Street Sword

Book excerpt: The sword has been a brutally effective weapon for thousands of years, but try to find instruction on using one for self-defense today and you're liable to find nothing but books written by dojo-dwelling, gi-wearing martial artists hung up on ancient traditions and picture-perfect stances. For the modern sword aficionado looking for real-world advice, author and pragmatic martial artist Phil Elmore wipes the slate clean with Street Sword. Despite attempts by elitists to romanticize, deify or otherwise elevate it into a mystical artifact, Elmore treats the sword like a tool for delivering force, period. It is a mundane object that obeys the laws of physics, just like any other weapon. Street Sword will give you a framework in which to use the sword as a functional, practical weapon in today's violent world, quickly providing an understanding of the simple physics involved, as well as concepts like timing and distance. Reading this book won't help you win a colored belt or an Olympic fencing medal, but it may be invaluable if a knife-wielding thug ever comes crawling through your bedroom window one dark night.