Riding The Tiger's Tail - Paperback

by Grandmaster Shoto Tanemura (Editor), Gary Giamboi (Author)

Riding the Tiger's Tail is the perfect title for this book. On one level, it recounts the story of one person who decided he needed to find a Master (Tiger) and become his student (Ride on its Tail) in order to reach his goal of personal excellence.It is the story of an unlikely encounter between the Grandmaster of traditional Japanese martial arts and a long time dedicated student of the martial arts. On a deeper level, this book explains why choosing the right teacher is perhaps the single most important task a student must accomplish. By providing insight in to how a traditional master of an Eastern Art thinks and feels about his organization, his students and his teachings, Riding the Tiger's Tail explains why it is becoming increasingly difficult for students in today's culture of immediate gratification to become accepted as personal students or disciples by a Grandmaster of a traditional Eastern art.The author met Grandmaster Shoto Tanemura when he was a typical dedicated American martial art student who had no intentions other than becoming a better martial artist.The story spans 26 years from the day they met while attending a Mets baseball game in New York City to the author finishing his annual month long training at Honbu dojo in Japan in 2014.During the those 26 years, Grandmaster Shoto Tanemura and his martial art organizations have earned the highest respect of the world's martial art community. As the Grandmaster's journey progressed, the author slowly, but inexorably, realized his journey was tied to that of his teacher. He had to learn how to be a traditional student before he could learn how to become a high level traditional martial artist.To be perfectly clear, the book is not about martial art techniques. It is about what it takes to become a personal student of an orthodox Grandmaster of a traditional Eastern discipline. The book is about dedication, loyalty and humility. It is about learning to let go of one's ego.If a student wants to be a traditional student, he/she must develop a heart-to-heart connect with their instructor. There is no way around this.Without this kind of relationship, it is nearly impossible to learn to accept your true teacher knows what is best for you to learn, when you learn should learn it and how you should learn it. Indeed, without this kind of relationship, it would be impossible for the instructor to know these things.Equally as important, he will know what is not necessary for you to learn at any particular time.The book makes the two main characters come alive by chronicling many specific teachings and incidents the author witnessed in his twenty six year journey learning a Koryu Japanese Martial Art.Riding the Tiger's Tail is an important read if you want to learn from a master of a traditional Eastern art; and, it is an absolute must read you want to learn a Koryu (Traditional or Classical) Japanese Martial Art.