Iron Ball, Wooden Staff, Empty Hands ─ Understanding Structure, Flow and Maneuver in Martial Arts

Caylor Adkins has over 50 years of rigorous training with a bias for studying realistic combat. He has always sought broadly based sources of martial arts understanding for himself and his students beyond his original training in Shotokan Karate. His criterion is that the ideas really work. Some of the sources in the book include: * Ball and staff forms from Chinese masters * Western boxing * Russian Systema empty arm techniques * Experts in body structure and connection: medical physiologists, external martial arts styles, Ida Rolf structural integration, and Lu Wen Wei’s four-center (tantien) model * Chi flow models from internal martial arts styles The goal of the book is to transmit Adkins’ martial arts understanding to improve the technique and combat ability of his readers. He uses basic techniques, forms, and combat drills in three complementary modalities (iron ball, wooden staff, and empty hands) to explain: * Structure: integrating the whole body and spirit to hit harder with less wasted power * Flow: using breathing, chi, and movement initiators to move quickly and efficiently * Maneuver: defeating a dangerous opponent by understanding focus, critical edge, disruptive techniques, and centering

Early in his martial arts career he was President of Shotokan Karate of America, National Chairman of the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) karate committee (1975-1977), and first vice president of World Union of Karate-do Organizations (1975-1977). He contributed many technical articles to Black Belt and Karate Illustrated magazines in the 1960s and 1970s.During the last 30 years he has concentrated on searching a wide range of martial arts to find how each contributes to effective combat, and in turn to a more thorough understanding of self, energy flow through the body, and connection to opponents.