I love to read. I was
blessed that reading was always encouraged.
My mother always read to me. Our
neighbors, my maternal “Grandmothers” were both English teachers and published
authors. By the time I was in 3rd
grade I had a 12th grade reading level.
That love of reading fostered itself into an interest in
writing.
Years ago I was reading “Rain Fall” by Barry Eisler. It’s about an Operator that uses Judo to
assassinate folks. Of course I loved
it. I loved it so much I read every
page, including the thank yous at the end of the book. There I first discovered Marc “The Animal”
MacYoung, The Animal List, and nononsenseselfdefense.com.
My first thought was how come I’m not on this page? Who the fuck is this MacYoung and why would
someone like Eisler, who has worked for the CIA and should know something about
something rely on him so heavily for information on the practical application
of martial arts?
So I checked out nononsenseselfdefense.com. It is a very large site, lots of information;
I was there a long time. Eisler uses
MacYoung because MacYoung is the real deal.
He has been dealing with violence and teaching practical real world
applications of martial arts for decades.
I realized I had just started down a path he has been walking for a long
time. I figured maybe I could learn a
thing or two so I looked him up on facebook.
He was nice enough to accept my friend request and we had some very long
instant message conversations.
Those of you that read this blog know most of the rest of
the story Marc introduced me to Rory Miller and we have been training together
ever since.
And they have been encouraging me to write. An interesting mental process happens when
you begin to teach. The information is
stored in your brain a certain way so that you can do something. You have to know it better to teach it. That same information has to be examined and
stored in a different way. So every time
you teach someone else you are also re-teaching yourself and learning from the
student. Teaching makes you better. There is a similar process when you
write. Like teaching but you can’t put
your hands on the students. So your
words have to do all the work. You have
to be better to write. Every time you
write you re-teach yourself.
For the most part this blog has been an experiment in
writing to re-teach myself, and to prepare to write a book.
Since I’ve started blogging I’ve had an article published in
Minnesota Police Journal.
A real world
training drill I developed was published in Drills: Training For Sudden
Violence (A Chiron Manual) by Rory Miller.
Available here:
Most recently I am a contributing author to “Campfire tales
from hell” which will be released next month.
The book is an anthology of stories and hard won information
from people who have experienced violence first hand.
The sub-title is: Musings on martial arts, survival,
bouncing, and other stuff.
The contributing authors are such a diverse group that they
have been described online as an urban Justice League or Avengers (which of
course put a smile on my face)
Clint is the leggy blond on the right
This group ranges from mental ward / psych patients, to thugs and “reformed”
criminals, to Corrections and Law Enforcement officers, to a PHD leading the
field in PTSD research and treatment.
So how did this motley crew of bad assery come together for
this project?
Someone who has helped each and every one of the
contributing authors needed help. So
Rory Miller (it actually physically hurts me as I write thisJ,
if I can’t be Cap. I call Batman) assumed the role of Captain America and the Avengers assembled.
This book features articles by:
Marc MacYoung
Alain Burrese
Wim Demerre
And more (yeah that’s me!)
Including new John Rain Fiction by Barry Eisler. So the funny story mentioned in the title of this blog is that reading Eisler started a chain of events that
includes me being published in the same book as him, pretty cool if you don’t
mind me dislocating my shoulder patting myself on the back.
One step closer to my own book.
So go buy the book it’s awesome and all profits help a good
man out of a bad situation.
Train hard, Train smart (that includes lots of reading), Be
safe
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