Secret Fighting Arts of the World

Of course the techniques in the book are ridiculous. It is fiction, If you feel ripped off after reading this, you really need an emergency injection of humor. The stories are hilarious, well written, and hit at all the pretentiousness and delusions of the martial arts community. Great for yourself or a perfect gift.

If you thought this book was intended to be a serious book on martial arts, you were both right and wrong. When I first read the book as a teenaged martial artist in the early `60's, I was blown away by it and believed every word. It's underlying philosophy more than anything else about it influenced my early martial arts development. Then in about 1976-77, a Tai Chi friend of mine by the name of John Panter told me he thought that "John F. Gilbey" was probably a pen name for Robert W. Smith, Don Draeger, and some of the crowd Smith and Draeger hung out with in Asia. He guessed this based on the writing style and content that was similar to their other writings. Years later, Robert Smith came out and explained exactly how he and a group of friends (all senior martial artists including Draeger who were Westerners trained in Japan and China) got the idea of writing a spoof about the martial arts. They made up the name, "John F. Gilbey," and invented a personal history for the name that combined their actual martial arts credentials. The book turned out to be a great success, but not as they had planned. Unfortunately for them, so many people believed that "John F. Gilbey" was a real person and the book a completely true book, that it took on a life of it's own and only added to the wild tales about martial arts that became popularized in the West. This happened because Smith was so skilled at interweaving fact with fiction that he unwittingly produced a satire that many found believable as complete "fact." Robert Smith later wrote an even more wild sequel to the book thinking that would finally enlighten people, but once again, he was wrong. Finally, he just came out in the martial arts magazine, "Journal Of Asian Martial Arts," and told the true story. He later repeated it in his book, "Martial Musings." Here's a bit of what Robert Smith said: "Gilbey was a joke, an exaggeration, a fantasy. He had money, time, and amazing skill in everything. We were sure that readers would be smart enough to realize this. We were wrong....'Secret Fighting Arts of the World' contained some truth, plus many whoppers." If you want a longer explanation of what was truth and what was whoppers, I highly recommend reading "Martial Musings," which I think is Smith's best work. But my tale of this book doesn't end there. I recently learned that back in the `70's my old friend, John Panter, actually used a technique from the book in a real situation! When I quizzed him on it, here's what Panter said: "It was the Macedonian Buttock! I was coming home from work on the Subway in Toronto. It was my last day on that job and I was carrying my work clothes in a bag along with my lunch kit and some other stuff, all under my arms. I had to get off at the Bay St. Station to see if something I had lost was at the Lost and Found there. Of course, since construction jobs let out at 4:30, I hit Bay Street just in time for all the office workers who get out at 5:00 to

Don't get hung up on fact vs. fiction. If you want to know the backstory on this book, read "Martial Musings"(come to think of it, read it even if you don't). I pull this book out whenever I want to relax. I know I sound too much like a beer commercial when I say it's light, fun, and goes down smooth. Smith's writing style ( I've not revealed any secrets here, have I?) is somewhat reminiscent of Mark Twain. He weaves a tale well, peppering his prose with apt quotes and deadly accurate observations. Don't buy this book to learn how to wipe out your neighborhood, buy this book to sit back and smile.

Very well written, entertaining book. While telling engaging war stories with a foundation of essentially irrelevant detail (dates, individuals' names, names of exotic locales, cultures, etc.), the author sneaks bizarre, very funny, satirical "fighting secrets" into the stories. He manages to keep a straight face throughout and keeps the big punchlines to such a minimum that the reader can easily fall into the trap of taking the book seriously. Great book.

This book is an entertaining, funny read, not to be taken seriously as some of the reviewers have. Really guys, did you think that the "Ganges groin Thrust" or the "Macedonian Buttock" were for real?