New book out September 2020: Wandering Along the Way of Okinawan Karate: Thinking about Goju-Ryu.

From the back cover: Diogenes, a fourth-century BCE Greek philosopher, it is said, coined the phrase Solvitur ambulance: It is solved by walking. In Wandering Along the Way of Okinawan Karate, Giles Hopkins draws on his nearly fifty years of martial-arts experience to take the reader on a journey through the forest and a thought-provoking meditation on Okinawan karate. Prompted by his Thoreauvian wanderings through local woodlands, Hopkins offers his personal reflections on the meaning of kata (forms) and bunkai (applications) and a host of other topics in the practice of martial arts.

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The book addresses a wide range of topics, from the hidden structure of kata to the significance of steps and turns to the role of tradition in karate. In a personal and easily accessible manner, this unique book seeks to shed light on the practitioner's journey--what in martial arts is often thought to be a long and winding trail.

Available from Bluesnakebooks.com or on Amazon

 

Second printing

So pleased to hear that the publisher, North Atlantic Books, is coming out with a second printing of my first book, The Kata and Bunkai of Goju-Ryu Karate. I guess that means somebody’s reading it...or someone is buying them all to suppress my heretical ideas...or some speculator is buying them all to make a killing when the book is out of print.