Book Review: Dynamic Karate

The Cover of Dynamic Karate

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Author: M. Nakayama

Reviewer: Mark Groenewold

How do you go about reviewing the best karate book on the market without trying to seem like you are ingratiating yourself to the karate community at large?

There is really no way around it. This really is the best karate book in existence. The book is well designed, articulate, and answers a lot of questions that people new to karate will have. This is the mother-load of information available on Shotokan karate. It is not a perfect book, mind you (more on this later), but it addresses the breadth of karate information in a very purposeful and well structured way.

The structure of the text breaks down like this:

I greatly enjoy this text, and refer to it frequently, because there are always things to be reminded of when it comes to fundamental technique. Another marvelous thing about this book is that there is an entire chapter devoted to hip movement and applying power to the hips, and another to balance the center of gravity. These two chapters are the kihon of kihon. We should make karate students commit them to memory.

This book is also chock-full of every conceivable punch, strike, and kick. It is nice to have such an extensive catalogue of techniques to draw on, although when it comes to the actual practice of karate many people choose a few techniques and use them in- depth. Although personally, I have not ever really used the kakutou (bent-wrist), kumade (bear-hand), seiryuoutou (ox-jaw hand), or hasami-zuki (scissors punch), I think that these techniques are still pretty cool. Maybe we should dust them off and see how they work in some of the kata application drills.

Another nice thing about this book is that the Glossary is quite excellent and a good reference for things you might need to look up quickly. The appendices are alright, and are something that could have used a little more work and research to make them more applicable to the techniques described throughout the text, rather than pasted on at the end.

In my own karate library I have the Japanese version of this text. In Japanese, the title is not Dynamic Karate, but rather, "Kokoro to Kihon" (Heart and Fundamentals). The Japanese version has an extended thesis written in the front of the book, has more photos throughout, but is basically the same text as the English version. Another nice thing about Kokoro to Kihon is that it is beautifully crafted in cloth-bound hardcover. It is also completely out of print right now, so that is really too bad.

Insofar as negative things to say about this text I only have a couple of points. First, the book is too short. As a text that introduces modern karate, the text is brilliant, but I think that if this was the first in a three or five volume set of texts, that would be even better. But I understand that most karate students and teachers want the "one" book that will answer all their questions. That is too bad, because this book could have easily been many times larger.

The second issue that I would like to briefly address is some of the techniques that we see in Master Nakayama. Do not misunderstand me when I say that there are some technical questions about the master. I think that this book is brilliant, but there are a couple of places where the technique seems to pale in comparison to the other karate models used in this book, like Osaka-sensei, Kanazawa-sensei, and Asai-sensei. For example, the explanations of mawashi-geri depict Nakayama-sensei lurching forward. He seems to lack some flexibility in order to keep his back upright and his balance centered. His arms seem flailed out in order to keep himself from toppling over (page 156). In another example (the gyaku-mawashi-geri?reverse round kick), the supporting foot's heel comes off the ground. This is contrary to the excellent advice given earlier in the text (page 158).

This is still a great book. The information here is not as well presented elsewhere. If karate students can only purchase one book, this should be the one. I think that if the editors of the book were ever interested in improving the text, they could edit out some of the demonstrations that do not work as well, add more in-depth appendices, and further the research that is continually ongoing in karate today.

So, with all that having been said, if you do not have this book please run, don't walk, to your nearest bookstore (or click on Amazon or Barnes and Noble or Chapters) and order it straight away.

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