Fighter’s Mindset review by N. Engelen from Amazon

This five star review of How to Protect Yourself by Developing a Fighter’s Mindset was posted on amazon on Oct. 24, 2012.

John Wiseman, writer of the SAS survival handbook developed the Vital pyramid consisting out of 4 layers. The foundation is mindset, the next tactics, followed by skill and finally kit. This means that it all starts with having the correct mindset. This applies to everything from survival in the jungles to being effective in business. For the martial arts or self-defence this shows that without having the proper mindset in place the skillset, tactics and eventual kit in the form of a weapon or alarm will be useless.

This being said, the next question is: `What does this mindset consist of and how do we get this mindset in place?’

This book written by Alain Burrese, a former army sniper, a hap-ki-do expert and author of books on self-defence and hap-ki-do as well as the producer of many DVD’s about the same subject explains in 12 easy to read chapters the different aspects of the necessary mindset and how to develop these and get them in place.

The chapters explain essential subjects like awareness which allows you to assess a threat where after you can either avoid, escape or take action. This flows into decisiveness as the ability to take quick decisions makes the difference between walking away or not. The next chapters deal with courage, the will to win, determination and some other key aspects of mindset.

To illustrate different points he makes, Alain makes extensive use of quotes by famous martial artists, warriors and generals throughout the book. Alain also authored three volumes with quotes from tough guy movies. I really hope he will do another with real life tough guy quotes.

My favourite quote is:

`A good plan executed today is better than a perfect plan executed at some indefinite point in the future.’ – General George S. Patton, Jr.

Like I said mindset is key in whatever you do. So this book is also useful for people on other paths than that of the warrior.

I highly recommend this book to all martial artists and people interested in self-defence.