Wing Chun Opium Pipe Staff (Bamboo Ring Wing Chun Kung Fu) (Volume 2) Paperback – May 2, 2013

Great,in my point of view.

I bought this because the opium pipe is one of the weapons in my system and I was curious about its use in others. While this is a decent book on the basic use of the short stick, the title is misleading. One of the first things mentioned once you open the book is that this isn't about the use of the opium pipe/iron fighting pipe despite the use of pipe imagery throughout. Given the overlap in technoques, that wouldn't have been a big deal - but the lack of any real depth killed it. Of the 126 pages, 27 are used to demonstrate techniques while 37 pages are just a glossary of Wing Chun terminology (more like 18 since every other page is a random illustration). For those curious, 34 are introductory and 18 discuss training techniques - fully 10 of those are just illustrations of how to twist a pvc tube full of ball bearings. I seriously considered returning this book, but decided to keep it for the Cantonese terminology section. In the end, I gave it three stars because it fill would probably be of interest to beginners, has the large glossary, and because it includes a couple of creative ideas for making affordable training devices.

Just when I thought Wing chun was amazing enough Sifu Rea Reveals more details about this unusual weapon. Having purchased his other books on the martial arts I'm very impressed with this new volume. I own a large library of Martial art books and his latest title is a welcome addition. As always I am impressed with his visual presentation of principles, movements and applications with outstanding illustrations and photo progressions. I am giving 4 out of 5 stars as i wish this book was longer, even though I bought 2 copies.

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A