Author GM Amante Mariñas, Sr.

Tuttle Publishing ISBN 978-0-8048-3787-3

I highly recommend this new book written by GM Amante Mariñas. It concerns the art of throwing, a lost skill that nearly all of us have forgotten but I am sure as youngsters some of us participated in. When I was a young boy near my home were houses that was bombed during the Second World War, these ruins were our play ground. A common game for us kids was to throw stones and sticks, etc at designated targets in the ruins, most of us became good, our skill came from instinct and because we did not know how difficult it was to hit targets and so we overcame the mental barriers of possible failure of hitting what we aimed at. As I grew older I occasionally tried to hit the odd target but lost the skill and gradually forgot this art.

Mariñas has revitalised this art and perhaps will touch a few of us with times gone by with his very informative book on throwing a variety of weapons. The effort, foresight and skill that has gone into the research is incredible and perhaps will not be repeated with such enthusiasm again due to the fact that he has done all that is required to learn the art of throwing. The contents include 128 photos combined with 21 learning curves and 41 computer sketches to help explain techniques, stances, grips and trajectories for knives, shuriken, darts, spears and more. Mariñas using lessons learned through his own experience thoughtfully tells us how to overcome the difficult barriers you will hit in training. This book is for the practical minded and the scientists be they young or old, amateur or professional or just plain curious. Add this to your martial art collection.

The dedication that has gone into this book is inspirational Mariñas overcomes illness and a serious eye condition and practised in all climates throwing thousands of times mostly at cardboard targets that would reach 120 stories high if stacked. This book could have just been about throwing knives, but Mariñas needed to improve and test his knowledge and he just kept going. When you read his short epilogue about when he was a young man helping his family in the markets by removing nails from boxes and straightening the nails to be used again. You start to understand why he trained in the throwing of various objects using his arms again and again to extract additional knowledge of throwing to the benefit of us all.  In his own words:

“It is a nail I had to make straight – one more time”  

In, closing I am very happy to endorse this specialised book written by GM Amante Mariñas, Sr who I call Po (a name shared with friends) which is short for Apo which means grandfather. The name is derived from a mountain in the Philippines named Mount Apo which implies "old" and other attributes used to describe a mountain. A sign that history and the present mean much to Po who works hard to pass on his knowledge and cross cultures to promote the Filipino martial arts to everyone. Read, learn and enjoy.