100 Deadliest Karate Moves

Rating:
Summary: Great information for the advanced student
Review: To begin with, this book is not "How to Learn to Kill People After Just One Reading!" In fact, the author often stresses his disapproval of deadly force. However, for those who have at least intermediate martial arts training, this book offers ideas on how to repulse an attacker.

The book begins with a brief introduction to the karate moves used in the book. It is only to show the reading what the author is writing about. He describes a snap kick but does not instruct you on how to do one. Like I said, you need at least intermediate level skills. The bulk of the book is the 100 moves. They seem a bit redundant, as there are only so many strikes and so many targets, but the effects may be different so they are listed that way. This arrangement also simplifies the material to better understand it. The last part of the book gives a few generic examples of how one would use these moves to defend oneself. They are simple, but it is impossible to cover every possible situation. These pages are only to give the reader an idea of what to do if one cannot avoid a life threatening fight.

There are other ways to kill people in hand-to-hand fighting. The famous punch-their-nose-into-their-brain move is not in here and for good reason. Even at best, it working is a luck-of-the-die and the advance instruction needed is not he kind one learns in a book. If you are looking for an "I touch you and you die" book, look elsewhere. Most importantly, that is not what this book is about. It is for the martial artist who wants to know what the consequences of non-tournament moves are.

The part about being an advanced student is important. The author leaves out information on how to use the moves in a sequence or details of technique. This effectively prevents would-be punks from hurting people just because they read this book. For example, one move is "side kick to jaw." The average thug can't do a side kick at all and a beginner will find it impractical. He will either miss or not have enough power to the kick for it to be useful. The advanced student however, will first, practice; second, be able to link the moves in a useful order. Such as 1) a strike to stun the attacker 2) a strike to drop the attacker and 3) a strike to harm (very seriously) the attacker IF he still tries to harm you. The last chapter broadly covers these applications.

My favorite part is the descriptions after each move stating in brief the Damage and Results of each move. Examples range from "broken shin, bruised shin" (depends on how hard one kicks) to "broken neck, loss of consciousness" for damage. Results vary from "attacker may die" to "attacker will be unable to breathe for several minutes." This information is vital for understanding what one is trying to do when repeating the photographs and how to incorporate it in a sequence. It is also important in understanding what level of violence the move is.

But this book receives five stars not only for what it has, but also for what it does not. The author showed great moral conscious by making his book a reference of examples rather than a step-by-step training manual. After all, advanced students should already know the technical details and thugs wouldn't use this knowledge, as they do not like to think too much.

Rating:
Summary: Great information for the advanced student
Review: To begin with, this book is not "How to Learn to Kill People After Just One Reading!" In fact, the author often stresses his disapproval of deadly force. However, for those who have at least intermediate martial arts training, this book offers ideas on how to repulse an attacker.

The book begins with a brief introduction to the karate moves used in the book. It is only to show the reading what the author is writing about. He describes a snap kick but does not instruct you on how to do one. Like I said, you need at least intermediate level skills. The bulk of the book is the 100 moves. They seem a bit redundant, as there are only so many strikes and so many targets, but the effects may be different so they are listed that way. This arrangement also simplifies the material to better understand it. The last part of the book gives a few generic examples of how one would use these moves to defend oneself. They are simple, but it is impossible to cover every possible situation. These pages are only to give the reader an idea of what to do if one cannot avoid a life threatening fight.

There are other ways to kill people in hand-to-hand fighting. The famous punch-their-nose-into-their-brain move is not in here and for good reason. Even at best, it working is a luck-of-the-die and the advance instruction needed is not he kind one learns in a book. If you are looking for an "I touch you and you die" book, look elsewhere. Most importantly, that is not what this book is about. It is for the martial artist who wants to know what the consequences of non-tournament moves are.

The part about being an advanced student is important. The author leaves out information on how to use the moves in a sequence or details of technique. This effectively prevents would-be punks from hurting people just because they read this book. For example, one move is "side kick to jaw." The average thug can't do a side kick at all and a beginner will find it impractical. He will either miss or not have enough power to the kick for it to be useful. The advanced student however, will first, practice; second, be able to link the moves in a useful order. Such as 1) a strike to stun the attacker 2) a strike to drop the attacker and 3) a strike to harm (very seriously) the attacker IF he still tries to harm you. The last chapter broadly covers these applications.

My favorite part is the descriptions after each move stating in brief the Damage and Results of each move. Examples range from "broken shin, bruised shin" (depends on how hard one kicks) to "broken neck, loss of consciousness" for damage. Results vary from "attacker may die" to "attacker will be unable to breathe for several minutes." This information is vital for understanding what one is trying to do when repeating the photographs and how to incorporate it in a sequence. It is also important in understanding what level of violence the move is.

But this book receives five stars not only for what it has, but also for what it does not. The author showed great moral conscious by making his book a reference of examples rather than a step-by-step training manual. After all, advanced students should already know the technical details and thugs wouldn't use this knowledge, as they do not like to think too much.