GREAT Experience in Chicago!
On Nov. 18-21, I had the opportunity to assist in the training of members of the Illinois Tactical Officers Association at the largest tactical officers training event in the country. Kelly Worden invited me to attend along with Bob Anderson. We were to train these dedicated people in empty hand physical skills. This training, led by Kelly, included empty hand, baton, travel wrench, knife, body positioning, positional control, weapons deployment and retention, and using the environment, such as walls, to gain an advantage.
In attendance there were members of many Police Departments, Sheriff's, various SWAT teams, FBI, DEA, members of our Military, and others. The keynote speaker at the banquet was Brigadier General David L. Grange, retired from the US Army in 1999 after a unique and distinguished career. A few of his decorations include Three Silver Stars, The Bronze Star, and Two Purple Hearts. He has commanded or served in combat in the Rangers, Green Berets, Aviation, Infantry, and as a member of Delta Force. This just to name a very few.
There were people like John Holschen who served for more than 20 years in the Special Operations and Intelligence branches of the US Military; Henk Iverson who spent 3 years in a South African Military Unit which specialized in operating in small units tracking terrorists on foot, with the help of dogs, helicopters and motorcycles, during the South African Bush War. He also has experience and expertise in urban counter terrorism, hostage rescue, high-risk arrest, and VIP protection; Rudy Romero, a 32 1/2 year veteran of the LAPD as a SWAT Element Member and Crisis Negotiation Team among other qualifications; Mark Schlegel, co-founder of FTF Tactics and member of the L.A. County Sheriffs Department for 18 years and is now assigned to the Special Weapons Team.
These are but a few of the fine and dedicated people from around the country that were in attendance. In all there were approximately 700 Tactical Officers at this event.
One of the things that I think was appreciated was the fact that we were not trying to impart a particular "style" upon them. That is not what they need. What we did do was offer concepts and principles from varied styles such as modern arnis, RJKD, aikido, jujutsu, and boxing. Without pointing out any particular style, we worked on fluidity of movement and flow. Flowing from one range to another, gaining an attachment and transitioning from one level of force to another while trying to maintain positional control, especially the gun side, over the "bad guy", all while using various tools like a baton or stick, knife, or Travel Wrench.
Because we were not teaching a certain style, but movement, some of the comments that were made were about how "this is easy" or "I can do this" or "this is better than trying to learn a style". I was working with an FBI agent who mentioned how he had trained in another style previously, but that this way of learning was much easier and faster.
The humbling part, for me, was to see the large number of high level people, from so many different agencies, who refuse to rest on their laurels, but instead are committed to continue to improve themselves in any way they can in order to be one of the best at what they do, which is protect the citizenry of the United States.
I was honored to be a part of this.
It takes a colossal effort to plan, organize and effectively pull off such a huge event. It could not have been accomplished without the efforts of people like Chief Jeff Chudwin, Chuck Doll, Kathryn Bertrand, Lou Hayes and so many others.
It was a pleasure to meet and train with everyone who attended.
I would welcome the opportunity to do so again. (That is an understatement.)
1 comment:
Dan, thanks again for coming out to Chicago. I hope Kelly passed on my email about using some of the techniques already...street proven! Hope to see you again.
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