Krav Maga Tactical Survival: Personal Safety in Action. Proven Solutions for Real Life Situations

As someone who has been seriously involved in numerous martial and combative arts (Judo, Jujitsu, Karate-Do, Boxing, Wrestling, American Combatives and Krav Maga) for the last 65 plus years I am always looking for new books and materials of these topics. I recently purchased this interesting and informative book (Krav Maga Tactical Survival: Personal safety in action: proven solutions for real life situations by Gershon Ben Keren) on Amazon for a bargain price.Krav Maga has always been one of my favorite street combat systems. I had a 6 day (8 hours a day) intense training in this art many years ago at a Police Officer Instructor course at the Illinois State Police Academy with other officers who were also police tactics instructors from across the country. This 224 page soft cover volume is the second book by this author and is organized into five parts covering a wide range of material. The first part covers numerous excellent striking techniques. The second part deals with armed and unarmed self-defense scenarios. The third part focuses on armed assaults. The fourth shows defenses against unarmed assaults. The final part explains how to do various throws in self-defense.This book is filled with clear color pictures showing the all the techniques. This is an excellent book when it is combined with ACTUAL HANDS-ON training with a Krav Maga instructor. As I emphasize in all my own books and manuals on self-defense; books are fantastic but it is difficult learning any combative art from merely reading a book or manual. When you combine real hands-on training with a good instructor, books then become excellent resources to review the material.If you are into Krav Maga you may want to check out this excellent book.Rating: 5 Stars. Joseph J. Truncale (Shotokan Karate Self-Defense Techniques: Combat karate for the street).

This book on the practical use of Krav Maga for "Real World" violence is even better than Gershon's first book. It addresses facing more skilled assailants (in the beginning section) and also what to do when fighting a pain resistant assailant. It deals with multiple attackers and defenses for knife and gun assaults. Bar room fighting is also covered in this book as well as the likely places that an assault might take place. What makes this book better than the first is that the illustrated techniques are better and easier to comprehend and there is advanced criminal psychology included. The psychology in this book is outstanding and it will teach you how to defeat most assailants. However, Gershon needs to write another book which goes into greater detail on how to beat skilled and trained opponents. He should also address dirty fighting in more detail and mass attacks where you are fighting to survive against 8 people or more. In NYC, there is an abundance of trained fighters and some criminals are highly skilled at boxing and grappling. There are many "karate guys" and "MMA dudes" in NYC too. Also, there is a huge amount of bodybuilders in my city in recent years. For example, if you are a bouncer, then the odds are very high that you will have to face a mass attack or trained fighter since you fight far more frequently than the average self defense practitioner. This can also be true if you live or work in a bad neighborhood. I hear that there are many martial artists on the West Coast too and mass/gang attacks are as commonplace if not more so than in NYC. I still say for extreme self defense and defense in virtually any scenario you should read David Kahn's books. This will serve someone who lives in inner city Chicago, Atlanta or the LA area much better. This book seems suited for someone who lives in the Northeast Region of America. Furthermore, if Krav Maga is to be respected as a martial art, it must be able to compete successfully against the other martial arts (Kung Fu, Karate, Jujitsu, MMA, etc.) not just unskilled opponents.

Great instructional book. If you can’t get the proper physical training due to schedule or just no dojo around at least you can read and study and practice. Great book well written.

I have been training in Krav Maga for three years and have read many different books on the subject. This book is about more than just how to execute Krav Maga techniques. For that, the book is excellent. The descriptions are exceptionally useful with each defense broken down into small steps with every detail addressed. The pictures support each of the descriptions and there are 4-8 photos for each technique! I really got the sense of the depth and breadth of Gershon Ben Keren's expertise and was able to easily follow the steps and reproduce the movements. However, the most unique and useful aspect of the book is the way that the defenses are introduced. There is a huge emphasis on the psychology of the attacker as well as the psychology of successful defense and self protection. I can not recall reading a martial arts or Krav Maga book in the past that discussed in such great detail the kinds of attackers and their motivations...and how to alter a response based on this information. He repeatedly emphasizes thinking beyond the technique in terms of decisiveness, de-escalation, third parties, etc.I read and enjoyed the first book in the series and this second offering builds where the first left off. It is by all standards excellent and I strongly recommend it to people of all levels of training.