New York seminar ends the old system
Jim Wagner
The last Reality-Based Personal Protection seminar held November 30th to December 4th was also the end of the old way of doing business. Starting January 1st Level 1 becomes Lessons 1 to 5 and Level 2 becomes Lessons 6-10. Level 3 will now become Instructor Training. However, in 2010 there will be no instructor courses anywhere in the world. The Instructor Training will begin in 2011. Those who have already taken courses under the old system will be able to finish up the courses that they have not completed and will be issued an instructor certificate upon successful completion.
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The new changes have been made because many people now coming into the RBPP system have no, or very little, previous martial arts training. Fewer and fewer adults worldwide are studying the traditional-based martial arts (karate, kung-fu, tae kwon do, kenpo, aikido, etc.) and even fewer are studying sport-based martial arts (MMA, ju-jitsu, judo, boxing, wrestling, etc.) mainly because such arts are for strong males between 15 – 25 years old who want to compete or be like those they see in the UFC. Today the majority of people coming into the martial arts want self-defense only, and they want something that prepares them for today’s violent crime and terrorism. They want “reality-based” training that is quick, inexpensive, and effective.
Only a few people coming to this last seminar were interested in an instructor certificate. The majority of the students just want to learn how to protect themselves or their loved ones. I also had a few instructors who are already certified in my system come back to refresh their skills.
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Helping me teach throughout the week was Peter Falk who is the RBPP Director of the Nordic countries. He flew in from Copenhagen. Also helping me all week, along with logistics, was Carlini Jaramillo who is also a Homeland Security instructor and a sergeant in the New York Army National Guard. Retired New Jersey cop, and Level 2 RBPP instructor Joe Landerwehrle was a big help also and help the courses run more smoothly.
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The Level 1 courses (Defensive Tactics, Ground Survival, Knife Survival, Crime Survival, and Terrorism Survival) were held at the Fighthouse in the middle of Manhattan. It is a great location, and one I have been teaching at for the last six years thanks to W.R. Mann of realfighting.com. He was the one who first invited me to New York City to teach, and was my first Reality-Based instructor that I certified there. Like every year W.R. stopped in to refresh on some of my courses and I took him out to lunch twice to catch up. He is a wealth of information and has his finger on the pulse of martial arts trends. Lately he has been teaching in South Africa and Europe.
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Stopping in for a visit was Elizabeth Greenman. She is the highest trained RBPP female in the United States. Elizabeth obtained her Level III Instructor certificate in my Los Angeles school a few years ago. She came to see me to talk about future RBPP projects she is interested in for the Manhattan area.
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Frank Mayson, a close friend of mine since high school and a dedicated RBPP instructor, spent the week at the seminar training and we did quite a bit of sight seeing. We both arrived at Newark International Airport nearly at the same time on Friday, November 27th. Frank had never been to New York City before and for the weekend I assumed the role of tour guide and he was a true tourist clicking away with his new Nikon Coolpix camera.
On Saturday morning the weather was absolutely perfect; warm and blue skies. We started off the morning with Liberty Island to see the Statue of Liberty. Each time I see that great icon I am no less impressed. What a symbol of freedom! Then it was a walk around Battery Park, lunch, and off to the Empire State Building to get the best view of New York City possible; from the 86th floor. That evening Peter Falk joined us after arriving at John F. Kennedy International Airport. Once he threw his bags in his room we went to Times Square for the night life. The warm night air was comfortable.
On Sunday morning the three of us went to Saint Patrick’s Cathedral to catch the tail end of the mass and then to Harvest New York to hear a message from pastor Mike Finizio. Then it was off to Rockefeller Center, Wall Street, Ground Zero to pay our respects to the victims, and ended the night with a fabulous meal back at Times Square where Carlini Jaramillo joined us at Chevy’s Mexican Restaurant where we discussed the game plan for the seminar week.
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New York is a food paradise and the next night Frank, Peter and I had dinner in China Town and desert in Little Italy at Ferrara. It literally is the best New York cheese cake I had ever had. The place has been around for over 150 years.
The week of training was awesome, mainly because I had highly dedicated students who wanted to train hard in the pressure-cooker atmosphere that I created for them.
On Tuesday evening Peter and I had to watch the news to catch President Barak Obama’s speech about sending 30,000 more troops to fight in the Afghanistan war. The next evening after training, after Knife Survival, when I was returning to my hotel in Times Square I saw anti-war protestors demonstrating on 42nd Street. Most of the signs accused the president of being a war monger. That same evening Peter and I went to go see the lighting of the Christmas tree at Rockefeller Center; us and 100,000 other people – literally. What a crowd! That was the official count the next day on the local news. Rod Stewart and other big names were performing before the switch was flipped.
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After the last course was completed on Friday, Terrorism Survival, on December 4th, Frank, Peter, and I had dinner once again. Afterwards we went strolled to the center of Times Square, a bit colder by this time, and celebrated a successful seminar with some quality cigars; a tradition several of my directors take pleasure in. The expensive Dominican Republic cigar is a delicious and rare indulgence for me.
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Saturday the 5th was a day off for me and I went to the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art, “the Met,” to continue my research on human conflict. I spent most of my time in the ancient weapons section: Egyptian, Assyrian, and Medieval that included Samurai. I then had my last meal in New York at a typical hot dog stand near my hotel. The next day, Sunday, I had to go back to work – in New Jersey.
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Private lessons for one tough family
Jim Wagner
On December 6th I crossed over the Hudson River to pick up my rental car at Newark International Airport and drove up Highway 95 in New Jersey. I was returning to a family for private training for the second time this year.
My client, a prominent doctor, had me teach his family conflict survival skills a few months ago, and he made it clear that he would like for me to return. Since I was already teaching in New York City he took advantage of my free time and the close proximity.
This trip I taught him, his hospitable wife, and two daughters how to defend themselves against burglars and how to be ready for a home invasion. My client holds tight to his Second Amendment rights for citizens to keep and bear arms and his household has a few firearms should the worse happen. The members of the family are shooters and none of them afraid to use these tools as an “equalizer.” Therefore I spent two days running them through many SHOOT, DON’T SHOOT scenarios. Frank Mayson, a Reality-Based Personal Protection instructor, assisted me by playing the role of “bad guy.”
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The moment I arrived on the first day of training I had Frank sit out in the rental car parked several houses away in the posh neighborhood. The night before was the first snow storm of the season coating all of the front lawns with a white frozen carpet. Frank didn’t mind the cold since he was wearing his “bad boy” black leather jacket and a black beanie to cover his shaved head. The family had never met Frank before, and he had never seen them either.
I did a weapons safety check of every firearm in the house, replaced all the tactical knives (the family uses the Jim Wagner Reality-Based Blade original serrations and the Wagner Urban) with rubber training knives, and then isolated the entire family to one room in the house.
One at time I took each family member to the front porch and had them do a cursory search of the entire home as if they had just arrived from work or school. For each family member Frank hid in a different spot of the three story house.
Upon entering the house through the front door two family members chose to pick up a revolver, which was in a nearby drawer, and the rest selected a knife as the weapon of choice. To my delight all of the family members “survived” their surprise attacks thanks to their previous training with me and their determination to protect themselves. Frank played his role well, and even made me jump out of my skin when on one scenario he flew out of a closet with a rubber knife in hand.
After the scenarios I taught the entire family how to do a building search just like any police officer would do. Going through it individually they each learned sectors of fire, pieing a corner, how to open doors tactically, weapon position upon room entry, hard corners, noise discipline, sweeping, and everything else a well-armed citizen needs to know.
When we finished the realistic scenarios we did a brief hands-on review of what we had covered during my first trip, and then we moved on to new material from my Womens’ Survival course for the girls.
The next day was movement drills with handguns, rifles, and shotguns along with lots of firearms safety tips and drills. Again, every family member shoots on a regular basis so teaching them muzzle discipline, the laser rule, and indexing was not a problem.
After I was confident in their abilities I let them all go through some more hair raising scenarios even to the point that I sent Frank outside to “break into” the house. We all wanted to see if the neighbors would notice the suspicious activity and call it into the police. One neighbor actually peeked out of her window when Frank, who looked like a real thug, was looking into each window and shaking on each door knob as he made his way to the back patio and the sliding glass door. This neighbor never called the police. Our call to stop her from doing so was in vain. That was a real wake-up call for my client and his wife, which was very disturbing. Many people see suspicious activity but never call it in.
The rest of the day was spent on Terrorism Survival since trips are made frequently by each family member into Manhattan. One daughter even attends New York University.
By the time I had finished the two-day session the family had even more self confidence that the last time I had visited. The doctor said to me, “I feel a lot better now knowing that my wife and girls are better able to protect themselves when I am away on business. This is really fantastic stuff.” My client’s current position forces him to take many overseas business trips. He is also thankful for the tips that I gave him on terrorist attacks on public transportation systems, and he is going to build up his own “go bag” after my prompting.
Future lessons have already been set up for 2010 with this same family who is serious about protecting themselves. Next time we’ll go over anti-kidnapping training, more gun and knife survival for the college girls, and lots of Womens’ Survival.
I don’t have a lot of time for private lessons, but on occasion I make the time for people who are adamant about their family’s safety. There is nothing better than being trained in your own home, work place, and the areas that you frequent. It is world class training coming to the privacy of your own home or business.
As I was leaving I said, “I hope you don’t have to use what I just taught you.” I meant it for the youngest daughter told me how she had to defend herself against a homeless man who followed her for a block and would not leave her alone shortly after I left the first time. One never knows.
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