[.ca] Bouncers Guide to Barroom Brawling: Dealing with the ... (ISBN 0873645863)

just a writers ego trip:
this book is nothing more than a guy writing about how he is such a macho fighting guy, who knows nothing about dealing with real fighting situations! As an ex-navy seal we would see guys like Quinn who talk like he knew how to be a good fighter but only learned about fighting from getting the (...) beat out of him alot!!! The whole book is nothing but him bragging what a "bad dude" he is and offers alot of advice on how to get your butt kicked in real life!! What little types of fighting he shows is too little and not clear enough for your average person. A high school karate class would show you more!!

The real deal:
I've studied judo with Ishikawa sensei,boxing,brazilian judo, karate with the Indian national instructor/elite forces self defense instructor and with Peyton Quinn. Quinn knows his stuff and can teach it. Get his books and go to his training sessions. You'll never regret it.

Techniques, drills and principles:
I have mixed feelings towards this book. On the other hand, the author uses a sizeable portion of the book to teach several techniques to a reader. But then, he also discusses the fundamental principles behind the techniques. There is also discussion on the nature of combat, what works and what doesn't work in real fight, and so on. In general, I'm very suspicious towards books that try to teach the reader hand to hand combat techniques. That's because it is very hard to teach a new physical skill to a reader by just using text and pictures, without the reader having a teacher to point out the inevitable mistakes. To succeed in such task, there would be a need for huge amount of pictures, and some very detailed explanations of each portion of the technique. With some techniques, this book accomplishes the task as there may be as many as eight clear pictures on one technique, with very detailed captions and discussion in the text. But on some techniques, there may not be even a single picture, and the technique is not explained in a very detailed manner. The techniques seem very simple and realistic, but still there is a need for detailed explanation of each technique. Because of this, I think that the reader should be familiar with at least some martial art form before trying to learn these techniques, to fully understand the mechanics of each technique. There are also some drills to help you develop the skills needed for the techniques taught. The drills seem pretty simple and don't require any special equipment to carry out. The parts I like best cover the principles that form the foundation of the techniques discussed in the book, and handle the reality of fighting in general. If Quinn would have concentrated more on these sections, this book would be worth at least one extra star. However, Quinn has had trouble explaining some of the principles, and he simply states that you have to try this out with a training partner, and essentially discover the principle yourself. Quinn tells several stories on his street fights to illustrate a point. These stories may offend some readers and give an impression that Quinn is on an ego-trip. They didn't bother me, however. While I think that they were somewhat interesting to read, they were not very important additions to the book. Overall, I think that there is too much emphasis on techniques. Had the author used more pages on the reality of fighting and the principles, and less on separate techniques, this book would have been better. Still, three stars is not a bad rating.

If you are looking for fancy moves for the street, look...:
elsewhere! No nonsense, school of hard knocks (plus years of martial arts training), seen it many times in real encounters tecniques and mental strategies to avoid being another helpless victim. Learn how to defend yourself when there are no rules or there is nobody around to help you!

Good, principle-based book:
There's a lot of good things to be said for this book. The author has been exposed to a handful of very different martial arts styles, and has worked as a bouncer, and so has field-tested a lot of this stuff. He emphasises principles over technique, a concept that makes the techniques actually easier to apply. The author goes into the "fight interview", which a lot of "saloon warriors" will use to determine whether or not a victim is ripe for attack. He goes through some techniques to avoid the sucker punch, which is something missing from many self-defense books. While I don't think that all of his stuff is a good idea (one of his avoidence techniques is to act crazy... but in public?), I think that it is worth looking at. The actual techniques are drawn from Wado-ryu Karate, Wing Chun and White Crane Kung Fu, Judo, Aikido, and a little boxing. He doesn't cover grappling too well, and completely avoids the subject of ground fighting, but the idea, I guess, is to make sure you never go to the ground. Any wrestling or BJJ book will teach some good reversals and escapes, and can be used to suplement this book. The overall idea of this book is that real fighting is messy and technically ugly, so it's best to have a handful of high-percentage techniques, as well as a good grasp of the principles behind them, but realize that "anyone can get their \obooty\c kicked". This book has valuable chapters on distancing, facing, and footwork, how to recognize a sucker punch, and choosing a martial art that's right for you. For those that practice at home, there are a number of drills included to help one function under high-stress scenarios. I'd say that for someone who's really interested in good self-defense, this book and it's system would be a good foundation, especially if you've got experiance in a "hard" style. But as I mentioned earlier, I think the program needs to be suplemented by a groundfighting/grappling program, and probably some weapons training. Overall, though, I'm glad I bought the book.