Secrets of Shaolin Temple Boxing: A Text for Instructors and Students

This book is short and to the point. It is an excellent introduction to the Shaolin arts, as well as gong fu (wushu) in general. This book has a good amount of information in it, including drawings of the five animal styles and the exercising classics from Badhidarma. Near the end, there are a good amount of photos of two men showing (while the text explains) how to execute a interesting group of blocks, redirections and strikes--as well as a few variants. All in all, one of my favorite martial arts books, despite it's lack of size.

This book is very sentimental to me and my family as it has photographs of my Father and it was published the year after I was born so I am so very very happy to have found this book, thank you!

Unless you've got a somewhat solid background in martial arts training, this book won't be of much use, but if you do, there are quite a few interesting concepts, and quite a few interesting comments in this book. While not actually written by Smith himself, rather translated elsewhere and editted by him, Mr. Smith has given the west access to an excellant manuscript.

I have found that many treasures are understated. The same applies to this book. The essence of Shaolin tradition, I believe, can be found in the 68 pages. It doesn't look like much, but I believe that the essence of Shaolin is represented.

This book has some interesting diagrams. The author says his research came from "personal manuscripts" (???) I would like to see a book that discusses the actual diet that the monks lived on - was it just rice??? A great intro to shaolin.