Rory Miller (1) (1971–)

Solid book about the force continuum and general principles of decision making in violent situations. Emphasizes the extreme value of presence and verbal communication (levels 1 and 2), and the challenges of 4, 5, and 6 (empty hand restraint, less-lethal, and lethal force). I'm a fan of Rory Miller's books, as they provide a lot of examples from his own life (corrections and policing, in particular), aren't dull, and don't over-simplify things into universal rules.

I did find a lot of the level 4 stuff pointless (and he even said explicitly that it generally is only applicable to police and security); in general, unless it's being applied to someone you explicitly do not want to injure but dramatically overmatch (misbehaving child, drunken friend), a private individual is going to go from verbal to avoiding the situation, or in extreme cases less-lethal or lethal force without anything in between.… (more)

A great book on self defense by Rory Miller. The key point here is that the "fight" itself isn't the only part -- there's a lot of pre-fight preparation, escalation, and then post-fight response as well. The one area where I'm not totally sold is the trying to distinguish the types of attackers ("Monkey Dance" vs. "Social Monkey Dance" vs. more transactional/resource predators, "process predators", etc.). I like to keep things simple, especially for someone for whom violence isn't a primary occupation, and while I agree there are different escalation components, I'd rather just have instinctive response to specific pre-designated lines in the sand.… (more)

Rory Miller provides an authentic and honest portrayal of how real violence differs from the models of violence on which whole systems of martial arts and self-defense are constructed. His knowledge of his subject is fully substantiated and his observations would be helpful to anyone concerned with self-defense, especially a person contemplating whether to engage in self-defense training, and if so, what approach to take. You cannot read this book without coming away with immense respect for the author.… (more)