Profusely illustrated with over 1600 photos, this historical and highly informative publication is destined to become a classic and valuable resource on the Warrior Arts of the Philippines. Featuring in-depth biographies, exclusive personal insights, and detailed combative applications, this exclusive collection by acclaimed Filipino martial arts expert, teacher, and writer, Rey Galang, presents the priceless legacy and cultural treasures of the manifold Filipino martial arts.
Discover the history, strenghs, and the secrets of six of the foremost systems in Philippine combat arts: Balintawak Eskrima, kali Ilustrisimo, Lameco Eskrima, Lightning Scientific Arnis, Modern Arnis and San Miguel Eskrima. Relive and experience the journeys of warriors past and present through the interviews and writings of the eminent masters and disciples of these celebrated combat arts.
Spotlight customer reviews:
Customer Rating: Summary: A must!!! Comment: I can say without a shadow of a doubt that Rey Galang is now my favorite author on FMA subjects. In this book, just in "Masters of the Blade", he did a superb job of giving an excellent presentation of several chosen styles and their most respected exponents. This book is less "techically oriented" than the MOB book, i.e. there is more history and philosophy explined, as well as some methodology of training in various styles, while in the MOB book, every chapter featured an excellent training section too. Still, this is not a bad thing at all, cause like this one gets inspired in another way. I would even say that Mr. Galang has succeded in making the reader feel the "breath of old times" of FMA. After reading the conclusion, I can only regret that some of the people who were approached for the book did not take the opporunity to be part of something so good, but that again, nothing prevents me from hoping there might be the Part II... nad, just to make sure that there can still be improvements, I think that it might be better to skip someone from being presetned alltogether, than doing it like in the case of the late Sonny Umpad. Customer Rating: Summary: Great historical perspective of FMA Comment: Having trained mostly in Japanese martial arts I was not very familiar with Filipino styles. This book gives a very good overview of both the different styles and the people instrumental in their development. Some of the photo sequences are better than others but don't expect to learn any FMA from this book. That is not an especially negative comment because you can not learn most martial arts from a book. Its strong point is that it may help you decide which style you would like to explore and give you direction as you look for a person to study under. This book is also a very nice tribute to the people who have expanded and preserved their native arts.
