How To Survive The Most Critical 5 Seconds OF Your Life

[Old School]

This is the title of a book written by Tim Larkin and Chris Ranck-Buhr. It is about combating violence with superior violence. It is about having the mind set to use violence. For when violence is the answer it is the only answer. You may need time to access your firearm or other defensive weapon because of the surprise of the attack and this book tells you how to get that time. I found it a great addition to my library and have implemented it's teaching into my survival mind set.

I am in no way affileated with the authors and am receiving no compensation in any way from them except for the information contained in the book.

[DefensiveCarry.com]

[WhoWeBePart1]

Amazon.com: How to Survive the Most Critical 5 Seconds of Your Life (9781615393107): Tim Larkin, Chris Ranck-Buhr: Books

There are 59 reviews as well. Most are positive.

[Bandolero]

Tim Larkin figures prominent in the old SCARS videos.

I trained for a couple of hours with Larkin several years ago. It pretty much looked like the SCARS material.

[Bark'n]

I'll be getting this book and without reading it, I'll recommend it based solely on the reputation of the author Tim Larkin.

Tim Larkin is an ex-Navy SEAL and is one of only a handful of Master Instructors in the SCARS combat fighting program used by the Navy SEALS and developed by Jerry Peterson, a Vietnam combat veteran with the 173rd Airborne Division.

I've trained in over 40 hours of the SCARS method and have used what I've learned on 3 occasions in real life encounters on the job.

I'm sure the book by Larkin is worth the money. I'll be getting it soon.

[Thanis]

...Tim Larkin is an ex-Navy SEAL..

I believe Larkin was never a SEAL and never claimed to be a SEAL.

Some people claim it was fraud on his part to assert he was a SEAL. While others state, per official statements from Larkin, he was trying out for the Seals and got injured or he had inner ear problems during diving training.

Google it, deside for yourself.

[Bark'n]

I'll have to get my Video's out, but I believe both he and Jerry Peterson said he was a former Navy SEAL. I know Peterson wasn't. He was US Army.

[SIGguy229]

This is the title of a book written by Tim Larkin and Chris Ranck-Buhr. It is about combating violence with superior violence. It is about having the mind set to use violence. For when violence is the answer it is the only answer. You may need time to access your firearm or other defensive weapon because of the surprise of the attack

This is what I talk about when talking to people about carrying a firearm and defending themselves. It isn't as much the tool as it is mindset and the willingness to employ the tool(s) available to them..

[Gimpee]

Just started reading this book and so far its really great! I do believe that the most important part is the mindset of protecting yourself. You can have all the training and practice in the world but if you don't have the correct mindset, it won't do you any good.

[BikerRN]

You can have all the training and practice in the world but if you don't have the correct mindset, it won't do you any good.

There lies the crux of the problem.

Developing the mindset to be willing to use phsical violence on another human being can be the hardest thing to overcome. I don't want to use violence, really I don't, but I do salivate for the opportunity again, because I know it will present itself and it is a conditioned response I have.

Biker

[First Sgt]

In regards to Tim Larkin being a former SEAL: http://www.usadojo.com/biographies/tim-larkin.htm

Following his graduation from college, Mr. Larkin was injured in a diving accident while undergoing US Navy SEAL Training and was medically disenrolled from the program, leaving him unable to reach his goal of becoming a SEAL officer

However, Mr Larkin is obviously more than WELL qualified to teach!!! I wouldn't hesitate to train under him. JMO

[shockwave]

You can have all the training and practice in the world but if you don't have the correct mindset, it won't do you any good.

Yes, this is almost a tautology. It's also a kind of "chicken-and-the-egg" type of problem.

The Larkin book is a good primer on the idea of martial mindset, but it begs the question that such can be acquired didactically. Correct martial training and practice have the somewhat unusual property of imparting additional knowledge that is not explicitly taught.

Let me give an example. No karate school I attended ever taught anything except karate. No lectures on morality. Yet, at some point in the study, it simply became self-evident that one should avoid using these skills if possible, that they were for emergency use only, to protect oneself or to defend the weak and helpless. Again, that was never taught formally by the instructor - it just sort of comes along in "the package" of training.

Same thing goes for Larkin's ideas about going all-out without reservation. In hard-style martial arts, the skill called "focus" is part of what imparts the ability to act decisively. It is not clear to me at all that reading a text like "How to survive the most critical 5 seconds" can impart this ability. Yes, it can bring that ability to the attention of the reader, if he or she is heretofore unacquainted with it, but gaining that skill without practice, gaining it outside of the context of martial practice, seems questionable to me.

On the other hand, what is called "soft-style" or internal martial arts (don't let the name fool you - they can be as bone-breaking as hard-style), requires a different kind of mentality. They don't work well if you're in a blind, red rage of all-out killing fury. Meeting and blending and redirecting force requires a kind of relaxed focus, and internal strikes jam-up and are ineffective if parts of the body are rigid and tensed unnecessarily.

It takes a lot of time to learn to override the natural fight-or-flight reflexes and be calm in the face of danger. Larkin's text doesn't address this aspect of martial mindset in any way at all, so that's something to think about. As regards gunfighting, the adage that "slow is smooth and smooth is fast" is the direct application of this principle.

[Old School]

The book is an introduction to Target Focus Training, no more no less. I agree completely reading a book, any book in no way will qualify you to develope the total mindset required to access the full knowledge and ability of any style of fighting. It can however point you in a direction that you can decide if you want to go into. I have not had the opportunity to train under Larkin but have several of his DVD Series that I have gleened valuable information and insight from.

[OD*]

...

“One bleeding-heart type asked me in a recent interview if I did not agree that ‘violence begets violence.’ I told him that it is my earnest endeavor to see that it does. I would like very much to ensure—and in some cases I have—that any man who offers violence to his fellow citizen begets a whole lot more in return than he can enjoy.”
– Cooper vs. Terrorism

[Philo Betto]

Changed mind...

[Philo Betto]

Okay now having purchased and read the book, a few observations:

It appears the entire book could have been condensed to 3 pages teaching how to differentiate between anti-social behaviour and asocial, and to gouge eyes and punch throats. The only other thing I took from the book is Mr. Larkin's apparent disrespect for the martial arts. Until he's studied them all, he's really unqualified to dismiss all of them based on his experience, which I'd bet involve one of three situations:
1. He washed of a karate school at some point.
2. He made it to black belt then got beaten up by an untrained guy.
3. He learned karate from one of thousands of black belts out there who themselves washed out of a karate school as a green belt, opened a dojo in their garage and promoted themselvesto black belt...consequently every student who falls under that extensive lineage is also an incompetent karatica just as their instructor is. So naturally their opinion is karate is ineffective. Were it so simple.

Mr. Larkin groups people into nice tidy little enclaves, but reality doesn't support that very often. Example: The meanest asocial deginerate parolee will nearly always be defeated by a very coordinated, athletic guy with great hand-eye- coordination and quick reflexes, whether or not the good guy has had any combat training. I can safely say as a former karate instructor with 150+ tournament karate belts, good genetics overcomes a lot of training or meanness of the asocial person. The athletic green belt will defeat the non-athletic black belt a high percentage of the time. There are a bajillion similar variables that Mr. Larkin doesn't factor into his conclusions.

Mr. Larkin's time would have been better spent teaching more practical solutions to violent people, i.e., get a CHL and become adept at situational awareness and not putting yourself in bad situations that don't allow you to go bang.

All that said, I did find some useful information in Mr. Larkin's book about recognizing the important differences between anti-social people and asocial.