Customer Reviews

Common Sense Self-Defense: 7 Techniques That Can Save Your Life

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

This is a book that cuts away at all the crap, and gets down to practical self-defense. It is perfect for someone who has no previous martial arts experiance. The first part of the book covers what precautions a person should take, in different situations, to avoid being a victim of violence. The second part is about the more technical aspect, of using your bodys natural weapons against vital targets. The section on training is a little short, but I don't know how many people have a heavy bag in their house to practice on anyways. A nice feature of this book is a chart that shows what body weapons work best against what targets. This book is specifically about unarmed confrontations, but if you're interested, the Krav Maga book is only about armed attackers, so they kind of work well togeather. If you know nothing about self-defense, or if you're a martial artist who questions his training, I recomend buying this book.

This book is an execellent source for individuals with little self defense training. It gives you some basic defense techniques that you can practice on your own or with a partner. It is not overly complicated like some books I have read. The reader will not get bored or frustrated, but will enjoy reading and learning from the book. Even if you are experienced in self defense techniques, you will appreciate the quality of this book. It is the kind of book you will keep close by, as a reference.
In this day and age, every law abiding citizen should be conscious of threats that may be around them, and they should have some thought as to what tactic to take, in the event of a criminal attack. The police and other law enforcement can not be everywhere. You need to have some basic training to be able to defend yourself, or at least survive until help does arrive. Stop being a victim. Take control of your life and start by purchasing this book. You won't regret it.

Hmmm, let me think. What would be more useful in a real life street confrontation - biting, eye raking, head butting, foot stomping, groin kicking, elbowing, kneeing etc. or using kung fu movie secret pressure point techniques? The most useful part of this book is pages 41-50 where you learn 12 ways to strike your attacker. Incorporate these into your cardio kickboxing routine and you will have some tricks in your arsenal that you might actually remember and be able to use in the savage chaos of a real hand to hand struggle. Pages 53-54, where to strike, are useful too. Pages 57-80, the obligatory photos demonstrating sequences of techniques, might be hard to pull off in reality but would actually be effective if you could (yes you can head butt someone who is taller than you, it's called hopping and adds emphasis). The first 40 pages, where and how to avoid fights, might be pretty basic but it never hurts to review and there are some good tips you might not think of on your own. This book is geared at dealing with an unarmed attacker, but it also gives the best advice of all for dealing with an armed assailant- run away. If you can't run kick them in the groin and bite them in the throat. If that doesn't work grab that pressure point near the elbow between your thumb and index finger.

I found this book very simple to follow and comprehend. In the past, I have run across books that are way too complicated and contain too much complexed unnecessary information. Once I picked this book up to read it, it was hard to put down. I found myself eager to learn more of these techniques. Fortunately, I have never been a victim of any violent crime and as a result am not sure if I would make the correct choices when it comes to defending myself. This book left me with a sense of assurance. I certainly feel like if a bad situation were to present itself, I can defend myself a lot better "now" than prior to reading this book. I liked the book so much and was so impressed with the way it was presented that I bragged about it to my co-workers and picked up extra copies for my sisters and mom at Christmas. I wanted to give them a "thoughtful" gift and also a sense of security. This is definitely a book that has self defense techniques that are so simple that even GRANDMA can learn them! If it's "instinctive" self defense techniques you are after, Common Sense Self Defense is the book for you. The authors of this book did an excellent job on the presentation of this book and made sure the audience would stay interested while reading its contents. Even though I was an amateur, the techniques were effortless. Thanks to this wonderful book my eyes are now open. The techniques are fun to practice too!!!!

This book is really geared towards everyday people, men and women. It's not the macho SWAT team sort of stuff but just some good basic information to help you stay of of trouble and get away from trouble if you can't avoid it. If your a guy, read it but also share it with your wife or daughter.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book.At first,I thought that it would be a book of 'how to' techniques but I was pleasantly surprised.This book really does teach and promote common sense.Of course, not all techniques could be presented in this book but the ones that were are very helpful.I appreciate the fact that this book doesn't promote a "gung-ho" attitude.The real key is to walk away or avoid situations where you could find yourself in a very precarious situation and to be alert of your surroundings.Only when it's absolutely warrented does it give tips on actual techniques to defend yourself and whether you may need to use excessive force.I have to tell you that a friend and I practiced a couple of these techniques and they actually worked.While I hope that I will not be a victim of a criminal attack, I do believe that the techniques that I've learned in this book will be very helpful not to mention practical.

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The title of the book is "7 *RULES* That Can Save Your Life," *NOT* 7 Techniques!

That being said, this book is pretty useless, it contains the oft-repeated info about first avoid a fight if possible and about being aware of surroundings and suspicious characters, but contains little useful info, especially if you are facing a larger opponent. The pictures all show people of more or less equal height, which means you won't be able to reverse-headbutt someone taller, nor will you be able to elbow someone with a much longer reach! One technique shows a guy being grabbed on the shoulder from behind and he miraculously turns all the way around and elbows the attacker in the next picture (Yeah right!) Many of the techniques shown are just plain unrealistic and implausible. The most useful point was about biting an attacker in the ribs/stomach if he has you in a forward-facing head-lock.

This book spends more time telling you about running away, common sense awareness and avoiding using deadly force or a weapon because of legal ramifications.

The "seven rules" stated: 1) Use Your Head 2) Avoid Danger 3) Know When to Use Force 4) Know How to Hit 5) Know What to Hit (with a chart that's laughable about what targets to bite/elbow/knee) 6) Know How to Fight (which means buying some other book, cos this book doesn't tell you squat!) and 7) Train for Self-Defense (which again, isn't covered in this book except to tell you to buy a heavy punching bag and other worthless junk!) So now you know the "7 rules," go buy a worthwhile book!

George Dillman's book on pressure point self defense is much more useful regarding real self defense.

This title, "Common Sense Self-Defense" is a take off of the same title of a book written and published in 1974 by Vincent Tamura, 9th Dan Judo and JiuJitsu. The book by Tamura contains many of the Techniques of Heike-ryu JiuJutsu from the Tamura family. All of the techniques in the Tamura "Common Sense Self-defense" are easy to learn and to do. But the Tamura book is much more complete. However this book might fill in a few of the answers to self-defense as the Tamura book is long out of print.

This book might be useful to someone without any self-defense knowledge at all but there are many other books out there that cover the same material and more that I would recommend instead. While the author is doing a good thing in trying to spread this information, he would have done better to make it more uniquely his own rather than just re-hashing information that had been in every basic self-defense book for the past 20 years or more.

I would pass on this title and look to some of the others currently available.

The things covered in here are somewhat helpful, but there isn't enough teaching in it to justify buying the book. Any other book on self defense techniques will cover all this book has to offer and more.