MartialSportsGear.com - "Secrets" of Effective Offense: Survival Strategies for Self-Defense, Martial Arts, and Law Enforcement
|
List Price: $22.95
Our Price: $2.86
Your Save: $ 20.09 ( 88% )
Availability: N/A
Manufacturer: The Lyons Press
|
Average Customer Rating: 
|
|
Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 796.8
EAN: 9781592283699
ISBN: 1592283691
Label: The Lyons Press
Manufacturer: The Lyons Press
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 272
Publication Date: 2005-10-01
Publisher: The Lyons Press
Studio: The Lyons Press
|
|
|
|
|
|
Editorial Reviews:
|
|
An intense martial arts primer with a concentration on techniques of offense, strategy, and preemption, rather than defense and reaction.
|
|
|
Spotlight customer reviews:
|
Customer Rating:
Summary: mature, thoughtful book about martial arts technique for application in the real world
Comment: This is a magnificent book. I kept thinking of Musashi's Book of Five Rings as I read it (although Marc Mac Young doesn't think as much of Musashi as some do).
This is written by a short, pudgy, poorly conditioned guy who can turn you into a pretzel and roll you down the hill.
He's done a lot of fighting (like Musashi) and has in his mature years given it up (like Musashi). In this book, he assumes that his last ten books about fighting have told the world that NOT GETTING INTO FIGHTS is a good idea, so he doesn't belabor that idea.
Instead, he thoughtfully and systematically discusses ways to end fights quickly, and reasonably safely, and with little danger to the defender. He appears to have focus on talking to LEOs, but the book is useful to anybody who would just as soon avoid being on the losing end of a spirited discussion involving left hooks.
THIS IS NOT A BOOK FOR BEGINNERS OR MARTIAL PERFORMANCE ARTISTS, OR TEENAGERS WHO ARE BEING BULLIED AT HIGH SCHOOL (It's not for beginners because it's post-graduate stuff; it's not for performance artists because...well, this guy doesn't even wear a karate gi in his pictures. and it's not for bullied teenagers in high school because that's what boxing, wrestling, weightlifting and Tegner books are for.)
There are not a lot of big pretty pictures. There is a lot of text, all of it working to explain ways to wrap up fights without crushing throats. There is a lot of discussion of balance, the physics of fistic interactions, and the multiple ways that people react to being attacked (including a discussion of "freezing", which is pretty common).
The photos in the book are small, crummy quality, and illustrate the text admirably.
Mr. Mac Young suggests reading the book in chunks, and rereading it, because he says he put a lot of experience into it.
And that shows. He has a strong intellectual understanding of fighting, and he both steals from the best, and attributes generously. He gave Jack Dempsey an appendix, which made perfect sense to me; Jack's
"Championship Boxing" is one of the the all-time best books on hitting, boxing and fistfighting, and Mark has read and understood and incorporated Dempsey's lessons in his book.
While he didn't beat it to death in this book, Marc "Animal" Mac Young also spent a lot of time actually fighting before he woke up and figured out that he'd die a lot sooner if he kept it up. So he's not a supermarket shopper teaching farming.
What makes this such a good book is that he didn't simply rely on what kept he alive when he was a street punk. He analyzed the fights and ambushes and sucker punches he'd given and gotten, and incorporated that experience with insights from areas as diverse as Dempsey, Tai Chi, and the SCA.
This is a brilliant and insightful masterwork, and comparing it to Musashi's masterwork is not too strong. I may be wrong, of course, but at least I'm certain!
You'll want to read this more than once, and practice and experiment.
And if you get a chance, take a class with Animal; I know that after I've read this book, I'm going to try to schedule one.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Great book
Comment: This book is typical of Mr. MacYoung's books: very authentic and with unique insights that you can only get if you have been there and done that, and not just heard about it.
The great thing about this book is that it focuses on strategy and not just tactics. As MacYoung has mentioned, most martial arts school and self defense instructors hand you the "tools" to build a house (to use a metaphor the author uses), and then they think that by giving you these tools (kicks, blocks, punches, throws, etc.) you can go on to build a house (become a good martial artist who really can fight on the street). It is just not true. You have to have a blueprint of what you want to do, and then get the tools to do it.
I liked the idea in the book that things like timing and structure are so important. I study boxing, kali, and silat, as well as jeet kune do, and in all these arts, timing and structure are critical. In silat in particular, body placement and structure are critical (you can't throw someone unless you are positioned to do it). I kept reading this book and thinking of how many of his insights are similar to things I have learned in silat. And at the same time, there are concepts that don't come from silat.
Very good book on the how of martial arts. It shows you how to fill in the gaps in whatever you are studying, and how to avoid common errors and misconceptions.
Customer Rating:
Summary: MacYoung's best book yet
Comment: This outstanding tome is really not so much a "how to" book of techniques as it is a set of strategic principles that you can incorporate into any martial style to develop a more effective offense. Written by one of the nation's leading experts on aggression and real-life fighting, it is a clear and comprehensive approach to refining your ability to survive a violent encounter.
Before describing the content of this book it is worthwhile pointing out what an effective offense is and why you ought to care about it: If you get beat down on the street you will be totally at the mercy of your attacker for your continued well-being. You could just as easily wake up in the hospital as you could end up in a box. At a time when an 85-year-old Alzheimer's patient was raped and murdered less than an hour after wandering away from her residence, a father was beaten to death by three teenagers in front of his son, and thousands of other murders, muggings, and beatings took place around the country this very week, there might not be all that much mercy out there for you if you lose a street encounter to the wrong person. Don't get me wrong, this book certainly does not advocate picking fights, but it does show a comprehensive methodology for turning the tables on your attacker if you are assaulted and cannot get away.
As a 30+ year martial artist I did not find a whole lot that I did not already know but I did discover a new lens for viewing the knowledge, one that is quite enlightening. The author's writing style is refreshing and clear, devoid of the cynical platitudes and four letter witticisms that fill many of his previous works. You get all of Animal's experience without his attitude, something that has turned off traditional martial artists from MacYoung's works in the past. It's not that the previous works did not have great content just that they were somewhat hard to read for many folks. That's definitely not a problem here. It's packed with vital information and pleasant to read.
Contents include components of effective power, understanding range, body movement, structure, blocking and deflecting, parrying and countering, pulling, twisting, and takedowns among other subjects. The pictures and illustrations truly complement the excellent text. The book really helps you understand what works and why, set priorities, and develop a mindset that can really work. And it's easy to integrate into what you already know (in fact the author encourages just that). It helps you get your priorities straight and be sure that you can accomplish them. I really believe that this is MacYoung's best book yet. Wholeheartedly recommended!
Lawrence Kane
Author of Surviving Armed Assaults, The Way of Kata, and Martial Arts Instruction
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
