Randall Bassett may very well have primarily written this book to more widely introduce a somewhat westernized concept of what he was calling Karate. The physical techniques are modern in style. This was not a totally unique idea in and of itself, but practically speaking still needed to be put forward. I myself tend toward practice of more classically oriented martial arts, though I'm not all that closed-minded about hybridized approaches either.What makes this book unique and kept it on my shelf for more than 20 years was the also eclectic discussion on what amounts to self control tactics and the acquisition of a different concept of self defense: defense begins in the mind and is greatly a function of:a. our awareness of our surroundings in the outside worldb. our ability to control the content of our mind under stressc. our ability to remove ourselves as a "target" by our behavior and mindsetThis is an area that has not been discussed fully enough even in the intervening decades by authors writing about martial arts and specifically self defense. Most only give lip service to mental preparation and spend more time discussing physical tactics. Bassett was right in that self defense is as much mental as physical. Long before I acquired any meaningful skill in martial arts, I used Bassett's idea of target-denial to try to make my life safer, and though I have been very lucky in the intervening 30 years, I never felt let down by his ideas either.Pick this old book up even if it's just for the mentalpreparation aspect, as the benefits reach further than self protection.