Читать книгу Zen Shaolin Karate - Nathan Johnson - Страница 8

Foreword

by Steve Rowe

Chief Instructor, Shi Kon Karate Kai

Contributing Editor, Traditional Karate magazine

This book represents a milestone in the martial arts; it contains all the necessary ingredients to become a classic. Nathan Johnson has poured his heart and soul and a significant part of his training life into this work. He has 'burned the midnight oil' with his research into historical martial art texts and worn out the bodies and patience of his training partners in his quest to produce a generation of well-balanced karate-ka (karate practitioners).

The concepts contained within these pages are well researched and practical. They make sense of many of the kata (preset solo martial art forms) movements practiced by modern karate-ka for no other reason—until now—than that they were 'traditional' or with applications that have obviously been made up after the original ones were lost. The whole of this text is imbued with the wisdom of the ancient masters and Nathan manages to communicate these precepts in such a way that they reach out from the pages and touch the heart as well as the mind. That in itself makes this book a classic.

His research has broken all the barriers between the different nationalities and their prejudiced ways of presenting their own martial arts. In our workshops we have had people from many different martial backgrounds 'pushing hands' together under Nathan's guidance, exploring their similarities instead of their differences. It really does herald a new era where, instead of jealously guarding their 'secrets' from successive generations and allowing their art to disintegrate, modern instructors are sharing and learning from each other to improve their systems and then documenting them so they are not lost to those wishing to follow the way in the future.

Read this book with an open heart and an open mind and just let the philosophy wash over you, because the secret of all martial art technique lies in the weight of the practitioner's heart, not his hands or feet.