It's Not A Book For Everyone

Especially if you have anger management or poor impulse control issues.  If you do, move along; nothing to see here.

Basically, the book is a personal defense tool.  It will teach you in detail exactly how to disarm and/or seriously damage another person who is threatening your personal safety.  Note:  Ineffective when applied to a semi or a bus bearing down on you.

It would be a helpful book to read if one is an abused wife or girlfriend; a member of a minority race or an older man or woman.  (Note to the latter:  a cane makes a helluva defense weapon.)

I can give you two things that I learned:  if someone bigger and stronger grabs you by a wrist, instantly drop to one knee.  This throws the assailant off balance and while you're down there, you might as well head butt them in the balls which will really discourage a male attacker.

Dr. Gutierrez, the book's author and a medical doctor, taught me that the arch of the collarbone is structurally its weakest point and relatively easy to break.  If the collarbone is broken, the arm below it is useless.  Raise your hands high in the "I surrender!" gesture and then slam your fists down on this arch.  Dr. Gutierrez advises that using an elbow is a better idea, but I wouldn't want to work that close to an assailant.  Ewww - they quite possibly don't smell all that good.

"Breaking Points:  Using History, Maxims and Modern Science to Understand Karate" by RH Gutierrez, MD   amazon.com   $18

Disclaimer:  Gutierrez is a long-time personal friend of ours and I did the line edit for him.  I did not write one word of the book.  Amazon seems not to understand that and my name is up there as if I co-wrote it which I most assuredly did not.