22/06/2026
Book Review: The Timeline of Self-Defense by Randy King Live
When we heard Randy King was writing a book, we were eager to get our hands on it. Randy’s an internationally renowned self-defence instructor and speaker who has taught for us on several occasions at Rencounter, so we know he knows what he’s talking about.
Now we’ve read it, his book has gone straight onto our Recommended Reading List.
We highly recommend The Timeline of Self-Defense for anyone interested in self-defence, whether you're teaching, training or a complete beginner and don't know where to start.
The book takes a holistic view of self-defence looking at preventative and pro-active skills, because we *know* self-defence isn't just about fighting.
Randy will take you through how to build a self defence strategy that works for *you*, recognising that it isn't a one size fits all approach.
He starts with his three pillars: Value (you are worth defending); Boundaries; and Community, and builds from there. Including how to handle yourself and mitigate stress in the middle of an altercation/event/fight(if it comes to that). He then also includes the important conversation of what happens after a high impact event, the aftermath and recovery.
This is genuinely one of the most enjoyable books we've read on self-defence, it's really easy to read, there's no jargon, every chapter starts with an awesome movie quote and there's bits of humour dropped throughout the book.
While Randy shares some of his own personal experiences, he also shares his students' experiences, which is particularly valuable when they have a win and nothing happens (the ideal outcome).
This book is absolutely worth your time, we'll definitely be coming back to it.
Not confirmed, but we're hoping to have Randy back at Rencounter later in the year. We'll keep you posted!
