Pool Cues, Beer Bottles, And Baseball Bats : Animal's Guide To Improvised Weapons For Self-Defense

Rating:
Summary: Awareness and Practicality
Review: Animal is the greatest self defense writer around. After reading this book you will start sizing up things, and making practical choices concerning improvized weaponry. This stuff could save your life, and that's the point. Also like his other books, the text is hillarious and easily readable. Thanks Mr. MacYoung for another great book.

Rating:
Summary: Awareness and Practicality
Review: Animal is the greatest self defense writer around. After reading this book you will start sizing up things, and making practical choices concerning improvized weaponry. This stuff could save your life, and that's the point. Also like his other books, the text is hillarious and easily readable. Thanks Mr. MacYoung for another great book.

Rating:
Summary: Definately an interesting read.
Review: As someone who creates fights for the stage, this book is filled with great material. Not necessarily for the techniques taught, but for the weapon ideas, anecdotes and experiences which Mr. MacYoung shares. Will this book make you a better fighter? ONly in so far as it'll certainly put a few nasty tricks up your sleeve -- or keep you aware of what might be up the other guy's sleeve. And that could be enough to keep you alive.

Mr. MacYoung writes with the voice of the trickster. Wise from a lifetime of experience. If you've ever seen the Patrick Swayze movie "Road House", you might think the writers had him in mind as the source material for Sam Elliot's character.

Rating:
Summary: combo
Review: black medicine one and two with pool cues, beer bottles, and baseball bats: animals guide to improvised weapons for self-defense

Rating:
Summary: You have no weapon with you? Take one from around you.
Review: I don't know how many books there are about fighting with "recommended" weapons such as knives or sticks, but the fine art of improvising weapons is a little underestimated. By reading this book, the reader discovers that there are more improvised tools to hurt your opponent that a pool cue, or a beer bootle. When you read this book, and watch your environment, you'll discover a whole lot of weapons around you, and that might save your health once you've come in a self-defense situation.

Rating:
Summary: On improvised weapons and awareness
Review: This book concentrates on using improvised weapons for self defence. The author divides virtually everything you can use into four categories, and devotes a chapter for each weapon type. MacYoung starts with the basics, explaining also the physics and principles behind every weapon category.

The text is very easy to read, and there are several stories from real life used to spice up the text. As with all books by MacYoung, there is lots of humour in the text. This time, however, the stories and humour is less macho, compared to other books by MacYoung I have read. The text is richly illustrated, with very clear line drawings, making it very easy to understand what the author is saying.

I think you don't need much experience with martial arts to fully understand the techniques and principles presented in the book. That's unlike most similar books I have read, but then the techniques presented here are very basic, with very little nuances. In addition to the techniques, the book teaches you to continuously look for "self defence potential" of each item you run across. That not only teaches you to spot the best items for self defence, it increases your total awareness of your surroundings, as well.

Rating:
Summary: A wonderfuly informative book from a great fighter
Review: This was the first of Marc "Animal" MacYoung's books I read and still one of my favorites. Improvised Weaponry is a terribly under-studied field. This isn't ancient Japan or the old West, we can't walk around with a katana or Colt six shooter on our hips. Many people just cannot carry weapons on a routine biases (Weapons are forbidden on the Navy ship I work and live on for instance) so the art of improvising weapons quickly in a crisis is an extremely handy skill. On another note this book introduced me to the wonderful and always practical writings of ex-street fighter Marc "Animal" MacYoung. Although not a how-to book so much as a book on comman sense and stradegy. Animal's books are easy to read, incrediably funny, touching in parts, and though provoking. Personnaly I think this comes from the very human nature of the author. Like it our not (And Animal if your reading this I hope you take this the right way) Animal is not unique. He's good yes, but there's a guy just like him in half the bars between New York and LA. Animal is not some martial arts guru who has spend every waking nano-second of his life perfecting his art. He fights to live he dosen't live to fight.