The Soul of Fighting: Martial Arts, Combat Sports, and the Search for Warrior Wisdom

Former columnist and Japan correspondent for Black Belt magazine Keith Vargo returns with another collection of thoughtful essays on the fighting arts. In this new book, The Soul of Fighting: Martial Arts, Combat Sports, and the Search for Warrior Wisdom, Keith guides the reader through the maze of legends and ideals that make up traditional martial arts and confronts the fierce challenges presented by kickboxing and MMA. Like his first book, Philosophy of Fighting: Morals and Motivations of the Modern Warrior, this new compilation explores how philosophy, mysticism, aesthetics, science, and the study of human nature intersect in the martial arts. Topics include the seemingly paranormal perception of high-level martial artists, the transmission of knowledge in centuries-old Japanese koryu arts, and the martial philosophy of Hindu classics. But the essays also cover modern topics, like current research on human aggression, living and practicing martial arts in contemporary Asia, the medical risks of fighting, changing perceptions of women in the fighting arts, and difficult questions about race and self-defense. In addition, there are also encounters with Olympic judo champions and celebrity MMA fighters as Keith searches for the common threads that bind all fighters and martial artists together.The Soul of Fighting is a wide-ranging series of essays that will entertain, inform and provoke readers, regardless of their level of training in the fighting arts.

Keith Vargo is a writer, researcher, martial arts instructor, and fighter who has been based in Tokyo for nearly 20 years. He was the first non-Japanese to earn a first-degree black belt from the world-renowned Takada Dojo, where he trained with MMA legend Kazushi Sakuraba and other top fighters from the golden era of Japanese MMA. During his competitive years, Keith fought professionally in MMA, boxing and submission grappling and was an amateur shootboxing and combat wrestling champion. Keith also holds a degree in psychology and a certificate in multi-cultural self-defense from Radford University in Virginia.