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    Self-Defence for Non-Experts: a book for people who can't fight
    Self-Defence for Non-Experts: a book for people who can't fight
    Self-Defence for Non-Experts: a book for people who can't fight
    Ebook103 pages1 hour

    Self-Defence for Non-Experts: a book for people who can't fight

    By Joe Bloke

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    About this ebook

    Are you a lean-mean-fighting machine who has had years of martial arts training? If so, then you don’t need a book on self-defence. This book is written for the people who do need a book on self-defence; the people who can’t fight. Maybe they’re not so young any more, or a bit overweight, or haven’t done any sport since they were at school. Maybe they know that they’re never going to be able to fight like a tough guy in the movies. But they also know that there isn’t going to be a police officer nearby when they really need one.

    “Self-Defence for Non-Experts” is a little different from most self-defence manuals. There are no complicated manoeuvres that the non-expert would have no chance of actually using in real life. There are no fancy martial arts moves that involve striking with the fingers or trying to kick someone in the head. Everything that “looks cool” but which would be of no practical use to the non-expert has been excluded. Only the simplest physical techniques are featured and they are described in a straightforward manner. Much of the book consists of practical advice about what works and what doesn’t work for a person who isn’t trained in the martial arts. The suggestions and recommendations are realistic and sensible.

    This is a book for very ordinary people who aren’t so foolish as to think that they can turn themselves into an expert fighter merely by reading a book. Are you an average person who isn’t a powerhouse of muscles, nor as flexible as a gymnast, but who would like to be better prepared to protect yourself if a situation were to arise where you had no choice but to physically defend yourself as best you can? Then this is the book for you.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherJP Tate
    Release dateJun 24, 2017
    ISBN9781386163763
    Self-Defence for Non-Experts: a book for people who can't fight
    Author

    Joe Bloke

    Joe Bloke is obviously a pen-name. He spent ten years studying karate in his twenties and early thirties, and he used to teach karate classes. He draws upon that experience in writing this book (Self-Defence for Non-Experts: a book for people who can't fight) but he writes from the perspective of someone who is no longer quite so young as once he was and who therefore has to take a strictly realistic view of the dangerous business of being in a fight.

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      Book preview

      Self-Defence for Non-Experts - Joe Bloke

      Contents

      01. Does Anyone Need Another Book on Self-Defence?

      02. Gauging the Danger.

      03. Confrontations.

      04. Pick Your Targets.

      05. Men At Risk.

      06. Women At Risk.

      07. Domestic Violence.

      08. Legal Implications.

      The Inconspicuous Defensive Stance.

      Eye Gouge.

      Finger Break.

      Front Kick.

      Basic Punch.

      Circular Elbow Strike.

      Palm Heel Strike.

      The Old One-Two.

      Sideways Elbow Strike.

      Back Kick

      Back Kick When Held.

      Combining Simple Techniques.

      Chapter 1

      Does Anyone Need Another

      Book On Self-Defence?

      ––––––––

      One evening two shodan (first degree) black belts in Shotokan karate were sitting in a bar having a drink after class. I was one of them. The topic of conversation was the fact that although we were trained karate men and would no doubt be called experts by people who knew nothing about the martial arts, we ourselves did not feel particularly safe in a dangerous world.

      Oh sure, we were practicing self-defence techniques three or four days each week and as instructors we were teaching the art of karate to our students, who may well have seen us as skilled fighters. But that wasn’t how we saw ourselves.

      One of the first things you learn in any study of the martial arts is that it’s really hard to actually land a blow on someone who doesn’t want to be hit. Practicing with a willing partner who doesn’t get out of the way might give you the false impression that you’re getting pretty good at this fighting lark, but the two of us were not fooled. Actual combat, we realised only too well, was another matter.

      We asked ourselves: which of the techniques that we practiced so diligently in our karate classes would we use if we were genuinely defending our lives in a real fight? In other words, which of our extensive catalogue of techniques would we be willing to gamble our lives on, and which would we discard as being unrealistic to attempt against an opponent who wanted to smash a glass bottle into our face or beat our heads in with a baseball bat?

      We quickly concluded and agreed that we would never dream of using the flashy kicks and strikes that people usually associate with the oriental martial arts. In a real fight? We laughed out loud at the thought of trying to use the kind of showy techniques that are so beloved of martial arts movies. Head-high kicks? Ridiculous. Knife-hand finger strikes to the throat? Absurd. Are you kidding? It was obvious to us both that we would rely on the most simple and basic front kicks and straight punches. Forget about fighting like a so-called expert and focus on preserving your life and limb, that’s what matters.

      And so we happened upon the idea of writing this book. The purpose of what is written in these pages is to discard everything that a Hollywood superhero martial artist might do on the cinema screen and collect together some realistic advice with some realistic self-defence techniques for the non-expert. Who is the non-expert? Nearly everybody, we decided, including a couple of black belt karate men like ourselves.

      When you think about it, this is the only reason why anyone might bother to write yet another book on self-defence. There are hundreds of books already available on the subject, all of which are much alike. In fact, they’re largely interchangeable and they all seem to hold out the promise that you too can fight like the experts. 

      This book is intended to be very different from all those self-defence books which have a picture on the cover of someone kicking someone else in the head. (Do you really think you can accurately kick a fast-moving target that high? In high-heels or after a heavy meal, not to mention after a few drinks?) Or the kind of books with a picture on the cover of a tiny woman physically dominating a huge man with some clever pressure point technique. (Have you ever tried finding a pressure point on an assailant who’s wearing a bulky jacket? Or while his mate is attacking you from behind?) Or the type of book that advertises secret techniques and special tricks to keep you safe. The idea that there is a secret store of semi-mystical techniques from the Orient that provide you with almost magical abilities derived from the wisdom of the ancients has long been an appealing fantasy among westerners.

      Self-defence manuals will often bombard the reader with a huge catalogue of set-piece techniques described in terms of he does this / you do that. They provide an impressive directory of wrist-locks, blocking and trapping combinations, leg sweeps combined with restraining holds, and so on. They contain, let’s be fair, a great treasury of combat knowledge. Complete with glossy photographs these elaborate manoeuvres can look exciting and inspiring to the uninitiated, and perhaps that is the point. They create the impression of considerable expertise on behalf of the authors, and of value for money on behalf of the readers.

      But the problem with that approach is as simple as it is devastating. It can be expressed in two words: reaction time. Performing such techniques when you know what attack is about to be thrown at you is relatively easy. It is quite different when you have no idea what attack is going to be made against you. When the attack might come low or high, might be a fist or a foot, might come from the left or the right, might come singly or in combination, then the defender must take a moment to recognise the specific type of attack that is coming at them before they can attempt to apply their rehearsed defence against it. Unfortunately, that moment may be long enough to be fatal.

      It takes years of practice to be able to perform the appropriate technique, especially if it’s quite complicated, in a spontaneous manner. To react without thinking and yet still respond with the requisite technique, and to do so at high-speed (the only speed that matters in a real fight), isn’t something that a reader can get from a book. Will the non-expert be able to remember the correct technique when they actually need it to preserve their life

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