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Rating: 
Summary: A thoroughly "learner friendly" compendium
Review: A very highly recommended addition to personal and professional Martial Arts Studies instructional reference collections, Low Kicks: Aiming Low For Maximum Punishment In Unarmed Combat by martial arts expert Fred Hutchinson teaches martial arts students how to defend themselves against opponents or attackers who are larger or stronger than themselves. This thoroughly "learner friendly" compendium of basic instructions covers the physical stance, kick chambering, weight shifting, and footwork. With practice in applying Hutchinson's clear, step-by-step instructions, martial arts students will enhanced their agility, speed, accuracy, power, and tactical effectiveness in a combat situation through the use of low kicks.
Rating: 
Summary: Very specific book.
Review: Ah, low kicks, what some would call the "most practical" way to use your feet. This book is pretty much for the novice, but it can certainly add to most folk's arsenal. The best part for me were the training methods to improve accurracy, but they weren't really anything new. The kicks that are covered are classified as either "chambered" or "unchambered", but I did notice that probably the most proven low kick was missing; the Thai round kick to the thigh! This book seems like it was written in the Bruce Tegner days, when Karate, Judo, and Jujitsu were the only Asian arts, and Savate was our (westerners) answer to it. However, if you know nothing about low kicks, and want to get REALLY good at them, then this is the book for you. My major complaints are the poor illustrations (I would have prefered stick figures to these drawings), and the lack of applications. Make no mistake, low kicks are important, but this book is on low kicks only. I think it should be a suplementary text and nothing more.
Rating:
Summary: Very specific book.
Review: Ah, low kicks, what some would call the "most practical" way to use your feet. This book is pretty much for the novice, but it can certainly add to most folk's arsenal. The best part for me were the training methods to improve accurracy, but they weren't really anything new. The kicks that are covered are classified as either "chambered" or "unchambered", but I did notice that probably the most proven low kick was missing; the Thai round kick to the thigh! This book seems like it was written in the Bruce Tegner days, when Karate, Judo, and Jujitsu were the only Asian arts, and Savate was our (westerners) answer to it. However, if you know nothing about low kicks, and want to get REALLY good at them, then this is the book for you. My major complaints are the poor illustrations (I would have prefered stick figures to these drawings), and the lack of applications. Make no mistake, low kicks are important, but this book is on low kicks only. I think it should be a suplementary text and nothing more.
Rating: 
Summary: Unreservedly Recommended
Review: Fred Hutchinson's Low Kicks is an excellent manual for training the body's most powerful anatomical weapons -- the legs. The manual's format is similar to John Sanchez's Slash and Thrust and Andrea Ferrara's Corsican Steel. (What these manuals share in common is the presentation of training exercises that are independent of style or system. The obvious result is that any reader can benefit from their information regardless of his/her own background, expertise, or combative preferences.) Low Kicks begins by identifying those kicks that Hutchinson considers most appropriate for self defense from the perspective of the reader who cannot train regularly in a dojo. The kicks he recommends are simple in execution and effective in application. Some kicks are drawn from traditional karate, and a few others come from French savate. At least two kicks Hutchinson uses come from WWII Military Combatives, a "style" of combat that has recently developed a large following in the US and Britain. The book then proceeds to reveal a variety of training methods used for making the kicks even more effective. The methods described are such that the reader can utilize them in his den or basement without relying on elaborate equipment or training devices. What is most unique about Low kicks is not only that the author has diligently selected those kicks that work best under a wide range of circumstances, but that the kicks fit in smoothly with the body dynamics used by diverse martial arts systems from karate and savate to ninjutsu and combatives. We have recently made Lopw Kicks required reading in our training halls, and unreservedly recommend it to anyone interested in practical personal protection.
Rating:
Summary: For people with no martial arts training
Review: I thought the book was decent, but it really is for a person with little or no training. The kicks are basic karate kicks that any white belt at the YMCA is familiar with. The book also covered weight training to enhance your low kicks. Weight trainging?! Once again, obviously written for the complete novice and obviously padding the pages with common knowledge. The book basically covers basic kicks and how to practice them. Interesting, but there is nothing in the book that I couldn't have figured out on my own. I was hoping for a detailed description of how/when to attack knees to effect particular injury, or knock a person out by kicking the femoral artery. I know how to kick! I wanted to learn some of the ways to use those most kicks effectively.
Rating:
Summary: For people with no martial arts training
Review: I thought the book was decent, but it really is for a person with little or no training. The kicks are basic karate kicks that any white belt at the YMCA is familiar with. The book also covered weight training to enhance your low kicks. Weight trainging?! Once again, obviously written for the complete novice and obviously padding the pages with common knowledge. The book basically covers basic kicks and how to practice them. Interesting, but there is nothing in the book that I couldn't have figured out on my own. I was hoping for a detailed description of how/when to attack knees to effect particular injury, or knock a person out by kicking the femoral artery. I know how to kick! I wanted to learn some of the ways to use those most kicks effectively.
Rating:
Summary: Low kicks are great.
Review: It's true, low kicks are great. This book will really help you. I think it is good. word
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