Archive for Buying guides
Barry Eisler’s The Detachment
Posted by: | CommentsJust a quick head’s up:
Barry Eisler’s new book, “The Detachment” just came out on Kindle. For those who’ve been a fan of the John Rain series for a while, you’ll be glad to hear Rain returns in this book. If you’ve read the entire series, you know why I like it a lot except for the part that has bike messengers in it, but I digress…
If you haven’t, here’s a short intro:
John Rain is a half-Japanese, half-American assassin specialized in making it look his victims died of natural causes. That means he travels the world, goes to exotic places, meets interesting people and then kills them.
In the books you get tons of action, trade-craft and as Barry calls it, “steamy sex scenes”. :-) The fight scenes are also fun to read as Barry tries to make his characters as true to life as possible which means they all fight dirty. Gotta love it!
So if you haven’t read any of Barry’s work before, give this one a try on Kindle.
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Video update: Combat Sanshou
Posted by: | CommentsNext month, I’ll shoot the next part of my Combat Sanshou series. It’ll focus on the two main strategies and tactics I teach for the system. One of the things I will add to this new video is a couple scenarios. I have several in mind but wanted to ask you guys first:
Which type of attack would you like to see me cover in the new video? What kind of scenario do you find most interesting for an instructional video?
Just leave a comment here on this post and I’ll consider it. Of course, “Fight 27 ninjas!” type scenarios will be ignored. :-)
Thanks.
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Paladin Press special and blog update.
Posted by: | CommentsJust a quick post here.
First, Paladin Press is doing a special on their Scruffy Books. These are slightly damaged books they sell at a big discount. The damage is usually stuff your book gets anyway over the years: a small dent, a scratch, things like that. There are some great deals this time. Here are my favorite:
- Indonesian Fighting Fundamentals – The Brutal Arts Of The Archipelago by Bob Orlando
- Speed Training – How To Develop Your Maximum Speed For Martial Arts by Loren W Christensen
- Combatives For Street Survival – Hard-Core Countermeasures for High-Risk Situations by Kelly McCann
These are all great deals, especially Bob’s book which is a classic if you train in S-E-Asian arts.
Blog update
As you might have noticed, I haven’t blogged a lot the last week or two. Things have just been too hectic with work and a couple other things. I’ve been running around all over the place, coming home late at night, tired as hell. Those are not good conditions to write decent blog posts, so I preferred to not post at all over writing total crap.
Another aspect of that is that I sometimes have a lack of inspiration. This usually happens when work keeps me busier than usual and it seems my brain doesn’t have the energy to spare to give me some ideas for a blog post. I’ve learned over the years that I can force it if I want to. But the results are always mediocre at best. So I decided a while ago to give myself a reprieve every now and then to recharge my batteries. It works for me. So stay tuned for more posts!
E-book update
My E-book is still in limbo. I need certain papers from the US and Belgian IRS to avoid losing money when I publish it via Amazon. The problem is the red tape here on the Belgian end of things. It’s frustrating to see how long it takes but there’s nothing I can do to speed it up. It’s one of those “accept what you can’t change” things.
As soon as there’s progress on that front, I’ll let you all know.
Video shoot preparation
In July, I’ll be shooting two more videos with Paladin Press and I’m currently in preparation for that. This means considerably more training and re-writing the outline/script as I practice the material. That also eats up time I could otherwise spend here on my blog. But, the good thing is that I a) get more time to train, which I enjoy and b) the videos will be better for it.
So now you know why I haven’t posted as much lately. I’ll be back to my regular posting schedule in a few days.
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Martial Arts Buying Guide for the 2010 Holiday Season
Posted by: | CommentsIt’s that time of year again, when we all have to rush to stores and buy presents for people we love (and sometimes even for those we loathe). It’s not my favorite pass time but for my loved ones, it’s always easy: I have a year round wish-list. At any day of the year, you can ask me what kind of present I’d like and I can hand you a list.
I started doing this out of necessity because when asked, I always had a hard time figuring out what people should buy me as far as presents go (“a million bucks” wasn’t allowed they said…) So I started writing things on a list whenever I would see them and haven’t stopped since. When I get something from it or am no longer interested, I delete that entry. So my list is updated several times a month and is always filled with things I’d really like to have.
I realize not everybody is like this and inspiration can be hard to find, which is where this buying guide comes in. Though as a martial artist you’re actually spoiled for choice, here are some ideas for the coming holiday season.
Books
I love books. I can’t remember a time when I didn’t enjoy reading. If you’re like me, you’re in luck because there has never been a time when more books were available. And they’re so easy to order now, it’s just silly. Anyway, I’ll sum up a couple that are on my list (only martial arts ones, not the novels and related books).
The Key Muscles of Yoga, Scientific keys Volume I and Volume II
You might be going “Wuh?” right now but hear me out. These books offer some of the best anatomical illustrations I’ve ever seen. Whereas the first volume concentrates on the human body, the second volume looks at specific poses in Yoga.
The importance for martial artists is this: sooner or later, you’ll hit a brick wall in your training. One you can only get past by how much knowledge you have on human anatomy and function. These books are an amazing resource in that regard, especially if you’re a visual learner like me. The illustrations are so absolutely clear, you “get it” without a problem.
I saw the first volume at a friend’s house and was blown away by the quality. Just flat out awesome. The knowledge you gain from these books will definitely improve your martial arts training, simply because there is much overlap between yoga and martial arts.
If you’re serious about your training, I definitely recommend you invest in these two books. They aren’t the cheapest around, but well worth the price. Read More→
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Every day self defense carry
Posted by: | CommentsOn an e-mail list I’m on, there was a discussion about what your every day carry for self defense is. This is a topic of debate that you routinely find on the Internet. There are usually two camps:
- You can never carry enough weapons/ammo aka “Lock and load, boys! There’s no such thing as overkill!”
- Only carry a minimum for what you might need.
The funny thing on the list was this: a professional soldier, one who is active in a war zone and has seen the elephant, got his rant on about civilians who walk around trying to imitate an armory. I think he has a point. It’s fashionable these days to talk about carrying multiple knives and guns plus ammo because you might:
- Lose the knife so you can go for a back up. And when you lose that one you still have five more back ups to go to.
- You can throw the knife because you still have back ups.
- If your gun runs dry, you just grab another, no need to reload.
- If you do need to reload, you have tons of ammo on you.
As such, I don’t think these statements aren’t wrong per se. They seem logical and have a ring of common sense to them. But that still doesn’t mean they are right. Let’s take a look.
Truer words were never spoken.
Some basic assumptions.
Before I move on, I’ll make a couple of basic assumptions about you, dear reader. I admit up front, they will be off for some of you. If that’s the case, don’t get upset about what I’ll write next. But for the most of you, I’m willing to bet my Metallica vinyl record collection that I’m not too far off. Here goes: Read More→
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Open range
Posted by: | CommentsI just finished watching “Open Range” and really enjoyed it. The premise is pretty simple: A roaming cattle crew is pushed hard by a local rancher and everything goes downhill from there. I agree, not the most original story but it’s OK as far as Western’s go. The best part about this movie is its pace: the director takes his time to tell the story and even the gun fights aren’t fast-paced. Instead of Die Hard-type shoot outs, you get the messy gun fights that are a whole lot closer to real life than anything Bruce Willis does. It’s still a movie, of course, but I liked that touch.
There are also some other points I enjoyed seeing in a big Hollywood production:
- The violence isn’t glorified; it’s ugly.
- Kevin Costner’s character had PTSD and he doesn’t really enjoy killing but is good at it.
- Instead of waiting to get ambushed, the good guys go after the bad guys first. Good thinking.
- But instead of going in blindly, they think about it first. They question their own motives.
- This comes back a few times in the movie: the characters don’t just go in guns blazing but realize they’ll probably die if they do. So they ask themselves: is this worth it?
- The way Kevin Costner opens the big gun fight is excellent. I won’t spoil it for you but I liked it a lot.
- Once the dust settles, you see the aftermath: the wounded get hurried off, retribution, burials, the works. Like Animal says: violence doesn’t begin with the first punch and isn’t over after the last.
All in all, a pretty good movie for a rainy afternoon. Nothing spectacular but I had a good time watching events unfold. Oh yeah, there’s also Annete Bening to drool over. Personally, I think she looks great in it but that’s just me. Her portrayal of a strong, independent woman is good too. Even though she doesn’t get as much screen time as I would have liked.
Annette Bening, looking mighty fine.
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