The Definitive Self-Protection Handbook

June 6, 2008

Geoff Thompson’s Definitive Self Protection Handbook. “Dead or Alive”.
Most other self-defense books emphasize which fighting techniques to use in a particular situation. This book teaches how to avoid to get in that situation in the first place, and how to react to aggressive statements like “What are you looking at!”. It even informs you what to tell the Law in case you won the fight…

This is a very special book. Second only to Peter Consterdine’s “Streetwise: Manual of Personal Security and Self Defence” in terms of giving you all around and essential information on self protection, this book is an absolute ‘must have’.Whilst “Streetwise” gives you almost everything you need, this book complements it perfectly and supplies the few missing pieces necessary to round out the picture. The author, Geoff Thompson, has a background as a doorman, and has put in a great deal of effort to study and learn both the ’street’ skills of combat and the academic and intellectual tools to understand violent situations.

Combining elements of academic psychology with interview evidence from a range of violent criminals, from muggers to rapists, even murderers, Thompson shows the mindset and attack rituals of these criminals. This vital information combined with the simple but not simplistic self protection ideas that Thompson explains enable you to fully understand how to firstly, avoid and evade trouble and dangerous situations, and secondly, how to stand a chance of dealing with a potential assailant that you have been unable to escape from.

This is no fools advice though. Thompson does not attempt to fill your head with unworkable super techniques. His advice is based on his own experience that the simple and ’scruffy’ stuff is what works. Indeed it is all you will be capable of doing if you are caught in a situation where it is all kicking off, and far from being the coward’s way, Thompson proves that running away is by far the better option.

The best thing about the book though is Thompson’s discussion on the law as regards self defence. This will prove to be a real eye opener to many readers and certainly forces you to adopt realistic attitudes to the world. Make no mistake, YOU are responsible for your own self protection, not the police and the courts, and Thompson does an excellent job of getting this across.

In essence, this book with it’s focus on giving an insight into the mindset of the violent offender, and it’s excellent approach to making you sit up and take responsibility for your own self protection and defence, forms the perfect companion for the all around information contained in Peter Consterdine’s “Streetwise”.

Get hold of both and give them some serious study and you will be much safer and wiser.

Geoff Thompson’s Definitive Self Protection Handbook.
Peter Consterdine’s “Streetwise: Manual of Personal Security and Self Defence”

Malcolm
Yoshiki Goshin Jutsu