BOOK REVIEW: STRONG ON DEFENSE by Sanford Strong

Title: Strong on Defense: Survival Rules to Protect You and Your Family from Crime
Author: Sanford Strong
Description: Comprehensive book on preventing and surviving crime.
Comments: The best book on self-defense - required reading. Advocates mind-setting.
Overall Rating:

Review

This is by far my favorite book on self-defense. I couldn't put this down. Strong provides practical advice for everyone. Real case studies throughout describe what people did right, what they did wrong, and the ultimate outcome. These poignant vignettes hits home the nature of violence and the information presented.

The book starts by describing the nature of crime - random, senseless, and explosive. Statistics and trends on crime indicates an increasing need to ensure our safety against criminals. With law enforcement short-staffed and stressed, they won't be there until after a conflict is over.

Strong goes on to describe what doesn't work to protect yourself, such as gadgets, martial arts, and women's self-defense classes. He makes some good points, but I believe that some of these are still valuable to use or learn.

Strong then discusses and emphasizes mind-setting against violence. This is one of the main points of the book, and an important one. Avoiding violence starts with rehearsing and visualizing actions in your mind. It's a method used in all sorts of disciplines, and is a way to plan our responses. If our reactions to a threat are already rehearsed and visualized in our mind, then we don't need to take the time to decide on our actions when confronted with violence.

Dealing with fear, mental attitude, and the survival mindset are discussed at length as well.

The author sets forth four survival rules - react immediately, resist, avoid crime scene #2, and never give up. These rules come to life as Strong describes how to use the rules in a variety of situations and related case studies. Situations include armed robbery of an open business, car crimes, carjacking, murder in public places, impersonating cops, and mob violence. He also provides several simple and practical physical self-defense techniques.

A wide range of car crimes are discussed, such as foreign objects thrown from highway overpasses, carjacking, kidnapping of stranded motorists, highway shootings, rest-stop violence, being followed home, bumper crimes, and being forced off the road. This is an important topic as we spend more and more time in our cars and on the road.

The chapter on keeping families safe will wake up parents and guardians of children, on protecting children against crime. Strong discusses the danger of home intruders, how to develop a family escape plan, and how to perform drills. An added benefit is that these plans and drills can also be used in case of home fires. He advises on teaching children to get in and out of cars in an emergency, and to escape from homes to get help.

Strong looks ahead and identifies six ways to a safer future. The book is a little dated - published in 1996 - so one way, the use of cellular phones, is now a given. Nevertheless, the other 5 ways are thought provoking.

Summary

Strong on Defense is essential reading for everyone. It'll wake you up on the randomness, senselessness, and explosiveness of violent crime and what you need to do to keep safe. Mind-setting is an especially important tool in preventing and reacting immediately to violence.

This excellent book is unfortunately out of print, but used copies can be found. It's a shame the book hasn't been reprinted, as I believe the publisher is doing a disservice to society by not doing so.

Buy a used copy now at Amazon.com!

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