On The Cover Of Budo Magazine
Jim Wagner
It is always an honor to be on the cover of a martial arts magazine, especially since there are thousands of good martial artists worldwide. On a monthly magazine there are only 12 opportunities to be on the cover. This month Budo magazine placed me on the front cover of their magazine, which is also an eMagazine. The cover title is Sergeant Jim Wagner: Realistic Ground Fighting, and the article is titled GROUND ATTACKS.
Several months ago I was in Madrid, Spain working with publisher Alfredo Tucci. Not only did we do the photo shoot for the article, but we also had a video taping session for my new DVD also titled GROUND ATTACKS. This new DVD is anything but sport-based or traditional-based ground fighting.
To read the article CLICK HERE.
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Reality-Based Promoted by Black Belt Magazine
Jim Wagner
Black Belt magazine (Black Belt Books/Ohara Publications) just came out with a new book titled The Ultimate Guide to Reality-Based Self-Defense. I am one of seven instructors who contributed to this book and my photo, along with my good friend Frank Mayson who I have in a choke hold, appear on the front cover. The six other experts who contributed to this book was knife expert Michael Janich, Tony Blauer, Mike Lee Kanarek, Richard Ryan, Kelly McCann, and John Pellegrini. Of this list the only person I have not had the pleasure of meeting was Kelly McCann. All of them are top notch instructors.
Just the fact that Black Belt magazine, and other martial arts magazines around the world, keep using the term I coined back in 2003, namely “reality-based self-defense,” shows that the term is here to stay. When I was writing my monthly column for Black Belt magazine called HIGH RISK, from 1999 to 2010, I wrote that the martial arts had separated into three different branches: traditional-based, sport-based, and reality-based. I also used the term “reality-based self-defense” over and over in my articles and DVDs. However, I did not want to trade mark the term, although Black Belt magazine asked me if I wanted to, and I just replied, “No, I want people to use that term to describe our type of martial arts. I will, however, use the term ‘Reality-Based Personal Protection’ as the name for my own system.” I created RBPP in 2003. Even World Wide Dojo, one of the most popular martial arts websites in the world, has their website broke down into the three major branches of the martial arts, with the addition of Martial Arts Entertainment.
My section is titled GROUND SURVIVAL: Essential Component of Reality-Based Personal Protection. The book is a nice full-color, glossy, 127 pages, large format book. I highly recommend this book, and you can buy it from Black Belt magazine.
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Reality-Based On Swedish Television
Jim Wagner
YouTube is a great medium for Reality-Based students and instructors, and now on jimwagnerrbpp there are three different clips of me teaching Reality-Based Personal Protection on Swedish television. One video clip is from the show Rallarsving (in English it means “sucker punch.” It was taped in 2005 with Swedish T.V. personality Musse Hasselvall. This was taped in my old school I used to have in Southern California where my system first began in 2003. Since 2006 my new school has been located located in Solingen, Germany.
There are also two episodes of Yippe Ki-Yay by Nordisk Film TV that was taped in Stockholm, Sweden in 2007. I did a whole season of shows, and Peter Falk, the Reality-Based Personal Protection Director for the Nordic countries, appears in each show with me. Eventually we will have all the episodes up on YouTube. Musse Hasselvall is also the host of this popular television show along with Jarmo Ek.
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Book Review: The Warrior Elite
Jim Wagner
I just finished with this excellent book written by Dick
Couch, which is about the complete training of the U.S. Navy SEALs. More
specifically, it is all about SEAL Class 228 going through the six month BUD/S
(Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL) training in Coronado, California.
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Although I never trained with the Navy SEALs I did help set
up an advanced sniper course for the SEALs several years ago at Marine Corps
Base Camp Pendleton when I was teaching there on the MAC live-fire ranges. I
did, however, get a lot of maritime operations training from a variety of US
Navy, US Marines, and US Coast Guard instructors in the Port of Los Angles; as
well as the Los Angeles Port Police. My training included Ship Interdiction,
Boat Interdiction, Gas & Oil Platform Interdiction, Combat Swimmer, Search
& Recovery, and tactical SCUBA training (underwater hull inspections,
underwater navigation, reconnaissance, basic squad tactics, ditch-and-don of
equipment while underwater, infiltration, and many other skills). Although I
have received similar training to that of the SEALs, I can tell you one thing
based upon my own training, and that is that I could have never become a US
Navy SEAL; not even in the prime of my youth. After talking with SEALs who have
taken my Reality-Based Personal Protection courses and reading several books on
this super elite unit, I just did not have the endurance that these elite
warriors have. For one thing, I could not take the cold that these men endure
during BUD/S training. Cold really gets to me. I got a good taste of it during
some maritime training with my US Marine instructors, and the cold was hard to
deal with. I remember Sergeant Ortega looking down at my training unit as we
were bobbing in the water, after being in the cold water for a few hours, and
he said, “You guys can climb up the ladder onto the pier or you can swim the 40
yards back to shore.” A few of us tried to climb the ladder, but our energy was
almost completely spent. We all decided that we would swim back since are arms
felt like wet noodles void of any strength. I know for a fact that my training
was nothing compared to those who go through BUD/S. So, needless to say, I have
tremendous respect for the men who serve on America’s SEAL teams. And, it was
the Navy SEALs who got rid of the world’s number one terrorist – Osama Bin
Laden.
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