Customer Reviews

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

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

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

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.

The book shows an interesting mixture of Wing Chun, Aikido & Judo techniques that can be applied in a self-defense setting.
It gives the reader or those who train in the above styles, some insight on possible direct & practical application of those styles. Or at least examples of how they can be applied more practically.
Aside from that, the book is a quick read but filled with plenty of step by step photos.
It would have been nicer if they showed some more knife defense scenarios with the attacker holding onto the defender at knife point, cornered, or up against the wall.
The same goes for the Unarmed Combat section: they could have included more defense situations vs various unarmed attacks (ie: kicks, bear hugs, tackles, multiple attackers, etc.).
Despite the lacking bits, all in all it's still a good read.