Favorite Sources for Non-Martial Topics?

Gerry Seymour

Gerry Seymour

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For those who have done the research, what are your favorite sources for the non-fighting topics related to self-defense? I'm thinking of things like de-escalation, recognizing threats, target hardening, victim selection, etc. I'm interested in both the technical sources (I'm a psychology nerd, so I'll even read a journal article of a related study) and the consumer-digestible content. Books, videos, articles, and even paid content/courses.

For those with experience in security/LE/bouncing, which sources line up with what you found to work?

For those who teach these things (to MA students, seminars, or to professionals), what seems to click?
 
I am excited about this thread. It has the potential to be really good. But I need to curb my enthusiasm because I know the majority of martial artists get everything they know by just showing up for class.....but I'm still excited and looking forward to a lot of reading.
 
I do two main things: I listen, and I look for books. A great many people with a lifetime of experience will ,at least on occasion, open their experience and start telling a story. That's how I've learned the most on theory. Whether a group of lounging masters at a conference, a visiting instructor over lunch, or a parent waiting for class to finish. I like to read books that cover real experiences of people who survived bad situations, regardless of what it was.
 
Great topic. I may need to wait (a few days) to be back at a keyboard to fully participate fully, but -

I find Cooper's Color System and I.M.O.P. to be useful and essential.

Favorite books on the subject (in no particular order) include:

Strong on Defense
Meditations on Violence
The Little Black Book of Violence
The Gift of Fear
Verbal Judo
Scaling Force


There are others and none of these are perfect. I think it is a hard genre to write well. Many are overlapping and some are better for certain types of people than others.

I commonly pan YouTube here as a source of martial arts truth, but videos of crimes and assaults, while not fun to watch can be very educational for someone trying to train for surviving or avoiding assault
 
hoshin1600 said:
I am excited about this thread. It has the potential to be really good. But I need to curb my enthusiasm because I know the majority of martial artists get everything they know by just showing up for class.....but I'm still excited and looking forward to a lot of reading.
Click to expand...
I am excited about it, too. Some folks have dropped sources from time to time in various threads, and I thought it about time we gathered some of that into one place, and perhaps with some debate on the merits of some of the sources.
 
This topic is precisely why I get aggrevated when people post about "reality" when they mean sparring. (Please don't respond and turn this into a sparring thread. We have plenty of other real estate for that)

This is an essential topic and area of exploration for anyone teaching or interested in self defense/personal safety. It can be trained, but it's different than training.
 
if i was to teach a course on human combative behavior these would be my recommended reading.
books:

Rory Miller has quite a few books and you really cant go wrong reading them (most notable "Meditations on Violence") or taking a seminar with him, he is a great guy. in my opinion however his experience is in Law enforcement and correctional facilities so a discerning eye can spot a leaning bias in this direction and sometimes this may not translate well into the civilian world. i do think he realizes this but the reader should be aware of making broad assumptions based on his books.

Gavin De Becker has a hand full of books as well (most notable "The gift of fear")

for threat recognition i would recommend "Left of Bang" by Patrick Van Horne. its a military book for the recognition and detection of terrorist activity but the concepts can also apply to other things.

"Strong on Defense" by Stanford Strong , i read it back in 1997 when it was released so i cant really remember much about it so i cant say if it is good or bad but if people are still recommending it then it must still be relevant.

Geoff Thompson has some books as well as material on Youtube. highly recommended.

in the same vain as Thompson is Lee Morrison while he has some books he also has content on Youtube. i recommend his Youtube stuff
Urban Combatives - The best in Combatives on the net

LT. COL Dave Grossman has two must read books "On Killing" and "On Combat" these are must read books for understanding the effects of adrenaline and fear while engaged in combat and the psychology of combat.
"Warrior Mindset" is a book by Michael J. Asken, PH.D. the books had the help of Dave Grossman and Loren W. Christensen. so all three of these authors are good.

When it comes to womens self defense, and rape,,,, now i have to make a note here that most cases of rape happen by someone the victim knows (i have to mention this because i dont want posters to go into the usual diatribe) that being said these books are a valuable source of information when it comes to serial rapists and their behavior.

"Men Who Rape" by A.Nicholas Groth Groth was the originator of the Classifications that are now common place and used by FBI profilers and law enforcement. it was his clinical studies that laid the foundations for everything we know today.

Roy Hazzelwood picks up where Groth"s work stops. Hazelwood was one of the originators of the Behavioral Science Unit within the FBI and was actively in the field trying to solve cases. Hazelwoods specialty focus was on sexual crime and rape. he has put out a few books most notable "The Evil that Men Do"
His book is a collection of case studies that he worked on. also is "Dark Dreams" it is a kind of follow up to his first book.

"Seductions of Crime" was pretty good by Jack Katz it's a "chilling exploration of the criminal mind" so says the title. released in 1988 so its been a long long timee since i read it....maybe im due for a re-read.

Now on top of all these i would suggest reading military classics on war. this may be beyond the scope of the OP interest but i thought i would mention it since they can be a wealth of information.

Chinese books, the 7 Chinese classics;
  • T'ai Kung's Six Secret Teachings
  • The Methods of Ssu-Ma
  • Sun- Tzu, The Art of War
  • Wu -Tzu
  • Wei Liao-Tzu
  • Three Strategies of Huang Shih- Kung
  • Questions and Replies, T'ang T'ai-tsung and Li Wei-Kung
  • Sun Pin, Military Methods
Western authors ,books;

Edit:
Also "Blacks Law Dictionary " and "The FBI Crime Classifications Manual " are invaluable books for a library on these topics.
 
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for on line content;

YouTube channel "Active Self Protection" Active Self Protection
they have a great catalog of video of shootings and assaults. John Correia does a good commentary on the video footage. and if you dont like commentary there is always the volume button and you can just watch the clips.

YouTube "Nathan Wagar" Nathan Wagar has a few vids that are good, unfortunately he hasnt put up new material in a long time.

YouTube "Sucker Punch Oakland" ihttps://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7XtFU9AFqCzSFHwoR28vsQ s about bouncers and they do interviews with a lot of professionals.

YouTube "Funker Tactical" Funker Tactical - Fight Training Videos i believe this is Doug Marcaida's (knife and kali) channel, but there is a wide range of professionals making videos for the channel

the FBI has a web sight and a page for information, Welcome to the LEB website and
National Criminal Justice Reference Service | NCJRS
you can also search topics of interest on Google with "FBI Bulletin" in the name and do some research that way as well.

i like Science Direct. ScienceDirect.com | Science, health and medical journals, full text articles and books.
but its not free. sights charge for content. so a PDF study and report could cost $19.99 you get a 24 hour window to download it or print it out.
a science direct platform account allows you to access Science Direct, Scopus, Mendeley, Evise, Elsevier Editorial, SciVal, Engineering vIllage, GeoFacts, Reaxys, Embase, ClincalKey, PharmaPendium and Pathway Studio.
 
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gpseymour said:
For those who have done the research, what are your favorite sources for the non-fighting topics related to self-defense? I'm thinking of things like de-escalation, recognizing threats, target hardening, victim selection, etc. I'm interested in both the technical sources (I'm a psychology nerd, so I'll even read a journal article of a related study) and the consumer-digestible content. Books, videos, articles, and even paid content/courses.

For those with experience in security/LE/bouncing, which sources line up with what you found to work?

For those who teach these things (to MA students, seminars, or to professionals), what seems to click?
Click to expand...
I usually pull information from animal documentaries covering animal behavior, leadership and management books and online readings, scientific information about human behavior and how the body responds to external elements, and the anything I can get my hand on about vision and perception.

My latest curiosity is magic. I'm curious to know if I can apply some of the same methods that magicians use to fighting. They are excellent at misdirection.
 
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