I'd recommend Iain Abernethy's Bunkai-Jutsu: Practical Applications of Karate Kata. I know it's not considered an introductory type of book, but I imagine myself reading it as a complete beginner interested in a hard linear striking art, and then imagine myself five, six years later, having absorbed what IA has to say. I would be extremely grateful for having gotten off on the right foot in learning how to approach kata, what they're for—manuals of combat applications, and for IA's insistance that mastery of a MA is first a foremost learning a technical toolkit, governed by sound and effective principles, that give you the skills to come out standing from the horrible nastiness of street violence—the message on every page being, the combat realism of karate techs, properly trained. I'd be grateful also for his lucid, nonmystical discussion of body weak points and how to exploit them, his systematic exploration of what fighting at different ranges requires, and especially his advice on putting stand-up techs to use in ground fighting (always with the intention of getting off the ground as soon as possible). So it seems to me a really outstanding introduction to (a certain family of) MAs...
So, my two cents: Bruce Tegner's Complete Book of Self Defense. Classic.
is:
) is for the beginner who only wants street defense: Get Tough: How to win in hand-to-hand fighting, by Major Fairbairn. Dates from WWII and even before when Fairbairn was working Shanghai water front :mst:, but if that's what someone's looking for, it's simply the best.
