A good book about self-defense: why your traditional martial art may not work

Meditations on Violence: A Comparison of Martial Arts Training & Real World Violence by Rory Miller is a book I recommend to anyone starting in martial arts and self-defense - it's available in Amazon (the link is affiliate).

This text shakes the traditional world of martial arts on the base of its effectivity versus real life violence. It explores the differences between martial arts practice and actual violence.
 
These excerpts illustrate why you should read it.  

  1. Self-defense is clearly my focus in this book. What is it? It is recovery from stupidity or bad luck, from finding yourself in a position you would have given almost anything to prevent. It is difficult to train for because of the surprise element and because you may be injured before you are aware of the conflict. The critical element is to overcome the shock and surprise so that you can act.

  2. Self-defense is largely about dealing with surprise and fear and pain.

  3. Know this: Watching every martial arts movie ever filmed gives you as much understanding of fighting as a child watching Dumbo learned about elephants. Learning a martial art often teaches you as much as a taxidermist would know about elephants. Watching boxing or the UFC teaches as much as a trip to the zoo or the circus. Really, really studying the best research available gives you an incredible amount of knowledge about violence or about elephants, but there is always one detail missing. When you are standing next to an elephant, it is huge. It could crush you at will or tear you in half, and there is nothing you could do. The advantage of being blind, of only knowing a part of this beast, is the comfortable illusion of safety.

  4. You are what you are, not what you think you are. Violence is what it is, not necessarily what you have been told.

  5. People who imagine the harmony of nature are often willfully blind to the savagery between wolf and rabbit.

  6. The annoying truth is that untrained people fight better under the chemical cocktail and trained people fight worse.

  7. …the more experience of violence you have the less sure you are.
The last quote sounds very true to me. Ignorance is a bliss.

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