Task: Sentiment Analysis
Input (English): A missing link for practitioners of "hard" martial arts. . Many buyers of this book are undoubtedly practitioners of "hard" arts seeking guidance on application of the more dubious moves of their disciplines in street confrontations. If readers expect to be instructed in realistic applications of Karate or Taekwondo blocks and stances, they may feel misled by the title since such subjects are barely touched upon.    MacYoung's purpose here is a different one. "Hard" arts generally teach practitioners to exchange blows at a certain distance. Grappling arts show how to fight an opponent from a clinch or on the ground. Authors like Geoff Thompson emphasize sizing up a potential attacker and resolving with pre-emptive strikes. What none of these address is how to handle the wild onrush of an attacker who has already initiated his assault and who is not going to stand back and trade blows.    This book aims to make "hard" martial arts street effective not by re-explaining their existing techniques but by filling in certain gaps, principally by applying "soft" blocking and takedown concepts from Wing Chun and Silat. Karate/Taekwondo practitioners may find this difficult to reconcile with their own styles - unless they subscribe to the opinion (not addressed in this book) that the "hard" arts once had a considerable "soft" content, and that movements like those now labelled "blocks" were originally something else altogether - but is a valuable and effective complement nevertheless. The book also includes good advice on the nature of violence and how to avoid it, and emphasizes "winning while escaping".    Stylistically, MacYoung's easygoing tone and humour may or may not please, but behind it is a well written book which succeeds in communicating concept and technique in words. Some sections can at first seem repetitive or difficult to follow (not helped by the lack of clear labelling of photos - my one major gripe), but this is due to the complexity of the concepts examined. This book requires more than one reading to get the most out of it, and will certainly reward those willing to do so.
Output (English): POS