Favorite Sources for Non-Martial Topics?

Brian King

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Gerry Seymour

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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.
Do you have some sources you particularly like?
 
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Gerry Seymour

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If you want them to be.
A source would be a specific book, instructor, video, company, etc. You're just pointing to topics to search for. I'm hoping folks will share specific sources they like, that they've found credible and useful.
 
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An interesting source for reading material is the Commandants reading list.
When I was in the Army, the stereotype was the brains were Air Force and the muscle was the Marines. Today the U.S. Marines are both. In truth there are many bright professionals in all of the branches and the Commandants reading list is used by all branches.

Home - Commandant's Professional Reading List - Official Site - Research Guides Home at Library of the Marine Corps
Regards
Brian King
I remember hearing a news story some time back about a shift in the leadership training in the Marines, making use of what had been learned over time both in the military and in the civilian world. They've clearly put a lot of effort into that "brains" side in the last generation, at least.
 

Paul_D

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My number one recommendation would be Dead or Alive: The Definitive Self Protection Handbook by Geoff Thompson. It was fundamental in me understanding that MA and SD are two different things (that and Iain Abernethy's Martial Map Podcast). Being on the small side (me, not the book ;-) ) it was worth the price alone purely for the fact that after reading it, I was for the first time in my life able to fully relax in a pub. It also the only book that talks in any depth about SD in terms other than men fighting each other in the street.

There are other book that look into the non physical skills, The Little Balck Book of Violence, Lee Morrisons Urban Combatives, but not nearly in as much depth, and even then the focus remains on men fighting each other in the street.

One of the best websites I've come across for the non physical side of SD is Suzy Lamplugh Trust | Home

Iain Abernethy's Podcasts, as previousy mentioned, are full of excellent, and free information.

What I have found clicks most on SD courses is when you teach people, particularly women, about how criminals select their victims. Just avoiding simple patterns of behaviour gets taken on board much better than teaching them strangle escapes, for example, which if they don't continue to practice will be of little use to them anyway. That and The Fence/The Wedge, whatever name you chose ot give it.
 

JowGaWolf

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Do you have some sources you particularly like?
Ivan Pavlov and Classical Conditioning (Pavlovian or respondent conditioning) + Human Behavior Pattern Recognition
  • Pavlov Source #1:
  • Pavlov Source #2: More references at the bottom.
  • Pavlov Source #3: Youtube Video
  • Human Behavior #1: National Geographic Alpha Male. (one of my favorite)
  • Human Behavior #2: National Geographic. The science of stress
  • Pattern Recognition #1: Ted talk
  • Pattern Recognition #2: Human Behavior is 93% Predictable. Not a lot of info. But was one of the articles that made me look at martial arts forms differently, especially with the debate that old techniques don't work. Instead of only looking at reaction responses, I now look at behavior responses in the context of a person's reaction. So identify a behavior and associate a response. An example of this may be that brawlers have different behavioral patterns that those who depend on strategy. If you have students then your strategic students may be the quiet students while your brawlers may be the students who have more of a dominant personality. If there is a connection between the two then you can almost figure what type of fighter you are fighting before the fight even starts, simply by recognizing the behavioral patterns. This ties into another small article that I read about Psychology "The way that people do one thing is the way that they do everything." If this holds true then this would apply to fighting and self-defense.
  • Animal Behavior - Pick any video document that talks about the behavior of animals. If you are from the "camp" that accepts humans as animals then you'll begin to recognize similar patterns in animal and human behavior.
  • Business Management Books - Victory Secrets of Attila the Hun, The Art of War (couldn't find the book but it was from a business perspective. It's somewhere in my house),
  • Human Vision Source #1:
  • Human Vision Source #2: Basketball Peripheral Training. This interest me because I played basketball, but never trained my peripheral vision for basketball. It was just something that was the thing do to "No look passes" is what every kids wants to be good at because it makes you look good when you do it. In basketball you are often tracking with Peripheral vision. I never really thought how I did it, so I'm trying to map out how I learned it. Without doing drills like the one in the video. My curiosity is to understand how some people may be trying to train it.. Every now in then I come across a video like this one.
    , where people think they are using their Peripheral Vision but because I read the biology research etc. on vision, I know that we can't see color with Peripheral Vision. I'm not saying the guy isn't using is peripheral vision. Because if he can see the color of the cones then it must mean that is peripheral vision is on the soccer ball and not the cones. It's similar to basketball, where we focus on the people who are on the court but we don't look at the ball when we dribble. Taking into consideration that the brain is auto calculating the speed of the ball, the angle, the movement of the body, the movement of the defender, the movement of other players, and the recognition of openings, my theory is that we suck at fighting and that we are probably getting in the way. Not sure if anyone here plays basketball or has played basketball before, but there's a lot of pattern recognition and calculation that happens on auto pilot. If I can train my kung fu in a similar manner that basketball is trained then I should be able to more than double my fighting ability. I just need to translate Basketball into Kung Fu.
 

frank raud

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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.
Magicians and pickpockets depend on misdirection to make their "tricks" work. A Pickpocket’s Tale A great book which covers some of the subject(from a martial arts perspective) is The Liar The Cheat and the Thief by Maija Soderholm. The subtitle is deception and the art of sword play. while the sword drills may not be relevant to you, the first half of the book will be.
 

frank raud

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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?
My first exposure to the non-fighting aspects of self defense were through Craig Douglas, aka Southnarc. I still take his Managing Unknown Contacts course when I have the opportunity as a refresher.
 

JowGaWolf

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Magicians and pickpockets depend on misdirection to make their "tricks" work. A Pickpocket’s Tale A great book which covers some of the subject(from a martial arts perspective) is The Liar The Cheat and the Thief by Maija Soderholm. The subtitle is deception and the art of sword play. while the sword drills may not be relevant to you, the first half of the book will be.
Thanks. I'm going to read it. It'll be a starting point for me.
 

frank raud

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There is a lot of crossover from sales to self defense, as much of sales involves a degree of manipulation or the ability to read a person, gathering clues from body language and verbal clues. You can find some of the same stuff in poker. The book of tells by Peter Collett is a digestible study of body language.
 

hoshin1600

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having been in car sales myself and it being a family business (my dad owns the dealership) i often think about how sales(closing) is really a form of negotiation and it is very applicable to de-escalation. the ability to control the conversation (and thus emotions), the ability to guide and direct it, is something i add to my curriculum.
 

JowGaWolf

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Magicians and pickpockets depend on misdirection to make their "tricks" work. A Pickpocket’s Tale A great book which covers some of the subject(from a martial arts perspective) is The Liar The Cheat and the Thief by Maija Soderholm. The subtitle is deception and the art of sword play. while the sword drills may not be relevant to you, the first half of the book will be.
I just read the article. I now have a few ideas to work with. The statement about the eyes following an arc was interesting. I think I may be able to put that in practice.
 

Bill Mattocks

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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?

My list would be rather esoteric. I would not expect most people to see the relevance, but these are indeed non-fighting topics related to self-defense, to me anyway.

In no particular order:

Catch Me If You Can - Frank Abagnale Catch Me if You Can (book) - Wikipedia

The Book of Lies - Aleister Crowley Book of Lies

The I Ching or Book of Changes, Hexagram 23 Hexagram 23 (Stripping (bō). Splitting Apart) | Book of Changes (I Ching)

The Principia Discordia The Principia Discordia

Two Years Before The Mast - Richard Henry Dana Jr

The Razor's Edge - W. Somerset Maugham

The Rosy Crucifixion - Henry Miller

A Garden of Sand - Earl Thompson

Little Birds - Anais Nin

Unspoiled Heart - The Journal of Charles Mattocks of the 17th Maine - Charles Mattocks

The Crusades - Zoe Oldenbourg

That should do for now. More if anyone's interested.
 

geezer

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@Bill -- That's quite a diverse reading list! One entry that I find especially surprising is Aleister Crowley's enigmatic Book of Lies. Perhaps you could give some small inkling as to what lead you to include Crowley on your list?
 

hoshin1600

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@Bill -- That's quite a diverse reading list! One entry that I find especially surprising is Aleister Crowley's enigmatic Book of Lies. Perhaps you could give some small inkling as to what lead you to include Crowley on your list?
well my guess would be the fact that Crowley spent years standing in front of a mirror trying to make himself disappear. imagine if instead of fighting you could just vanish into thin air and walk away unbeknownst to your assailant. :cool:
 

JR 137

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well my guess would be the fact that Crowley spent years standing in front of a mirror trying to make himself disappear. imagine if instead of fighting you could just vanish into thin air and walk away unbeknownst to your assailant. :cool:
Ninjas do that all the time. Ever see them throw that smoke ball on the ground? I’ve got to find out where they get those things. It would get me out of a lot of chores around the house.
 

Paul_D

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well my guess would be the fact that Crowley spent years standing in front of a mirror trying to make himself disappear. imagine if instead of fighting you could just vanish into thin air and walk away unbeknownst to your assailant. :cool:
You can, have you not seen Ashida Kim's Ninja Invisibilty video? ;)
 

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