Author: Jamie Dumas
Publisher: Crowood
ISBN: 1847975437
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 385
Book Description
Successful Boxing is the ultimate training manual for aspiring boxers. This indispensable resource shares tips and suggestions on how to improve skills and maximize performance. With inspiration and advice from World Champions Sergio Martinez, Saul Alvarez, Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. and a foreword by legendary World Champion Juan Manuel Marquez, using the information presented in this book will be just like receiving private sessions with a coach or top performer. These tips and training methods allow you to master the individual nuances of boxing to give you the winning edge. Whether you are new to the sport or a serious competitor, this book will help you reach the next level of skill development.This is the ultimate training manual for aspiring boxers. Superbly illustrated with 360 colour instructional and action photographs. Andy Dumas is a Canadian Boxing Coach who hosts and produces a number of TV fitness and sports shows and Jamie Dumas is a trainer of fitness instructors and develops workshops for fitness clubs.
Lords of the Ring
Author: Doug Moe
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 288
Book Description
Lords of the Ring revives the exciting era—now largely forgotten—when college boxing attracted huge crowds and flashy headlines, outdrawing the professional bouts. On the same night in 1940 when Joe Louis defended his heavyweight crown before 11,000 fans in New York's Madison Square Garden, collegiate boxers battled before 15,000 fans in Madison . . . Wisconsin. Under legendary and beloved coach John Walsh, the most successful coach in the history of American collegiate boxing, University of Wisconsin boxers won eight NCAA team championships and thirty-eight individual titles from 1933 to 1960. Badger boxers included heroes like Woody Swancutt, who later helped initiate the Strategic Air Command, and rogues like Sidney Korshak, later the most feared mob attorney in the United States. A young fighter from Louisville named Cassius Clay also boxed in the Wisconsin Field House during this dazzling era. But in April 1960, collegiate boxing was forever changed when Charlie Mohr— Wisconsin’s finest and most popular boxer, an Olympic team prospect—slipped into a coma after an NCAA tournament bout in Madison. Suddenly, not just Mohr’s life but the entire sport of college boxing was in peril. It was to be the last NCAA boxing tournament ever held. Lords of the Ring tells the whole extraordinary story of boxing at the University of Wisconsin, based on dozens of interviews and extensive examination of newspaper microfilm, boxing records and memorabilia.
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 288
Book Description
Lords of the Ring revives the exciting era—now largely forgotten—when college boxing attracted huge crowds and flashy headlines, outdrawing the professional bouts. On the same night in 1940 when Joe Louis defended his heavyweight crown before 11,000 fans in New York's Madison Square Garden, collegiate boxers battled before 15,000 fans in Madison . . . Wisconsin. Under legendary and beloved coach John Walsh, the most successful coach in the history of American collegiate boxing, University of Wisconsin boxers won eight NCAA team championships and thirty-eight individual titles from 1933 to 1960. Badger boxers included heroes like Woody Swancutt, who later helped initiate the Strategic Air Command, and rogues like Sidney Korshak, later the most feared mob attorney in the United States. A young fighter from Louisville named Cassius Clay also boxed in the Wisconsin Field House during this dazzling era. But in April 1960, collegiate boxing was forever changed when Charlie Mohr— Wisconsin’s finest and most popular boxer, an Olympic team prospect—slipped into a coma after an NCAA tournament bout in Madison. Suddenly, not just Mohr’s life but the entire sport of college boxing was in peril. It was to be the last NCAA boxing tournament ever held. Lords of the Ring tells the whole extraordinary story of boxing at the University of Wisconsin, based on dozens of interviews and extensive examination of newspaper microfilm, boxing records and memorabilia.
101 Rules to Being the Champion of Your Own Life
Author: Jolie Glassman
Publisher: Balboa Press
ISBN: 1982275960
Category : Self-Help
Languages : en
Pages : 302
Book Description
All of us fight. We fight for the things we believe in. We also fight for those we love, and at times, we need to fight against our toughest opponent—ourselves. In Life According to the Rules of Boxing, author Jolie Glassman offers a curriculum for life, discussing how to live your life like a boxer and be the champion fighter of your own life. You are the hero you have been waiting for; it is your future self. The guide presents 101 rules to live life like a boxer who trains to be a champion and becomes one. It offers tips and advice to help you become stronger, fitter, faster, better, and wiser in mind, body, and spirit. Each rule is paired with a famous boxer’s quote, and Glassman recommends “being with the rule,” reflecting on if you currently possess the skill or trait, and if not, how you will begin to incorporate it in your life and embody it. Life According to the Rules of Boxing is a catalyst to open your eyes to the choices champions make while inspiring you to do the same. This is a curriculum for living a powerful and successful life you love. “Inspired by her passion for boxing and love of service, Jolie Glassman has written a truly inspirational book, a blueprint for anyone that is ready to fight for a better life. She uses the words and disciplines of great fighters like myself, to train and motivate the mind into obtaining characteristics that boxers use for self-mastery, which include belief, discipline, repetition and desire. If you are ready to fight for a better life, than there’s no better coach than Jolie Glassman to have in your corner.” —Mike Tyson
Publisher: Balboa Press
ISBN: 1982275960
Category : Self-Help
Languages : en
Pages : 302
Book Description
All of us fight. We fight for the things we believe in. We also fight for those we love, and at times, we need to fight against our toughest opponent—ourselves. In Life According to the Rules of Boxing, author Jolie Glassman offers a curriculum for life, discussing how to live your life like a boxer and be the champion fighter of your own life. You are the hero you have been waiting for; it is your future self. The guide presents 101 rules to live life like a boxer who trains to be a champion and becomes one. It offers tips and advice to help you become stronger, fitter, faster, better, and wiser in mind, body, and spirit. Each rule is paired with a famous boxer’s quote, and Glassman recommends “being with the rule,” reflecting on if you currently possess the skill or trait, and if not, how you will begin to incorporate it in your life and embody it. Life According to the Rules of Boxing is a catalyst to open your eyes to the choices champions make while inspiring you to do the same. This is a curriculum for living a powerful and successful life you love. “Inspired by her passion for boxing and love of service, Jolie Glassman has written a truly inspirational book, a blueprint for anyone that is ready to fight for a better life. She uses the words and disciplines of great fighters like myself, to train and motivate the mind into obtaining characteristics that boxers use for self-mastery, which include belief, discipline, repetition and desire. If you are ready to fight for a better life, than there’s no better coach than Jolie Glassman to have in your corner.” —Mike Tyson
Boxing's Greatest Fighters
Author: Bert Randolph Sugar
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1461749816
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 369
Book Description
Easily the most enduring of all sports questions is "Who was/is the best . . . ?" Perhaps in no sport is the question more asked and argued over than in boxing. And in boxing perhaps none is more qualified to answer the question than Bert Randolph Sugar. In Boxing's Greatest Fighters, not only does the former publisher of Ring Magazine tell us who the best fighters were, he lists them in order. Could Sugar Ray Robinson have beaten Muhammad Ali? Could Sugar Ray Leonard have beaten Sonny Liston? The answer, most experts agree, would be "no." But what if, as Bert Sugar has done here, one were to take all the boxers and reduce them in the mind's eye to the same height, the same weight, and the same ring conditions? The answers would be quite different. And while some fans may express outrage that Rocky Marciano barely makes the top twenty, and Marvin Hagler staggers into the top seventy-five, others will nod eagerly when they read that Harry Greb and Benny Leonard were better than just about anybody. So whether you read Boxing's Greatest Fighters cover to cover, pick your favorites at random, or simply browse through the many rare photographs, "at the bell, come out arguing."
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1461749816
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 369
Book Description
Easily the most enduring of all sports questions is "Who was/is the best . . . ?" Perhaps in no sport is the question more asked and argued over than in boxing. And in boxing perhaps none is more qualified to answer the question than Bert Randolph Sugar. In Boxing's Greatest Fighters, not only does the former publisher of Ring Magazine tell us who the best fighters were, he lists them in order. Could Sugar Ray Robinson have beaten Muhammad Ali? Could Sugar Ray Leonard have beaten Sonny Liston? The answer, most experts agree, would be "no." But what if, as Bert Sugar has done here, one were to take all the boxers and reduce them in the mind's eye to the same height, the same weight, and the same ring conditions? The answers would be quite different. And while some fans may express outrage that Rocky Marciano barely makes the top twenty, and Marvin Hagler staggers into the top seventy-five, others will nod eagerly when they read that Harry Greb and Benny Leonard were better than just about anybody. So whether you read Boxing's Greatest Fighters cover to cover, pick your favorites at random, or simply browse through the many rare photographs, "at the bell, come out arguing."
Serenity
Author: Ralph Wiley
Publisher: U of Nebraska Press
ISBN: 9780803298163
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 258
Book Description
"This is a surprising book, a terrific book. It's not about boxing, but about an odd, demanding world in which boxing is the thread, the key to existence. Wiley deftly broadens the delineation of this world and its people. Perceptive reporting is the foundation and perceptive reporting is rare enough. Wiley enhances it with clear, quick writing laced with humor and with a sensitivity that lends brilliance to this impressive work."-Robert W. Creamer, author of Baseball and Other Matters in 1941. "Ralph Wiley, with Serenity, has produced an original book about the ring. . . . He can dig beneath the surface and show us what really happened in a bout: why Thomas Hearns, with too much faith in his powerful right hand, lost to Sugar Ray Leonard in their first match. . . . Or why Roberto Durn was acting out of prudence, not cowardice, when he quit in his second fight against Leonard. . . . Yet the book is not really about boxing. Boxing in Serenity is what T. S. Eliot, speaking of plot, called the meat a burglar brings to distract the watchdog. The book is really about growing up in a world where you had to defend yourself physically to survive."-New York Times. "Wiley's rapport with boxers is profound."-Publisher's Weekly. "Wiley is one writer who really knows his way around a boxing ring. . . . [He writes] with passion and understanding about complex, violent men and their oddly redemptive sport."-Booklist. Ralph Wiley is the author or coauthor of several works, most recently Born to Play: The Eric Davis Story.
Publisher: U of Nebraska Press
ISBN: 9780803298163
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 258
Book Description
"This is a surprising book, a terrific book. It's not about boxing, but about an odd, demanding world in which boxing is the thread, the key to existence. Wiley deftly broadens the delineation of this world and its people. Perceptive reporting is the foundation and perceptive reporting is rare enough. Wiley enhances it with clear, quick writing laced with humor and with a sensitivity that lends brilliance to this impressive work."-Robert W. Creamer, author of Baseball and Other Matters in 1941. "Ralph Wiley, with Serenity, has produced an original book about the ring. . . . He can dig beneath the surface and show us what really happened in a bout: why Thomas Hearns, with too much faith in his powerful right hand, lost to Sugar Ray Leonard in their first match. . . . Or why Roberto Durn was acting out of prudence, not cowardice, when he quit in his second fight against Leonard. . . . Yet the book is not really about boxing. Boxing in Serenity is what T. S. Eliot, speaking of plot, called the meat a burglar brings to distract the watchdog. The book is really about growing up in a world where you had to defend yourself physically to survive."-New York Times. "Wiley's rapport with boxers is profound."-Publisher's Weekly. "Wiley is one writer who really knows his way around a boxing ring. . . . [He writes] with passion and understanding about complex, violent men and their oddly redemptive sport."-Booklist. Ralph Wiley is the author or coauthor of several works, most recently Born to Play: The Eric Davis Story.
Tunney
Author: Jack Cavanaugh
Publisher: Ballantine Books
ISBN: 0307492168
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 498
Book Description
Among the legendary athletes of the 1920s, the unquestioned halcyon days of sports, stands Gene Tunney, the boxer who upset Jack Dempsey in spectacular fashion, notched a 77—1 record as a prizefighter, and later avenged his sole setback (to a fearless and highly unorthodox fighter named Harry Greb). Yet within a few years of retiring from the ring, Tunney willingly receded into the background, renouncing the image of jock celebrity that became the stock in trade of so many of his contemporaries. To this day, Gene Tunney’s name is most often recognized only in conjunction with his epic “long count” second bout with Dempsey. In Tunney, the veteran journalist and author Jack Cavanaugh gives an account of the incomparable sporting milieu of the Roaring Twenties, centered around Gene Tunney and Jack Dempsey, the gladiators whose two titanic clashes transfixed a nation. Cavanaugh traces Tunney’s life and career, taking us from the mean streets of Tunney’s native Greenwich Village to the Greenwich, Connecticut, home of his only love, the heiress Polly Lauder; from Parris Island to Yale University; from Tunney learning fisticuffs as a skinny kid at the knee of his longshoreman father to his reign atop boxing’s glamorous heavyweight division. Gene Tunney defied easy categorization, as a fighter and as a person. He was a sex symbol, a master of defensive boxing strategy, and the possessor of a powerful, and occasionally showy, intellect–qualities that prompted the great sportswriters of the golden age of sports to portray Tunney as “aloof.” This intelligence would later serve him well in the corporate world, as CEO of several major companies and as a patron of the arts. And while the public craved reports of bad blood between Tunney and Dempsey, the pair were, in reality, respectful ring adversaries who in retirement grew to share a sincere lifelong friendship–with Dempsey even stumping for Tunney’s son, John, during the younger Tunney’s successful run for Congress. Tunney offers a unique perspective on sports, celebrity, and popular culture in the 1920s. But more than an exciting and insightful real-life tale, replete with heads of state, irrepressible showmen, mobsters, Hollywood luminaries, and the cream of New York society, Tunney is an irresistible story of an American underdog who forever changed the way fans look at their heroes.
Publisher: Ballantine Books
ISBN: 0307492168
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 498
Book Description
Among the legendary athletes of the 1920s, the unquestioned halcyon days of sports, stands Gene Tunney, the boxer who upset Jack Dempsey in spectacular fashion, notched a 77—1 record as a prizefighter, and later avenged his sole setback (to a fearless and highly unorthodox fighter named Harry Greb). Yet within a few years of retiring from the ring, Tunney willingly receded into the background, renouncing the image of jock celebrity that became the stock in trade of so many of his contemporaries. To this day, Gene Tunney’s name is most often recognized only in conjunction with his epic “long count” second bout with Dempsey. In Tunney, the veteran journalist and author Jack Cavanaugh gives an account of the incomparable sporting milieu of the Roaring Twenties, centered around Gene Tunney and Jack Dempsey, the gladiators whose two titanic clashes transfixed a nation. Cavanaugh traces Tunney’s life and career, taking us from the mean streets of Tunney’s native Greenwich Village to the Greenwich, Connecticut, home of his only love, the heiress Polly Lauder; from Parris Island to Yale University; from Tunney learning fisticuffs as a skinny kid at the knee of his longshoreman father to his reign atop boxing’s glamorous heavyweight division. Gene Tunney defied easy categorization, as a fighter and as a person. He was a sex symbol, a master of defensive boxing strategy, and the possessor of a powerful, and occasionally showy, intellect–qualities that prompted the great sportswriters of the golden age of sports to portray Tunney as “aloof.” This intelligence would later serve him well in the corporate world, as CEO of several major companies and as a patron of the arts. And while the public craved reports of bad blood between Tunney and Dempsey, the pair were, in reality, respectful ring adversaries who in retirement grew to share a sincere lifelong friendship–with Dempsey even stumping for Tunney’s son, John, during the younger Tunney’s successful run for Congress. Tunney offers a unique perspective on sports, celebrity, and popular culture in the 1920s. But more than an exciting and insightful real-life tale, replete with heads of state, irrepressible showmen, mobsters, Hollywood luminaries, and the cream of New York society, Tunney is an irresistible story of an American underdog who forever changed the way fans look at their heroes.
Boxing Shadows
Author: W. K. Stratton
Publisher: University of Texas Press
ISBN: 029277351X
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 196
Book Description
Reaching the top in any sport requires a long, hard climb. But when you start with the baggage of years of family dysfunction and incarceration in a hellish mental hospital, the climb is especially steep. Yet even with such weights to carry, Anissa Zamarron won not one, but two, world championships in women's boxing. Her story, as dramatically intense as the Clint Eastwood film Million Dollar Baby, is one of tremendous courage and determination to overcome the odds against her as a Latina and as a woman working through mental illness and addiction—a fight in which Zamarron has been as powerful and successful as she has been in the boxing ring. In this compelling biography, acclaimed author W. K. "Kip" Stratton collaborates with Zamarron to tell the story of her unlikely rise to the pinnacle of women's boxing. With searing honesty, Zamarron describes how the chaotic breakup of her childhood family caused her to develop "demons" that drove her to aggressive behavior in school, an addiction to self-destructive habits, including cutting, and eventually to a corrupt for-profit mental hospital in which she spent eighteen months tied to a bed. She explains how boxing became her salvation as an adult; she learned how to turn her anger and aggression into motivation to train hard and excel at her sport, not only becoming the first woman to fight as a professional in a sanctioned fight in New York, but also fighting more ten-round fights than any other woman in history. A gripping account of Zamarron's 2005 upset win over Maribel Zurita to claim her second world championship caps the book.
Publisher: University of Texas Press
ISBN: 029277351X
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 196
Book Description
Reaching the top in any sport requires a long, hard climb. But when you start with the baggage of years of family dysfunction and incarceration in a hellish mental hospital, the climb is especially steep. Yet even with such weights to carry, Anissa Zamarron won not one, but two, world championships in women's boxing. Her story, as dramatically intense as the Clint Eastwood film Million Dollar Baby, is one of tremendous courage and determination to overcome the odds against her as a Latina and as a woman working through mental illness and addiction—a fight in which Zamarron has been as powerful and successful as she has been in the boxing ring. In this compelling biography, acclaimed author W. K. "Kip" Stratton collaborates with Zamarron to tell the story of her unlikely rise to the pinnacle of women's boxing. With searing honesty, Zamarron describes how the chaotic breakup of her childhood family caused her to develop "demons" that drove her to aggressive behavior in school, an addiction to self-destructive habits, including cutting, and eventually to a corrupt for-profit mental hospital in which she spent eighteen months tied to a bed. She explains how boxing became her salvation as an adult; she learned how to turn her anger and aggression into motivation to train hard and excel at her sport, not only becoming the first woman to fight as a professional in a sanctioned fight in New York, but also fighting more ten-round fights than any other woman in history. A gripping account of Zamarron's 2005 upset win over Maribel Zurita to claim her second world championship caps the book.
The Ultimate Book of Boxing Lists
Author: Bert Randolph Sugar
Publisher: Running Press Adult
ISBN: 0762441674
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 242
Book Description
What were the ten most fantastic knockouts in boxing history? Which pugilist had the greatest jab of all time? What were the sport's most intense rivalries? Who scored the biggest upsets in the sport's annals? Which fighters have the best nicknames? These questions and many others are answered in this bold collection of ranked lists from two of boxing's most popular commentators. Each list has an introductory paragraph followed by a number of ranked entries, with each entry featuring a brief explanation of ranking plus entertaining and enlightening background information. Also included are original lists contributed exclusive to this book by more than 25 top personalities from boxing and beyond, including Muhammad Ali, Joe Frazier, George Foreman, Oscar De La Hoya, Bernard Hopkins, and more.
Publisher: Running Press Adult
ISBN: 0762441674
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 242
Book Description
What were the ten most fantastic knockouts in boxing history? Which pugilist had the greatest jab of all time? What were the sport's most intense rivalries? Who scored the biggest upsets in the sport's annals? Which fighters have the best nicknames? These questions and many others are answered in this bold collection of ranked lists from two of boxing's most popular commentators. Each list has an introductory paragraph followed by a number of ranked entries, with each entry featuring a brief explanation of ranking plus entertaining and enlightening background information. Also included are original lists contributed exclusive to this book by more than 25 top personalities from boxing and beyond, including Muhammad Ali, Joe Frazier, George Foreman, Oscar De La Hoya, Bernard Hopkins, and more.
Cinderella Man
Author: Jeremy Schaap
Publisher: HMH
ISBN: 0547525834
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 341
Book Description
New York Times Bestseller: This true Depression-era story of a down-and-out fighter’s dramatic comeback is “a delight” (David Halberstam). James J. Braddock was a once promising light heavyweight. But a string of losses in the ring and a broken right hand happened to coincide with the Great Crash of 1929—and Braddock was forced to labor on the docks of Hoboken. Only his manager, Joe Gould, still believed in him. Gould looked out for the burly, quiet Irishman, finding matches for Braddock to help him feed his wife and children. Together, they were about to stage the greatest comeback in fighting history. Within twelve months, Braddock went from being on the relief rolls to facing heavyweight champion Max Baer, renowned for having allegedly killed two men in the ring. A brash Jewish boxer from the West Coast, Baer was heavily favored—but Braddock carried the hopes and dreams of the working class on his shoulders, and when he emerged victorious against all odds, the shock was palpable—and the cheers were deafening. In the wake of his surprise win, Damon Runyon dubbed him “Cinderella Man.” Against the gritty backdrop of the 1930s, Cinderella Man brings this dramatic all-American story to life, telling a classic David and Goliath tale that transcends the sport. “A punchy read with touches of humor.” —The New York Times “A wonderful, thrilling boxing story, and simultaneously a meticulous look at Depression life.” —Jimmy Breslin
Publisher: HMH
ISBN: 0547525834
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 341
Book Description
New York Times Bestseller: This true Depression-era story of a down-and-out fighter’s dramatic comeback is “a delight” (David Halberstam). James J. Braddock was a once promising light heavyweight. But a string of losses in the ring and a broken right hand happened to coincide with the Great Crash of 1929—and Braddock was forced to labor on the docks of Hoboken. Only his manager, Joe Gould, still believed in him. Gould looked out for the burly, quiet Irishman, finding matches for Braddock to help him feed his wife and children. Together, they were about to stage the greatest comeback in fighting history. Within twelve months, Braddock went from being on the relief rolls to facing heavyweight champion Max Baer, renowned for having allegedly killed two men in the ring. A brash Jewish boxer from the West Coast, Baer was heavily favored—but Braddock carried the hopes and dreams of the working class on his shoulders, and when he emerged victorious against all odds, the shock was palpable—and the cheers were deafening. In the wake of his surprise win, Damon Runyon dubbed him “Cinderella Man.” Against the gritty backdrop of the 1930s, Cinderella Man brings this dramatic all-American story to life, telling a classic David and Goliath tale that transcends the sport. “A punchy read with touches of humor.” —The New York Times “A wonderful, thrilling boxing story, and simultaneously a meticulous look at Depression life.” —Jimmy Breslin
Secrets of Shaolin Temple Boxing
Author: Robert W. Smith
Publisher: Tuttle Publishing
ISBN: 1462903274
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 73
Book Description
Learn the secrets of Shaolin Temple boxing also known as Shaolin Kung Fu with this illustrated matrtial arts guide. Shaolin Temple boxing is the father of all boxing forms in China and is a close ancestor of Japanese karate. Despite the widespread study of Shaolin kung fu, however, the true origins and history of this exciting martial art have been obscured by wildly fanciful myths and legends that have arisen over the centuries, leading martial-arts authority Robert W. Smith to remark, "There are no good books on Shaolin Temple boxing. There are only varying degrees of poor." In Taiwan, however, Smith had the good fortune to discover a short, anonymous work in Chinese that he believed revealed the essence of Shaolin. This kung fu book is the English version of that text. Abundantly and attractively illustrated, it is a fascinating account of the history of an ancient martial art, as well as a concise martial arts manual explaining the fundamental philosophy and techniques of Shaolin Temple boxing.
Publisher: Tuttle Publishing
ISBN: 1462903274
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 73
Book Description
Learn the secrets of Shaolin Temple boxing also known as Shaolin Kung Fu with this illustrated matrtial arts guide. Shaolin Temple boxing is the father of all boxing forms in China and is a close ancestor of Japanese karate. Despite the widespread study of Shaolin kung fu, however, the true origins and history of this exciting martial art have been obscured by wildly fanciful myths and legends that have arisen over the centuries, leading martial-arts authority Robert W. Smith to remark, "There are no good books on Shaolin Temple boxing. There are only varying degrees of poor." In Taiwan, however, Smith had the good fortune to discover a short, anonymous work in Chinese that he believed revealed the essence of Shaolin. This kung fu book is the English version of that text. Abundantly and attractively illustrated, it is a fascinating account of the history of an ancient martial art, as well as a concise martial arts manual explaining the fundamental philosophy and techniques of Shaolin Temple boxing.