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Survive the Unthinkable: A Total Guide to Women's Self-Protection by Anthony Robbins, Tim Larkin
skylarkochava's review against another edition
3.0
Heavy on the philosophy and mindset (all very important) but light on actual techniques. It's basically "why you should take my class or buy my DVD." Granted, I want to now, but ugh, that's why I checked a free book out from the library! Now I know some ideas and why they're important but have the powerlessness of knowing I don't know what to do with that information. Not cool. I predict some nightmares tonight.
abbyreadssometimes's review against another edition
1.0
For starters, this book is a “total guide” for women written by a man. Which wouldn’t be so bad if it didn’t come across so patronizing. You can do it even if you are smaller and weaker! Size doesn’t matter! And while I do think that anyone can do great harm to anyone else, the fact of the matter is that size, training, muscle mass, fitness level… those things do count. It’s going to be a lot harder to overcome someone stronger and bigger than you. If someone reads this book and has no other training, they’re going to be in for a rude awakening when they actually encounter an attacker.
But not just any training! The only self defense training that will actually work is the author’s. (That’s sarcasm, folks.) His disdain for any self defense classes other than his own is mentioned several times in the book. It seems like a big reason that he wrote this book was to promote his own classes (just read the back about the author.)
The format of the book reads like a college essay paper. First I’ll teach you this, then in the next section you’ll learn about this. Definitely not the formatting I expected from a New York Times Bestseller.
The only practical defense strategies he talks about in any detail is a strike to the throat and a knee to the groin. From a martial arts perspective, I was definitely underwhelmed.
He did talk about asocial behavior and did a good job portraying that. So the whole book wasn’t a total waste.
He talks about how women are very likely to be assaulted. The book starts off with all the scary statistics. But then he jumps right into asocial attackers and makes it sound like that’s the bad guy you’ll be facing. The reality is that most of the time it’ll be someone that you know that assaults you. Tony Robbins mentions that in the forward, but Larkin never really addresses it.
So if you want to learn about self defense take a class instead. In a high adrenaline situation, your body will do what you have physically practiced. If you want a better understanding on the mental side of self defense read The Gift of Fear by Gavin de Becker. The Unthinkable by Amanda Ripley will also give you great insights on how to better respond to life or death situations. If you find yourself getting into those toxic relationships over and over again, read Men That Hate Women and the Women That Love Them by Dr Susan Forward.
As for this book, I’m sorry to say that I can’t recommend it.
But not just any training! The only self defense training that will actually work is the author’s. (That’s sarcasm, folks.) His disdain for any self defense classes other than his own is mentioned several times in the book. It seems like a big reason that he wrote this book was to promote his own classes (just read the back about the author.)
The format of the book reads like a college essay paper. First I’ll teach you this, then in the next section you’ll learn about this. Definitely not the formatting I expected from a New York Times Bestseller.
The only practical defense strategies he talks about in any detail is a strike to the throat and a knee to the groin. From a martial arts perspective, I was definitely underwhelmed.
He did talk about asocial behavior and did a good job portraying that. So the whole book wasn’t a total waste.
He talks about how women are very likely to be assaulted. The book starts off with all the scary statistics. But then he jumps right into asocial attackers and makes it sound like that’s the bad guy you’ll be facing. The reality is that most of the time it’ll be someone that you know that assaults you. Tony Robbins mentions that in the forward, but Larkin never really addresses it.
So if you want to learn about self defense take a class instead. In a high adrenaline situation, your body will do what you have physically practiced. If you want a better understanding on the mental side of self defense read The Gift of Fear by Gavin de Becker. The Unthinkable by Amanda Ripley will also give you great insights on how to better respond to life or death situations. If you find yourself getting into those toxic relationships over and over again, read Men That Hate Women and the Women That Love Them by Dr Susan Forward.
As for this book, I’m sorry to say that I can’t recommend it.
simplymary's review against another edition
3.0
Good ideas about self-protection, helpful in giving me ideas of how to strike back in a life or death situation. Extremely repetitive writing.
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