The SAS Self-Defence Manual, by John "Lofty" Wiseman

Do a search on Abebooks!

AS has, as I'm quite sure you understand, nothing to do with a certain Scandinavian airline company :-). The iInitials stands for Special Air Service, in other words the world famous British elite para-troupers and commando fighters.

In general I find the British self-defense (or self-defence as they would write it) books like this one to be better than the American ones. I'm not quite sure as of why. They just seems to be more practical and down-to-earth, better organised, and less  machismo. Besides, most  of the British ones I've seen have been written by people who obviously knows what they're talking about, which helps of course! Mind you, I'm talking in general here - there are exeptions of course!

From the above you will probably conclude that: "The SAS Manual: Elite defence techniques for men and women" is a self-defense book that I like - and you're right. It brings up violence, prevention, and various reactive meassures in a no-nonsense and well presented way.

The first part is "Mental Attitude". Here the author, John "Lofty" Wiseman, discusses self-defense in general, self-defense and the law (from a British point of view naturally - not being too far off from what is common practice in the rest of Europe), different varieties of violence, awareness, the spirit - or will to survive/win, body language, conquering fear, how to avoid confrontations, defusing a heated situation, being street-smart (streetwise), dealing with gangs, safety on public transportation, distractions and more. Quite a broad range of topics, and just the kind of stuff I like.

The second part is the physical methods or self-defense techniques if you will. These are shown in easy to follow drawings. And I like that too - no bored defenders looking at the moon, or attackers ready for a lunch-break :-). Coming from an army professional the methods are functional - hard and direct, but practical. No-nonsense self-defense in other words. The author claims that the techniques have been gathered from many arts. To me it all looks like pure ju jitsu. This I find rather logical, since ju jitsu originally was army (close-combat) methods.

In sum this is a book that you should try and get hold of. It is reassuring, methodical and practical. This is self-defense in a nut-shell! I suggest you drop by at Abebooks and do a search for it there!

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