Jim Wagner Reality-Based Personal Protection

Teaching families to survive violence
Jim Wagner

Although I teach a number of seminars every year, there are many courses I teach that are never advertised. A course I taught in Teaneck, New Jersey on August 17th and 18th is one of those courses.

I had been invited by a prominent doctor who wanted his family, a wife and four college age girls, to be taught the skills necessary to be able to protect themselves at home, at school, and when they are traveling. He himself is a black belt in Shotokan karate, but after reading my articles in Black Belt for a few years he decided that the Reality-Based Personal Protection system was the system he wanted, and he wanted it directly from the source – me.

One of the instructors I certified, Carlini Jaramillo of New York, assisted me both days. For two days I taught my female students the Women’s Survival curriculum, and for the doctor I gave him a mixed bag of use-of-force instructions.

Right from the start I had my students go into the small town of Teaneck where I taught them the dangers of an urban environment. When we returned to the house I taught them all about the “great equalizer;” the handgun. For these girls this was not shocking, for all of them have been shooting pistols and handguns for years. The doctor is a firm believer in having firearms in the home for self-defense. My job was to make them better and provide them with realistic scenarios. Because the scenarios were conducted in the very environment they would be defending themselves, the training was as close to real life as possible.

I then taught them how to use knives and how to defend against them. Obviously it is illegal for citizens to carry guns in public, so the next best weapon is an edged weapon. They learned the 10 angles and how to keep the weapon from getting turned against them. Carlini, a Sergeant in the Army National Guard and a Homeland Security instructor, did not baby them at all, but gave them realist attacks. After a few scenarios the students were deadly with their new skills.

When it comes to hand-to-hand combat I always start my female students on the ground, because that is most likely where they will be relatively quickly in most attacks. We started with lethal force techniques and worked our way down to techniques that they would use in date rape situations.

By the end of the day my students were exhausted, but had gained quite a bit of self-confidence. Carlin and I continued training the doctor who learned how to tighten his grouping in shooting. I also ran him through some scenarios that made him decide to relocate his pistol in the office. The original place he had it left him at a great tactical disadvantage during a “home invasion.”

The next day we started with how to leave the home and safely get to the vehicle and visa versa. Many victims are attacked at their vehicles for a variety of reasons: carjacking, kidnapping, robbery, stalking, etc. It was my job to give them hands-on training on how to look for ambush points, how to detect a surveillance, and how to be prepared for a rushing assailant. By the time we were finished the women were quite proficient, and knew all the tactical reasons behind the movement.

The girls have a huge workout room in the house, and they workout often. Each one of them are in perfect shape. One of their biggest fears was having an intruder enter this room while they had their music drowning out all outside noise. I advised the family on they type of lock to have on the workout room, the level of the music, and how to get to the firearm in the adjoining office and take a defensive position. Of course, it wasn’t just advice I gave, but Carlini actually simulated a break-in and tried to attack them as they were working out; one turn at a time.

One of the girls, once finished with her scenario, had an elevated heartbeat and she said, “It felt so real, and I was so scared.” Yet, despite the anxiety she put two 6mm projectiles into the chest of the “rapist” with the gas operated air gun we switched with the real one. In the morning, before the training, all real firearms were removed, a safety check given, and locked away.

The students then received more training, but this time they had to defend themselves in a confined area with stage blood all over their hands; just like real life. Three of them thought it was “cool,” but one of the daughters was a bit squeamish about the look and feel of the stage blood on her. When I finally gave her permission to wash it off, but not until we talked about preserving evidence and the importance of DNA, she was relieved and managed to take a five minute shower.

Carlini and I took them through the most effective kicks, knee strikes, and elbow strikes that they needed. While they were resting I went over all of the danger signs of dating violence and gave them some words of advice based on what I had seen as a police officer. I have arrested many men for hurting their wives and girlfriends, and I have had to get many women to the hospital to tend to their injuries and take a police report. I said to them, “If you see any of these warning signs you need to dump the guy, because he will make your life a living hell.”

At the end of the second day we ran through a final scenario in each one of their bedrooms. Each girl was in her bed “sleeping.” Suddenly an intruder was in the room trying to “rape” her. Each of the daughters did excellent, and all of them used either a knife or improvised weapon. I thought the youngest daughter was going to lose her fight, especially after the attacker blocked the big flashlight she was swinging and forced her on the bed, but she suddenly reached up and tore at his eyes with her fingernails. Fortunately for Carlini he had on a wrap around full face mask with a clear visor. I was proud of each one of them.

The mother was attacked while on her way to the bathroom. She had no idea the “rapist” was in her huge walk-in closet. He came up behind her and the fight ended up on the bathroom floor. She managed to grab a bottle and smash in on top of Carlini’s helmet several times. A better weapon had been by the bottle, a huge wooden hair brush with a point on the handle, but she confessed that she had severe tunnel vision, which is natural. She managed to escape from Carlini’s grip.

Of course, during the course each of the women lost one fight or another. I don’t believe in developing false confidence. I make them earn their victories. Life is not fair, and neither are my scenarios. I mirror reality.

At the end of the day I presented all of them a training certificate. “You have all earned your certificates with sweat, blood, even though it was artificial blood, and tears,” I told them like a drill sergeant. I was happy with my students and glad that I made them more aware of the dangerous world around them.

Carlini and I drove off and found a great Chinese restaurant and had a meal together before he headed back to New York City right across the Hudson River.

I don’t have a lot of time in my schedule for private lessons, but occasionally I do and I’ll squeeze in a family serious about self-defense. It’s not cheap, but then again, neither is life.