Best Karate, Vol.5: Heian, Tekki (Best Karate Series)

You need this book and all the books in this series if you are a Shotokan Karate student. Shotokan Karate is one of the most practiced styles of karate in the world, and this series of books by Sensei Nakayama will give you a fairly complete introduction to the style. These books were designed and distributed before we had dvds, and they were designed to provide a reference of correct technique in a world without enough qualified Shotokan Instructors. This volume provides the sequence and execution of six kata in correct form as taught by Sensei Nakayama before his untimely passing. The kata shown in this volume are the five Heian kata, and Tekki Shodan. They contain the core of Shotokan technique. This book will not teach you to how to perform these katas correctly; for that you need a qualified instructor. However, these volumes are an unmatched reference for Shotokan Karate students. This and all the other books in the series provide the best reference ever produced for the entire syllabus of Shotokan Karate. If there is a downside to this volume, it's that the book is light on bunkai, or the application of the kata. And the applications that are shown are fairly superficial. On the other hand, the primary goal of this series was to provide a reference that Shotokan students all over the world could address as to sequence and form. And the series is completely successful in that endeavor.

I have been practicing Shotokan karate for 10 years now. Even though I attend regular classes and seminars, as well as working out with very qualified karate-ka, I still find myself coming back to Master Nakayma's work in this very fine series of books. Of all the books on kata I have these books are superior. The instruction is straight forward and to the point. Tips are given to avoid common mistakes. Under the many pictures illustrating the kata is a stance diagram and short concise sentences to describe each move.Extremely well done by one of the finest karate masters.

I bought three books out of the "Best Karate" series and the two books about katas are simply outstanding. I use another book which describes the movements in words but it's just too hard to figure it out for some of the tricky movements. The "Best Karate" series has photo series for all katas plus additional information about what people should take care of for the individual katas (for instance, stance changes for Heian Shodan). That way, it's really "easy" to learn a kata on your own, just from the book.

As a Shodan myself, I found this book invaluable as I progressed through the levels. It is easy to understand and provides thorough detail for each kata. It helped me earn several AAU national championships.