Personal Safety & Self Defence: A practical guide to avoiding and dealing with conflict

Tyrrel Francis was born in 1975 in Northamptonshire, and went to primary school in Avon, and secondary school in Hampshire, which is where he discovered Martial Arts. He started judo and karate at the age of thirteen. In 1991 he joined the Royal Navy and served with Commando Helicopter Force, operating in the Former Yugoslavia in the mid ’90s, and in the Gulf in the early 2000s, as well as supporting the Royal Marines on various training detachments in places such as Norway, Holland and the United States. Still practising martial arts today, Tyrrel holds a 2nd Dan in Shotokan karate, and a 3rd Degree in freestyle kickboxing, but has now progressed to Muay Thai, and competes on the K1 circuit (K1 is a kickboxing platform and martial arts brand, well-known worldwide mainly for its heavyweight division fights). Passionate about writing, as well as martial arts, Tyrrel has trained with high-ranking and top-rated martial arts instructors in arts such as Ju-jitsu, American Kempo, Aikido, Jeet Kung Do, and of course, Muay Thai and karate. Being a martial artist, self-defence has always been a topic of interest for Tyrrel fuelled, at times, by witnessing, or hearing about first-hand, the situations that friends over the years have either caused, contributed to, or fallen foul of.