During my yearly training audit, I reminded myself that I needed to get some more education on defensive driving and vehicle tactics. As a result, I purchased several book related to this topic on Amazon.
This is a brief review of Drive To Survive!
I started reading this book as soon as I got home from hearing Dr. Sherman House’s lecture on Becoming The Civilian Defender at the Hebrew Hogger Fundraiser last weekend. He and I were on the same page regarding critical skills to practice. His lecture reminded me that I need to get after my lagging skill-sets. Performance and defensive driving is something I don’t have official training in. I’ve started with this book.
The book’s author is Curt Rich, who was a Vietnam War vet and student of Jeff Cooper and Masaad Ayoob. So Rich wrote this book for the average person trying to drive in the real world, with discussion about avoiding everyday crazy drivers, everyday combat driving techniques, evading criminal activity on the road, high performance maneuvers to evade capture, positioning your vehicle in the real world, anti-kidnapping and carjacking techniques, and avoiding “Murphy” on the road.
Some of the topics I found interesting:
- Setting up your mirrors to have no blind-spot, and proper seat adjustment
- Hand placement on steering wheel. 9 and 3 with thumbs up, not wrapped
- The two-second follow rule, and two-second green light rule
- Maximizing ABS brakes. “Threshold Braking” with ABS brakes and how stop much shorter than fully depressing your brake in an emergency stop. He also includes some exercises you can do to practice.
- How to be ‘smooth’ while you drive. (Smooth is fast, after all)
- Dealing with tailgaters, erratic drivers, and someone following you (3 right turns)
- Rules if you’re being chased. Evasive maneuvers and running through road blocks.
- The section on car-jacking and kidnapping is very useful. Lots of tips that are easy to integrate into daily life.
This book was written in 1998, so several of the technological advancements he mentions on luxury cars are now standard in nearly all vehicles. The tactics are still completely applicable.
This book is DEFINITELY worth your time. It’s a short read at 125 pages or so. Considering copies are $0.01 plus shipping, you’re silly not to have a copy on your shelf.
If you’ll excuse me, I have some bootlegger’s turns to practice…
Mark
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