A few months back I read Sargent Rory Miller's extraordinary book Meditations on Violence. I loved it and still do.
Sgt. Rory, as his followers call him, worked much of his life in Oregon prisons, so he dealt with extremely violent men and had to use violence to control and occasionally subdue them. Sgt. Rory knows violence and he tells us honestly that we don't.
The Sgt. makes several points. Violence produces a hormone cocktail that can totally paralyze one, can make one nearly immune to pain, can lead to complete fantasy and irrationality and can generate extraordinary strength.
If you are the aggressor (police, military, prison officer) you must train to work effectively with the hormone cocktail and not let it overwhelm you. If you are the victim, virtually no training can help you. Your best option if possible, is to escape or second best, be prepared in advance to kill the attacker. I am now prepared.
My readers know I consider pacifists to be completely blind to the world, often dangerous to themselves and others (think Rachel Cory). Sgt. Rory, on his brilliant blog, explains that both pacifists and people who imagine they are good at fighting are both equally blind. You'll love it.
Occasionally a powerful intellect stumbles into a field that has never seen the bright light of intelligence. Violence is such a field and Sgt. Rory is the intellect.