Krav Maga Defense: How to Defend Yourself Against the 12 Most Common Unarmed Street Attacks by David Kahn

Krav Maga Defense: How to Defend Yourself Against the 12 Most Common Unarmed Street Attacks Reviews

• 
  Peter Z.

  Usable book given the limitations of this medium for learning a physical skill. Those interested in learning about the importance of situational awareness will find useful tips here. Also those interested in determining whether Krav Maga is a skill they wish to learn will also find value. In and of itself the book offers limited value to someone who wishes to acquire the skill because there is only so much you can learn from reading. The author does note that even after practicing at slow speed and full speed with a partner, the practitioner will still not be perfectly prepared for their first all-out street fight. Nevertheless, something is better than nothing and even for someone who doesn't plan to pursue further education in the skill, the book offers tips on how to escape a fight before it starts, and weak spots that might be exploited to disable an attacker and get away. I hope this book isn't taken by anyone as "just enough information to be dangerous" because if you go out there with just this thinking you're going to be superman, you're done for.
  
  Pluses: The book has links in the back to where the reader can find further training (videos, classes, etc.). The videos would be the next step I would recommend.
  Minuses: (1) Often in the photography, the attacker and defender are wearing similar clothing, making it difficult to discern who's the good guy and who's the bad guy. It would have been helpful to always have the good guy wear a white t-shirt, for example. (2) In almost all of the evolutions, the recommended technique ends with "follow up with additional retzev combatives as necessary." Since these additional combatives are so often mentioned, there ought to be periodic refreshers on them throughout the book -- repetition would aid in recollection. One star deducted in total for room to improve on both of these points.
  
  Long story short: given the confines of a book and no instructor, I learned a lot about the skill and I feel a little more confident than before, now that I have more ideas about how to avoid a fight and how to possibly escape if I ever got suckered into one. If I intended to use the physical skills, I would go study with an expert.
• 
  Marcia

  I received an advance uncorrected copy from goodreads.com. Since the copy I received was uncorrected I would hope that the typos and word crafting errors were corrected. However, throughout my copy the Hebrew word רצף was mis-transliterated as Retzev instead of Retzef or Retzeph.
  
  This is the third book by this author on Krav Maga. The first portion is about the mental part of Krav Maga and the rest is practice drills. They need to be done with a partner, safety equipment and should be under the guidance of a Krav Maga teacher, so it seems like this should be a text to go along with a course. A video would probably be helpful.
• 
  Fredrick Danysh

  In the climate of violence and civil strife today, one must be able to defend one's self. Krav Maga is an overview of Israeli unarmed defense tactics. This is a good basic introduction but should not replace instruction under a professional due to possible legal ramifications. It appears to emphasize the use of fists instead of open hand techniques. This was a free advance review copy through Goodreads.com.
• 
  M.

  Great knowledge that I hope I will never need but am glad to have some know how. I won this in a contest and it was an informative read. Thank you!
• 
  Doug

  Kahn's entire library are all exemplary reference books, but this is the best. The first part of the book is an exhaustive, up-to-date breakdown of IKMA's theories on street violence. And then the defenses are covered in very clear prose and excellent illustrations.