Amazon.com description: Product Description: In Black Belt Karate, Hirokazu Kanazawa, the most respected figure in the karate world, offers a systematic approach to basic karate, and provides an intensive training course. Karate is a martial art that can be practiced by anyone, regardless of age or gender, and can be undertaken at any time during a person's life. The training system employed in karate comprises three main areas: kihon (basics), kumite (sparring), and kata (forms). Using meticulously detailed explanations and illustrative photos, Kanazawa provides readers with an intensive self-study training course designed to be accessible to beginners, as well as to those already at an intermediate level. If practiced continuously and diligently over the course of a year, a practitioner will be able to attain black-belt-level proficiency. Praise for Black Belt Karate: "By following each and every page of this book as if receiving instruction directly from Mr. Kanazawa, I believe that over time, with careful practice, gaining proficiency is all but guaranteed. For anyone setting out to master karate-do, you hold in your hands a fine book indeed. The late Masatoshi Nakayama, former chief instructor of the Japan Karate Association and author of Kodansha's Best Karate series