Real Fighting: Adrenaline Stress Conditioning Through Scenario-Based Training [Paperback]

Peyton Quinn (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 1, 1996

Techniques learned in the dojo rarely work in a real fight. Here the author of A Bouncer's Guide to Barroom Brawling offers a practical solution. Learn how to control the rush of adrenaline into your system and harness it effectively to shut down the bully's antics or pound him into the pavement when all else fails.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Peyton Quinn is the dean of barroom brawling. He began his training in formal martial arts systems in 1964, eventually achieving rank in karate, judo and aikido. While he continues to respect and explore Asian martial arts systems, his real-world experience has shown him that for most people, training in martial arts alone is not enough for real fighting.

Product Details

• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: Paladin Press (July 1, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0873648935
• ISBN-13: 978-0873648936
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.5 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #727,311 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

52 of 54 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Don't get your hopes up., September 24, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Real Fighting: Adrenaline Stress Conditioning Through Scenario-Based Training (Paperback)

The subtitle of this book is "Adrenaline Stress Conditioning through Scenario-Based Training." When deciding to purchase this book, I interpreted this subtitle to mean that the book would provide lessons as to how one can control the innate surge of adrenaline that overcomes people just prior to a violent incident. As a police officer, I know that acquiring this ability to "remain calm under pressure" is essential yet difficult to do. I therefore anticipated learning from this book how to minimize the adrenaline surge in such incidents so as to be more effective. Unfortunately, this book did not provide what I was looking for, in more ways than one. The book does not specifically tell you how to control the adrenaline surge. It tells you that in order to become an effective fighter, you must train to fight in a way that replicates, as close as possible, a real fight situation. That's pretty much it. The author spends most of his writing effort telling stories and citing examples to back up this theory. Now, mind you, the author is very knowledgeable and makes excellant arguments to support his point. The problem is that after about the second or third chapter, you've got the point. I continued to read through the rest of the book hoping to be taught how to control the adrenaline but, the lesson never came. The reason for this is because, according to the author, this lesson must be taught through real life experience. The author frequently refers to the training facility that he runs out in Colorado that does just that. The real kicker, however, is that nowhere in this book does the author tell you any information that would enable you to train at his facility to learn adrenaline stress conditioning. Nor does he tell you how to set up a "Real Fighting" training method of your own. And so, after a little over 170 pages, all that you have learned is that you must train for the real thing by simulating the real thing. I don't give this book a bad review, just an average one. It is an informative book especially if you are new to physical self defense training. Those that are more advanced will probably find that this book does little to improve their skills.

33 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Good Point, But Now Show Us How To Do It, January 15, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Real Fighting: Adrenaline Stress Conditioning Through Scenario-Based Training (Paperback)

This books main premise is that if you want to survive a real life street encounter you have to train for a real life street encounter and this means training realistically. That sentence took Mr. Quinn 175 pages to cover. This book is just a diatribe on how ineffective the martial arts are for streetfighting because they don't train with any real contact. Mr. Quinn is absolutely, 100 percent correct, but he does not give us any solutions to this problem. From reading this book I am to understand that the only way I can survive a streetfight is to go to Mr. Quinn's Colorado training center and train with him personally. Believe me, if I could I would, but the large majority of people reading this book will not be able to drop everything and go to Boulder. This book was completely unnecessary and would have been better as an article in Black Belt or a similar magazine. When I bought this book I thought I would be getting instructions on how to build to the "Bulletman" suit or how to adapt my martial art to this type of training. Instead the book reads like a lecture from my father, he has a lot of good points but never tells me how to realistically solve my problem. There are a few good points to the book, like the part where Mr. Quinn shows us the backhanded strike and the two usoto gari throws, but other than these very few points the book is not worth what I payed for it. However, the reason I am so disappointed was because after Mr. Quinn's first book, A Bouncers Guide to Barroom Brawling, I expected something as phenomenal as that. Take my advice, ignore this book and go straight for A Bouncers Guide to Barroom Brawling, it is infinitely better than this book and is worth every penny and then some. If you are looking for a book that will try and help you to take your martial art to that next level, check out Marc MacYoungs book on the subject.

17 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars On force on force training, September 5, 2004

By 

Seppo Vesala (Helsinki, - Finland) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Real Fighting: Adrenaline Stress Conditioning Through Scenario-Based Training (Paperback)

The first third or so of this book is similar to Quinn's first book, Bouncer's guide to barroom brawling. There is some discussion about the realities of real-life fighting, Quinn teaches one technique to the reader, and so on. After that, Quinn starts to discuss the benefits of realistic force on force (FOF) training. The tone of the book changes totally, and it seems that the first third of the book doesn't really belong into this book. It's as if Quinn did not have enough things to say about FOF training, and he had to put some extra material to the book. This doesn't mean that the beginning of the book is not good, though. In fact, I thing that the beginning of the book is the most valuable part (if you are already familiar with FOF training, that is).

As the book is almost ten years old, at the time of writing the material on FOF training (which Quinn calls "adrenal stress conditioning") might have been new information, but today everyone realizes it's importance and benefits. As Quinn concentrates mainly on establishing justification on using FOF training, and because today FOF training is recognized as superior training method, that means this book is at least partly outdated. In the book, Quinn does not tell how to organize FOF training scenarios, nor does he give any other practical advise on the subject. It may be because he considers these things trade secrets, but still the main portion is of little use, if you already realize the benefits of FOF training.

Through the book, Quinn makes references to his earlier book and his instructional videos. I find this kind of advertising a little annoying. If I like the book I am reading, I might buy other books by the same author, but not because the author asks me to. Otherwise, the book is easy to read and there are some war stories from Quinn's bouncer days to spice up the text.

I believe that this book was much more important when it was published, but today the ideas are not new, therefore lessening the importance of the book.