Reality-Based spreads rapidly in Europe
Jim Wagner
I just got back home to Los Angeles after three weeks in Europe. The Reality-Based Personal Protection system is spreading rapidly throughout the European Union, and just recently in Holland and Germany. The future possibilities there are limitless.
I arrived in Amsterdam Airport Schiphol on March 28th and waiting there to pick me up was the Reality-Based Personal Protection director of The Netherlands Mike Constantinides. Before our Level 1 courses began Mike showed me around for a couple of days hitting the big tourist spots: windmills, cheese factories, and the canals of downtown Amsterdam.
Whenever I am in an international city I always make it a point to do something cultural. In Amsterdam I visited the Rijks Museum (http://www.rijksmuseum.nl) to view paintings from the famous Dutch painter Rembrant van Rijn (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rembrant).
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On Friday the 30th we filmed my next DVD titled Doorman Defensive Tactics at Mike’s new Reality-Based Personal Protection facility located in Huizen (20 minutes south of Amsterdam). Several of Mike’s students helped with the project playing various hostile subjects. The DVD will be edited in early summer and be available soon after. Mike Constantinides was a doorman for 10 years working at clubs throughout London. As a police officer I have worked with many doormen over the years, and as a Reality-Based instructor I have many doormen coming to me for their training both in the United States and Europe. Just recently I myself was a doorman working the Golden Globes Awards 2006 pre-event party a few months ago in Hollywood. I was part of an overall private security team providing protection for the movie starts that were there that night, but I also had to rotate in and work the door as well.
The next day we drove into Germany to meet up with my Reality-Based Personal Protection Director of Germany Dietmar Pohl, and to settle into my hotel room where I was to stay for nine days. The reason I was there was to teach three seminars. My first seminar was Knife Survival on Saturday, April 1st at the Boker world headquarters facility in Solingen, Germany. Boker is the company manufacturing the Jim Wagner Reality Based Blade – a tactical folding knife I designed (http://www.boker.de). The course was a hit with the Germans, and a good sign for the following weeks.
On Sunday Dietmar and I hired photographer Frank Karl Soens (http://www.franksoens.de), who is our official Reality-Based photographer in Germany, to shoot the photographs for our new book Knife Defense which we are co-authoring. Dietmar is writing the first half of the book dealing with the technical aspects of self-defense knives and I am writing the second half of the book covering the tactical side. In my section we include step-by-step knife techniques. The book will include a German language version and an English language version.
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On Monday I started my first official Level 1 seminar in Germany. Although I had been to Germany several times before to teach the German police, GSG9, and German Special Forces, this marked my second trip to teach my civilian Reality-Based Personal Protection courses.
The response to my seminar was incredible. People from all over Germany drove to Solingen to be a part of this martial arts history, and even two major German magazines dropped in to cover the story: Waffen Journal (www.dwj.de), and the gun magazine Caliber (www.caiber.de).
Of course, the Boker facility was a great training location. Every day we had a large clean room to train in stocked with bottled water, and we were right across the street from a couple of good restaurants.
During the Knife Survival seminar students had a chance to learn how to defend themselves in a simulated knife attack in an industrial metal elevator, using stage blood, for their confined space training.
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On Thursday, in the Crime Survival course, we tested out our new High Gear protective suits (www.tonyblauer.com) supplied to me personally by Tony Blauer. Tony and I met a little over a month ago to discuss using his products for my worldwide Reality-Based Personal Protection courses and possibly doing a joint seminar together in the near future. With very little time Tony made sure that four suits arrived in Germany for our photo shoot and the Level 1 seminar. We are still in the testing phase of our agreement, and I’ll give you a full report in an upcoming Hard Target issue.
On Friday it was a day of Terrorism Survival. Over the past few years many al Qaeda terrorists have been arrested in Germany by the authorities before they had a chance to carry out more destruction upon European and American targets. Thus, in Germany terrorism is very much a real concern for many. The Boker facility was once again an ideal environment to train in. Although there are a lot of walled-in open spaces around the facility the weather was a bit too cold to take advantage of the outside training areas. It rained a few of the days that we were training, and even snowed for a few hours in the middle of the week. Of course, April weather in Germany is like that. The sun did manage to break through a few times, but still with a biting cold. So, instead we were able to use the huge open areas inside the facility. We were able to accurately simulate sniper survival tactics using air guns. Then when it came time for bomb searches the students had a realistic environment.
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After the Terrorism Survival course ended on Friday Germany had several more Reality-Based instructors ready to spread their new knowledge throughout the country. However, half of my weekend was work and no play. The next day, Saturday, I had to teach another Knife Survival course. Then finally came a little welcomed rest and relaxation. Dietmar drove me over the Dutch-German border and Mike Constantinides picked me up on the Dutch side of the border. For Mike’s help with the book and the Knife Survival course the week before Dietmar presented Mike with a Boker tactical knife, an original Pohl design and Dietmar’s latest book Knifes of the German Special Forces; autographed of course. The next day was my day off, and I needed it after having an intense week with so many good martial artists, and some beginners.
That day Mike and I went to the infamous Red Light District – just to look! The area was just as I had imagined it – scantly clothed women in small shops along the narrow walkways enticing men from behind glass windows like animals in a pet shop seeking a new owner. There were small coffee shops selling hashish, and X-rated adult shops everywhere. As an American it was a bit bizarre for me to see such things in the wide open. As a cop in California I had arrested many prostitutes and those in possession of marijuana, but here it was perfectly legal. There was definitely a lot of “freedom” in this section of the city, but as one might imagine, no true happiness. Of course, the rest of Amsterdam, and Holland for that matter, is very tame and fairly conservative.
On Monday I was back at Mike’s Reality-Based training facility starting my first official Level 1 seminar in Holland – another first. My Dutch students came from all over Holland, and the response I got was, we have never seen anything like this before. Even the publisher, Erik Hein, of Holland’s number one martial arts magazine Mix Fight (www.topfight.com) came by to do a story on us and said to Mike Constantinides, “This is what Holland needs. This is going to be big here.” I also had a chance to talk with Erik during a couple of brakes, and I explained to Erik how the Reality-Based Personal Protection system is a “Dutch system,” and how my concepts of pre-conflict, conflict, and post-conflict were revolutionizing the martial arts. He told me, “I know. I have been following your work for years in Black Belt magazine (www.blackbeltmag.com) for years, and it is finally an honor to meet you.” Erik had just published an article about my friend Moni Aizik, and also mentioned me in the same article as “Guru Jim Wagner” (April/Mei 2006 COMBAT SURVIVAL: Nu Ook In Nederland!). I never thought of myself as a “Guru,” but the compliment shows me just how fast Reality-Based Personal Protection has come since I first introduced the system to civilians on January 21, 2003 – just a mere 3 ½ years ago.
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My Dutch students, and future Reality-Based instructors, loved the courses: Defensive Tactics, Ground Survival, Knife Survival, Crime Survival and Terrorism Survival. It was a very close knit group and most of them ate lunch with each other even though there were many restaurants near the facility. I had a chance to eat some traditional herring sandwiches, Dutch-Indonesian dishes, and fried fish with tar-tar sauce.
On Friday, April 14th Good Friday, most of the new graduates stayed for an hour after class and socialized after the customary photos-with-the-instructors. Of course, many of the students were happy to hear that I was returning to Holland to again teach Level 1 July 17 to 21. Mike and I are also teaching a Women’s Survival course July 15 and 16. I had not planned on returning to Holland so soon after my first official seminar, but calls were coming in all week from people who missed the April seminar and wanted to sign up for the next one. Plus, Mike was able to talk with Erik Hein and purchase a year of advertising space in Mix Fight (a full color page in each issue).
That evening I had a chance to meet with Mike’s wife Patricia, who I call the “CFO of Reality-Based Holland (Chief Financial Officer). Without Patricia’s help Mike and I could not have had such a successful start as we did. She is a marketing vice-president for a major international corporation, and she has been using her marketing skills to promote and run our program there. She also has the daunting task of translating all Reality-Based Personal Protection material from English to Dutch.
On Saturday morning Mike dropped me off at the airport where our trip had first begun. While waiting for my flight I contacted my directors of Sweden and the United Kingdom (Peter Falk and Dave Shorter) to discuss our upcoming seminars in their countries.
After a long day of traveling I was once again home in sunny Southern California, and had the opportunity to enjoy Easter with family and friends. My last trip to Europe was fantastic, and so many good things came out of it – not to mention getting approval from Boker for my next knife. However, I’ll be right back in Europe teaching in Sweden May 1st to the 5th spreading our system in Scandinavia. Be A Hard Target.
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