Get Your Hands On The Bandit Knife: Kung Fus Rebellious Weapon Created By Ted Mancuso Accessible Via Brochure

Mancuso has given us what every Kung Fu book should strive to be, In short, this is an incredible book on a lesser known and lesser practiced Kung Fu weapon the Pu Dao a.
k. a. , The Bandit Knife or The Horse Knife, Mancuso explains both of the common names in the book, so I won't write about that here.


There are sections on grips, strikes, stances

and other aspect of the basics of this weapon.
Good material, certainly. But, he goes into so much more detail, including strategy for using the weapon, how the roles work in actual usage and the spirit special characteristic of the weapons feel in usages.


There is a form shown with good pictures, but we don't readily learn forms from pictures in a book.
Mancuso included a DVD to help in that area,

The section on applications takes an atypical approach different from "old school" Kung Fu books.
In addition to applications he talks the reader through the use of the shaft, the blade and the butt end of the weapon.
The possibilities are nearly endless, so obviously there is encouragement for the one learning the Bandit Knife to explore on their own too.


One extremely valuable exercise that Mancuso included in this book is his analysis of the modern Wushu rules for weapon usage.
There are standards in modern Wushu regarding the acceptable use of each weapon, To illustrate his point, Mancuso uses the Double Tiger Hook Swords, He explains the three fundamental rules and then analyzes them, His conclusion is that two of the three are extremely important, but that one is probably not so good.
It was great to see his analysis, I wish he had used the Bandit Knife for this analysis, but he encouraged the reader to explore the Bandit Knife for him/herself.
The down side, he didn't even hint at what the modern Wushu rules for the use of the Bandit Knife are.


So, in my assessment, The Bandit Knife is the closest thing to "the perfect Kung Fu book" that I have yet read.
And, that after more thanyears of martial arts practice,

You should definitely read this book if you have any interest at all in Kung Fu.
I like this book. It is well written and Sifu Mancuso presents his knowledge in an interesting and informative way, with plenty of useful insights and a good sense of humor.
The information is excellent for a kung fu practitioner and especially for someone, like me who is in the lineage of GM Gu Ru Zhang.
I would like to see more historical context in this book, The historical explanations are very general, But that aside, I like most aspects of this book,

The accompanying DVD is excellent, .