First Reality-Based courses of 2012
Jim Wagner
After working on a few videos for my You Tube channel, writing several articles, and getting some of my military obligations (like qualifying at EXPERT level with the M9 pistol, which is a yearly requirement) out of the way I finally taught my first courses of the year at the Jim Wagner Reality-Based Personal Protection School in Solingen, Germany. During my eight straight days of training I had the opportunity to train some high-speed operators, and then I flew back home with a wealth of knowledge myself.
On March 19 th I began the year with the 8-hour Defensive Tactics course, which is the first of five courses for Level 1 of the Jim Wagner Reality-Based Personal Protection system (Defensive Tactics, Ground Survival, Knife Survival, Crime Survival, and Terrorism Survival). In my five-day seminar was a member of the Bundespolitzei (German Federal Police) who was in my course. The German government often sends operators to my courses for various reasons. This particular man would prove valuable to increasing my conflict first aid knowledge, and then two days later in my Knife Survival course. For the sake of this article I will refer to him as "Hans."
|
I knew Hans' background before the course started, which included serving with Germany's top counterterrorist team GSG9, and I knew about the current research he was doing for the government. I therefore said to him, "Please, if you have anything you'd like to add to the course feel free to jump in and share it." Hans took me up on my offer and shared with me and the entire class the "Credit Card Check" technique. For pre hospital trauma (shootings, knife injuries, and explosions) the German army is using a technique called the Credit Card Check, and from what I understand the British military as well. Often times during a pat down assessment of a casualty the anus is not checked for an injury, or signs of a life threatening injury. Perhaps it is because people are uncomfortable checking this very private area, just like many police officers fail to do an adequate groin search and many times miss a concealed weapon because of their squeamishness. When checking the casualty for injuries around the anus the examining first aid giver needs to use the knife edge of their hand and run it through the butt crack making sure that contact is made with the entire surface area in between the buttocks. Blood found in this area indicates internal injury or an actual injury to the anus or surrounding area. Feces found during the Credit Card Check may indicate a spinal cord injury.
Since the founding of the Reality-Based Personal Protection system on January 21, 2003 Ive been teaching my students a head-to-toe squeeze pat down to check for injuries (self-triage as well as victim triage). RBPP is the first civilian self-defense system to include conflict first aid, although I have included such training for civilian self-defense training since 1987, and have the documentation to prove it. In 2011 I introduced even more conflict first aid procedures and victim evacuation in other Level 1 and Level 2 courses as well. Last year I named this discipline of training Martial Arts Conflict Casualty Care (MACC). Almost simultaneously, and obviously influencing the direction I was taking, over the past year I have been teaching military courses to the United States Army Reserve and Army National Guard (specifically Improvised Explosive Device detection at a Military Operations Urban Terrain facility in Southern California) and attending Tactical Combat Casualty Care courses. Just recently I was just getting educated on battlefield pelvic injuries, and my recent contact with Hans immediately made me realize that I had to now start teaching the Credit Card Check as part of the curriculum.
The project that Hans is working on is for a European Tactical Medical Rapid Response Team that can be sent anywhere in the world instantly after a terrorist attack. Currently the best tactical medical techniques, and counterterrorism techniques, are being reviewed and tested. Hans is looking at incorporating some of my techniques and training methods into the program.
Another golden tidbit that I picked up from Hans came when I was teaching my Ground Survival course. In this course I teach a section called Perceptual Distortion in Conflict, which also deals with the psychological phenomena known as "tunnel vision." I was talking about firearms training and Hans locked onto the theme quickly using one of my own examples.
When I am instructing people how to properly shoot firearms in self-defense situations I always give the command after the target has been engaged, "Scan left and right! Look for other people to shoot!" Of course, when I use the word "people" I mean criminals and terrorists. I teach common police and military firearms procedures.
After a shooting most people tend to lock onto the target they just shot and forget that there may be other people who may still be a danger to them, and which they may have to engage as well. In firearms training it is vital that after a target has been fired upon with sufficient rounds that the shooter redirects their focus to other possible targets. To stay with one target too long may mean missing other imminent threats. To break this habit an instructor has to constantly reinforce scanning. Hans told me that he believes that the command to scan after shooting a target in training has a second function that goes beyond efficient target engagement. He told me and the class, "I believe a second reason we tell firearms students to scan left and right is to also reinforce in them the ability to break away from tunnel vision." I had never thought about it quite like that before, but he was absolutely right. Tunnel vision, and other perceptual distortions in conflict, is always a hindrance in conflict. Of course tunnel vision is the phenomena of not seeing everything in a sight picture. In conflict the mind tends to restrict itself to a very narrow field of vision, and only through a lot of realistic training and real-world experiences does the tunnel "open up" a little wider. It never completely goes away in physical conflict, but the field of vision can be enlarged. The command to look left and right after engaging a target in training is a "jump command" that will be remembered in a real encounter through repetition.
|
Of course, I had other great guys in the Level 1 courses as well that helped contribute to the positive learning atmosphere that we all experienced from the first day to the last. The German Army Military Police (Feldjager) instructors, all of whom have taken my system and teach many of my techniques to the Military Police Corps, recommended my course to a German Army officer who showed up for all week. Not only was he a disciplined hard-core solider, but one of the best fighters in the course. He was a tough opponent for everyone in the course, but well-tempered; truly a "quiet professional."
Michalis "Mike" Kidonis came all the way from northern Greece to attend Level 1. Although he is not the first Greek to be instructor certified by me, he is the first who does not mind that his name is made public; in fact, he wants it to be known because he runs a martial arts school and shop called XVENTURE in Thessaloniki, Greece and wants everyone to know that he is now teaching the Jim Wagner Reality-Based system and selling Boker knives, including the Jim Wagner Reality Based Blade series. Although Greece is going though some pretty tough economic times right now Mike paid the 1000 euro for the week of training and feels that teaching Reality-Based Personal Protection will increase his student base, especially since every week sees sky rocketing crime rates across the country. Mike told me that people are worried about the future and the number one selling item in his shop, and around Greece in general, are machetes. People are buying lots of machetes. Jorg Kuschel and Manfred Hollmann also could not resist taking more Reality-Based courses. Jorg runs a very successful martial arts school not far from Cologne called Kenju-ryu; a traditional-based school. He and Manfred took attended Knife Camp back in November 2011, along with Ajeeth Sivanayagam, and their goal is to all be certified in all courses in the Jim Wagner Reality-Based Personal Protection system. As I was teaching my courses, getting ever so closer to my Terrorism Survival course on Friday, March 24th, France was having one terrorist attack after another. Three French soldiers were gunned down, three school girls and a teacher in another shooting, and a bomb went off at the Indonesian Embassy in Paris.
The terrorist was Mohamed Merah who killed 3 French soldiers who were off base. Interesting enough, all three of the soldiers were Muslim. After three French soldiers were gunned down in cold blood on March 11 and 15 by Al Qaeda trained terrorist Mohamed Merah, the French government ordered that unarmed soldiers going off base were not to wear their military uniform. Immediately after I heard this news I posted a warning on my Facebook (jimwagnerrbpp) giving this warning to all of my many friends who are soldiers in many different armies:
Over the past few years unarmed uniformed soldiers have been targeted by terrorists in the United States, Germany, and now France.
If you are a Western nation soldier, and there are many military personnel in my system around the world, you should take care to hide your identity, especially by not wearing your uniform in public. Don’t wait for orders to come down from you chain of command. Be responsible for your own safety and security now.
As a civilian police officer for many years I have always taken great care not to let my neighbors know that I was a police officer. If I had my uniform on, and I was leaving the house, I would always cover the top of my uniform with a jacket in winter and a light wind breaker in the warmer months. Once I got into the police station I took it off. I didn't want to be targeted by criminals. Likewise, when I am driving to and from my military based I have been doing the same for just over a year now and have advised my fellow soldiers the same. I don’t want to be targeted by terrorists.
On March 22, the night before my Terrorism Survival course, the French police killed Mohamed Merah in a shootout. He had barricaded himself in an apartment in Toulouse for 32 hours and swore that he would die fighting. He did what he said he would do and indeed died with a gun in his hand when he was shot to death by an elite counterterrorist team. Merah was a French citizen who had traveled to Pakistan and Afghanistan to attend an Al Qaeda training camp. He had been on French "radar" for years, and was even on a no fly list. French President Nicolas Sarkozy called him "a monster."
A few days later Merah's brother was taken into custody believed to have helped plot the murders.
Merah murdered three French soldiers, three school children, and a school teacher. He most likely killed the children and teaching simply because they were Jewish. Those killings took place outside of a Jewish school.
|
In the morning when I started my Terrorism Survival course the French terrorist attacks was on everybody's mind. I said to my students there in Germany, "How many self-defense schools are teaching their students how to survive terrorist attacks? Virtually none. I've been teaching this course since 2003, only two years after the attacks on 9/11, and still you can't find any courses like this offered to civilians. Why is this? Because the instructor have to know all about terrorism, and most civilians just don’t have that kind of background. It's a real specialty. However, I'm going to show you that with the right guidance you can teach others the basics on surviving a wide variety of terrorist attacks. Learning the techniques are no more difficult than learning how to defend yourself against a knife attack or a gang attack."
Just like many students I have taught before them, this group of students learned fast. One of the first things I do in this course is to let the students experience a realistic terrorist attack. We don’t use real firearms, of course, but we have some high-end metal Airsoft rifles, and the moment you get shot with one of those 6mm plastic projectiles you suck a little wind in pain. Pain is a good teacher, especially when learning cover and concealment. I also want my students to "walk in the shoes of the terrorist" to know the mentality of a terrorist and the dynamics of a massacre; be it a school shooting, office massacre, or full-blown terrorist attack at a train station or airport. My first "good guys gone bad" was Hans, the former counterterrorist operator and the German Army officer who had just got back from a tour in Afghanistan. Both of them told me it was quite an eye-opener to be playing the role of terrorist, and gave them some new insights into the terrorist mindset. In fact, all of the students told me that it was an education they had never received before. Of course, I don’t just have my students go in blasting away, me and my Reality-Based Director of German Speaking Countries, Tobias Leckebusch, give them some instructions and training before they do their first "terrorist mission." More important, I have to coach the victims on their roles so that they will behave just like average people caught in an attack. This particular scenario training is not for the benefit of those being attacked, but the training is for those playing the role of terrorist. The famous Chinese General Sun Tzu said, "Know your enemy," and that's exactly what I set out to do for my students based upon my counterterrorism training and experience.
And, speaking of France and the recent terrorism, I will be teaching my Level 1 courses, including Terrorism Survival, July 30 to August 3 at the University of Paris X, Nanterre, in Paris. Despite the recent terrorist attacks in France I don't expect any additional students than normal to sign up for the course. Most people don’t think crime or terrorism will ever happen to them. It’s always, "It will happen to someone else, but not me." Statistically, very few people actually study the martial arts, and even fewer study real self-defense. Of those that go into the martial arts the majority choose the traditional-based or sport-based martial arts from the three major branches; the third branch is reality-based. Then, out of those wanting to learn real self-defense most don't want to know how to survive a gun attack, chemical attack, or explosive attack. It's too scary for them to think about. If they can get through an unarmed bar fight, or even learn a couple knife and gun take-aways, then they are more than happy. It's a nice false sense of security. Violent crime and terrorism seems so far removed from their own "reality." We'll let's just hope it stays that way. As a police officer I have stood over the bodies of people who probably thought that they were immune from violence that resulted in their death. Exploring this mentality a little deeper, it's also like those who have never been in a bad car accident before. They tend to forget just how dangerous driving can be when they are out and about in their car. After a close call or a bad accident these people tend to drive much more defensively and have a keener awareness while on the road. Actually having it happen to you tends to "wake" you up.
|
KNIFE CAMP produces new European instructors
Jim Wagner
Knife Camp is four courses: Knife Survival, Knife Expert, Tactical Knife, and Knife Instructor. Students can sign up for just Knife Survival to learn the basics of surviving a knife attack, or learning how to use edged weapons, or they can continue their education and go all the way up to instructor level. The Tactical Knife course is RESTRICTED to government agents only: police, corrections, and NATO military. Knife Camp always falls on a weekend, and Knife Instructor is all day Monday.
|
Like Level 1 the week before, I had a lot of motivated people in my courses. One of them was, we will call him "Peter," for security reasons. Peter is on an elite police protective services detail that protects Germany's Attorney General (Generalbundesanwalt); the top law enforcement official of the Republic of Germany. This unit is also responsible for protecting Germany’s Supreme Court Judge (there is only one judge for this position, unlike the United States with nine judges all with an equal say).
Peter has wanted to take my courses for some time, but he finally had the opportunity to attend all of Knife Camp and become a certified instructor. He is soon to become the top defensive tactics trainer of the unit, and he plans on incorporating much of what I taught him into his unit's curriculum. I also gave him some private instructions, "off the clock" in gun attacks, chemical attacks, and line greeting situations. I was happy to give him several techniques and training methods he had not seen before. Of course, I stay current on protective services tactics because I still train many bodyguards (on November 3, 2011 I trained Bulgaria's Presidential Protection Detail). Of course, teaching is a two-way street, and I always pick up a few new pointers myself when I am training new teams or operators.
Another one of my students was Bas Buisman from the Netherlands. He is a ninja. That's right, a ninja. Well, a ninjutsu practitioner anyway. He has studied the ancient Japanese assassin art for years and decided it was time to learn the modern system of Reality-Based Personal Protection. He told me, "I've always tried to incorporate realistic techniques into both my ninjutsu and my street boxing, and your system nothing but realistic techniques."
I asked Bas, whos English is so good you would think that he were a North American, if he would do me a favor. I told him that I wanted to take advantage of his traditional-based knowledge and asked him if he would perform a ninjutsu sword kata for me as I videotape it. "Oh my gosh, Jim Wagner wants to learn a kata," some of my enemies must be saying out loud right now. "I thought he hated the traditional martial arts, and especially katas?"
"No, not at all. I love the traditional-based martial arts, just not for real self-defense training," is my answer. The kata is not for me, but for my 9-year-old nephew Gary who is studying traditional karate now, and which I fully support and encourage. For the past couple of years he has been competing in karate tournaments and has won a few trophies in empty-hand kata and one-point sparring. Next February I want him to start entering into weapons kata competition and I told him that I thought that the sword would be the perfect weapon to start with. Gary was all for my suggestion, and I told him that I would find him a good sword kata. I had a couple of friends that I knew could help me in Germany. Little did I know at that time that I would be running into Bas at one of my seminars.
|
After teaching my Knife Instructor course on Monday, March 26th I got a bite to eat for dinner, packed my bags, and the next morning bright and early I went to the airport to catch a flight home back to California. Normally I really miss the warm sunny weather at home, but most of my 12 days in Germany had beautiful weather just like SoCal. For all but two days there was a high pressure bubble sitting over most of Germany and Austria. It was very pleasant. My students always took advantage of the unusually warm weather at every break and lunch time, and when I passed them by outside they always looked like a bunch of lizards sunning themselves on rocks, only in this case it was park benches outside of my building.
I will be returning to Germany next month to teach several more courses at my school: Knife Camp again May 5 to 7, Special Operations for police and NATO personnel only on Tuesday May 8, Pocket Stick & Tactical Pen, Urban Survival on Thursday which teaches people how to survive in the event of a natural disaster, war, or civil unrest, and Cyber Survival on Friday May 11th which is a must to protect your computer information and prevent identity theft or worse – cyber predators going after your children or loved ones.
|
|
|
