OK, so I have another book review here for you guys, this time it’s Karate Basics by Robin Rielly.
You may or may not be up with my martial arts background (explained in my about section), but I’m not a Karate guy. My training is primarily Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, Muay Thai and a small 3-year stint in Aikido. I have studied Karate for about 6 months and been surrounded by it but my experience is actually quite limited.
Which is good, because this is an excellent book for the Karate beginner or someone about to jump into the art.
It follows a basic formula
When I opened this book, I found the style and general format almost identical to Aikido Basics, which I reviewed a while ago. It’s skimmable and organized into clean chapters and sections so you can turn to it as a resource at any time.
Even the covers are similar!
This was a good thing to me, as I expected a similar level of quality in the format.
not only is each section somewhat self-contained, but visually broken up and represented with imagery so it’s quite clear what each section is about. So if I ever want to refer back and find any one thing, I can -0 which I highly appreciate in a book as I don’t want to re-read it, cover to cover, just to get some info.
It has quality information
Naturally, this book introduces Karate to the beginner and goes into formalities, movements, and Katas to help you improve your Karate knowledge outside of training. It does stress that you can’t learn the art (or one of its variations) straight out of the book, as it is meant to supplement your training.
I really enjoyed reading about the history and philosophy of Karate in this book. Too few of us actually know how Karate began. If you want to be proficient in a style it pays to know the history if you want to be a true and knowledgeable martial artist or black belt.
The beginner aspects of this book are pretty comprehensive and useful. The cover things like:
- Picking a quality school
- Attending your first Class
- Safety
- Basic Movements and Stances
This all is explained quite thoroughly with photographs demonstrating some of the movements as you go.
It’s a handy book for any striker
This book doesn’t just describe strict movement patterns but touches on concepts of striking which should be learned by anyone who wants to learn how to punch, kick or block.
This book covers relaxation and muscle tension for maximum impact, along with alignment and general principles so you can better understand how to punch harder and safer to avoid injury. They also expand on the mental state of mind and toughness, which are things not exclusive to karate practice.
Some of the training methods and ideas can be easily adapted to other styles and arts and they are covered quite well here including a variety of sparring methods.
Overall, it’s a handy resource
This book covers so much but keeps itself an easy resource to skip through.
If you study Karate or are considering it this book will give you some insight that can help you move forward more efficiently as a beginner, and become a reference as an intermediate or advanced practitioner (there’s a section on becoming an instructor too!).
Overall the book is exactly as the title suggests – “Karate Basics”.
It’s not groundbreaking, but it is a solid foundation or fundamental knowledge packaged up quite nicely. It’s very handy.
If you’re looking for a copy of the book, you can get it on Amazon.
If you’ve read this book and would like to add your own comments, please do below. Thanks for reading!
