Why have I written this book? Why have I written a book about the art of fighting without fighting when my claim to fame is probably the fact that I have been in over 300 street fights, where I used a physical response to neutralise my enemy. Why write a book about avoidance when it is obviously so simple to finish a fight with the use of a physical attack? Indeed why write it when my whole reputation as a realist, as a martial arts cross trainer, as a blood and snot mat man may be risked by the endeavour? The reason is simple: violence is not the answer! It may solve some of the problems in the short term but it will create a lot more in the long term. I know Ive been there. I was, as they say, that soldier. It took me nine years of constant violence and many more of soul-searching to realise this truth and because so much has happened to me in my post-door years, my attitude and opinion has changed. At my most brutal I justified violence, to myself, to those I taught and to those I spoke to. I was even prepared to use verbal violence to substantiate my views. That was how lost I was. But Im not at all ashamed of that, my views may have been distorted then but I did genuinely believe them. I was never a bad person, its just that my beliefs were governed by my limited knowledge, which left me somewhat Neanderthal. As my knowledge has grown so has my intellect and confidence, this has allowed me a new belief a belief that will keep changing as long I grow. I can see it all now. I can see where I fit into the scheme of things. I can see the futility of violence and the pain of violent people. I can see that fighting on the pavement arena is war in microcosm and that wars destroy worlds. I know now that violence is not the answer, in the short term or the long term. There has to be another solution. At this moment in time I cannot tell you what that solution is, only that knocking a guy unconscious and doing a 56 move kata on his head is not it. Not if we are ever going to survive as a species and learn to live in peace with one another. I spend my time now trying to avoid violence and trying to develop alternatives to taking an opponent off the planet with a practised right cross. Some of the stuff is good too, it works, it will at least help keep some of the antagonists at bay until we can find a better alternative. This book shows you how to trigger the "flight instict" in a potential assailant, so that they run away and you beat them without becoming physical.
