Art and Science of Self Defense Training

AWARDSRUNNER UP—2022, Sports, Best Books Award American BookfestThe Art and Science of Self Defense Training provides you with a condensed system of distilled self-defense skills and techniques, each carefully selected for its reliability in a high stress environment. Topics include situational awareness, avoidance, and how to take action should you need to physically defend yourself.Martial arts, combat sports, and self-defense are different realms; although interconnected they are not entirely the same. — This book can help bridge that gap.This curriculum is streamlined and divided into nine logical stages of training that allows both martial artists and those with no formal fighting experience to quickly and methodically learn and develop reliable skills for self-defense.While training in the martial arts or competitive combat sports can aid you in a self-defense situation, it does not prepare you for those aspects that are unique to actual self-defense.The book begins with the basics, upon which everything else relies – awareness, avoidance, and anticipation skills – before moving on to building a reliable arsenal of self-defense techniques. You will progress through a series of carefully selected actions for high stress situations.The aim of this curriculum is to improve confidence and skills in a structured and logical way.Topics includeAwareness skills including situational, spatial, and environmentalAvoidance skills to deal with fear, escape, and de-escalationAnticipation skills for being approached, posturing, and reading body languageAction arsenal including targeting, striking, yelling, evading, and counteringAdvanced arsenals for dealing with ground fighting, weapons, and multiple attackersWhether you are just starting out, or have been practicing martial arts for years, there are important self-defense skills for everyone in this book. 

Joe Varady is an award-winning author of The Art and Science of Staff Fighting, and The Art and Science of Stick Fighting. He is a sixth-degree black belt with over thirty years of experience in martial arts. Joe has trained in numerous Eastern and Western disciplines, including karate, judo, eskrima, boxing, fencing, and long sword. He has won numerous awards competing in full-contact weapons tournaments around the world. Joe holds a master’s degree in elementary education. He is the head instructor at Satori Dojo and Modern Gladiatorial Arts. Joe Varady resides in Phoenixville, Pennsylvania.