It's a tip. There's a joke. I like to make which is this you don't go to Brad Pitt and asking for advice on how to pick up women because Brad Pitt just walks into a bar end of story. All right. So the learning how to fight the learning self-defense. I've always thought, you know, you want to learn from that skinny guy down the street who just knows how to do it because he's the one that people pick on and that the one they expect to be the badass you on the other hand my friend look like it was genetically engineered to be a Marine drill sergeant and you're the most
well guy, but you're a badass looking guy, right but yet you the one who teaches grandmothers and young women and people like myself and Tony Robbins and so forth. You've taught us how to fight. How do you have really good self defense in a way that they can carry with us years later and apply I find that fascinating my goal for this particular episode is for people to learn about you and what you teach and then also be able to walk away with practical tips that can apply in their life if they ever need to and I think the best way to start would be
So you tell us a story of one of your students in action.
Yeah, well got to set this up. This woman came to us and she already had issues. She had been attacked prior before she survived a horrific attack to where she is still visibly affected and she came to our training same type of training that you went through this call.
It's a weekend training. It's just a couple of
days. Right right just a couple days and here's a woman who already have this to look at her physically You Not only was she a smaller person but she also because
Cuz of her past the way she held herself. She can hold herself in a confident manner. What was interesting was she's had to get off the mats probably four or five times during that because stuff would just come back to her and I have that happen with some clients that have experienced violence. But this particular woman, we got her through the whole weekend. And I remember when I look to the instructor staff and also the same thing so, you know what? I hope to God that woman gets a pass. She's already had enough because you never know that that's the interesting thing that I tell everybody statistically when I do.
Seminar, I look at the whole class. I said I need to follow the parameters that we're going to do need to do it a certain way. We can't vary from that. You can't screw around with each other because somebody in here statistically is going to use this information to save your life. And I said I never know who it is and I'm always surprised it's never the person that I think and this woman particular was that person that I thought okay, you know, I really hope she does not have to face anything like this again sure enough her husband contacts us about I think was about eight months later.
And she had been in a Home Depot and she has a therapy dog. Her therapy dog is a German Shepherd out of my attack dog, but it is a German shepherd and she was unloading some new flowers that she got that you can go plant in her garden and it was in the parking space and it was kind of in a more remote section of the parking lot. She put her dog into the cage that she has his a kennel in the back of her car. She put her dog in the car and she had lifted to of the flats of flowers into the back.
When she heard from behind do you need help with that? And she said Tim every hair on my neck went up. I knew I see my first thought was it's happening again. She just knew she'd inherit Lee knew where all the nonverbal was just screaming inside of her and sure enough. This guy lifts her right up off. You just just grabs around her arms and literally lifts her off the ground. He's about
transferred. So it was bigger than
her. Yeah, and her first thought was I can't get to my gun because she was a concealed carry.
Carry holder at that point and we had drilled into her that point she goes like you guys are my ear. She goes it's not your hands not your primary weapon, but unlike her other situation than we had before all of a sudden her brain just said, okay, I need information and it went right to it right away and she understood she goes, okay. Oh, wait a minute this arms free. I can't get away from this guy, but I can move into him and she literally rotated as a guys lifting her up rotated and he took her elbow slammed into the side of his neck now this
She's probably about 150. The sky was about 2:30.
Wow. I told her she
she's small lady. She's probable five six. Uh-huh. And so she gets lifted right off by this guy and she has Nails - I have a Mac and sure enough. She sees the reaction, you know, when you hit the side of the neck, there's two nerves of being an artery when you interrupt nerve flow blood flow. Usually, it's bodies reset. You're either gonna get the person to kind of I turn on the dimmer switch and the kind of go to sleep or it's going to be a
a concussion. This guy should basically did the basil Bagel blood flow and the guy passed out as he's passing out. She sees his knee and she just Stomps on the top of his knee with all of her way and she ends up doing real damage to his knee to the point to where the joints just no longer working and he hits the ground that wakes them back up and at that point he's holding on to his knees screaming and people are coming
to assist to help him
and the guy the guy
Says because she attacked me is pretty funny. And when the police got there, I'd be reviewed the tapes and everything. This was your classic snatch. He had a panel van. He had everything in the back that he would affect a kidnapping with and torture and who's really, you know guy. He was he was a known rapist and what was interesting was the police they were dumbfounded that she didn't shoot him.
And her response was really interesting. This is one that already been attacked once you know, and this is second but because she understood the parameters of what we talked to her. She said well, yeah, but when he hit the ground I realized he was no longer a threat because he couldn't move and there was nothing he had nothing to grab he had no weapons or anything. So I knew I was safe meaning she recognized what we call, you know, non-functional that he was maybe you still awake, but he wasn't he was no longer here.
Her because he could not move his body in a way shape that he could injure her or get to a tool that could injure her and she recognized that and so she just you know in the police tell you you realize you would be completely justified in shooting him and killing and she was yes, I understand that and so it is funny. They just you know, you know people could understand it for me. That was a complete validation because here's somebody that really yeah. I had very little faith and it's far as whether or not she absorbed material that we
He had it's not that she was doing it poorly. But I just knew it was mentally really just you know difficult for her.
And like I said, it's not physical specimen. I think she was in her early fifties. Wow, and yet with the right knowledge and that's what most people don't have with the right knowledge a predator can give you opportunities. And if you know how to exploit those opportunities, it's not about being bigger faster and stronger and to me that's the thing that drives me. It's people like that people that that shouldn't ever have to face Grievous bodily harm, you know, they're just living good lives are good people.
And some Predator comes into your life and can turn it upside down seconds and yet you recognize. Okay, I'm devoid of choice here. I have to check myself. Now. I actually have something toolbox that can help me out. I understand trauma to the human body. I understand everybody is vulnerable to it. And it was one of those moments for me where I just said. Yeah. This is why I keep doing this after almost 30 years. It's those types of things because you know, I worked with all the military units you can think of and a lot of ones that you don't know.
Same thing on that, you know what military law firms I expect my professional clients my professional operators to do. Well they do amazingly heroic things. They come back they give you good feedback on when they've used my system in any way shape or form and that's fantastic. But for me what really drives me is I think there's a perception out there that unless you have great athleticism and you're bigger faster stronger self-defense really isn't for me.
And I guess I'm just a regular person and I think that's probably one of the greatest most dangerousness that we have out there and it's my passion to let people know. Hey, it's not about being bigger faster stronger. You know, like you said my physical presence is such that at times people say well, yeah, it's easy for you to say, but I remind people all the time if my physical presence is something that would deter you. You're not who I'm worried about.
And that's what people don't understand. There are a lot of predators out there. They understand that everything is a facade when it comes to it the human body and that if you know where to go and human body you can get a huge result regardless of the other person's athleticism or being bigger faster and stronger. If you can inflict trauma on to the human body, you can bypass all of those things. It's like the great equalizer. You can protect yourself against if we put you both in
Ring under normal conditions of like a combat sport event. We all know how it would end up but in the world of violence in the world of these random acts of violence Predators give you opportunities because they don't fear you. You learn to exploit vulnerable areas of their human body to literally save your life.
You know, I'd like to come back to what are the vulnerable areas and how one can actually learn to make that an instinctual reaction. But before that what you background like, how did you get into
this? Yeah, I was a Navy brat. My dad was an officer in the Navy and I moved around all over the states and overseas for a little bit and I grew up on Navy bases. So navy base is always had martial arts and just something I took two early on. I had a grandfather from Boston, you know, one of my first gifts I got a little kid was ever last box.
Plus he just thought it was really important that all kids learn how to fight. So I was indoctrinated since I was probably you know, first time probably four years old when I first started getting some formal training first and boxing and then it was just something that I enjoyed throughout the my military Adventures being a military kid. I got to get the Marines a lot of credit because I was a Navy kids. So we're on a daily basis and Marine syrup a lot of the navy bases. They were outstanding and we had great instructors. A lot of these guys came through they also gave us that disappointment also when you know a lot of us,
Us our dads were deployed. So we're gone for a long time. So the Marines that were you know on an another rotation, you know, they coach our baseball teams. They teach us martial arts. They teach us boxing how to work out and I don't realize how unique that was and how much it affected had on me. Yeah, that's really cool. Yeah, it was great. It was years ago you hear this, you know takes a village to raise a child. You kind of had that in Hinton military. It wasn't it was nothing formal. It was just kind of this informal thing that happened that you really
Did we had a lot of fatherless kids not that they didn't have fathers, but our dads were deployed and my dad would likely be gone six to nine months. So I kind of grew up with this idea. And what was interesting too is, you know, I got to see sportsmanship and I got to see how to conduct yourself but these guys also would show like my grandfather they all made a point of telling me that Hey listen, you know, when you're in the ring, these are the rules this is what you do. It's a great sport, but if anybody tries to do anything to you out.
Out here in the point like to the street they would just start, you know, basically showing you injury to the human body and that you have to provide, you know, because they understood it was just understood that hey there are no rules out here. There are bad people and they will hurt you and it's important, you know, you hate you need to be your first line of defense and to me I just thought it was second nature. I thought everybody grew up like this and I quickly realized as I moved around the country that that wasn't the case, you know, when I go to schools with a bunch of the other civilian kids I've realized oh I
Everybody grows up like this not everybody has this and it was very military time can understand. It was during the Cold War and everything. So you were a lot more gelled together as a military Community then probably we are right now, so it was really unique because it's just a unique that if I had this thirst for it and I enjoyed martial arts. And the last one the last base that we went to that we lived on as a Navy family was Coronado California. I was probably about 12 13 years old and literally come all my back.
Backyard, if you looked at the backyard of my house that I lived in it's called bend ova circles or the officer housing is we had a chain link fence. There was a there's a highway called Silver Strand Highway and literally right across from that was basic underwater demolition school. You can see that we saw my brother and I we first got there we couldn't believe how the sales. Well no. No, we saw the obstacle course and we were like, oh my God, they built this just for us, you know, the fact that it had barbed wire fence and everything had to go that was that was easy we figured out
So we started jumping the fence and we started jumping on the obstacle course, you know when it was empty and they kick us off, you know, come on we know who are these guys either frogmen their seals its UDT and meant nothing to me then we started figuring out. Oh my God. Hey, there's this whole other group in the Navy. Look at this. They get to wear shorts. They basically run the water all the time. They die. They shoot weapons. They blow stuff up it jump out of airplanes. And I remember telling my daddy. Why don't you ever tell me they're cool job like this, you know and just came in love with it and
I got to know a lot of the guys and I learned all about it and you gotta understand. This is back in the early 80s. Nobody knew about the seals back then it was really a hush-hush environment. It wasn't encouraged for people to go on the SEAL Teams as far as if you were a officer and especially you know, my dad said what I told my dad that's what I wanted to do and he thought it was kind of like a teenage passing thing and he said great but here's the deal you have to go to college first get your degree. And if you can do this you can do it as an officer. He figured that would probably be enough.
Suede me. It wasn't it's all I wanted to do. I went to I got an ROTC scholarship. I trained like a maniac implementing all the things that I learned from the seals that I had met during those years, you know, I knew about cold water. I know how to knock you late myself with cold water. It's so funny because I seem like the Wim Hof stuff now and we were incorporating just bastardized versions of that, you know way back then to get ready because that was one of the number one things that guys would quit on it was the Cold Water training so I had all that and
What was great was the year? I went to buds. I got selected. I was up against 2500 guys. Literally 2,500 people were going for two slots. And I got one of the two slots and really it was through tenacity. You know, I tell the story that I flew to Washington DC. I had a buddy that was going to school back there and I pretended that I had a reason for being back there and I showed up at the detailers office. Now, the detailer is the guy that makes all the decisions on who goes where he you know, he would decide whether or not which one
2500 which two guys would get to go so I told myself listen I am going to sit outside his office. I'm going to just wait there and hope that it gives me a couple minutes and sure enough. I there's a lot more involved with it, but I got there. I sat there on a Wednesday. He didn't talk to me toll 455 on Friday. So he made me sit two almost three days, you know waiting and they ignored
the old-school martial arts. You know, where you go sit outside.
The last five minutes on Friday everybody kind of shut down at 5:00 there. You pulled me and he goes midshipman. You've been here for three days. What do you want? Why are you wasting my time? And I told him I said well, sir. I know you got a big decision. I know everybody looks the same on paper. I just want you to know that if you select me I will never quit and he goes That's what you came here for. Yes, sir. He goes he goes. Listen, you're holding up my weekend get out of my office. And so I leave and
Walking down the Navy Building is a he's as big as a pentagon but it's a huge admin building. It's just like got those Drury walkways. And so I leave the office and I walk down. I'm just going to this horrible bureaucratic walkway of my head down going. Oh man. I blew it blew it. There's no way sure enough one of the young officers that was waiting. He's actually waiting to go to Buds and he was just temporary sign there. He runs down the hall after me and he goes midshipman. It shouldn't come around and he just starts cracking up and he like holds me on the shoulder he goes
Hey, we just want you to know you had it on the first day. We just wanted to see how long you'd stick around. Oh, that's awesome. So they really screwed me. So anyways, I get in.
You know, I'll tell you I'll interrupt you for a quick second because this is important. This is a level of gumption you often see in people who end up succeeding in whatever they want to do. I mean you go out of your way. No one told you had to go do
that. No in my mind is it's funny. It's completely undeveloped. I know like now stuff like that's a little more common or at least people talk about methods and why you do that for
Me was pure desperation saying listen, I'm going to do everything. I possibly can and this was the final thing. I knew I could do that. I could at least say okay if I didn't get it. It wasn't from lack of effort on my part. I did absolutely everything I could to get this lot. So I get it and then I get into training and I was just flying through training. They have me up for Anchorman of the class, you know weeks away from graduating. I'm going to bend Seal Team 6, which was the hot team they were doing all the counter narcotics.
Stuff down in South America at the time anybody watching narcos on Netflix. That's the years we were down there. So I was on cloud nine. I had a simple dive to do. Like I said, we'd already selected our team to everything. So we're basically as plastron cruise control. We were just doing a couple no big deal events getting ready to graduate. So there's one just kind of admin dive that we had to do just you know, regular no big deal dive and I went I was very congested that day and I arrogantly told
Solve what I'm going to do the dive anyways, because I don't want to come back on Saturday and redo it I forced myself to do the dot. I ended up blowing my ears mean there's so much pressure that my eardrum there's there's waves on top of the water and there's waves below the water and so a wave of water basically hit me in the side of the ear and it was just enough pressure to burst my eardrum felt like a spike a cold water went in the middle of my brain and all this warm fluid rolled out and also have lost all sense of direction and balance. I was in Vertigo.
Go, you know and I was able to grab on the tow line of the IBS above us the inflatable boat above us that we had the instructors in it for this particular diet. I pulled myself up and as I was pulling myself up, I knew I was going up logically, but my body felt like it was going 45 degrees down to the left. It was just crazy to say when my head hit the surface the slapping on the surface of the water. I'm controllably blood coming out. There was a corpsman really great corpsman that we had on those guys. Just you know,
You should have been a combat doctor because the guy was just amazing but pulled me up. They pulled me in there. I knew I could tell as soon as he got his scope out and looked in my ear. I know I was done
and this is right at the end. Yeah.
Oh, yeah, I mean they let me graduate. You know, I got like I have a qualified to my DD-214. It says, you know, I have my Bloods class under me, but nothing else. Yeah, I couldn't operate because I couldn't pressurized I've so for me my whole world turned upside down.
But the reason I tell that story is because that was my first introduction to True injury and human body prior to that time. I've been hurt I'd had cracked ribs. I was able to cut through all of these pain points that you would get that some people would call injuries but most of us, you know, it was things that you just work through the pain. You can't do that with injury the human body no matter how much I wanted to will it I had no control over my body at that point when I was in Vertigo and what I didn't realize was it was a change in my life. That was really
I mean because that's my whole that. You know, if I could say to 30 years. What do you teach me about teeth people injuring a human body. And what I learned was I mean, I was in the prime of my fitness at that time. I was just you know, I was a monster and I was humbled it was just it brought me to my knees because my body couldn't take that trauma and what was interesting is later on they kept him in the community in the intelligence side. I worked directly for the Admiral as a special War.
After intelligence officer, it was an amazing job with a brand new command. It was the brand new command. It was unifying all the SEAL Teams. The Admiral was there. We were part of joint roosters were just going joint. We're going to Joint Special Operations Command and Naval special Warfare command was you know, the Navy's component of it and what was interesting was I was able to interact with the Uso calm people and I was able to meet everybody so I worked with everybody in the Special Operations Community not just the Navy and
On and so it was amazing job had no business being there. I was way too Junior for command like that, but they saw me as somebody that did very well in training. I did really well my intelligence school and they knew if they brought me in for that position. I wouldn't be taking out an Able Body seal that could you know be operating at smart. So that was the only reason I got in there and come on others others at that time the Admiral stacked it because we were just starting this new adventure basically in
the Special Operations Community a joint us so calm and these guys are legends of the SEAL Teams. These guys were almost on the X Vietnam Vets most of them a lot of Black Ops, you know, lots of layers ons had some really interesting people and that command and their whole goal because what people need to know is during that time everything changed as far as who we were training for one from a cold war with the Soviet Union to watching the Soviet Union collapsed Berlin Wall come down and what was really interesting was?
These these operators all look at that situation and said we need to update our methods and look at some of our tactics because the tactics and methods that were currently using for a cold war opponent. Like Soviet Union are not going to be the future. They basically predicted what's happened in the sandbox right before it happened. I said, everything's going to go, you know tribal again and blood Wars are going to start back up. They predicted Bosnia-Herzegovina and that whole situation and it was just fascinating.
I need to see how these guys thought and one of the areas that they understood they had to really rethink was hand-to-hand combat in the context of you know, we're going to be putting hands on people again. We're going to be doing probably house-to-house stuff will probably going to be operating in urban environments now and we need to make sure that we're up to speed on that and one of the areas they wanted to get better training it is they want to formalize at the very basic underwater demolition area all the way through the teams. They
Really look at hand-to-hand combat because I had a martial arts background and you know, I had zero experience. I had no combat experience. I was complete Noob. I was far as I was concerned. I was just failure. This is a failure that failed out of buds. They invited me to be part of the group and really is because I was athletic I had my black belts and I would be a good meat puppet for them to knock
around. That was it.
So what was interesting though is I got to see really how they looked at that time. We're now this is all pretty UFC you have see you really hadn't started yet. So we're bringing in Combat Sports guys from all over the world some really well-known names 7, they're all good guys, and it was great. What was interesting though? Is it kind of all fell apart as soon as we would tell them? Okay, how do you operate on regular surfaces like grass gravel concrete?
Also carrying all our equipment all the kit and that's where a lot of times these amazing combat athletes. They don't operate like that. Those aren't parameters. They have to think about or deal with and when you put in all the outliers of the real world a lot of the traditional Combat Sports and martial arts just didn't cut it so we were constantly searching and it was amazing because I got the chain, you know with these guys the command, you know sponsored this thing and we're training two to three times a week and then on our own and I mean I was getting
I paid for this is just amazing. What was interesting was I told you I laid eyes on him with a lot of other groups when the groups I lays on with DEA and the DEA in San Diego at that time of Super Active. You can tell like this turn the key comrade years. So da we lay it on a lot with them. We actually did a lot of training with the a one of my buddies called me up and you know, he totally denigrates, you know back then everybody made fun of hand-to-hand combat. You got to remember it's just they just thought it was ridiculous that between hand-to-hand combat.
Mainly because they saw it as if you got down to hand combat, you've really screwed the pooch as far as the mission and why you can train it.
But I remember that from my military training they kind of considered the same
thing. Yeah, it's funny and we can talk more about how that's a really false methodology. And actually the opposite is true, but he calls me up one time and he goes hey, he goes you guys still doing that Punchy Kiki stuff, you know, they just making fun of us. Uh-huh. You're like, yeah. Yeah. Jerk. Yeah. Yeah we are.
Go take a listen. He goes there's this guy over in Pacific Beach. He goes. He's a real, you know, he's another term but he goes he's a real jerk, but you get along well with jerks. He said so you might you might like this guy. I think it's kind of stuff you guys have been looking for and it was funny. You know what the way he said that to you because you know, you like basically the word was you like a holes and you know, you get along with a holes and I took that as a compliment because what I found I think it's really important for you to understand is I found often
The best information comes from really difficult people socially your difficult especially, you know, the guys that really taught me the most when it comes to lethal application of violence for Justified reasons these guys, they don't tolerate fools are very opinionated and they can be extremely difficult. It's hard to remember now because we've been at War for 20 years but back then you know anybody that was true warrior was kind of an outcast and they were almost, you know during a civilian time.
Time when things are peaceful, the peaceful military really looks down upon Warriors because we're kind of inconvenient because we have opinions and you know, we still think people should always train for war so that we're never caught, you know with our pants down and often times that was looked down upon. So this guy that he was talking about was a former Vietnam vet. That's the only thing that got me to even go check out the place because you got to understand here's this guy from the VA calling me we are literally flying
People in from all over the world huge names. They're all on the cover of all the martial arts magazines and stuff. And this guy's telling me hey, there's a guy in Pacific Beach literally to I lived in Pacific Beach apartment with with some of my buddies. He was less than two blocks away from where I live dingy little Studio. I'm grand out of a Grand Avenue.
I go there and it's closed and I look inside and didn't even had matched. It had it's like 900 square feet has this carpet couple of folding chairs. You can sit in little office and I got this is a joke. I'm not even going to come back here and write I was about to do that. I look and then on the inside the glass door was taped up a trifold and I want to go look at the tri-fold and that's what got me to go back because when I read the trial so trifold I try folders like a little a little flyer a little flyer that okay, basically
If you hand it out, it would be folded in three and you can actually just put it up. So it's like a little 8 by 11, you know piece of paper. That was there were typed copy on it. And it's I read the copy what got me to come back was it said the instructor he was part of 173rd Charlie Company and the 173rd Airborne was just like legendary in Vietnam. They were they were kept out in the jungle for extended periods of time by General Westmoreland, and these
guys are Hamburger Hill guys, I
think no no.
Yeah, yeah, they were there but then their jungle training after and Vietnam is just legendary, you know in this guy was a tunnel rat in there. And so I told myself I go. Well if nothing else I said, I'm going to come back just because the guy's a combat vet. Maybe you know, maybe he's doing something that's a little bit different. So I come back the next day. I saw when the classes were and these kids that I saw were all kind of in he's going to say kids, you know, it's like, you know late teens early 20s.
They're in traditional he's but they're doing things like I'd never seen stuff like this. The only time I've seen stuff like this is like in Boston away from my uncle's were my uncle's fought a lot and you know, it was real violence and I remember watching this one kid who ended up becoming a really good friend of mine and instructor and train together forever. I saw him come in a guy was coming at him. He redirected the vector he hit some of the side of the net comb grabs. His hair needs them to the
Groin, and as the guy is reacting to the groin this is all they're going slow and deliver, but it's really intense a rubber knife comes out of nowhere and he just starts stabbing a guy in the neck and then this drops the body and just you know goes on and I'm like, whoa, we've been watching everything. I've never seen anybody seamlessly integrate, you know weapons like that or do anything and no started looking around the clock and nobody had more than a yellow belt and yet these guys were doing stuff that
I hadn't seen some of the best people in the world. Do you know they were just very comfortable with real violence and it was being trained in a way that was just methodical and just you know, it made a lot of sense. It looked like what you would see on the street stuff that would shock everybody.
And it got me to stick around so I'm sitting in the closet to sit in one the folding chairs and I got I can't wait to see this instructor is and sure enough out of the back. It's like this little guy comes out about a hundred forty five pounds. He's probably five barely five six. He has an Aloha shirt on flip-flops, you know, and he's just kind of walks around I figured out it's a janitor, you know, and I see a nice to be hugging he starts he starts like whispering in this guy's ear Whispering This Guy's real mellow, dude, and and
I'm watching how these changes that he's making he's making minor changes in people but it's making a big difference because I saw what they were doing before you make some minor change and all of a sudden. Yeah, these guys are plowing through people. So it ends up being the instructor and I talked to him and I start training with them and so fast for I trained for us six months. I don't tell anybody that I'm training with I don't know. I'm not about you know this no nothing a little Intel officers not going to tell you know, these legendary seals that hey guys, I think I found the guy
I just kind of you know, took it upon myself because I found the training really interesting. Well, they started noticing in the training sessions that we all did it command. They know I'm started noticing that I'm moving differently. I was doing different things and I remember a masked you came out to Massachusetts Hayden came up to me and he looked at me he goes, what are you doing? I go nothing that she could not on your moving different you're doing different things because I haven't seen you do that kind of stuff. He goes, you're all over people. What's up as well? I've been trading with this guy who have you been training with? Yeah. They thought I was like, huh?
Meadow I said, well, you know, I gave him kind of rough background they go great. We need to talk to him and what I didn't tell you was that yes, the instructor that I met was a Vietnam vet but oh he kind of hates military guys. He he doesn't like he doesn't like lifers. He thinks if you stayed in for life because he was drafted and he gets couldn't understand why anybody would want to be in the military. He's just a really funny guy that way so I was great. You know now I got to bring this guy in so I bring them down.
Em and I bring them into the skiff, which is a compartmentalised, you know information place where you can speak freely and it's not going to be heard by anybody I sign them in and these guys are there and they just start talking with him and they had already checked the phone feet. He's a DD-214 they knew everything about him and they also knew where he had operated and a couple of guys that operate in the same area. So too much to my relief. I saw a really good rapport happening and what was interesting
That was the question. They hit him with was different than me and asked any other the combat sport guys at all. They asked him a question that had nothing to do really with traditional hand combat. They said Hey, listen, we had this situation that happened on a ship about six years ago and it was for RCT group is what been people with no, it's still teach sucks. He said we haven't been able to figure out what we could have done and basically, you know, you see a total like imagine outside of a door. You've all watched some movie that shows
A special operations team lining up outside of door and then they go through the door. They basically had that on a ship and on a ship be called door hatch. And so they're outside the hatch. They blow the hatch. The first guy goes in second guy gets held up by a bad guy who jams them up in front of the hatch. And now the first guys in there fighting for his life and none of the rest of the team can get through because II guys jammed up with this bad guy and they said hey, here's the situation. I saw them explain the whole thing.
And the instructor that I brought in there Jerry, he he saw arcs angles different than anybody ever he's not formally educated guy, but he just he did it before they even got the whole scenario down. He said, okay great. I got it. Stop you lines everybody at just like it is just like the situation they replicated the role player replicates. The guy getting jammed and the guy that gets jammed is sitting there with his MP5 and Jerry says sit down drop back and so he just sits down.
And drops his body back. The guy holding onto him goes forward loses his balance. The gun goes Center Line. So it would easily the guy could easily kill him and take the bad guy out and more importantly the door opened up immediately and everybody else got in right away almost simultaneously and so what got him into the SEAL Teams to train to get the pilot course for what you know was the beginning of TST was that it was kind of terrorist question.
All the weapons and thing it wasn't punching and kicking and that's when they were sold because nobody else had been able to get any meaningful, you know, useful advice on that.
So TFT being Target focused training, which is the program that you teach. Yes. So actually let's fast forward to that. What do you teach? What do you teach that 50-something year-old woman to beat the crap out of a much larger man who was going to kidnap and rape her. What do you teach that's
effective. I keep the same thing that you see each
Each and every day, we just call them accidents. We teach people how to break things on the human body that can't take trauma. There's approximately 72 areas in the human body and it could be a nerve it can be a bone. It can be a joint a sensory system. And basically what we teach people do is either shut down a sensory system or break a structure of the human body. So it no longer is operating during the time that you're involved with the person and what I mean by that is
Say you hit somebody to the solar plexus which is about the middle of the stomach area. There's a big gangling of nurse people have experienced. If you've ever got hit in the stomach, you know, it's really hard for you to Breathe In
Like A Sucker
Punch you back that sucker punch. That's the solar plexus all things being equal in a couple of minutes that person will be able to regain normal breathing ability and there won't be any permanent damage. Whereas if you say punch the throat or crush the throat, you know, if that person doesn't get medical attention to 325.
Minutes, they're going to 68 or if you break an ankle, you know that ankle is not going to work until it gets set and you know person goes through therapy and everything. So, you know trauma that we talked about is we want to do things to the human body that every human body is susceptible to No Matter How big no matter how it sounds like and how much I work out. I cannot make the hollow of my throat stronger, you know, I can't make my I stronger. I can't make my ears. I've experienced that firsthand you slap somebody very
Hard to the ear and you do the same thing to that person that happened to me underwater breaking an eardrum and then emptying out the semicircular Canal fluids. And then the person can't they don't know which way is up. If you blind a man, you know, you boys him. These are all things that I can teach anybody, but the problem is people put it in the context of the duel, you know, the classic everybody knows what's going on. You know, I'm going to fight you were looking at each other going to do the man dance and then go on with violence doesn't happen that way.
My people learn to exploit a Predators mistake meaning if you can think and move and the Predator, you know gives you an opportunity to go to a vital part of their body. You can then bypass their bigger faster stronger skill sets because they have to react to the trauma. It's just been fascinating. I mean it was cool was when we implemented the program back then we also had the Navy had brought in. We're really trying to upgrade things at basic underwater demolition school and the
Maybe made a huge investment in a sports medicine component where we had all these great Sports Medicine Doc's and so what they helped us do is they help us map out on the human body because the instructor the time showing its Jared he wasn't formally trained. He just understood. You know, where are the human body you get a result. These guys actually mapped it out for us and we used to joke. That injury is the Rosetta Stone to real Self Protection because it's the great equalizer and so it doesn't matter about, you know, your strength or anything and that people ask me.
Will what do you mean by that? I'll say okay. When was the last time you fly hit you in the eye and you know, everybody will imagine when a fly or the insect to hit them in the eye or something like that and then go. Yeah go think about that dramatic reaction that you did and you know, usually, you know guy gets hit in the eye and you just be a big thing and you have to drop back. You know, it's a huge reaction. You don't normally then I tell them I go. Whoa did the fly do that through the fly make you move your body in that way.
And they think about it for a second they go. Well, no, I did. Yeah, all the fly did was it found that really vulnerable area that affected such a huge response, you know stimulus in your body to protect itself from being blind. That's kind of what we're talking about right now, but that's why I like I tell people all the time if you're 90 pounds soaking wet. You can put injury on any human body and you know anything about who wants 90 pounds dropped anywhere on a vulnerable part of their body. I don't care who you are. Nobody wants.
So let's try use case of that. So say someone 90 pounds and they have like a big beefy guy coming at them. What do they do? What do they look for? What are they? You know, you can't remember all the seventy two parts to or even what to hit that they've never hit anyone in bit anything in their life. What should they just
know? That's why you get through the process of training. They actually have if you touch the hot surface your hand automatically comes off, you know, if you waited for your brain to register on that you have a severely burnt hand.
What happens is if the stimulus is great enough in your body your body will automatically move the affected area away from the stimulus to protect itself and then tell the brain after the fact and what we exploit is that timeline that timeline where we caused the injury. The stimulus is great enough that as it's going up the spine to tell the brain what's going on. Another stimulus says, nope. Nope too much too much and it sends out a reverse signal back down to the effective area and says, hey pull that away just like if you step on a sharp object your foot
We comes up you don't think about it. In fact, you don't have any choice other than to react to it and come down and those are the kind of stimuli that we you know effect in there. When you watch Combat Sports, you'll see two guys just going at it really just unbelievably I'd be beating the crap out of each other putting a lot of nonspecific trauma. And then what you'll see is you'll see one fighter step in usually with full body weight and maybe they'll hit say the lower margin of the rib cage and all of a sudden they've got this huge blood.
Trauma that hit the liver and you see guys when they get hit beliver. They just they lose all ability to resist they fall to their knees and you can see often in their eyes. They're trying to will their body away, but the stimulus is so great that the body just drops or you'll see somebody roll up in a Jiu-Jitsu match and unfortunately, they'll end up breaking an ankle of it another guy and you can see that it's over at that point that guy's ankle no longer is going to work and they stopped the
I often say all the time go injury ends competition into where violence begins and so a lot of times what you do is you just take Sports Med going back to those Sports Medicine Doc's what I really understood was all you have to do is reverse engineer the situation meaning when you look at Sports Injury, you see the same areas of the human body getting affected all the time and we really want to look at sports injury is because Sports Injury are forces that you and I can replicate the
It's humans colliding with humans or humans colliding with the
planet. What are those areas? Like the key ones?
Well, there are ones we know obviously we know groin at the big three in self-defense that people talk about all the time our eyes growing at throat. And the reason they talk about is growing and throws because those are three areas of human body that can be effective without body weight. Meaning you don't have to really put a lot of effort into it. But then you look at the joints of the human body. You look at the ankles the knees you look elbows wrists you look at the neck all day.
Different areas in their three areas of the neck that you can go after that where you can either get a concussion or you can cause asphyxiation
now for like that level, you know, someone has to take care of look I've taken your course and I'm a huge fan. I made others take your course and so we can course where you learn the stuff and you walk away with a almost like an inner wiring like a practical knowing of it. So I'm asking you to do something that's unfair to you, which is for the people who can take a course a listening to this. What is the key things that they need to know that they can keep with them. So like this eyes.
Thornton groin that's pretty easy to remember right? So you got this 90 pounds soaking wet person versus someone who's turned 60 pound coming at them and remembering those three. What can they
do? What's the depends? I like the what the way we train people to do that again. I'm not avoiding the question just wanna make sure I give good information because the problem is there's no Quick Fix You know, what we do is I trained principles not methods because techniques will get you killed principles will save your life the principle is that I want to put all of me in.
To a very vulnerable part of them and so easy areas, you know taking say just your form if everybody just looks their hand right now instead of making a fist or anything just bend your wrist and then look on the pinky side of your wrist right from below the break of the wrist to about 4 inches down. That's your ulna bone. And that basically is your own personal piece of pipe which grade is and the old our bonus just skin and bone. There's no nerve or anything there and it's just a very great. It's a great surface of strike.
Somebody would because you got to remember the hand has 27 bones in it. It's extremely easy to break. It's really not meant to be a meat club. And so teaching people just basics of where to use their body just that alone and then, you know areas of the body that you can go after and get a big result. You know, you'll know yeah obviously going after the eyes is something but you have to be committed if you're going to do something like that. You have to really think about you know, are you willing to Blind a person are you willing to go in there and do that kind of work, you know in extremis.
Relations. Absolutely, you should do that. But only you can answer those questions and that's why familiarizing yourself with the subject is so important because I think when people read my books and they look at getting some good information, what's really interesting is I will get responses from people saying hey Tim read your book hope to train with you someday, but just want to pass this along, you know, the old me I had a situation happen the other day and the old me would have reacted this way and after reading your book and understand
Risk, I would be taking doing that. I did this, you know, which basically avoided that because for most people it's funny. I you know, most people I made a mistake as a young instructor thinking everybody wanted to be like me everybody wanted to get their instructor level. They want to become a master instructor. All they want to do is train. I want to learn everything there is about this. I want to take the highest level and you quickly realize that no that's a very rare individual that wants to devote that much time to this.
Object because learning to deal with violence and learning to train in violence is not as rewarding as you know any other kind of a competitive sport because there's no real payoff other than survival and but what I did learn was most people what they really want is they want to learn to live a life where they minimize the chance of needing self-defense making better decisions. And that's the kind of stuff that I find to be really valuable and then there are those people that will take the next step and actually physical training.
Which would be useful but what you want to ask yourself. How did I get here? You know, you're really thinking about the situation you talking about. Hey, I got this bigger faster stronger person coming out and them how many chances do you have prior to that to get yourself out of that situation? Because when these people come to me oftentimes, I'll give you perfect story. I often times they kick themselves because even though they performed heroically in there we get themselves out of there. They recognized that time where they could have made a better decision and avoid
did the whole situation, you know, a friend's wife was getting her graduate degree and she came out after a late night study sessions about 9:30 at night and her friends were all parked on the first floor of the parking structure and she was up on the third floor and they said hey, let's take you up and she said no no when he's like no, I don't wanna put you out. I'll just grab the elevator and go and okay now as they're walking to the elevator she kind of saw this like sketchy guy that was in the area.
And she's really notice much she went to their car to say goodbye to them and she went back and took the elevator takes the elevator to the third floor as the door opens. There's that guy literally right in front and Wendy just you know, luckily. She had a briefcase. She had been through just a basic training with us. She took her briefcase. You slammed it into his groin. He had a huge reaction from the groin shot as he did not expect that. She's a small woman came down. His head was right there. She saw his temples.
Started she bawled her hand up into a fist using the hammer fist, you know the pinky side of the Fist and she just kept hitting him and hitting him and every time she hit him on the side of the head. His head was hitting the inside of the elevator the inside of the door
jamb
and so he drops right he drops and he's out and she runs away. She gets in her car drives off call security by the time security gets up there the guys gone. And so the question was always, you know, of course, I will what happened what happened.
Why we don't know and we don't care, you know, we just were just lucky that you know Wendy stole with us and you happily married kids today, but then talking to her she was kicking herself and she goes, you know, tell him she was I knew when I saw the guy something was wrong and I thought I was being judgmental. I thought I was you know, thinking okay. I shouldn't think like that about people she said my body was screaming at me that there's something wrong. She goes I could just I could have easily taken that ride up with my friends and they would have Drive enough parking would be fine.
But she was so mad herself about is that she put herself in a situation where thank God she had something to toolbox. But for me, that's what's really important. I mean listen to gold standard is yes get a little bit of training and not training because you know oftentimes like the training you did. Come on most people will come and that's the majority of people that I trained they do a weekend course one weekend course, I have a very small portion of people that go beyond that because they actually want to get better at the information. Maybe pass it on to family members or you know,
Really want to do it and what's interesting is it's the behavior modification to happens over those two days. That is the big thing for me. It's not necessarily that the physical training that they get which is highly effective in many many people. They've only had that much training they've been able to save their lives, you know, it's kind of like CPR that's just it and people sit there. I got to clarify that because people think they compared to like Combat Sports, which is totally different if you want to be a combat sport practitioner and you want to compete
Highest levels that's tons of athleticism of huge commitment. Your skill sets just have to be phenomenal on that time in the reason that's the case is because a combat sport has gamified violence. And so you've taken out a lot of the most affected areas of human body. If you want to put somebody down, you know last time I looked at the UFC there's 31 rules and UFC 27 and of them were prohibiting direct injury to human body, you know, you can't blind to me and you can't Crush its throat.
Aunt do and absolutely right because there's no place for that in sport my I want to better my my opponent. I want to have better skill sets than him and I wanted to put them out. I don't want to maim crippled and kill him then just no need for that. But what's interesting is when you talk to civilians who say well gee I can't do that I go. Yeah go. Here's the analogy.
If right now I came in and I had an 8-foot block of marble beautiful Italian marble and I brought in the finest chisel sets, you know from the best artisans in the world to okay. Here's a Best Equipment and I told the whole class. All right, nobody leaves today until I see Michelangelo's David people would go, you know, they probably be there thousand years if they're lucky, you know, you know, the old million monkeys on keyboards, you know, putting out a readable thing same thing.
Nobody's going to be able to create a you know of a work of art like that. And that's that's what Combat Sports is. You know, they you have all these people that try and then couple of these Master artist reach the top level of that competition and they're great and it's a very difficult thing to achieve but the same group that same Big Slab of marble and instead of the Chisel sets. I brought in a bunch of sledgehammers and as hey guys, nobody gets lunch until we got a pile of rubble. Yes. Well, you guys should make short work of that beautiful marble very quickly.
Because destruction doesn't take skill and it destruction is a skill set that is available to everybody. You know, we all know how to swing a sledgehammer, you know, and we all know how to get a result with and we'll just keep hitting it until something happens. And that's a beautiful thing about self protection when you're training for real Self Protection you want to train in skill sets of Destruction because they get such a huge result on everybody.
You know, I was thinking of the difference between what you teach and martial arts. Like look I've done martial arts of the military. I did kickboxing boxing Muay Thai for quite a while, right? And then I stopped and years ago. I was in the Caribbean. I was a Dominican Republic and I was at a party at a Halloween party and I saw someone get jumped at the corner of my eye and I had a dumbass me. I just ran over not looking at no situational awareness.
Now wondering why no one else is running over and so I grabbed the guys were jumping this guy and I pulled him off and next thing. I know I'm being hit in the back of my head and through the process end up breaking my hand pretty badly and have to go and have my hand rebuilt and it was because when they were jumping someone there they usually brought like five or eight people sometimes with the machete just hanging around, you know, almost like that was the process there and I had and I remember thinking if I had been training regularly, I would have had
Situational awareness but because I wasn't training regularly. It kind of just went out the window and it just Instinct sweat and pull this guy off and if you punches punching back, you know the whole like like you said the dance versus when I took your course and this was a couple years later after it. I was in New York City. I had a puppy and I was walking her in this crowded sidewalk and this guys coming at me something was off with him, and he comes at me and my puppy had stopped and was sniffing something. I think she was going to pee.
And it was on the side of the sidewalk and he just stops and stops in front of her and this is at night and there's plenty of space to go around and goes your dog's blocking my path. I'm like, all right. Okay, great. Good for you good for me. Like, you know, like my puppies like busy peeing at this point. Like I'm not going to move the puffy and something in him. Just when your daughter then he said again your dogs like about and something when I've saw his foot get up almost like he was going to kick my dog and something in me just looked at him and I wasn't looking at him anymore. I was looking at
Throat right and that came from your training and I was just thinking that foot comes near my puppy. You'll throw it as mine. Right and I wasn't thinking how I'm going to punch him or he's going to punch me back or any it was literally all I was thinking was you teach like you step to the thought I wasn't thinking how I'm going to hit the throw whatever. I just knew I was some part of my body was going to collide with his throat and I remember that moment and then he looked at me then he stopped and he walked around it was really fascinating like what you teach stays with you.
A very interesting way because it doesn't necessarily involve techniques. It's not like you trading punches back and forth. It's literally a knowing that look that throat is mine. And I don't know how I'm going to get to it. But some part of me is going to collide with that throat and that's all it's going to take and then you also teach and then when they fall you use gravity, you know use the planet because the head bounces off the planet Zach, you know, which is a very destructive force and that's when I knew I was like, holy cow what Tim taught stays with you. And as you said it's not practices, but it's
Yeah, what's interesting about that all it also comports with violence, you know and what I mean by that is the reason we go from one target. I give you all these different site pictures the target meaning. Okay. Here's the target from you know, you front on face-to-face. Here's the target with you down from one knee. Here's Target when they're on the ground because the one thing that we all understand which is exactly what happened in your situation was you understood there's a threat and by teaching the client to go for one area of the human body. We know your vision.
Is going to go myopic for the most part and if you understand we're on the human body get a result. You're going to find that for you was the throat. That was the first thing you saw and you realize okay, that's where I'm going. You know, if this came in that's exactly what I hoped for clients when they have a situation like that you understood there's something off on this guy. He understood he was probably testing you to see what your response was going to be and your response instead of trying to mitigate the situation with him any more than you. Did you realize listen. I got a small
Being in this idiots going to kick my dog could easily kill the dog. Hey, that'll kick in right away for you and you just saw throat and you realize threat and instead of focusing on what he could do to you or what he could do to your dog. Your immediate Focus was outward towards what can you achieve right away and that's exactly what I need clients to do because that's the most important thing. We can't undo what's already been done. Meaning of somebody say Jack you up against the wall or first granny. I can't undo that but what I can do is I can say okay from this position was available to me.
And that's the Great's outward focus. It gives you directions to the brain is screaming for you. Go. What do you want me to do? What do you want me to do? Just tell me to do something. I'll do it for you. And if you tell it hey quit or capitulate, it'll do that. If you'd say hey, look for opportunities brain says, oh we remember this, you know, that's what I saw. You know, there's there's a woman told me the day for her. It was the bladder she understood that she had a straight shot into this guy's bladder who was harassing her. She saw that his groin
Protect from the angle there is that and really nothing else was in the position that she was then, you know, could she strike but she understood all the bladder is a great place to strike just to let people know the bladders about two inches below the belly button. So really if you go for somebody's Belt Line, normally that's going to be the bladder area and what's interesting with bladder area is people will go out of their way especially males who go out of their way to protect the groin area. What's interesting as they try to protect the groin area stay with their hands. They actually highlight the bladder and the bladder is a
Really? Oh, that's
interesting. So I've taught a lot of people, you know that aspect of it and needing some of the bladder kicking some of the bladder punching somebody but I think it's a huge response. The only difference is when you kick somebody the groin their chin juts out in their eyes. Look forward when you strike somebody to the bladder the responses they roll in their head actually goes down and you know also looking at the groin area. It's just a different response, but the trauma is huge and that you know, you conveying that story is exactly what people
I understand. It's it's just that it's that outward Focus because most people if you go internal you start worrying about what they're doing to you, you're way behind the power curve. What you want to do is you want to sit there. How can I affect him and how can I be a problem? It's funny. Well, I was just talking the other day to another media person and they were interviewing me for article they were doing
And he goes yeah, he goes. I interviewed your student and he said it was crazy because she said the most profound thing I said, what was that? She said she said to me she goes, you know before I met Tom and she had survived a knifing and attempted rape. She said I came away from that thinking I never thought he'd have to worry about
me
and whose and she didn't mean it in a grandiose way all the time. This is not a situation where you're going to go out and just you know, you can
Kick ass and do others of what you are going to be able to do though is you're going to make it really hard for a predator to do the traditional attacks on you, you know, you need to get really hard because if these people that are able to take action, we're people that the Predator did not feel threatened by them made a bad assumption and hold that person close enough to a vulnerable area their human body and that person now knows how to exploit that in the worst case scenario. That's exactly what you want. You want to sit there and be focused on
What you can do to them because that's what's going to change the status for you. That's what's going to change. Everything. Is them responding to trauma? Not you trying to stop what they're trying to do to you and that's a hard thing for a lot of people to understand but the most dangerous thing in a human being is an active brain and through injury you can take the brain out of the equation. So the person won't be able to think and move to have to respond to the trauma that's happening there human body.
So eyes throat groin. All right, I just like that because it's a
Is with you remember the throat stay with me it was so interesting is my eyes locked on his throat. There was nothing about this guy. I don't remember anything about him except his throat. Right? Right, and it was so interesting that level of training and I don't think you really focused on it. But what you really do teachers just find this one thing that's one vulnerable spot and just you don't need to know how to punch. You don't need to know how to kick. You can throw yourself at it, whatever. It doesn't matter. It's so vulnerable and I remember at your course. I remember at one point asking a question like I was saying, I think what I said to you are like
Look, you look like a badass. How am I gonna like, how am I going to attack you? And you said are my eyes any stronger than yours? Yeah, and that was a game changer was like, holy cow. You're right and I think almost like sometimes looking like a person who is vulnerable can be an advantage because people don't really protect those weak areas against
them. Yeah. It's for the people assume because the guy is bigger and stronger like somehow they're impervious to pain or injury and it's funny hanging out with a lot of my friends who are just
Trigger monsters. What's funny is you understand? Hey, they're just as vulnerable. They'll sit there and they'll come to the gym and just talk about all their aches and pains and everything is hurting them and you have no idea that you know, this guy basically is, you know, a quick shove him into that chair over there pretty much going to take out that Nia is that I know hers and yet to look at him you think he's just vulnerable and so that's the other thing is we make assumptions about people and I think that's what makes sociopath so
Iris is they don't see any of that they don't look at a big strong guy any different things. Look at a 12 year old girl to them. It's just all opportunities. It's all Targets. They'll figure it out along the way they understand how to do that real Predators understand size and strength is really irrelevant if you understand how to use violence correctly.
So you show prison videos prison fighting videos in your courses. Why is that
what's interesting is often times. The best information comes from the worst parts of society and
The reason it's worthwhile to look at the prison gangs because violence for them is a currency and so they can't have an opinion and you know one guy might like Jiu-Jitsu another guy might like karate doesn't matter because they don't care about that. They care about what gets a result and what's Universal and that is he saw in the two videos that I had one from the former head of a Mexican Mafia and the former head of the Aryan Brotherhood and both of them talked about studying. Anatomy And the reason they studied Anatomy was because they understood
Hood where the vulnerabilities of the human body are how to rapidly bleed somebody out, you know if they're using say Shanks or anything like that. They don't want to get it wrong because it may be the last chance they have to perform that act of violence. They may have been employed by somebody else to take out a high-profile prisoner or you know, protecting their turf or something like that or they have to have a public showing of a violent situation. So they let the rest of the prison know that hey we're in charge here. They can't afford to get it wrong. And so it's fascinating to see
These guys talk about and how they train, you know, they trained very slow and methodical on how they do this. I remember watching a prison video one time with some of the guys in Corrections that I'm friends with it helped me get a lot of this information and he showed me this one video and it was two members of the black Guerrilla family and they were slowly like they had their hands and fists like they were holding something I would imagine they were stimulating holding a shank but they were going into the body. It's weird angles, you know, they look like they're trying to stab and they were being very specific.
On where they go the corrections officer. He knew me train with me before he goes. Hey, what do you think you doing? And I go well, they're doing some sort of training for sure. I said, I know it's something like, you know, Jailhouse Rock martial arts stuff. I thought it's like some prison thing goes. Nah, he goes. No, he goes. We had a fight out in the yard yesterday and said up he goes. Yeah, it was staged I go. What do you mean you thought they had two guys go out there to start a knock-down drag-out brawl because I'm gonna show you the video sure enough two guys got there also.
They're just getting into it in the yard. Everybody comes in also, like a mini like almost like a little mini prison riot. It wraps around, you know, huge gang of guys all talk to each other they call out the cert team which is the prison SWAT team prison SWAT team hits the yard right away. And what's interesting is if you just focus on the prison SWAT team pulling the guys off you missed the whole meaning of what's going on. What you need to look at is all the guys and the perimeter who aren't involved in it. There are all sitting there.
Just looking and looking at everything we can all the equipment but the 13 has why because it's a new body armor set up. It was brand-new. They just got it these guys then the next day. They saw all the vulnerabilities. They pass that information on here's where to shank them. If they ever come at us with a stuff because they're always playing that way and they were sitting there methodically learning where the vulnerabilities of that particular body armor were and where they could they could put their Shanks it was fascinating, you know to see
It's not committed. These guys are they're in there and they're truly this is not glorifying them. I'm trying to tell everybody there's good information from really bad sources that is extremely useful to you in your self protection. You know, we don't condone the lifestyle. We don't condone, you know, the criminality of it but there's no better place to get a real feedback on what works and what doesn't work. Then how these prisoners look at violence often times. They have a very different approach.
Two things and it's useful for civilians to see that first of all, they don't think people like that exist. So it's always good to let people know that they're out there and then the other thing is they realize that everybody's human and that yes, it's hard for me to hear this information. But the harder thing for me to wrap my head around is I actually can do it too. This is not hard stuff if it required rocket science to be good at violence and none of the prisoners would be a problem. They have a very good rudimentary understanding.
How to break the human body very quickly. So I find it to be a very good lab to utilize and how these guys look and talk about violence also to hear them talk about it. I think it's extremely useful because they do in a very operational sense, you know, it's very matter-of-fact and that's something I think I leave my clients. It's usually one of the last modules it usually solidifies all the training. I've been doing all weekend and why they do what they do. And so yeah, it's touchy because you have to be careful.
And I've been extremely successful because everybody understands why I use them as examples, but you can get a sound bite or two from that particular module and I can sound like a maniac, you know, if you don't have it in the full context of what's going on. But yeah, I found that same prison gangs and their use of violence as currency has been extremely helpful to making sure that the methods and principles that I teach my clients are just as effective if it's their life on the line
now you have a couple of books.
Out there if someone was to get just one book of yours and they don't have access to your course, which is in Vegas, especially with everything happened with covid. Who knows when that will be up and running. Which book would you recommend
problem at latest book? We just came out about a year and a half ago when violence is the answer.
What's the key point of that book? I mean if it says the title
the title in the title The reason we came with Tyler's because I'm known for you know, I have a tagline that I'm known for And the tagline of known for is filing.
It is rarely the answer but when it is, it's the only answer and when I was talking when we were brainstorming the titles that one when violence is the answer tested it just blew every other title option away reason being is because there's so little good information at that level. And the reason I came by the reason I'm passionate about it is because even like in the military and law enforcement sectors, you have rules of engagement the military World force continuum's in the law enforcement rules, and you know, it's okay if somebody responds
This level of force year authorized to do this very end of those spectrums on either side is a situation where officer or operators life is in danger and you're basically weapons-free you can do whatever it takes to protect yourself and what's really interesting is at that level, especially when you're talking about using your brain and body the answer is always do whatever it takes dot dot dot there's very little information when you need the most specific information. You're literally fighting for your life.
These operators for the most part really they just you know, it's basically just go berserk and good luck. I will say oh we have go for his eye, but they never trained how to do that. And that's what is interesting. You mean when I can teach both civilians, you know years and years. I was doing with military and law enforcement groups teaching them Justified legal Force, but the same thing with civilians what I found is the more somebody is trained in the judicious use of violence the much more peaceful. They are in the much more.
You know calm they are in their daily life which interesting is when we introduce these this training to Military and law enforcement. Yeah, we saw in the units that we trained complaints involving excessive use of force went down as did any Liberty risks on the military side were guy who go out and get in fights at bars. And the reason being is that when you train real violent, you understand you don't question whether or not something like that would work, you know, the methodology we train when you feel somebody put just a little bit of pressure and some of these vulnerable areas and you're modeling violence in your modeling.
Injury you very quickly understand. Yeah, I don't have to worry but this works. I would not want any more of this and it's really interesting because people somehow have this misnomer that if you train violence you somehow will become violent. But as I showed you with that woman at the very beginning of the podcast when we start talking about that, here's a woman that was justified would have been Justified after she knocked her attacker to the ground injuring him. She could have continued on shot him to death and it would have been okay in the situation.
To what she was facing she knew she didn't need to do that. So you don't break your moral code when you're there you if you're a sociopath your sociopath but sociopaths don't seek out instruction like this. They learn on the job civilians coming, you know, people coming to me. I can train them in the most extreme methods to protect themselves without worrying whether or not you know, they're going to violate their moral code. You know, it's just a
I remember one of the most important things I learned there. I was just remembering was
you stop getting scared of weapons. Someone comes at you with a knife. You know, normally Your Instinct would be to like fight the knife, you know fight the knife away and throw it is still available. The eyes are still available the bladder still available the coin still available and it was a very interesting mindset shift and if you were to like leave people listening to this and I'm sure some will go out, you know, look you up and we can finish at the end but how to find you but sex is some just basic thought mindset shifts in violence. What would you leave them with?
You know the idea is that it's about brain and body. Basically, it's really taking out the other guys brain. That's the weapon. Everything else is a tool. So if you grab say onto the knife like you're talking about you really haven't stopped the weapon system say you're successful. You're holding onto the guys night. So you can't use the knife. He still has three limbs available to him right away if he knows what to do. You can easily affect injury on you right away. Whereas if you go after him and actually knock him out or control the brain or injure him such a way that his brain is incapacitated.
Stated guess what? Everything goes away the thing I try to tell everybody about is, you know, I'll give the short version of it a highly trained police officer goes to a Walmart to pick up a shoplifter female shoplifters putting the female shoplifter in the back of the car notices a guy out of the corner of his eye walking to wibbly toward a small guy has a hoodie on hands in his pockets ain't deliberately walking towards the car and the cop gives me burble. So it's hey show me your hands. He ignores the first one another verbal show me your hands out of one pocket comes a knife.
Officer understands, he's a defensive tactics expert he goes in right away realizes he's too close to get his gun. So he goes right into action grabs. The guy does a double risk crank on his wrist expert application of it throwing him back up on the back side of his car and trunk of his car as the guys going being thrown on the hood out of the other pocket comes the five-round revolver and he empties that into the officer officer. He goes to the ground Walmart security guy comes over he now
The revolver hand you draws a revolver hand pulls a revolver away from but it's the now empty revolver. The bad guy takes his mangled hand. It's still holding on to the knife put the knife in the good hand stabs a Walmart security guy twice and drops him. Now. It turns out there's an Explorer Scout there. He helps the officer who's on the ground shot four times to get his gun trained on this guy as he's running into his car trying to get the AR rifle pits in the car shoots. The guy twice kills them. Okay.
It's yeah, he was heroic. This was written up in huge law enforcement magazines all over and it was it was heroic action full the Walmart security and the cop but what I saw in that and this is not denigrating them. They're both heroic. There were two men that were taught that the tool was a problem when the real weapon was the active brain. Imagine. This guy was he knew damn. Well, he was giving up the first limb. He showed the knife. So the officer would take the bait he was willing to give his
Up to get what he wanted. That's my training Avatar. That's the person that I trained for because I want to always remind myself. What makes another human dangerous is an active human brain and that's your goal in any situation where you find yourself facing Grievous bodily harm. You need to shut down the brain of the other person and that's what's going to give you true safety.
That's perfect man. That's absolutely perfect. Now you teach this to your you have little kids you teach this to your
kids. Oh, my kids right now are all learning gymnastics.
I'm giving them a good base because I found the people that I've trained throughout life the two groups that pick it up the fastest our former gymnast or dancers. And so I'm having my kids do both. My son is really getting good at gymnastics. My girls are good in gymnastics. The girls are going to be doing ballet. My son does a lot of like hip-hop dancing. That's awesome stuff like that and giving them the base right now. And yes, they'll do some things. I don't teach them. Listen injury. The human body is an adult concept. I don't want my kids navigating.
War with engine human body because it's really not there and quite honestly, I think martial arts are great for kids and my kids are doing Jiu-Jitsu also, which I think is awesome. But I have no Illusions to the gonna be able to protect themselves against adult Predators, you know, that's my job my job. My wife's job is to do that assisting unfortunate truth because we've seen many many scenarios where kids are training self-defense and everything and then they do a pressure test. Basically where they'll have role players out in the park and you're just shocked at how quickly they can manipulate.
A kid into a car and do so because these predators are thinking of their brain power. They're so manipulative. And so powerful they know how to go up against a small kid. So I do it with the idea. I'm laying my foundations for the kids now so that when I hit them probably in their late teens with this information, they're already had the physical skill sets and now I just have to mentally prepare them for using violence and that'll be my twin daughters and I have to my older son is 25 he's been trained and I got him doing all sorts of training right now. He's having a blast.
But my other son just turned ten and he's getting really good. I'm introducing him to Concepts but I'm keeping everything on right now with them. They know what Dad does you know, my wife obviously, as you know is a police captain the stuff so they're used to seeing weapons are used to seeing a lot of stuff. But my wife and I also don't make a big deal out of it. We want that to be organic when they're there. But we also want them to know. Hey, it's normal to think about protecting yourself. Don't do this and we have these discussions early on but athletically I would tell that any parent if you
I can give you a kid, especially before the age of 7, if you can start them on gymnastics, the you're going to set a template for them to whatever sport they're interested in. They'll be that much better at it's just a fantastic foundation for anything that you want them to do in the future. Athletically.
It really is, you know in the gyms closed and covid I took up gymnastics and I've Gotten Good at it, especially Olympic rings and oh my God, it is the best thing ever.
Oh, yeah. Yeah. It's what you totally to because you have to incrementally. Yeah, you know work out. I need to watch how
Kids learn to move their bodies, they break everything down into small movements and it's funny because their methodology is actually I've taken that back. They're going to have ongoing people their training with me. There are things that we do their movement patterns that we do and everything and I find that using a lot of the training methodologies that I see gymnastics coach used to people I get much better results, you know, if I can get them to do more difficult movement using those types of methods than the way I was taught to do it
great. So now how do people find you if they want to learn
Earn from you.
I'm pretty easy to find if you're on Instagram, it's Tim Larkin TFT. I'd love to have a couple more followers put a lot of great information up there. And in the main site is just the name of the system Target focused training all one word.com.
Yeah. I'm a huge fan. Look I've done this anyone. I know I tell them they got to do this specially once things open up again. I flew to Vegas at that time to take this course with the United who told me if it's jarek Robbins Tony Robbins son, right tell me that his dad was learning from you and he was learning from you and he said like it.
Real thing you go for a weekend and you're changed and I was very skeptical and I went now it sounds great. It really does and I'm now I'm like a raving fan. So hey, thanks for being here. And I really really appreciate it. I know people who listen to the find this helpful.
Thank you very much for let me share the message. I love you my friend. All right, brother be good.
Okay. Bye.
And that's another episode. I'm glad you're here. If you're enjoying this podcast, please review and rate it I'd love that and if you want to learn more just go to cure is Kamal.com.
