Jim Wagner Reality-Based Personal Protection

California seminar predicts fitness club shooting
Jim Wagner

On July 27 to 31 I taught my Level 1 Reality-Based Personal Protection courses at the Newbury Park Athletic Club in Newbury Park, California thirty 45 minutes from the center of Los Angeles.

On the last day of training, Terrorism Survival, we simulated a massacre where a gunman came into a fitness center and blasted away. A few days later in real life a gunman did just that: CLICK HERE.

One of my students, Kirby Tucker, wrote me an email a few days later while I was teaching in Paris, France and stated:

Hey Jim,

I just wanted to thank you again for the great instructions you did at Newbury Park Athletic Club. I really enjoyed it, and I think I need to throw away about 30 to 40% of my past martial arts training away.

I must confess that I had questioned the training that we had on what to do if a gunman came into a health club. Mostly I was thinking that you were getting a little overly paranoid in your training thinking of such an event. I thought this way until the other day when I heard the news that a gunman went into a health club in Pennsylvania and started to shoot people at random. This was just a few days after your training in that very scenario. Amazing!

Thanks again Jim, and I look forward to future training with you.

Kirby Tucker

On Tuesday night, August 4, 2009 an armed man walked into the back of an exercise class in an LA/Fitness Center in Bridgeville, a suburban of Pittsburgh, pulled out two pistols, and started shooting people that left four dead, including the gunman, and fifteen wounded.

The gunman was George Sodini, 48, who announced his intentions on his blog, went into a Latin dance class and murdered three women and then turned the gun on himself. He posted a message on his blog before the crime, “Tomorrow is the big day.” Based on other entries Sodini made it is believed that he had a hatred for women.

Of course the Level 1 covered every other attack a citizen is likely to face in our ever growing violent world. Concerning the overall information and intense training of the week Butch Pierson said to me, after receiving his instructor certificate, “Jim, I have learned more in one week than thirty-five years in the traditional martial arts, and you can quote me on that.” For you that read this news page regularly you may recall that Butch works in the film industry and he invited to me to the taping of the television show Prison Break back in January. Now he is working on a new television series for the next six months.

Those who received their Level 1 certifications from me were: Anthony Nanakornpanom (a Hollywood stuntman), Brian Cole, Steve Torisk, Kirby Tucker, Butch Pierson, and Steve Phillips. Phillip Haddox (a Level 3 instructor) came in to assist for two days along with Steve Vu who is in my military police unit and has appeared in a few of my training DVDs.