Principles-Based Instruction for Self-Defense

by Rory Miller

Rory Miller is one of the leaders in the modern self-defense industry. His previous books, especially Meditations on Violence, Facing Violence and Conflict Communications, have changed the dialogue on violence and conflict. His ability to clarify seemingly complex problems and develop practical solutions have made him an instructor with a world-wide following. In Principles Based Instruction Miller delves deep into teaching methodology. Why do current methods fail under pressure? What might work? With information on teaching problem students and elite teams, designing curriculum and evaluating sources, Principles is a unique and necessary book for anyone dealing with or training for, high-risk, chaotic situations. Including life.

Genres: Martial Arts

242 pages, Paperback

Published November 28, 2017

About the author

Sergeant Rory Miller is a corrections officer, a martial artist, and an instructor in both of those areas.


Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.

Reviews

[Robert P Hampton · Rating 3 out of 5]

Digital Errors

While the material in this book provides a large amount of useful information, the quality of the kindle book is very below average. There are number of errors with many paragraphs misaligned and numbering on the wrong side of the page. I would have given Rory Miller anywhere from 4 to 5 stars, but the errors make parts of the book very irritating to read and probably deserve a 1 star rating. But I settled for three stars as the information is still well worth having.

[Bruno Rio · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rory Miller does know what he is talking about when addressing combat, self defense and martial arts. This particular book is a bible for all self defense instructors or people who have a training group. Very well thought and thorough. Deep but applicable. This book is meant to help sort out the best way to teach your vision towards combat and not teaching you to fight..

For me as total amateur not that useful but interesting to enter the teacher/trainer mind. It is a tough challenge to unleash one's innner beast in order to (re)learn how to stand and defend oneself or our loved ones. Simple is for sure the best solution but to achieve the right tools and skills...well it's a total different story... Worth the read.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

Excellent material that's worthwhile for any self-defense instructor, and maybe for any instructor of any material. It forces you to evaluate the uses of the material you're presenting, how you're presenting it, and to whom.

Having trained with Miller a few times in the past, this book definitely incorporates the framework he's put into practice live.

Unfortunately, there are notable formatting errors with the Kindle edition. I can't recommend buying the book digitally until these are fixed, and at the moment it's only available digitally. And these errors appear most prominently in the latter half of the text, so they wouldn't surface in a preview.

[Jon Keeling · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you have a serious interest in protecting yourself, you should consider reading this book and everything else Rory Miller has written.

If you teach self-defense professionally, you MUST read everything written by Rory Miller if you care about doing your job the best it can be done. This is not debatable. Every competent self-defense instructor would agree with this statement.

I teach Karate and self-defense internationally and have for several decades. And I talk about Rory Miller often. When people ask me which book I suggest they read, I always say "All of them!"

You can thank me later. ;-)

[Mr S Panton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reality check

Hands down the best book I've ever read on the questions, reality checks, issues, ethical considerations that would-be instructors should face. I would make it required reading for anyone who wants to open a self -defence school. Superb.