Jeet Kune Do: The Arsenal of Self-Expression Book

I only rated this book 3/5. On one side I think it does a decent effort to present Bruce Lee's art. Unlike the preceding volume on the Straight Lead, Teri Tom has toned down the rant against other JKD schools. While that rant IS warranted, I am more interested in knowing right things instead of what others do wrong.

However, there are a couple of things that I somehow disliked even in this book. Despite devoting an entire volume to the straight lead, one entire chapter rehashes the previous information. This could have been removed. Another chapter discusses straight lead variations presented in the previous volume. This could also have been removed

The remaining part of the book discusses other techniques that are new (upper cut, cross, hook and kicks).

I liked that she describes a bit more seriously the combinations and the various fakes in the system. It is more emphasis than in most other books, where combinations are treated only cursory. (It is NOT just string a few of the basic techniques!)

Now, with regards to the basic punching part described in the book I believe it would be a much better decision on the reader's part to read Dempsey's book (Championship Fighting). The prose is much more succinct and more to the point. Teri Tom's contains a lot of repetition. Most of it can be removed.

This is a serious problem because of the following two points:
1) Declarative memory is NOT operative memory. Things described in Teri Tom's book are great (at most) for knowing ABOUT punching and kicking but not for knowing how to actually punch and kick.
2) External goals are more important when learning a movement than internal goals. In other words, if I teach you to throw something, and I tell person A: "Move 30 degrees the elbow, 50 cm down the shoulder, etc." and person B: "Try to hit that point with the ball", then person B will get it much faster!

Additionally the same things I generally said about Bruce Lee apply here:

A serious emphasis is placed on how Bruce's art is real in some sense. I seriously doubt this. If you are stuck in some 70's karate tournament, I have no doubt that Bruce's art would come out on top. However, his art fails to address weapons, grappling and environmental concerns. Because of this it is difficult for me to consider this as serious self defense. I mean, it might work, but it leaves you widely open. You need to try to go beyond this... Some JKD practitioners seem to be doing this. I have seen a bit Tommy Carruthers' stuff and he seems to be going in that direction. Exploring new territory while keeping the principles. This is how an art grows. It was the same in old time... Traditional arts have this too, and once you read what the founders of these arts (so reviled by Bruce Lee) wrote, you can see this was the case (at least at the moment when they were created).