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| Ultimate Flexibility: A Complete Guide to Stretching for Martial Arts | 
 enlarge | Author: Sang H. Kim
Publisher: Turtle Press
Category: Book
List Price: $22.95
Buy New: $12.25
You Save: $10.70 (47%)
New (22) Used (10) from $12.25
Avg. Customer Rating:  41 reviews
Sales Rank: 19916
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 304
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.9
Dimensions (in): 10.8 x 8.3 x 0.8
ISBN: 1880336839
Dewey Decimal Number: 796.8
EAN: 9781880336830
ASIN: 1880336839
Publication Date: January 10, 2004
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: brand new - same day shipping - free upgrade to priority mail when you buy 2 or more books from us
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| Customer Reviews:
 Simply the best November 1, 2005
10 out of 11 found this review helpful
When an experienced instructor teaches, he does it so simply that students understand the lessons without much difficulty. When I first opened Ultimate Flexibility for Martial Arts, I was firstly impressed not only by the variety of exercises and beautifully designed format but also by the author's efforts to show the big picture of the important elements necessary to attain flexibility without missing out on the details. I have been training various martial arts for over 34 years including 8 years in Okinawa, 4 years in South Korea, 3 years in Thailand. Wherever I was stationed overseas, I put my best efforts forth to gain firsthand knowledge from local masters. What I found is that a good teacher knows how to teach a complicated movement in a very simple way. With this book by Sang H. Kim, I feel like I am training with my masters again. He definitely put all his wisdom and experience into it.
Sang H. Kim is without doubt among the best writers about martial arts. (I thoroughly enjoyed learning from his Ultimate Fitness Through Martial Arts.) This book should be required reading for every martial artist who competes or wants to improve his or her performance regardless of style. Master Kim provides straightforward cautions and valuable tips to improve your flexibility and to prevent unnecessary injuries.
In Chapter Seven, he includes sample workouts for light contact and full contact, grappling and mixed martial art, boxing, weapon and high kicks. I personally liked his top 10 techniques. After turning 50, I realize how important it is to learn valuable wisdom from a true master. I have been adding a few new skills to my repertoire each week and use them whenever I can. I am getting quicker and safer in my Karate classes, and every class is more enjoyable.
Based on my experience thus far, I believe this book will help martial artists of any age, or for that matter athletes of any age, become more flexible and enjoy training for the rest of your life.
Outstanding Resource October 26, 2005
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
This is an outstanding piece on stretching for various martial arts purposes or for flexibility in general. It provides an in-depth description of many different exercises and then recommends several combinations of 15 or so for achieving different goals. Perfect for your own use or to plan a class session.
Perfect October 14, 2005
5 out of 6 found this review helpful
The strategy and excersises are easy to understand. After only a couple of weeks I already feel more flexable. Great book. I recommend for anyone looking to increase their flexiblity.
 Disappointing. September 24, 2005
82 out of 93 found this review helpful
It's not a *bad* book about stretching, and does contain some 200 exercises--even if half of them are about as complex as 'lace your fingers together, palms out, and push your hands away from your body' (my paraphrase).
What really bothers me, though, is a pair of problems:
First, the book mentions almost casually that static stretching (touch your toes and hold the position) has almost no correlation with functional stretching (how high can you side kick?). In the next paragraph it states quite clearly that martial artists should be focused on improving functional stretching--that static stretching is largely useless except for rehabilitation.
Now, even if that *isn't* poppycock--which I'm not qualified to judge, but it does sound flaky--one would think that this book, intended for martial artists, would therefore proceed to focus on other kinds of stretching. No: the vast majority of the exercises are static stretches. So either the advice is flawed or the book's target audience is wrong.
A second issue is PNF stretching. The book goes to some effort to push PNF as the most effective, best stretching technique: over and over, the refrain is that one should work towards incorporating PNF stretching into your workout as soon as is feasible (it's not for beginners).
But just as soon as you've become convinced of the benefits of PNF stretching, the book goes on to state--and here I'll quote--"Because PNF stretching requires detailed hands-on instruction and guidance, PNF stretching variations are not included in the exercise descriptions". In other words, the book says pretty clearly, "This is what you want, and this book doesn't describe it."
I'm disappointed that I bought this book, and can't say I'd recommend it to others.
 great book September 20, 2005
5 out of 7 found this review helpful
This is a great book. It shows lots of photos/workouts and has a lot of info. There are several diff. stretches for variety.
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