The Elite Forces Handbook of Unarmed Combat

To give you a quick and concrete idea of what is contained in this book, here is an example. What is the best way to reply if you are forced to the ground by an opponent who is on top of you? A Brazilian Jiu Jitsu book would tell you to wrap your legs around him and maneuver for a choke or an armlock. This book tells you to wrap your legs around him and snap his neck. I see no reason to criticize this book. Sometimes, people criticize in order to show off. If you are dissatisfied with what an expert or author is doing, that must mean you know more than he does. But the fact is, this book does have a lot of good information in it. That's the bottom line. There are hundreds of self defense books. This book can't be all of them. If you want the ultimate self defense instruction, here's what you do. Stay home. Watch tv. You'll be fine. Just don't slip in the shower. When you really think about it, the best way to protect yourself is to avoid being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Don't fall asleep on the subway. Don't be out at night. So to those of you who are dissatisfied with the advice in this book, will your own personal favorite self defense book protect you as well as the advice I just gave you? I don't think so. So take the book for what it's worth, appreciate the gift the author has shared with us, and stop complaining and showing off. A good, informative review should show how this book differs from the others you can buy. Well, this one is from the point of view of a soldier who could care less whether he kills his opponent, and has no fear about being charged with murder. A lot of the techniques are along these lines. Avoid the blow, secure the attacker's arm, whack him til he sees stars, execute a judo throw, and strangle the s.o.b. to death. The martial art it reminds me of most is Krav Maga. It isn't like the more technical ground fighting of BJJ or Sambo. It's the art and science of what works, for those who aren't about to spend six years learning complicated moves. The pictures are easier to follow than the explanations. Seeing something, having it make a visual imprint in your brain, makes it a lot easier to absorb. You look at the series of drawings and think to yourself "yeah, I can do that". Anyway, like me, you probably have had a lot of martial arts training, so this stuff isn't really that new to you. It's a way of selecting from all the moves you have already learned and focusing on a few that you should think of first. Okay, bring em on, eight opponents at once, all armed with knives and clubs, I'm ready. I pity them. I'll be spraying their eyeballs all over the street, and they'll be gasping for one more breath. I wonder if anything good is on tv tonight.

This is a very good book for a beginner who wants to learn the basic concepts of effective unarmed combat. These basic concepts are taught to special forces of many of the world's militant forces, so it is an excellent starter book for someone wanting to train in REAL and EFFECTIVE self defense. By reading this book, a begginer will efficently expose him/herself to defense tactics which can be used in real life self defense, and it may also help the reader select a martial art that can be applied to real life. I'm not trying to say that many of the martial arts out there are ineffective in real life situations, but the concepts covered in this book are used by militant forces that must use these techniques in order to survive, so they MUST be effective. This book, however, will be relatively useless to an expirienced or advanced fighter/ martial artist.

This book is excellent for training any soldier or even an Unarmed Combat Instructor. The book tells you everything you need to know. It tells you how to get started and how a general 6 week C.1/4.C. coarse is laid out. This stuff is easily applicable to "over the water" work in a bar fight with some mean buggers that want your beer money and maybe your anal virginity or to shake someone's brain in a good old street fight. This is how scraps are. When a group of hostiles crowd you, all you have is your instincts. Tecnique goes out the window. Your primal instincts are to smash, bash, bite, rip, poke, gouge,kick and stomp. This book was what I expected down and dirty. The only thing I would have liked to see was a little more ground work. If you buy this book don't go around throat punching people. For god sakes use the least amount of force needed to put the guy down. Sure you can smash him and bash him, but don't kill the man it's just a bar fight.

In my opinion this is an excellent book. It covers the History of Unarmed Combat & The various Methods & Techniques.This is more than just a reference book and I would recommend this book to serious Martial Artists, Armed Forces Personnel Police Officers & People who work in the security industry.Other excellent Martial Arts Styles one should look into are:Sambo, Krav Maga, Jiu Jitsu, Muay Thai Kickboxing, Jeet Kune Do, Kyukushinkai Karate, Wing Chun, Escrima, Aikido, Ukidokan Karate, & Judo.I believe knowledge is power & today one needs to learn Grappling Kicking Punching Holds & Locks Throws Head Locks Groundfighting & Weapons to be a complete fighter.I also recommend Firearms Training.Other Books that may interests you:Gene Le Bells Grappling Master Combat for street Defence & Competition & The Essence of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu By Machado.

First off, there is absolutely no way to learn Martial Arts or Self-Defence from a book. That said, the previous review of this book has an unwarranted rating. (Remember the old adage "To know and not to do is not to know")Second, if you want a good reference manual on Conventional Unarmed Combat Systems throughout the world (and esp in the 3rd world and the former Warsaw Pact), then this might just be the thing for you.I myself have studied both Traditional Martial Arts and Conventional Combat Systems and the 2 are as different as night and day. This book clearly makes that distinction in a very nice way (i.e. what is traditionally taught in a Dojo is far different than what is taught in several months to a Special Forces Unit).If you get a chance, pick this book up with its "partner" - Deadly Fighting Skills of the World, which is also a good field manual. I think both books are surprisingly informative...