Book Review: Karate In Action: Kata & Self-Defense 1: One on One Frontal Attack

The Cover of Karate In Action 1

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Author: Masatoshi Nakayama

Reviewer: Mark Groenewold

Date: July, 2002

This is a fun book that was first provided to me by David Taylor, a very nice man you may have read about in the Letters section of this site. Anyway, David sent me this very cool book to check out and review. I enjoyed the text so much I solicited the help of friends and neighbors in the cyber-world and another good friend, Bob Davis, was able to procure not only this volume but the second as well. I gotta tell you, doing KTJW has been great fun. You meet the nicest people.

The reason that this book is so difficult to get your hands on is because it is out of print. The book was printed in 1985 and there has not been, to my knowledge, any further printing of this text. This book has a lot of excellent technique throughout, and the layout is very how shall we say, quite amusing.

Allow me to elaborate. Firstly, let's talk about the technique since that is the best and most important element of this book. The text has applications from kata in self-defense situations, some variations are quite interesting, and it is nice to see that some of the debates we have today about meaning in kata were subject for some analysis twenty years ago.

I really like the sequences that have the one-two combo. For example, man grabs woman from the side in a bear-hug. Woman twists her hips to get a little room, stomps on man's instep. Man loosens grip. Woman rocks man right in the throat with yoko empi-uchi (horizontal elbow strike) or tate empi-uchi (uppercut elbow strike). Cool.

I liked the simple twisting techniques that can be used when people grab wrists. Although the caveat must also be put forth that you must really practice these kinds of techniques and that surprise and speed are absolutely critical in getting them to work at all. I recall a fun training weekend where a smaller and rather confident teacher (who shall remain nameless) asked me to grab his wrist with as much strength as I could while he was going to do these techniques. All he got for his trouble were bruises on his wrist and looking funny in front of his colleagues while he wriggled and squirmed at the end of my reach. These things work best when the moment you feel someone tightening their grip, you launch into your counter sequence. Practice often with friends and karate neighbors. We don't do this often enough, and we really should.

Some of the more fun techniques I found in this book were attacks to arms and hands that grab your coat or lapel. Some look pretty nasty and would definitely result in broken elbows. Nice.

So far, the first volume of this set is cool. I think that if you can procure a copy of it you should do so. If you get hold of volumes 3,4,5, and 6, you should send them to me. Just kidding. But if you do get hold of these other volumes I would love to borrow, read, and review them for this site. Let me know if they are growing dust on your shelf and you want to get rid of them.

So, now onto the funky stuff in this book. I want to re-iterate that I like this book. It is cool, and I am thrilled to have landed a copy of my very own. But one thing that bears critical mention is the “real environment” in which the attacks are role-played. In this book we have the technique of Abe-Sensei to demonstrate to the reader how these things work (with the exception of the women defenders depicted, of course!). Throughout the book, Abe-Sensei is on his way to go and preside over a karate tournament somewhere. He is wearing his navy suit and JKA tie and walking along when suddenly, some nasty foreigner type leaps out and attacks him.

Hapless gaijin! Did you not recognize Abe-Sensei's JKA pin on his lapel that you foolishly grabbed? You will now pay the ultimate price!

These foreigners come in all shapes and sizes. They come in sunglasses and bandanas. They wear blue jean jackets with the sleeves cut off and no shirts. They are a scurrilous lot, and Abe-Sensei is keeping Japan safe from miscreant English conversation school teachers. Bless his dear heart.

On the dojo end of things, Nakayama-Sensei demonstrates the same technique with Matsuda-Sensei (? - I am trying to read the kanji off of his gi but it is unclear). I would have been much more impressed if the dojo side of things had a Westerner working with Nakayama-Sensei, particularly since this is an English book for an English speaking audience. It would have been nice to acknowledge the Westerners other than being fodder for Abe-Sensei to kick around on his way to a karate tournament.

Ippon!

Fun book. Lots of good technique. Get it if you can.

Mark Groenewold
June, 2002

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