How to Fight for Your Life: Enhanced Reality-Based Close Combat Training for Self-Defense and Street Survival (Guided Chaos Combatives)

This is one of the most practical books on street combat self-defense techniques and tactics. This book is based upon the "Guided Chaos Combatives" system developed by the John Perkins. Even though I had read the book "Attack-Proof" some time ago, I was not that impressed with it. However, after reading this book I became more enthusiastic with this simple but highly effective street combat system. This volume covers the basic principles of real life combatives.As a retired police officer I like the author's approach in emphasizing to avoid physical conflict as much as possible, but once your personal space is invaded and it is clear you are in danger of being attacked, you should immediately attack the most vulnerable areas of the attacker's body. There is excellent advice in this manual, like never allowing your attacker to take you to another location. Even though the book is only 129 pages, it covers an enormous amount of material. It first explains the "Guided Chaos Combatives" approach. It moves to the first principle which is awareness and emphasizes "challenge no one." The personal comfort zone is explained as well as the principle of "attack the attacker." Interestingly, I emphasize the same principle in my combatives system.The text teaches how to use visualization, the principle of basic dropping. Jack Dempsey's book called this the falling step theory of how to deliver powerful knockout punches and it does work. This book calls it "drop striking."Basic strikes and targets are explained, as well as numerous basic drills to increase your skill level and reactions. How to move using the box step while at the same time practicing strikes against training bags is emphasized. The only chapter I have some disagreement with is the "Legal Ramifications" section. As a retired police officer, martial artist and law enforcement trainer I do not agree with the advice on "NEVER TALK TO A POLICE OFFICER." If you were the victim and afraid for your life, and you defended yourself as the last resort, you have nothing to fear from explaining that to the police. Yes, it is true that police are suspicious people, and if you refuse to cooperate by explaining what happened, most officers will find that very suspicious. Yes, I advise getting an attorney but if you are a victim, why view the police as enemies.Nevertheless, this book on the whole is excellent and I recommend it to anyone seeking a practical and effective street combative system.Rating: 5 stars. Joseph J. Truncale (Author: Shotokan Karate Self-Defense Techniques: Combat Karate for the street)

I haven’t finished the book yet but I find it so instructive. Really good. And they have an excellent sense of humor, which makes it fun reading.They start out with awareness and most of us are too unaware to understand our surroundings. There is an awareness exercise to follow and all of us should practice it.Great for young adults too.

I just finished reading "How To Fight For Your Life: Enhanced Reality-Based Close Combat Training For Self Defense And Street Survival" by John Perkins, Al Ridenhour, and Matt Kovsky. It is a good basic addition to a person's self-defense library. The book explains Perkins' Guided Chaos Combatives, or GCC for short. Guided Chaos is the esoteric self-defense system that is written about in the book "Attack Proof" by the same authors. The Guided Chaos Combatives that this book focuses on are the first part of the larger system. These are the simple, basic techniques from the World War Two era that were originally designed to teach the troops quickly.It's a short book, about 130 pages, including back matter, and there are many photographs, thus enabling the reader to read it pretty quickly. Because this is a condensed version of the more complete system the authors teach and write about, there are numerous references toward reading "Attack Proof" or viewing the accompanying DVDs to "Attack Proof" to gain more insight and further instruction on the concepts and techniques illustrated and presented in this book. (They refer to these other references quite a bit)After a brief introduction, chapter one focuses on awareness, which should be the cornerstone to any self-defense program. Good basic advice that many instructors teach. In Chapter two, the books states to challenge no one. Very good advice on why you shouldn't fight unless you have no choice. Chapter three describes what the authors call the personal comfort zone and sphere of influence. Note that the use PCZ when mentioning this later.Chapter four is on attacking the attacker and reminds the reader of some important considerations, including never dropping your guard. Visualization is covered in chapter five. Chapter six has one of the more difficult concepts of the book, the dropping concept. The authors do a decent job of describing this, but a video demonstration would help some better, especially those new to any combat or fighting style or art.Chapter seven provides quick descriptions of basic strikes and targets, while chapter eight covers basic striking drills for chapters 9-13. Chapter nine teaches the Jack Benny, the Palm Strike, and what the authors call the Prow. The next chapter, ten, contains fright reaction scenario drills, and eleven has the interview scenario drills.Chapter twelve teaches what the authors call the Close Combat Universal Entry or CCUE. I felt this chapter could have used a little better descriptions with a few more photographs to assist beginners with fully realizing how to perform the defense that was being taught. Chapter thirteen describes the box step, which is the main footwork taught besides the dropping. This chapter also has some advice for fighting on the ground which is very good advice, since in real fights, you don't want to be on the ground where people can put the boots to you. Speaking of boots, the authors also recommend steel toed footwear a couple times in this book.The final chapter, fourteen, is just a couple pages and titled "Legal Ramifications." There is not much here, but they do provide good advice when they say don't talk to the police after and incident, let your attorney speak for you, and to have an attorney chosen before you need one.If you are new to self-defense, this is a good little primer. It is also a good addition to the authors' other book "Attack Proof." (That book is much longer and contains a lot more) It certainly does not cover everything, but provides some basics for the average person to get started. If you are more experienced, there won't be much you are not familiar with in this short text. I still think it is a good addition to a self-defense reference library, especially if you are like me, and a person who continuously reads books, watches DVDs, and attends seminars to further my own learning and training.Reviewed by Alain Burrese, J.D., author of the DVD set Streetfighting Essentials.

I would recommend buying the Attackproof book instead of this one. This book contains some of the ideas but with less applications and explanations.

As a self-defence manual, this book is useless, as it only shows you how to use various striking and kicking moves. It shows no moves that will defend against punches, kicks and holds. The principle behind the book is that you have to strike first anyone who enters your personal body space and who you suspect has malevolent intentions towards you. When you have stuck them first, you are then advised to run away. The problem with this approach is that it could cause paranoid people to assault innocent people who just happen to look intimidating and who are merely approaching the paranoid person in order to ask for directions. Indeed, the book say that you have to be wary of anyone who asks you for directions—or even what time it is.So it would be more accurate to call this a "pre-emptive attack" manual rather than a self-defence one. God help you if you are jumped on from behind unexpectedly or someone comes up to you and actually makes to punch you. This manual has nothing to say about such things.

This is an A 1 quality book and the Guided Chaos system is perfect for everyone, even if you have training in another martial arts system. Like they say all the time, "it's the grease that makes all the other systems even better". Remember, the only reason you should be fighting anyways is because you have to save your life or that of a loved one. If you are the type of person that is looking for a fight or can start a fight in a phone booth, than this system is NOT for you. The instructors will tell you this from the start, and because of their honesty and integrity, I proudly endorse this book.

The "guided chaos" idea is very realistic and and I really like these concepts and principles. If you are looking for real training and if your are open minded - I could recommend to read that book !

My favorite chapter was "Attack The Attacker".