I took a week off posting for skiing in Austria.

Can books or videos assist in your martial arts training?

For me, I learn by watching and having feedback from another person. Some people can pick up physical movement from videos and reproduce it.

I am not sure that anyone can really learn physical martial arts from a book.

I have read many books and seen many videos, and I present below some of the most memorable ones.

This was the first book I bought:

The book attempted to encompass all martial arts commonly encountered in the UK. It was pretty good and had some fantastic line drawings. It even mentioned how to do certain ‘chi’ tricks, such as the ‘un-bendable arm’, and as with all martial art tricks, it boils down to physics and anatomy, although in this case it’s quite complicated vectors and muscle recruitment.

Another general martial arts book around when I started training was ‘Way of the Warrior’, which was based on a BBC TV series. You can see the TV series on YouTube.

In a previous post, I already mentioned Geoff Thompson’s ‘Real Self Defence’ book and Russell Stutely’s ‘BAR’ videos.

In my opinion, the best Bagua books I have, mainly because they align with the style I study, are:

I don’t recommend any karate books or videos, though I have enjoyed some of Iain Abernethy’s works, as he strays into more realism than typical mainstream karate authors. I believe the Surrey Kyushindo area once hired him to conduct a seminar in the early 2000s.

If you’re intrigued by the ‘unbendable arm’, then look at this video.

https://youtu.be/-CzgDX9lGc0

When I show this in class, I extend my arm onto the other person’s shoulder and have them pull down at my elbow with both arms. The first time with a clenched fist, which makes bending easy; the second time with an open hand, which keeps the arm straight under their pressure.