A Warrior’s Guide to Self-Defense by Kyle Swinehart is a practical guide to self-defence. Swinehart served for five years as a Marine Corps infantry machine gunner and martial arts instructor, and fought in Afghanistan twice in the Battle for Marjah. Since leaving the Marine Corps, he has dedicated himself to sharing his unique perspective on combat operations, and teaching practical self-defense tactics and principles that will actually be helpful in real world scenarios

When you think of practical hand to hand combat, it's hard not to think of the Marines. In boot camp, I remember hand to hand combat, bayonet training, and pugil stick training. Hand to hand instructors taught us to use what was at hand as a weapon or how to take the opponent's weapon and use it against him. Later on while in school for Embassy Duty and while serving we repeatedly trained on defending from knife, gun, and random weapon attacks. We practiced takedown moves as well as incapacitating moves and we learned the weapon was not the firearm, but the Marine.

Swinehart presents something a bit different than the mass market view on self-defense. There is no understanding your attackers mind, blowing whistles, or talking down your attacker. The primary premise is meeting violence with great violence. That is something not taught to civilians, but familiar to Marines. Marines in civilian environments, like Embassy Duty, are not trained to kill, but to immediately incapacitate the victim and end the threat. This means a variety of things as Swinehart mentions a few times of how to snap an attacker’s neck. Gouging eyes, popping eardrums, and sensitive parts of the body are mentioned. He also works on putting the reader in the proper mindset to realize the seriousness of the threat and the need to react.

Although Swinehart does not go into detailed moves, he tells the reader to practice and to practice enough so your training becomes a reflex action. Be aware of your surrounding. He tells the reader what to look for in his surroundings and how to look like you belong and are not “the weakest member in the herd.” A Warrior’s Guide to Self-Defense presents two main ideas. First, do not be a target. Second, meet violence with greater violence. The book is light on the actual mechanics of self-defense but makes up for that in what is needed first -- confidence and knowing that you can react to a threat. A very realistic and practical guide.

This little essay about violence was really scary.

Self-Defense. Anyone can come under attack at any time. If you travel alone at night in high crime rate areas, it is obvious that there is a higher chance that you will get mugged or attacked.

As I see it, there are mainly two aspects to self-defense. One is the physical ability, the strength. The other, more important part, is the mental make-up you need to fight and readiness to hurt the opponent. All our non-violence conditioning acts against the need to defend ourselves during an attack.

Most of us are taught all our life not to pick a fight or be violent. We are taught that violence is not the answer. But what do you do when you are not the aggressor? What if you see an imminent threat. If you do not have a mind-set for violence, it is quite probable that you will freeze.

In A Warrior’s Guide to Self Defense, Kyle Swinehart discusses the mindset you need to adopt when you are forced to defend yourself and be violent as well as the physical techniques that will help you to get out of the threatening situation.

Kyle Swinehart is a former Marine Corr infantry machine gunner and has seen combat in Afghanistan. The objective of this book is to give untrained people a framework that will help them counter an attack and come out alive from the confrontation.

There is, of course, much more to self-defense than just the desire to defend. Realization of threat can trigger various body functions which you can use to your advantage, but they can just as easily put you at a disadvantage. The author shows you how you can stay calm and prepare for the attack in the short time. How you can stay focused during the attack and inflict maximum damage in a short time.

While this book will not train you as a fighter and will not prepare you against a trained fighter, it gives you enough tips and tricks for you to get out of the situation and find cover.

The author discusses various physical areas that can help you incapacitate your opponent. He also talks about the best methods to attack your opponent. For example, punching someone might seem the obvious response. However, the author informs the reader that this action could easily injure your fist and that hitting someone with a hammer-like blow using the base of the palm is a much safer and better option.

Similarly, the book also discusses how to handle a more powerful and bigger attacker and the body postures that will help you generate maximum force.

It is nearly impossible to predict how you will react to an attacker. But when your your life is at stake, there is no option but to fight back. Reading, knowing, and practicing the various maneuvers and stances in the book will give you the information that you need in that split second when your mind is desperately trying to defend your body and planning your next move.

Fight or Flight, whatever you decide, the information in A Warrior’s Guide to Self-Defense will better prepare you to execute your plan.

Short book, but great information and well written. (Amazon reviewed)

This is a book for all women! It teaches us the physicality and the mindset we need to turn into warriors to save our own lives. Here is a veteran Marine who is trained in self defense and has written his techniques in laymen's terms so we can all benefit. I found it very helpful and will recommend it to all my friends. Women need to be able to defend ourselves in a increasingly violent world. Criminal thugs that attack women know that we are trained from day one to not fight back . This book proves them wrong and provides us all with self defense techniques we need. This book has the tools we need to ward off attackers and protect ourselves. Well Done!!!! I will be adding hard copies to my Christmas list. Thank you for the advance reading copy.