Lethal Unarmed Combat: Secrets of Self-Defense

 "Lethal Unarmed Combat" offers a useful primer on full-spectrum self-defense. My only wish is that Mr. Harris had penned a second, more advanced skills manual with more on strategy and set-ups.
As-is, this is a great stand-alone volume. Practical striking ("atemi"), Judo, jiujitsu, control holds and escapes predominate, along with police restraint and baton basics. Harris was ahead of the curve of modern self-defense gurus; he belongs in the same pantheon as Charlie Nelson and Bruce Tegner as a progenitor of mixed-style self-defense for unarmed fighting.
Clearly drawn diagrams depict striking and throwing angles down to hand and foot positioning. Harris also offers a superb narrative, with alternative throws, situational awareness, naturalistic defensive stances and a handful of low kicks and instep crushes. There are similarities between "Lethal Unarmed Combat" and the World War II combatives manuals penned by Applegate, Fairbairn, and Biddle. For example, Harris spells out the classic "chin jab," with the knee to the groin, which appears among writings from the aforementioned authors.
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