YMAA Publication Center

If Death takes a man it is called fate, when Death leaves a man it is called destiny.

"I have heard the delirious ramblings of countless dying minds and I am amused by yours. Don't be afraid, I won't take you now. Your life sentence has just begun."

Wounded in battle, a near dead Celtic warrior is taken by Viken raiders. He is sold into a Mid-East slave market and then dragged further east, through the desert, into the 'Middle Kingdom'. Destiny brings him into the hands of a warrior priest and his daughter. Hazy images of silk, herbs, needles, potions and steel, can lead him to only one conclusion, he has been purchased by a wizard and his witch.

And Arkthar fears for his very soul.

Under death's plotting eyes, a slave-warrior, a priest and a healer quest to save a kingdom. A new root of Arthurian legend takes hold.

What if there were a secret ingredient that could make every one of your martial arts techniques better? Not only faster and more powerful, but more likely to slam home to exactly the right target every time? Maybe there is.

Timing is the art and science of ending a confrontation as quickly and efficiently as possible. In Timing for the Fighting Arts, authors Loren W. Christensen and Wim Demeere team up to teach you exactly how to get every last ounce of speed and power out of your techniques.

Whether you want to feel safer on the street or emerge from the ring victorious, this book is packed with inside information essential to defeating your opponent.

• Why many experts say timing is more important than speed
• How to put the OODA loop and Hick’s law to work for you
• Why timing is both an offensive and a defensive asset
• Which types of verbal distraction can give you an edge
• Why controlling your opponent’s spine gives you an advantage
• Which tournament techniques really work on the street
• How to set up multiple opponents to create timing opportunities
• Which tricks law enforcement officers rely on to buy time
• How you can improve your odds against a gun or knife

You will find drills and practice scenarios to help you develop every one of these concepts. Go beyond theory and put your new knowledge to work in the ring or on the street, where you need it most.

Bringing the Dao to life for readers of all generations

Fables entertain us, enlighten us, and guide us. We recognize ourselves in the characters, be they emperors, village children, or singing frogs. They help us see our own weaknesses, our strengths, and the many possibilities. Their lessons transcend time and culture, touching what it really means to be alive.

Whoever we are, wherever we’re going, these short tales help us along the path—the Way. Some offer a moral compass. Some illustrate the dangers in human folly. Others just make us laugh.

In this collection of fables, Dr. Yang, Jwing-Ming shares the stories that have influenced him most as a teacher, a partent, martial artist and lifelong student of the Dao. These fables bring the Dao to life for readers of all generations.

The Dao in Action will inspire young readers to refine their character. Older readers will smile and recognize moments of truth. This collection is for anyone who would like to explore the enduring lessons of virtue and wisdom.

These lean, concise fables illustrate balance, the duality of yin and yang, always shifting, always in correction. They help us laugh at our human predicaments—and maybe even at ourselves.

We can all use some reflection and inspiration from time to time.

Warrior's choose a life that requires them to stand between the predators and the innocents of the world and hold the line with [their own] blood.

The Warrior’s Manifesto is a concise and potent declaration of principles that chronicles the soul of the warrior by exploring the what, the why, and the way of those who protect and defend.

Whether serving in the trenches or securing our streets, warriors choose a life that requires them to “stand between the predators and the innocents of the world and hold the line with [their own] blood,” as Modell writes.

The Warrior’s Manifesto is a compelling defense of the role played by warriors in society. It will inspire those who answer the call to shield others, professionally or personally—and all those who appreciate what that means.

“A magnificent treatise. Belongs in the pantheon of great books about good vs. evil.”—David Kahn, US chief instructor, Israeli Krav Maga Assoc., author

“Compels the reader to believe that the warrior spirit is indomitable and thus remains undaunted.”—Robert Dreeben, twenty-seven-year veteran, NYPD

“Raises provocative questions and answers them with depth and boldness.”—Detective Anthony Amoroso NYC regional director, New York Tactical Officers Association

“A must-read for any rank or level of experience. Inspires and leaves you feeling proud [of] a very special group of people—warriors.”—James Schramm, police officer (retired); Senior trainer, Armament Systems and Procedures

According to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, nearly 80 percent of adults experience low back pain at some point in their lives. For many, the condition progresses to the point where they will have to manage pain for years to come. Some will have little choice but to rely on prescription medication.

But for the millions of others with back pain, there is hope. By committing to a series of simple exercises, we can remain loose and flexible. We can prevent and heal injuries to maintain a strong, healthy back.

Motion is the key, and in this book Dr. Yang, Jwing-Ming will get you moving. You will regain natural, pain-free motion and balance with qigong, a timeless Chinese art that promotes healing, flexibility, and balance. The gentle, meditative movements emphasize proper motion in coordination with breath, making qigong the right choice for preventing, treating, and healing back pain.

This book presents 54 movements to help you loosen, stretch, strengthen, heal and maintain a strong back for a lifetime.

You will learn

• What qigong is and why it is a good choice for healing and maintaining a healthy back
• 3 back-loosening movements
• 12 back-stretching movements
• 30 back-healing movements
• 7 movements for immediate relief
• 2 back-strengthening movements
• A great regimen for keeping your back healthy.

Many people rely on acupuncture, chiropractic treatments, and even surgery. By committing to a simple qigong practice, you can begin to take care of your own back, with less reliance on others.

Pain-free motion is the goal, and qigong movements will help you accomplish that goal.

The Judo Advantage explores the dynamics of how and why the human body works most efficiently for throwing, submission, and pinning techniques. Although judo provides the basis for the author’s analysis, his insights also relate to other grappling sports such as Russian sambo, Brazilian jiu-jitsu, and Olympic and collegiate wrestling.

• Gain a competitive edge using the principles of human biomechanics.
• Master the ability to control your opponent’s movements.
• Improve fluency for seamless transition between techniques.
• Generate incredible power and speed.

This book features:

• In-depth analysis of stances, balance breaking, throws, takedowns, transitions, ground fighting, trapping, footwork, combinations, gripping, posting, linear and angular movement, torque, generating power, evading, generating force, changing directions, and stability
• Over 200 action photos
• Drills and winning insight for coaches and athletes of grappling arts

Steve Scott merges traditional martial wisdom with modern kinesiology, the study of human anatomy and movement. This new biomechanical perspective helps competitors develop every facet of their grappling skill, giving them a clear advantage in controlling opponents.

This book is designed to help readers understand depression and make positive changes to overcome it. Dr. Aihan Kuhn teaches a unique tai chi form that combines elements of Chen and Yang styles as well as qigong and meditation. The form is easy to learn, easy to remember, and easy to practice. Dr. Kuhn’s multidisciplinary approach to mental health also focuses on positive thought, a healthy diet, and self-confidence.

Dr. Kuhn instructs readers on a unique tai chi form that is perfect for beginners and experienced practitioners alike. The circular movements create better energy flow in the body. The martial character empowers the mind, strengthens the body, improves stamina, and increases self-esteem. Slow, symmetrical movements promote balance and calm.

This book features:

• Detailed instructions and photos describing Dr. Kuhn’s 16-step tai chi form
• Personal reflections on using tai chi to overcome depression
• A 10-week plan to help readers begin their journey to wellness

With this book you will:

• Learn about the clinical features of depression
• Learn Dr. Kuhn’s 16-step tai chi form
• Discover the psychological, emotional, and spiritual benefits of tai chi
• Begin a holistic approach to mental health

“When I was just starting out as a doctor, my focus was mainly on treating disease,” Dr. Kuhn writes. “Now my focus is on teaching people how to prevent disease and treating patients in the early stages of their illness so they can avoid additional problems.”

In many ways, Tai Chi for Depression represents the culmination of her life’s work.

If you like martial arts movies, you're going to love this book!

YMAA Publication Center has chosen author Arthur Rosenfeld's The Cutting Season to introduce a new literary fiction category: Martial Arts Fiction. The Cutting Season transplants this ancient, hugely popular, and authentic literary category to an American setting. Along with a thrilling story, The Cutting Season also conveys insights into genuine martial techniques and philosophies.

Dr. Xenon Pearl cuts brains for a living, and he's as good as it gets. His direct, sometimes abrasive style is forgivable in light of his skill with a scalpel, and tempered by his compassion for his patients and his friends. He is a dutiful son to his widower father, a doting grandchild to a grandfather who was once a rabbi, and he has even met the girl of his dreams. Everything is on-track for this medical golden boy.

The other side of this motorcycle riding, brilliant doctor façade is a side that Xenon (aka Zee) hides even from his father. Secretly trained since childhood by his Chinese nanny, Wu, Tie Mei--herself a martial warrior of shadowy lineage--Dr. Xenon Pearl is also a martial arts expert who loves the sword as much as the scalpel.

Now his past is showing up to literally haunt him. His dead teacher reappears, reminding him that he has lived many lives before…

I relived the foul stench of city cisterns, the rotting of corpses in the desert, the intoxicating smell of night-blooming jasmine, the musky odor of my own clothes after battle, the ripe and heady aroma of a wife waiting months for my return. My fingertips bore witness to the paper-thin delicacy of azaleas, and the smooth hands of children. My hands recalled weapons I have no name for, spiked ropes and strange maces with bumps and edges like some crazy fruit. I remember the gossamer threads of an industrious spider touching my eye. I remembered feeling holes where once I had teeth.

In this life, Dr. Xenon Pearl must use his skill – to defend the innocent, defeat the Russian mob, protect the woman who loves him, and stay one step ahead of a smart cop; he is set to lose everything unless he can cut just one more time.

"It's essential that you remember your previous lives," she said. "Without that memory, you're doomed to repeat your lessons."

"You are a fearsome warrior no matter what skin you wear, no matter the shape of your eyes; it's time to give up the scalpel and pick up your sword."

"I'm a doctor." I said. "And the way things look now, I'm a schizophrenic doctor."

"Your visions always come true." She said. "You are going to cut the man who burned his wife."

"I'm telling you to cut him now!"

In the spirit of martial arts tradition, The Cutting Season brings the traditional Asian martial arts novel to our shores, exploring human conflict, desires, and the search for moral certainties.

Do no harm... Honor your teacher... Cut without mercy...

[Japan] An intelligence analyst is murdered on temple grounds.

[Manila] Two embassy guards go missing and a bizarre execution video is discovered by a special-forces team.

[New York] Martial arts expert Connor Burke is hired as a consultant for an elite US Army training program.

[Mindanao Philippines] A young Japanese ethnographer from Harvard University is kidnapped by a terrorist cell of Abu Sayeff.

A renegade martial arts Sensei known as the Tengu has been recruited to train a splinter group of Asian terrorists with links to Al Qaeda. The Tengu mourns the vanished prestige and cultural heritage of Imperial Japan. He, like the men he trains, believes the West is responsible for destroying the spiritual essence of a once-great culture.

In a series of violent clashes spawned by the bizarre intersection of contemporary fundamentalist terrorist ideology and the personal vendettas of the Tengu, Connor Burke and his martial arts teacher Yamashita are pawns in a game that will ensnare them while they search for the most deadly of foes: the Tengu.

Discover the original purpose and training of taekwondo

The principles and techniques illustrated in this book, having been handed down over the decades, if not centuries, emphasize a core philosophy rich in defensive strategy.

Taekwondo, literally translated, can be defined as "foot, hand way" or "the way of smashing with hands and feet." Such descriptive nomenclature understandably implies a curriculum rich in self-defense. Too often, however, this is simply not the case. Given the current popularity of sport competition in the martial arts, many techniques of defensive value have been stripped away or forfeited altogether in favor of those certain to score in the ring. While the thirst for Olympic gold has clearly played a significant role in propelling taekwondo into the forefront, it should be remembered that this native Korean martial art contains over 3200 distinct self defense techniques.

This book describes in detail, the history and evolution of Taekwondo from its ancient roots to modern day applications. Also included are exercises in "Ki" or internal energy development, meditation practice, and practical self-defense strategies. This work focuses on the traditional aspects of Taekwondo rather than on its sportive component.

The Principles for Understanding Kata are Largely Unknown – Until Now

The ancient masters developed kata, or "formal exercises," as fault-tolerant methods to preserve their unique, combat-proven fighting systems. Unfortunately, they deployed a two-track system of instruction where an 'outer circle' of students unknowingly received modified forms with critical details or important principles omitted. Only the select 'inner circle' that had gained a master's trust and respect would be taught okuden waza, the powerful hidden applications of kata.

The theory of deciphering kata applications (kaisai no genri) was once a great mystery revealed only to trusted disciples of the ancient masters in order to protect the secrets of their systems. Even today, while the basic movements of kata are widely known, advanced practical applications and sophisticated techniques frequently remain hidden from the casual observer. The principles and rules for understanding kata are largely unknown.

This groundbreaking book unveils these methods, not only teaching you how to analyze your kata to understand what it is trying to tell you, but also helping you to utilize your fighting techniques more effectively—both in self-defense and in tournament applications.

Fifteen general principles to identify effective techniques

• Twelve discrete rules for deciphering martial applications
• Comprehensive insights into kata history, strategy and tactics
• Vital physiological considerations
• Well organized materials for easy reference and comprehensive understanding

Tai Chi offers you the prospects of better health and vitality, peace of mind, and increased stores of personal energy. To realize this potential you must delve into the world of Tai Chi minutia, which is exactly where the essence of Tai Chi lays in wait for those ascribing to its regular and correct practice.

This book looks deeply into Tai Chi's technical intricacies and nuances, offering guidance and practice tips, replete with step-by-step directions, on how to bring your Tai Chi to a higher level of correct execution. Seasoned Tai Chi teacher and author John Loupos offers wise and helpful guidance in a personable tone to help you recognize connections, feel connections and keep connections. Tai Chi Connections will help you to narrow the gap between where your practice is now and where you'd like it to go.

Some of the subjects included:

• Opportunities within slowness
• Attention/Intention as dynamic ingredients
• Tai Chi as a path to congruence
• Tapping into earth force
• Putting the brakes on momentum
• Unspoken nuances of Tai Chi stepping
• Training tips to optimize your Tai Chi experience
• Moral / ethical mandates of being a teacher

Discover how the martial way leads to a protector ethic

The Protector Ethic is a deep dive exploring the principles and values that must anchor a modern warrior. The author is compelling, insightful, and not afraid of controversy.

As the book begins, we are thrust into the true story of a robbery turned homicide. It happens midday on a train. The victim is twenty-four, and the murderer is eighteen. What unfolds is nothing short of horrific, yet the other passengers refuse to help.

James V. Morganelli sees this as a symptom. When we are reluctant to defend ourselves, when we refuse to protect those around us, we become part of the disease.

As a martial artist and ethicist, the author says martial arts are much more than technical exercises. They offer us a “physical philosophy”—one that allows us to understand ourselves, teaches us about others, and demonstrates the true meaning of justice. They help us make difficult moral decisions. Ultimately, isn’t this why we train?

Readers will

• Understand natural law, protective instinct, and self-risk.
• Examine the martial way of valuing, reasoning, judging, and acting.
• Discover how moral relativism, political correctness, and contrived social-justice campaigns do not make people equal. They can actually dehumanize us.
• Recognize what it means to be an ethical warrior.

Only the great books address philosophy for the contemporary warrior, which is why such titles as Zen in the Martial Arts, Living the Martial Way, and Meditations on Violence have become modern classics. The Protector Ethic is an indispensable contribution to this conversation.

“Are you seeking ancient martial secrets?” Morganelli writes. “Here’s one. You already know how to defend yourself. A qualified instructor can run you through the basics, but that should take about ten minutes. After that, the serious work begins.”

The martial way only lives when we treat it as something that can die.

TAEKWONDO IS A JOURNEY…

This book, in seven parts, offers you the opportunity to visit the garden that is Taekwondo. Discover what it means to be a steadfast practitioner, understand Taekwondo's honorable past, and prosper in the confidence and purpose that Taekwondo offers to all that participate.

By following Taekwondo's path and developing its indomitable spirit, you—the Taekwondo traveler—will see the 'Do' or the Way. Learn how to cultivate a natural harmony and rhythm to life, be able to distinguish right from wrong, and be equipped to defend against that which might harm what you hold most sacred.

TAEKWONDO IS A PATH TO EXCELLENCE…

The Little Black Book of Violence will arm you with the knowledge and good sense to make informed choices in hazardous situations. While some yahoo spewing insults about your favorite sports team is worlds apart from a drug-crazed lunatic lunging at you with a sharp knife in his hands and bloodlust in his eyes, there is a large gray area in between these two extremes where hard and fast rules do not always apply. This is where wisdom, oftentimes hard-earned wisdom, makes the difference between good decisions and bad ones.

Every time you engage in violence, no matter how small or trivial it may appear to be at the time, it has the potential of escalating into something extraordinarily serious. What is really worth fighting for when you might find yourself spending the rest of your life behind bars, confined to a wheelchair, or trying to dig yourself out of bankruptcy from beneath the crushing weight of a civil lawsuit? It is important to ask yourself, "Is this really worth fighting over?" While in some instances the response could legitimately be "Yes," more often than not it ought to be "No."

More than mere techniques, this book fills in crucial information about street survival that most martial arts instructors don't teach or even know. You will learn how to use awareness, avoidance, and de-escalation to help stave off violence. Despite the best intentions, however, you may still find yourself in situations where you have no choice but to fight and others where it is prudent to do so. Consequently you will also learn smart things you might want to try and dumb things you should attempt to avoid during a physical confrontation.

In addition to learning strategies and techniques for defending yourself on the street you will also learn how to manage the aftermath of violence, including performing first aid, interacting with law enforcement, managing witnesses, finding a good attorney, navigating the legal system, dealing with the press, and overcoming psychological trauma.

Men, who commit about 80 percent of all violent crimes, are twice as likely to become victims of aggressive behavior as women. While written primarily for this at-risk demographic, this comprehensive tome is essential reading for anyone who regularly deals with violence, thinks they may encounter a hostile situation, or who simply wants to increase their ability to survive a dangerous encounter.

Once you read this book, your Karate will never be the same

Many practitioners believe that Sanchin Kata holds the key to mastering traditional martial arts. It is one of the simplest forms to learn, yet one of the most difficult to perfect. Those who truly understand its teachings find that it facilitates enormous quickness and power in any martial application. The challenge lies in gaining that understanding, which is something we had to uncover ourselves by trial and error…until now.

When Karate or "Ti" was first developed in Okinawa, it was about using technique and extraordinary power to end a fight instantly. These old ways of generating remarkable power are still accessible, but they are purposefully hidden in Sanchin Kata for the truly dedicated to find.

"Ti" (is the Okinawan word for 'hand').

"Te" (is the Japanese word for 'hand').

This book takes you to new depths of practice by breaking down the form piece by piece, body part by body part, so that the very foundation of the kata is revealed.

Test it. Every chapter, concept, and application is accompanied by a test it section, designed for you to explore and verify the kata for yourself. Sanchin Kata really comes alive when you can feel the thrill of having those hidden teachings speak to you through your body across the ages. No other document or video available today provides such depth and exploration of Sanchin Kata. Simply put: once you read this book and test what you have learned, your Karate will never be the same.

• Movement Not Seen
• The Crescent Step
• The Spine
• Bones, Sinew, and Muscle
• The Energetic Structure
• The Mechanical Structure
• Iron Shirt
• Rooting
• The Mind
• Ten-minute Sanchin
• The 5:7 Ratio
• The Entire Traditional Kata in step-by-step Movement
• And Much More!

In this follow-up to his phenomenally popular Solo Training, Loren W. Christensen digs down deep to come up with hundreds of more ways for you to rev up your training at home or in the gym. Solo Training 2 kicks off with a focus on building your body’s core for stronger, faster, and more effective grappling, kicking, and punching. A strong core—chest, abs, hips, shoulders, and back—is the source of your body’s power, speed, and coordinated movement. As a martial artist, having a strong core helps you to get more out of your training and to respond instantly and effectively to the fast-changing demands of competition or an explosive street encounter.

You'll also get over 100 ways to work your combinations, cheat speed, improve accuracy, fight from unconventional stances, practice grappling when you can’t find a partner, and get the most out of your mannequin bag.

This book wraps up with eight workouts, each with a specific goal, like the free-hand power builder and the boxer workout.

If you’re looking to get more out of training, Solo Training 2 represents your next evolution in fighting techniques and concepts.

"An elegant and comprehensive critical edition of the Dao De Jing." ― KIRKUS Review

This book examines one of the world’s most enduring and influential literary works through the timeless art of qigong. In his words, Lao Tzu (or Laozi), author of the Dao De Jing, embodies qigong principles, advocating the cultivation of mind and body. Only when we know qigong can we know Lao Tzu—and only when we know Lao Tzu can we know the Dao De Jing.

Lao Tzu’s writing has been read, translated, and discussed around the globe. It deals with principles that transcend time and culture. That is why this ancient text has been reimagined countless times in books on business, relationships, and parenting—but never with a focus on the art of qigong. This makes the Dao De Jing: A Qigong Interpretation unique and indispensible.

Many chapters in the Dao De Jing purely talk about qigong, especially the practices of regulating the body, breathing, mind, qi, and spirit.

Dr. Yang, a renowned author, scholar, and martial artist, devoted decades to researching and writing this book. He interprets and analyzes the 81 chapters of the Dao De Jing. His commentary will bring new insight, inspiration, and depth to your understanding of Lao Tzu’s words—and to your qigong practice.

This book includes

• The complete Dao De Jing in English and its original Chinese text
• Dr. Yang, Jwing-Ming’s commentary and analysis of each chapter
• Numerous illustrations and diagrams

The Dao De Jing: A Qigong Interpretation is not a book of instruction. It is about the Way—the path before us, in qigong and in life, where what you achieve comes through your own understanding.

Prepare to have your beliefs challenged about what karate really is.

Within these pages, you will discover traditional karate; along the way, perhaps many of your own beliefs about karate will be confronted. You might have a body capable of mastering karate's physical techniques, but do you have a mind with a level of awareness that is able to grasp the true spirit of karate?

For adults only. Regardless of how many people you can defeat in combat, the deeper aim of karate has always been to conquer your own ego, and by doing so, you increase the likelihood of avoiding conflict. When you can control your ego, you have a chance to establish peace in your life: this is the tradition of budo karate.

Shin Gi Tai has a literal translation: mind–technique–body. A karate-ka's mind (shin) must be developed ahead of his technique (gi) if he is to discover a sense of balance within his body (tai). While the mental and physical aspects of karate are daunting and causes many to stop training, if you can just endure the early years, say - the first decade - then there is opportunity for real and lasting benefits.

Budo is a concept more often discussed than put into practice, and yet, as part of traditional karate training, it has the capacity to dramatically change lives for the better, but only if you are prepared to move past the obvious and strive to understand the philosophy and the morality of budo.

Your life is yours, your karate is yours, accept ownership of both and reap countless rewards.

While the bestselling Sunrise Tai Chi offered a program to get energized in the morning, Sunset Tai Chi teaches you how to relax and calm down at the end of the day.

Sunset Tai Chi is a comprehensive introduction to using Tai Chi for stress relief. This mind/body program is designed for beginners and teaches how to calm down and recuperate from the stress of the day, thus preventing and healing numerous stress-related illnesses.

A full mind/body workout is presented, which can be practiced sitting or standing. This workout includes restorative poses from yoga, purifying movements and meditations from qigong, tai chi stances and drills, as well as a short Sunset Tai Chi form.

• Relax and rejuvenate yourself after a long day.
• Incorporate mind/body exercise into your daily activities.
• Increase your lung capacity and increase your oxygen intake.
• Prevent injuries.
• Boost your natural healing of chronic conditions, including arthritis, fibromyalgia, insomnia, osteoporosis, sarcopenia, and cancer.

Report from the New England Journal of Medicine

Dr. Chenchen Wang, a Tufts rheumatologist who led the study, said she attributed the results to the fact that "fibromyalgia is a very complex problem" and "tai chi has multiple components — physical, psychological, social and spiritual."

NINE LEVELS, EASY TO EXPERT

This book stands apart from other staff training manuals. While most titles focus on forms and twirling, The Art and Science of Staff Fighting emphasizes the dynamics of combat. The author draws on thirty years of martial experience, presenting the best of both Eastern and Western traditions.

Joe Varady lays out a comprehensive course of study in nine levels, from beginner to expert. He guides readers through such fundamentals as stances, striking, blocking, and footwork. In advanced lessons, readers learn disarming techniques, groundwork, and facing multiple opponents.

But this book is not just for staff enthusiasts. Even those unfamiliar with martial arts can adapt these techniques, increasing their skill and confidence in defending themselves.

"Our environment is usually full of improvised weapons,” Varady writes. “Staff fighting techniques can be effectively applied in a self-defense situation using a walking stick, coatrack, curtain rod, floor lamp, hockey stick, fallen tree branch, broom, mop, shovel, or rake.”

Equipped with this knowledge, readers will begin to realize that, in one way or another, they are nearly always armed and capable of defending themselves.

This book features:

• Nine levels of instruction, progressing from easy to expert
• Over 600 photos with motion arrows
• A “nondenominational” approach to staff, utilizing the best of Eastern and Western arts
• A comprehensive, methodical approach to building staff skills

If you are already a student of the staff, these lessons will not conflict with your katas or current style. Instead, they will augment your techniques, broadening your options.

Whether you are an experienced staff fighter or a layman seeking practical techniques for self-defense, The Art and Science of Staff Fighting will help you develop the skills you need.

This book has three goals:

• To motivate you choose tai chi as a way of improving your health and increasing your happiness for an entire lifetime.
• To enliven your practice with or without a formal teacher.
• To provide guidance to advance your tai chi practice from a mere act of 'doing' tai chi to a method of "tai chi as a way of following your heart."

Why tai chi? After more than thirty years of practicing tai chi chuan, author Henry Zhuang shares what has kept him with tai chi for so long, and how tai chi evolved to a rewarding path toward improving life and happiness. Step-by-step, the author presents a clear exploration of the benefits of tai chi. Some benefits are physical (strength, balance, vitality), while others are internal (virtue, courage, harmony). This careful examination will help you answer the first big question, "why should I get involved with tai chi practice."

What if I already practice tai chi? If you already practice tai chi, you may need a boost to help you stay on track, or help you over a block in your progress. Simply doing the act (aerobics) is not enough. You must find ways to constantly advance your mindset and your physical body. Knowing what this means and how to do it are important tools for keeping tai chi the most rewarding and enjoyable experience in your life, day after day, year after year.

The author will explain for you:

• The four spirits of tai chi
• How tai chi cultivates the mind and improves character
• Eight important tips for proper tai chi bodywork
• Eight keys to pay attention to when practicing tai chi chuan
• The four principles of tai chi chuan
• Five mindsets for practicing tai chi chuan
• Six points for your tai chi practice so your heart is always in it
• Eight imagery/energy drills to help you get your mind / intent in the proper place

All of these will accelerate your skills, and help incorporate tai chi as part of who you are, so you can use "tai chi as a way of following your heart."

Simplified Tai Chi Chuan 24 Posture is one of today’s most popular and easy to learn tai chi forms.

This book presents both the Simplified 24-posture Tai Chi form and the Simplified 48-posture Tai Chi form.

Simplified Tai Chi Chuan 24 Posture is one of today’s most popular tai chi forms. Once learned, it can be performed in only six minutes. If you are learning tai chi in a school, a fitness club, a community or recreation center, or even the local park, this is the tai chi form you are likely to encounter.

The martial arts applications for each posture are shown so you can understand that every movement has a purpose.

The Simplified Tai Chi Chuan 48 Posture is a popular tai chi form practiced by those who want a longer, more challenging sequence. Once learned, it can be performed in only twelve minutes. The forty-eight posture form is often the next form a student studies after learning the twenty-four posture form.

Here’s what is inside this book:

• Theory to help you understand tai chi’s important tai chi concepts
• Warm up exercises for safe and proper tai chi practice
• Fundamentals so your tai chi movements will be easy and natural
• Foot diagrams so you will know what direction to face
• The complete Simplified Tai Chi Chuan 24 Posture form, step-by-step
• Martial applications for each movement of the 24 posture form
• The complete Simplified Tai Chi Chuan 48 Posture form, step-by-step

This book presents in a modern easy-to-follow layout. Every tai chi movement is presented in 2-4 large photographs with clear instructions, followed by key points to help you learn properly.

No matter your age, tai chi chuan is a wonderful way to improve your health and well-being.

The secrets of internal power are revealed in this expert guide to Internal and External martial Qigong.

This comprehensive martial arts training guide explores White Crane Kung Fu (Gongfu), one of the most famous martial styles developed in China. Martial Arts Qigong is integral to White Crane kung Fu and is a proven way to build explosive fighting power, known as Jin.

In addition to fighting power, martial Qigong builds robust health and longevity. By focusing on the spine and torso, Shaolin White Crane develops and maintains a strong, supple upper body. Flexibility and strength of the spine are notable results of this training.

It is commonly recognized that Shaolin White Crane is the root of Okinawan Karate, and has heavily influenced Japanese martial arts. From this book, a Karate practitioner will be able to trace this root back, and gain profound comprehension of empty-hand styles.

• Long time hidden secrets of White Crane revealed.
• A comprehensive analysis of Internal and External martial Qigong.
• Complete sets of White Crane Hard and Soft Qigong training.
• A thorough examination of martial power (Jin).
• Presents more than 60 White Crane Jin patterns.
• Learn mental and physical training for explosive fighting power.
• Over four hundred action photographs and illustrations.

If pain-free joints are the goal, qigong movements can help

According to the Centers for Disease Control, over fifty million Americans struggle with doctor-diagnosed arthritis. Obesity and inactivity are proven aggravating factors, limiting mobility and making everyday activities difficult and painful. For many, arthritis progresses to the point where they will have to manage pain for years to come. Some will have little choice but to rely on prescription medication.

But for the millions of others with joint pain, there is hope. By committing to a series of simple exercises, we can remain loose and flexible. We can prevent and heal injuries to maintain flexible, healthy joints.

Motion is the key, and in this book Dr. Yang, Jwing-Ming will get you moving. You will regain natural, pain-free motion, and suppleness with qigong, a timeless Chinese art that promotes healing, flexibility, and balance. The gentle, meditative movements emphasize proper motion in coordination with breath, making qigong the right choice for preventing, treating, and even reversing arthritis.

This book presents 46 movements to help you loosen, stretch, strengthen, heal, and maintain comfortable, flexible joints for a lifetime.

You will learn what qigong is and why it is a good choice for treating arthritis and maintaining healthy joints

• 4 gentle torso-loosening movements
• 9 hand massage movements and techniques
• 6 massage methods for immediate relief
• 3 qigong movements for neck, spine, and waist
• 7 qigong movements for fingers, hands, and wrists
• 8 qigong movements for elbows and shoulders
• 4 qigong movements for toes and ankles
• 5 qigong movements for hips and knees

Many people who live with joint pain rely on acupuncture, chiropractic treatments, and even surgery. By committing to a simple qigong practice, you can begin to take care of your own joints, with less reliance on others.

Somewhere in America right now are four or five women who will be killed tomorrow. They are going about their day, and I know if they were prepared to counter attack in the ways Loren Christensen and Lisa Place teach, they'd have a far better chance of prevailing tomorrow." —Gavin de Becker (from his Foreword), best-selling author of The Gift of Fear

Some “experts” say you should be submissive when attacked at home or by a stranger. You won’t find that advice here, although you might use it as a ruse before you claw your assailant’s eyes and smash his groin. Your ultimate goal is to get away, but you don’t achieve that by being meek and docile. You get away by drawing on that hardwired survival instinct to attack him like an enraged lioness protecting her babies.

In Self-Defense for Women:Fight Back, martial arts experts Loren W. Christensen and Lisa Place teach you to use your hands, forearms, elbows, teeth, knees, and feet to survive the attacks unsuspecting women become the victims of every day. And you will learn that you’re surrounded by a limitless cache of weapons you can use to your advantage against a larger assailant.

• How to recognize and assess a threat
• How to de-escalate a bad situation
• 7 basic defensive techniques any woman can use effectively
• Advanced skills for when you want to know more
• How to identify and use everyday objects as defensive weapons
• What to practice to prepare for a potential confrontation
• How to practice at home, alone, and with a partner
• Why you need to be physically fit and how to make a fitness plan
• How to use fear as a weapon
• The power of your mind and how to harness it for self-defense

If you’re ready to learn to fight back, Loren and Lisa know exactly what you need to survive an attack in your home or on the street.

Reach for the highest Level of Tai Chi Practice

You can achieve the highest level of tai chi practice by including Tai Chi Sword in your training regimen.

Here's your chance to take the next step in your Tai Chi journey.

Once you have attained proficiency in the bare hand form and have gained listening ad sensing skills from pushing hands, you are ready for Tai Chi Sword.

The elegant and effective techniques of traditional Tai Chi Sword

Tai Chi sword will help you control your Qi, refine your Tai Chi skills, and master yourself. You will strengthen and relax your body, calm and focus your mind, improve your balance, and develop proper Tai Chi breathing.

This book provides a solid and practical approach to learning Tai Chi Sword accurately and quickly. Includes over 500 photographs with motion arrows!

• Historical overview of Tai Chi Sword
• Fundamentals including hand forms and footwork
• Generating power with the sword
• 12 Tai Chi Sword breathing exercises
• 30 key Tai Chi Sword techniques with applications
• 12 fundamental Tai Chi sword solo drills
• Complete 54-movement Yang Tai Chi Sword sequence
• 48 martial applications from the Tai Chi Sword sequence
• 10 Tai Chi Sword 2-person matching drills

No matter your age, Tai Chi Sword is a wonderful and fun way to improve your health and well-being.

Examining the Gap Between Martial Arts Training and Real World Violence.

Experienced martial artist and veteran correction officer Sgt. Rory Miller (RET) distills what he has learned from jailhouse brawls, tactical operations and ambushes to explore the differences between martial arts and the subject martial arts were designed to deal with: Violence.

Section One: The Matrix. Introduces the myths, metaphors and expectations that most martial artists have about what they will ultimately learn in their dojo. This is then compared with the complexity of the reality of violence. Complexity is one of the recurring themes throughout this work.

Section Two: How To Think. Examines how to think critically about violence, how to evaluate sources of knowledge and clearly explains the concepts of strategy and tactics.

Sections Three and Four: Violence and Predators. Focuses on the dynamics of violence itself and the predators who perpetuate it. Drawing on hundreds of encounters and thousands of hours spent with criminals Sgt. Miller explains the types of violence; how, where, when and why it develops; the effects of adrenaline; how criminals think, and even the effects of drugs and altered states of consciousness in a fight.

Section Five: Training. Centers on training for violence, and adapting your present training methods to that reality. It discusses the pros and cons of modern and ancient martial arts training and gives a unique insight into early Japanese kata as a military training method.

Section Six: Making Physical Defense Work. Is all about how to make self-defense work. Miller examines how to look at defense in a broader context, and how to overcome some of your own subconscious resistance to meeting violence with violence.

Section 7: Aftermath. Deals with the aftermath—the cost of surviving sudden violence or violent environments, how it can change you for good or bad. It gives advice for supervisors and even for instructors on how to help a student/survivor. You may even learn a bit about enlightenment.

This book will change your perception of the world, martial arts and violence.

ADDING POWER TO THE FIGHTING TECHNIQUES OF KARATE

Hojo Undo means 'supplementary training', and using these tools is the key for developing the devastating power of karate techniques. Without Hojo Undo, a practitioner cannot reach the profound strength levels required for a lifetime of karate training.

This book details how to construct and use many training tools; provides accurate mechanical drawings, comprehensive training methods, and an historical context to understand why Hojo Undo was created in 'old' Okinawa.

• Warm up exercises
• Detailed construction drawings
• Build your own Hojo Undo tools!
• Learn how to use the tools to develop devastating power
• Link your increased power to fighting techniques
• Hear what Okinawan Masters say about Hojo Undo training

Tai Chi Dynamics is intended for intermediate and advanced Taiji players.

The author Robert Chuckrow Ph.D. experimental physics, has been a Taiji practitioner for over forty years. He applies logic and basic scientific principles of anatomy, physiology, and physics to muscular action, breathing, and alignment in Taiji movement and push-hands.

He clarifies many perplexing concepts such as "correct force" by utilizing detailed explanations, illustrations, and photographs.

Sayings from the Taiji Classics are quoted throughout, and exercises are provided to give readers a chance to confirm their understanding.

Over a dozen self-defense applications of the basic Taiji movements are illustrated, and the effectiveness and completeness of Taiji as a martial art is candidly analyzed.

Suggestions for many aspects of teaching Taiji are provided, which stem from over three decades of practical experience. A chapter on Zheng Manqing (Cheng Man-ch'ing), with whom the author studied for five years in the early 1970s, sheds light on Zheng and his students.

A special chapter deals extensively with aspects of self development from a personal perspective, discusses how doing Taiji correctly is a precursor to spiritual growth, and compares religion, science, and spiritual teachings.

A detailed chapter on health, self-massage, and healing discusses fasting (including the author's own experience with a twenty-eight-day fast), differences between Traditional Chinese Medicine and Western Medicine, and provides exercises and methods of self-massage for head, legs, feet, and back.

There is even a section on how to make your own footwear suitable for practicing Taiji.

The book includes personal anecdotes and stories, and has over one hundred photographs and illustrations by the author.

"The Japanese sword and Japanese swordsmanship involve a scheme that is deeply embedded in the Western world's mind. Therefore the sword has become a subject of great historical and cultural significance.

It is my belief that, if the chrysanthemum and the crane are two of Japan's cherished icons, the third has to be the katana or samurai sword. To the fighting machines of antiquity: the legions of Alexander the Great, Attila's hordes, the armies of Caesar, and Mohammed's faithful warriors, we must add another fighting machine of antiquity, the samurai of Japan, a martial caste born in the tenth century." —from the author's preface.

In this book, the author takes us on a tour of the Samurai code of Bushido. He talks of his encounters with the descendants of famous samurai' of the past. We are taken to ancient Japan to meet the most influential samurai through the memories of their descendants—as told to the author by members of those very samurai families!

We learn about the many rituals of the sword and discover how they were made, cared for and tested. The author instructs us on the use of the sword with over twenty traditional sword drawing techniques and sparring routines.

Discover what made the Samurai such lethal swordsmen. Learn the "one cut"

Walking should be one of the most natural things we do.

Most of us have been walking almost all of our lives. However, many have learned walking in a haphazard way. Wearing improper shoes, modeling ourselves after others whose walking is inefficient, and wrong ideas about how our body works are all factors that take their toll on us over time.

Because walking is natural, it is not hard to improve it to the point where it becomes meditation and improves our health at the same time.

For Tai Chi practitioners, walking provides an excellent opportunity to augment, refine, and reinforce Tai Chi principles and bridge the gap between formal practice and everyday life.

For non-practitioners, Tai Chi Walking trains us in walking concepts for improving health, balance, peace-of-mind and safety.

• If you hurt after a long day on your feet, this book is for you.
• Learn how to walk properly and naturally.
• Discover why poor walking posture can damage your health.
• Understand how proper walking can increase longevity and vitality.

Anxiety happens whether you like it or not. It's your body's way of telling you "something is wrong here." Learning how to use anxiety as a personal weapons for self-defense is the best way you can achieve awareness and avoidance, which are the first two steps learned in self-defense preparedness training.

Everyone is born with an instinctual survival mechanism. In fact, it has kept humankind safe for millennia. Unfortunately, most of us have been conditioned to ignore it. That's dangerous.

• Understand why your instincts are the key to making the right decisions.
• Recognize how anxiety is the link between decision-making and instinct.
• Learn how to be completely in the moment, so you can coordinate anxiety and instinct into a highly effective decision-making process.

You will learn how to develop personal safety skills by doing thought exercises, both in your home and in public spaces. These important exercises will help you become more aware of your surroundings and empower you to make the right decision on what or who to avoid.

First Defense should be read by most people, including:

• Parents
• College students (especially females)
• Teachers
• Seniors
• Martial artists
• Employees of midsize to large companies

BECAUSE NOT ALL KRAV MAGA IS THE SAME ™

Israeli krav maga is the official self-defense system of the Israel Defense Forces. Krav maga training shares the same principles for civilians, law enforcement, and military personnel alike to deliver them from harm's way. Goals however, are different for law enforcement and military personnel.

This book is designed for security-conscious civilians, law enforcement officers, military personnel, and security professionals alike who want to improve their chances of not just surviving an armed attack, but increase the odds of prevailing without serious injury.

Krav maga's popularity in professional law enforcement, military, and security circles is attributable to its practicality, simplicity, quick retention, easy learning curve, and brutal effectiveness. This effectiveness is built on a few core tenets and simple building blocks. General principles are applied and customized to suit the needs of a dynamic violent situation.

Contents include:

• Mind-sets, reactions, and tactics in response to violence
• The highest-level counters against multiple armed attacks and threats
• Core kick, clinch, and tackle defenses
• Core ground survival tactics
• Multiple-opponent strategies and tactics
• Impact weapon defenses
• Edged weapon defenses
• Firearm disarms and retention
• Includes 954 detailed photographs

The most up-to-date tactics presented in this book focus on the most common violent scenarios. These techniques derive from the author's translation of the Israeli Krav Maga Association (IKMA) curriculum. The IKMA is the governing body for krav maga, recognized by the Israeli government and headed by Grandmaster Haim Gidon.

Responsible people seek krav maga training as a shield against violence.

This Book Stands Alone as an Introduction to the Context of Self-Defense.

There are seven elements that must be addressed to bring self-defense training to something approaching ‘complete.’ Any training that dismisses any of these areas leaves you vulnerable.

We strongly recommend this book to anybody wishing to learn self-defense, or understand how to stay safe should violence rear it's ugly head.

1. Legal and ethical implications. A student learning self-defense must learn force law. Otherwise it is possible to train to go to prison. Side by side with the legal rules, every student must explore his or her own ethical limitations. Most do not really know where this ethical line lies within them.
2. Violence dynamics. Self-defense must teach how attacks happen. Students must be able to recognize an attack before it happens and know what kind they are facing.
3. Avoidance. Students need to learn and practice not fighting. Learning includes escape and evasion, verbal de-escalation, and also pure-not-be there avoidance.
4. Counter-ambush. If the student didn’t see the precursors or couldn’t successfully avoid the encounter he or she will need a handful of actions trained to reflex level for a sudden violent attack.
5. Breaking the freeze. Freezing is almost universal in a sudden attack. Students must learn to recognize a freeze and break out of one.
6. The fight itself. Most martial arts and self-defense instructors concentrate their time right here. What is taught just needs to be in line with how violence happens in the world.
7. The aftermath. There are potential legal, psychological, and medical effects of engaging in violence no matter how justified. Advanced preparation is critical.

Any teacher or student of self-defense, anyone interested in self-defense, and any person who desires a deeper understanding of violence really should read this book.

Survival Favors the Prepared Mind—Robert Crowley

AWARDS

• eLit Award GOLD WINNER - 2012
• USA Best Books Award FINALIST - 2012
• Eric Hoffer Award HONORABLE MENTION - 2012

Dynamics, motion, sensation...they are karate's connective tissue―and they are the heart of this book.

Karate Science: Dynamic Movement will help you understand the mechanics of the human body. Swanson describes these principles in incredible detail, drawing on examples from several styles of karate, as well as aikido, taekwondo, and judo. Whatever your martial background, applying this knowledge will make your techniques better, stronger, and faster.

• Understand the major types of techniques, including their outward appearances and internal feelings.
• Master the core principles behind these feelings.
• Learn the biomechanics and dynamics of core movement.

Karate Science: Dynamic Movement is filled with examples, anecdotes, and beautiful illustrations. Although Shotokan karate is the author's frame of reference, the principles of human mechanics translate to all martial styles.

This book features

• Clear and insightful explanations of dynamic movement.
• Over 100 illustrations.
• Profound but accessible analysis of the kihon, or fundamentals of Shotokan karate.

As a lifelong student of martial arts, J. D. Swanson, Ph.D., had searched through piles of books on form and function. "Stand here, step there" they said. But where movement was concerned, none went deep enough. No one was discussing the dynamics―the actual feeling of the moves. Both in print and in live teaching, karate instruction tends to focus on stances and finishing positions. But dynamics, motion, sensation...they are karate's connective tissue―and they are the heart of this book.

“Karate Science: Dynamic Movement is rooted in the teachings of the masters,” Swanson says. “This book nucleates that knowledge, clarifying and distilling the key principles behind movement dynamics. This is the next evolution of karate books.”

Tai chi ball qigong training is an important component of proper tai chi chuan practice

Once kept secret in martial arts societies, Tai Chi Ball training has the potential to help develop internal strength, whole body connections, yielding and neutralizing skills, and promotes abundant qi flow.

For decades, this training was widely unknown. Dr. Yang has taken the original 24 patterns and extended them to 48 patterns in order to expand the health benefits and to target the needs of martial artists.

For martial artists, tai chi ball qigong training can strengthen the torso, condition the muscles, and increase physical power by using the mind to lead the qi. It can be a major training tool to enhance pushing hands ability.

As a health exercise, tai chi ball qigong training will improve movement of the spine, increase energy through various breathing techniques, and aid in moving many joints of your body properly, and at different angles.

"In all my years of teaching, I believe that Tai Chi Ball Qigong is one of the most powerful exercises I have ever seen to rebuild the entire body's health."—Dr. Yang, Jwing-Ming

This book includes

• History of tai chi ball
• Theory of tai chi ball qigong
• Tai chi ball warm-ups
• Tai chi ball fundamentals
• Tai chi ball breathing
• Tai chi ball exercises
• Tai chi ball partner exercises
• Tai chi ball advanced practice

Especially designed for learning Tai Chi at home

Tai Chi in 10 Weeks is designed to guide beginning students through the fundamentals of tai chi in only ten weeks. Dr. Aihan Kuhn teaches you an easy to learn twenty-four-step Yang-style tai chi form.

Tai chi is best known as a gentle full body exercise that has been proven effective for reducing stress, calming your mind, and boosting your immune system. No wonder, millions of people around the world practice tai chi for health and wellness.

Dr. Aihan Kuhn is a master instructor of tai chi and qigong. In this book she shares the lessons she’s learned in a lifetime of studying and teaching. She is warm and encouraging, making readers of all ages and backgrounds feel welcome.

This book features:

• A ten-week calendar to guide you through your introduction to tai chi
• Over 200 beautiful full-color photos
• Warm, welcoming instruction from a master of tai chi and qigong

With this book you will:

• Learn the twenty-four-step Yang-style form
• Understand the fundamentals of tai chi
• Discover not just the physical postures of tai chi, but also its psychological, emotional, and spiritual benefits

“Tai chi is a life journey,” Dr. Kuhn writes. "Part of my success is from my patients and students that understand that prevention requires participation. They practice tai chi and qigong on a regular basis, which is key to their health and healing. Can you really learn tai chi in 10 weeks? Yes, you can learn the fundamentals of tai chi. You can build the foundation for this life-changing journey. Tai Chi in 10 Weeks is your road map."

Learn the Whole Story Behind the World's Most Popular Martial Art!

Although millions of people around the world practice the fascinating art of Taekwondo, so little is known about its history, principles or philosophy. It is time to find out just what Taekwondo is all about! Learn how principles such as honor, perseverance, and dedication will enhance your daily life, how the philosophical and physical tenets combine to form not only a way of living, but a solid system of self-defense, and why these concepts are not just quaint ideals, but more important than ever in today's age.

Taekwondo's Ancient Wisdom is not only a 'must read' for every practitioner of any other martial art, but for everyone who seeks to learn from our collective past to better navigate through today's confusing times.

• Includes a thorough history of Taekwondo.
• Discover exactly what having a black belt is all about.
• Learn a simple way of meditation that will benefit any martial artist.
• Discover the difference between the martial arts as an 'art' and as a 'sport'.

You will fight how you train. That’s why Fighter’s Fact Book 2 presents a critical look at training and real-world applications. When you’ve mastered the skills taught in this book, you will truly be ready to defend yourself in some of the most desperate situations imaginable.

You will learn how to defend yourself against multiple assailants, violent dogs, and knife attacks. You’ll learn how to contend with close-quarters attacks and adversaries who are impervious to pain. You’ll also get no-nonsense instruction on fighting wounded and the justified use of extreme tactics.

Loren W. Christensen shares lessons from his decades of martial arts training and law enforcement experience. He has also enlisted a host of expert contributors:

• Lt. Col. Dave Grossman
• Iain Abernethy
• Rory Miller
• Kris Wilder
• Lawrence Kane
• Alain Burrese
• Wim Demeere
• Richard Dimitri
• Mark Mireles
• Tim Delgman
• Dan Anderson

These men are proven survivors, and their multidisciplinary analyses will change the way you see training and fighting.

The authors will show you how to make your street techniques fast and explosive, and how to prepare yourself mentally to use extreme force. These skills are not for the faint of heart. They are hardcore techniques intended to save your life or the life of a loved one.

If you're going to fight bad guys, you might as well make them really mad at you!

A few weeks ago, I had a good life—I was a respected Portland police detective and successful martial arts instructor. Then I shot somebody—then I shot two more people. It changed everything. Into this chaos stepped a man and an enchanting Vietnamese woman. Turns out he's my father who I thought was dead, and she's—wow. We got to know each over coffee and, oh yeah, fighting for our lives against Vietnamese gangsters seeking revenge against my father. What a week, glad it's over.

A restful trip abroad, to get acquainted with my 'new' father and the beautiful Mai, sounds like a good idea. Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, here I come!

What I didn't expect, in this exotic city, was Lai Van Tan, the crazed mob boss and sex trafficker, still raging against my family for an imagined wrong—now he wants me too. With the aid of some unique Vietnamese War veterans, each with a deadly set of skills, the fight is on. My hope for a restful visit is deteriorating fast.

Tai Chi Chuan Martial Power is the next level in Tai Chi Chuan training. 

This book is written especially for those who have learned the Tai Chi form, have begun Pushing Hands, and now want to develop and refine their Tai Chi skills.

Tai Chi Chuan Martial Power focuses on the martial essence of Tai Chi Chuan, an aspect many other books ignore. This book goes in-depth and explores the subject of Jing (internal martial power), general Tai Chi theory, and the application of Chi (Qi) in the Tai Chi form.

Because Jing training is essential to martial art Tai Chi, this work is a valuable reference that no serious practitioner should be without.

Contents include:

• A comprehensive training plan for Jing (power) development.
• Understand the difference between true Jing (internal power) and Li (muscular power).
• Learn how to accumulate Chi and Jing in the Tai Chi postures.
• Discover the essential role your mind plays in Tai Chi and Jing practice.
• Includes a special selection of Tai Chi poems (the place the ancient masters hid their theory), translated and explained with commentary by Dr. Yang.

A must for advanced students.

This edition includes an easy-to-follow layout. Each technique is presented in four to six large photographs with detailed instructions on how to perform the movements. Motion arrows are used on the photographs to help you execute the movements correctly.

Chie Miyazaki is wild and spoiled—the pampered child of a cadet line of the Imperial house of Japan. When she disappears in the United States accompanied by a slick Korean boyfriend, it sets off alarms among elite officials in Japan’s security apparatus.

The Japanese want the problem solved quietly, so they seek out Connor Burke, prize student of Sensei Yamashita. Burke suspects that he’s being used, but he accepts the assignment out of honor for his revered sensei.

A covert search and rescue operation turns into a confrontation with a North Korean sleeper cell, and Burke finally discovers the secret that drove Yamashita from Japan so many years ago and the power behind the decades-old connections that pull Yamashita back into danger in the service of the imperial family.

"By massaging acupoints on the scalp and face one can treat the entire body. The head is the capital of the human body and is the confluence of all the Yin and Yang Meridians"- from The Yellow Emperor's Canon of Internal Medicine (Huang Di Nei Jing)

HEALTH AND LONGEVITY BEGIN WITH A SINGLE TOUCH

Did you know that, the internal health of the human body can be influenced and balanced by massaging acupoints, meridians, and trigger zones of the head, neck, and face? In fact, this not only helps to balance the entire body, it also has a significant cosmetic and anti-aging effect!

In this definitive book, Dr. Bin Jiang Wu presents an easy-to-follow head massage program that was developed as a response to computer syndrome and other stress related illnesses that are rapidly increasing in our modern society. In less than thirty minutes, you can relieve stress and tension from your spouse, friend or patient, while promoting smooth skin, healthy organs, and overall peace and tranquility.

This sixty-step sequence is based upon Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), and its theory is rooted in the Yellow Emperor's Classic of Internal Medicine (Huang Di Nei Jing). Wu's Head Massage can be performed in its entirety, or you can choose your favorite techniques for quick relief.

• Great for reducing headaches
• Works for shoulder and neck tension
• Reduces facial wrinkles
• Stimulates the 'energy channels' in the entire body
• Improves facial skin complexion
• Provides an instant mental boost, naturally
• And more!

Chin Na is the art of seizing and controlling, it is a major element of all Chinese martial arts including Tai Chi Chuan.

Today, most people practice Tai Chi Chuan to maintain health or cure sickness. For the last fifty years the martial aspects of Tai Chi Chuan have been ignored, and the art is now incomplete. Most practitioners no longer understand the martial applications of Tai Chi Chuan, or even that it is a martial art. For example, the concept and training methods of Tai Chi Jin (or Tai Chi martial power), and how to apply internal Qi in the martial arts have become an unfamiliar subject in Tai Chi societies today. As a result, actual martial applications of Jin and Qi, such as Chin Na or Cavity Strikes, are currently not popularly known or studied.

To preserve Tai Chi's martial aspect, this book presents numerous Tai Chi Chin Na (Qin Na), the art of controlling an opponent through joint locks and cavity strikes.

Tai Chi Chin Na is one of the four main martial training categories of Tai Chi Chuan (the other three categories are striking, kicking, and wrestling/downing the opponent). Of all these four, Chin Na is the most effective, practical, powerful, and easiest to learn. Once you have mastered Tai Chi Chin Na, you will be able to apply the theory and techniques to any other martial style you practice. If you are a Tai Chi beginner, Tai Chi Chin Na could offer you a key to enter the door of martial Tai Chi.

This book provides a solid and practical approach to learning Tai Chi Chin Na accurately and quickly. You will learn specific techniques that flow from each movement, the proper hand forms to use when striking or pressing cavities, and the locations for targeting cavities on the body. Includes 858 photographs with motion arrows!

• General concepts of Chin Na
• Basic Chin Na theory and training
• 51 Chin Na techniques for peng, lu, ji, and an
• 41 Chin Na techniques for cai, lei, zhou, and kao
• 103 Chin Na applications for the 37 primary Tai Chi postures
• 17 Chin Na techniques for Tai Chi Pushing Hands

No matter your age or martial prowess, Tai Chi Chin Na is a necessary and enjoyable way to explore the depths of Tai Chi—a formidable martial art.

Whether you are a law enforcement officer seeking to improve your edge or a martial artist wanting to expand your knowledge of street-proven techniques, you will find Defensive Tactics: Street-Proven Arrest and Control Techniques is filled with invaluable information to prepare you for even the most difficult scenarios.

Highlights include:

• Joint manipulation that works
• Leverage control vs. pain control
• Striking with the hands, feet, forearms, and elbows
• Safely and quickly crossing the gap
• Blocking an assailant’s strikes
• Using vulnerable points to gain compliance
• Head disorientation
• Safe application of carotid constriction or “sleeper” holds
• Controlling a suspect on the ground
• Arresting big guys
• Fighting concepts to take on patrol
• Weapon retention in close quarters and on the ground

Loren W. Christensen is a retired cop and high-ranking martial artist who survived everything the mean streets threw at him, working patrol, gang enforcement, and dignitary protection. Defensive Tactics goes beyond what is taught in the academy, during an officer’s in-service training, and what is allowed by the administration.

This book also includes a chapter on proven ways to control a suspect on the ground, written by LAPD officer Mark Mireles, an MMA coach, police academy trainer, and champion wrestler.

Loren W. Christensen shows you over 300 ways you can add variety to your daily martial arts training routine. Whether you’re a student looking for fun new solo drills to spice up your home training or an instructor in search of new ways to pump up your classes, this book has what you need. It is an incredible collection of drills, techniques, and exercises that will take your workouts to the next level.

• Organize your solo workouts to get maximum results from even the shortest training sessions.
• Improve your speed and power with dozens of inside tips and tricks.
• Beat boredom and get excited about your solo training sessions.
• Become a well-rounded fighter by adding essential skills your instructor may not be teaching you.
• Safely experiment with new techniques to find your ideal personal style of training.
• Get an edge on your opponents with training methods that will elevate your skills in the ring and on the street.

Not only will you learn enough new training strategies and methods to keep you busy for years, but Loren W. Christensen’s no-nonsense writing style will get you up and moving, even on the days you’d rather skip your solo workout. This book is packed with insight, technique, and motivation. It will become your favorite training partner.

According to the World Taekwondo Federation, there are over 90,000,000 taekwondo practitioners worldwide. Every level 1 black belt student is required to learn Poomsae Koryo. Yet, few are familiar with the ancestral form known as the 'Original Koryo'.

Prearranged forms known as poomsae in taekwondo, are a primary method of transmitting martial arts skills from teacher to student. As sport preference supplanted fighting preference in taekwondo's reason for existence, the Original Koryo was modified in kind to today's well-known Koryo.

Written specifically for level 1 and level 2 black belt students, this book is a scholarly attempt to capture, transmit and preserve as an inheritance, the historical treasures and technical elements inherent in Original Koryo and Koryo, as well as the applications less obvious or even secretly encoded in these forms. This knowledge will benefit those seeking more than triumph in the ring or aerobic fulfillment from their taekwondo training.

In summary, students will find in this book:

• History and philosophy
• Technical elements for learning the basics
• Detailed instruction for learning Koryo
• Detailed instruction for learning Original Koryo

Over two hundred photographs, line of motion charts, stepping patterns, and martial applications are provided throughout this in-depth instructional book.

Chin Na is one of the four major fighting categories in all Chinese martial styles.

The four categories are:

• Kicking (Ti)
• Striking (Da)
• Wrestling (Shuai)
• Seize-Controlling (Na)

This book is also laid out according to actual fighting scenarios as follows:

• Chin Na Against Barhand Attacks
• Chin Na Against Blocking
• Chin Na Against Kicking
• Chin Na Against Knife Attacks
• Offensive Chin Na Techniques

With over 375 techniques, practitioners can discover a variety of techiques suitable to their needs and martial arts style. Effective application of Chin Na requires speedy execution of a block or yield, a set up, and then a proper technique. By experimenting with different situations presented in this book, you can find those techniques that work best for you.

Seize-Controlling Chin Na techniques can be effectively used against an opponents grabbing attacks as well as against wrestling. Pressing and striking Chin Na can be used to seal the opponents breathing, vein/artery, or Qi circulation, which can cause severe pain, numbness, and unconsciousness.

Most of Chin Na can be learned easily and be adopted into any martial style. Chin Na has been known as the root of the Japanese arts of Jujitsu and Aikido, and practitioners can use the study of Chin Na to increase their understanding of the theory and principles of their own arts.

This book is designed to make learning easier.

A modern-day ronin is traveling across the country systematically murdering martial arts masters in ritualized combat. Connor Burke is a part-time college teacher with a passion for the martial arts. His brother Micky, an NYPD detective, calls him in to help with the investigation. Connor calls for additional help from his teacher, master warrior Yamashita Sensei. Burke begins to follow the trail of clues that stretches across time and place, ultimately confronting his own fears, his sense of honor, and the ruthless killer who calls himself Ronin.

Combining the exotic wolrd of the Japanese martial arts with the gritty nuts-and-bolts of a murder investigation, Sensei is a fast-paced, riveting thriller that explores the links between people as they struggle for mastery, identity, and a sense of belonging.

San Shou Kuai Jiao (Fast Wrestling for Fighting) is the Chinese martial art of throws and takedowns. A San Shou Kuai Jiao throw can cause tremendous damage to your opponent while keeping you safely on your feet. For centuries, fighters in China have valued this art for its speed and power. Today, China's police and military forces are trained in its techniques.

Chinese Fast Wrestling for Fighting presents seventy-five throws and takedowns against punches, kicks, and grabs, and demonstrates basic training methods such as stances, footwork, and strength training. Written by a gold medal winner in Chinese wrestling (Liang), this book is a complete training guide to this powerful martial art.

• Throw your opponent to the ground - fast!
• Effective for competition and self-defense.
• 460 action photos detail every technique.
• Includes a chapter on ground fighting.

CATCH YOUR OPPONENT OFF GUARD WITH WINNING CLINCHES, TAKEDOWNS, AND TACTICS

This innovative book demonstrates how the study of sumo wrestling techniques can benefit practitioners of modern mixed martial arts (MMA), as well as other grappling arts. Sumo, Japan's ancient martial art, has its own particular variations of MMA-style body locks, throws, and trips, among other techniques.

MMA competitors know their sport grew with the evolution of jujitsu, but many do not realize sumo can be seen as the root of jujitsu. Sumo uses distraction, angles, and leverage to steal an opponent's balance and take him down.

Sumo for Mixed Martial Arts focuses on kimarite, or winning moves. Knowledge of these techniques can allow competitors to catch their opponents off guard with unorthodox clinches, takedowns, and tactics. The author places special emphasis on how smaller players can defeat larger adversaries.

This book features:

• In-depth demonstrations of 48 sumo kimarite (winning moves) with step-by-step instructions
• Over 300 photos
• Case studies of famous rikishi (sumo wrestlers)
• Discussion of sumo's development, rules, and training, as well as recent changes in sumo techniques

The author provides analysis of the three basic types of fighters in MMA and how sumo techniques and tactics can enhance their skills. He examines the fighting style of former UFC light heavyweight champion Lyoto Machida, who made highly effective use of sumo wrestling in MMA competition.

In Sumo for Mixed Martial Arts Andrew Zerling casts an ancient martial art in new light. He combines his decades of training with a passion for research. MMA competitors, grapplers, wrestlers, and fans of sumo will appreciate the author's analysis and attention to detail. They will also come away with a wealth of new techniques.

In Brain Fitness Dr. Aihan Kuhn shares her expertise in tai chi, qigong, and medicine, giving readers exercises designed to prevent brain aging. This book represents a synthesis of Dr. Kuhn’s studies in martial arts as well as Eastern and Western healing.

Tai chi and qigong practitioners around the world have long known that these arts promote fitness and self-defense. In this book Dr. Kuhn discusses their physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual benefits. She emphasizes how tai chi and qigong aid in memory, emotional balance, and lifelong learning.

This book features:

• An illustrated manual detailing tai chi and qigong exercises to prevent brain aging
• Elements of Eastern and Western medicine combined to form a new vision of brain health
• Dr. Kuhn’s concise, accessible guidance from a lifetime of studying martial arts and medicine

With this book you will:

• Learn Dr. Kuhn’s keys to prevent brain aging
• Discover the physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual benefits of tai chi
• Learn how tai chi and qigong assist in human healing

Dr. Kuhn says we have long assumed that getting older means facing a decline in memory, attention span, numerical ability, creativity, alertness, learning ability, and language. "But we were wrong,” she adds. “New findings from science show that if the brain is consistently stimulated, no matter at what age, the brain can remain young and healthy.”

She has written Brain Fitness to help us all maintain that clarity, creativity, and vitality.

Written for those new to natural healing, Simple Chinese Medicine gives you tools that you can use today to improve your quality of life and begin your healing journey. Based upon centuries old practice of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), readers are provided simple-to-do exercises for stress relief, health maintenance, and cancer prevention. Additional sections include guidance on using food for healing and for weight control. Careful attention is given to explaining the differences between Eastern healing methods and Western treatment methods, as well as an insightful discussion of TCM's concept of 'prevention' for health maintenance. A final section shares the personal experiences of some of Dr. Kuhn's patients.

• Healing in Traditional Chinese Medicine
• Differences in Chinese Medicine and Western Medicine
• TCM Diagnostic Method
• Seeking the Right Medical Care
• Food Healing in Chinese Medicine
• Food Balance
• Healthy Balanced Diet and Weight Reduction
• Weight Control Program—Food and Exercise Log
• Exercises for Healing, Disease Prevention, and Good Health
• Cancer Prevention and Healing
• Exercise Routines for Healing Cancer
• Chinese Medicine's Secrets of Good Health and Longevity
• Trends in Longevity

The epic journey of Bodhidharma, who brought Zen and martial arts to the Shaolin Temple.

This epic historical fiction novel opens with a young man named Sardili born of the warrior caste in 507 A.D. Sardili realizes that he would rather seek enlightenment than follow his family's military legacy and sets out on a life-long quest for truth and wisdom.

Sardili becomes the Buddhist monk Bodhidharma, known as Da Mo in China. He travels throughout India, brings Buddhism to China, and single handedly establishes the Shaolin Temple as the birthplace of Zen and the Martial Arts.

A Sudden Dawn is a refreshing take on the mythical origins of Kung Fu with a good pace, enjoyable interpretation of legendary characters, and wonderfully written adventures during the long journey across Asia.

In this book, Dr. Kuhn effectively explains and demonstrates how Therapeutic Qigong is a valuable and important adjunct to good health care. Her helpful directions and clear illustrations demonstrate this simple yet powerful Qigong routine that anyone can use to improve and then maintain their health.

Therapeutic Qigong is a form of medical Qigong that was created in the early 1970's, by Dr. Zhuang Yuanmin and other expert Chinese Medical Doctors at the University of Sports Medicine in Shanghai China. This Qigong routine combines physical exercises, stretching, breathing and self-massage. By enhancing energy and blood circulation, Therapeutic Qigong can accelerate the body's healing process and immunity, to help relieve illness and prevent disease.

Therapeutic Qigong is easy to learn and easy to practice. The program is divided into six groups. Each group focuses on different muscles and joints to achieve maximum benefit. You only need 15-30 minutes per day to enjoy the results of this effective Qigong regimen. If you are new to Qigong, you can work on individual groups until you are ready to add others.

"Wellness takes work; achieving and maintaining good health requires the cooperation and coordination of our mind, body, and spirit." - Jean A. Lacey (Instructor, Newbury College MA).

• Categories, definitions and a brief history of Qigong.
• Relationship between Qi and our attitudes.
• How energy effects our body.
• Exercises; Neck, Shoulders, Back, Hips, Legs, Arms, Elbows, Hands & Wrists.

Michael Clarke was an angry, vicious kid, a street fighter. He grew up in the late sixties and early seventies in Manchester, England, in a tough neighborhood where, he writes, “Prostitutes worked the pavement opposite my home, illegal bookmakers took bets in back alley cellars, and street brawls were commonplace.”

He left school at fifteen and began his education as a pugilist on the streets. He fought in bars and clubs, at football matches, in parks, and in bus stations—and he was good. He reveled in the victories and the admiration they brought.

It was a life of knuckles and teeth, of broken bones and torn flesh—and the arrests that followed. Clarke was seventeen when a judge sentenced him to two years in Strangeways Prison, an infamous place also known as “psychopath central.”

In prison he resolved to change his life and stay out of trouble, but trouble was everywhere. He discovered a world of violent gangs, abusive guards, and inmates engaged in an endless struggle for dominance. Strangeways was a place where a person could get stabbed to death for taking the bigger piece of toast.

In time Clarke was released, but the transition was difficult and he almost fought his way back to prison. Then one night he entered a karate dojo and his life changed forever. He began a lifetime pursuit of budo, the martial way. He sought knowledge, studied with masters, and traveled to Okinawa, the birthplace of karate.

Redemption: A Street Fighter’s Path to Peace is a true account of youth wasted and life reclaimed. Michael Clarke reminds us that martial arts are not simply about punching and kicking. They forge the spirit, temper the will, and reveal our true nature.

“Simplicity is the shortest distance between two points.” ― Bruce Lee, The Tao of Jeet Kune Do

The best of both Eastern and Western stick fighting techniques

The Art and Science of Stick Fighting is a unique, non-style specific, approach to fighting with the short stick. Its curriculum is streamlined and divided into nine logical stages of training that allow the reader to quickly and methodically learn and develop the skills needed for fighting with the stick. Whether you are just starting out, or have been practicing stick fighting for years, there is something for everyone in this book. Also included are systematic workouts and descriptions of how to make and use specific training equipment as you learn and master The Art and Science of Stick Fighting.

• Nine levels of instruction, progressing from easy to expert
• Over 700 photos with motion arrows
• A “nondenominational” approach to the stick, utilizing the best of Eastern and Western arts
• A comprehensive, methodical approach to building stick fighting skills

This book stands apart from other stick fighting training manuals because it emphasizes the dynamics of combat. Many other books focus on forms and twirling. The author draws on thirty years of martial experience, presenting the best of both Eastern and Western traditions.

The Art and Science of Stick Fighting begins with the basics, upon which everything else relies.

• A stable stance
• Basic footwork
• An effective guard

Once the basics are in place, you learn the strategies and tactics of fighting with the stick at long, middle, and close range. By controlling the distance, you control the fight!

• Learn important guidelines for sparring, from light contact up to full-contact training.
• Learn how to construct your own padded weapons.
• Learn effective fighting tips that will rev up your game.

Also included are chapters on advanced techniques; combating short ranged weapons such as a knife to long range weapons like the staff. Even detailed techniques to use when your opponent is armed but you are not!

Whether you already study the stick or are just starting out, if you want to learn how to get an edge , The Art and Science of Stick Fighting is for you!

Combines the best that Eastern and Western medicine can offer in the understanding, treatment, and prevention of heart disease and hypertension.

Over a decade has passed since Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease (Caldwell Esselstyn Jr.) and Energy Medicine (Donna Eden) seminal books shed light on taking more control of person health through lifestyle changes. Now, Drs. Kurosu and Kuhn offer a step-by-step guide to optimal heart health and care. True Wellness for Your Heart combines the best that Eastern and Western medicine have to offer in the understanding, treatment, and prevention of heart disease and hypertension. By blending modern research with ancient practices, this book will help readers along their journey toward better cardiovascular health and overall well-being.

The authors have helped thousands of people through the use of surgery, pharmaceuticals, acupuncture, herbs, qigong, tai chi, meditation, and life-style counseling. They explain how Western medicine has substantiated a long-held understanding of the heart held by Eastern medicine – that heart health is significantly impacted by sleep, emotions, movement, food, and social support. The authors discuss how sleep, exercise, nutritious food, stress management, acupuncture, and qigong favorably impact the cardiovascular system. These modalities restore balance in the nerves, hormones, and neurotransmitters that influence the heart and blood vessels.

• Drs. Kuhn and Kurosu strongly recommend a collaborative approach, encouraging readers to engage with their Western healthcare providers so that serious conditions can be addressed safely.
• The authors share ideas about how the reader can create a multidisciplinary care team, involving practitioners of both Eastern and Western healing systems.
• The science behind meditation, acupuncture, and qigong are explained.
• Readers are offered recommendations of proven Eastern and Western therapeutic interventions that will calm the mind, decrease stress, improve sleep and nutrition, and strengthen the heart.
• True Wellness for Your Heart includes a step-by-step guide and qigong exercises designed to promote overall cardiovascular health.

The authors recognize that cardiovascular disease is complex and requires a multifaceted approach for successful treatment. By blending the ancient wisdom of Eastern Medicine with cutting-edge Western discoveries, True Wellness for Your Heart will help readers achieve optimal heart health, whether through prevention or treatment of this condition.

While the old adage, "those who can't do, teach" is not entirely true, all too often "those who can do" cannot teach effectively. This book is unique in that it offers a holistic approach to teaching martial arts; incorporating elements of educational theory and communication techniques typically overlooked in budo.

Teachers will improve their abilities to motivate, educate, and retain students, while students interested in the martial arts will develop a better understanding of what instructional methods best suit their needs.

The author's approach balances the reality that martial arts instructors are responsible for ensuring the safety of practitioners who learn potentially deadly techniques with the truism that if their classes are not enjoyable and productive, no one will participate in them.

• A tactical toolset useful to anyone’s teaching style
• Improve your ability to motivate, educate and retain students
• Explains how to optimize time and attention
• Designed to individual preferences and learning styles
• Effective for both children and adults

Increase your strength, improve your health, and develop explosive martial power with Qigong - the cultivation of your body's internal energy. Renown Qigong and martial arts master Dr. Yang, Jwing-Ming explains how and why Qigong can improve your martial training, and presents ten complete sets of proven Qigong exercises for martial artists and health seekers.

You'll gain muscular strength and vitality, increase your fighting power, and learn meditation training for improved concentration and longevity. This book also includes healing Qigong exercises and soothing massage techniques to help you recover more quickly from injury. In addition, Dr. Yang discusses Qigong and health, and charts the major cavities used in the martial arts.

• Develop explosive martial power.
• Recover quickly from injury.
• Choose from ten Qigong training sets.
• Easily integrated with any martial style.
• Over 200 photographs and illustrations.

A SIMPLE LYING DOWN EXERCISE ROUTINE FOR EVERYONE

Each morning before getting out of bed, Dr. Yang, Jwing-Ming practices a series of gentle stretching movements designed to improve energy, and rejuvinate the body. Based on decades of experience, these Meridian Qigong Exercises are his special daily exercise routine.

Follow along and learn how a unique combination of simple yoga stretches, qigong movements, and acupressure techniques can relieve energy stagnation and rejuvenate your entire body.

All the exercises can be performed lying down or sitting, if preferred. Meridian qigong will quickly improve your general health, by reducing stress, boosting your immune system, and preventing many range of motion injuries. With regular practice you will notice your entire body feels loose and comfortable. You will react to stress with a greater sense of calm, and your circulation will increase.

With this book you will:

• Understand the link between yoga and qigong
• Learn basic acupressure with traditional tui na (pushing and grabbing) and dian xue (cavity pressing) techniques
• Supplement your qigong practice with yoga stretches
• Know which acupoints and meridians to stimulate
• Relieve many common ailments, including insomnia

“In this book, I have compiled this qigong practice from my more than fifty years of practicing and teaching experience,” Dr. Yang writes. “I sincerely hope that Meridian Qigong Exercises are able to inspire you and make your life healthier.”

Dr. Yang is among the world’s most respected instructors of martial arts, tai chi, and qigong. Meridian Qigong Exercises is a profound addition to his incredible body of work.

All too frequently, martial arts practitioners study their art without truly understanding where it comes from, how it was developed, and why it was created in the first place. Indeed, many don't care - and if you feel this way, you should put this book down. For the rest of us, who have taken our art beyond tournaments, it is reasonable to expect that we want to uncover the past. We want to understand the where, why and how of martial art development. We are intellectually curious about our combative history.

To study the combative arts is to understand the circumstances of their development and to gain insights into the views and ethics of the societies that created them. As we travel back in time, we see consistent evidence of martial systems being influenced by those that came before and/or invaded. We also see the use of 'pre-arranged' fighting patterns kata to transmit proven techniques from one generation to the next.

It is this transmission of martial knowledge, through kata and other forms of communication, that this book will explore. The author will demonstrate that pre-arranged fighting techniques katas were used by ancient Greek, Egyptian, Asian, African and European societies. And that Poetry, Dance, and Song were also significant methods of preserving and transmitting battle-tested fighting tactics through the ages.

The purpose of kata training is not to become bound by the form but to transcend the form itself - to evolve.

BECAUSE NOT ALL KRAV MAGA IS THE SAME®

This book is designed for krav maga trainees, security-conscious civilians, law enforcement officers, security professionals, and military personnel alike who wish to refine their essential krav maga combatives, improve their chances of surviving a hostile attack and prevail without serious injury.

Combatives are the foundation of krav maga counter-attacks. These are the combatives of the original Israeli Krav Maga Association (Grandmaster Gidon).

It is irrefutable that you need only learn a few core combatives to be an effective fighter. Simple is easy. Easy is effective. Effective is what is required to end a violent encounter quickly, decisively, and on your terms. This book stresses doing the right things and doing them in the right way. Right technique + Correct execution = Maximum Effect.

Contents include:

• Key strategies for achieving maximum combative effects
• Krav maga’s 12 most effective combatives
• Developing power and balance
• Combatives for the upper and lower body
• Combative combinations and retzev (continuous combat motion)
• Combatives for takedowns and throws
• Combatives for armbars, leglocks, and chokes

Whatever your martial arts or defensive tactics background or if you have no self-defense background at all, this book can add defensive combatives and combinations to your defensive repertoire. Our aim is to build a strong self-defense foundation through the ability to optimally counter-attack.

There is a truth in the world of hand-to-hand combat that too many martial artists aren’t aware of or refuse to believe. Every time you discover a sure technique, one that makes all your training partners groan and writhe in agony, there exists out there in the mean streets a host of people who won’t feel it. People like these:

• Attackers with large muscle bulk or large fat bulk
• Attackers intoxicated on alcohol
• Attackers under the influence of drugs
• Attackers out of control with rage
• Attackers who are mentally deranged
• Attackers who feel pain but like it

Loren W. Christensen draws on decades of martial arts training and law enforcement experience, giving you techniques to survive the worst-case scenario. This book isn’t about working out with a training partner. It’s about surviving a desperate street attack against a nightmare adversary who doesn’t acknowledge what you thought was your best shot.

Cooperation, Compliance, Control.

In a free and peaceful society where so many have been taught that all violence is wrong, citizens are often confused and dismayed when officers use force, even when the force is perfectly lawful and justified.

This book allows you to 'take' a basic USE OF FORCE class just as if you were a rookie at the police academy. Below are some highlights of what is included in 'your' basic use of force class:

• SECTION 1. TRAINING. I explain policy and laws that officers are taught. We examine use of force, how to define a threat, and the difference between excessive force and unnecessary force.
• SECTION 2. CHECKS AND BALANCES. This section explains how an officer's decisions are examined if suspected of being bad decisions.
• SECTION 3. EXPERIENCE. We explore how officers see the world that they live in. Somewhere in the fog between training and experience, the officer has to make a decision. Sometimes decisions will be made in a fraction of a second and on partial information. Sometimes a decision will change the lives of everyone involved—forever.
• SECTION 4. ABOUT YOU. Review what you should have learned. Why does community action fail? What is it that can really be done? Know how to behave when faced by an officer. Until this section, I have tried to put you in the headspace of an officer, giving you an overview of his training and a taste of his experiences. Now I will try to let you feel like a suspect.

That's a lot of mind bending for one book. Get plenty of sleep and drink lots of water.

Any civilian, law enforcement officer or martial artist interested in self-defense, or anyone wanting to understand the duties and responsibilities of civilians and police officers needs to read this book.

"...charmingly eccentric memoir detailing a bassist's marital arts journey."—KIRKUS REVIEWS

"...a story about honest, integrity, and hope...wildly entertaining."—DANNY KAVALDO, WORD-RENOWNED FITNESS TRAINER

"...for the little guys in the small towns...for self-believers...for fighters."— ZACHARIAH BLAIR, LEAD GUITARISTS, RISE AGAINST

"...never-surrender ethos that make guys like this lifers."— MIKE GITTER, VP OF A&R, CENTURY MEDIA RECORDS

This is the true story of a rock and roll musician who takes up taekwondo at forty years old. Doni Blair, bassist for the Toadies, knows he’s past his physical prime, but he’s determined to push himself and pursue his dream of becoming a martial artist—even if it kills him.

As a kid Doni was obsessed with ninjas and kung fu movies. He and his brother took up taekwondo—there was no ninja school in Sherman, Texas. Classes were expensive, especially considering their parents’ tenuous employment status and fondness for alcohol. The family lived like “white-trash gypsies,” Blair writes, adding that he got good at moving furniture at three in the morning.

The Blair kids loved taekwondo, but the family just couldn’t afford classes. Doni walked away from martial arts. Thirty years later, he’s walking back.

“I’m not a kid anymore,” he writes. “I’m a middle-aged man trying to come to grips with being a middle-aged man. I’m not as fast as I used to be. It takes longer for the injuries to heal. I have to eat more bran.”

Doni discovers the road to black belt is rough and, well, weird. He meets martial seekers of every sort. He has run-ins with a teenage savant who seems determined to break the author’s leg. He drives a van full of seven-year-olds for the dojang’s after-school program. They puke everywhere.

Even If It Kill Meis smart and funny, introspective and irreverent. It blends rock and roll and taekwondo—two of the coolest things in the world.

This book, the fourth in the Detective Sam Reeves series, is filled with the action Loren Christensen readers have come to expect. Himself a Vietnam veteran and a retired police officer, Christensen has the credentials to offer up scenes that are beyond fiction. The eye-opening truth is the action and the angst Sam experiences are taken from real-life incidents—only the names have been changed to protect the innocent.

Portland, Oregon, police detective Sam Reeves has earned a reputation for being a magnet for trouble. Even for a cop he’s been in the middle of too much conflict for any sane man’s taste. He’s had run-ins with crazed psychopaths, Vietnamese mafia, Vietnamese mafia, again, and white supremacists. People think shooting a gun is just part of a cop’s day and he moves on with his life—just like in the movies. But it isn’t like that, and the ghosts of Sam’s past continue to haunt him.

When Mai, the incredibly sensuous martial artist Eurasian beauty, the love of his life, returns to Portland, Sam feels as though the excrement storm is finally over. He has no idea what awaits him.

The adventure starts on a beautiful day at an outdoor shopping mall and continues into San Francisco. Sam’s father, Samuel, a martial art master of the Temple of Ten Thousand Fists, and his best friend, a Vietnamese man named Tex, come for a visit and to meet the long-estranged brother of his recently deceased grandmaster, Shen Lang Rui. A road trip to San Francisco, what could go wrong?

How about everything?

An in-depth look into the physics behind martial arts.

• Momentum is for knocking people over
• Energy is for breaking bones and causing pain
• A haymaker travels 3.14159 times farther than a jab
• You are only an “object” when you are rigid

Fight Like a Physicist blends inquiry, skepticism, and irreverent humor—all while punching holes in myth and mysticism. Highlights include

• Making physics your “unfair advantage,” in the ring and on the street
• Examining center of mass, pi, levers, wedges, angular momentum, and linear momentum for martial artists
• Reducing traumatic brain injury in contact sports
• Exposing the illusion of safety provided by gloves and helmets
• Overturning conventional wisdom on compliance during an assault
• Busting up Hollywood action clichés

Fight Like a Physicist reads like a manifesto on the rational practice of martial arts. It’s intelligent, fun, and dangerous—and nothing short of iconoclastic.

In the course of a single week, everything Sam Reeves believed in, everything he knew, everyone he trusted, all would be put on the line. For a family he never knew he had.

Detective Sam Reeves, a 34-year-old martial arts instructor, has a solid fifteen-year record as a good police officer with the Portland Police Department. For the first time, Sam is forced to take a life in the line of duty and despite the findings of "good shoot" he struggles to recuperate psychologically from the killing. Facing up to his fears Sam returns to work and then within days is forced to fire his weapon again— killing two more people.

With his spirit almost broken, Sam meets a stranger…a man who claims to be his father. "Impossible", Sam reasons—his father died in a North Vietnamese prison camp…a long time ago.

This odd man, named Samuel, is as convincing as he is quirky and is revealed to be a phenomenal martial artist, the likes of which Detective Sam Reeves has never encountered. This 'Samuel' comes out of nowhere, equipped with a family in Vietnam and a daughter named Mai who is about to graduate from Portland State University.

With a series of interlocked events of violence: a revenge-seeking uncle, the destruction of his martial arts school, his new father's connection to some lethal Vietnamese outlaws, Sam's life spirals into a dreadful new direction. This high-octane martial arts thriller will have you gripped from the start.

You'll never complain about a hard week again.

Effective Techniques for all Martial Arts Styles

Chin Na is the controlling art of Chinese Kung Fu and is a part of many non-Chinese martial styles. The application of Chin Na can be applied to any empty hand fighting discipline.

Chin Na in Ground Fighting explores the use of joint locks, pressure points and bone displacement techniques for actual fighting encounters that have landed on the ground. The material in this book concentrates on: holding techniques which are capable of immobilizing an opponent with a limited danger of counter-attack, the principles and theory of these holds, the identification and use of pressure points for offensive and defensive purposes.

Over the last twenty-two years as a street policeman (Vancouver, B.C.), I have come to realize the acute deficiencies of Karate as a defensive art, or more practically, as a controlling art; as my chosen vocation demands. For myself, Chin Na was like a snap-on tool, allowing me to adapt my martial arts ability to suit the highly balanced needs of personal self-protection with controlling those I was empowered to arrest. - from the Preface.

• General history of Chin Na and Ground fighting styles.
• Positional changes for ground fighting.
• An introduction to meridian theory.
• A systematic look at joint locks (arm, legs, neck and body).

Asian scholar and black belt artist Connor Burke labors as a deshi—a student under the tutelage of a master warrior— a practice that draws him into the execution-style murder of a Japanese businessman in Brooklyn. Connor’s brother, an officer in the NYPD, enlists him to decipher the strange calligraphic writing left by the victim at the crime scene. The enigmatic message leads Connor to the lethal samurai heritage of a mysterious martial arts sensei, the foreboding world of a Tibetan clairvoyant, and finally the unknown wilderness of an elite mountain temple—where Connor’s deadliest challenge awaits.

Originally published in 1983, this authoritative work has been the guide for thousands of Taekwondo Black Belts as they advanced in their training. Whether your training is for self-defense, forms competition, or for preparation for Olympic games, this newly revised edition provides beginner/intermediate to advance level training to assist you on your journey in Taekwondo.

Contents include:

• History, Philosophy, and Meditation.
• Hand and Foot Techniques.
• Sparring Techniques.
• Self-defense Techniques.
• Breaking Techniques.
• Nine Black Belt Forms – required for promotion by the World Taekwondo Federation, and used in sanctioned international Taekwondo competitions.
• Eight Taegeuk Forms – required for promotion of all color belts and 1st dan black belt, and used in sanctioned international Taekwondo competitions.
• Rules and regulations of the World Taekwondo Federation including sparring and poomsae competitions.

The popularity of Taekwondo is ever increasing. This is apparent in the tens of millions of practitioners worldwide, and by the inclusion of Taekwondo in the summer Olympic games. With all its popularity, it is paramount that the art be handed down in a clear, knowledgeable, and sustainable way - this book does just that.

Massage is one of the essential foundations of Traditional Chinese Medicine. Tui Na, literally "Push Grab" has been practiced by Chinese martial artists, Qigong practitioners and healers for thousands of years. Specializing in injury repair and curing illness, Tui Na massage can also maintain your health by adjusting your Qi in order to flow smoothly. It will increase your Qi and blood circulation in particular areas or throughout your entire body, removing blockages and stagnations caused by injuries, exercise and/or aging. Tui Na massage is also a wonderful way to relieve stress and recover from a hard day on the job or a tough workout.

Chinese Tui Na Massage is systematic, concise, practical and easy to read. Originally published in China, this re-edited edition (the 4th book in our Practical TCM series) provides both theory and practical techniques.

• Prevent illness by improving Qi and blood flow.
• Recover quickly from fatigue, aches, and soreness.
• Repair injuries, relieve stress and physical tension.
• Ideal for professional therapists, martial artists and anyone with an active lifestyle.

QIGONG EXERCISES CAN HELP HEAL AND PREVENT ARTHRITIS

It is likely that 1 out of 7 of us will be afflicted with arthritis in our lifetime. Healthy joints are the key to pain-free movement, and qigong can help to promote healthy joints.

Although Western medicine has made great progress in treating Arthritis, it has limited success in actually healing it; rather focusing more on relieving pain and inflammation.

Over the past four thousand years, traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) has developed many methods to treat arthritis, including qigong exercises, acupuncture, massage, and herbal treatments. By doing qigong exercises, you can effectively treat many types of arthritis and rebuild the strength of your joints, which is the root of true healing.

This book introduces qigong exercises that have been successfully used in China to treat arthritis. It begins with general concepts of Qigong, a summary of arthritis according to both Western and Eastern medicine, an explanation of how qigong treats arthritis, and finally gentle qigong exercises you can use to help prevent, treat and heal arthritis.