Every
once in a while, you are in a situation to say or think “he (or she) just beat
me to the punch”, and in a good way…no bleeding noses or anything. You know,
when it feels great to find out that there is someone else out there who
happens to be on the same page as you are in certain regards. I have had that
sort of experience recently.
A
lot of people over the years have asked when I am going to write a book on
martial arts. Admittedly, I did entertain the idea but could not pin down the
exact topic to approach, so this blog was an attempt to somehow compensate for
that. Well, someone else wrote that book!
I
first heard of Chad McBroom a few years back, as one of the regional
representatives for the Libre Fighting System, one of the most dynamic and
popular modern fighting systems, especially focusing on the use of knives.
Regardless of that, McBroom is a practitioner of high level in a vast variety
of other martial and combative methods as well, and his book Solving
the Enigma: Insights into Fighting Models offers excellent insights
into the fundamental principles that that will make or break any particular
fighting style.
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| Get it, read it! |
In
the days when pretty much everybody is involved in some kind of cross-training,
reading this book should be almost mandatory, depending on your goals in
training. But even if you are into it just for fun, having this information
could be invaluable in shedding light on some important aspects of training
that may not even cross your mind. If you have read this blog previously, you
probably have noted that, as opposed to some many people concerned with WHAT
and HOW of martial arts, I am almost always pondering the WHY of many training
approaches. So, if you are wondering about the latter question, Solving the Enigma will do just that –
provide solid answers to help the readers and practitioners understand the
inner working of their chosen system, no matter which one it could be.
The
book dissects all the relevant factors that dictate the functioning of any
martial art, from the geographical origin, through designated effect, to impact
of garments/armor etc. Once you have understood those (and other) aspects, it
is much easier to figure out what is the right fighting school for you, or
which ones would mix and match well or not at all. Now, we are not looking at a
huge elaboration here, there is about 80 pages of text and pictures, but the
material is really in line with the goal of McBroom's work – distill the
fundamentals and make them work.
If
you are wondering whether it works, just take a look at the different martial
methods that the author has managed to fuse and teach under his banner of Comprehensive Fighting Systems. Of
course, the mere list of systems he trained in would be meaningless if it weren’t
for the fact that McBroom happens to teach his stuff successfully to the number
of professionals who rely on it in their line of work.
Whatever
your motives for being involved with any sort of fighting training, do yourself
a favor and read this book. It will make the pieces of the puzzle fit much
faster, thus making your training that much enjoyable and meaningful.
