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Daniel Sullivan
16th February 2009, 15:01
Hello,

I was wondering if anyone is familiar with the work of Darrell Max Craig. I own his work, 'The Heart of Kendo' and have borrowed some of his other works from friends.

As a kendoka, I find his work incredibly informative and helpful, giving many insights into both technique and the history of kendo and kenjutsu. I have owned The Heart of Kendo for about five years now, having purchassed it when I was still fairly new to kendo. I read it through when I first purchassed it and have since gone over it several times. I am in the process of reading it again and have much different perspective on kendo than I did in 2004. Each time I read it, I find that things that I had perhaps glossed over or thought that I had understood come to life with fresh meaning and detail.

I thought I'd share this here for any who are not familiar with him. Here is a link to his site. http://www.houstonbudo.com/

Thank you,

Daniel

dengle
17th February 2009, 15:47
Craig Sensei is one of the most unique teachers of budo I have ever encountered in th USA.
As one of, if not THE, first to officially represent a koryu in the U.S., he has other tremendous accomplishments. In addition to being a director of the Seishinkai Karate Union of Osaka, he was granted rather unique access to instructors and training inside the Tokyo Metro Police Dept and the Imperial Palace police dojo. Do yourself a favor and invite him to come and teach a seminar. You'll be amazed.

elder999
17th February 2009, 17:39
Have a look at This thread. (http://www.e-budo.com/forum/showthread.php?t=8453&highlight=Craig):rolleyes:

Daniel Sullivan
18th February 2009, 16:59
Thank you for the link, Aaron. I did read the tread in question, including some of the negative reviews.

I have never read Craig's iai book, nor his Jujutsu book (I certainly couldn't even evaluate that one, as I don't train in jujutsu and am unfamiliar with the ryus and its history).

I can only speak authoritatively on Heart of kendo, as I have devoured it. I read through his work, 'The way of Kendo and Kenjutsu: Soul of the Samurai' and was impressed with what I saw, though since it was borrowed, I had only a month to look it over.

I'm knowledgeable enough regarding kendo to spot a bad work on the subject when I see it, and the Heart of Kendo is definitely a very good and informative work.

Daniel

elder999
18th February 2009, 19:03
I'm knowledgeable enough regarding kendo to spot a bad work on the subject when I see it, and the Heart of Kendo is definitely a very good and informative work.

Daniel


That seems to be the concensus among kendoka-even ones who have other "negative" comments. There was another, more informative and quite rancorous thread, but it got 'trashed."

Chidokan
18th February 2009, 19:54
To write a book on any MA is quite a difficult task.. I know - I have been trying to do one for the last five years!
One problem is pitching it at the right level.. if you write for beginners, anyone who is above that level will see it as 'simple', pitch it for 8th dans and the general 'training population' just dont get anything out of it, although your high level guys will just say that it is correct, but nothing they didnt already know.... You can't win!:D
The kendo book to me seemed pitched at about sandan level, which should satisfy a lot of people, and is one of the better english language ones I have come across.
My own sensei (Iwata Norikazu) wrote five books on iai, and encourages us to take notes even now. It would be interesting to see if others do this, and whether or not they could write a book. My only reservation on writing a book is the fact that it then becomes open to abuse, in that any idiot can pick up the book and pretend to know about your ryu. But hey, these guys would come up with some ripoff scheme anyway!:laugh:

Daniel Sullivan
18th February 2009, 20:16
I used to work with a guy who was kind of athletic, but had no martial background aside from a little high school wrestling and a lot of watching WWF superstars. He was really into Ricky the Dragon Steamboat, so he picked up a years subscription to Blackbelt and combined everything he thought would be useful with his "extensive knowledge of wrestling" and called it some outlandish name. He even had an eigth dan certificate printed up at Kinkos and told people that he was an eighth degree blackbelt in this 'obscure art that few know about' and generally walked around acting tough.

We, his coworkers didn't really take him seriously because we had watched him go through the stages of creating this 'art' and knew that he'd made it up. He spent a lot of time showing off kicks and punches that he'd "created" but were just bad versions of stuff he'd seen in Enter the Ninja. But man did some of the customers think he was impressive when he'd drop that bit of info in the course of conversation! It was kind of weird, but since he never tried to teach it to anyone, we kind of perceived him as harmless.

It all was fine and good until he convinced himself that he'd "kick a**" at a karate tournament. He entered something. I don't know what it was or where it was, but he came in after a long weekend and looked like Mike Tyson had used him as a speedbag.

Very sad that he was able to delude himself into thinking that he was something that he wasn't.

Daniel

dengle
19th February 2009, 14:58
It sounds like a lot of people here on e-budo, especially some of those who like to trash talk Darrell Craig.
I'm glad you can appreciate the value in this book.
I own a copy of the original IAI book and I can say that by today's standard it's not so great. But at the time there was not much at all available so this book filled a void. Sure, it could have been better, but the other complaints are just coming from jealous people who pale in comparison to Craig Sensei and his accomplishments and they have nothing better to do and nothing to offer themselves.
As it's been said, if you're not the one carrying ball, no one is trying to tackle you.

Daniel Sullivan
19th February 2009, 20:50
Hello Don,

I kind of look at it like I look at guitar clinics and instructional videos (I used to work for Guitar Center).

Some very, very fine players have put out some very, very poor instructional videos and books. On the other hand some of the same guys that put out the poor ones put out better ones later.

Communicating via a print medium is very different from instructing students in person and from practicing your own skills. From what I have gathered from the linked thread, it sounds like his writing has improved as he has written more books and he is strongest in his kendo works.

No shame at all in that. I sure can't write a book that comprehensive. I doubt that many people can and do it well.

All that I can say is that the Heart of Kendo has been an invaluable resource to me, and the more I have progressed in my practice of kendo, the more I truely appreciate this book. I have a lot of very nice and wonderfully written martial arts books that I read through once in a while or refer to when I am looking for a quotable source. The Heart of Kendo is one of those rare and special gems that just keeps getting better every time I read it.

I have a few other books like that, one of which is a book on taekwondo kicking by Hee Il Cho and a very old book that I got as a kid by Jhoon Rhee. The rest of my MA books are good, but these three are real standouts.

Daniel

Chidokan
22nd February 2009, 12:26
if you like MA books, a really nice one is the translation of the yamauchi branch of MJER which also contains the original work as the other half. Nice job of translating, some interesting anecdotes etc...

http://budoguten.futagotrader.com/books/bookcontents/Muso%20Jikiden%20Eishin%20Ryu%20Yamauchi-ha/index.html

Freedom
20th March 2009, 15:53
Didn't he write the book on Mugai Ryu?

Coyne
20th March 2009, 18:31
I have his book on bunkai of okinawan kata called shihan-te and I thought it was very good and full of great ideas on the application of kata to self defense,I've never met him but i loved the book