"Essential Book of Martial Arts Kicks" by Marc De Bremaeker and Roy Faige. A Review

Essential Book of Martial Arts Kicks: 89 Kicks from Karate, Taekwondo, Muay Thai, Jeet Kune Do, and Others [DVD Included]Essential Book of Martial Arts Kicks: 89 Kicks from Karate, Taekwondo, Muay Thai, Jeet Kune Do, and Others [DVD Included] by Marc De Bremaeker
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

When I first started martial arts several years ago I couldn't figure out why the instructor paid such detail to the way I kicked, the exact placement, chambering, execution and timing. It wasn't until I entered my first sparring match that I began to recognize that sloppy kicks do little more than annoy, but well executed kicks deliver a wallop. Now as a second degree black I strive to develop better kicks. So I was delighted when I picked up a copy of Marc De Bremaeker's and Roy Faige's satisfying 256 page manual "Essential Book of Martial Arts Kicks," accompanied with an instructional DVD, from the local public library. As the authors note, this "book is not a "how to" book for the neophyte, but a reference work for the experienced martial artist" (8).

This is one installment in a series of works meant to focus the karateka on specific levels of kicks. "Essential Book of Martial Arts Kicks" takes six basic kicks and moves around them into various deliveries and styles. For example, the front kick is expanded from the primary, simple front kick to the heel front kick to the phantom groin kick and beyond. De Bremaeker and Faige have poured a lot of thought into the numerous variations giving the reader a total of eighty nine well developed kicks. The photographs are clear and crisp, the directional sketches are sharp and straightforward, and the explanations are intelligible and explicit. The authors have also taken great pains in describing and demonstrating the self-defense possibilities of each kick.

"Essential Book of Martial Arts Kicks," and the accompanying DVD, is a must-have for any martial artist who is serious about sharpening their skills. If you are a seasoned martial artist or an instructor, this volume will help boost your delivery and enrich your training. If you run a school, this manuscript would make a great addition to your collection of books to be lent out. I was so gratified by what I saw in this handbook that I returned it to the public library and purchased my own copy. I recommend you do the same.


View all my reviews

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

"Was America Founded as a Christian Nation?" (Rev. Ed.) by John Fea. A Review

Image
  John Fea is a professor of history at Messiah University in Mechanicsburg, PA. A university founded in 1909 by the Brethren in Christ Church. He originally published "Was America Founded as a Christian Nation? A Historical Introduction" in 2011, and it was revised in 2016. This 328-page paperback is packed full with Colonial and American history, drawing from original sources to answer that question. It is a book written "for the historically minded and thoughtful reader who is looking for help in sorting" out this question, avoiding polemics (xix). Since we live in a sound-bite culture, Fea recognizes that it is difficult to have a sustained dialogue on this topic, but he makes a valiant effort toward having that sustained dialogue. The book reads fairly straightforward, and doesn't seem to get bogged down in the contentious mudpuddles or bogs. In the end, Fea seems to get his point across. To answer the reigning question if America was founded as a Christian...
Read more

Union with Christ - An Application

Image
  (This was my weekly letter to my congregation on Wednesday, 21 February 2024) This morning in my devotional reading, I was working through 1 Corinthians 8. Though I’ve read these words a huge number of times over the years, today one verse caused me to stop and take stock.  Paul wrote, “ Thus, sinning against your brothers and wounding their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ ” (1 Corinthians 8:12). What struck me is a couple of things. First, in God’s saving work, we are – by grace alone – united (hitched, bonded, ingrafted) to Christ so much so, that what happens to us happens to him, and what is his becomes ours (think of Galatians 2:20, for example). As Sinclair Ferguson put it, “through union with Christ all that is his by incarnation becomes ours through faith” (“The Christian Life,” 110). Let that percolate in your heart for a while. Your fear, anxiety, tears, and so forth, he feels. And his “ Peace, be still ” is yours. Second, the way we treat one an...
Read more

"Ah, Lord! We are Animated by Anger and Anxiety, Fear and Fury..."

Image
I hesitate to put this out there because of the combative environment we are in at present. But I think some souls will take courage from this, and some will also join with me as we get to the end of this little composition. I am struck by the words of God in Zechariah 8. As he rehearses the waywardness and faithlessness of his people in the past, he clearly declares that he " set every man against his neighbor " (8:10). That got me thinking long ago. I started putting the pieces together and realized that one of God's acts of judgment is division, setting a man against his neighbor. That's what happened when he divided his people into the northern tribes and southern tribes (see 1 Kings 11:26-40). Because of Solomon's turning aside, allowing his wives to turn his heart away from the God of his father, David, the Lord brings about a rift in God's people. And this pattern of divisive judgment runs throughout Scripture. On the other hand, truthful unity is the g...
Read more