Rating: 
Summary: Excellent presentation of self-defense technique
Review: Krav Maga is a breath of fresh air in a world of commercial "get your black belt in 6 months" martial arts studios. Self defense and martial arts overlap but may be different in their ultimate purpose (e.g. winning the next tournament vs. surviving on the street). For people interested in protecting themselves, this book provides valuable insight. If you can take a Krav Maga class near you, the training will help to compliment the insights of this texts...A whole new sense of personal freedom and awareness awaits you.
Rating: 
Summary: Somewhat useful - but Krav Maga is not all that
Review: Krav Maga is an OK system - it is not 'the' system, there is no 'the' system. Krav Maga is trendy though - just like Gracie jujutsu.Some of the stuff is workable, some of it isn't. Relying on punches to the head is a good way to break your hands in the real world - ask Mike Tyson - he did. The book leaves a lot to be desired and is rather thin. The content is ok - but poorly presented.
Rating:
Summary: Very bad self defense, but interesting
Review: Most of the techniques require that your assailant is off balance, over-committed and incredibly stupid, with only one arm no ability to use their legs, head or indeed skill with their chosen weapon, no peripheral vision and often intoxicated with religious zeal. This may be the case in Israel but sadly is not so in other parts of the world. Now that is one insulting statement I just made so I had better elaborate. I did enjoy this book and it does have some value, I just worry it might be a bit dangerous especially for beginners. It is quite well written, I did not find the photos difficult to understand like one reviewer here commented. As far as being a book is concerned it is quite well put together and good value. It is the actual techniques that are dodgy. It really does assume the attacker is over committed, off balance or just plain stupid. Most of the Krav Maga counters are themselves very easy to counter, the Krav Maga guy putting himself in an off-balance, over committed position not to mention exposing himself in the most extreme ways. How does wrestling a gun so it points at your groin sound? No good? Alright, someone stabs at your midsection - lean forward as far as you can and offer them your throat. Provided they are a lunatic stabbing madly in religious fervour, you'll be fine. Although most people will simply stab you in the throat. Many of the anti-gun and anti-knife moves approach from the open side instead of the blind side, telegraphing the move and prob. will leave you dead. Some of the anti-terrorist moves are likely to leave the poor hostage dead, usually from wrestling the gun so it points at yourself or the hostage. I do not suggest trying to grab the barrel of a gun to stop it revolving and hence firing a second bullet: the first bullet will prob. kill you (as you've just wrestled the gun to point at a vital part of your body), the flash will burn your hand and many gunners oil their guns making it IMPOSSIBLE to hold it still. I know this from a friend with a burnt hand and a hole in his leg. You're better off jamming your hand in the hammer instead. The grenade tactics are OK but if you mistake a bomb trigger for a grenade, you're history. Overall it is interesting (if brief) in its coverage of all these weapons such as grenades, machine guns etc... but not effective. In my opinion dangerously inadequate, very bad technique, unfoundered on actual experience. Again, these are insulting statements so I would like to point out that the "real life examples" they use to justify their techniques are garbage stories like "when the grand master was 13 his brother pulled a gun on him and he hit it and it went off and he was unhurt" and stuff like that. NOT real life examples of combat for life and death on the street, just idiots stuffing around and accidents, they neglect to mention that the REASON the gun went off in those examples was BECAUSE they hit it. Just plain stupid. The obvious lack of experience astounds me. The reason Israel is not known for its martial arts is because they are really really bad. I find it difficult to believe anything in this book would stand up to anyone other than a person standing still for the photo. However I did enjoy reading it - it makes you think about your existing skills, it gives an insight into another M.A culture, it is interesting for any instructors out there with spare time and money to have a look. But for ~anyone~ who wants to learn serious self defense techniques this is absolutely NOT the book to get, stay away unless you are already experienced and just want an interesting read. I hope I have not offended anyone with this review - if I have then don't get mad at me, get some other skills and compare them for yourself.
Rating: 
Summary: Read the book; TAKE A CLASS
Review: The first rule of KM is "Don't get hurt!" What do you do when you see the knife in the fight - 1. RUN! (No macho last-man-standing...) 2. Get a longer weapon. 3. As a last ditch, life or death resort, go hand-to-hand, then RUN! KM will teach you things you can effectively use after your first class going to your car in the parking lot. It does not take years of study, complex choreographed jumping and hand swirling and theatrics. If you can't learn a technique to some degree of usefulness in five or ten minutes, it won't help you in a street attack. This book is, unfortunately, fairly advanced, being aimed at weapons defense. The basics of punch, kick, elbow, knee are essential to weapons defense. Is KM "nothing new?" Depends on what you mean by "new." Krav Maga was developed for the Israeli Defense Forces with the aim of training large numbers of ordinary citizens (remember, mandatory conscription in Israel) in a very short time to defend themselves successfully. KM is based on boxing, street fighting, grappling and, being an open system, changes its techniques and incorporates from other systems. In my four plus years of KM study in nice safe Seattle, we have changed some of our moves, studied techniques from Ju Jitsu, Capoeira, Safta, Marine Corps CQB, Muay Thai kickboxing, joint manipulation, Tae Kwon Do and other systems. We have instructors come in, occasionally, to show us other systems. KM is for the ordinary person as well as police and military. An attacker is not likely to be a trained weapons fighter, just a loser out to get cash or valuables. Knife attacks are up as penalties for gun use become more severe. Sometimes, the loser just hurts you for kicks - not much else happening in his miserable little life, maybe. Is KM worth learning? Yep. The very best in every situation? Often, maybe. The be all and end all? Nope. But it has been very useful for some classmates in tough circumstances. Put this one on your list, read it, then take a class. You will be glad you did.
Rating:
Summary: Great Book but not without practice
Review: There has been much hype for Krav Maga and its self defense benefits. I purchased this book with high hopes that it could provide some insight into the frightening realism of defense from an armed assailant. What I got, however, was several techniques which give you less than a fifty fifty chance of survival from a dangerous encounter. Ground fighting is non existant, and the manner in which you defend yourself in several of these situations does not include controlling the weapon, a fundamental concept in street effective self defense. Overall, I would not reccomend this book for anything more than a reference to Krav Maga as opposed to a self defense manual.
Rating:
Summary: Not the greatest
Review: There has been much hype for Krav Maga and its self defense benefits. I purchased this book with high hopes that it could provide some insight into the frightening realism of defense from an armed assailant. What I got, however, was several techniques which give you less than a fifty fifty chance of survival from a dangerous encounter. Ground fighting is non existant, and the manner in which you defend yourself in several of these situations does not include controlling the weapon, a fundamental concept in street effective self defense. Overall, I would not reccomend this book for anything more than a reference to Krav Maga as opposed to a self defense manual.
Rating: 
Summary: Krav Maga = Nothing New
Review: There is nothing new in this book that has not been taught before by other self defense systems or martial arts instructors and CQB instructors such as Col. Applegate (taught in 1943), Fairbairn, Sykes. This system is nothing more than an eclectic blend of martial arts with a Israeli label. This is not to say that some of the techniques are without merit. These techniques are designed to face an armed adversary, which in the middle east it is a high probability, not in the U.S.A. at least not yet. If you feel the odds are against you for facing an armed attacker, then carry a gun and learn some unarmed self defense techniques. Again, this book has some merits for soldiers and anti-terrorist troops. For the civilian interested in self-defense there are many more books published which have more to offer the reader. Pass on this book and check my listmania on self-defense boooks.
Rating:
Summary: highly recommended for anyone interested in self-protection
Review: This book achieves exactly what it sets out to do in the title: how to defend yourself against armed assault. it shows what are for me the best tactics developed to do so. some reviewers have suggested that krav maga is nothing new; the authors never claim that it is. indeed, imi sde-or's background in traditional martial arts is mentioned repeatedly. but some tactics are new- there were not very many handguns around in the heyday of karate/kung fu/ju-jitsu. and krav maga does work. everyone's favourite australian reviewer critizises km gun defences, suggesting blocking the hammer instead. but that won't work with all handguns- many have covered hammers, or are hammerless, like the glock used to demonstrate the defences.
in conclusion, if you are worried about armed attack, get this book. AND TRAIN THE DEFENCES SO YOU CAN PERFORM THEM UNDER STRESS! otherwise it will be of little use.
Rating:
Summary: Good Book on Defensive Tactics
Review: This book by Krav Maga founder Imi Sde-0r and instructor Eyal Yanilov is very good with a lot of good insight about the nature of a real fight. The introduction is very good by being concise and artculating the facts about self-defense as well as the written material at the end. The photos and self-defense senirios are also very good. Having taught Police Defensive Tactics, I can say that he covers unarmed defense against weapons in a very thorough manner. The weakness is that he starts with complex items and it is at the end that some of the basic techniques are shown at the very end of the book. It should have been reversed and this incoherenec is a little troubling. All in all a very good primer on "true self-defense." The extreme "nay sayer" reviewers of this book hold either unrealistic ideas about fighting or stupid prejudices.
Rating:
Summary: A great companion to Krav Maga
Review: This book is a great companion to any practitioner of Krav Maga. While some may think it is thin in terms of step-by-step instruction, it is not meant to be the complete authoritative guide to Krav Maga. Instead it introduces those unfamiliar with Krav Maga to its techniques and abilities, and it gives current Krav Maga students a chance to understand techniques learned in later levels. While this book is great for a person of any level, it is especially helpful to KM practitioners who want to add to their already lethal arsenal.
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