At this time in my Military career, I am in the position of being key personnel to Commanders. One of the things I enjoy is having little golden moments of mentorship and learning how these officers approach leadership. I always write little pearls of wisdom shared or ideas of principles that are universal. Each commander that I have been able to work with has gotten to know a little about my Martial Arts background. I always think of the question, "If I only had 10 minutes to teach a Commander Martial Arts because he or she asked me to show a move, what would it be?" Keep in mind, we would not have nice training mats to do ground techniques, yet there is a great chance that the request would be in the Military uniform. So, in the many times this played out in my mind and the few actual opportunities I had to do his with Officers and Chiefs, I taught the Concept of Zero using Judo Grip Fighting called Kumi Kata.

Right now you are thinking, "What does math have to do with Jiu...

Training in a weapon-based environment requires new skillsets and mindsets.  What can be applied in Martial Arts and Combatives without having a weapon in the struggle gives much more freedom although still presents many challenges.  A great drill to practice in Combatives training is to begin sparring with one person having a hidden weapon.  When the instructor gives the cue, one of the training partners will pull the weapon out.  This will quickly change the dynamic of the drill.  The weapon is an equalizer for the person that does not have the skills in hand-to-hand Combatives.

When it came time to develop the Gunji Taiho Jutsu's (GTJ) weaponry curriculum, we went for the structure of building off the foundations of Military Combatives and what is explore in Military Basic Training.  This includes self-defense movements against weapons, offensive attacks with the long gun, and how to survive.  With this in mind,...

It is easy to make the statement that Military and Law Enforcement communities need to train in Martial Arts and Combatives.  More specifically many will say that they need training in Grappling and Jiu-Jitsu.  Everything here is not wrong.  By practicing Martial Arts and grappling-based Combatives, Military personnel will gain many more benefits other than learning defensive and offensive moves.  There are lists of benefits that can be written on the value of training and receiving better confidence in yourself and the confidence to do your job. 

When it came time to develop the Gunji Taiho Jutsu's (GTJ) grappling curriculum, we went for the context of Grappling Survival and the core positions in arresting arts.  This includes grappling-base self-defense movements, stand up grappling, and ground survival.  With this in mind, GTJ's grappling survival core needed to follow principles and try not to be so "Brazilian...

We were in our 5th or 6th week of Air Force Basic Military Training (BMT) at Lackland Air Force Base, Texas in 2015. The story I am going to tell occurred during BEAST Week. BEAST week was designed to challenge us both mentally and physically enduring long hours of physical training, combatives, and tactical skills tests. I will never forget the training night where I had to stand guard in the late hours of the night only to transition back to a cold, hard and stiff genuine US Army issue folding cot with an aluminum frame. This was the night I did not sleep because I was coughing and had the beginning of the flu. Many of us in the flight were sick as we caught it from another trainee. The next day we all met under a large roof area with open walls. The ground surface was small rocks and dirt. There was a stage with BEAST instructors on it. The topic of Air Force Combatives was next.

I can remember the instructor showing basic stance work, use of the M-16 training weapon for...