the japanese short staff

[autrelle]

hello there all...
i just picked up a copy of the aforementioned book by Don Zier and Tom Lang. i recognized all of the terminology in the book from Saito Sensei aikijo, but the demonstration is indeed not Iwama style. :nono: are these two guys legit, or have i wasted 13 bucks? in the book, they are not claiming to represent any specific martial art that uses the jo, but presenting an introduction to the basic methods. surely they could have done just that in regard to a specific jo art. i did a search under their names and nothing came up so i was hoping that one of you koryu peeps could shed more light on this book and and the authors.

merci

[Walker]

See thread:
http://204.95.207.136/vbulletin/showthread.php?s=&threadid=10041

[Tony Peters]

Most of that book looks like Jo work learned before the Tohei breakup. My Aikido sensei is/was from the same time and his weapons work has a similar flavor. Dave Lowrey's book on the Jo is better but I wouldn't call it a waste of money to have the "Don Zier and Tom Lang" book just another book in the Budo Library

[Chuck.Gordon]

>i just picked up a copy of the aforementioned book by Don Zier
>and Tom Lang. i recognized all of the terminology in the book
>from Saito Sensei aikijo, but the demonstration is indeed not
>Iwama style. are these two guys legit, or have i wasted 13
>bucks? in the book, they are not claiming to represent any
>specific martial art that uses the jo, but presenting an >introduction to the basic methods. surely they could have
>done just that in regard to a specific jo art. i did a search
>under their names and nothing came up so i was hoping that
>one of you koryu peeps could shed more light on this book
>and and the authors.

I know Tom and have trained a bit with him recently. He's a fine budoka (Mainly Danzan Ryu jujutsu) who had a long relationship with Zier. Tom speaks highly of Zier and I trust Tom's judgement in this.

As for a generic intro, that's the same thing Dave Lawry did with his books on jo and bokken ... nothing wrong with that, I think.

Now, if Tom and Don had said this was an intro to Shinto Muso Ryu and then done something completely different, there'd be grounds for criticism.

As is, I think the value of the book will lie in what you do with it. If you can glean something of use, then it's well-spent money. If not, take it to the used book store and let someone else have a crack at it.

I found the jo work in the book fairly comfortable and familiar, but definitely not the same jo I've seen in most aikido dojo and certainly not SMR jo. Nonetheless, I think the principles and techniques are fine as (as they intended) a generic intro to using the jo.

As for legitimacy, I think someone else posted a link to Tom's message about the SMR book Zier published (I have that one as well and am eager to compare it to an old volume on SMR a friend has). Tom is a lurker here and can vouch for himself, but having spent some hours on the mat and over good food and beer, I found no reason to doubt him and plenty of reasons to like and respect him.

Chuck

[autrelle]

merci! thanks everyone!

truly