Amazon.com, Customer Reviews
A Reader from Los Angeles, CA
February 11, 1998

Great book, very thoughtful.
Bob Orlando is an experienced martial artist whose book on the Indonesian arts was critically acclaimed in the Journal of Asian Martial Arts. This new book is excellent for the thoughtful martial artist whose main goal is to develop the ability to protect themselves.  In his introduction, Bob Orlando says his work will "...examine Eastern martial arts training practices and philosophies, consider their origins, and appraise their relevance to the American student." While he states that there are many good reasons to study the martial arts, Orlando is very clear that "this work is intended for the individual whose main interest is...effective self-defense.  He hopes to encourage readers to "think critically about every part of what he or she is learning and teaching." Orlando does a great job.  While readers may not always agree with him, I think most will at least admit that Orlando's book is very thought provoking.  He raises many good questions, examines many issues in depth, uses supporting evidence and examples.  He put forth some strong opinions in many cases, but in others, where he is not sure he can make a strong enough case, he does not hesitate to state, in effect, "this is my opinion, but I'm not totally sure that I am right."

It can sometimes take a great deal of courage to admit that you don't know something.  God knows that there enough (often self-proclaimed) martial arts masters out there who are not exactly bursting at the seams with humility.  This book really seems to have been written by someone who is willing to question how things are done, but who does so respectfully, and who does not engage in name calling and large amounts of "my style is best" statements.

Among the many topics Orlando discusses are the degree to which martial arts should preserve ancient (and sometimes not so ancient) techniques, why martial arts change over time, the value of tradition, the pros and cons of training barefoot, the value of kata, the role of sport karate (and other arts) in training, women in the martial arts, the role of chi and the spiritual aspects of the martial arts, and a very amusing chapter on teacher motivations, finding a school, and rank.  My criticisms of this book are very minor.  In discussing the evolution of the sword, he uses a foil as an example of a weapon that evolved for a particular reason.  The problem is that the foil was never a real weapon, but was specifically designed to develop skills for sport fencers.  If he had substituted "epee," the analogy would have worked perfectly.  He does not compare the relative approaches of very stripped down styles meant to be learned relatively quicky (such as Krav Maga and Bando) to styles whose basics may take much longer to get down.  He touches on, but does not really examine the difference in approach between styles which focus on teaching a student flow, and how to move, and those which focus on teaching technique.  I would have liked to have seen him discuss these things in depth, and I suspect he would have had some good ideas on these points.  This book is a steal at $14.95.  Buy it. It is superb.