Who's Who
Information
Entertainment
Publications
Directory
UFC


HomeLinksAdd LinksUpdatesMultimediaForumsSite Map

 

CompleteMartialArts.com - Knife Self-Defense for Combat (Special Forces/Ranger-Udt/Seal Hand-to-Hand Combat/Special Weapons/Special Tactics Series)


List Price: $12.00
Our Price: $12.00
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Black Belt Communications
Average Customer Rating: Average rating of 2.5/5Average rating of 2.5/5Average rating of 2.5/5Average rating of 2.5/5Average rating of 2.5/5

Buy it now at Amazon.com!

Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 355.548
EAN: 9780897500227
ISBN: 0897500229
Label: Black Belt Communications
Manufacturer: Black Belt Communications
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 104
Publication Date: 1977-07-01
Publisher: Black Belt Communications
Studio: Black Belt Communications

Related Items

Editorial Reviews:

Echanis was a senior instructor for the UDT-21, SEAL-2, Hand-to-Hand Combat/Special Weapons School for instructors. Echanis shows more than 30 separate techniques for disarming and controlling a knife attacker. Fully illustrated.


Spotlight customer reviews:

Customer Rating: Average rating of 1/5Average rating of 1/5Average rating of 1/5Average rating of 1/5Average rating of 1/5
Summary: The trilogy of DEATH..... If you ATTEMPT his methods!
Comment: RATING: I give this trilogy of books 1.5 stars overall.

1 star for validity, 4 stars for marketing and 5 stars for Echanis service in the U.S. Army as Green Beret, may you RIP.

Now back to the review. I am reviewing all three titles in Echanis's series of books.

Fist Echanis system of fighting was established and based on Korean Hwarang-Do, which he developed into a somewhat hybrid military hand-to-hand combative. All his methods and techniques are based on this system in all three books.

I will start with "Knife Self-Defense for Combat". This book offers compendium of 35 plus knife defense techniques that entail multiple variations that supposedly provide unlimited possibilities for the combatant. The only possibilities I see are ways to get you killed. I have been studying bladecraft for sometime now and can say that I seriously question the validity of most all these techniques in this book. The majority of the methods are way too complicated to perform under duress and stress. The moves are too long with too many steps to remember and choreographed like it is Kata. Defensive knife moves need to be simple, short and sweet, but deadly effective. Unfortunately these moves are not. Maybe if you have 5-6 hours a day to practice and learn a handful of his moves they may work for you. But for me I would rather use my time more wisely.

The second book is "Knife Fighting/Knife Throwing for Combat". Like the first volume that same echoes here. There are some points of interest to be found in this title, but can be found in better and more up to date works that are available. I have to make it know that a vast majority of the methods in this book are ridiculous. One major and contradiction to knife fighting is the topic of knife throwing, I just do not see the validity in this. If you are using a knife most likely you lost your firearm (malfunction/disarmed), so are you literally going to throw your last line of defense away? This method has no place in combat, maybe Hollywood.

The final title is "Basic Stick Fighting for Combat" which was published after Echanis passed away. It is said he never completed all the text to support this book and if so I do not think it would have made a difference. Like the other titles the moves are just to complex and very limited in there employment. I do think if you are an avid stick fighter you may get some use from this title but for the true combatant they are just too choreographed for any fluid and effective use in combat.

Overall this entire series is very poor and would not recommend using most of the moves for defense or combat. With that I do recommend the books for what not to do. They are also useful in the study of the historical evolution of modern combatives. A lot has changed in the art and science of combatives since the late seventies. Ultimately there is always something to be learned whether it is good or bad and knowing the difference may help to keep you alive to fight another day.



Customer Rating: Average rating of 4/5Average rating of 4/5Average rating of 4/5Average rating of 4/5Average rating of 4/5
Summary: The book is not bad, as far as it goes
Comment: I've had this book since it was first published. I've always regarded it as generally sound, and after more than 35 years of martial arts experience, I haven't changed that opinion. There is a lot of real stuff in the techniques demonstrated. A great deal of it, in fact, is similar to material you will find in Medieval fighting manuals dating from 1409-1600 (ie, Fiore, Talhoffer, Marozzo, Meyer). If you think that the guys who wrote those books didn't know what they were doing, you are a fool.

Nonetheless, there is some chaff in the book. Determining what is wheat and what is chaff, however, is a difficult business. It requires an appreciation of how knife attacks happen in the real world, and most of the posters (particularly the sneerers) probably don't have the experience to justify their sense of superiority -- a condition sadly prevalent in the "knife" community, including the authors of knife DVDs and books. Most knife defense systems aren't based on a study of how knife attacks really happen. They usually are based on some guy's fanciful idea of how they happen.

So I would recommend the book, but with a caveat (which should be applied to all the works by the modern self described knife experts) that some of the material shouldn't be trusted.

Customer Rating: Average rating of 2/5Average rating of 2/5Average rating of 2/5Average rating of 2/5Average rating of 2/5
Summary: Pretty, graceful & useless
Comment: Mr. Echanis's untimely death & a publisher's clever advertising ploy elevated him into a folk hero. Regrettably his books, while nicely bound, are filled with techniques that would be difficult in a dojo & fatal on the street. His knowledge of hapkido & aikido are not translated into "combat" tactics & are at best highly questionable. His books have recently been touted as "too deadly to be revealed until know"; a true statement if one considers the reader's health & safety to be what's in danger. Mr. Ellner's recommendations for other texts would be far better ways to spend one's money. While many hapkido instructors in America shy away from teaching serious street self-defense moves, there are some, along with (non MMA, NHB) combat-oriented jujutsu teachers, who would provide decent instruction - provided you research the matter well. If one has to study from a book, make sure it's a good one.

Customer Rating: Average rating of 5/5Average rating of 5/5Average rating of 5/5Average rating of 5/5Average rating of 5/5
Summary: Yes, there are a lot of "questionable" techniques, but there is still a lot you can learn if you have an open mind!
Comment: Being the author of several books on the martial arts and fighting, I am always looking for books of exceptional quality to add to my library. If I have a book in my library, it's definitely worth owning. One such book is Michael D. Echanis', "Knife Self-Defense for Combat." This book is directly influenced by the Korean martial art of Hwarang Do and its current Grandmaster Joo Bang Lee, who Echanis had studied under before his untimely demise in Nicaragua.

This book along with its two companion volumes, "Basic Stick Fighting for Combat" and "Knife Fighting, Knife Throwing for Combat," were not initially released to the general public, but instead were only available to certified and recognized self-defense instructors. These books were originally intended to be military training manuals for the various elite units in the United States military. These were units such as the Special Forces, Army Rangers, Navy Seals, etc.

This volume, like the other two in this series, starts out with a brief section on the history of Hwarang Do and its relationship to hand-to-hand combat. This is followed by another brief section that looks at the theory and internal dynamics which make up this very impressive art.

The next section of this book goes over in very good detail the basic principles involved in defending oneself against an attacker armed with a knife. This section is very well done and provides a lot of very sound advice. It then concludes with the following:

4 Basic Rules in Unarmed Self-Defense Against a Weapons Attack

1. Clear your body of the weapon's line of fire and angle of attack.
2. Stabilize and control the weapon...
3. Disarm the weapon...
4. Neutralize the enemy...

This section end with the following quote from the author, "No matter how proficient the unarmed expert becomes at disarming an armed assailant, he will remain vulnerable to even the smallest weapons expert." Concerning the subject, have any truer words been said?

The author proceeds to demonstrate 38 basic methods for disarming an attacker who is armed with a knife. The author stresses that these are merely examples for the readers of this book to use as a guide for finding the right technique that works for them. It is by no means intended to be cure-all or gospel of knife self-defense. Use your own ingenuity to find and develop your own self-defense methods using the ones that the author has demonstrated as a guide.

I have read other reviews where the readers have criticized some of the moves in this book as being to complex and unrealistic in nature. I don't feel that this is the case and did not see that when I read the book as the author intended. However, if you read this book under the impression that these 38 techniques are to be executed exactly as they are presented instead of as they were intended, which is as a guide to go by, then yes, I could see where that misinterpretation could come from.

Although the clarity of the photographs was outstanding and easy to follow, I felt that the descriptions themselves could have been a little bit longer and more detailed. I would have also liked to have seen some close-up photographs of some of the grabs and hand positions. Other than that, this is a very good book and one that should be on your list too buy, if you don't own it already.

Customer Rating: Average rating of 2/5Average rating of 2/5Average rating of 2/5Average rating of 2/5Average rating of 2/5
Summary: Michael Echanis, American Ninja, Or The Special Forces "Count Dante"
Comment: i'vc had this book since i was 7 years old. i loved the awesome photos of echanis doing his thing. if you like the elaborate and complex, then this is the knife fighting book for you. there are simpler ways of "getting it done", but few are more fun to try. and, by the way, if any of you are curious as to how he died, he was killed while "training" in nicaragua. hmmm . . .


Buy it now at Amazon.com!

Books
Videos
DVD
Movies
Posters
Advertise


Top 50 Martial Arts Topsites List

Copyright � 1999-2008 CompleteMartialArts.com. All rights reserved.
powered by My Amazon Store Manager v 2.0, © Stringer Software Solutions