98 of 102 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Not for general self-defense advice, October 22, 2004
This review is from: A Professional's Guide to Ending Violence Quickly: How Bouncers, Bodyguards, and Other Security Professionals Handle Ugly Situations (Paperback)
I bought this book after reading the other reviews and checking out the author's website. I figured I could overlook his macho posturing, rambling style of writing (it takes him absolutely forever to make a point) and just take on board the suggestions he has. The guy seemed to have some real idea about sticky situations and I thought that this book would have good advice for getting out of trouble. Unfortunately this book does not deliver what it promises. For one thing, it is full of contradictions. For example:
1. Marc says that streetfighting is not like in the movies and he's not afraid to run to save his butt. That's fair enough. However, half of this book is made up of macho tales of Marc kicking butt on the streets (or in bars) and coming out without a scratch. It's kind of "Do what I say, not what I do."
2. He puts down traditional martial arts for having no practical use on the streets. Okay, that's a fair point in a lot of situations, but the techniques that he shows in this book aren't practical either. Most of what he shows is only good for taking down drunks. He talks about tripping your opponent over and not much more. In fact, for quite a few techniques suggested in this book you have to creep up behind your opponent. Heck, that's handy when defending yourself on the street. I can just imagine it - "Look behind you!" Oh no! He won't turn around. Now what?
3. One of the things that he critisises some martial art forms for is that they are reactionary - that is, you wait till your opponent has thrown a punch and then you deal with him (judo flips and so on). Then he starts the techniques in the book by pages of techniques that are totally based on avoiding a punch thrown at you before hitting the other guy. In other words, he does exactly what he says not to use martial arts to do.
4. He talks about doing everything simply, but the moves he teaches are really uneconomical in movement. They're big moves that take your whole body to do. So if you're looking for something that's easy for the other guy to spot, use the moves in this book.
5. He refers to other books he has put out for further explanations of techniques and other information. That would be okay if he said something like: "Here's move A. Here's move B. For moves C and D see my other books." But he doesn't. He says more like: "Here's half of move A. For the other half buy my other book." What good is that?
Now on to the good bits.
His basic observations about people's attitudes are accurate. In fact, most of what he says is spot-on. The only real problem I have is with the techniques. They are really just for bouncers, with a partner, who have to take down drunks. Actually, the title kind of says that, so it's my bad for thinking that there would be something that I could use to protect myself on the streets in here. There ain't.
Oh yeah, and his rambling tough-guy barroom boasting gets to me a bit. It wouldn't bother me so much, except that on the one hand he says that people who talk like that have no clue, and then he goes on to talk exactly like that.
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28 of 28 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent social psychology, but..., December 1, 2002
This review is from: A Professional's Guide to Ending Violence Quickly: How Bouncers, Bodyguards, and Other Security Professionals Handle Ugly Situations (Paperback)
The best and most valuable thing this book provides, like much of McYoung's writing, is insight into the psychology of people who provoke and/or engage in streetfights. In this respect, his books fill a unique niche. His actual self-defense instruction is sketchy, with very few clear illustrations.
The downside: you do have to plow through the author's testosterone-induced rambling and often blustering prose, which is usually entertaining but at times a little tiring.
Still not as good as Geoff Thompson's books on street survival, though.
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21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
I actually liked it., December 14, 2003
This review is from: A Professional's Guide to Ending Violence Quickly: How Bouncers, Bodyguards, and Other Security Professionals Handle Ugly Situations (Paperback)
Well, I have to admit that I liked this book, even though I still think the author plays "tough guy" too often. This book was valuable because, largely, of two things: it's breakdown of psychology of troublemakers; it's explaination of the principles behind trips and sweeps. The basis of this book was how to handle a violent situation without resorting to extreme force, and in that regard I think it succeeded. MacYoung explains the different kinds of social violence a person may have to deal with, going into stuff like ego games and how to handle different kinds of attitudes before they turn violent. He also goes into an admitedly lazy way of taking a guy down, invovling shoulder and hip bumps, with lots of trips thrown in too. He actually has some very valuable information on avoiding blows, redirecting energy, and the propper way to kick someone's feet out from under them. I also found the appendix on "Murphy's Laws" pretty amusing. Downsides to the book are crude drawings, and the ultra-macho attitude the author exudes in all of his books. Still, the info in this book is eye-opening, so I'd recomend it for the takedown and/or psych text.
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