The Complete Idiot's Guide to Karate
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| The Cover of The Complete Idiot's Guide to Karate |
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I am the kind of person that always needs to learn about basic things. As someone who was taught since he was a little boy to go to school, study, be good, and go to graduate school, I am still remarkably shocked how ignorant I am of most “basic things”. For me, The Complete Idiot's Guide series or the “Dummies” books are a real godsend. I actually have quite a few of these kinds of books on my shelves: The Complete Idiot's Guide to Getting Published, The Complete Idiot's Guide to Making Money with Mutual Funds for Canadians, Creating Web Pages for Dummies, Windows 98 for Dummies, Home Buying for Dummies and the Internet for Dummies. I think that these kinds of books are great, but I must admit that when I first saw, The Complete Idiot's Guide to Karate, I had a terrible sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach.
I mean, what is this thing? Where is the zen mastery? Where are the beautiful image of bonzai trees with high flying kicking karate guys in sillhoette? Where are the images of Japanese masters in profile, standing ferociously and stern? How can anyone violate us with such a horrible association between “idiots” and “karate”? At the moment, it seemed that the unspeakable had been done, that karate was being reduced to some awful American version of karate, and that star-spangled gis would be the new uniform for Americanized karate.
But I like this book. I like it a lot. I think that it is, to date, the best singular effort to introduce karate to beginners. This book does something that should have been done several years ago. It makes karate part of the here and now of North American life.
As I was reading this book jammed full of practical and useful pieces of advice and instruction, I made notes inside and underscored sentences that were particularly poignant or insightful. My book now looks like some vandals got hold of it and scribbled all over it with black pens. This text is noteworthy on a number of levels.
Let me share with you the things I thoroughly enjoyed about this book. These are some of the notes I wrote in the margins as well:
From here the rest of the book puts the various points given in the kihon sections and describes in excellent detail about kata, sparring, discusses various belt levels and gradings, and has an extensive tournament guide towards the back. This book is craftily put together, and is a great resource for beginners.
Insofar as criticisms I may have of the text, there are very few things, most of which can be glossed over. It is very difficult to create a text that has everything, and there are moments when this book adds things when it ought to instead, subtract. For example, I think that the information about the yin-yang and inyo could probably be dropped.
On page 71, the authors discuss briefly the “oyabun-kobun” / sempai-kohai relationship between people in Japan. I would chop that section out completely. It concludes appropriately that the job of the sempai is to help the kohai, but I think that some of the statements that “all Japanese people” know the “unwritten rules” is becoming less and less true as time passes. Also, since this text focuses so nicely on karate in a North American context, this stuff should get the axe. Other things that might be dropped are the “wabi” reference on page 83, and the Shinto death allusions on page 87.
I also have reservations about having a Kobudo section in the text. I think that karate alone is worthy of having its own text. Kobudo is something altogether different. But, on a positive note, it is a nice introduction to another martial arts experience.
Other criticisms on a technical note would be that the diagram pictures of blocks often neglect to have any hip rotation (from shomen to hanmi). With such excellent technique found in Otis-Sensei elsewhere throughout the book, I would have liked to see either him or Hassell-Sensei model the technique. Judging from Otis-Sensei's impeccable modeling elsewhere in the book, I think that these technical questions would be rectified naturally.
Other than these minor and trifling qualms I have about some of the details, this book is excellent. I think that if I were an instructor in North America with a dojo full of new students I would do myself a massive favor and make the book required reading. So often, instructors in dojos complain that their students are disrespectful, clueless about some of the most basic things in karate, and lack understanding about the environment of karate. This book would answer most of their questions and can be used as a resource for instructors who are having challenges with students.
Also, this text should be recommended to parents of kids in karate. Parents may have questions about why things are done the way they are in the dojo. Hassell and Otis answer their questions for you, and give you credibility in the dojo as well. You can spend less time with troublesome parents by asking them to check out what you do in class against the text.
We are hearing some lamentations that Shotokan karate will self-destruct because there is no one around to help usher in the next age of karate practice and tradition. If texts like this are any indication of what is to come, I think that we need not believe that the sky is falling just yet. This work is traditionally minded, articulate, approachable for beginners, and addresses the common questions and concerns surrounding Shotokan karate and its practice.
Highly recommended for beginning students and parents of kids in karate. Also highly recommended for karate-ka and instructors who have been around for awhile. This text explains technical aspects of karate in common-sense language which can help you significantly in being more effective in your own training and instruction.
Mark Groenewold
Ishikawa-ken, Japan
October 2001
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