0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
good book but seen better, 2006-04-16
It explains the basic of close quarter battles but is lacking on details
0 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
The Best Open souce CQB book on the market, 2006-03-23
Mr. Lonsdale has compiled some of the best CQB techniques being used on the street today. Many techniques are still in the classified realm. This book is a fine text book to use with any local police, or sheriffs. Lonsdale has compiled some of the best CQB techniques being used on the street today. Many techniques are still in the classified realm. This book is a fine text book to use with any local police, or sheriffs department in order to use as a class book for ramping up a special applications team.
He uses step by step pictures to help the reader in understanding some of the more difficult department in order to use as a class book for ramping up a special applications team.
He uses step by step pictures to help the reader in understanding some of the more complicated techniques. The book is written from an operator's point of view. Mr. Lonsdale's years of experience shine through in all of his writings.
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
Review of CQB, 2006-03-04
I found the book to be an accurate outline of the basic theory of CQB. It touches on all the major considerations without going into any one subject in-depth. If you are looking for a point of reference to get a serious study underway, then this is a good place to start.
It seems to be a book written in such a fashion as to promote the other books in the series, which sort of turned me off because there wasn't as much "meat on the bones" as there could have been. The book continually refers to other titles by the same author which cover the topics at greater length.
If you have a good knowledge base in CQB, I would recommend skipping this title and moving directly to the more focused titles from this author.
24 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
Unrealistic and vague, 2003-12-09
The best thing in this book is the paper it is printed on; it's semi-glossy and heavy, giving some expectation of quality. The second best thing is that there is surprisingly little text, because some 1/3 of the pages are filled with photos. The fact that this is good news, tells something about the quality of the text. To start with, the entire idea of presenting the "fighting secrets" of special operations forces in a 200-page book is somewhat absurd, especially considering that the author assumes that the reader does not know virtually nothing about the subject. The techniques presented here are unrealistic in the real world, to a large extent. And finally, the author speaks way too vaguely of the issues he presents, so that you really don't have a chance to learn anything.
The main part of the book concentrates on close combat. Significant amount of these pages is devoted to series of photographs. The photos are supposed to present several unarmed and armed close combat techniques, but they are so small and unclear that you are hard-pressed to figure out what they are depicting. But that's good, because you don't want to learn these techniques, anyway. One amusing thing caught my eye: The author stresses that it is imperative to train in full gear, and carry all the equipment you would be carrying in a real situatoin (that is true, but it is also self-evident). But in about half of the pictures, the guys are wearing karate uniforms!
The reason I bought this book was that I expected to find something on close-quarters shooting. Granted, about the last third of the book is devoted to the subject, but there really is not anything, exept for a total beginner. And for a beginner, there are far better books around.
One thing that especially annoyed me was that the author uses military jargon, apparently to get some credibility. That is the only justification for most of the jargon, as the book is filled with examples like "Any operation in the continental United States (CONUS), that ends in a shooting...", that being the only use of term CONUS in the text. The reason people use abbrevations is to save time and space with frequently used terms, which is not the case with examples like these.
I would recommend this book to a pre-adolescent boy, who wants to impress his pals by how much he knows about guns and real-life combat. If that description does not fit you, stay away from this book.
6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
Need supplement, 2001-11-17
In depth study of individual CQB skills. Good info and training on firearms, but not detailed enough on CQB movements and searching skills .Best to be read with another STTU books in hand.