Rating:  Summary: Great Book Buy it for $7.99 at USBJJ.com Review: Great book, the basics of dirty, in close knife and other tactical fighting. However, you can get this book for $7.99 on CD at USBJJ.com. Why wouldn't you pay 1/3 of the cost for the same book? Ok, so its not in print-- but since the book is all black and white I think you could print it out if you really needed it in print, or just print out the pages you need to train with, and not wear out the book or lose it.
Rating:  Summary: Great Book Buy it for $7.99 at USBJJ.com Review: Great book, the basics of dirty, in close knife and other tactical fighting. However, you can get this book for $7.99 on CD at USBJJ.com. Why wouldn't you pay 1/3 of the cost for the same book? Ok, so its not in print-- but since the book is all black and white I think you could print it out if you really needed it in print, or just print out the pages you need to train with, and not wear out the book or lose it.
Rating:  Summary: Realistic training advice Review: In real CQC (Close Quarter Combat) anything is possible, anything CAN happen, and time is always fatally short in terms of being able to deflect and deliver blows whether you're armed with a small weapon or you're unarmed. All those fancy Martial Arts techniques and looney "in vogue" routines promoted as being a means of "self defense" are, in a word, "worthless" when the chips are down and you're facing an assailant who is bent on killing or severely injuring you. Serious and life threatening hand-to-hand combat literally explodes into being with very little to no prior warning of what the criminal intends to do to you. When you find yourself in such a situation, you definitely won't have time to "set up" in some stance, or prepare to deflect and then counter his blows with some fancy Kata or complicated series of movements. Rather, you'll find yourself in the midst of a hailstorm of punches, kicks, knee blows, finger pokes at your eyes, or worse - blows from things like bicycle chains, iron pipes, baseball bats, knives, etc. Under such circumstance you need to be able to react instinctively and with very basic, straight forward attacks that require no thought on your part or any need for "set up". There just won't be time. Your attacker with be all over you and you'll either be dead or unconscious in less than a minute. When two idiots square off in a bar and each is egged on to fight by his rummy friends or is simply acting out of drunken animalistic stupidity, the danger is quite different and so are the legal consequences, but when you're ambushed or otherwise targeted for destruction by the serious street criminal or psychopathic preditor, you have the legal right to defend your physical well being with ALL necessary force. Do you think your fancy Karate or Kung Fu techniques are going to work in this sort of a scenario? Well, I can tell you they won't, but the information and tactics in this book will. What you'll find here is specifically targeted for such down-and-dirty, anything goes encounters where the time for survival is measured in seconds. Here you'll learn of the most easy-to-deliver strikes, knee blows, and kicks that, when practiced properly, will easily become second nature and will flow out of you without needing you to THINK about what you're doing first. Don't be fooled by all the fancy nonsense and new fangled so-called "Self Defence" tactics from the Navy Seals, Marines, The KGB, etc. They may be good for dealing with obnoxious bar flies, but they ALL come from the information contained in this book anyway. But know this - once you are aware of these techniques and are also aware of the deadly target points on the human anatomy, you'll immediately raise your survival potential in CQC by several orders of magnitude. Its all quite simple, but it works and that's what matters. Remember, real life conflicts DON'T unfold the way the fights you see in the movies do, and you can't afford to face real life conflicts that are potentially fatal with some sort of trumped up "self defense" nonsense and a "motion picture mentality" about how things are likely to unfold. Woe unto you if you fail to understand this and fail to take the correct path!
Rating:  Summary: Excellent text on practical self defense!A real classic. Review: Kill or Get Killed, despite the rather ominous sounding title, is probably one of the best texts on self defense and unarmed combat ever written.Many of the techniques shown are still very useful today,despite the fact that the book was written during W.W.2.It's a real classic, yet very practical book that anyone interested in true self defense and hand-to-hand combat will treasure and learn a great deal from.Highly recommended!
Rating:  Summary: The best book on real self-defence ever written Review: Kill or Get Killed; In twenty-five years of study in the field of self-defence and combat I have never read a more concise and realistic work. Colonel Applegate is a man who has been there and done that. His unique insights and simple techniques are easy to read, follow, and understand, and they come, not from some Dojo or firearms compitition, but from years of service, both to his own country and others around the world. If you want to KNOW how to defend yourself, come what may, buy this book and memorize every page.
Rating:  Summary: Kill or get killed Review: The most pratical methods ever presented in one text. Modern law enforcement is finally realizing that the Weaver stance falls apart under stress and that this point shooting system still has great merit and may be the answer. The unarmed methods are difficult to really learn without a competent instructor since they aren't as simple as they appear. Too bad the the 1943 edition is so hard to locate.
Rating:  Summary: Great book, but could use an update Review: The only reason this does not rate 5 stars is that the technical information is 50 years old. I would love for him to undate the section on handguns, especially since we've advanced several levels since this was written. Otherwise, I think it can replace several other books on the subject on self-defence and shooting. It should be a required reading for anyone interested in armed or unarmed self-defence.
Rating:  Summary: Great book, but could use an update Review: The only reason this does not rate 5 stars is that the technical information is 50 years old. I would love for him to undate the section on handguns, especially since we've advanced several levels since this was written. Otherwise, I think it can replace several other books on the subject on self-defence and shooting. It should be a required reading for anyone interested in armed or unarmed self-defence.
Rating:  Summary: Kill or Get Killed: Review: The title says it all. In war time or in a true life or death self-defense situation that is the only option; kill or get killed. All parties interested in realistic self-defense must accept this concept and act appropriately . This book is not for those "Paper Tiger" black belts or sudo warriors. The princples and concepts are as relevant today as they were 58 years ago, when the data for this book was compiled. Some of the weapons and technical data is outdated, yet the goal is the same; survival... The point shooting techniques are practical and realistic and have proven to be reproducible under the stress of a lethal encounter; unlike those target shooting techniques of the weaver stance. The tactcis and techniques that Col. Applegate learned from Fairbairn and Sykes is one of the most effective and practical systems of training for survival during close quarter combat situations, especially given the time limits to train recruits. Granted if more time were allowed for training (every trainer desires more time to teach recruits) other techniques would be added and more practice could be conducted. Some of the hand to hand techniques are questionable, i.e. knife hand chops, but for the most part a very capable curriculum for training soldiers, police officers and citizens in the survival concepts and tactics. If one is not prepared to take the life of another in a true life or death encounter, than that individual should not even attempt to consider themselves capable of self-defense; especially soldiers.
Rating:  Summary: One of the few Review: There are very few good books on this topic. The methods of the WWII trainers such as Rex Applegate are better than most efforts. I began my studies in self defense with these sources but I have since moved on (I developed my own thoughts, changed as a person and so on.) There are better approaches to realistic training, perhaps they are evolutions from this, perhaps they are a rebellion against the limitations of the WWII tradition. None the less, few of these approaches are presently availble in print. As far as books are concerned, this work will give you a broader perspective.
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