A meticulous combat argument presented with evidence and without dogmatism.
A tactical shooting work emphasizes training based on the latest neuroscience.
Salomon isn’t shy about challenging conventional wisdom—he forcefully argues that the manner in which combative shooting is typically taught is not only ineffectual, but often dooms a learner to substandard practice as well. At the heart of his book is the distinction between visually aimed fire—this involves using the sights and body of a weapon—and nonvisually aimed fire, which directs the shooter’s attention to the target unassisted by such tools. First, Salomon believes this is a clumsy distinction since each requires different kinds of focus and presupposes a different type of neural circuitry. The author emphasizes the significance of neuroscience, the manner in which the brain learns and remembers, as the foundation of an approach to tactical instruction. Salomon contends that both skill sets are indispensable—he challenges the regnant view that visually aimed fire is impossible in real combat situations. In fact, he calls the assumption in this plainly blunt text “grade-A baloney.” Moreover, he insists that visually aimed fire must be taught first and acquired as the “dominant skill response” or it will likely never be learned. At the heart of Salomon’s lucid argument is his view that any approach must be aligned with “human cognitive architecture,” the peculiar manner in which the brain permits the long-term acquisition of new skills, especially those that must be exercised under conditions of extreme stress. In addition, he criticizes the sterile environments provided by most shooting ranges. The author strongly recommends a training program that prepares participants for the messiness of real combat: “Bad stuff tends to happen in situations where people need to shoot other people. In fact, it is typically a prerequisite. In very harsh settings, batteries can die. Optics can fail. Sights can break off guns. Visual acuity can be occluded from any number of things ranging from ambient light levels, lighting effects, mud, blood, chunks of skin and other soft tissue, glass, dust, dirt, etc.” Salomon delivers an admirably accessible discussion of prohibitively complex material, and encourages readers to consult the scientific literature independently, writings he often helpfully cites. This is a rigorous introduction to the subject best suited to novices.
A meticulous combat argument presented with evidence and without dogmatism.Pub Date: May 31, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-952594-10-6
Page Count: 114
Publisher: Innovative Services and Solutions LLC
Review Posted Online: Feb. 28, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Basketball fans will enjoy Pippen’s bird’s-eye view of some of the sport’s greatest contests.
The Chicago Bulls stalwart tells all—and then some.
Hall of Famer Pippen opens with a long complaint: Yes, he’s a legend, but he got short shrift in the ESPN documentary about Michael Jordan and the Bulls, The Last Dance. Given that Jordan emerges as someone not quite friend enough to qualify as a frenemy, even though teammates for many years, the maltreatment is understandable. This book, Pippen allows, is his retort to a man who “was determined to prove to the current generation of fans that he was larger-than-life during his day—and still larger than LeBron James, the player many consider his equal, if not superior.” Coming from a hardscrabble little town in Arkansas and playing for a small college, Pippen enjoyed an unlikely rise to NBA stardom. He played alongside and against some of the greats, of whom he writes appreciatively (even Jordan). Readers will gain insight into the lives of characters such as Dennis Rodman, who “possessed an unbelievable basketball IQ,” and into the behind-the-scenes work that led to the Bulls dynasty, which ended only because, Pippen charges, the team’s management was so inept. Looking back on his early years, Pippen advocates paying college athletes. “Don’t give me any of that holier-than-thou student-athlete nonsense,” he writes. “These young men—and women—are athletes first, not students, and make up the labor that generates fortunes for their schools. They are, for lack of a better term, slaves.” The author also writes evenhandedly of the world outside basketball: “No matter how many championships I have won, and millions I have earned, I never forget the color of my skin and that some people in this world hate me just because of that.” Overall, the memoir is closely observed and uncommonly modest, given Pippen’s many successes, and it moves as swiftly as a playoff game.
Basketball fans will enjoy Pippen’s bird’s-eye view of some of the sport’s greatest contests.Pub Date: Nov. 9, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-982165-19-2
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Atria
Review Posted Online: Sept. 14, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2021
SEEN & HEARD
Smart, engaging sportswriting—good reading for organization builders as well as Pats fans.
Prolific writer Benedict has long blended two interests—sports and business—and the Patriots are emblematic of both. Founded in 1959 as the Boston Patriots, the team built a strategic home field between that city and Providence. When original owner Billy Sullivan sold the flailing team in 1988, it was $126 million in the hole, a condition so dire that “Sullivan had to beg the NFL to release emergency funds so he could pay his players.” Victor Kiam, the razor magnate, bought the long since renamed New England Patriots, but rival Robert Kraft bought first the parking lots and then the stadium—and “it rankled Kiam that he bore all the risk as the owner of the team but virtually all of the revenue that the team generated went to Kraft.” Check and mate. Kraft finally took over the team in 1994. Kraft inherited coach Bill Parcells, who in turn brought in star quarterback Drew Bledsoe, “the Patriots’ most prized player.” However, as the book’s nimbly constructed opening recounts, in 2001, Bledsoe got smeared in a hit “so violent that players along the Patriots sideline compared the sound of the collision to a car crash.” After that, it was backup Tom Brady’s team. Gridiron nerds will debate whether Brady is the greatest QB and Bill Belichick the greatest coach the game has ever known, but certainly they’ve had their share of controversy. The infamous “Deflategate” incident of 2015 takes up plenty of space in the late pages of the narrative, and depending on how you read between the lines, Brady was either an accomplice or an unwitting beneficiary. Still, as the author writes, by that point Brady “had started in 223 straight regular-season games,” an enviable record on a team that itself has racked up impressive stats.
Smart, engaging sportswriting—good reading for organization builders as well as Pats fans.Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-982134-10-5
Page Count: 592
Publisher: Avid Reader Press
Review Posted Online: Aug. 25, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2020
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