Self Defense for Peaceable People by John Townsend
J.G. Townsend teaches the techniques, tactics, and underlying principles of basic self-defense, so that anyone can learn, at their own pace, how to apply the power of that knowledge effectively in real-world situations, regardless of size, gender, age, or strength. Lesley Jackson reviews.
The title of this book appears to be a contradiction in terms as it describes the antithesis of calm, normal people defending themselves from the “bad guy” who remains, “an untrained oaf all of his sorry days.” What John Townsend, a master in the fusion style of Shindo, has attempted to do is create a guide to self-defence that could possibly be used by someone with no prior martial experience. He describes his book as, “written specifically for people who may not have the time to pursue formal training.” I am sure that Master Townsend has written this guide with the best of intensions, but you must be careful not to let this book be your only guide to self-defence. Unless you are planning to hit your attacker over the head with it, it will provide you with little defence against an attacker unless you also train hard in a supervised class with a qualified instructor.
The text is divided up into four different sections: a theoretical discussion of the martial arts, the basic techniques, their applications and a brief overview of the more popular martial arts. Being a book that is based in America there is an interesting discussion about the ownership of guns. One doesn’t tend to think about them in Britain but nonetheless the reader is reassured of the usefulness of learning a martial art as Master Townsend still advocates training in unarmed combat. Personally, I found the sections about telegraphing movements and the crescent step invaluable but there again, the bookworm is a trained martial artist and these movements make sense to me. To the absolute beginner these discussions could seem meaningless unless they double the use of this guide with training in a martial art, where, I believe, this book works at its best; as a supplement to training rather than as a replacement. This can be particularly seen with the description of the side and back kick. These kicks are quite technical in their execution and really require being taught and practised repeatedly in a suitable class. The novice could quite easily get this kick wrong and suffer as a result.
The focus of this book tends to be heavily towards the attack of a female by a male assailant. This at first would seem to make sense, as the greatest achievement would be for a woman to defend herself against attack from a large man. However, there does seem to be a certain naivety in its brief discussions about the nature of violence and the author’s idea of the ‘woman in peril’. The moves he advocates are absolutely correct and demonstrates good basic technique, particularly “whole body movement.” However, we are once again led into the belief that the most common form of attack is that of the female being victim of the male ‘stranger attack’. As terrible as these occurrences are, they are actually relatively rare compared to a man being subject to a physical assault by another man (usually alcohol-fuelled) and a woman being attacked by a member of her own family via domestic violence. His discussion of the level of force being used against the attacker being appropriate to the situation is very good, but the idea of real violence being experienced in its nasty, sordid guise is glossed over and the word rape is only used once in the text.
This book is a very useful guide to the practising martial artist, providing some helpful tips to applying techniques in a practical and straightforward way. Yet it must not be used as a replacement for training in a martial art by a qualified instructor as to the unknowing novice, this book could provide a false sense of security in times of danger.
Self Defense for Peaceable People by John Townsend
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