Close Quarters Combat

[Michael Janich]

I received the following question from a viewer and thought I'd share the response in case anyone else is interested:

I enjoyed seeing you on Shooting Gallery (2/27/2008, episode:98).

Is there a DVD out that has the same material (empty hands drills before escalating to deadly force ) that you covered or is it a combination of DVDs?

Thank you for your interest in my empty-hand system.

Currently the only instructional video available on my empty-hand stuff is focused on empty-hand vs. knife. It's called Counter-Blade Concepts and is a complete course in defending against edged-weapon attacks (including detailed instruction in the one technique shown on The Best Defense). Counter-Blade Concepts can be purchased from Stay Safe Media at www.staysafemedia.com or by following this link:

http://www.staysafemedia.com/product.php?proid=7

The good news is that the principles of the CBC system apply to defenses against empty-hand attacks as well as knife attacks since it's all based on angles and movement, which remains the same whether a weapon is present or not.

The critical elements of my empty-hand system ("cycling," strong-hand dominance, power base, etc.) are also covered in a video called Forever Armed, also available from Stay Safe Media:

http://www.staysafemedia.com/product.php?proid=76

It covers all aspects of using improvised weapons in personal defense, including detailed instruction in the tactics of using two-handed weapons (as demonstrated in the home-defense episodes and backcountry episode of TBD) and one-handed weapons (as demonstrated in the tactical flashlight episode). The one-handed tactics are exactly the same as my basic empty-hand tactics (commonality of techinuque) and, since the instructional sequences we shot for season 1 didn't make it to the edited version of the show, you also get to fill in the blanks when it comes to improvised weapon skills.

The even better news is that I recently spent several days in the video studio with Stay Safe Media and shot an entire video series on my empty-hand system. It is in the editing process now and will be released as individual volumes are completed throughout 2009.

This series will focus purely on empty-hand combative skills and will also include dedicated videos on low-line kicking and off-balancing (based on my analysis of Indonesian pencak silat) and a gritty approach to joint locks and breaks affectionaltely known as "Junkyard Aikido."

I hope this helps point you in the right direction. Thanks again for your interest.

Stay safe,

Mike

[gaterhawk]

Cool deal, now I have something new to put on my Birthday list. That is one of the unique things about TBD that I really like. You teach us that the use of our firearm is not always your only option. I have many years of martial arts training under my belt. The two things that was driven in to our brains the most by the instructors, I have herd you talk about on the show. The fist being, if at all possible, eat you ego, deescalate the situation, and walk away. The second being, exploit your attackers off balance attacks and use them to your advantage to gain position on them for the counter attack and get away. I know from experience that if you know what you’re doing some bad guys have no problem beating them selves up.  I can tell personally from just those two points that you sir are the real deal. I look forward to watching you DVDs on empty handed defense and edged weapons. Keep up the good work

Thanks
Gater

[Rob Pincus]

We are also proud to have Mike as a guest instructor in the non-firearms branch of the Personal Defense Video Series... we released his knife DVD las month and have one on stick use coming out later this year!

-RJP