Tuesday, March 26, 2013

Secrets of the Pelvis for Martial Arts - New Book


My first book is now available both in paperback and as a Kindle e-book at Amazon.com. "Secrets of the Pelvis for Martial Arts: A Practical Guide for Improving Your Wujifa, Taiji, Xingyi, Bagua and Everyday Life".

The e-book came out first in March 2013. In response to requests for a paper copy, I then released a paperback version in December 2013. With the paper version I also enhanced the quality of the cover design for both books based on the original e-book design.

Since you can read the description and customer reviews at Amazon, here's a little about how this book came to be.

My two most popular blog posts have been Rounding the Crotch (圆裆) for Tai Chi and Zhan Zhuang and Relaxing the Pelvic Floor for Tai Chi and Zhan Zhuang. Due to this popularity and relationship of content, my Wujifa instructor suggested I combine these into a single e-book. That was back in February 2011. At that time, I just didn't feel like I had the level of skill and understanding to write what I would consider a quality book, a product that I would be proud of. Also, I just couldn't get my head around the whole e-book concept. I guess was pretty "old-school" then. But I'm learning...

Two years later... The actual research and writing took only the first few months of 2013. In the process of combining these two blog posts, and wanting to write a real book, I kept adding and adding and editing and re-arranging until one of those "a-ha" Zen moments hit and the current structure revealed itself. I knew then that this was the book! After that it was all about filling in gaps, doing translations, imposing on the generosity of friends and family to read almost-final drafts, and then more editing from their suggestions. The cover design was inspired by content I discovered in my research. A Photoshop expert helped me get it "just so". (She also helped me again with the enhanced version for the paper book.)

I put more work into this book than I put into my blog posts. So if you enjoy this blog, you're sure to be ecstatic over this book! There's a ton more information in Secrets of the Pelvis for Martial Arts that does not appear anywhere else in the blog! I'm really excited about this publication because I think it can be a real contribution to martial arts practitioners in general and internal martial arts practitioners in particular. Enjoy! Be sure to let me know what you think! Either comment here, or leave a review at Amazon or email me.


A January 2015 addendum...
It's now been almost two years since the e-book was released and just over year since the paperback was released. Even though the reviews on Amazon are overwhelmingly favorable, I appreciate the constructive critiques which I summarize as:
  • This book is just a collection of links (and links can go bad).
  • Although the topic is well-researched, it reads as if it were released prematurely.
To the first point, my original vision for this work was an interactive e-book. At that writing, I did not foresee a demand for a printed book. My bad.

To the second point, I am certainly taking these critiques under advisement for my next work and for an updated second edition of Secrets of the Pelvis.

A May 2020 addendum
I reviewed all links and made corrections in the e-book version. You can see these updates at: Secrets of the Pelvis for Martial Arts - Link Updates.