The Principles of Unarmed Combat
A million times over the years martial artists have come up to me and asked questions about how they can improve. Sometimes they want to know what the best way to choke someone is. Sometimes they want to know what to do if they're up against a bigger, stronger opponent. Sometimes they want to know why a certain technique just doesn t work for them. Some of these are difficult questions to answer and a lot of times when martial arts students don't get a simple, easy solution, they get discouraged. But a few people keep looking for answers to the why and how of martial arts. A hand full actually get those answers. Mark Jacobs is one of those few. I've known Mark for a long time and can say he's as dedicated a writer and researcher as he is a serious martial artist. He s one of those people who, instead of getting discouraged by the difficult questions martial arts pose, looked deeper for answers. Besides looking in the regular places - such as asking teachers like me all sorts of annoying questions - he looked in places most martial artists don t bother looking. He's talked to doctors and physicists, read through scientific studies and tracked down the best available information about how to make martial arts work better. This book is the result of all that research. You won t find any magic solutions in here. You won't get another how to book or any new secrets known only to the author. What you will get are the facts about every aspect of empty handed martial arts from footwork to striking to defense to grappling and everything in between. What you ll get is probably the only book ever to tell you exactly why things work in martial arts, why they don t work, how to fix them, and give you clear, simple evidence that what it says here is accurate and true. For the whole history of man, people have been fighting. And for almost that long, they've been arguing over what the best way to fight is. This book settles a lot of those arguments. It doesn't teach you a style of martial arts. And it doesn t say there's anything wrong with any martial arts style. What it does do is look honestly and objectively at fighting and how it's done in the clearest and most comprehensive way ever put on paper. Now, when martial arts students come up to me and ask all those questions, I can just tell them Go read The Principles of Unarmed Combat . You ll find a lot of answers in here. --Gene LeBellBruce Lee's The Tao of Jeet Kune Do ain't got nothing on Mark Jacobs and The Principles of Unarmed Combat. Examining hand-to-hand combat with a keen and analytical eye, Jacobs touches upon everything striking to grappling, offense to defense, and even the mental aspect - and he does so in a concise and easy-to-understand fashion. With The Principles of Unarmed Combat, Jacobs has crafted the definitive text on fighting. --Jim Genia - Editor Full-Contact Fighter magazine and MMAconvert.com and author of Raw Combat: The Underground World of Mixed Martial ArtsBruce Lee's The Tao of Jeet Kune Do ain't got nothing on Mark Jacobs and The Principles of Unarmed Combat. Examining hand-to-hand combat with a keen and analytical eye, Jacobs touches upon everything striking to grappling, offense to defense, and even the mental aspect - and he does so in a concise and easy-to-understand fashion. With The Principles of Unarmed Combat, Jacobs has crafted the definitive text on fighting. --Jim Genia - Editor Full-Contact Fighter magazine and MMAconvert.com and author of Raw Combat: The Underground World of Mixed Martial Arts