Cheap Shots, Ambushes, And Other Lessons : A Down And Dirty Book On Streetfighting & Survival

Rating:
Summary: Belongs On The Shelf At Every Dojo
Review: The majority of martial arts books/self defense books place much of their emphasis on technique, form,and tepid "how to instruction".Physical skills are emphasized at the expense of common sense and awareness. This was perhaps the first book to point out that exercising proper discretion and understanding why certain individuals pose threats to our well being can be more vital in many instances than possessing the ability to deliver lightning kicks and punches.The author,a veteran of many street wars when younger, believes your mind is still your best weapon and realistically exposes the myths behind traditional martial arts training which sadly leads many students to believe their training is a step towards immortality. I own this book approximately 8 years,have read it three times, and will continue to use it as a source of inspiration and reference. Many others of it's type have followed, so Mr.MacYoung must have been on to something.

Rating:
Summary: Belongs On The Shelf At Every Dojo
Review: The majority of martial arts books/self defense books place much of their emphasis on technique, form,and tepid "how to instruction".Physical skills are emphasized at the expense of common sense and awareness. This was perhaps the first book to point out that exercising proper discretion and understanding why certain individuals pose threats to our well being can be more vital in many instances than possessing the ability to deliver lightning kicks and punches.The author,a veteran of many street wars when younger, believes your mind is still your best weapon and realistically exposes the myths behind traditional martial arts training which sadly leads many students to believe their training is a step towards immortality. I own this book approximately 8 years,have read it three times, and will continue to use it as a source of inspiration and reference. Many others of it's type have followed, so Mr.MacYoung must have been on to something.

Rating:
Summary: Stay alert stay alive
Review: This book covers many of the basics of mentally preparing yourself to stay out of trouble, as well as a couple of good hints on blasting your way out of trouble once it starts.
I've read the book cover to cover and occassionally dip back into it to remind myself of a couple of pointers. The key lessons I've remembered are spotting some of the warning signs that you are being set up for a mugging or ambush and to scan people approaching you as a way of boosting your awareness.
The hints are simple, easy to remember and useful to keep up what fighter pilots love to call situational awareness.
The book also dispells a couple of myths that many people still believe such as the old favorite ``kick him in the groin''.
It falls down in its display of actual technique. The pictures don't show much of how to do them, and some of them look to be of dubious application (though it could just be me misunderstanding them). That said, martial arts is best learned knocking bones, not trying to figure out pictures. This book delivers on most of what it promises and teaches quite a bit that it doesn't.

Rating:
Summary: Incredible
Review: This book focuses on the principles of all martial arts. Buy it.

Rating:
Summary: Great dang book
Review: This book is awesome, it's got no BS that you might find elsewhere, and it's very practical even for just an average guy (like me) who just wants to protect and defend what's his. I recommend it for anyone interested in getting smarter aboout real fighting and what's what. The author doesn't talk down to you with a bunch of nonsense, you're always more or less on his level. He's the best guy to be taking combat/survival advice from that I've come across, at least.

Rating:
Summary: The beginning of a genre
Review: This book marks the begining of a genre which may be defined as "applied self-defense". Marc Macyoung is the foremost expert in the world today when it comes to applying your martial arts training to a street fight. This is the book that started it all. It is probably one of the best books available for the street and reality oriented martial artist.

Rating:
Summary: REQUIRED READING
Review: This book was great! A crash course in practical, REALISTIC self-defense! This book is intended primarily for beginners, although there is something of value here for everyone -- high school kids, women, martial artists, and even barroom brawlers! Animal is real down on the "classical" martial arts schools for good reason -- they take yer money, then teach you a lot of unworkable ... like "pressure points" and high spinning kicks (in addition to having to memorize foreign terminology and a bunch of stupid "kata"), which serve to do nothing except provide a false sense of security. "I have earned my Black Belt, so ALL shall be in awe of my mastery of the fighting arts! Hey! You can't kick me in the knee! Stop stomping on my head! MOMMIE!" You get the picture. Most martial arts schools will not teach you how to win a streetfight. Sure, it's good exercise, and maybe it'll boost yer "self-esteem" to be awarded all them colored belts, but heck, you can BUY belts! A streetfight is not an athletic competition, and Animal makes this abundantly clear. Although he takes the subject very seriously (he's written about a dozen books on the subject), he doesn't take himself seriously at all, which is a refreshing change. I'm really sick of hearing a bunch of arrogant "tough guys" with testosterone issues telling everyone how BAAAAAD dey is, and why THEIR style is SOOOOO much better than all the others. Animal doesn't come across like that at all. In fact, reading his book is almost like talking about old times over a coupla beers. Highly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: REQUIRED READING
Review: This book was great! A crash course in practical, REALISTIC self-defense! This book is intended primarily for beginners, although there is something of value here for everyone -- high school kids, women, martial artists, and even barroom brawlers! Animal is real down on the "classical" martial arts schools for good reason -- they take yer money, then teach you a lot of unworkable ... like "pressure points" and high spinning kicks (in addition to having to memorize foreign terminology and a bunch of stupid "kata"), which serve to do nothing except provide a false sense of security. "I have earned my Black Belt, so ALL shall be in awe of my mastery of the fighting arts! Hey! You can't kick me in the knee! Stop stomping on my head! MOMMIE!" You get the picture. Most martial arts schools will not teach you how to win a streetfight. Sure, it's good exercise, and maybe it'll boost yer "self-esteem" to be awarded all them colored belts, but heck, you can BUY belts! A streetfight is not an athletic competition, and Animal makes this abundantly clear. Although he takes the subject very seriously (he's written about a dozen books on the subject), he doesn't take himself seriously at all, which is a refreshing change. I'm really sick of hearing a bunch of arrogant "tough guys" with testosterone issues telling everyone how BAAAAAD dey is, and why THEIR style is SOOOOO much better than all the others. Animal doesn't come across like that at all. In fact, reading his book is almost like talking about old times over a coupla beers. Highly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: Basics of street fighting
Review: This is a concept-level book of self defence. By that I mean that the author Marc "Animal" Mac Young does not try to teach specific techniques, but rather ideas and underlying concepts. I think that this is a right approach, as it is very hard to explain motor skills in print. At the very least, it would take excessive amount of text and lots of pictures, and still it would be uncertain if the reader understands the technique right. That's why I feel it is much better to learn techniques from video (if you can't get hands-on instructing, that is).

The book opens with basics of fighting, like types of punches, range, balance and so on. This is very interesting to read, although it is quite basic stuff. At about 1/3 of the book is devoted to these basics, and after that the book goes into more abstract stuff. At this point, the author starts to lose it. The book becames tediouos to read, and I was hard-pressed to understand some of the things Animal tried to explain. It's as if he did not possess the capacity to explain these abstract ideas to the reader. Luckily, after a while the book went on to human behaviour and human interrelations. This is again very interesting to read, as well as being an important subject. At the end of the book there is a chapter devoted to women's specific needs (threats), some stuff about weapons, the differences between martial arts and streetfighting, and so on. The book also includes a strange version of a concept commonly known as Cooper's color code of awareness (named after Jeff Cooper, who popularized the concept). In addition of making unnecessary changes to an established standard, Animal also fails to explain it properly.

Animal likes to tell stories. On some occasions he falls in love with himself a bit too much, and the stories meant to be entertaining and amusing became annoying. This tendency is even more prevalent in this book than other books by Animal I have read.

Despite it's shortcomings, I think that this is important book for anyone who is interested in self-defense. It's not that you won't find this information anywhere else, but this book is as good place to start as any similar book.

Rating:
Summary: Ask the experienced, not the learned -- Arab Proverb
Review: When I wrote this book, I was fresh off the streets of Los Angeles. There was no "If I ever had to use this, I'd..." I was alive because I had used this very information. There is much more to staying alive in high-risk situations than fighting ability. You won't get this information in dojos -- because it's pure street. And those are the kind of assailants you're going to be facing in a dark and lonely parking lot.