Geoff Thompson (1)

In Animal Day, probably his mst controversial book yet, Geoff eplodes the myths about what does and does not work on the unforgiving streets of a violent wod, and then educates te reader in all aspects of pressure testing the martial arts to make sure that technique and character are not lacking when a situation becomes 'live'.

Having worked for nine years as a nightclub doorman, acted as a personal trainer to provate police and bodyguards and talked internationally on television about the show more art of self protection, geoff is pivotally placed to advise on 'reality training'.

Animal Day is set to become a household name in today's martial arts. This is where it started.

Contents

Foreword Fairbairn and Sykes by Pete Robins
INtroduction
Chapter One Why pressure test?
Chapter Two Understanding yourself
Chapter Three Understanding your art
Chapter Four An introduction to the inner opponent
Chapter Five The progressive pyramid
Chapter Six Grappling
Chapter Seven Punching
Chapter Eight Kicking
Chapter Nine Weapons
Chapter Ten Combining distances
Chapter Eleven Animal day
Epilogue show less

Things I liked:

- Easy language, plenty of examples. Step models about breaking down fear seemed good.

Things I thought could be better:

- Sometimes seemed like he was trying to talk like a scientist (which I thought was weak) vs arguments based on his own experience and approaches (which I thought was stronger).
- I would have enjoyed more examples/interviews from the office-workplace vs physical-combat domain (and it's extensions like army, police etc).

Lessons learned

- Adrenaline is show more often misinterpreted as 'fear' when in fact it is just a biological sub process that alerts us to an active context for fight/flight.
- Take action to mitigate the impact of fear.
- Action vs 'right action', don't get sucked into analysis/paralysis.

Questions
- How to take action in a non-combat scenario (easy, low impact actions to take).
- OODA Loops (Observe Orient Decide Act). show less

Watch My Back is the true and inspirational story of one man's search for delieverance. Soured by a bullied childhood, a dominant wife and a confrontational environment. Geoff Thompson propels himself into the violent world of nightclub bouncing in a desperate bid to challenge his fears.

This is the story of life on the front line of some of the world's roughest clubs, of mental and physical triumph over adversity. Ultimately, when deliverance is found, Thompson sought redemption from what show more had become an increasingly violent existence.

Geoff Thompson has written over 20 published books and is known world wide for his autobiographical books Watch My Back, Bouncer and On The Door, about his nine years working as a night club doorman. He currently has a quarter of a million books in print. He holds the rank of 5th Dan black belt in Japanese karate, 1st dan in judo and is also qualified to senior instructor level in various other forms of wrestling and martial arts. He has several scripts for stage, screen and TV in development with Destiny Films.

He has published several articles for GQ magazine, and has also been featured in FHM, Maxim, Arena, Front and Loaded magazines, and has been featured many times on mainstream TV.

Geoff is currently a contributing editor for Men's Fitness magazine and self defence columnist for Front.

'...All my life I was plagued by the fear of fighting and confrontation. My mind was weak and constantly under attack from fears that seemed too powerful to defend against, and as a consequence my young life was shrouded by uncertainty and depression. In the end the thought of living with fear felt worse than actually facing that fear down, so I decided to do just that. I came face to face with the bigget enemy of my life, myself, on one of the most dangerous suburban arenas-the nightclub-I became a bouncer!'

'...The three were on me in a second and attacked like a swarm of bees, no finesse about it, no alternating attacks like they do it in the kung fu movies, these people were actually trying to kill me.'

'...Faces and skulls exploded and spewed blood as the 'steel' that drove me punished their flesh. The 'dark side' had engrossed me and their fighting inclination died with their consciousness. I put 'dusty' away, shocked at the bloody carnage around me. Had I done this? Was this really me? Five were taken to hospital and the police were on my trail.'

Contents

Introduction
Prologue
1 Early days. From little acorns oak trees grow
2 A change in direction
3 The good
4 The bad and he ugly
5 Fighting without fighting
6 Police involvement
7 Come-ons and come-backs
8 Street fighters and trained fighters
9 Man-made misconceptions
10 David and Goliath
11 Humour in adversityi
12 Dealing with women
13 The hunters and the hunted
Epilogue show less

Ground fighting is one of the most underestimated and yet devastatingly ferocious of all the martial arts. 95% of all street fights that are not over within the first 3 seconds end up on the floor-are you prepared?

This series of books, Volumes 1-6, prepares you with the very best techniques from Wrestling, Jui-Jitsu, Judo etc. It covers ground control, bars, locks, chokes, strangles, cranks, butts, bites, tearing, gouges, etc. re-introducing the many illegal/banned techniques from the show more beginning of the century.

The Pins are the bedrock of any good ground fighting system. Once you have mastered these everything else will follow. This book shows you how to gain control and completely dominate even the biggest opponent from every and any angle-using basing techniques-and finish from the same position using pummelling atemi (striking) techniques.

Contents

Introduction
Chapter One The mount position
Chapter Two The side 4 1/4 hold down
Chapter Three The scarf hold
Chapter Four The jack-knife
Chapter Five The reverse scarf hold
Chapter Six The upper 4 1/4 hold down
Chapter Seven Drilling the pins
Conclusion show less