The Ultimate in Women's Self-Defense.

By Ricky Sides

Even if you never do a single exercise in this book, the information contained within its pages could save your life.The author is a master in the arts of Wing Chun Kung Fu and Chinese Ninja. He studied martial arts from 1980 to the early 1990s under the private instruction of Master Tony Ragasa. In the mid 1980s, the author decided to teach a women's rape prevention seminar. As he delved into research to utilize during the course of that seminar, the author discovered the true scope of the problem women faced. He decided it was time for him to take a more active role in helping women avoid becoming a victim. But when one of his students related to him the details of her own abduction and rape, it took on a more personal aspect for him. The author, already committed to helping women, dedicated a significant portion of his life toward that goal. During an intensive private training course with his master, the author learned the secret techniques that the masters teach their own families. With the blessings and assistance of his master, the author developed a comprehensive training course for his students.This book reveals the secrets that Master Tony Ragasa taught Master Sides. These are the secrets that martial arts masters have taught their own families. The author believes that it is time to share these secrets. To that end, he undertook the challenge to write a book, which would be The Ultimate in Women's Self-Defense.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1450537057
• ISBN13: 9781450537056
• Release Date: January 2010
• Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
• Length: 174 Pages
• Weight: 0.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.0" x 0.4" x 6.0"

Customer Reviews

A review of The Ultimate in Women's Self-Defense

My name is Michael. I first took an interest in this author's books when I listened to the audio version of his book titled "The Birth of the Peacekeepers." When he released a woman's self defense book, I decided to check it out because of my own martial arts background that spans thirty years. I studied Shin Nagare Karate and have a third degree black belt in that style. I also studied Shin Shin Jujutsu and have a third degree black belt in that style. Furthermore, I am familiar with, and have studied the following martial arts to varying degrees. Tae Kwon do, Aikido, Eagle Claw Kung Fu, Judo, and Tang Soo Do. I am not ranked highly in these arts, but as I said, I studied them enough to be familiar with them all to varying degrees. I am also familiar with Wing Chun, but don't hold high rank in the style. Based on my own experience in martial arts, I will state that much of what this book contains is common to all of those arts. There are variations in technique, but that is to be expected during any comparison of various martial art styles. The techniques are sound, or else they wouldn't be so widely in use. The conditioning to taking a blow and being able to respond with a defensive technique is perhaps the most common element in any comparison. That prevents the victim from panicking and failing to do anything to defend himself after taking a hit. And I don't care how good you are, if you get in a fight, you will get hit. This book is a good primer for anyone wanting to learn self defense. Much of the advice and techniques are obviously customized so that they focus on women, but the techniques are as applicable for males as they are for females. The mental preparations advocated are a necessity if a student is to be prepared to defend him or herself. There is one thing that makes this book stand out in my mind. Of all the martial arts books I've studied, this one best covers taking a person from beginner to intermediate skill levels, provided the instructions are followed closely. I disagree that one training partner is enough for the students. I believe that they'd be much better off with multiple training partners so that they could get used to different sized adversaries and different fighting abilities. This would lead to a better trained student. But I understand that the author was attempting to make this as simple as possible. I doubt he'd advise against multiple training partners. Even so, I'm not sure that one is enough to adequately train a person. For that reason, I can't give the book 5 stars. I do agree with the statement that even if you never do a single exercise recommended in the book, the knowledge it contains could potentially save your life. For that reason, I can't see giving the book less than 4 stars. There is some very good advice in this book.

Easy to understand!

My reason for reading this book was originally two-fold. The first is I was intrigued by the author's Peacekeeper series and wanted to see about this book. The second is I have been a long-time reader of varying martial arts books and similiar titles and wanted to see a more recent one. I had read the martial arts books by Stephen K. Hayes in years past and while the styles and experiance vary greatly I was very pleased with Mr. Sides book and his knowledge of what he wrote. From the evaluation test to the page explaining pressure points to how women can use varying household items, each chapter is well written, well explained and easy to understand even if the reader has had no previous knowledge of either self-defense or martial arts. This book is an excellent source for beginners to learn the basics, not only in self defense but also self conditioning. Now, no book is a counter to taking an actual course but this one will prepare you for those courses and also give a look in how to react if attacked before you start those classes. The review that calls into question the valid issue of pressure points may have merits but striking pressure points will certainly work if struck hard enough and that is what Mr. Sides book tries to instill.

Excellent Ideas for Self-Defense

Self-defense is comprised of two parts--mental and physical. The author rightly spends significant time discussing the mental preparedness. Why? Because some women will never practice the physical techniques described in the book. Many women will never take a class. This book has several chapters dedicated to things ANY woman can do to prepare for an attack: Think about ordinary objects as weapons. Be aware of your surroundings. Have a PLAN in case of a break-in or an attack. Think about things you can do to prevent all of the above. I've had some training, and this book was a VERY GOOD refresher. There were several ideas I hadn't heard or thought of. This is a good book for any woman thinking about taking a self-defense or karate class. It's hard to walk into a karate class because it's a CLASS with other people who will witness your clumsiness, your lack of aptitude...and in general, yanno, kind of embarrassing. This book pretty much lays out the types of exercises you'll be doing, the things you will learn and why. If you want to practice at home before joining a class, it provides plenty of instructions. If you, like me, want reminders or refreshers, it's an excellent guide. If you're elderly, young, disabled, small, weak--this book has techniques, ideas--and confidence builders. On the downside, the pictures demonstrating the techniques are at the END of the book, rather than with the instructions. I didn't know this and had some trouble picturing which defense/technique was being described. Since I've had some training I was always able to figure it out, but the pictures are worth a thousand smacks to the side of the head. There were a few sections where the bolding of paragraphs ran on longer than I think intended. I actually liked the bold since I read the Kindle version of the book and that meant nice DARK text! I know that in training, repetition is everything, but especially in the intro and first two chapters, some of the info was repetitious and those chapters could have been tighter. Later in the book the reminders/hints/repetitions were much more natural and the pace picked up. There are some heartwarming tales, some harrowing tales, some good examples and some that didn't quite capture a real life situation. I suspect that the author has never walked alone in a dark parking garage--or maybe I'm just terrified of dark parking garages. He did the job though, in this example and others--providing good examples and reminders that can be readily applied. I enjoyed the sections near the end where three other experts gave their advice. Even though the advice mimicked that in the book, it was interesting to read the advice/experience of other instructors. Much of self-defense is a mindset and the strength of this book is the reminder to take self-defense seriously. It is in the idea of empowerment, the teaching that you can fight back, that you can be better prepared and that we all should be prepared.