The Widow Maker Program: Extreme Self-Defense for Deadly Force Situations (Widow Maker Program Series) Paperback – July 26, 2014

I found Sammy Franco many years ago. I have since purchased several of his DVD's. I have a very extensive library of DVD's and books on martial arts, self defense, combat, and survival. As soon as this book became available I knew I had to get it! I was not disappointed. I have not been through the entire manual yet but I would highly recommend it to anyone who is looking for hardcore self defense principles. Some you may have seen somewhere before called something else, but the majority is just Sammy coming up with what I can only call "detailed violence". Get your hands on this book and play around with this stuff and you'll see it's effective and simple and could save your life someday. Oh, and let me not forget the part of the book I thought was the best addition...actual drills and conditioning laid out for you! This is what I think lacks from most books on self defense. They teach you the techniques but don't explain HOW to train it properly. Good job Sammy, thank you!

This book is hands down one of the best self defense texts I have ever read. I have a decent sized library of martial arts, Combatives and survival books and I would put Widow Maker at the top of the list.Not only is the program itself revolutionary in design/effectiveness, the author also does a great job in describing it in a way that is easy to understand. And then he takes it a step further with suggestions on how to train to make these techniques second nature.I have known of Sammy Franco for quite some time, since his early texts on street fighting, but have not been a huge fan until now. The Widow Maker book has opened my eyes to Franco's skills as both a reality based martial artist and an author. Great job, Mr. Franco! Keep up the good work! HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

I am very rarely surprised much less impressed by most of the "self-defense" books I read. I have to say though, I thoroughly enjoyed this initial volume on the Widow Maker Program by Mr. Franco. So many times authors, who msy very well be skilled martial artists, offer dueling skills for self-defense. This is extremely dangerous snd misleading given that the circumstantial needs and objectives of a mutually desired contest versus combat for survival are very different. Readers are treated to easy to understand textual instruction, along with equally clear diagrams snd sequential photographic demonstrations of the techniques. The Widow Maker system presents a genuinely raw look at personal combat, and this is a very rare thing within martial arts culture. Too often, martial artists romanticize about what "real fighting" is, as if it is something that is ordered with prescribed solutions. Fortunately, Mr. Franco does not share in these fanciful delusions. The techniques described are simple, straight forward and easy to learn and apply. Overall this is an excellent, actual self-defense book and I highly recommend it. My genuine thanks to Mr. Franco for adding to the integrity, quality and legacy of practical combatives.

A lot of interesting information. As a TKD person, a lot of it is new to me or otherwise not something we train on. Worth the price.

I have been a martial art instructor for about 17 years and have been in martial arts most of my life (I'm 35, yes I started teaching as a teen). This maybe valuable for a beginner student and that's why I'm giving it 3 stars, and not 2 stars. Yes, what's taught in this is realistic and practical but it's nothing revolutionary for somebody with a decade or more of "real" martial art experience. I don't want to get off topic but there are many that train in bogus martial arts, under bogus instructors and so forth. Franco has legitimate experience and nobody I would say is a fake neither but from my point of view this was just okay. My background is primarily in Muay Thai, Kyokushin (I teach both), Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, and Aikijujitsu. I also hold black belts in other a few other karate styles and in shooto. I have competed in bareknuckle karate and Muay Thai fights, and have had my own fighters in Kyokushin, Kickboxing, Muay Thai, and MMA. I'm what I would call an average instructor, I'm not a commercial professional that does it for a living but somebody that has been a student for about 30 years now. I'm known in my area for teaching a no nonsense approach and not handing out rank (I've only had 3 students promoted to black belt under me). I'm a life long martial artist but no world champion, just somebody that likes martial arts and realistic martial arts. I usually don't buy anything like this because to me, this sort of "tool" is just a tool and not good for somebody to rely on unless they actually trained under an instructor like Sammy himself and just used this as a reference. There are too many people these days that rely on tools like this and youtube videos to train themselves...and others, it's sad.

I really like this book, lots good stuff. I love the webbing strike technique, Great. It's simple, very effective.. razing technique as well great.. would recommend to everyone.

I began training in martial arts in 1968 while in the Army. I started in Tae Kwon Do for the first 10 years, and then studied and taught Jiu Jitso and Akido until two years ago when physical issues prevented my continuing in martial arts. I have attended just about every seminar that was available.From that background, I can tell you that this is absolutely the best self defense program I have ever seen. This DVD is unique in that it can benefit the experienced practitioner and the novice alike.In spite of my physical limitations, I depend on what I learned in this DVD to feel comfortable on the street.Sammy is the real deal, and his instructional material is very simply the best available.

Objektiv dürfte man über den Autor Sammy Franco zwei Dinge feststellen: erstens, dass Franco ein Selbstverteidigungsexperte mit jahrzehntelanger Erfahrung ist, der zu diesem Thema eine Menge (und meistens sehr pragmatische und direkte) Antworten beisteuern kann – und zweitens, dass es dem Mann sicherlich nicht an Ego mangelt.Sammy Franco steht ohne Frage auf die Inszenierung als knallharter Typ - der Name für sein hier promotetes Programm „Widowmaker“ stellt es ja schon klar. Das er im Zuge dessen gerne auch mal die meisten Anderen, die nicht seiner Linie folgen, als unwissende Weicheier darstellt, sollte angesichts dessen kaum überraschen.Insofern kann ich nicht sagen, dass dieser Stil die Bücher von Franco (von denen ich ein rundes halbes Dutzend gelesen habe dürfte) zu einer sympathischen Lektüre macht. Ganz im Gegenteil kommt Franco mitunter eher wie ein ziemlicher Widerling rüber.Andererseits kann man nicht abstreiten, dass WIDOWMAKER zwischen all den markigen Sprüchen einen durchaus interessanten Ansatz verfolgt. Natürlich halte ich die von Franco aufgestellte Behauptung, dass man mit diesen Techniken jede Selbstverteidigungssituation sofort beendet für reichlich übertrieben, was aber der Wirksamkeit erstmal nicht entgegensteht.Im Kern schildert Franco im vorliegenden Buch eine gradlinige Vorgehensweise für eine Konfrontation: im ersten Schritt dem Gegner die Handflächen mit gradem Stoß in Gesicht zu hämmern (von Franco als „webbing“ bezeichnet) und danach mit den Händen im Gesicht Schaden anzurichten (so genanntes „razing“).Diese beiden Techniken und die damit verbundene Vorgehensweise bezeichnet Franco als das non-plus-ultra. Persönlich möchte ich mir nicht anmessen, hier ein abschließendes Urteil zu fällen – ich denke, dass die „richtige“ Technik auch immer eine Frage des Anwenders ist und man das eine kaum ohne das andere betrachten kann.Das aber bei einem gut trainierten Kämpfer das von Franco geschilderte Vorgehen sehr effektiv ist würde ich nicht bezweifeln wollen – fraglich halt nur, ob es deswegen auch für jeden Alltagsmenschen das non-plus-ultra ist. Diese Frage ist aber letztlich rein akademischer Natur und sollte von jedem selbst beantwortet werden.Alles in allem: WIDOWMAKER finde ich stilistisch mitunter anstrengend – auch seine Art lesenswert ist Francos Buch aber dennoch, schließlich enthält es trotz des mitunter nervigen Stils einige sehr interessante Gedankengänge, einen durchdenkenswerten Ansatz und zeigt ohne Frage effektive Techniken... der Rest ist, wie immer in der Kampfkunst oder der Selbstverteidigung, auch Ansichtssache.Auch aufgrund des sehr günstigen Preises der hier rezensierten Kindle-Edition lande ich bei 4 Sternen.

A great and simple way to attack an attacker! If you don't have time or fitness to pursue martial arts styles and systems but want to get yourself out of shut when it kicks off then this book is for you. I have studied a lot of systems and even had a black belt about 15 years ago but now that I'm almost 60 years old none of my experience would help in the real world of unarmed combat. This system requires a lot of practice but there isn't lots to remember but 20 minutes a day every day will do more for the average person than many hours of months of years of martial art in my opinion.

If you are into combatives, this book will teach you one of the best method to literally destroy any street danger to your life. I've practiced some MA in the past (jujitsu and others) and I can assure you that everyone will say he is teaching self-defense if you ask him: that's business but not the real deal. No military or law enforcer rely on numerous and over-complicated techniques. This kind of things will get you killed or poor. Streets are not gyms. Sammy Franco knows that and exposes serious military-grade and simple fatal techniques for high-risk situation. Trust him.

The reaper of the cover is appropriate - the techniques in this book are a great way for the average person to get themselves badly hurt or killed. Thoroughly irresponsible.

O.k. the book sounded interesting !The authors marketing is really great !Everything sounds dangerous and ultimately the best.In the end it is a close quarter self defence that sounds logical ans sensible ans easy to use.But not more !One "intro move" and a system to fight in the close quarter and do many attacks, nothing complicated and perhaps a little less pages would have done. It would also be great to get some free videos which show the technique .I think the system will work, if it's better than other systems I can't tell you, But you will get something working for your money !!!