The 10 Best Books to Learn Martial Art and Self-Defense
Today we talk about?the 10 best books to learn martial art and self-defense. I like to say that each person should learn reading, writing, and… self-defense.
While many of us living in first-world countries feel like we will never get attacked - we think that until we actually do get attacked.
Meanwhile, other people are constantly looking over their shoulders, always being afraid of an assailant, considering what they would do and what they Should do if such a situation would arise.
This questioning and sense of fear usually lead people to practice martial arts or to go to a self-defense course - yet the truth is - that not all martial arts and self-defense courses are created equal.
Based on the school, style, and instructor - some martial arts classes can be a hit or miss, as most martial arts instructors will teach you complicated techniques which will take years to master or that in actuality are simply not effective, while a weekend self-defense course will teach you various “what if techniques”, such as “if an attacker grabs you like this - do this!”, but you will neither be able to learn them so quickly nor will remember them a few days later, let alone - if you will actually be attacked.
When the situation of learning self-defense is described in this way, it may seem like a gloomy and confusing situation to be in, yet the good news is - you can learn the essentials of self-defense without leaving your home, or even better... Without leaving your couch!
Now I understand that this sounds like a “drink a pill and lose weight” snake oil-salesman type of scheme, but stay with me for just a little bit more.
The truth about self-defense is that roughly 80% if not more of what self-defense actually is about - is self-protection and prevention. It is knowing how to spot and avoid a potential attacker, to begin with, or how to de-escalate or avoid a situation that is growing toward a potential threat.
80%, if not more of self-defense is self-protection and avoidance of potential threats. Luckily for us, this information can be gained through reading quality self-defense books. But not all self-defense books are created equal.
Join me in this article to explore things and dive into understanding what makes self-defense books great and what books in particular at the best for learning about self-defense and self-protection to become much safer.
And lucky for all of us - this information can be easily found in books. But hold your horses - don’t run off and buy the first self-defense book that you find on amazon. This situation is still a bit more delicate than that and needs some more explanation.
As not all martial arts and self-defense courses are created equal - the same can be said about self-defense books. Many of the self-defense books do the same mistake as formerly mentioned self-defense weekend courses - they only show pictures of “what if” techniques, which consist only of dealing with physical attacks.
But as explained earlier, what is more, important than just learning physical self-defense - is appropriate knowledge of how to avoid and deescalate potential threats. Lucky for us again, some self-defense books are incredibly good at providing this crucial, life-saving information.
Hence, this article. Now I know you are already eager to get to know what books they are, so let’s take a look at our recommended?best self-defense books?list.
Table of Contents
Best self-defense books series by Peter Consterdine
The 10 Best Books to Learn Martial Art and Self-Defense
Today I wanted to give you guys my?top 10 personal protection, personal defense,?and?situational awareness type of books.
I want to read about it and although books usually put me to sleep if I read them like at night. I try to make time during the day where I can read things because there are so many good books out there that will give you information that's helpful especially.
if you're trying to learn more about how to defend yourself whether it's with a firearm or pepper spray or just changing your mindset around personal defense.
So I'm gonna give you guys the 10 favorites and?best books on self-defense?that I have here and we'll talk about situational awareness first one of my all-time favorite?best books to learn martial arts.
If you want to learn more about mindset, self-protection, and situational awareness, check out my?Top 10 Books for Self-Defense & Martial Arts.
1. The Gift of Fear
The Gift of Fear by Gavin De Becker
In my early search for the best possible answers on the subject of self-defense and personal safety, I was recommended on more than one occasion a book called “The Gift of Fear” written by Gavin De Becker.
Initially, it did not seem like a book directly speaking about the subject of self-defense. I mean, you don’t find pictures of an angry man grabbing a lady on the wrist and in the next picture seeing the lady perform a flashy open palm strike into the nose of the attacker.
Yet with getting deeper into the book I realized that not only does it extremely helpful in understanding what self-defense is truly about, but it also helps even more in understanding safety from predators in all possible situations.
Gavin de Becker is a security specialist, primarily for governments, large corporations, and public figures, but he is no stranger to violence in everyday life. Growing up in a violent environment himself, you could say that he basically became obsessed with understanding violence and eventually - how to avoid it as best as possible.
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Throughout the book, he introduces the concept of our intuition, the vast capacity and knowledge of our subconscious which collects significantly more information than our conscious mind, and pretty much without failing - warns us about upcoming, possible dangers through a sense of, often seemingly unexplained, fear.
While it may sound like a woo-woo type of an idea at the beginning, Gavin gives a generous amount of real examples of how this sense of fear saved many lives, or in more unfortunate cases - when this intuition was not listened to and as a result - lead to horrifying outcomes.
Reading this book you will not only understand deeply how this survival mechanism, that we all inherently already have, works, but you will also learn much more about the predatory mindset and various factors which will help you spot early on, not only the cookie-cutter, hooded attackers in the dark alley, but even more importantly, the much less evident and potentially more dangerous “well dressed” and mannered assailants, who prey on our politeness and unwillingness to listen to our deeper, internal alert signs.
I am no stranger to fear of being attacked myself, but “The Gift of Fear” showed me how to use this fear in an empowering and efficient way, so that in an almost paradoxical way - I would lose fear, or more precisely would stop being afraid when it is unnecessary, and become allies with my fear, knowing when to actually listen to it. Read this book and don’t forget to pass it on to everyone that you care about to make them safer too.
2. The Art of War
The art of war by Sun Tzu
This book is an old book it's from the 5th century BCE I believe and it was written by a Chinese general named Sun Tzu it's basically a military strategy book but it can give you a lot of helpful information on how to strategize in different areas of your life.
There are a lot of quotes you've probably heard that come from this book one of them is if you know yourself and you know the enemies you need not fear the results of a hundred battles.
There's a lot of good information in here on dealing with conflict and different situations in your life so definitely buy the art of war. I definitely recommend this book.
3. Principles of Personal Defense
Principles of personal defense is written by Jeff Cooper
he's the one who created what is called Cooper's color code and if you have ever heard of the condition yellow that's where this comes from he talks a lot about mental conditioning and how to change your mindset.
How to become more aware and he goes through different categories but they're mostly based on the way you think like decisiveness coolness how to stay cool when things are going bad and things like that's principles of personal defense by Jeff Cooper.
4. After The Bell Rings
After The Bell Rings-Giving kids the tools they need to stay safe: A field guide to situational awareness by William A Dalpe
William Dalpe owns Patriot firearms school in Rehoboth Massachusetts. it is actually aimed towards children ages 10 to 18.
If you have kids that are between those ages this book is really great it teaches them about the main ideas behind situational awareness and what I really like about this book is that it gives different scenarios like if you're home alone or if you go to a friend's house and something bad happens just things that they might encounter and then it goes and breaks down each scenario and will ask questions that the child should answer like what should have been done and then it also gives like a lesson learned so it kind of summarizes each scenario at the end.
5. In the Gravest Extreme
In the gravest extreme and this falls under the category of firearms mostly this was written by Massad F. Ayoob
This book is really good for learning some of the legal issues behind carrying a firearm and how to practically carry a firearm for personal protection so I like that one if you're going to be carrying a firearm for personal protection one of the most important things you need to do first of all is know the laws behind self-defense and when you're allowed to protect yourself, especially with lethal force in the case of a firearm so that's why I like this book.
6. The Law of Self Defense
The Law of Self Defense: The Indispensable Guide to the Armed Citizen by Andrew F. Branca
I like this book a lot because it breaks down the law in terms of the use of force but it also has tables in the back that go through each state's laws so it'll give you the actual place you can find the laws for each state within the law so that's a really good reference I like that a lot I've highlighted things for my state Massachusetts so really like this.
7. Meditations on Violence
Meditations on Violence: A Comparison of Martial Arts Training and Real World Violence by Rory Miller
This book gives a no-nonsense introduction and thorough explanation of what self-defense is truly about and how to best stay safe. It beautifully explains the complex subject of self-defense and how to best approach life-threatening situations.
One of the greatest things I find Rory does in the book, is the great explanation of the difference between a street fight and self-defense situations, a common misunderstanding, pointing out that a lot of “street fights” happen not because they are unavoidable, but because two or more individuals engage in what Rory calls a “monkey dance” (of course we are mainly talking about guys at the moment), or in other words a battle between egos, which may end up being deadly, while in reality - it can be completely avoided by spotting such an event unfolding early enough and keeping our egos in check.
Throughout the book, other crucial subjects are also explored such as dynamics of violence, predator mindset, adapting training to the realities of violence, making the physical defense work, and even the after-effects of a sudden assault or long-term exposure to a violent environment.
If you want to become much, much safer in your everyday life and various environments, this book will absolutely play a golden role in helping you achieve this goal.