Police Kung Fu: The Personal Combat Handbook of the Taiwan National Police [Paperback]

Man Kam Lo (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 1, 2001

Man Kam Lo (Author) Police Kung Fu: The Personal Combat Handbook of the Taiwan National Police [Paperback] 136 pages Publisher: Tuttle Publishing; 1st ed edition (November 1, 2001) Language: English ISBN-10: 0804832714

Product Details

• Paperback: 136 pages
• Publisher: Tuttle Publishing; 1st ed edition (November 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0804832714
• ISBN-13: 978-0804832717
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,427,706 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good Reference for Wing Chun/Kenpo/Etc. Practitioners, January 14, 2002

By 

BP (Herndon, VA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Police Kung Fu: The Personal Combat Handbook of the Taiwan National Police (Paperback)

This book is very well translated and lays out the various techniques clearly (with a couple of exceptions). Students of Kung Fu, Kenpo, Ninjitsu, and similar styles will find much familiar material here, with some twists. Provides a good range of weapons defenses, from blades to handguns, and is quite comprehensive for its size.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating but incomplete, December 8, 2005

By 

L. A. Kane (Seattle, WA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Police Kung Fu: The Personal Combat Handbook of the Taiwan National Police (Paperback)

I imagine that the author presumes a certain level of prior martial arts and/or law enforcement experience by readers of this interesting book. While it is well written it's only 123 pages, barely scratching the surface of the subject. His perspectives about combat and the nature thereof are quite valid, focusing on proactive movement, fluidity, martial power, and solid tactical execution. The individual applications, on the other hand, are a bit narrow considering the wide range of potential encounters and scenarios one might stumble upon in the field. Contents include how to train for hand-to-hand combat, techniques for fighting unarmed perpetrators as well as against those armed with a knife, gun, club, or bat, and police baton applications designed to work against individual suspects as well as for crowd control.

The principles are generally good, yet a few of the assumptions are suspect. For example, officers are taught to predict the type of attack a suspect will launch with a knife based on the type of blade used. The challenge with that approach is that most perpetrators are untrained individuals operating outside their normal mental state. In other words, an enraged, deranged, or otherwise unstable individual will act in unpredictable ways. Consequently focusing on the type of knife used is more often than not a waste of time, particularly when the knife-wielder is unlikely to know how to use it "properly" in the first place. And, anyone who has ever been assaulted by a knife knows that there is not much time for thinking anyway. The author does state to prepare for the unexpected because the bad guys rarely follow a script, but disassociation between these two concepts is a good example of a shortcoming in the text (which could easily be a result of the translation rather than a flaw in the original document).

There is a lot of good stuff in here about dealing with armed and unarmed assailants. Keep in mind that no book, no matter how well written, can ever be a substitute for competent hands-on training. Having said that, however, this really is an interesting tome.

Lawrence Kane
Author of Surviving Armed Assaults, The Way of Kata, and Martial Arts Instruction

5.0 out of 5 stars I love this book., July 4, 2011

By 

George N. Stamoulis (Melbourne, VIC, Australia) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Police Kung Fu: The Personal Combat Handbook of the Taiwan National Police (Paperback)

This book is very interesting but not very unique which isn't a bad thing it's just that it's style is similar to other self defence techniques in systems like krav maga and goshinjutsu. It appears to be based of wing chun but it looks very similar to jujutsu or krav maga so while it was a very interesting read to read about the skills that the police in taiwan are trained in I didn't really learn anything new from it.

But very good if you do wing chun as it can possibly show you how to use it with weapon defences and restraint and control. Very good book on realistic combat though particularly as it details weapon defences.