Recreation Books

I put off writing a review on this book for a long time,...Since Mr. Wu is my teacher. I did not want anyone to think I was Jumping on the band wagon, when this first came to Paperback, So I waited to review it.
So here it is:

This book is probably the most needed book on Kung Fu, Gong Fu, Shaolin.
It is HUGE,.....I mean HUGE!!
It just doesn't get any better than this book.
This book is "SO" worth the money that it is ALMOST OBSCENE!!!
Buy it, I guarantee you will not regret it.

Very detailed book, exellent reference material, as well as gives some insites into different styles.I am very happy with it and it has helped me already. Highly recomended to anyone intrested in the martial arts of this type.

This book does not illustrate the visually captivating "flowery fist" kung fu often seen in the movies. It really addresses the root elements of kung fu.Not only does it cover the fighting elements but also the fitness and spiritual aspects as well. This is a must have for anyone interested in martial arts.

I think this is one of the most complete book on Wushu that I've came across.
It contains information on warmups, techniques, sanshou, chin na, and chi kung.
The appendix at the end of the book was very informative. It provides information about many of the Wushu figures and styles.
The only thing I was unclear on is how to actually apply the wushu techniques from forms in free sparring or fight. It seems that there is a disconnect between the techniques used in the forms and the techniques used in Sanshou. The technique used in Sanshou looked more like a combination of Kickboxing and throws or even jeet kune do.
Maybe for many people, it questions the usefulness of learning technique used in forms other than for training movements and calesnetics.

This volume is nothing but great. It covers all the things you'll need for your wushu training and is crammed with loads of extra information about styles, people, weapons and more.

I especially like the fact that it stresses jibengong, the fundamental excercises of wushu, and not taolu (form). The sanda applications are well explained and covers a lot of ground. A little bit more fighting strategy and tactics would be a good thing though. The explanations and presentation of neigong, the internal martial arts, are also very good. I think that neigong and qigong have to be felt and describing them in words is an impossible task that nobody ever will be able to do well, but Shou Yu Liang does a good job none the less. The glossary in the end is very impressive indeed. It has a LOT of entries of which many are illustrated. Very well.

My only real criticism of the work is that I don't think it covers wushu history well enough. It's too much of a runthrough and dosen't really give any in-depth information. It is a subject that is very dear to me so I guess I'm biased on that point. Also their explanation of the character wu (as in wushu)is not satisfactory. There are generally two mainstream theories in linguistic circles of the original meaning of the word (the most popular by far is Berhard Karlgrens) none of which is the one presented in this volume.

However, that is only a tiny complaint and it dosen't alter the fact that this is a very impressive book. It truly IS the best book on wushu in English. I live and train traditional wushu in Beijing and have trained for some 8-9 years. I am of the opinion that wushu cannot be learned from a book, no matter how good it is, but it can definitely help you improve and clarify things for you. This book is a very good reference, especially for beginners, but also for the advanced student. It offers a lot of information and is WELL worth the price.

Rick Reilly has a unique gift for communicating his humorous tales. Thumbs up.

Every Thursday I check the mailbox when I get home, see my Sports Illustrated, and go straight for the back page so I can read Mr. Reilly's column. There is a reason he has been named Sportswriter of the Year so many times, he is simply the best. Reilly writes about the humorous, the sad, and the ironic of sports. I laughed at why he hates the Yankees so much, and almost bawled when reading about the Columbine teacher who gave his life for his students. I do some writing myself and even in my dreams I am not half as good as Mr. Reilly is, and never will be. If you are a fan of good, solid writing, pick this book up and read it over and over again.

There are serious columns in the book. The humorous ones are what made me read the book again. The chapter on the Olympics is the funniest thing I have ever read. Anyone who thinks Reilly is boring has no sense of humor.

Nobody writes about sport like Reilly. This is a great collection of his Sports Illustrated pieces. If you are a fan of sports journalism, this is a must read for you.

I had the privilege of being interviewed several times by Rick when I was a high school track athlete and he was a young flip-flop wearing sports writer for the Boulder Daily Camera newspaper in Boulder, Colorado earning his stripes covering high school sports. Even way back then it was obvious that he enjoyed sports writing and it came as little surprise to see him eventually end up as SI's most notable writer. This collection of some of his best (but not all of his best) SI columns is a gem. Not all are "laugh out loud" humorous, but many are (a testament to his versatility as a writer). His postscript comments are also entertaining. After a thorough reading, this book is a keeper. I can't wait for Volume 2.

I love Jim Corbett, I don't know if any author is better at transporting you back in time & making you feel like you were there. A warning though, once you start reading a Jim Corbett book you will need to find more of his books they are addicting. Also you will be hard pressed to find stories as exciting. This book wasn't as good as Maneater's of Kumaon. If you haven't read any of his books start with that one.

Corbett is a natural writer and combines his knowledge of the jungle with uncanny hunting skills to give us one of the best Indian adventures ever written.

Reading his books is not just following a maneater with a gun - it is a journey into the days of the British Raj where you will be transported into the remote jungles of Northern India, read about the simple people and their unsophisticated lifestyle. There are no villians, no suspicious characters lurking around and nobody to provide humour. You just have village folk trying to eke out a living which is sometimes interrupted by a feline with a taste for humans.

This particular book is about one leopard which terrorised a large region for many years and claimed about 420 lives. To understand what these people must have felt, it must be noted that in those days there were no high security fences, no guns or any kind of technology to track the leopard. Yet the people had to enter the forest to earn their daily bread. There is an unforgettable chapter in the book titled 'Terror' which starts something like this:

'During the day, people went about their lives as usual. Trade and commerce, transport and all other transactions went about their normal way. But as evening approached, there was a marked change in their behaviour. Pilgrims rushed towards their night shelters, businessmen closed shops abruptly and people scurried towards their homes for relative safety. No curfew was more strictly imposed. No orders to remain indoors were observed as faithfully.'

This is one of the books which shows that for writing adventure you don't need weapons or FBI investigations. All you need is a writer with a big heart who loves what he is doing and knows what he is talking about.

If you like adventure literature, you should find this piece really wonderful. I read it while I was alone at home for a week and I started to "feel" leopards all aronud the house at night. Very well writen, hard to stop reading.

This book is available from the Oxford University Press website: http://www.oup.com/

I just purchased a new copy for 12.49 British pounds including shipping to the USA which is just over $21 USD (December, 2003) I don't know why the new/used books advertised on Amazon by private sellers are so expensive.

If it's anything like Corbett's "Man-eaters of Kumaon" it is a masterpiece.

Another excellent book from the corbett library. Its true that fact can be stranger than fiction. And no where is it more evident than in the story of the maneater of rudraprayag.

Corbett is out to kill this very clever and wily old leopard in the second half of the 1920's. The leopard is believed to have made its debut as a man-killer following the influenze outbreak of 1918. Corbett hunts this killer over two years. In an intense battle of nerves between the best shikari that ever was and the wily leopardus, corbett's life hangs by a thread many times. On one dark stormy night, robbed of his defenses, he makes his way back to the village after a failed attempt in an experience that he terms his scariest. Another time the leopard snatches a goat right under his nose and gives him a run for his money! All and many illustrations of man's utter helplessness when a clever maneater turns against him.

In the end, corbett suceeds in putting a bullet where it truly belongs - in the maneater - to end its career. In true corbett fashion he has a soft spot for the old dead leopard, which gave him such a sporty fight. I am sure they both met again in the happy hunting grounds!

A wonderful book by a wonderful man.

This is the man that flew to South Africa on the same plane as Bill Clinton, plays golf with the world's best players, was runner up in the world putting championships.... and .... took my money at Sun City.

Great book Michael... must be due another one soon? PW

Michael Konik writes about golf as Emily Dickinson might have: with terse tenderness, through a quill of pliant steel. She would have noted the beetle scrambling out of the cup before her ball rattled in. She would have seen, in a five iron flying from the hands of the angry golfer on the south fairway, a metaphor of death in life or triumph in defeat. She would have asked if winning were "the only thing" decades before Red Sanders uttered the words or Vince Lombardi borrowed them, but without ever asking the question itself except through implication and indirection. She would have noted everything noteworthy in the only nine holes she ever played, and then reduced it to a phrase that floated up like monarch butterflies on a June thermal. She would have seen how one fine game--or one bad one--played with an old friend is a mirror held up to the world.

Dickinson was that good when the winds stirred the grass behind her home in Amherst, Massachusetts. Konik is that good when he totes a golf bag, heavy as a side of beef, for Jack Nicklaus, and then puzzles out nuanced truths of the experience for those of us who will never meet Nicklaus, or any of the golfing greats, except through a television screen.

I don't golf. It is a game of multiple demanding skills and attributes, of which I have none. "Nice Shot, Mr. Nicklaus" is, at least in part, a book for non golfers, such as the man with the physique of the skeleton hanging from a hook in the university's gross-anatomy class. I have that: the apparent lack of muscle, tendon, ligament or properly soldered nerves. My golf swing, as unpredictable as dice thrown on a fieldstone floor, makes dogs howl and Presbyterian caddies cross themselves. When my Titleist balls slice off the tee, men dive for the bunkers. As a teenager, I threw a driver through a plate glass window. I wasn't angry. I just didn't understand the grip. "Nice Shot" is for non golfers what Jon Krakauer's books on Mt. Everest are for flatlanders. Konik takes you there, be it a glorious course in Scotland or a cow-pie laden field in Wyoming. He stands behind you and wraps his arms around you and corrects your grip, stance, and balance. Mostly, though, he corrects your attitude. He whispers, "This is a lordly game, for ladies and gents. Be here now in body and soul. Smell the air and feel the smack at the end of the stick reverberate throughout the universe. Set an example of decorum for your children, and thereby teach them the essence of championship. Play in the Zen Master's Open, for it is open to all. Embrace your opponent whether you win or lose, as if they were the same event." And he spends much of the book explaining how they very nearly are. And the thing is, you come to believe it might even be true.

Konik has the ability to make a non golfer--and maybe even a golfer--believe he could actually discuss with Greg Norman, over a pint of Fosters lager, the advantages of graphite over steel. He worms his way into the hearts of those he interviews, and he permits a reader to imagine that his own heart might be shaped from the same warm clay. And be this the truth or merely the grand illusion of an extraordinarily deft writer really doesn't matter when you finally set the book on the nightstand, turn off the light, and dream of the skies over Augusta.

What a fun book to read and what great little insights into the game and some of the people involved. The author did a great job in his "little stories" of some of the unusual things of golf - from the cow pasture open in Montana to golf in the Arctic Circle. This book is a keeper (as if I didn't have enough golf books).

Particularly nice is that the book it can be read story by story, so that you can enjoy each one separately from the rest. It's like a tapas lunch: accompanied by a nice glass of white wine, you can sip and enjoy the full flavor of each course. Get this book and enjoy.

Michael Konik weaves humor, insight, golf trivia, travel adventure and philosophy into a wonderful set of short stories. You don't have to play or even like golf to enjoy this collection of clever and witty observations about the game of golf and the people who play it. The "hero" of each story might be a world class pro, or a caddie. Konik's ability to capture the moment makes this book a joy to read.

Thanks Mike. Waiting for more.

Very enjoyable to read one chapter at a time. Like one nice golf hole after another. Funny, touching, educational. Any golfer you know will love this book. Looking forward to more.

I have previously spent a year living aboard a Hans Christian 38 on the west coast and in the Sea of Crortez. The sailing bug has hit me again and plan to get out again in a few years. This book rekindled knowledge that I already believed in and offered insights that I wish that I had had before. A true joy to read.

So many ideas, most will save you time, some safety tips could save your life.

I recommend this book to all novices and many experienced offshore sailors to prepare for the unexpected problems that you need to address or avoid especially when you are so exposed to the extremes of nature, and completely disconnected from any immediate help. Lots of good lessons learned and references.
Chris C.

This book looks disappointing at first because it is a thin expensive hardcover, but it is worth the money. There is very little fluff and the content is well structured and to the point. It covers most things necessary to prepare your boat for offshore sailing including tool lists, weight distribution, polars and VMG, secants and many other useful tips. Lots of pictures, tables and diagrams.

This is a very comprehensive book explaining what you need to know about offshore sailing.

This is a very helpfull read. In fact I have purchased three additional copies as presents for my playing partners. One has already told me it has straightened out his thinking on the game. I love it because of its straight up no bull dust approach. It is the best of my lavish collection of how to play or not to golf.

My pro told me he met Mr J. Flick during his stay in the U.S. and was immediately a fan of him. So if he thinks he's a wonderful teacher, why should I doubt?

I'm glad I bought the book for I went to the golfcourse to do my best, even better if possible. But it went all wrong. I read a lot about the golfswing, practised a lot of techniques and my play went down a bit every round I played.
Mr. Flick made me look with different eyes: first of all, it is a game, so play! Enjoy the game. How you played yesterday is not relevant and tomorrow is still to come. Concentrate on the next shot, forget the previous and don't worry what might happen on the next hole.

Practice with mechanics, do you exercises at the practiceground. Engrain you technique there. Let your body, muscles and mind experience how to move, to act and to react.
But on the playground you play by feel. Be yourself. Be your own driver and don't let someone else take the driver's seat of your mind. If you are wrong you will learn to do it better next time. If you are right, the great feeling is yours.

This book is not written as a teaching method. Of course there are hints, tips on how to practice. But not under pressure. It is up to the reader to react if he/she wants to do what he/she thinks is relevant to improve his/her game.
Only a man with a lot of experience can write a book like this. It reads like a fairy-tale or a book about a great adventure. I found a lot of things I already knew, but told so explicitly made me feel more confident and improved my game.

Peter van Wijck
vanwijckpj@zeelandnet.nl
332 CHurchilll Av
4532 ME Terneuzen
Holland

This book by Jim Flick puts the whole attitude of golfing in the right context. It's not about the perfect swing based on fundemantals we've heard about, read about, and seen forever, but rather finding the perfect swing -- the one most comfortable -- for you. No pressure of finding your game, it's about having fun at it, and working through your stumbling blocks. His approach is quite good. I can honestly say the recommendations I've incorporated have improved my game.

As someone only just starting out in the game, I found Jim Flick's book to be full of the kind of practical tips that you don't find in your typical golf magazine. Written in an easy-to-read engaging style, the book will be helpful to both the beginning and advanced golfer. Instructions are easy to understand. My only criticisim is that at the start of the book, he goes on a bit about "feel" and it gets a bit repetitive. Other than that, it'll be one of the best books you can buy on the subject of golf.

The other reviewers are full of it when they say no mechanics are in here. They're in here, but they are presented simply, so you will understand them. The vast majority of golfers need to get their bodies to calm down so they're arms and hands can swing the club. Go to any driving range in the world and you will see that most people heave, twist, turn, and flop all over the place with there bodies. Except on the PGA tour driving range. There you see economy of effort and very easy looking golf swings. Jim gives great drills for getting the body to calm down and feeling great mechanics. DO THEM and you will get better.

Jeff Richardson

There is a real scarcity of instructional golf books for lefties. I bought this book for my lefty wife and she loves it. The only thing that could be better would be a lefty golf book for women.

The book really helped me understand what is right about my golf swing and I like his simple teaching methods as I read through the rest of the book. I now take lessons from Steve which has really given me the correct foundaion to build a proper swing on. I have given this book as gifts and even though I am left handed (which less than 8% are, he can work his magic on the right hander also.) I highly recommend the book and if you live in the area go get some lessons.

Being a left-hander and a begining golfer, this book taught me several things to do to improve my game the first time I read it.

My husband who is right handed and an experienced golfer also improved his golf game. He passed on some of the information to his friend who is also a right handed golfer.

Received this book on a Monday and had to play in a tournament the very next day. After reading just the first 40 pages it became clear the mistakes I was making. Before the tournament I went to the driving range and practiced what I had read and just like that I was hitting the straightest shots I've ever hit. I can't wait to read the rest of it and watch the strokes disappear!! I applaud Steve Anderson for writing a book for lefties and I agree with him that lefties are still being left behind in the area of equipment. The golf stores around here offer very little in the way of equipment for us.

I have just recently completed 8 lessons with Steve Anderson and as part of his instrucution I was given his book. Steve
could not be any clearer about the golf swing than he is
within "On the Other Hand". This book shows you everything that is needed to build a solid golf swing. I am a 16 handicap and after being down in Flordia the last 5 weeks and studying under
Steve, I have had the 2 best rounds of my career in tournaments
82 - 86 . I have no one other than Steve to thank fo that. Buy the book, and more importantly get down here and take a lesson with him !!! The great thing is that Steve's instruction follows the book word for word, so even if you don't get a chance to come down and work on your swing in person, you can be guaranteed to feel like you're "almost there" when reading his book. THANKS STEVE !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

If you are a guy or gal who was born before 1950 and enjoy the game of baseball then Phillip Hoose's "Perfect, Once Removed" should be right up your alley. Author Phil Hoose had just moved to Speedway, Indiana with his mom and dad in late 1955. He was eight years old and having an awfully hard time adjusting to his new school and making friends. To make matters worse, no one had ever taught young Phil how to play baseball. He had never swung a bat or even had an opportunity to play catch! Kids being kids, they jumped all over Phil in gym class and at the playground after school. Phil was completely miserable until one day his mom casually mentioned that his dad's cousin pitched for the New York Yankees. And so Phil Hoose took it upon himself to write to his dad's cousin Don Larsen and ask for some advice. A short time later Phil received a postcard from Don Larsen that would literally change his life forever.
It is always wonderful to read a story like the one portrayed in "Perfect, Once Removed". Sometimes we never realize how such a simple act of kindness can impact someone so much. But Don Larsen not only sent that postcard but he also arranged for Phil and his parents to attend a Yankees--White Sox game at Commiskey Park. While in Chicago Phil had an opportunity to meet several of the Yankee players at the hotel where they were staying. It was an experience that would make him a baseball addict for life. It turns out that as usual the New York Yankees under legendary manager Casey Stengel would win the 1956 American League pennant. This time their opponents in the World Series would be their crosstown rivals the Brooklyn Dodgers. And in Game Five on a Monday afternoon in October Don Larsen would make World Series history! Due to the heroics of his cousin, once removed, Phil Hoose was suddenly the BMOC (big man on campus) at school. Quite a turnaround in just 6 or 7 months!
If I had to pick one adjective to describe "Perfect, Once Removed" it would have to be "charming". That may sound odd for a book about sports but I think the term fits here perfectly. For this book is so much more than a book about a perfect game. It is also a real period piece. For those old enough to recall those days it will bring back a flood of fond memories. I found "Perfect, Once Removed" to be a great change of pace from the much more serious fare that I ordinarily read. A great book to read while lounging at the beach or relaxing by the pool. This is an extremely well written and thoroughly enjoyable book that is am very pleased to recommend.

Anyone who grew up loving baseball needs to read this book. It perfectly captures the romance of the game from the perspective of a 9-year-old, back when 9-year-olds lived and breathed baseball. Five stars!

Served well by its brevity and the honesty of its recollections, Hoose's memoir is a perfect accompaniment as you follow your team through another spring training, because it's not so much about the team or the players as it is about your own hopes.

A great book really hitting the emotions of one's childhood growing up around baseball. A wonderfully written book and a very easy read. It is so much more than just the history of baseball's greatest pitched game. A very special book!

With ease and skill, Phillip Hoose recalls his childhood days when baseball ruled his world, consuming his thoughts during the school day, and consuming his play time at night. Hoose chronicles his childhood, from his family's move to the center of the racing world, Speedway, Indiana to his discovery of the great game of baseball, to his relationship with distant cousin Don Larsen, a Yankee great.

The book is an exceptional tale of baseball, and the effect it truly has on so many of our nation's youth. From his intense, yet usually fruitless baseball practice sessions to his late night attempts at finding a signal for a baseball game, Hoose adds a personal touch to the greatest game in the world. His personal touch, then, is what makes this book so special. In an age where baseball is struggling to keep a clean image, amidst steroid use and huge salary contracts, Hoose takes the reader back to the magic of the game. Hoose accomplishes what all good books should do, he transports us into another time, and another place: our youth, and our neighborhood. He reminds us, the kid in us, the joy it felt to first pick up a ball and bat, and the disappointment we felt when we lost our neighborhood pick-up game.

A refreshing and inspirational tale, Hoose's book should not be missed by even the casual baseball fan. Hoose's writing establishes a deep connection between baseball and life, and lessons which each can learn from the other. His tale is one of up's and downs, triumphs and heartaches. Through it all, however, Hoose maintains a sense of hope for life and a sense of love for the game. This hope is what propelled so many of our own baseball dreams, and it is what helps make Hoose's book a truly wonderful read.

"Bull" is one of the most powerful biography's written. La Motta went step by step relaying his life story, in a transparent way. He not only draws us in round by round to him being on the top of the world, he also clearly gives the reader his blow by blow decent into hell, and even worse for a showman, anonymity. He became a nobody, because of his unhealthy actions.
I for one give La Motta a tremendious amount of credit, for coming to terms with his greatest opponent and knocking him on the mat, himself.
The movie is equally as engrosing.
Great read.

There just isn't another biography/autobiography involving an athlete that can measure up to RAGING BULL.

The book depicts self-hate and the self-destruction that goes with it in the kind of succinct style you expect from a ghetto-bred boxer. What sets it apart though is that what one finds between the lines is often more revealing than the lines themselves.

Jake's method of confessing to grotesque acts without the vocabulary of rationalization says volumes about the pathologies behind them. Instead of getting lost in Freudian buzzwords, La Motta recounts his life in terms that sum up and surpass every treatise on self-destruction ever written.

No need for Psychology 101. RAGING BULL is the real textbook on the subject.

A Page Turner - More Like A Page Pounder

Reading this book I felt like Sugar Ray Fighting La Motta - couldn't put it down -

OK - that's a stretch, but you get the idea. I could not put this book down. It reads like a bull charges. A little bit of wind up - I'd say the first 19 pages - then it's a charging bull.

Jake's story is much more than what the movie shows and is different.

As we all know and heard so many times - the book is always better than the movie and again it's very true here - the book is Jake's exact story not changed one hair for Hollywood. It's such an intense, real and gritty story.

It starts off in Jake's childhood as a tuff Bronx kid taking a beating from his father and the world - and as he got older the beatings continue and get worse - the biggest beatings coming from himself.

La Motta is brutally honest and doesn't try to hide anything or paint himself in a special light. It's a powerful and straightforward look at his life, his heart and a candid look at the sport of boxing back then.

It's a great book, you'll pound through the pages like a raging bull.

The life of Jake LaMotta was brought to the screen by Martin Scorcese in 1980, and gained immense respect for the gritty life of boxer Jake LaMotta. The book written several years prior is a roller coaster emotional ride by a very disturbed individual trying so hard to make the best of his life. Very well written and descriptively perfected.

From his tough upbringing, to his escapades as a young man, to his fight for boxing fame, LaMotta punched his way thru leaving victims behind and not too many friends to show for. Like many movies, book facts were left behind that should have been included. Here are few:

His friend Pete, (who was fused in the movie with his brother Joey) was an important person in LaMotta's life. Their wild times as petty thieves, to their separation.

Jake's brief time in prison (Juv), where he and fellow boxer Rocky Graziano meet up. This is where Jake decides to become a boxer.

And unfortunately, Jake's despicable side; the murderer and the rapist.

Jake LaMotta's book portrays his life so honest and brutal, that you almost feel like you are his sidekick during his highs and lows. One rejoices when Jake wins the title, but is horrifed at his domestic actions. Jake is an easy guy to dislike while reading this book, but the nature and feel of this book does its job.

Jake La Motta is a vicious monster. Both inside the ring and outside the ring. Growing up in the slums of the Bronx,
Jake was not loved or cared for by his father, who frequently beat him for no reason or explanation. His mother
was loving to Jake, but his father beat her too. Jake channeled all this abuse, both physical and neglect, and turned
into a thug as a teenager because what else could he do. He believed he was to have been a murderer, for bashing a bookie over the head with a pipe,and suffered for many years afterwards with self inflicting torment and abuse and anguish to all around him. While as a teen, Jake the thug turned into a life of petty crime and was sent to a reform school. While at reform school, the only thing Jake could find interesting was the gym, where he practiced and developed as a boxer. When Jake was released from reform school, he vowed to himself never to go back to jail and to try and change his way. Jake soon began to compete amateurishly with boxing, and then shortly
thereafter turned pro. While he was a freight train inside the ring, Jake was a train wreck in his personal life.
Jack's life consisted of no one he could trust. Not his best friend Pete, his wives, his brother, and especially the mob.
He battered his boxing opponent into oblivion, he battered his wives unconscious, and battered his friends if you would
even call them friends. Yes Jake was this violent. His second wife Vickie, is main wife in this book was a saint, during and after their marriage. Jake beat everyone in the ring he could. Sometimes he'd lose, not on purpose, but as a result to his mannerisms prior to a fight, which were mostly self inflicting. After 8 years of boxing pro, and going no where, Jake relented to turning to the mob for a shot at the middleweight
belt. In 1949, Jake was champ. They day after he was champ, he life went into the gutter. A good for nothing bum kid from
the Bronx, he was destined to never amount to not even spit on the sidewalk, was now the champion of the world! How was this. Well Jake's demons came forth the night he won the championship, and what he feared he'd done as a kid, was not true. Believed to be a murderer as a teen, Jake drove himself insane with pain, fear, guilt, and anger, and the only way he could channel all that negative energy was to box. Well, who he thought he killed long ago was actually alive and well and he couldn't believe it. From there on, Jake lost the spark and the fire to what drove him to be the champ, and a year and a half later after defending his title twice was belted by quite possibly
the bloodiest boxing match my eyes ever seen on February 14th 1951 to Sugar Ray. Jake got massacred by the 13th round. (if you ever get a chance to actually see that fight, seeing is believing!!!). Jake's trip into hell began in Oct 1949, after winning the belt, and he took his first steps descending into hell after he retired from boxing in 1953. His move to Miami added to the catastrophe, his wife divorced
him, he fooled around alot, he ballooned to well over 200 lbs, drank and dabbled with drugs, his business crumbled due to a prostitution charge of a minor, and once again Jake ended up in jail. Serving 6 months, Jake finally prayed to the man upstairs for forgiveness, and released from prison, Jake wanted to vindicate himself. Leaner, cleaner, and this time for certain destined to clean up his act. After prison, Jake was a whistle blower in boxing and spilled the beans about the fight set up he needed to do to become the champ. After that, Jake remarried, although it ended up unsuccessful, Jake tried, and it appears he was not abusive to his 3rd wife. After dabbling
in acting and plays, Jake found solace in performing again, but on stage instead of a ring. There were some set backs. But nothing as shocking and more disturbing as the first 22 chapters. And by 1970 Jake was acting in b-films.
In conclusion, Jake La Motto is a vicious monster. But who could blame him. I don't. Jake will blame himself, and yes, many of the horrific things he did in his youth were unacceptable and just downright unethical. But Jake never was given a chance at life. Not by his family anyways, he was raised by the mean streets of the Bronx, his family was the streets, and it was mean, and Jake was meaner. Jake was never loved as a child, and without that love, he never trusted
anyone, ever! Many success stories, or dreams come true stories are about love and trust. Jake has neither. This is a sad story, a truly sad story, of a man who struggled to make it on his own, and did make it on his own, and just threw it all away because he didn't any know better because no one showed him.
Personally, I believe Jake LaMotta to be the best middleweight boxer ever! I mean ever! For all his wrongs, he did something right, and box right he did. Jake gave boxing so many memorable upsets, so many memorable knockouts, and most importantly memorable comebacks, both inside the ring and outside the ring. Jake is a champ, and a monster, but I would never say that too his face unless I want to keep mine on my head.
Onto Raging Bull II, the continuing story...Highly Recommended!