LesMills Fitness Goes Reality-Based
Jim Wagner
If you are in any quality fitness club in the world then your club most likely has the popular LesMills programs offered there every day of the week. That’s because LesMills is the largest fitness company in the world, with 14,000clubs in 80 countries, headquartered out of New Zealand, and they spend millions on original music scores, sports doctors developing the most efficient exercises and training methods to develop the human body, and an instructor program that is second to none. In France alone there are over 1,000 fitness clubs that offer LesMills programs like BODYPUMP, BODYPUMP, BODYJAM, and SH’BAM. It is therefore no surprise that Christophe Andanson, the Director of LesMills France, invited me to teach portions of the Reality-Based Personal Protection system at their annual Les Mills BOOTCAMP; for everything he does and provides for his instructors is top notch. CLICK HERE to see the Commando Bootcamp video and me teaching.
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Christophe Besse is one of the top LesMills fitness instructors in France, and he is an instructor of instructors. He also happens to be the Jim Wagner Reality-Based Personal Protection Director of France ever since he first studied under me in 2005. It was just a matter of time until the two organizations would find common ground.
Every year LesMills France offers a “boot camp” to their thousands of instructors in Pompadour, France located in the southwest part of the country, and the facility is provided through the prestigious resort company Club Med; again it’s only the best with LesMills. Wanting to offer their instructors some unique training and experiences, yet still related to fitness, in recent years Christophe Andanson started inviting some of the top French martial arts instructors to teach his fitness instructors their craft: Bertrand Amoussou for Mixed Martial Arts, Christophe Pinna for kick boxing, and Sylvain Clamon for Krav Maga. When Christophe Besse told Christophe Andanson that the Reality-Based Personal Protection is the most complete self-defense system that deals with today’s crime and terrorism, and a system that thousands of police officers, military personnel, and security professionals rely upon, the decision was made to invite me over to teach a few courses. However, not just one the civilian side of the house called Combat Bootcamp, but on the military side as well called Commando Bootcamp; it is run by a group of former French commandos and other military personnel. To be invited to teach for both boot camps was a double honor.
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The days I was scheduled to teach was May 20, 21, and 22. I arrived in Paris four days before teaching for LesMills France, but that time was best spent teaching my three-day KNIFE CAMP at the Progress Form Fitness Club, and yes they offer all of the LesMills fitness programs there. This seminar was a huge success, and I had the privilege of certifying more French instructors into the RBPP system. Of course, Christophe Besse, my protégé, was there to assist me, and like always did a fantastic job. Some students who had little to no martial arts training in the past were amazed at how proficient they became at not only learning how to survive full speed, unpredictable knife attacks, but how to use edged weapons themselves should they ever have to pick up such a tool for their own defense. To celebrate the end of the seminar Christophe and I went to the center of Paris, to Boulevard Saint Michel, and had ourselves a delicious Moroccan dinner and a sugar crepe at a nearby Creperie not far from the ancient Notre Dame cathedral.
The first course I taught in Pompadour was a condensed version of Knife Survival in the morning to the Combat Bootcamp students, all wearing standard fitness clothing and conducted in a fitness, and Ground Survival to the Commando Bootcamp students in the afternoon dressed in military fatigues and rolling around in a huge “sand box;” an equestrian building turned military terrain. Right away the Commando instructors liked what I taught their students and took a liking to me. Because these men were truly “quiet professionals” (those who are willing to learn from any source to improve their own skills), and there were no egos involved, they invited me to their training sessions. Whenever I had the chance I’d watch them in action and as a result I learned a few new things from them that I am placing into the Jim Wagner Reality-Based Personal Protection system.
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The great thing about working at Club Med is not only the surrounding fields and forest, but breakfast, lunch, and dinner. If you can imagine the best French chefs, a buffet selection with too many choices, and fine wine and deserts, then you’ve come close to the pampering that students and instructors alike received.
On the evening of May 20th Club Med provided a medieval-style circus show with dancers, acrobats, and at the same time had a contemporary rock-and-roll hard edge to it. The show was quite entertaining, and a great way to end the evening.
The next day was quiet exciting. The commando instructors picked me up in a large covered cargo truck and the four of us stuffed into the cab. Once we got close to our destination the three men dawned on their ski masks, and we pulled up to a group of 30 students who were being held hostage by several commandos threatening them with their automatic realistic-looking Airsoft rifles. When we stopped the sliding door in the back went up and we piled out. The commandos started yelling at the anxious students in French, “Montez! Montez!” – Get in! Get in! For those who were slow in hoping into the dark mobile box, and who wouldn’t be, they were nudged in the back with the muzzle of a rifle along with a few additional harsh words. After everyone was loaded into the back of the truck like cattle, and the door closed on them with a CLANK!, we drove around for several minutes so that the “prisoners of war” had a feeling that they were being taken to a remote location; it seemed far to them, but we just drove around for a while on the compound.
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When we arrived at the “sand box” everyone was ordered out, “Descend! Maintenant!” – Get out! Now! As quick as they hoped out the group of soldiers waiting for them ran them several meters, forced them onto the ground on their chests, and began to duct tape their hands and blind fold them. Although President Barak Obama may have outlawed torture and waterboarding for American military personnel, it didn’t apply to these soldiers playing the role of a generic enemy. The students, “the good guys,” were in the hands of those who didn’t care about international law, and it was their job to give them a little taste of the stress that one would actually face if taken prisoner by an opposing force.
The Commando Bootcamp instructors did an excellent job simulating the stress of captivity without actually hurting someone. Not one student complained about the treatment, although one man did try to escape and made a run for it. He was not successful and the instructors tackled him just 10 meters later and slapped him around a bit as they had him pinned to the ground. Had it been a real failed escape he would have received a bullet in the head so he would never do it again. Of course, none of the other students saw it because they were all blindfolded in their own individual darkness.
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The group was then huddled together and forced on their knees. The surrounding instructors threw a smoke bomb near them, fired off a few rounds of Airsoft, and disappeared with three hostages plucked from the group. After a couple minutes of silence a few brave souls pulled their hands free from the sticky duct tape and removed their blindfolds. They alerted the others that the “enemy” had left them unattended. It took them a while to realize that a few of their colleagues were missing.
Once the group made their way into a safe location, in the pouring rain, the instructors marched them into a classroom and gave them a briefing. Their mission was to rescue the three hostages that had been taken by the enemy raid. About an hour into the realistic scenario I had to go teach another class.
On my final day I taught the Combat Bootcamp students how to do gun disarms and how to survive a shooting; such as a school shooting or office massacre. A lot of students came up to me afterword and informed me that I had “opened their eyes” to the kind of violence that they could possibly face, and were grateful for the life saving techniques I had taught them. Suddenly being physically fit brought on a whole new meaning.
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My last course was with the Commando Bootcamp students, and for them I taught a KNIFE COMBAT courses. Krav Maga instructor Sylvain, who by this time had become my friend and someone I respected tremendously for his warrior ways, said to me, “Jim, I have never seen knife training like this before. It is really incredible. I definitely would like to come to your Level 1 training in Paris in August.” I then explained to Slylvain that although Krav Maga in general is a great fighting system it was the Israeli military and police that invited me to Israel to teach their top instructors because my knife system was “more realistic and effective.” It was in 2001 that I was first invited to Israel by Major Avi Nardia, and where I also met Chaim Pe’er, Dennis Hannover, and Moni Aizik; soon to be known outside of Israel because I wrote the first articles about them outside of Israel. Like I said before, these French commandos were “quiet professionals,” and Sylvain didn’t hesitate to tell me that in all his years of training and teaching that I had something he needed in his own arsenal. Believe me, when he comes to my five courses in Paris I’m going to “pick his brains” as well, because he is a wealth of knowledge and I like the way he explains Krav Maga techniques; after all, the whole philosophy of Krav Maga, much like Bruce Lee’s Jeet Kune Do that I also studied, is to take what works from every system and reject those things that do not.
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I drove down to Pompadour with Christophe Besse, but he had to remain for another five days to teach several fitness courses. He therefore let me have the keys to his car and said, “Take my car, take your time driving up to Paris and see the sights, and you can stay at my home until you are ready to go.” I did just that.
Before leaving Club Med I found a quaint bed and breakfast in a book. The place was called the Domaine de Vilotte, and I made reservations. My goal was to drive about half way to Paris, get some rest, and the next morning visit the beautiful Borges Cathedral and nearby historical museum called the Musee du Berry; the museum is part of my research of human conflict.
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When I arrived at my B&B the host, Jacques Champenier, and his wife offered me a glass of wine out on the terrace to go with the fresh salami, Camembert cheese, and baguette bread I had brought with me. I wanted to arrive there before sunset, and I did, and I knew that I had no time to stop at a restaurant and eat.
After a good night sleep, and a delightful conversation about the French Resistance of World War II with another guest at breakfast, I hoped into Christophe’s car and drove up to the city of Borges; my first visit there. I was not disappointed with the cathedral or the museum. About 11:30 at night I finally pulled into Christophe’s garage in a suburb just outside of Paris.
This trip gave me the opportunity to work with LesMills France, and organization which impressed me immensely, meet my gracious host Christophe Andanson, and to stay at a Club Med facility, which was very comfortable indeed; especially since I chose not to sleep out on the mud in the forest in constant rain like the Commando Bootcamp students did (I’ve done that plenty enough in military and civilian wilderness survival courses, and I wasn’t going to waste a perfectly good room – ha!). Miraculously, the three days of rain stopped long enough for me to enjoy my trip back to Paris.
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Teaching In The Roughest City In Belgium
Jim Wagner
I had just arrived in Paris after teaching for LesMills France, and I had one day to kill before Nicolas Marucci, the Reality-Based Personal Protection Director of Belgium, came to pick me up and take me back with him to Charleroi, Belgium in order for me to teach my 8-hour Ground Survival course. For my day off in Paris I wanted to visit the Musee D’Orsay, however the rain was coming down so hard, and the traffic was so bad, that most of my time was wasted just getting into the city and finding a parking place. The relentless rain and freezing cold masked spring making it feel and look like the middle of winter. This combination made for a miserable time.
Not too far from the Louvre Palace I grabbed a bite to eat and a hot waffle. I walked around for a bit with my jacket collar turned up and my baseball cap repelling the rain drops, but once the cold penetrated the bones I called it a day and headed back to Christophe’s warm home.
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The next morning Nicolas picked me up just before lunch time. Once we were out on the highway we stopped along the highway and had a decent meal. The trip to Charleroi took three and a half hours. After throwing my bags into my hotel room, and resting for a couple of hours Nicolas picked me up and took me to a Chinese restaurant to feast from their buffet.
The next morning, Sunday, May 26, Nicolas swung by the hotel, I met him at the entrance, and he drove me to the training hall, which is the Panthers Sport owned and operated by Laurent Porigneaux. This is the second time I have taught in his school.
I warned my Ground Survival students right from the start, “This is not sport-based ground fighting. Everything we’re going to do is tactical. It’s for saving your life, not making someone tap out.”
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During the first break one of my students, “Julien,” came up to me and told me that a few months ago he drove down to southern France to attend a three-day ICCS Krav Maga (Israeli Contact Combat System) course from a well-known French Krav Maga instructor. The night before the training, when he was meeting with the instructor, he mentioned in conversation that he had taken a Reality-Based Personal Protection Knife Survival course from me a couple years back. This well-known instructor said, and I am paraphrasing and translating it from French to English, “Jim Wagner is no good, and he doesn’t know what he is doing.”
“Julien” said to him, “I took his Knife Survival course in Charleroi and it was great; very realistic.” This instructor tried to change my student’s opinion about me and insisted that what I taught was pure rubbish. My student realized that this instructor, an instructor who has never met me and obviously didn’t know about my extensive history training elite units worldwide, including Israeli police and military units, was going to stick to his opinion despite his ignorance, and so he decided to change the subject rather than fight with my student. Not long afterward in the conversation this same instructor started criticizing Avi Nardia and the KAPAP system he teaches. Of course, I was a bit perturbed at this instructor’s insults on me and my friend Avi, but after rumors have spread about me for years, stemming from my unscrupulous competitors, I have become quite accustom to such comments. There is an old German saying that goes something like this, “Wer flüstert, der lügt” – Who whispers, lies. For anyone who has been in my system long enough they end up hearing or reading attacks against me; not against the techniques and training methods I teach or they’d have to call a lot of units idiots (like counterterrorist team GSG9, the FBI, Israeli police & military, the U.S. Secret Service, Brazilian G.A.T.E., Argentinean G.O.E., and the list goes on), and so they attack my character and say that I have lied about my background: I was never a sergeant, I never went to a real police academy, I was never a counterterrorist, blah, blah, blah.
Well, despite what this well-known French Krav Maga instructor had to say about me, my student “Julien” was back to learn Ground Survival from me, and the course was a good one. Of course, Nicolas Marucci assisted me in teaching the course, and his input is always appreciated. After serving in the military for years, and even up to this very day, he has worked high risk security jobs, and his life and death experiences is quite evident in his no-nonsense approach to teaching. it’s because of his real world background that he has chosen Reality-Based Personal Protection as his self-defense system.
Unfortunately, Nicolas and I could not spend any extra time together, for we both like visiting battlefields and military museums (the last time I taught in Charleroi we drove to Waterloo where Napoleon Bonaparte was defeated) , but he was nice enough to drive me to Solingen, Germany where I had to teach five more courses at my European Headquarters. This was a three-hour drive, and one he has taken many times to help me with my courses. However, Nicolas only stayed about an hour and then headed back to Charleroi.
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Another French School Using the Reality-Based Impact Head
Jim Wagner
I was the first martial arts instructor to introduce the revolutionary Reality-Based Impact Head to Europe, and yet another school in France has made the switch and are using it for developing head strikes. That school is the NBJS Paris 13: Traditional Japanese Martial Arts Club taught by Frederic Garcia.
Frederic Garcia is one of my Reality-Based Personal Protection LEVEL 1 and KNIFE SURVIVAL instructors that I certified in August of 2012 and this time around in my Paris Knife Camp taught May 16-18, 2013, and he has introduced Reality-Based techniques and training methods in his club. He also saw the value in using the Reality-Based Impact Head so that his students were developing their punches to be used against real human heads and not develop the false sense of security that a round, flat, soft leather focus glove gives.
Shortly after Knife Camp Frederic contacted me to let me know he was training with the Reality-Based Impact head and sent me a few photos taken in one of his classes. He also wrote me, "The Knife Camp seminar is one of the best training sessions I ever took and your system is really 'reality-based' for real situations and real violence. I've attended a lot of seminars before, with a lot of different experts, but your system is really different."
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