[.ca] Taking It to the Street: Making Your Martial Art Street ... (ISBN 158160050X)

errrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr, NO !:
A lot of hype has been out there about Marc Animal McYoung. He ist deeply involved in the Real Self Defense Scene, along with Sammy Franco, Geoff Thompson and Richard Dimitri's Senshido. What I seriously doubt is McYoung's credibility concerning his experience with REAL fights. He claims to have been in numerous bar fights, yet states in his book that such a career will let you end up at the morgue or in prison. Also his "I-have-been-there-and-when-I-speak-you-have-to-remain-silent-you-unexperienced-little-would-be-crime-victims". This attitude is jumping right out of the pages of almost all McYoung titles. He keeps repeating himself again and again about how BAD it is out there. It really gets annyoing after a while. Basically the chapters are filled with that "I-have-been-there" stuff and it gets difficult to really absorb what is useful (if there is anything at all). The point is this, McYoung teaches basic Wing Chun and Silat in this book. That's it. And this doesn't have ANYTHING to do with making a martial art street effective. Idiotic footnotes about such SelfDefense related things like "what is kim-chee?" (it is Korean cabbage in pepper sauce) and lots of other confusing things make this book another Marc McYoung self promotion. I have been at Marc's Seminar in Germany two years ago and I was wondering whether he would REALLY ever make those moves in a REAL knife fight.(the seminar was dealing mostly with knife related stuff) But as for his hand to hand moves it is the same. Interesting though that McYoung keeps repeating that: a) Vale Tudo ,BJJ and grappling have nothing to do with Self Defense b) Physical fitness has nothing to do with Self Defense Strange, but Geoff Thompson and his students are excellent grapplers and NHB fighters and still teach Reald world Self defense and can stand up to their words. Read Geoff Thompson, Peter Consterdine, Sammy Franco, Jamie O'Keefe, Kevin O'Hagan, or Richard Dimitri's Stuff instead.

Principle Based Effectiveness:
The principles in this book will help make just about anyone more effective in their day-to-day self-defense. I recommend it to anyone who asks me how to improve their basic self-defense knowledge. The principles include: 1 - Understanding that the normal rules of polite society are out the window. (i.e. the "no kicking in the jimmy" rule doesn't apply in a real fight); 2 - Understanding the different distances involved in fighting; 3 - Using your opponent's axes and controlling the centerline; 4 - Using the wedge and other blocking techniques; 5 - Stepping into your opponent rather than retreating (when appropriate); 6 - Dealing with kicks; 7 - Proper and effective footwork; 8 - Dirty tricks; 9 - Understanding the realities of street fighting (e.g. "If the guy wasn't sure he could take you, he wouldn't have moved against you in the first place" i.e. he has stacked the deck in his favor and it's your job to unstack it); 10 - many other useful and important things. I cannot recommend this book highly enough to help people augment their training. It won't replace training, but it can certainly help people understand that, when fit and shan collide, there are other things to consider besides a head-high round kick. Things which may just save your life. Additionlly, I recommend checking out his website, http://www.nononsenseselfdefense.com/ As for the negative reviews on this book, it seems to me that many of the people who have knocked this book have done so for one of two reasons: 1 - they don't like Marc's attitude; or, 2 - they don't believe his background. As for #1, like it or not, fine. To each his or her own. But these reviewers generally complain without ever really engaging the principles contained in the book and their effectiveness. Concerning #2, the same idea applies. While I happen to very much believe that Marc has been where he says he has and done what he says he has done, the people who make this argument also do not make many fact-based criticisms of the material inside the book.

lame self promoting garbage:
Imagine, if you will, that a little fat kid escaped from a star trek convention and decided to lecture about fighting. Like many people who feel weak and scared, MacYoung (you just know he gave himself the pathetic moniker "animal") is obsessed with stories of fighting and weapons. He's the sort that , in a bar, tells you that he's really working for the CIA. yes, he's right that most martial arts aren't street ready or effective--but I don't think you'll solve that problem with his books. Read Geoff Thompson instead.

It deserves only 2 stars really:
Ok, in my mind, the book only deserves 2 stars but I gave it 5 so this review ends up on the top of the list. The list is not chronological because you are to read the good stuff first and buy w/o reading the rest. I have been doing kick boxing for three years now. So I guess the book is targeted at people like me. Not professional but also no novice. While I find much of the psychological and topographical analysis of a street fight interesting, the actual fighting techniques seem much less sträight forward than the author tries to make believe. Indeed while they might work for Mr.MacYoung I don't see how they'll ever work for me. It seems all of his technique is predicated on blocking a punch or kick with his "wedge" technique. Moreover, he considers this "a walk in the park". He claims that blocking becomes easy once you stop looking at the fist/foot that is coming at you but at the "hubs" (read:shoulders, hips) that move before the fist/foot starts flying at you. This, he explains, buys you ample time to eg. take a step forward and drive the wendge into the opponents shoulder hence blocking the punch, or when faced with a front kick to lift your own leg and stomp on the incoming kick before it hits you. Well, I personally find it hard to believe that anyone would be able to do this consistently, and cetainly not the average guy like me. Because: If you see a hub moving, by the time you have realized it, the punch or the kick will have connected. You don't have time for a thought, unless the opponent is so slow that he doesn't present a threat in the first place. If the other guy starts moving his foot, you won't be able to lift yours and block his kick by stomping on it. Unless you are Bruce Lee, you would not be fast enough. Try it in sparring, it's way too fast. Most of his advice is based on these blocking techniques being easy to execute. But they are not. So the book is not useful, where the actual fighting techniques are concerned. On top of that there is no biography of the author included which gives rise to a credibility issue. Aside his references to his own greatness there is no other feed back on the author included. Maybe he is just a legend in his own mind.

A little misleading, but good principles.:
I kind of have a love-hate relationship with this book. I'll cover the "hate" part first, since I want to end on a positive note. My main problem is that I'm not sure if the author is presenting himself accuratley. I only bring this up because knowing where he tested his principles ought to tell you the environment it's suited for. I can believe that he "bounced" at, for instance, a buddy's party. I can believe that he has had punches thrown at him in anger. I can believe that he's "gone at it" with guys in a parking lot. I don't believe, however, that this was anything more than a guy trying to prove how tough he was. I don't believe he ever went toe-to-toe with the Bloods, or a similar gang, as he implies. I just don't believe that he is "street", but he presents himself as such. Now, on to the book. If you have a karate/tae kwon do/kickboxing type of background, this book won't be easy to read. The author is basically presenting modified principles of Wing Chun and kali/silat. Your side-facing, high-kicking stuff is not discused much beyond, "it's a bad idea". In that respect, I think most martial artists will not learn how to make their stuff "street effective". Another problem I have, and part of the reason I take issue with the author, is the fact that most of his game plan starts off, "when the other guy punches you...", which just sounds like suicide to me. Most fights I've seen, and even the early UFC's, show that the guy who hits first, hardest, and the most times usually walks away. You can fix this by reading Geoff Thompson's stuff. Also, the book isn't really edited well (who am I to talk?), but it's just small things, like a missing photo or footnote. On to the "love" side of things: I like most of the principles presented. The idea of a wedge, taking the centerline, screwing with your opponent's center of gravity, climing over him to escape... The book is worth buying, just because there is so much stuff that the author gets right. I don't care if he learned in in a bar or in his back yard, a lot of the principles are sound. He has great chapters on defending against kicks and making throws work. He also references several other people's works, which can give the reader more food for thought. He also seems to be talking directly to "hard" stylists when he's doing his explainations, which makes them a little easier to understand. And there's a chapter about the psychology of using violence to communicate which may very well be worth the price of the book. In conclusion, I'd say this book is more oriented towards using a few "tricks" and principles to take out the guy who squares off with you from *several feet away* in a parking lot, and does not deal directly with more realistic threats. But reading it could improve your general game plan that I had to give it four stars. I'd just say not to make this your bible, and check around. Pick out what works for you.