In response to Combat Application Techniques critics.

Alright, so here goes! I know I am about to really tick some people off with this one, but I'm gonna do it anyway. First off I can say that I've been involved with the martial arts for quite some time (over 27 years). I have trained with or worked with some of the greats, Late Master Hart, Surichai Sirisute, and Dan Severn to name a few; and since I hold 2 blackbelts in the traditional martial arts of Kempo Karate and Moo Duk Kwan Taekwando as well as hold an honorary brown belt in Kano Jujitsu, I think I have some knowledge when it comes to unarmed techniques. I think that my experience competing as a professional mixed martial artist, an amateur kickboxer and a former National Karate Champion counts toward some experience. Lastly I hope that my training and experience as a combat veteran and former Special Forces Soldier and combatives instructor can attest to my knowledge and experience of reality based techniques. Now with that said, I want to address some of the "woo-woo" karate/ martial arts critics out there!

In 2008 my first book Combat Application Techniques was published. This book was in response to a terrible Modern Army Combatives craze that struck. Being a soldier who has been to combat and yes had to kill the enemy at close range I can tell you that the Modern Army combatives training is trash! In fact it is nothing more than MMA with body armor. The philosophy behind the techniques of the Modern Army Combatives program will get soldiers killed. However, Techniques are like assholes, they all stink and some smell worse than others; so with that said, Combat Application Techniques is my stinky asshole! I was shocked at exactly how hateful and spiteful critics were to my book. I have received some reviews from a majority of what I call "Woo-woo" martial artists that are filled with vitriol. So this blog is in response to those critiques, and hopefully I can clarify some issues.

First let's respond to "Cliff" :

Cliff: "Though the author may know what he is doing in this book, you may already as well. If you took some sort of M.A. class for any period of time that was worth anything, then you would have learned most if not half of these techniques for knife fighting."

Andy Curtiss: "First off Cliff thanks for taking the time and reading Combat Application Techniques. As for anyone already knowing many of the techniques in the book if they had already taken some sort of Martial Arts class for any period of time that was worth anything, that's the point. What I am trying to demonstrate is that you don't need to take Martial Arts Classes for extended periods in order to learn techniques that are worth anything."

"Combat Application Techniques is not aimed at the long time Martial Artist or "Kung Fu" Master. It is directed toward those with little to no experience or training and designed to cut through all the BS associated with the traditional martial arts. The reader can learn several effective techniques and principles in a fraction of the time it takes to learn the same techniques and principles in the martial arts."

Cliff: "There are however a lot of pictures and this guy does a decent job of explaining them, but the pics are in b&w and the people in them are wearing camos. My WTF gripe with this is that the index lists what page number covers what topic, but no where in the book has not one page number on it.."

Andy Curtiss: "Thanks again Cliff, I understand that the pictures are in black and white and we were wearing camos when we did the shoot. The pictures are clear however, but there is also a color version available on E-Book. I once offered the E-Book on my website Knife and H2H Combat.com, but due to some recent modifications for a second edition coming soon, it is currently unavailable. Which brings me to the index and page number issue. This is a publisher formatting error, that I am currently working on getting Authorhouse to fix in the second edition. I do however appreciate you bringing that matter to light."

The next Critique comes from "Nobody":

Nobody: "The author (while he may have been in combat) clearly hasn't done a lot of actual H2H"

Andy Curtiss: "Do I really even need to address this? My H2H experience is 100 percent verifyable There are even fight videos out there on the internet. I also happen to have military awards for such exploits. What sort of verifyable H2H experience / expertise do you have Nobody? I believe that your pseudonym says it all!"

Nobody: "Mr. Curtiss shows poor knowledge of anatomy ("humorous bone"???)"

Andy Curtiss: >"Once again I can relate this as a formatting error. Spell checkers are often a curse and it is easy to see how the words Humerus and humorous can be crossed during a spell check. Although I again appreciate this type of critique, the vitriol is not appreciated. By the way are you an anatomy expert? I am sure that you are just another nobody."

Nobody: "Erroneous ideas about the history of fighting knives (and that of the Ka-Bar, specifically) what constitutes a "good steel" (his recommended "440 stainless" is a extremely hard steel, a poor choice for a fighting knife that may need to be sharpened in the field).This and his ideas on the reason for the "blood-groove" or fuller clearly show his unfamiliarity with knife-design and construction....This matters because the author dedicates quite a bit of space to writing like he knows a lot about all of the above-mentioned topics."

Andy Curtiss: "My erroneous ideas about the history of fighting knives stems from the actual research that I have done on them to include reading books, undergoing training in the military (I.E.) S.E.R.E school and asking experts such as Allen Elishewitz of Elishewitz Custom Creations. I do recommend "440 Stainless steel" because it is cheap, extremely durable for survival situations in which you may have to use the knife as a tool as well as a weapon and is extremely rust resistant. If you are worried about sharpening your blade in the field I recommend that you learn how to use a stone or carry something easier to sharpen. Your lack of knowledge and skill doesn't make other ideas poor.

In regard to the "Fuller" or "Blood Groove" which it is commonly known by. I mention in the book that I spoke ad nauseum to Allen Elishewitz about that, where he described several studies and workshops that discussed just that issue, and after a long consultation with Allen I was enlightened to learn that this feature had very little science to back it's usefulness. So that is why I take a stance along with experts in the field on that feature. As for spending quite a bit of time writing on the subject I beleive if you take away the pictures of different types of knives then I wrote a total of 3 pages on the topic of blades which included no history as you precluded a little about the design and characteristics of different types of blades, a little about the "Fuller" feature and a little about "440 stainless steel". Clearly you were a bit overwhelmed by 3 pages. I recommend perhaps that you stick to picture books only in the future."

Nobody: "To top it off, the photos and cut/paste captions are shoddy."

Andy Curtiss: "I am pretty sure that there are no cut and paste captions since I actually wrote them. I am not sure weather you are insinuating that I copied someone else or you are just an idiot. But then again you are just a Nobody."

Nobody: "The author's public (Youtube) knife videos (and H2H as well) show a truly poor training methodology, and don't inspire any faith in his skill as taught in this book."

Andy Curtiss: "Where I am from if you run your mouth you should be able to back it up. Based on the cowardice of using a pseudonym on your Amazon profile, I am 100 percent sure that you could not back up your lip. Now with that said I did a little research on Nobody. It appears that Nobody is one of those wierdos that are into internal martial arts and Traditional Chinese Kung Fu. He rants and raves about some bizarre "Traditional Chinese Kung Fu Vol. 1: Liu He Ba Fa" video. and then for a Kali video.

Although, I agree that he gives homage to Fairbairn, Sykes and Applegate as being the real deal because they were, I also disagree with his raves for Krav Maga. I have to say, I'm not really into promoting flying kicks or spending all my time on 1 attacker in the case of multiple. Having worked with Ireaelis in my time I am not impressed with their training methodology for close protection.

As for Cliff, based on his reading reviews on Amazon, he is just another typical "Woo Woo" Martial Arts guy looking for the answers to his mystical martial arts journey by searching books like "The Secret art of Pressure Point Fighting" and "Wing Chun". I'm not knocking traditional martial arts, but I am saying that Combat Application Techniques does not fit into the Chinese Kung Fu, Wing Chun, Chi Kung , Arnis or Kali genre.

Who will enjoy my book?

The type of people that will enjoy Combat Application Techniques: Principles of Destruction are those that want to learn effective methods and techniques that are tested in combat and the close protection field. Security professionals, soldiers, Marines, police and survivalists. This may also be a book that black belt martial artists with open minds are interested in. On every bad critique that the book has received it is mentioned as Nobody did "Very basic" techniques are demonstrated and taught.

In the real world of combat; not every soldier, Marine and security professional is a highly trained blackbelt in the martial arts. Many do not choose to dedicate their lives to combative arts outside the scope of their profession. Also trying to cram in years of developmental martial arts training is an unrealistic goal for the men of Special Forces, security contracting companies and other like professions. This is who the program and book was developed for. Also, keep in mind in combat very intricate techniques go out the window very quickly.

Basic is king!

It is clear that the closest that these critics have come to combat is reading books or watching movies; and that they have no concept of real close quarters combat. I am sure that "Nobody" and "Cliff" are hanging out in their mom's basement right now scoping out women to harrass on date.com or are chatting it up on the Ninja.com forum about how bad ass they are. In the end, I take their vitriol and criticizim as validity that Combat Application Techniques has accomplished it's goal of providing simple easy to use H2H solutions to the operator.

Now you can see for your self why Combat Application Techniques is the real deal when it comes to knife and H2H combat.

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Now is your chance to see what's in Combat Application Techniques.