Black Medicine: V4 Equalizers

Okay, now that you've secured a stick, knife, or gun to defend yourself against that goblin crawling through the downstairs window, what do you do now? The intent of this book is to instruct the typical ignorant civilian in the emergency use of weapons. As you probably are aware, an automatic pistol or pump shotgun is of no use to an individual who has no idea how to load or operate it -- this book will tell you how. This book will also tell you the best knives to choose from your kitchen, and show why it's a bad idea to attempt to stab someone with a flimsy blade designed to slice bread or filet a fish. Perhaps this may be shorter than previous volumes, but it does exactly what it was intended to do -- TEACH.

I have read the whole Black Medecine serious and thought that they were absolutly great. I enjoyed the first and the second volumes about the preasure points and the weapons at hand. I liked most of the third volume on low blows and different self defence techniques. Now this book is an exellent summary to all of them. I expected a book on how to kill someone, but instead Mashiro explains on how to use the weapons, techniques and preasure points to make your opponent submit with as little effort as posible. The techniques are effective and something that a none martial artist can use in a everyday life. They are simple and very usefull. I enjoyed the book and think it is a must in any self deffence library.

When I first buy the complete serie of Black Medicine (Volume I to IV), I thougt that I haven't make a good deal : it seemed to me that this books were to thin... Yes they are, in comparaison with other ones BUT : N. Mashiro write only the essential (in french we say no "blabla") This is why his books are so concentrate. This forth volume contains more ready-to-use informations than the other one. In my opinion, you can't judge this book if you only have read this one. "Black Medicine" is a complete serie of self-defense fighting studies. I had gread time in reading them. As fare as I am concerned, I would always use the Volume I and the Volume II as references books. If you want to discover what "Equalizer" is all about, then you should buy all the four volumes. You won't be disapointed. In my opinion, N. Mashiro is one of the best author in the field of martial arts / self-defense. It is very unlikely that he will write a fifth volume of "Black Medicine", but if he does, I would buy it immediately.

I quite liked BM4. If you've not read the previous volumes, I would highly recommend them. Especially volumes I and II of the Black Medicine series are a great help for any serious martial arts or self-defense student. As for volume 4: it is less densely packed than the previous volumes. While the amount of information you are getting for the price of the book is relatively less, it's still certainly worth the price. On the other hand, as the author explains in the introduction, "the information in this book is much more quickly put to use". This is true: where the previous volumes required more self-study, this one is basically a "How-to" manual to Mashiro's tricks of the trade.