Violence, Blunders, and Fractured Jaws: Advanced Awareness Techniques and Street Etiquette

This book truly helps readers refine and strengthen their situational awareness for survival on the street. It can help you instantly and easily identify the fighters, hustlers, workers, spectators and troublemakers using the same tricks that bouncers, law enforcement officers, prison guards, drug dealers, bikers, and street people utilize so effectively. It goes in-depth into subjects like family group operating systems, personal operating systems, utilizing and refining your personal radar, turf, territory, personal space, rural versus urban reactions, gambling, tacking, scarring, piercing, tattoos, etiquette, eye contact, and other issues that are commonly known only to a very small segment of society. Reading this book is a very eye-opening, mind-expanding experience. The author is the real deal. Growing up on gang-infested streets not only gave MacYoung his street name "Animal," but also extensive firsthand experience about what does and does not work for self-defense. Over the years, he has held a number of dangerous occupations including director of a correctional institute, bodyguard, and bouncer. He was first shot at when he was 15 years old and has since survived multiple attempts on his life, including professional contracts. He has studied a variety of martial arts since childhood, teaching experience-based self-defense to police, military, civilians, and martial artists around the world. Clearly a guy worth listening to. Lawrence Kane Author of Surviving Armed Assaults and Martial Arts Instruction; co-author of The Way of Kata and The Way to Black Belt

Once again, Marc gives you a no-holds barred look at the reality of fighting and surviving on the street. This book focuses on the subject of awareness and street etiquette, rather than actual physical techniques. This book is far more important to learn and practice than any of the actual physical techniques that Marc teaches in any of his books. I highly recommend that you purchase this book and read it numerous times before buying any other of Marc's books, and before practicing any of the techniques included in any of his many books. I promise you that if you do this, you will be farther ahead of the game than someone not doing the same thing. Introduction: The author gives you 9 rules that he has compiled through his own personal experiences that apply to surviving on the streets. The author gives a very detailed explanation of each of the nine rules in this section. The author also states in this section that awareness is the key to self-defense and therefore survival. How Operating Systems Work: The author does a pretty good job of getting his point across using the game of basketball as an analogy for his example of operating in and out of a predetermined operating system. FBI Uniform Crime Reporting Statistics: Here the author gives you a brief breakdown on what the UCR is, and what it tells you. He also tells you what is perhaps more important, and that is what the UCR doesn't tell you. The Reality of Dragons: This is a very interesting section that uses dragons as a metaphor for trouble. I was especially fond of the story involving the movie crew at the cemetery. It sure lends credence to the old saying, "GOD looks out for children, drunks, and fools." Awareness and Hyperawareness: This section discusses the development of awareness of your surroundings and the environment you're in. It also briefly talks about hyperawareness which is something that although obtainable, takes a lot of time and hard work to obtain and can be extremely taxing on the individual. Utilizing your own personal radar: This can best be described as your own personal early warning system. Kind of like a pre-awareness state, this will help you to avoid "burning out" from being at a constant state of awareness. Logic: Marc has shall we say a unique way at looking at logic, and one I am not going to despoil by telling you about it here. You'll just have to get the book and read about it. It along with the rest of the book is well worth it. Learn the Ins and Outs of the system: Keep your mouth shut and your eyes, ears, and more importantly your mind open and learn what there is to know about the system and you will be much farther ahead of the game. Cultural Operating Systems: This section I found to be very relevant not only to a self-defense situation, but more importantly to the human race as a whole. Surprising insight that would serve our leaders very well is they actually used it. Like the old biblical saying, "Before you judge someone, stand in t

I enjoyed this book a great deal, although by looking at a few of the other reviews it seems that not everyone was able to get something out of it . . . could this be due to the fact that there are no pictures or illustrations to look at??? If you have only limited experience dealing with the likes of: skells, goblins, crackheads, and wannabe gangstas, this book will open your eyes as to what might be going through their diseased brains. Likewise, if you happen to find yourself in a bar that happens to be frequented by: outlaw bikers, airborne rangers, or drunken cowboys, the tips on "ettiqutte" herein will greatly increase the likelihood that you'll be permitted to leave the premises with all of your teeth intact. True, this is NOT a "how to fight" book, but it IS in fact a "self-defense" manual, as the most important lesson of self-defense is AVOIDING the fight in the first place!!! Unfortunately, most [people] know nothing of this, having been brought up with the "John Wayne" macho mentallity. Add some alcohol to the equation and . . . "HEY!!! Are you lookin' at ME??? Maybe you wanna TAKE IT OUTSIDE???" You get the picture. Violence is not "happy fun time," children, regardless of what you might've seen on TV. If you get in a fight, there will be the following things to take into consideration: broken knuckles, busted nose, blood all over your expensive shirt, tearing up your fancy shoes on the goblin's incisors, hospital bills, court, jail time, your name in the newspaper, and the goblin's brothers coming lookin' for you. Take it from someone who's been there . . . after you've been in a few fights, it stops being fun anymore. Animal's book has a lot of good advice so that his readers don't have to learn these lessons the hard way.

What sets Marc Macyoung apart from many other self-defense experts is this: he teaches you how to avoid fights in the first place. Avoidance and Prevention are common themes that prevail throughout his works. And this book teaches you exactly how to avoid or anticipate confrontations by identifying the potential trouble makers. With his unique style of writing, Animal shares his knowledge in an informative, yet entertaining way. For all those of you who have enjoyed Animal's other works, this is a good book to have. And for those who don't know Marc Macyoung, this book is worth a try.