#1 Martial Arts Magazine

I have been a very active reader of Martial Arts Magazines for about 2 years now. I have read a few different magazines on the subject and enjoyed most of them, but the one that really stands out from the rest is Black Belt magazine. There is no comparison when it comes to the information and the advertising inside this great piece of media.

Format
There are various sections, which have great articles and life stories. It is very easy to read and understand style of writing. The examples on some of the techniques have photos for greater understanding. There are advertisements and web sites given for equipment, related literature, information about tournaments and other interesting events.

Contents
The magazine is always packed with tremendous amount of information for Martial Arts fans and practitioners. I enjoy reading articles on history of various traditions and martial arts. There are some articles that get even more involved explaining the martial art itself and some of the techniques.

There are great self-defense articles. The information is taken from the real life situations and the people who are responsible for the information put their personal touch and experience into it. There were various articles from the masters of martial arts, professional bouncers and tournament champions. They usually describe the effect of the technique and what it takes to perform it correctly. There are some explanations on how to score points and win. Some of the examples are to help someone get out of those sticky situations by using a proper attitude and technique.

I also enjoy when they talk about the spiritual aspects of martial arts. I like the articles that talk about certain masters of a specific style and how they reached their spiritual level. The way the martial art became effective, because of the mind and body combination is great benefit and interesting to read.

There were also a couple of issues explaining different styles of martial arts and the list of all the ones available. I liked those a lot. It gave me a great deal of understanding about those styles, how they became known and what are the principles of each one.

The advertisements are great as well. I got a lot of literature, equipment and other information from the different ads and web sites listed in here. There are books advertised here with some description. I also saw equipment in this magazine, which I later purchased. I collect Bruce Lee dolls and I was able to find a few more for my collection from this magazine.

Conclusion
Black Belt is great. The articles and pictures are amazing. It is a very interesting, informative magazine and I strongly recommend it.

There is one thing which I would like to say before I finish this review
As a martial arts student, I am a strong believer in the self-defense training. I believe everyone should be able to take care of him or her self in the dangerous situation, but I strongly recommend not to try the techniques learned from a piece of literature. I strongly advice practicing self-defense only in the proper environment with professional supervision of an instructor. Improper performance of a technique or unsupervised effort could be dangerous and result in injury.