Principles of Personal Defense by Jeff Cooper

I began and finished this little gem last night. It is Principles of Personal Defense written by Jeff Cooper, ISBN 0-87364-497-2.

This booklet (about 55 pages in a roughly 5-3/8" X 8-3/8" package) doesn't talk about the how, the why, the when, the who or really even, the what.

It presumes that you have a firm grasp of:

How to implement your chosen defense.
That your reason for implementation is known by you.
You will choose when to implement.
Who you will implement against.
What it is that you are even trying to accomplish with said implementation.
All in the realm of personal defense.

The following quote from the preface page ix succinctly states the purpose of personal defense. "In war there is no substitute for victory, and this is equally true of personal combat, which is, after all, a microcosm of war. When a coward is offered deadly violence, his reaction may be to surrender, or cower, or flee, or call for help; not one of these choices is likely to obviate his peril. But this booklet was not written for cowards."

Cowardice to me, is one of those amorphous characteristics, one does not truly know their capacity for cowardice until it is truly tested. I trust that I am not a coward, but until I have to face an unknown, equal or superior force with real consequences of failure... I will not truly know. - ancillary commentary by me.

The body of the booklet does not discuss anything but the Principles of personal defense. The author defines principle in the following statement, extracted from the Preface pages vii and viii, "If a principle exists it must be immutable, for that is what a principle is - a truth standing apart from the mood of the times.

These principles (among many things) lie in elevated state of awareness, absolute belief in your chosen course of action, your willingness to react with as much vigor as you can muster and calm, intelligent use of what is at hand to defeat those who threaten your life.

IMHO - This is a very good "no shit Sherlock" read... meaning that upon reading you will likely have the... slap your forehead, duh moments that I had. But, it is those obvious things that are so obvious as to not be paid attention to, that can be deadly.

I never hurts to have a clear reminder of what is truly at stake during the moments (maybe seconds) that you have to defend yourself.