Customer Reviews

Combat Jiu-Jitsu

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Although brief, this is a very practical and useful book on jiu-jitsu by Mr. Leff, whose training has an interesting history. While a foreign language teacher in South America, he met a Japanese instuctor by the name of Tanaka who taught a very aggressive form of jiu-jitsu that was still not widely taught to the public. Mr. Leff became a student and eventually a master of this system. He also worked as a bouncer for many years in New York city, where he learned that what he had been taught worked in real life situations.

In this style of jiu jitsu, atemi waze or strikes and kicks are well integrated with the more typical throws and holds and locks. The chapter on "Fight Stoppers" shows this very well, which usually involve a more serious countering technique or blow combined with a hold or lock and/or takedown or throw. Other chapters shold holds and locks throws, and other techniques. The system is very self-defense oriented, which Leff mentions in the introduction was always a focus of his, and often his instructors didn't seem to emphasize it, especially the karate instructors, but also the judo and jiu jitsu ones as well.

Mr. Leff also has some very sage advice about not resorting to violent behavior unless you absolutely have to, as a result of the possible legal fees and fail time. Although you might feel justified in defending yourself, it's possible the courts might not see it that way. Also, he points out that going to the ground, which one hears so often these days, is a very dangerous piece of advice and should not be done under any circumstances unless one falls or trips, since placing yourself on the ground just insures that if the guy has any companions that they will kick or stomp you on the ground.

This is an excellent book on self-defense oriented jiu jitsu with many useful and practical techniques. My only complaint is that I would like to have seen even more of Mr. Leff's very practical and effective system and would like to see him do a book covering his complete system someday.

Although Norman Leff has superior talents writing is not one of them. The writing is ponderous and the photographs are useless. There is nothing to be gained by purchasing or reading this book. Save your money and buy something else.

HAVING READ THIS BOOK AS A MARTIAL ARTS PRACTICTIONER I FELT IT WAS AS DETAILED IN THE MANUEVERS AS A BOOK CAN BE. IT LEFT ME WISHING FOR A VIDEO TO SUPPLEMENT THE PICTURES. MASTER LEFF WENT BRIEFLY INTO THE HISTORY OF HIS JIU JITSU KNOWLEDGE AND BACKGROUND WHICH WAS INTERESTING, MORE OF THE FORTY YEARS OF MARTIAL ARTS TALES WOULD HAVE BEEN NICE. A LARGER, MORE DETAILED BOOK WOULD BE NICE, BUT IN COMPARISON OF THIS VERSES OTHER MORE EXPENSIVE BOOKS, I FOUND THIS BOOK COMPREHENSIVE, EASY TO FOLLOW, AND BASICALLY A GOOD MARTIAL ARTS GUIDE. I LOOK FOWARD TO A MORE DETAILED BOOK WITH POSSIBLY MORE OF THE HISTORY OF THIS DYNAMIC SYSTEM AS WELL AS STORIES OF HIS LIFE,( WHICH I'M SURE MUST BE INTERESTING WITH OVER 40 YEARS OF MARTIAL ARTS STORIES, ECT..) AS WELL AS MORE COMPLEX MOVES. OVERALL AN EXCELLENT BOOK FOR THE PRICE..........

NORM LEFF IS ONE OF THE MOST KNOWLEDGEABLE JIUJITSU INSTRUCTORS IN THE COUNTRY. THIS SIMPLISTIC YET STREET EFFECTIVE SYSTEM IS EASY TO LEARN. THE PHOTOS SHOW A LOT AND MUCH INFORMATION CAN BE GATHERED FROM THEM IF YOU HAVE THE SLIGHTEST MARTIAL ART INSIGHT.

Thought the book gave insight in real life combat techniques. But only the VERY basic techniques are demonstrated (and even not so well demonstrated).

Please spend your money on more interesting jiu jitsu books than this one.

In the martial arts genre there is no shortage of sillyness to deal with. When you aren't being annoyed with death touch this, and pressure point magic, you are getting garbage like this pretending to be something street effective. Every picture demonstrates that Leff and his collegues have no clue what real live punches, kicks, and take downs look like at all. His "defenses" betray this on every picture. THe pictures also betray the lack of skill he and his students have in even the most basic punches and kicks.
So technically the book just completely sucks. We also have a biography section to dismantle. This takes up a few pages at the begining of the book. Its just as silly as the rest of the book. What really gets the most laughs for me though, is numerous pictures of Norman Leff the young fighter. Almost all of them have the caption "at his fit fighting weight of 250." And what is so funny is just a big fat guy. No muscle tone at all. Just a big fat guy in a gi. Ridiculous.

Save your money and buy the fighters notebook instead.
My copy of Norms book will be going up for sale on ebay in the near future. I expect shipping will be more than the the final bid price. JMHO.