Knife Fights

Knife Fights
Author: John A. Nagl
Publisher: Penguin
Total Pages: 260
Release: 2014-10-16
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 0698176359

From one of the most important army officers of his generation, a memoir of the revolution in warfare he helped lead, in combat and in Washington When John Nagl was an army tank commander in the first Gulf War of 1991, fresh out of West Point and Oxford, he could already see that America’s military superiority meant that the age of conventional combat was nearing an end. Nagl was an early convert to the view that America’s greatest future threats would come from asymmetric warfare—guerrillas, terrorists, and insurgents. But that made him an outsider within the army; and as if to double down on his dissidence, he scorned the conventional path to a general’s stars and got the military to send him back to Oxford to study the history of counterinsurgency in earnest, searching for guideposts for America. The result would become the bible of the counterinsurgency movement, a book called Learning to Eat Soup with a Knife. But it would take the events of 9/11 and the botched aftermath of the Iraq invasion to give counterinsurgency urgent contemporary relevance. John Nagl’s ideas finally met their war. But even as his book began ricocheting around the Pentagon, Nagl, now operations officer of a tank battalion of the 1st Infantry Division, deployed to a particularly unsettled quadrant of Iraq. Here theory met practice, violently. No one knew how messy even the most successful counterinsurgency campaign is better than Nagl, and his experience in Anbar Province cemented his view. After a year’s hard fighting, Nagl was sent to the Pentagon to work for Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz, where he was tapped by General David Petraeus to coauthor the new army and marine counterinsurgency field manual, rewriting core army doctrine in the middle of two bloody land wars and helping the new ideas win acceptance in one of the planet’s most conservative bureaucracies. That doctrine changed the course of two wars and the thinking of an army. Nagl is not blind to the costs or consequences of counterinsurgency, a policy he compared to “eating soup with a knife.” The men who died under his command in Iraq will haunt him to his grave. When it comes to war, there are only bad choices; the question is only which ones are better and which worse. Nagl’s memoir is a profound education in modern war—in theory, in practice, and in the often tortured relationship between the two. It is essential reading for anyone who cares about the fate of America’s soldiers and the purposes for which their lives are put at risk.

Bowie Knife Fights, Fighters and Fighting Techniques

Bowie Knife Fights, Fighters and Fighting Techniques
Author: Paul Kirchner
Publisher: Paladin Press
Total Pages: 390
Release: 2010-11-01
Genre: Sports & Recreation
ISBN: 9781581607420

In 1827, James Bowie carved his way into American history at the Sandbar Fight, and soon every fighting man of the South and West had to have a knife like his. The bowie knife could cut like a razor, chop like a cleaver, and stab like a sword, and many considered it deadlier than a pistol at close range. So great was the dread it inspired that by 1838 it was banned in several states—a ban that did little to stanch the flow of blood. Bowie's story is well known, but what of the other cutters and stabbers of his day? Gunfighters have long been celebrated, but those who fought with the bowie knife have been largely ignored—until now. Unearthing accounts from memoirs, court records, regional histories, and newspaper archives, Paul Kirchner, author of the Paladin bestsellers The Deadliest Men and More of the Deadliest Men Who Ever Lived , presents their stories for the first time in Bowie Knife Fights, Fighters, and Fighting Techniques. Kirchner identifies and profiles the four greatest bowie knife fighters of history, as well as numerous other wielders of the blade. He details the weapon's use in the Texas War of Independence, the Mormon exodus, the Mexican War, the slave system, the Gold Rush, Bleeding Kansas, the Civil War, the Lincoln assassination, the Indian Wars, and the Western frontier. The book describes bowie knife fighting tricks and techniques and provides numerous accounts of knife-against-knife and knife-against-gun encounters. Its final chapter surveys the continued use of the bowie and other fighting knives in modern warfare.

Fight Write

Fight Write
Author: Carla Hoch
Publisher: Penguin
Total Pages: 241
Release: 2019-06-11
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 1440300739

Whether a side-street skirmish or an all-out war, fight scenes bring action to the pages of every kind of fiction. But a poorly done or unbelievable fight scene can ruin a great book in an instant. In Fight Write you'll learn practical tips, terminology, and the science behind crafting realistic fight scenes for your fiction. Broken up into "Rounds," trained fighter and writer Carla Hoch guides you through the many factors you'll need to consider when developing battles and brawls. • In Round 1, you will consider how the Who, When, Where, and Why questions affect what type of fight scene you want to craft. • Round 2 delves into the human factors of biology (think fight or flight and adrenaline) and psychology (aggression and response to injuring or killing another person). • Round 3 explores different fighting styles that are appropriate for different situations: How would a character fight from a prone position versus being attacked in the street? What is the vocabulary used to describe these styles? • Round 4 considers weaponry and will guide you to select the best weapon for your characters, including nontraditional weapons of opportunity, while also thinking about the nitty-gritty details of using them. • In Round 5, you'll learn how to accurately describe realistic injuries sustained from the fights and certain weapons, and what kind of injuries will kill a character or render them unable to fight further. By taking into account where your character is in the world, when in history the fight is happening, what the character's motivation for fighting is, and much more, you'll be able write fight scenes unique to your plot and characters, all while satisfying your reader's discerning eye.

Knives, Knife Fighting, And Related Hassles

Knives, Knife Fighting, And Related Hassles
Author: Marc Animal MacYoung
Publisher: Paladin Press
Total Pages: 0
Release: 1990-01-01
Genre:
ISBN: 9780873645447

Knife fighting is ugly business, so you'd better know what you're doing if you ever find yourself in one. This book will show you the down-and-dirty reality of knife fighting, from choosing the best knife to devious street tricks commonly used to get in the first strike.

Put 'Em Down, Take 'Em Out!

Put 'Em Down, Take 'Em Out!
Author: Don Pentacost
Publisher: Allegro Editions
Total Pages: 64
Release: 2016-10-28
Genre: Sports & Recreation
ISBN: 9781626545045

Forget what you've seen in movies and on television--a knife attack is usually fast, furious, and often fatal. When it comes to increasing your chances of surviving, even the best martial arts schools are no match for the hard lessons learned in brutal institutions like Folsom Prison. Folsom alum Don Pentecost's no-nonsense guide cuts through the Hollywood myths and covers valuable information like:*Defending yourself against an attack*Going on the offensive*Training methods to maximize your chances of survivalIf it's true that, as a poet once said, "prison is like high school with knives," then facilities like Folsom are the Ivy League of violence. Serving a sentence at Folsom is like earning a PhD in staying alive. Don Pentecost has done the time so you don't have to. d

Hank Reinhardt's Book of Knives

Hank Reinhardt's Book of Knives
Author: Hank Reinhardt
Publisher: Baen Publishing Enterprises
Total Pages: 189
Release: 2012-06-01
Genre: History
ISBN: 1618249460

Definitive and compulsively readable¾an illustrated guide to the use in knifefighting and beyond of contemporary knives by long-time Blade columnist and master weaponsmith, Hank Reinhardt. Deadlier than the club, more ubiquitous than the sword, the knife is the universal edged weapon of all humankind. As our society has grown more advanced, and more reliant on technology, there has been an increased interest in the weapons of the past, and this sharp-edged guide to the use of the knife will whet the appetite of expert and layman alike. At the publisher's request, this title is sold without DRM (Digital Rights Management).

JKD's Way of the Blade

JKD's Way of the Blade
Author: Jason Korol
Publisher:
Total Pages: 148
Release: 2018-05-23
Genre:
ISBN: 9781982980771

Every person should carry a small knife and know how to use it for self-defense. It's that simple. That's the major thrust (sorry, pun intended) of JKD's Way of the Blade. You don't have to be a Navy SEAL to know how to correctly utilize a basic knife for your self-defense and this book will show you how. Of course, the overwhelming majority of people, when considering a weapon for self-protection, disregard the pocket knife and figure a gun is the only game in town. They do this for three primary reasons. First, Hollywood bombards us with movies where a knife wound is at best a paper-cut. Remember Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt in Mr. & Mrs. Smith and how, during an epic battle with bad guys, Jolie throws a knife that hits Pitt's character in the leg? He gives her a look and she shrugs and smiles. It's all so funny in the movie - and then he pulls it out as though it's just a hangnail. Then he walks off and continues killing the enemy with nary a limp. Well, that's all nonsense and yet a big reason why so many people think a knife won't work for self-defense. Next is the common myth that you shouldn't bring a knife to a gunfight. That line is nearly ubiquitous in pop-culture and what makes it dangerous is that it sounds so self-evident. Well, it's actually untrue. Sure, a knife wouldn't do you much good if you were landing on Normandy Beach but that's not what you're using your knife for. You're using it in the event of a sudden, violent encounter in a parking garage, a sexual assault and things like that. And in those environments the knife actually has considerable advantages over a gun. Think about it: it's easier to carry than even the smallest sub-compact; it never runs out of ammo; it's multi-directional. Oh, and don't forget, it's virtually impossible to accidentally kill someone with your knife too. Once a gun is fired, the bullet goes where it goes. You have no leadership over what that bullet does. This ought to worry any self-defender. The next mistake the book corrects is the misuse of the blade for civilian use. Bruce Lee's Intercepting Fist method, otherwise known as Jeet Kune Do, was based heavily on fencing concepts. JKD's Way of the Blade, therefore, takes these same simple and true principles and applies them to small knives and tactical folders. Dominant knife methods other than JKD are generally Kali based, which favors a thousand fancy moves and multiple cutting angles. But such complexity is both too dangerous (complex actions break down under stress) and contradictory to most self-defense scenarios. How can you justify cutting a guy 50 times anyway? JKD's Way of the Blade will teach you to avoid complexity and keep you within the confines of proper moral and legal use of your weapon by showing you the same simple principles Lee taught in his empty hand method. For modern self-protection, the small knife is indispensable. JKD's Way of the Blade will teach you everything you need to know to confidently carry and use one. You'll learn the best and only way to hold the blade as well as the integrated footwork and cut that will keep you safe. You won't learn a hundred different techniques you'd never use unless you were applying to Ninja school. Instead, you'll get the single strike at the heart of the entire method. Yes - just one striking technique. That's all you'll need. And you'll learn how to protect the blade from grabs too.In all, it will revolutionize the way you think about self-defense and knife work.

Better Than a Gun in a Knife Fight

Better Than a Gun in a Knife Fight
Author: Iris Berry
Publisher:
Total Pages: 234
Release: 2012-05
Genre:
ISBN: 9780985129316

A Collection Of Prose and Poetry from A. Razor, who has published and written and shared his work on the road and from inside prison for many years, now here is the writer's work in one book that presents many styles and influences all worked out with a genuine love that has driven a lifetime struggle for peace among the words of this world.

Modern Knife Combat

Modern Knife Combat
Author: Greg Walker
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 1995
Genre: Knife fighting
ISBN: 9780873648493

Greg Walker has trained under some of the world's top knife instructors, including elite U.S. military units, blade-oriented Asian martial arts and street fighters. Now he reveals what he has discovered to be the most effective lessons, tips and tools to aid you in your quest to become skilled in this warrior art.