Strong on Defense
 | Strong on Defense author: Sanford Strong rating:  asin: 0671535110 binding: Paperback list price: $14.00 USD amazon price: $14.00 |
Definition: trite:
* banal: repeated too often; overfamiliar through overuse; “commonplace," "hackneyed."
This book is NOT trite! but so common as to have become trite is the current wisdom that in a self defence situation, “your mind is your best weapon.”
This implies that gadgets, martial arts, self defence classes and ignoring the reality of violence will not work to save you from the violence you are facing. This book brings a tone of realism to the trite.
Gadgets don’t work because if it is not in your hand, the crime will be over before you can engage it. Even if you do have it in hand, if you haven’t practiced regularly with it, the criminal who has been practicing to overcome it, will prevail.
Martial arts and self defence classes fail for the same reason; the attacks are finished by the time you decide what to do, IF you ever make a decision. The devastating effects of your adrenaline system and your (realistic) lack of trust in your abilities will sabotage your training.
Birds flock together because it lessens the chance of any one bird getting caught when the cat jumps into the middle of them. But if you are that unlucky bird, not prepared because you bet on the odds for your survival, facing that cat will ruin your day if not your life.
We call the futile dependance upon tools or magical self defence practices (hit him here, with this, like this, and he falls down) as talisman thinking, (thanks Montie). Talisman thinking lets you down because, if your mind is your best weapon and you are ignoring mental preparation, you are going into the fight unarmed.
Sanford Strong has written a very useful book on how to mentally prepare and set your mind upon survival.
What Does Work: (quotes from the book):
What works as proved by the results of police survival training is mind-setting. Mind-setting is rehearsing and visualizing actions in your mind, a method use din many fields, from sports to law enforcement, military to medicine.
Mind setting to survive violent crime draws on real life crime cases, which allows us to analyze the mistakes of others, learn from the, and decide how we will respond differently.
Pure and simple, it (mind-setting) trains your survival instincts. In peace and quiet, your use your intellect and logic ahead of time to weigh you best options, taking into account your physical limitations, your children, and their ages.
Good decisions are the product of a good system, and parts of that system must include: What are the probable consequences? Am I being honest with myself? Am I letting fear stop me from making any decisions?
Without mind-setting, people freeze up; they have no way to cut through the overwhelming fear that boxes them in during a crisis.
In order to mind-set effectively, we must first learn to deal with fear.
Four Survival Rules to Live By
The analysis of case histories for mistakes and proper methodology is an interesting read and somewhat useful even if all you do is just read the book. His Four Survival Rules to Live By are applied over and over to very interesting real crime cases so that, by the end of the book, a good understanding of how criminal attacks develope and how to think out the risks involved, is apparent.
By pre-judging your risk assessment and pre-planning your actions, you know immediately what your choices are in a high risk situation. Your whole family will know what is about to happen and will help make the plan succeed.
You will be prepared to bring into play the greatest physical tool at your disposal: immediate action. It is at this point only that training and weaponry might help.
This book is an “instruction manual” on how to train yourself and your family to face emergencies of all kinds. You will never get this information in a “how to” class of “do this do that” methodology or “carry this or that” of the gadget dependence fostered by so many gadget salemen found teaching modern self defence classes.
The Caveat:
This book FAILS to mention the devastating effects of the adrenaline dump nor that training is availble to deal with it. This book implies that thinking and planning about violence is all you need to survive it, which is just not true.
Prior planning is great unless it is washed away by the nature of the severe stress reaction to the adrenaline dump. Only deconditioning yourself to this stress by subjecting yourself to realistic attacks and fighting back will ensure as much as possible that your plan will stay in your head without you getting creative in the last moment of panic and jumping off a high bridge to nowhere in a vain attempt to keep your wallet.
Realistic adrenal stress training by means of simulated but realistic combat with an armoured assailant such as are provided by the RMCAT courses offered by Peyton Quinn are widely available.
Although this failing is potentially deadly, this book is a good step in the right direction!
RMCAT Review: how criminals identify you!
