How Not to Get Hit: The Art of Fighting Without Fighting

by Nathaniel Cooke, Robert Twigger (Foreword)

The average person isn't looking to be in a situation where fists are going to fly, but many of us have found ourselves there anyway. At that moment, it's probably too late to do anything about it. But how do we change circumstances, so those situations don't happen?

How Not to Get Hit is a book on personal safety for people who don't want to learn to fight, but do want to learn how to avoid those situations where a fight is likely to develop.

Told in a lighthearted, irreverent style, How Not to Get Hit takes you on a journey through the funny side of violence, its roots in our evolutionary past and where it fits into modern society. Self-defense isn't a series of techniques or moves; it's an attitude, a strategy and a life skill. This martial arts philosophy book will give you an understanding of why people want to use violence and how to manage situations in order to create a better outcome.

Genres: Martial Arts, Nonfiction

192 pages, Paperback

First published June 10, 2012

About the author

Nathaniel Cooke is a martial artist, trainer in communication skills and student of psychology / NLP who has spent most of his life not getting hit. Nearly all of it, in fact.

Through training professionals in presentation skills and communication, and by studying theories of training and controlling large groups of people through your own verbal / non-verbal signals, he has found that many of these techniques can be applied to aggressive or potentially violent situations. Further research proved that these methods are in fact the same ones that are applied by doormen, bodyguards, police officers and control & restraint experts across the land. He decided there was a book in that.

His first foray in to the martial arts was at the tender age of 14 at an Aikido class with his dear old man, which lasted for a good three years before, at the ripe old age of 17, getting up at 7am on a Sunday to train no longer seemed such a good idea. Over the years he has also studied in freestyle Karate, Jujitsu and is currently training in Taijutsu, in which he holds the rank of 3rd Dan, and Wing Chun.

One of the many ironies of martial arts is that the more you learn, the less likely you are to have to use it as your confidence and understanding of violence grow. Nathaniel wanted to find a way to articulate this, to give people the same knowledge without the years and years of rolling round on padded floors in Japanese pyjamas that usually goes with it. How Not to Get Hit is the result of this desire.