This is a great way to learn more about Tony Blauer’s system.

Those in the Manchester, England area can check out PDR Manchester

In Denmark we have Terje Søgaard Theiss and PDR-Denmark

In Rochester, NY area Ryan Fredericks has Close Quarters Combat New York

Also in the New England area we have Active Defense Personal Training ran by Jake Steinmann

And one last one is NOVA Self Defense located in Arlington, VA.

And of course there is me and Combating Violence, located in Moses Lake, WA

These are just a few of the PDR coaches out there. As mentioned, check the PDR Team web site for a complete list

If your answer is “no” then Tony Blauer has a video that can help you out. Actually Tony has a lot of good videos but the one on this subject is “Be a Good Bad Guy, Secrets to Great Role-Playing“. Now this isn’t your D&D type of role-playing, but rather tips on how an attacker should behave in order to help people learn self-defense tactics.

This is a short DVD at only 35 minutes, but Tony gives enough information to get you started. He points out the importance of how good role-playing helps the defender learn to spot pre-contact cues, learn to spot openings, and know how an attacker will respond to your tactics, just to name a few things. Tony and his instructor show both good and bad role-playing to give you an idea of not only what you should do, but what you shouldn’t do. The DVD moves along at a pretty good pace and as such it is one you should watch a couple of times to absorb.

Is the DVD for everyone? I would suggest it if you teach self-defense courses, and to those that are just interested in the subject on role-playing a bad guy. If you often help out in teaching self-defense and serve as an attacker then it is something you might want to check out too.

To address this situation Rory Miller has released a book called “Facing Violence”. To begin to have complete training in self-defense Rory states that seven elements have to be addressed, which he does in seven chapters

1. Legal and Ethical
2. Violence Dynamics
3. Avoidance
4. Counter-Ambush
5. The Freeze
6. The Fight
7. After

You should notice that “The Fight”, what the majority of people train for in self-defense, doesn’t take place to chapter 6. Have you ever discussed legal and ethical issues in your training? Have you ever discussed or trained in any of the areas other then “the fight”? If not, stop and think about your training for a few minutes.

I won’t go into a breakdown on each chapter. If you are looking for then read Jake Steinmann’s review over on An Honest Philosophy. Instead I’ve speak on a couple of chapters that really stuck out for me.

First the chapter on avoidance, which is highly neglected area in most self-defense training. From talking about absence (i.e. not being there to start), escape and evasion, to de-escalation, Rory covers a lot of material. One of the best parts was on how to scan a room upon entering. This is actually the one chapter that makes me suggest the book to everyone, even those that don’t study or have an interest in self-defense, just a lot of good information.

The last chapter on After deals with the subject just as it sounds, what happens after the fight? What should you do? What could happen to you? What could be running through your mind? This chapter made me stop and go “Hmm” more then any other. Again this is one of those areas that rarely gets talked about in self-defense training but should. Heaven forbid you ever act in self-defense and end up serious hurting or killing someone, you should have an idea of what could happen to you legally and emotionally.

Overall I really enjoyed this book, much like I did his first one “Meditations on Violence” (a must read book). Rory has a writing style that I find enjoyable to read, offers tons of good information, and I find it ties in nicely with the training I’ve received from Tony Blauer and my karate instructor Rich Pelletier. If your training involves anywhere around self-defense, either as an instructor or student, then this book should be on your required reading list. You can purchase Facing Violence from one of these locations:

Amazon

Barnes and Noble

YMAA

Knife Attack

Husband attacks wife with a knife

Bouncer Stabbing

Another stabbing

Tony put in time, effort, and money to develop High Gear, and it gets great reviews from those that have used the gear. As often happens once something become successful, imitators will move into the market. One such imitator is Spartan. Before going into the history behind Spartan, lets look  at some pictures. First one is from Close Quarters Combat New York:

Yes you should notice some similar things. Some minor cosmetic differences in the helmet but other then that it is very easy to think they are from the same person.

Tony Blauer also offered a picture showing what the other side of the two look like side by side:

Again, some minor cosmetics changes but that is it.

The Spartan product was developed by Marc Joseph. Marc worked for Tony for several years and is his brother-in-law. Marc contracted with a company in Canada the was the original manufacturer of High Gear for Tony before he switched to a company in Virginia, and had them manufacture the Spartan Gear. No wonder the two look so much like each other.

Tony wrote a blog post on the Police One website that is worth reading. There are two threads on Facebook with lots of comments worth reading which can be found here and here.

Recently there have been some bills introduced to change some of the laws around carrying a concealed firearm in the state. Some of these laws may be a good idea, but there were some around the area of where you can carry that I think are really boneheaded.

First the easy one. One proposal is to allow the carrying a firearm in your place of employment. My opinion is that this should totally be up to the company and not a blanket policy. The argument I’m sure I’ll hear will be around workplace shootings and the need to protect yourself in such a situation. The question I’ll ask is how often does that happen? Look at the number of places of employment here in the US and compare that to the number of shootings that take place each day. It would be far easier and safer to reduce these numbers through better pre-employment screening and procedures when an employee is fired.

Another area where they want to allow concealed is at the site of a labor dispute. Hmm, emotions never run wild there and never been a history of violence at labor disputes in the past, seems perfectly fine to me. To clarify this one it means that would be legal to carry a firearm to place where you can apply for a job where the employer is in a labor dispute, strike, or lockout. Currently only law enforcement officers or licensed security guards can carry in such a location. I would love to hear the reasoning behind changing this policy.

The last one is the one that really raises my eyebrow. The change would allow the holder of a concealed firearms license to carry a concealed firearm into an establishment serving alcohol for consumption on the premises (i.e. a bar). So, lets take one of the major areas where violence happens in this country, and let a person carry a concealed firearm into said place. First off, if I thought I needed to have a firearm on me in a certain bar I wouldn’t be going to that bar. Now when people do what Rory Miller calls the “monkey dance“, it just won’t be fist and kicks, maybe a beer bottle or two, now when the smaller monkey gets pushed to the floor by the bigger monkey he can equalize the situation with his friend Col Colt. I just see a recipe for bad things happening with this law change.

These are just my opinion. People are welcome to argue an opposing viewpoint.

First was the wide variety of people attending the course. You had people from a civilian background through law enforcement and the military present. You had some like myself where this was their first time attending the course to some that attended the very first PDR course. This in itself says something about the program. How many courses are there that you have people returning multiple times? I should add that part of the reason is that  this isn’t a static program, it is a continuously evolving program. You also had people from various backgrounds in the martial arts; Karate, Muay Thai, and many other martial arts.

Tony Blauer, founder of the PDR program, was the main speaker during the course. Listening to Tony speak it is easy to tell that he is passionate about the program. Tony covered the history of the program and the tenets of the PDR program. To sum this up briefly all I can is my brain is still processing all of the information covered. Even the day after the program I woke up with thoughts of materials and drills covered going through my head.  Not to leave people out, but I’m probably am, Tony was assisted by Jason Dury and Eric Walker during the course.

Besides lectures we also had some drills we we taught, and later on had to teach to the rest of the class. These weren’t secret ninja techniques designed to stop a mob of angry attackers with one move, but rather drills used to teach the principles of the SPEAR system. The SPEAR System is the building block for the PDR program, and the easiest way for me to cover this subject is to point people towards Tony’s website on the SPEAR System. What was nice during the drills is we were able to work with returning instructors that offered us tips and constructive criticism on how to improve ourselves. This was helpful during the teaching mode where first we worked one-on-one with a experienced instructor and then teach one of the concepts to the entire group. Mistakes were made by all of us new to the system, but the environment was a friendly and helpful one in helping us out.

At the end of the last day we were treated to a speech from Kyle Maynard. This was the second time I’ve heard Kyle speak and if you ever get a chance to hear him speak I would highly suggest you take advantage of the opportunity. Kyle has an incredible story to tell and a great inspirational speaker too. I enjoyed how Kyle was able to tie in his life experiences to those we had this weekend at the PDR course.

Overall it was a great experience. Had a chance to meet people I’ve seen before, meet people I’ve only talked to online before, as well as meet totally new people. It was interesting talking to some of the other new people and hearing why they were at the course. Even in this area there was a wide variety of reasons. I know I didn’t absorb everything covered this weekend, hopefully my notes will fill in some of the gaps. I look forward to attending another PDR course.

During the two days Miller covered a wide range of information related violence and self defense. The material was presented in both lecture and drill formats. During the first day we spent time performing one step sparring drills, with several variations. If you have never performed such a drill the concept is simple. One person starts an attack with a single slow movement (drills were done at slow speed for safety reasons). Their partner then can perform a single movement in response to this attack. This continues back and forth like this until the instructor calls stop. Yup, nice and simple, the fun comes when you really start to think about your movements and techniques and where they are getting you in a violent confrontation. I won’t give away all the variations of this drill that we did, just in case a reader here goes to one of Miller’s seminars, but one that I found interesting and fun was when one of you was blindfolded infighting drills. These were just part of the drills covered in day one, others were helpful and gave me some things to work on to improve myself. I will get the timing down on the drop step/hip snap/strike so I can do it every time with perfect timing.

The other part of day one were lectures on various topics ranging from the 7 Aspects of Self-Defense to the types of predators and their mindsets. The 7 Aspects of Self-Defense that Miller covers was highly informative. So informative that in my handgun safety courses I teach for people looking to get a concealed firearms permit I plan on covering these topics. I could not do credit to Miller’s coverage on this topic, it is well worth attending his seminar just for the discussion around this area. Other topics covered will be familiar to those that have read Miller’s book “Meditation on Violence” (and if you study martial arts for self-defense reasons you should read this book). The Monkey Dance, the Group Monkey Dance, asocial predators, and other topics were any that I find many people that are interested in self-defense give no thought to at all. If you want to be able to defend yourself, you should know what you are defending yourself against. Having read various authors cover this topic Miller does it as well or better then the others out there.

Day two was also a mixture of lecture and drills, but this time in a bar environment. Doing one step drills in a dojo is one  thing, doing them in a place with chairs, tables, all sorts of improvised weapons about, is another thing. An imagine the chaos of the entire class doing one step drills in one big bar fight. Fun stuff. Drills were also done to help us think differently about what we are doing. These would be drills such as “imagine you are some animal (pick one), now do one step drills with this animal in your mind. Very helpful drills in making you think outside of your usual self-defense techniques mindset.

Since fights often go to the ground, Miller also covered basic grappling techniques. Nothing advanced, but ways of changing your opponents base or center of gravity so that you can move them. Grappling is not my strong suit so I picked up some good information in this area. Another aspect of this that was educational was the feel of rolling around on a bar room floor compared to that of rolling around on a dojo floor with a carpet. Not to mention that in the dojo you don’t usually have to worry about rolling into tables, chairs, or posts in the middle of the room.

The last part of the day was spent covering scenarios. First a small group set with Rory while he discussed setting up scenarios. Miller covered many topics around this area in a short period time from safety issues to the importance of understanding how the bad guys think to setup a realistic scenario. During this portion discussion took place on what scenario to assign to what student. In choosing a scenario assignment we would try to determine an area where a person may be weak or something that will be challenging for them and see how they do. Challenges in this case may not always be physical, it could be a mental challenge for the person to make the right decision.

Watching the scenarios and how people re-acted in them was fascinating. It is easy to say “Oh you are just role-playing, everyone knows it isn’t real.” once Miller hollered “Start scenario!” you got caught up in what was happening. Depending on what was happening, your anixety could go up, heart rate increases, and the words “oh shit!” could go racing through your mind. One aspect of these scenarios is good for many martial artists to remember, you may be able to safely get out of the situation without using physical force. Watching the scenarios (and I was greedy and asked to take part in one too) and discussions about what happened was a very educational experience, and eye-opening for some people there too.

If you are interested in self-defense and ever have a chance to catch Rory Miller in your area I would suggest doing so.

What you may not know is “Saving Private Ryan” is one of the drills covered in Personal Defense Readiness (PDR) training offered by Blauer Tactical Systems. This drill re-enacts a scene from the movie where an American and German soldiers engage in hand to hand combat with the outcome determined by the one holding the knife. In the PDR drill you practice the principles of the SPEAR System defending against a knife attack with you on the ground and the attacker on top, never a good situation to find yourself.

The purpose of the drill is show the student the strength of the SPEAR, and how by using this a smaller person can hold off an attack by a larger aggressor. I won’t go into full detail of the SPEAR System in this post as one could write a chapter or two in a book on the concepts of the SPEAR System, but what you see in the drill is that by keeping the elbow angles at an outside 90 and thus engaging the extensors the defender can generate a large amount of strength, enough to hold off the attack and giving them time to mount a counter defense. In the video the two people in the drill are of similar size, so it is hard to see how the effective the technique really is for self-defense. Having witness live drills where the defender was a small woman and the attacker a much larger male, all I can say is the technique works.

This is just one drilled covered during the training offered by Blauer Tactical Systems. You can learn about training opportunities in your at the PDR Team site.