Going to a Tony Blauer Be Be Your Own Bodyguard, personal defense readiness seminar next weekend. Anyone ever been to his trainings and what was it like?
I haven’t attended one of Tony’s seminars myself, however I have watched some instructional video and many of his principles are incorporated into training that I have done both privately and with local law enforcement. At one time he and my primary instructor trained together fairly regularly and many of their principles techniques developed in parallel. Tony, however was much more successful at branding himself and his system.
If you haven’t really done anything “reality based” before, I think you’ll find it to be really interesting/helpful, but a little expensive unless your employer is picking up the tab. He’s a knowledgeable guy who addresses his topic in a simple, practical and easy to understand fashion and I personally know people who have come out on top in bad situations employing what he teaches (although they didn’t learn it directly from him, but that’s beside the point).
Obviously, you won’t come back as invincible jedi ninja spetznaz guy, but you will very likely come away with some new ways of looking at things. Of course, how well any of fit will really work for you if you ever need it will depend on how diligently and effectively you incorporate it into your ongoing training.
Curious, any reason you decided to go?
Interested in combatives. Trained 22 years uechi ryu a okinawan tma and my current instructor reaches a lot of stuff that relates to what Blauer teaches so it’s a good fit. i did 2 years of small circle jujitsu a few years ago and like the combination of traditional and practical stuff. i’m always looking for ways to make the traditional more practical… and after watching Blauer’s stuff over the years and having a seminar 4 miles from my house I figured why not.
I think you’ll enjoy yourself. In anything I’ve ever seen, Blauer encourages people to think of his stuff as a “bridge” from pre contact to first contact to whatever their own system is, as opposed to being the end all in itself.
How did the class go?
He is a great coach of this stuff. To be honest, I’d seen most of his stuff on line and there was little that I was not familiar with. His big thing now is that people that are trained, especially with crossfit, have skills and training that is adaptable to self defense if you keep some drills and skills tight with constant practice. Very engaging trainer. I may attend other trainings that he has when they come this way. I’d recommend going to his training with a group of people, learn his drills and keep them fresh with practice. The stuff he puts into the mentals side and fear management is exceptional. However almost all his stuff is available online.