Hey guys I was just wondering who are your favorite self defence authors, your favorite works of theirs and why they are your favorites? Not for reasons of authenticity, but other reasons. But if anyone else is interested my 2 favorites have been teaching for a while, have no fraud scandals and many media appearances, and great references from Bouncers, the military and other martial artists. Mine are a tie between Geoff Thompson and Kelly Mcann Geoff Thompson because he covers the full range of self defence, danger zones, signs to expect, posturing , striking etc and he covers topics relevant to those who have already have martial arts training, but does this in a very open and addaptable, but gets across what is important. An example would be from his "art of fighting without fighting" "the gap between you and the attacker can be created by a shove, but you can also you a slap, a single handed shove , or a thai leg kick. Any approach will do as long as after the attack you step back and create the gap. Favorite works: The fence The art of fighting without fighting Real kicking Real heads knees and elbows Kelly Mccann I like because he seems like a genuine guy, he teaches in a straightforward way and is not above joking around a little, and as apposed to Geoff Thompson teaches for the relatively untrained. I like his realistic and frank way of teaching. a good example of this would be from his "Combatives for street survival" " A lot of SD teachers will tell you to stand like this or like that, but let me tell you man, if some guy smacks you upside the head, you arent gonna be thinking about how you are standing, just think nose over toes and thats it" Also I like him for the shallow reason that he teaches the front push kick as a combatives move. love that kick and use it allot in sparring. and practice it off my fence as Geoff teaches above. Favortie works : Combatives for street survival Combatives volume 1, 2 and 3 What are your guys?
I have humblebee, its got some good stuff, but i think he was a better SD author than i lifestyle coach, not a fan of that self help stuff in general so his current direction is not one i agree with, but his older work is great
Personally my favourite is Gavin De Becker. After De Becker I'd pick Col Grossman, Loren W Christensen and Lawrence Kane.
Geoff T & Pete C Grossman is phenomenal too, as is Fairbairn/Sykes. I like Christensen, but find him a little preachy at times
I'm quite surprised by some of the names on here. Many of them are people I've never even heard of - and I work in this industry!
Which ones JWT? Janich is a newcomer in relative terms, being the bald guy with glasses doing knifey stuff in BB mag. Kelly McCann is the real name for Jim Grover and Bob Kasper was a colorful figure!
Jim Grover I have heard of. Bob Kasper Bruce Frantzis Michael Janich all new to me. I was expecting more people to come up with: Geoff Thompson Peter Consterdine Lawrence Kane Rory Miller Marc MacYoung and the more experienced people to add in, or prefer: Gavin De Becker Dave Grossman Loren W Christensen Dennis Martin Richard Dmitri / Tony Blauer (for magazine articles or youtube vids rather than books) Bruce Siddle Michael Asken Alexis Artwohl Massad Ayoob David Klinger Mark Dawes Kenneth Murray There are of course a large number of really good trainers out there who have not published anything. I've been focusing more on karate articles rather than pure SD articles in my own writing over the last 8 years, though the last few published things I put out were more about training methodology and self defence. It's been a while since I had anything published in a mainstream magazine. My lectures have been almost exclusively to the non MA crowd, so I wouldn't expect anyone to have heard of me - unless they've heard of the HAOV section of the Heian Flow System and bought it because of that.
Frantiz is an IMA guy and has no bearing on Self-Protection...that was Lou being a dick Janich as i said is a greenhorn on the scene. It suprioses me you have not heard of Kasper though - he actually taught McCann/Grover. Thankfully no-one has mentioned Wagner yet, although no one has mentioned Hock which suprises me a bit. For me Geoff and Pete still rule the roost
Frantzis can fight.In Japan he went up against Kenichi Sawai's students who were all Kyokushinkia full contact fighters and in Taiwan he fought a challenge match with Wang Shu chin.He lost.
Tito Ortiz can fight but he is not a Self-Protection authority. They are separate aspects that people often get mixed up. Ask Frantiz what a HAOV is or a fence or a lineup or the 4 D's and he will look at you blankly. Most martial artists interpret Slef-protection from the confines of their own system, which is completely wrong Losing to Wang is no shame though!
i have read Marc MAcyoungs stuff, but his book on cheap shots and bar fighting that then went on to talk about mantis, tiger and dragon fist, didnt seem like the thing for me, i prefer more straight forward types of things. I like Peter Consterdine, but didnt trust him as much as Geoff because he was a body guard as apposed to a bouncer, so the kind of violence he encountered was probably different to the kind the everyday guy faces. Kelly Mccann taught the military, but also organised a fight club type thing, and had expereince in general throw downs so I like him.
As a bodyguard trainer Peter Consterdine will have a great deal of experience and skill in spotting and avoiding trouble - a key part of self protection. He is also a very talented martial artist. Furthermore Peter Consterdine and Geoff Thompson collaborate a great deal. Teaching the military is more about contacts than ability and has very little to do with self protection.
not saying peter consterdine, isnt good, alot of his stuff is good stuff, especially the stuff with geoff. What are your thoughts on kelly mccann? Its not his military background i like, its his practical experience, and trainig methods i like.
he also taught under the name jim grover. i can give you some youtube links of his stuff if you like?