Customer Reviews

Master Of The Blade: Secrets Of The Deadly Art Of Knife Fighting

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This book is about fighting a "duel" with the knife. Duel fighting is more of a phenomenon of two individuals "willing to fight" ... vs. a true self defense situation. Ryan claims that the worst case scenario for a a person with a knife to face is to square off with another person also skilled with the blade. This is true for "duel fighting". The worst case scenario in the streets is when you are attacked by an assailant, and you are unaware that he is attacking you with a knife.

IF you research the "reality" of knife violence, most victims are not even aware that they are "being stabbed" until after the fact. As far as they are concerned, they are being punched or grabbed, and they are reacting accordingly.

Any system of knife defense that assumes the following is a system that is based on consenting violence, the duel. It does not adequately address reality based self defense, and focuses most of the science on the wrong thing, or at best "the least probable" scenario UNLESS your goal is to get into knife fights.

FIVE CRITICAL and UNREALISTIC ASSUMPTIONS MADE IN THE BOOK
1. You are aware that your opponent has a knife
2. Your knife will already be drawn and ready for action
3. If your knife is NOT drawn and ready for action, then you will have time (translation: LUXURY) to deploy your knife and therefore follow the techniques of the book.
4. Unarmed combatives don't need to be integrated in strategies regarding knife fighting / defense, and therefore are not needed as part of this manual.
5. Assuming "integrated" unarmed combatives are addressed (which they aren't in the book), getting your folder blade out under stress is not a difficult thing to do (it is a fine motor skill and as we know we lose those skills when our body experiences fear and the a-dump ... need to consider this as part of training)

This amazing book is a really needed work into the "sea" of knife fighting books. I'm a martial artist & knife fighter with 20+ years of experience into law enforcement/security field, and among hundreds of knife fighting books, you can not find all the practical information you get in just this single book. In this work, many things are cleared, and several important points of knife fighting/knife defense are easily teached to the novice and the expert alike. I find this book most usefull for anyone interested in reallistic knife fighting, and who do not want to spend several thousand bucks in titles on the subject. If you must choose one book on knife fighting, and one only, this is the book for you.

There is not much I can add, I agree with all the other reviews here. This book is very worthwhile, full of practical, useful information.

I kind of wish all the thugs out there and kids carrying knives would read it and realise how horrific it is to be in a knife fight, maybe then they'd change their ways.

Well, maybe not the thugs, but at least they'd be more likely to rob you with skill and not hurt you than rob you with no skill and probably kill you in a mad frenzy of stupidity and fear.

In brief, chapter by chapter it shows you:

the blades and advantages
how to cut
how to defend / counter
tactics
strategies (longer term tactics)
mistakes you could make that could be deadly
concealment (not just for you to conceal, helps you learn how others might conceal the weapon)

There are more chapters than this but those are the main topics.

The stance he suggests is very good, it might seem completely bananas for unarmed combat but makes great sense when wielding / facing a weapon.

I recommend this book and hope you never need the skills in it.

...

This is a good book for beginners. If you are looking for a book to show you PRACTICAL knife fighting, read this book. As a student and instructor in the martial arts for 15 years it is good to see an instructor with the same views of practical applications for the street that I have. It is a win at all cost world and this book gives you the information to help you survive. A very straight foreward approach to knife fighting. If you are interested in this book you should also check out Tao of Jeet Kune Do by Bruce Lee. It's not a knife fighting book, but it covers all aspects of fighting. There are similarities in views of practicality.

After reading four books on knife fighting, I'm beginning to realize there's not much more to be said, especially when Richard Ryan is saying it. "Pathetic" he calls man. A "walking sack of meat." No built-in mechanisms for defense, obviously not a predator by nature. Man had to "claw his way up" the foodchain.

Is this guy for real?

If you begin with a false premise, you can only get better and there are some relevant material in the book--if you can get past Ryan's flaming ego, which doesn't take long to become a smoldering ember.

But with all the useful information which, by the way, you can get elsewhere in far more entertaining ways, Ryan rapidly becomes tedious to read. The truth is, man has always been the most dangerous creature roaming this planet. Even cave deptictions show groups of armed men taking down creatures much larger and faster than themselves. And did anyone notice that most of early man wore fur and leather footwear.

It wasn't only weapons that made man dangerous, it was his resourcefulness and, did anyone say fire? Given to mortal man by the immortal Prometheus, it made man almost as powerful as the gods. Soon Greeks were putting sticks into the ground and mathematically figuring out the circumference of the globe. Then Persians, Greeks and Romans were making war using horses and elephants, and bronze and leather weapons, marching in formation and boldly claiming dominance over the land. Pathetic? "Walking sacks of meat?" Oh, and let's not forget in God's image.

The bottom line in knife fighting is, if someone wants to kill you with a knife, he probably will if he's smart enough and committed enough. Very few people are "called out" for knife fighting -- dirks have always been an assasin's tool, nearly everyone's last choice for going at it in the so-called "circle of death" in a fair fight.

When you can see the bad guy coming. When you see the predator's gleam in his eyes, then a knife can come in very handy. Tick someone off in a bar and a blade's likely to end up in your ribs before you can try all that macho knife stuff you learned.

A fellow I once knew pulled out a giant fold-out knife and laid it on the table so I could get a good look at it. Then he told me about two guys who were following him one night in a bad section of D.C. He turned and faced them, pulling out the knife and letting them see its glittering blade before he palmed it.

"Yeah, well what would you have done if they'd pulled out knives of their own and come after you?" He shrugged and replied, "I would have shot them."

To be honest, this book wasn't all that great. The author spent more time explaining how his "dynamic" method was better than everyone else's instead of actually teaching the art of blade wielding & fighting. There was even space for a comic strip of some fat, cross eyed martial arts master rejecting a sparring session with the author out of fear. Now Mr. Ryan, play nice or I'll put you in the garage-sale bin.

This book is interesting, but in general, very poorly written. The author comes across as an overblown windbag (not an uncommon occurrence for this type of book). The techniques described are reasonable, if not earth-shattering. Anyone interested in more than an academic understanding of knife-fighting would be well served to put the book down and start training.
The most annoying thing about this book was the very poor quality of the writing and the editing. There are literally hundreds of instances of factually incorrect statements, grammatical errors, and misspellings. It was very difficult to take the author seriously when so many blatant errors made it into the book.
Not a book I'd recommend.

Anyone interested in a good overview of practical knife fighting and defense against bladed weapons would benefit from this book. Ryan obviously knows his subject well and offers excellent instruction and advice.

This is a highly informative read for anyone interested in the nuts and bolts of knife fighting/defense. Mr Ryans stance/guard is the best I have come across for protecting your vital targets and still being free to attack. This is the best book on the subject I have read to date. Concise, easy to follow and comprehensive, it taught me things my martial arts training never touched on.

I found this book to be a waste of time. It covers very little of the skills or techniques that I was hoping to find. There are too many, too small chapters. The author provides an introduction to numerous schools and theories of knife fighting, but goes no more than skin deep into any of them. Much space is wasted on the history of these different schools, and yet--despite all the pages used--the information is no more than what you could gather by spending a couple of hours reading about knife fighting on Wikipedia. I'm still searching for the book that will fill my needs.