Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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44 of 46 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Don't get your hopes up., September 24, 1998
By A Customer
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.
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31 of 33 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 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.
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15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Practical & Realistic View of Training for Self-Defense, August 29, 2002
First, I must say, that I am sorry I did not read this book years ago. And, I wish such a book was in print in the 1970's when I began my search for realistic self-defense training.The author's philosophy of training for real life encounters is extremely accurate. Although, it is not supported by scientific research, such as the book by Bruce Siddle "Sharpening the Warriors Edge" a book designed for police training in lethal encounters. Yet, Quinn basis this concept on practical experience and a realistic understanding of what truly takes place during a fight. Which is very refreshing in todays world of unrealistic mythical martial arts that make fictitious claims about there style of self-defense abilty. The concept is simple, inoculate the mind and body to the effects of stress (FEAR) created adrenaline; to overcome the effects so as to prevail in any given self-defense situation. To create this level of skill one must train under circumstances as close to realistic as possible. This means actual hand to hand combat at close to full force and power as one can safely accomplish. As the author states, and I agree 100%, boxing is as close and as realistic of a form of training for this process of inoculation yet, most people do not have the time or the desire to submitt to the practice necessary to achieve the goal. So, Quinn has designed a system of training that achieves a level of competence that is sufficient to meet the desired goal. The Law Enforcement community formally realized this about 15 years ago with the dynamic scenario (RED MAN) training. Although, police academies for years prior had required cadets to box or wrestle full contact. That is before the politically correct individuals got involved and said that women officers should not have to fight the men officers, and that this is a kinder gentler society. So, no one in police academies have boxed or trained at full contact now for over 20 years. No wonder, there are so many lawsuits filed against police agencies for excessive and unlawful use of force! The officers were not given the proper training and inoculation to this adrenaline stress so, they over react. I digress only to make a point of fact in reference to this concept of training. The book maintains a practical view of self-defense. That is, situational awareness and perception of a threat and then avoidance of said threat is the best technique. Avoidance and preemption is always the best strategy. One must achieve the proper mindset and mental preparation before any technique can be effective. The individual must be conditioned to control and channel the effects of fear and the adrenaline stress that follows it. Once this is accomplished the individual can now concern himself with the physical skills and techniques of hand to hand combat. Without this conditioned response to the adrenaline stress, all else is useless. Buy the book and include this type of training into your self-defense program. This book is for all people interested in self-defense programs that need to be effective, including police and military, martial art instructors, firearms instructors, and the citizen who accepts responsibilty for their own safety and security.
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by Marc "Animal" MacYoung
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