Martial Arts Magazines?

[Shirt Ripper]

I know that in my major area of study/training/competition much of what you find on the mag racks at book stores and the like are less than legitimate.
I am wondering which magazines of those found on the shelves in the various martial arts are quality sources for information.

There seems to be several, recommendations?

 

[arnisador]

Classical Fighting Arts (dragon-tsunami.org) is good. I bought the current issue.

Grappling Magazine and Journal of Asian Martial Arts occasionally have good stuff in them.

Most of the rest are infomercials.

 

[bignick]

How to buy a martial arts magazine:
Step 1: Don't.
Step 2: Repeat.

 

[ajs1976]

Have a subscription to Black Belt, and occassionally buy Grappling and Taekwondo Times.

Black Belt - covers a wide range of MA topics, but doesn't have much depth in content. Has way to many ads.

Grappling - focuses on sport grappling and MMA. Better content than Black Belt, but still has a lot of ads. The MMA information is usually old, ex. current issue talks about the first Ultimate Fight Night.

Taekwondo Times - Focuses on KMAs, not just Taekwondo. I'm buying this one less then I used to. I just haven't gotten that much out of it.

I use the magazines to give me ideas of other things to look into. Then I use forums like this one to help get a better understanding. If you are going to get a magazine, try to get a subscription, it is usually half the newstand cover price per issue.

 

[The Kai]

Gotta luv BB mag. The editors Christmas list included any product advertised in the mag-right down to the useless wavemasters

 

[arnisador]

Yeah, they're especially bad about just being a front for pushing their advertiser's stuff...so is Budo International (I think that's the right name), which is just a video catalog, really.

 

[Flying Crane]

Classical Fighting Arts (dragon-tsunami.org) is good. I bought the current issue.

Grappling Magazine and Journal of Asian Martial Arts occasionally have good stuff in them.

Most of the rest are infomercials.

I don't know much about the grappling magazine, but I agree that Classical Fighting Arts and Journal of Asian Martial Arts are two of the better ones. Their journalism is a bit more thoughtful and scholarly, not the fluff and garbage that most of the others print. Sometimes KungFu Quigong magazine can be ok, but a lot of the articles are linked to product advertising as well.

 

[arnisador]

The thing with JAMA is that some of the stuff truly is good and deep, but much of it is pretentious--non-academics writing as they think academics write. I like the idea of a higher-level martial arts magazine, but the quality control isn't as strict as I'd hope.

 

[Flying Crane]

The thing with JAMA is that some of the stuff truly is good and deep, but much of it is pretentious--non-academics writing as they think academics write. I like the idea of a higher-level martial arts magazine, but the quality control isn't as strict as I'd hope.

Yeah, I can see what you mean here. Still, it beats the garbage BlackBelt churns out on a regular basis.

Years ago I wrote a letter to the editor of Blackbelt, suggesting that the quality of what they print has gone downhill. I suggested they might be more selective about what they include in their magazine to improve it. I was rather blunt in my criticizms, and I got an angry letter back from the editor in reply. They never printed my letter.

A few months later, they printed a column written by the editor wherein he criticized some of the nonsense that goes on in the martial arts world. Most of what he criticized was exactly what I had written about in my letter. go figure.

 

[Jade Tigress]

What's the general consensus on Inside Kung Fu magazine?

 

[Flying Crane]

What's the general consensus on Inside Kung Fu magazine?

sometimes some interesting stuff, but it is published by Blackbelt. a lot of advertising, and a lot of shallow writing.

 

[arnisador]

Agreed. A small step up from Black Belt, but still of the same ilk.

 

[Jade Tigress]

Bummer. Thanks guys.

I sure would like to find a decent MA mag too...

 

[arnisador]

Classical Fighting Arts does run some articles of relevance to Kung Fu, but the emphasis is strongly on Okinawan Karate. It seems the Kung Fu comes in mostly via its connection to that. The editing can be uneven and the paper/print quality is not as high as Black Belt's, but they use real historical sources and often have some very interesting revelations from them. They do a lot of interviews too. You can find some actual CMA stuff in it; the current issue has an article on the martial arts training of the Chinese police in the 1910s and 1920s, for example. You might want to take a look at this magazine. I usually can find it at Borders. Here's their home page:
http://dragon-tsunami.org/Cfa/Pages/cfahome.htm

Online articles:
http://dragon-tsunami.org/Dtimes/Pages/articlea.htm

They had a previous incarnation as Dragon Times.

 

[Randy Strausbaugh]

Tai Chi magazine is OK if you practice the internal arts. Otherwise, Classical Fighting Arts seems to be your best bet. IKF has a few good articles once in a while. The guy on the present cover did a demo at the Asian Festival in Columbus this year. He was really good, but the article was rather superficial. Since IKF is a "general" MA mag, I guess it would have to be so. Still, I'd like to see a little more depth. JMHO.

 

[Jade Tigress]

Thanks for the links and info arni. I bookmarked them and I'll look for an issue of Classical Fighting Arts mag to check out.

Thanks for the feedback Randy.

:asian:

 

[Shaolinwind]

How to buy a martial arts magazine:
Step 1: Don't.
Step 2: Repeat.

I'm not a magazine reader either way, but I'm curious why you say that.

 

[Shirt Ripper]

I'm not a magazine reader either way, but I'm curious why you say that.

It's a play off my signature...and the fact that generally magazines off the racks are garbage.

 

[arnisador]

I looked at Budo International at the bookstore tonight. I can't believe that anyone buys it! The "articles" are undisguised DVD reviews. They start off "This is the second DVD from..." or the like. Why pay for what amounts to a catalog?

I did pick up a copy of JAMA. I don't often do that, bujt was curious to read one of the articles.

 

[arnisador]

I just flipped through the newest Black Belt at the bookstore. Somehow, they've managed to get worse. It's not just that the full-page ad for the Krav Maga video immediately follows the article--in the JKD article, there's an actual large picture of the cover of the forthcoming book. Within the article!