I was intrigued by this book, Secrets of Chinese Karate, by Ed Parker. First off, it's his second book on Kenpo, and it was originally published in 1963, a few short years after Mr. Parker began teaching Kenpo Karate.

Secondly, the book contains a lot of information about the history of the arts as he knew it back then as well quite a bit about basics, stances, and training materials for the Karate classroom.

Within this you will also find an illustrated version of the Two Man Set, which is still taught to this day by some American Kenpo practitioners.

The book itself is interesting to read on multiple levels:

- First- the historical relevance when this book is compared to his first one, Law of the Fist and the Empty Hand, and the later five volumes of Infinite Insights into Kenpo.

- Second- the terminology is beginning to take shape. There are still some Chinese terms used to describe weapons, but an English term is provided.

- Third- Joe Hyams writes the Introduction to this book- his particular Journey to where is was in 1963 is interesting since he wrote his popular Zen and the Martial Arts and edited the "Journey".

All in all, while this book may not show you various current techniques or explain many American Kenpo concepts, it is an excellent book for its historical relevance. It lets us "young" students take a glimpse at Ed Parker's martial arts world as it was in 1963.