable resource for all karate practitioners.
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Rated by buyers 
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This is a beautiful, well-produced book with art museum quality photos.
The author, Kanazawa, is a living legend in Shotokan Karate circles, and has also produced some nifty dvds (the most cost effective kata dvd in the Shotokan Karate arena is by Sensei Kanazawa, and has all of the Shotokan katas on one dvd! It's on Amazon and it's cheap!).
This book is useful to Shotokan Karate students, and it has limitations, as all books do.
It will not teach you Shotokan Karate, and it will not teach you to fight.
This book is primarily a beautiful road map of techniques you'll pick up along the way with a traditional Shotokan Karate instructor who has survived the Japan Karate Association Instructor's Course.
This particular instructor was also the winner of the very first All-Japan Karate Tournament, and his technique leaves nothing to be desired.
But this won't teach you to fight. This is not a book for a no-holds-barred environment, nor a barfighting or streetfighting book.
It's a book with the exercises that are taught to a Shotokan Karate student to prepare them for tournaments, which are not the same as real fights, although there is overlap between the skills used in tournaments and in real fights.
So if you're a current or prospective Shotokan student, buy this book. You need it for your library, to supplement the information in the "Best Karate" series by Nakayama about sparring and tournament fighting.
But this is the wrong book if you want a quick introduction into self defense or cage fighting. Those are different categories.
Shotokan Karate can provide a basis for very effective self defense techniques, but it does so over a period of years, not weeks or months. So this would be the wrong book for somebody going into a front-line environment (for that sort of thing, see the books by Fairbairn, which set out short, nasty and brutal fighting techniques).
And if you want a general overview of self defense techniques applicable to civilian environments, check out the Tegner books. They're cheap, and highly underrated by martial artists, who tend to misunderstand their target audience.
This book has a specialized audience; but frankly, it should probably be in the reference library of all Shotokan karate students, because Kanazawa is that good.
There's a concession to practicality in this book. Sensei Kanazawa devotes a section to striking a belt that's being held by a training partner. He points out that for practical (that is, self defense) uses, you need to practice focussing about four inches into your target, rather than stopping short of the target.
I thought that insight was useful, so I'm about to have a fight with my wife about exactly where in the house I'm going to hang up a spare obi (karate belt) so I can kick and punch it!
Rated by buyers -
This is the definitive book for Kanzawa ryu stylists, you should need no urging to buy it immediately.
If you have not trained with Kanazawa much of the detail will be invisible - this is a reference book for those who have been taught the details of the movements. But it may encourage other Shotokan stylists to find out more, and that is a good thing; this man has got something useful to offer; believe me, he really does.
Rated by buyers -
Exactly what I was looking for. Arrived in a couple of days. New condition.
Rated by buyers 
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I found this to be a pretty good book for a traditionalist and a person who doesn't know much about the martial arts. The technical stuff was well-presented.
Rated by buyers 
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This is a great book - if you train with SKI.
I used to train with SKI (GB), and i can happily say that this book would be a great help for young, developing Karateka, working through their kyu grades.
As the previous two reviewers noted, the book it beautifully photographed, in the traditional simple, but extremely effective style used by Nakayama in his 'Best Karate' series (by far the best karate series out there). Many of the scenarios are photographed from different angles so that you can see just what is happening to the obscured hand, or the position of a neck strike more easily.
Continuing in my positive vein, the book has some wonderful biographical information, and great accompanying photos. Also is a good section on the correct meaning of the word 'Oss' and the folding of a Dogi.
I now, however, train with JKA (NZ), which diminishes the books appeal. I understand the concept behind the SKI syllabus, the grading Kumite scenarios depicted have the objective of teaching the karateka both a variety of techniques and to teach them to move in ways that are hard to teach otherwise. It just seems a little inapplicable to JKA training, since this is not the focus of our gradings. Likewise, many of these scenario's are unlikely to occur in Jiyu (free) kumite. Who of us has seen someone counter with Mae-tobigeri?! Don't get me wrong, these techniques shown would (and do) make great training exercises in the dojo, but many of them aren't gonna make it beyond that. I guess I was looking for a book more similar to Keinosuke Enoeda's 'Free fighting techniques' although perhaps more advanced than Enoeda's text (which was written to teach the very first wave of UK and european karateka to fight in the 1960's, but we've (hopefully) progressed since then!).
All in all, it's a good book, filling a gap that has required filling for a good wee while, but it ain't gonna help you win too many tournaments!
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