All posts by Cecil Burch

Recommendations Monday #2

I love book anthologies. Collections of articles, short stories, novellas, poems, etc. are nice and convenient when you only have time for a few minutes of reading. Also, in the case of an anthology that is collecting articles, it may be the best place to have a ton of references all in one place, rather than scattered over a bunch of magazines or online bookmarks. Here are some of my favorites:

Combat Shooting by Massad Ayoob – a very enjoyable collection that covers a wide ranging number of areas involving defensive firearms use. The chapter comparing the experiences of noted gunfighters Wyatt Earp, Charles Askins, and Jim Cirillo, and how they apply to the current day was particularly enjoyable.

http://www.amazon.com/Combat-Shooting-Massad-Ayoob/dp/1440218579/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1453833962&sr=1-5

Never Let Go / Before You Go by Dan John – Dan John is one of the most intelligent and experiences strength coaches in the world and is an extremely entertaining writer. In fact, he has the same gift that Ayoob does in being able to reach people with the written word. These tow books are compilations of John’s online articles over the past 10 years or so. Before You Go is the most recent (published in November 2015), and may be his best and most helpful work yet. I re-read Never Let Go on a regular basis even though I have owned it since 2010, and I am sure I will be doing the same with the new one. You can get them form Amazon, but I encourage you to buy from the link below. It will ship just about as fast, but the publisher throws in extras that you will not get with Amazon. Check out the link (and the entire site):

http://www.otpbooks.com/product/dan-john-before-we-go-paperback/

http://www.otpbooks.com/product/dan-john-never-let-go/

 

Enjoy!

Recommendations Monday

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I am starting off 2016 with a commitment to post at least twice a week, as well as a new regular feature – Recommendation Monday.

The idea being that I will point out things that I think are help in our journey to being an accomplished multi-disciplinary tactician. It may be video clips, articles, books, websites, gear, or what have you. Some of them may be new, some may be new for me, or some may be stuff that has been around awhile that  I think deserves a second (or third) look.

So let’s get started:

  1.  http://www.sharpdefense.me

One of my favorite websites. Constant amount of excellent material being put up my one of the best around.

2. http://www.mdtstraining.com/

Another of my favs. Again, constant new awesome material being put up. Also be sure to take a look at his archive of articles. Chris Fry was writing about stuff years ago that people are only now starting to pay attention to.

3.  http://pointdriventraining.com/

This is a pretty new page, and it only has a few things on it at the moment, but oh what fantastic articles. And the definite promise that this is only the beginning.

4. http://specialcircumstancesinc.blogspot.com/

The website of talented knifemaker Ian Wendt.

5. http://bantangknives.com/wordpress/

The website of knifemaker Ban Tang.

Both Ian and Ban are the two knife guys I turn too to make me EDC knives that I can stake my life on. They know what they are doing.

 

Paul Sharp on Maximizing Training

I am obsessed with squeezing as much training time into my day as I can. I have written a number of posts here on this page about that, and ideas on how to do so. I also talk  A LOT about the subject in my coursework when I am teaching. It matters so much, because most of us don’t have that much time, and we need to use what we have the best way possible.

Quite possibly the only human being on the planet who talks more about it and is even more obsessed than I am is Paul Sharp of Sharp Defense. Not only is he a monster fighter, awesome shooter, experienced in real world usage, and is a fantastic coach, he is also and excellent thinker. Literally anything he says about fighting/training should be looked at as gold. Here is a particularly great one that is immediately useful for anyone:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bUBtMf7PreM

After watching this, go check out his website, that way, you can see for yourself where I steal a bunch of my ideas from:

http://sharpdefense.me/

 

Important Podcasts

Some podcasts that I think are important to hear. If you are serious about self-defense, than you need to listen to these:

A great interview with Craig Douglas:

http://practacpodcast.com/096/

 

One with William April on Violent Criminal Actors and Behaviors:

http://practacpodcast.com/097/

 

Another one with William:

http://americanwarriorshow.libsyn.com/predator-tactics-and-handgun-disarms

 

With Chris Fry:

Deep Fry’d Training (Podcast – Season 3, Ballistic Radio Episode 123, August 2nd, 2015)

 

Paul Sharp:

Where The Aneurysm Has Gone There Will Be Nothing, Only Paul Sharp Will Remain (Podcast – Season 3, Ballistic Radio Episode 118, June 28th, 2015)