Flashing Steel (book review)

As you may know, I hold a second dan in Muso Jikiden Eishin Ryu Iaijutsu, so I was a bit skeptical about how much I can actually learn from a book. This book by Masayuki Shimabukuro and Leonard J. Pellman gave me a pleasant surprise, though. Instead of focusing on the movements only, the first part of the book actually deals with the spiritual aspects of learning martial arts, which are principles that can be applied not just to iaido, but in the practice of other martials arts and even how we conduct ourselves in our daily lives.

The part on iaido philosophy talks about how we should conduct ourselves inside and outside the dojo. The part on perception talks about how to see things from a different perspective as we progress in our art. And what truly amazed me is the part on progression of training. It clearly stated the different stages that we experience as we progress in our training, such as moving from the big movements, to manifesting power in our strokes, to adding speed into our movements, and finally adding a sense of "lightness" to our movements. This 4-stage progress is very much like what I experienced learning taiji as well. The explanation of the various movements also includes a short synopsis for each movement, explaining the context in which each movement is being used in.

I would give this book 4.5 stars out of 5. The only thing lacking is the presence of a teacher to actually guide you along. But it definitely serves as a good reference for those who have already started some training in iaido.