Against the Edge: The Instructor's Guide to Countermeasures to Knife Attacks

By Vincent Anthony

Book by Anthony, Vincent This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0865682569
• ISBN13: 9780865682566
• Release Date: January 2006
• Publisher: Action Pursuit Group
• Length: 142 Pages
• Weight: 0.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.8" x 0.3" x 6.8"

Customer Reviews

More for the Instructor, less for the student

Vincent Anthony does a good job at producing a book for the typical Martial Arts instructor who will need to introduce the topic of knife defenses. It is a thin book that tries to do a lot more than it really can do in such a short span of pages. HOWEVER, I have studied for many years, and if I have a speciality, defenses against the edged weapon attack is it, I can tell you that it was well worth my read. There are good bolded summary sections that help any instructor present material in a memorable manner. Vincent Anthony does present very good snippets of information that were new to me, e.g. arterial injury timetables. Many of the diagrams are drawn in black and white. I prefer this because of the clarity it affords. As well, the photographs are as well in black and white, they too are enough to work with someone and figure out the techniques. The book is written for instructors, and other people who have had considerable experience. It is a resource book and aims at the pedagogy. The techniques taught are basic to intermediate, and there is considerably more taught in W.W. "Hock" Hochheim's system and with GM Pellegrini's Combat Hapkido. If you are looking for one book to help you learn and teach knife self-defenses, this is not it. Actually, Vincent Anthony in as much tells you this too, but it is one of those books you should have in your self-defense library. If there is a second volume in the works, I would buy it.

Good Solid Information and Well Written, But Should Have Been Longer!

Let me start off by clearly stating that this is a very well thought out and written book on a very serious and often quite touchy subject (full pun intended). Knife fighting (for lack of a better term) and knife self-defense is a very real and quite lethal possibility, and therefore, you should take it very seriously and research accurate information on the subject, and this book is no exception. Now while I fully admit that I don't necessarily agree with absolutely everything the author states, I do find enough validity with the information in his book to clearly state that there is a lot that can be learned from reading it. Now surely if you have a lot of experience on the subject you may find a lot of this information to be "old hat," but that still doesn't mean that it isn't valid. In fact a lot of the concepts and principles the author talks about are very sound indeed. Even though there should have been a lot more demonstrations provided of defense against an attacker armed with a knife. There are a few in this book, but I really would have liked to have seen more. One thing that I really did enjoy about the photographs were the close-up insets that accompanied some of the photographs were close-ups were called for. Nicely done! I also found the sections dealing with the mental aspect to be good, although I felt that they should really have been a lot more detailed. But that is just my opinion. If you are interested in the subject of knife fighting and knife self-defense, I would also recommend the following books on the subject. Knife Fighting: A Practical Course Knife Fighting, Knife Throwing for Combat (Special Forces/Ranger-Udt/Seal Hand-To-Hand Combat/Special W) Knives, Knife Fighting, And Related Hassles: How To Survive A Real Knife Fight Knife Self-Defense for Combat (Special Forces/Ranger-Udt/Seal Hand-to-Hand Combat/Special Weapons/Special Tactics Series) Contemporary Knife Targeting: Modern Science Vs. W.E. Fairbairn's Timetable of Death The only real complaint that I have with this book is that I would liked to have seen it about another 100 pages longer with more detailed explanations in most areas and more examples of actual knife defenses being demonstrated. Other than that small complaint (and that is the only reason I am giving it 4 stars), I really enjoyed this book. Shawn Kovacich Martial Artist/Author of the Achieving Kicking Excellence series.