Short version: Great Book, Great Teaching, Great Price!

And the

Longer version:

Robert Jasiek has produced a book. Within it he shares his knowledge in order to give us confidence - within what he coins as the “fighting fundamentals”. The waves of weaker players will undoubtedly welcome such a promising title. But make no mistake; this is a highly ambitious undertaking, one which will have a lot to encompass.

But who is Robert Jasiek? For those of you unacquainted with him - as happened to be the case before I, myself embarked on this book - is an amateur 5d Player, Teacher and Author that lives in Germany but can also speak English fluently (as what I presume is his second language (or third, or fourth etc.).

Having read a lot of books from the larger go publishers and seen how complacent the authors can be on releasing their “titles”, that in a lot of cases they held very few chapters, broad articles, ideas etc. So you can imagine how refreshing it was to see an instructional book that goes above and beyond the minimal point of duty. Oh and I might as well take this opportunity to tell you now that Robert is a hard worker and his commitment and pride towards his work really show throughout the book.

Alright so when it comes to content I couldn’t help thinking that this book was set up as more of a dictionary/ reference book. Not that this is at all a bad thing, quite the contrary. I know I will be able to revisit various topics that will require being drilled into my mind systematically and almost mechanically. It wouldn’t be too much to say that I in fact loved the structure.

I loved the mix of professional and amateur examples that cascade throughout the book, offering insight into the ideas he has carefully laid l out before us. Many of which positions I found extremely valuable in playing out on a physical Goban allowing me to soak the message up in full.

All of the diagrams were deliciously crisp and were delivered in all of the right proportions. However the diagrams for some of the pages were actually a little hard to digest only because they were placed on a differing page to the example text that preceded it. It produced no harm but was noticeable in a few places.

Fighting would appear to be covered from all angles; I say appears as I still feel like quite a novice and I wouldn’t know if anything was missing at this point in time. But to me the many facets of fighting ability are showcased well and you will undoubtedly learn a lot from them.

I would have loved to have seen the book delivered in two, maybe even three volumes. As I feel some of the subjects had to be slightly condensed as to not make the book any heftier than the already large offering. Some of the subjects could have been expanded upon - and that is not to say that they aren’t acceptably comprehensive, just that there is so much to learn within each category.

Rather than read the physical paper version as was offered to me. I instead read the PDF version and while it is amazing for what it is I feel I should also mention that reading in this format felt like a step backwards after reading largely from within the SmartGo Books library (for the IPad) and having the ease and comfort that interactive diagrams offer. It feels like a somewhat wasted opportunity for Robert and his readership. Although I can understand that the profit margin would be minimised by this as is always such case when partnering for use of services. Still it read very well when compared to other PDF’s offered by other publishers.

So just who is this book targeted at? Well If I were to hazard a guess I would believe it to be aimed at anyone below 10kyu KGS up until somewhere around Shodan. While not everything may be understood at that level, you will appreciate how easy it is to revisit this book as a lot of emphasis has been placed upon its wonderful structure.

As you get stronger and more familiar with the subjects at hand, you will be guided into a sense of understanding – that is until you actually do understand them, which with a little effort you will become a lean mean fighting machine.

Some additional notes that I feel could be mentioned would be that while Robert is not a native English speaker it will not impinge on your learning in any way. Instead there may be the occasional cheeky smile as the wording is not how we may normally place them. To get a glimpse of what I mean simply take look at the table of contents. But at the end of the day he has still done a wonderful job.

There is also some cross referencing within the book to some of his other books, not that this is a bad thing either. I just didn’t have the books and as an advertising platform it’s pretty sound. I feel compelled to read more of his work so it is a nice reminder of his other titles.

For me the last thing I will say is that to receive the highest yield from this book, a slow and steady approach worked best as so much is covered. It can be easy to want to move onto the next topic without fully grasping the current one. So I will compare it to milking a cow, you need to try and establish a firm grasp and take in every last drop. Repeat the process until it becomes natural and you will see the results of your labour in no time.

- Paul Schlacter 6k EGF

Wow, there are a lot of reviews of this book now.