Unarmed Combat: Hand-to-Hand Fighting Skills from the World's Most Elite Military Units

by Martin J. Dougherty

With the aid of superb line artworks, Unarmed Combat demonstrates to the reader how special forces soldiers are taught to excel in hand-to-hand how they maximise bodyweight, and the use of various strikes, throws, locks and constrictions to defeat opponents. It explains how different martial arts have been combined by military units to create hand-to-hand combat systems for defence against multiple assailants, for fighting on the ground, for dealing with edged and impact weapons, what works against attackers with firearms and – more importantly – what doesn’t. With tips and techniques from unarmed combat experts, the book is divided into two main sections. The first covers the mental preparation needed to be ready to defend yourself. The second covers the physical techniques needed to defend yourself, and if necessary, strike back to temporarily incapacitate your attacker and escape. With more than 300 easy-to-follow artworks and handy pull-out lists of key information, Unarmed Combat is the definitive guide for anyone wanting to be ready for anything - it could save your life.

Genres: Martial Arts, Nonfiction

320 pages, Paperback

First published July 22, 2012

About the author

Hailing from northeast England, Martin J Dougherty is a professional writer specialising in military history. He has been at times a games designer, an engineer, a self-protection instructor, a teacher and a defence analyst. Martin has published a range of books covering topics as diverse as self-protection, medieval warfare and space flight, and has addressed international conferences on anti-shipping missiles and homeland security issues.

Martin's interests include martial arts and fencing. He has coached Fencing, Ju-Jitsu, Self-Defence and Kickboxing for many years at the University of Sunderland, and has competed to national level as a fencer. As a martial artist he holds black belts in Combat Ju-Jitsu, Nihon Tai-Jitsu and Self-Defence. Martin is a Senior Assessor with the Self-Defence Federation and an IL1 instructor/assessor with the Britsh Federation for Historical Swordplay, specialising in the Military Sabre and the Smallsword.

Reviews

[Ethan · Rating 4 out of 5]

SAS and elite forces guide: Self Defense by Martin J Dougherty

The book was very interesting. The main concept is how to prepare yourself for an attack mentally and physically, while using legally and morally justified responses in an effort to stop a threat. The first part of self defense is being aware of your surroundings and avoiding possibly dangerous situations. When we are addressed with a threatening situation being ready can determine if you come out alive. The fourteen chapters in this book show how to be ready when it really matters.

It emphasizes the use of training for an attack, not just a martial art that could ignore a practical part of fighting, such as fighting multiple opponents or grappling a single opponent. It is not saying that martial arts are bad, but that if you do them that you should make sure to add to your training aspects that might be ignored in a real fight. Certain techniques taught in martial arts may also prove to be ineffective in a real fight, but generally the author advocates using the simplest methods possible. The methods involve a simple knowledge of how certain body parts react to being hit by other body parts or objects. This information helped me form a better idea of how to create my own training.

The guide was very informative for me. I liked how it was set up with illustrations for most of the concepts. It changed my perspective on fighting by showing methods that have been proven in combat situations. Although the book could be a little bit slow at times, the content was important. This book isn't really designed to just be read, but also used as a practice guide for self defense. The challenge isn't just to read it, but to use it for training.

[Seven Escobar · Rating 4 out of 5]

"In many martial arts schools you will learn to perform feats such as breaking cinder blocks or pieces of wood. However, in real life, there are not many situations in which you will be attacked by a wall."