Interactive Gunfighting the latest evolution in firearms training

http://interactivegunfighting.com

Cruz has the best firearms training that can be found, his extensive military background is worth so much more than others have to offer, as nothing beats real life experience, As a highly experienced competitive shooter and weapons instructor for over 20 years, and a combat veteran nominated for Silver Star, Bronze Star and Purple Heart Medals, is a testament for his ability to apply what he teaches and walks far beyond than those who just talk the talk and have taken a few steps.

I can’t imagine anyone else who can offer more than him, it is so lucky for us amoks to have him as a brother to teach his skills to those of us who wants it. AMOK! has again taken a huge leap forward, pushing again the limits to achieve not only completeness but with combat proven and battle tested ultra functional firearms training.

There is no doubt that I feel so lucky to have been a part of AMOK! so many years, seeing it constantly evolving since 2005, is so uncommon as it usually can take a generation for changes to happen in martial arts organisations, the highest ranking master has to die before major changes are implemented and one man can only change what he is capable of.

We have so many specialists in various fields that create an environment for enhancing and improving specialized skills, as none of us is smarter than all of us, our organisational structure makes it possible, as no organisation based on traditional East Asian or hierarchies in general can do that. Nothing I have ever trained has evolved so fast in a constant pursuit to achieve functional skills faster and more efficient, instead of more complex. From us in the cold North here in Denmark, we can’t wait to get a chance to be trained by him, AMOK! Cruz.

2012 Year in Review by Tom Sotis

AMOK! celebrated its 20^th Anniversary in 2012, our best year ever. I am pleased to have so many good things to report. We launched the Combative Training website, transitioned to professional licensing, upgraded AMOK! Methodology, launched the Xtreme Combatives program, upgraded the Trainer’s Package, held over 40 hands-on training events, celebrated our 10^th Thailand Camp, and solidified AMOK! Sundays.  Yes indeed, this is the best AMOK! ever.
Download a .pdf of this page here.

Combatives Training Videos and Community

It took 13 months of dedicated effort to build the Combatives Training website. Initial filming using a graduate film student was a disaster; many lessons learned about what not to do J.  Jesse Harding did a fine job assisting but we had technical issues and had to scrap all of it.  We made a second attempt when Koki was staying with me for training. Again we shot both courses and Koki did a fine job but we had problems with background noise that could not be filtered out so we scrapped it once again.

We made a third filming attempt while in Cambodia where this time Joe Howard was cameraman and Andrew Smith assisted. It was going excellently until I injured my hand in a demo for the military. In March, we returned home and made a fourth attempt. Joe filmed, Shawn Graham’s forearms turned to hamburger (thanks Shawn, great job), Andrew did an exhaustive Q&A, and then Joe edited the videos.

Now, subscribers simply open a course page and select a specific lesson that streams to their device. And what makes it simple for the user is the massive and complex technical back-end.  Integrating the website with Wishlist for Subscriptions, Vimeo, ClickBank, Mailchimp, PayPal, and the Forum was a labyrinth of plug-ins, applications, and connections that give me a migraine when I think about it. Andrew and I helped with content and design, but the hundreds of hours of eye-blurring technical work fell on Joe who did an absolutely superb job. By the way, he did a fantastic job on the cool promo video especially when you consider that it is Joe’sfirst creative video editing project.

Between travelling and a short bout with Bell’s palsy, which affects my speech, shooting the first Focus courses was delayed until the fall and we’ve finally got a way around the bug that was also a culprit in the hold-up so those will be available very soon. As well, the entire site is undergoing design changes that will make it much more interesting to visit.

We’ve gotten lots of positive and inspiring feedback on the videos from Subscribers. People like that the two courses complement each other, they say the presentation is clear and easy to follow, and people tell us they are learning a lot. People comment that the videos help them prepare for hands-on classes by getting an initial preview and understanding of the material. They love the convenience of opening their phone when practicing and having the lesson at their fingertips, and at hands-on events, people tell us they enjoy the experience more because they don’t have to be overly concerned about taking good notes because they always have the ideal reference.

We’ve also gotten lots of positive and validating feedback from Trainers who say the videos provide clear guidelines with plenty of flexibility so they always know exactly how to proceed without being limited to it. Trainers also tell us their subscribing clients are better prepared for their hands-on instruction and because the most common contextual questions that typically arise have already been addressed in the video’s presentation it gives rise to the next set of “better” questions and speeds their grasp of the material.

The Community (the Forum and Facebook) is doing very well. Years ago when I had the IBFG forum, it was very active and so I expected the same type of activity from our new community. At first I didn’t understand why it was doing well but it didn’t have the kind of activity I expected, and then I learned it was because a great deal of what once were forum threads are now Facebook posts. Some things are more productive when discussed in a forum thread and those things still naturally find their way to the forum. A lot of would-be threads that are of a less technical nature instead find their way onto Facebook.

As well, Facebook permits us to easily post photos from events and for others to comment and the up-to-date nature and easy access/interface make it easier to use, and thus it is used more than the forum. It was only this year I learned how to make a folder of photos after an event (duh!) so now those will begin to populate the photos area. In general, the guys have been more active in posting photos from their workshops and workouts on their pages, and with sharing and commenting on each others’ posts. Keep up the good work gents!

Trainers, Licensing and the Directory

When I reflect on the Trainers and Instructors in AMOK!, I feel I must be the luckiest instructor on the planet and I am immensely proud of each of you. In AMOK! we say that “brotherhood is a verb” and I enjoy a feeling of deep satisfaction by the efforts and sacrifices our brothers make for one another – the ones I know of, I’m certain there are many more.

This has been both a challenging and rewarding year for Trainers and I want to thank you for your incredible support and the outstanding jobs you have done.

Because Trainers previously operated with my personal authorization, I could not get liability insurance unless I withdrew that authorization and legally licensed them in keeping with professional standards. I had no choice, it had to be done, and it had to be done immediately.

The timing couldn’t have been worse. With the new website/videos about to launch, I knew it would reflect poorly to newcomers who visit the Directory and find it empty; and it would disappoint the Trainers, all of whom worked hard for their listing. I knew I would lose the only regular monthly income I had after 20 years of work; and it would be very expensive for an attorney to put together all the legal documents. And I knew there was nothing to do but get on with it.

I made a video announcement on Facebook, because it was the fastest and fairest way for all the Trainers to get the update, and so people would know why our Directory suddenly had no Trainers listed.

Since every Trainer would each have specific and perhaps personal questions regarding the licensing process, the best way to answer them was individually and personally so I followed up with an email to ensure each Trainer had an open line of communication directly to me.

Fortunately, licensing wouldn’t affect the Trainers financially because they could all continue teaching and earning and all contractual obligations remained intact – they only had to temporarily suspend using the AMOK! logo in advertising during their transition and since very few advertised anyway, licensing was nothing more than a paperwork hoop we’d all have to jump through. A few who decided to go their own way handled their departure poorly, though that brief and unfortunate event passed with little fanfare.

Thanks to Andrew, the licensing process is transparent, fair, and seamless. The videos present the material and prospective Trainers must replicate each of those lessons hands-on for an AMOK! Instructor who uses Key Performance Indicators to coach them until they achieve a 100% Standard of Excellence rating which maintains the highest level of quality assurance. Then Trainers submit proof of insurance IF it is required where they live and sign the license agreement.  Combined with the document-packed Trainer’s Toolkit that Andrew designed, we work continuously to improve the best Trainer package in the industry.

The Directory is repopulating and so far we have 24 licensed Trainers listed. Great job gents! I really appreciate the way you jumped right into getting sorted out. There’s still a handful of Trainers I am working to get with over the next few months to get you sorted out.

The upgraded Trainer’s program is indeed working well and Trainers and Instructors have begun teaching more workshops. Mattias Persson from Sweden is teaching AMOK! full time now with his own solid following in Scandinavia and Europe. Congratulations Matt, you are working very hard and it is paying off.  Koki Wong has opened up southern California.  Kristoffer Göransson in Sweden and Kim Hansen in Denmark made their public debuts. Alex Garduño is very active in Mexico, Shawn Graham has been teaching, and Greg Cruz is back on the scene. Keep up the good work gents; I’m proud to see you out there sharing skills.

Hands-on Events

Buried on the video project all spring and away most of the summer I scarcely worked the first eight months, but things picked up in the fall and we finished the year strongly with 41 Events by 8 Presenters in 9 countries. Below is a recap of the year.

In JAN, I was in New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Connecticut. In FEB, Andrew and Joe and I were in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. In MAR, I was in Sweden with Mattias. In MAY, Mattias was in Norway and Sweden. In JUN, Mattias was in Sweden and I was in Virginia and Rhode Island.  In JUL, Kristoffer was in Stockholm, Sweden and I was in Mass four times. In AUG, we had the Anniversary Camp in Pattaya, Thailand. In SEP, Kim was in Denmark, Mattias was in Austria, Kristoffer was in Sweden and I was in Rhode Island, Maine, and three times in Mass. In OCT, Mattias was in Germany and twice in Austria; and Koki was in California twice, while I was in Spain and Sweden. In NOV, Kim was in Frederiksberg, Denmark; Mattias was in Germany; and I was in Rhode Island, Texas, California, and two times in Mass. In DEC, Kim was in Denmark, I was in Rhode Island and Mass.

I absolutely love doing workshops and hope to do them for another couple of decades. There’s a special excitement that comes with training in the workshop environment and interacting with a variety of people. It is always rewarding to forge relationships and work with people who return often, and I find it equally rewarding to work with newcomers who are typically blown away by the whole experience. Our thanks to everyone who attended, the hosts who organized, and the instructors who shared.

Annual Thailand Camp

Words fail to express the excitement of Thailand Camp. It is always my favorite time of year with so many guys from around the world coming together. There are so many good things to say it is hard to know where to start.  After breakfast, we start each day by training for several hours, always fighting first and then presenting the latest upgrades and innovations. Training is typically followed by a swim in the pool with lunch, which is almost always followed by a foot or body massage (a whopping $6).  There’s a bit of spare time in the afternoon for sightseeing or extra workouts and then we gather again about 7:30 for dinner. Half the nights we eat at “the Mexican” because the food is terrific, with a wide international selection, large portions, the best margaritas in town, they put up with 20 of us at a time, and give us separate checks with no hassle.

This year, we had over twenty guys attend to train and celebrate the 20th anniversary of AMOK! and the 10th anniversary of the Thailand camp. We began with three days of training where we covered refinements in content and upgrades in methodology, the triangles are easier to understand and the once-complicated roadmap to functionalism has been replaced with a much simpler format.

On the fourth day Ole and Wan Bruch (Asiatours.net) took us on a speedboat to Ko Samet Island for our AMOK! 20^th Anniversary celebration. We started with a nice meal at picnic tables on the beach and then we took a swim is the beautiful warm tropical water. Gathering back on the beach, Ole and Wan presented us with a gift Thai whiskey for our celebration toast and that got the party going. We drank, swam, laughed, and had loads of fun all afternoon before boating back to the mainland. It was one of the most fun and memorable days I’ve spent in the ten years I’ve been going to Thailand.

The celebration day was followed by another three days of training (thanks to Shawn Graham for his excellent presentation), and by the end of camp, a few of the guys had earned their Trainer licenses and Paul Tsiavlis earned his Instructor license – great job gents!

AMOK! Spain 10^th Anniversary Camp

Another highlight was Jose Maria Gutierrez’ training event and 10^th anniversary celebration of AMOK! Spain. Every detail of the event was infused with Jose Maria’s characteristic panache. In addition to my presentations, we were treated to a doctor’s first-aid workshop and a knifemaker’s presentation. Trainer Kim Hansen made the trip from Denmark to train and celebrate with us. Jose Maria presented me with a beautiful custom 10^th anniversary combat blade and then he presented one to the sole survivor of the dueling activity in the workshop! This was followed by a toast in AMOK! shotglasses around the AMOK! España Banner and after that we enjoyed a fine dinner at the local pub. I am always thankful for the brotherhood I share with Jose Maria and I am proud he represents AMOK!

AMOK! New England / Sundays

Last year I made a commitment to cut my travel and rebuild our New England network by teaching drive-to workshops again, developing Trainers, and developing the Sunday class. I’m happy to report that things are going excellently in all three areas.

Already we have commitments from ten martial arts schools for workshops in the first part of the upcoming year and I’m working to double that number by year’s end. It has been especially rewarding to reconnect with guys with whom I hadn’t had contact for some time and I look forward to seeing them on a much more regular basis again.

Some of the workshop hosts, all of who have previous training with me, are already working thru the material to become licensed Trainers and I’ve had a few guys coming to me privately who can’t make Sundays and don’t have a school.

AMOK! Sundays are going fantastic and I always look forward to Sunday class. Now that the group has working skill it permits me to approach activities that are difficult with untrained persons. The guys are seasoned and the group functions well as a unit. They understand methodology, the context and format of the activities, they understand their part in the activities, and they coach each other well. I am very pleased with their skill development and how much brotherhood they share, which of course, those two things are co-dependent.

AMOK! Sunday group has developed quite strongly because it is more than just Sundays. We meet 2 Sunday’s/month to train as a group but some guys meet up between classes to train AMOK! and they cross-train in other disciplines and activities. At my house we have Pasta & Methodology nights where after dinner we cover theory/methodology, and the guys come by my garage for coaching quite regularly.  Sunday’s are working out as I envisioned and we’re all glad to have so many solid new brothers in AMOK!

Looking Ahead to 2013

Trainers

Trainers are the backbone of AMOK! so I will remain focused on developing them with our two-part process of coaching Trainers until they are skilled and licensed to teach, and then coaching them on the business end in order to do the teaching.

I am proud of the way the Trainers have stepped up to make the transition to professional licensing and we will continue working hard to help the rest of you get processed as quickly as possible. Making it easier for us to achieve that goal, besides me, Koki Wong, Andrew Smith, Paul Tsiavlis, and Mattias Persson are now authorized to process Trainers.

Upcoming Events

AMOK! enters the new year very strong with 24 events already on the calendar. So far I am scheduled for Hawaii, Amsterdam, Sweden, Thailand, Texas, and a bunch in New England. Mattias already has commitments and is waiting on dates in Sweden, Norway, Germany, Austria, and Ireland. Other Instructors and Trainers have commitments but no dates yet for workshops in the first part of the year. I fully expect in 2013, AMOK! will have more hands-on training opportunities than any previous year.

Website / Videos / Community

We’re working as hard as we can to implement new website upgrades. We are right around the corner of having the first Focus Courses available. Once the back-end is configured and the first two courses are up we will be able to produce them more regularly because the framework will be in place. We’re also going to be offering a $10/month-for-a-year payment option that gives increasing access every month with option to renew. We are also redesigning the homepage to have a lot more videos on it.

AMOK! New England / Sundays

Resourcing workshops throughout New England will remain a priority and I look forward to reconnecting with quite a few old contacts before I aim at new guys. On Sunday’s we’ll keep doing what has brought us so much success so far and continue finding ways to improve it. We have room for just a few more guys and I don’t expect those spots to remain open for very long. Starting this spring, right after AMOK! Sunday Combatives class from 10am-12, Greg Cruz will be teaching an ongoing Interactive Gunfighting class.

Thailand Camp AUG 11-17, 2013

Sawasdee Kup!  Another amazing training adventure is on the horizon. The Thailand Camp seems to grab the spotlight for highlight event of the year, every year, and with good reason. Good friends and new friends gather from around the world to enjoy a week of training and camaraderie in paradise.

Already guys are asking if the dates are confirmed so they can save money by buying tickets early. We have already reserved the training room at the Sunshine Vista for Aug 11-17 so these dates are confirmed. August will be here before you know it so start planning from now. Please, remember to book your room thru our AMOK! Sister Wilawan Bruch at www.AsiaTours.net – you will save money and there are a host of other benefits. If you’ve never travelled before we’ll be happy to help you every step of the way. Kaaaaaaa.

Cruz may be offering his own Interactive Gunfighting Camp in Thailand this year and may do his at the same place, on the same days, for two hours every afternoon. That way people can take just the AMOK! training or just the IG training and we’ll work out a combined rate those who want both.  Who is Cruz and what is Interactive Gunfighting?

In Association with Interactive Gunfighting

We are proud to be working in association with Gregory Cruz, founder of Interactive Gunfighting, a firearms instructor for over 20 years with extensive gunfighting experience. Having just retired from the military, Cruz is teaching firearms full time with an exciting selection of courses drawn directly from his experience in multiple combat engagements.

Presenting ammunition, Simunition, and Airsoft activities in parallel, Cruz’ curriculum places a heavy emphasis on Force-on-Force activities (shooting at each other) and jam-packed with his personal innovations, Interactive Gunfighting exemplifies the latest evolution in firearms training.

Cruz has been with AMOK! since early on (we go back 30 years) and he also lives in RI, which presents a rare opportunity for New Englanders to train with a veteran warrior decorated for valor who has lived an extraordinary life on the trigger.

Wrap up

Yes 2012 was in many ways our best year ever. Together we took some big steps forward and we’ll keep that momentum moving in 2013 by adding Focus and Specialty Courses to an updated website, hosting tons of hands-on workshops, enjoying an all-new format for Thailand Camp, by developing Trainers, and by working closely with Interactive Gunfighting. I look forward to training again with each and every one of you in the very near future and I wish you all a healthy, safe, and prosperous year.

Yours in training,

Tom Sotis

Southpaw Fighting Techniques: Proof Of Concept

Another great video from Damage Control MMA Having spent half of my life fighting with right lead in empty hand combat styles, and the other last half with a southpaw stance from training with blades and sticks, I can switch and feel comfortable in both stances unarmed, I do it as soon as I feel I get pressured by my opponent and while he has to adjust his plans I don’t feel any need for adjusting anything. That is one of the benefits with being comfortable in both stances, I would always choose the opposite of my opponent to start with as the odds that he has fighting experience against an opponent with stance he has trained less against is higher, better for me worse for him.

One of my all time favourite wrestlers Dan Gable has his right foot in front, as is sure that most wrestlers have trained takedowns 90% against persons with their left foot forward, so he is sure that they will do a crappy takedown and he advocates to go to the side that is the opposite of what most train to defend or attack in training. What struck me most was that his stance is exactly like in AMOK!, and one of my all time favourite MMA gyms in Brazil, Chute Box Academy have a stance that is very close to how we stand, only difference is they don’t keep their feet parallel and are off more than 15°.

I love when the pieces fit together, 2 of my favourite empty hand styles, Chute Box style Muay Thai MMA and wrestling (Catch wrestling). I can adapt it to our training as there are so many similar moves, that only confirms that it has been tested under pressure and works, hence the similarity. I don’t even need to add them as they exist already in AMOK!, but makes it easier for me to instruct newcomers with previous Muay Thai, MMA and wrestling training. All the other styles I have trained and some of them I have been an instructor also helps me to guide people better, if they have trained Wing Chun, FMA, Knock Down Karate, foil/rapier/sabre fencing. I have only added a few things that I always tell that it either is a trick from Catch wrestling, does not come from any system but from self guided discoveries I have made from experiment a lot for countless hours of sparring.

It really feels both good and bad when I discover something new that my body did by itself, that I have never trained but was a flinch response to later discover that it already existed in AMOK!, I feel good as it validates my response but bad as I believed I was the first one to do that technique. I have one which I have never seen in any system, I use it and teach it, I have to show it to Tom Sotis and see if it again is not a novelty. 

LAHNERTactical

First time I saw this video I was not 100% sure, but then got confirmed that one of the guys in this video I have been teaching for a weekend privately with 2 others in Berlin, Germany, in 2007. Best combo of participants all with martial art, FMA, MMA and military special unit’s experience, the types that are the hardest to convince that it was not BS I was teaching, and what made the whole trip worth spending money on it, was that they were happy customers.

 

LAHNER-Tactical Concepts provides Tactical Training and Consulting to Law Enforcement, Military and Security Professionals.
Selected Programs are also available to Civilian users.

Methods of a Blademaster, Tom Sotis, Part two

Part two - by Ben Stone

In the last issue of Blitz, Ben Stone described his seminar experience with Boston-born Tom Sotis, world-renowned knife expert and head of the AMOK! blade-fighting system. In part two, Sotis tells it like it is about the methods and misconceptions of knife-combat.

Blitz: What’s the biggest no-no in an empty-hand versus knife situation?

One of the biggest no-no’s is to think that your opponent will only make the single strike and comply with you. Your expectation is that they are going to continue pressing their attack and that if you grab that knife hand, they’re going to continue fighting. One of the golden rules, in terms of your progression, is you must always be seeking to protect yourself. You must then inflict great damage. With that you will have a chance to seize the knife arm. Once you do, you need to continue inflicting more pain and damage with your impact weapons, meaning your head-butts, elbows, knees and so-forth, so that you can gain more compliance and actually set your disarm in place.

In order to accurately and securely grab his blade arm you will usually need two hands, at least momentarily. If you have not caused significant impact damage and you have your two hands committed to his one, then he has a free hand with which he is going to counter you.

Blitz: How good is improvised weaponry, and do you teach its use in the AMOK! system?

Absolutely. Once you have short-blade tactics and techniques, you can expand those to longer blades, and from that comes the stick. Therefore you have both edged, pointed and blunt instruments of various lengths. You can pick up a rock or a brick and still use all the same motions; you’re impacting where you would attack their skeletal structure and maybe their nerves. If you have an edged weapon or improvised broken glass or whatever, then you would be attacking with the same motions, to the muscles and the circulatory system and so-forth. In that way, it translates to empty hands as well. With short blade tactics you have what we call ‘weapons in parallel’: You can affect almost any other weapon you put in your hand, including flexible weapons.

Blitz: Do you still incorporate pattern or flow drills in your training?

Pattern drills are very scarce in AMOK!. Just as static practices don’t teach you how to flow, flow drills don’t teach you spontaneity. While flowing is important, I think it’s a mistake to base the largest percentage of your practices on flow drills. They were the predominant method by which I was taught knife-fighting. The problems with flow drills are that you have a compliant opponent. You’re almost always in the ‘mutual kill’ range as well.

To get better [at a flow drill]—and you know you’re better at it because you’re comfortable with the drill—you have to do it a lot. In a real fight you’re not going to be in a comfortable state of mind, so the drill brings you into a mental state that is incompatible with a real knife encounter.

Flow drills have a hidden poison inside them, and that is, the motions of the drill become [a reflex] to you because you’ve done them 10,000 times. So in a stress situation, you are compelled to use those same combinations and motions, which are good to keep the drill going but not necessarily the best thing for your situation in combat.

Flow drills are used in AMOK! like a medicine: if somebody has an absent reflex or an improper reflex, we might use a flow drill to help them repair that. That’s usually a temporary fix for that individual and once he’s got that motion into his reflexes, you would immediately abandon the flow drill and go right back into your spontaneous practices to make sure that the reflex has embedded itself. I believe it’s a mistake to think that because you’re good at the flow drill, you are then going to be able to operate [those techniques] spontaneously.

Continued flow drills are a way that commercial instructors are able to make their systems bigger and bigger, so it takes a long time for people to learn it. We still use some, because some skills need to be learned in a compliant fashion and then brought with more intensity into a non-compliant practice.

Blitz: Hypothetically, if confronted by an attacker wielding a knife, what weapon would you most like to have at hand to defend yourself?

Well, if he’s at a distance, a gun is a good thing to have too! (Laughter). We don’t ignore anything in our sphere of defence. Of course, the person who is highly skilled with a stick can also do a good job against somebody with a knife; to me, that’s relative to your training. Rarely though do I have a stick as often as I have my knife. And a stick doesn’t have the psychological impact that a knife has. Some blows with a stick can be absorbed while they’re cutting you; very few cuts can be absorbed with that same type of ability to follow through. The psychological power of the weapon is also a very, very important factor that you can’t overlook when comparing one tactic to another.

Blitz: Is a knife a practical self-defence tool to carry in light of legal and safety concerns?

Absolutely, if—number one—you have a weapon that is legal to carry, then it’s always at your disposal. If it’s not legal for you to carry a knife, there are a lot of really good pens on the market too. And improvised instruments abound in all your environments. When you learn short-blade tactics, you can carry any number of instruments that are not a folding knife but will easily substitute. But given the choice, the folding knife is the way to go. Again, the psychological power of the blade is really important.

For years [the blade] has only been used by the miscreants of society. You can even see it in the social mores of your society, reflected in movies, where only psychos would use a blade. In America, [this attitude] was formed at a time when firearms were the predominant means of self-protection. But in the end, we have to ask ourselves, why should we allow the miscreants of society to be the only ones able to capitalize on the power and potential of the blade?

The blade offers the average individual, especially women, powerful self-defence in a very short period of time, while their empty hands are in development. I don’t believe that empty hands should be ignored. I don’t think carrying a blade is a magic bullet either. I think the two things need to be done appropriately and in proportion and that will significantly increase one’s sphere of defence.

Blitz: Do you teach ground-fighting with the knife?

Yes. Some of the guys with us are very highly skilled ground-fighters. We began to wonder: ‘Well, if I’m on the ground, I could just get my blade and stab him.’ Instead of thinking this would be true, we decided to find out. Fighting with some of the guys who are much better ground-fighters than me, I found I was unable to access my blade. Especially when they knew I was going for it, it was easy for them to counter. So what became important is that the person has to have basic skills so he can survive long enough or position himself to access his blade—[skill] not only in the techniques but the judgment as to when you could try such a thing.

Again, that’s a multi-faceted area that needs a great deal of study and the experts among us have been working on that very hard. It’s actually going to be taught at our [autumn] camp, but not by me. The experts underneath AMOK! will be presenting it and I will be their student that day.

Blitz: If you can’t use a blade well, can you defend against one?

The question is, how well can you defend against one (laughs). It’s a matter of degree. Of course, anybody can get lucky, but when you’re talking about probability versus possibility, a person without blade training has a very low possibility of surviving that encounter very well. A person with training has a much higher possibility. With a lot of training and effort, maybe you’ve moved in to the realm of probability. All those things are relative to the circumstance of the person attacking and the person receiving. But all things being equal, the more you train, the luckier you get.

Blitz: What would you consider more dangerous: learning no knife-defence or learning flawed knife-defence?

Learning flawed knife defence. Number one, because you have fundamental misconceptions of how the attack will occur. It will put you in a mindset where you’re going to become so surprised psychologically it’s going to be much more difficult to deal with. If they have no training at all, I find that some people have a better chance at problem-solving because you haven’t narrowed their minds as to the expectations. They will often come up with different solutions out of their instincts and natural defenses that could save them. I think that improper fundamental assumptions will be one of the biggest problems a person will face.

Blitz: Do you think it’s important to impart any philosophy or value system with what you teach?

Yes, we do. The ethics in the IBFG (International Blade-Fighters Guild) were established in the very beginning and our strong ethics earned us an incredibly strong following among law-enforcement in the United States. We saw how many books and videos were on the market and how many civilians and law-enforcement were now facing an elevated technical threat. That’s one of the fundamental reasons we established the guild in ’92, so that law-enforcement and reputable citizens could have a place to go where they might be able to learn to train themselves against this new threat.

In the end, fundamentally, you don’t have control over another person’s actions and just like any martial artist who teaches somebody in here, they could go out and use that inappropriately as well. In the ’60s when people started teaching karate, they used to say, well, you don’t have to worry, because karate makes the body a weapon, and punks will go out and buy a weapon, they won’t develop themselves. And now we see 40 years later that our prisons are full of martial artists as well; we see that such idealistic thinking was wrong.

As far as knifing goes, videos and books have been on the market for years. I don’t produce training videos. I like AMOK! to be hands-on and we work as closely as we can with every individual. I’m proud to say that we’ve taught thousands of people self-protection skills and to our knowledge not one person has ever used any information inappropriately. If something like that ever did happen, it would be a tragedy, but I have to ask myself: Should I not teach 10,000 people to protect themselves in case one might do wrong? They don’t need my training to hurt somebody with a knife. Almost anybody who wants to hurt somebody with a knife can do that before they come to my class. What you learn here is how to protect yourself against somebody doing that.

Furthermore, when you become a more skilled knifer, you have a chance to end an edged-weapons confrontation without killing your opponent. If the only thing you know how to do is stab him back until he dies, then that’s what you are relegated to. But if you have training, then you have a lot of other means and methods by which you might diminish your opponent and otherwise repel that attack without taking their life. In that respect, it’s a much more ethical and humane way of facing that type of miscreant.

Blitz: Do you feel a need to make a moral judgment on the intentions of the government or military groups you’re training, before you begin training them?

There are certain countries that are known for their human and civil rights violations and I do my best to avoid those situations. Countries that I work for are in most cases because I’m well connected in our own government. If I’m going some place that I’ve never been, I’ll make sure that I check things out in advance. I do the best that I can. In the end, if you’re going to go train soldiers to do some knife-work, rarely is that going to be the means by which they choose to dispatch any number of their enemy. It’s still almost always with guns and all the weapons they have. Very rarely does it come down to knife-to-knife. Although when it does, obviously that’s why they need my training. It’s not that I’m passing moral judgments on them but clearly I seek to be doing the right thing, no matter who I’m teaching.

Blitz: Do you get many challenges of the kind you recalled during the seminars?

Well, I don’t get as many now as I used to. When I first started doing this I had quite a few. And for the most part the challenges I receive now are not like martial arts challenges, where someone comes in and says, ‘I think you’re full of crap’, and it’s a very personal thing and everybody gets all wound up over it. When I train military groups, because these men are staking their life on this information, they have a right to challenge it, to make sure it’s correct. If somebody’s challenging me as an individual, that’s different to challenging the information. If somebody challenges the information and they want to come at me full-out to find out, I’m happy to do that because it gives an opportunity to show everybody that it does work under those circumstances. It helps them know that it works and gives them the confidence that it works. In combatives circles, when somebody challenges your information and asks you to prove it, it’s not seen as a personal affront or a challenge, it’s normal training.

Blitz: Other than the Filipinos, have you trained with many masters from other knife cultures around the world?

Sure, I meet knife culture all over the world, because people use knives everywhere and in different ways. The Indonesians and the Filipino, they use their blades somewhat similarly, but not the same. The Japanese as well; they have knife-work of their own, but it’s a little bit different. South Africa is the murder and stabbing capital of the world—they call it knifer’s paradise. There, of course, more people have died by blades than by AK-47s. And with that, there are people there who have their own street systems and so-forth. We study and investigate those as well. In each area we go, we look for the knife culture. Who is doing what? What are their styles of thinking? What are their predominant methods of attack? And so-forth. So we can adapt to the needs of any culture into which we bring AMOK!

Blitz: Why do you think the Philippines have developed such a strong knife culture and is considered to be so far ahead of others?

Most other land masses that were in warfare really moved towards firearms several hundred years ago, so most people’s training went to firearms. People didn’t really carry swords for combat any more. Therefore, knife-work as a supplement to sword-work fell away also. Usually the knife is left to the miscreants of society in those countries as well.

In the Philippines, because they were occupied by the Spanish for 377 years and then the Americans, they were never really allowed to amass firearms. But as an agrarian and tribal society, made up of over 7000 islands which are very separated, people there lived with their machetes and knives because that’s how they make a living. When you had a problem there, you couldn’t really go to the Spanish authorities because then they would punish everybody. So if he had a machete and you had one, that’s how it got dealt with. So over the last several hundred years, the knife-fighting in the Philippines has continued to evolve. I met guys in the Philippines who told me that in WWII they were very young, so they didn’t have any guns and they had to go out and set up ambushes and kill as many of the enemy as they could and then bring the guns back to the village. Then the old guys would get the guns. Some guys said, ‘I fought through the whole war and I never got to fire a gun!’ (laughs)

Blitz: What plans do you have for AMOK! Africa?

My goal is to expose people to the realities of the edged weapon; to its benefits, its potentials, its dangers. And to let people do what they will with it, in so far as how much they want to pursue it. I’ll keep coming back as long as they invite me to. My goal is to spread awareness among martial artists that this is the greatest threat we’re going to face. Professional martial artists who are teaching self-defence—not just martial arts, which can be taught for reasons other than self-defence—and realize that not everybody will attack you with empty hands, it’s prudent to take into your training the idea that somebody might attack you with a knife. Therefore, you should seek the very best information.

Blitz: What drives you to keep learning and why do you remain so passionate about knifing?

There’s a certain undeniable truth to the blade. When you live with that undeniable truth every day, it’s very refreshing. It doesn’t allow for too much hypocrisy or for unproven ideas to last too long. When you get in there and you see the reality of the counter, you lose your ego right away if you want to continue doing such a thing and survive. Being in a group of talented martial artists and dedicated people who’ve lost their ego and want to learn and practice together, to me that’s just a wonderful atmosphere. I can’t think of having a better job in the world than this.

Methods of a Blademaster, Tom Sotis, Part One

Part One - by Ben Stone

Boston-based Tom Sotis, world-renowned knife expert and founder of the AMOK! bladefighting system, conducted two seminars in Victoria in late 2003. Ben Stone attended the seminars, which turned out to be a fun and controlling adventure into the world of knife-defence, and an insight into the man known in knifer’s circles as one of the USA’s best kept secrets.

For most that arrive at a Tom Sotis seminar believing they have a reasonable understanding of knife-defense a rude awakening is in store. After brief introductions we were instructed to grab a partner and line up. To dispel any erroneous notions of what a knife-fight is really like, Sotis and his assistant, instructor Aaron DeSousa of Sydney’s Combat Kempo, take a pair of foam-baton training knives and attack each other with a ferocious intensity that leaves most mouths agape. The whole exchange takes less than 20 seconds, their rapid-fire techniques indiscernible in the wild fray of swinging arms, thrusting batons, and shuffling feet. There isn’t a neat disarm to be seen but every other second a loud WOP is heard over their yells as they disfigure, disembowel, and repeatedly kill one-another. Well, we have to imagine that part.

To reform any remaining skeptics we were all told to have a go. The 30 of us try as hard as we can to “cut” our partners while avoiding their weapon, parrying their strikes, and thrusting at their head, heart, legs, and anything we can reach. I don’t know how many times my fingers are cut off or how often I block a strike to a vital organ only to have my adversary’s knife stuck in my arm. I connect with many strikes to my partner’s vitals but the momentary sweetness of success is too often soured by the realization that he has simultaneously slashed my throat or stabbed me through the heart. While the training blades are harmless enough - though still capable of producing large bruises and the odd welt – the mind boggles at the real possibilities.

While the frenetic sparring leaves many breathless – seasoned martial artists included – it is clear that were this real, most of us would be very lucky to be still breathing at all. As the Professor says later, “In a knife fight, it’s not how much you get him; it’s how much he gets you.”

AMOK!’s bloody logo gives some hint as to the method behind the system’s madness. It is designed to tell you abut the intensity of the mindset of the person you may be fighting and the type of mindset you are going to need to survive an edged weapons encounter says Sotis. Or indeed to survive the first seminar. This first exercise, clearly one that Sotis deems most important in our development as “knifers” is designed to bring us closer to the true nature of knife attacks.

I receive a second more definitive lesson early in the seminar when Sotis calls for a volunteer. As he demonstrates a defense to my attack, he strips the training knife from my hands. We have all been informed of amok policy, if you are disarmed, your partner is to seize the opportunity for a kill, as an attacker may do, while you must recover your blade and defend. The AMOK! instructors instead whip their folding knives from their hip pockets opening them with a flick of the wrist and calling “Out!” in case their partner hasn’t seen it. Then they put it away and begin again.

I hardly have a chance to think of diving for my foam weapon before Sotis has driven me back several times with repeated thrusts into my gut; yelling and punching most of them through my doubled-over attempts to block. So this is what it is really like…

Though the principles of AMOK! are Filipino-based (he has trained under Grand Tuhon Leo T. Gaje Jr. among others) Sotis has significantly altered the format in which they are practiced, such that AMOK! now has more in common with military combatives. Most martial arts demand a longer period of time to develop a foundation upon which to build the other skills. In the military, immediacy is key, thus their priorities and emphases in practice differ. Most civilian martial arts, says Sotis, are taught with less lethal circumstances in mind.

“Generally you have an unlimited time line in which to learn it, and generally your opponents are somewhat compliant during your practice until you develop some skill. When I train the military guys, they don’t have that luxury, they have to get the most direct approach that will lend them some survival skills, and assuming they survive, they then have more time to practice.”

In AMOK! prioritization is paramount and practicing with a non-compliant opponent is top of the list. “When somebody pulls a knife on you in civilian life, isn’t it a life-and-death circumstance?” Sotis asks the group. “When a knife is produced, it matter not whether you are wearing fatigues on a battlefield or jeans outside, you’re in a life-and-death struggle. Therefore I believe it is only ethical to teach the same versions to civilians as I do soldiers.

Sotis has thus changed the AMOK! approach from martial knife-fighting to combative and adjusted it values and priorities to suit. “That is why we don’t bow before running amok at the beginning. When you do your courtesy or you “Osu” it brings the martial dimension into play in your mind, then you get ready and set yourself for your class. That is a trigger to your mindset, that’s why our courtesy is here”, Sotis explains, raising his left arm to cover his heart and throat. “This is a trigger to the martial dimension so if somebody should attack me unexpectedly, my hand comes up to protect me, while I’ll certainly be going for my blade and for follow up.”

To Sotis, prioritization is much more important in knifing than it is in empty hand combat. In knifing, he says, you can be “pretty adept very quickly” while empty hand fighting takes a period of development. AMOK! teaches both. “We teach the bladework from the beginning and it takes time to develop your empty hands, but they even out. I’ve changed a lot of our format to allow for that; and that’s the reason I believe I don’t teach martial knifework, but combative knifework. I don’t really teach people knife-fighting as much as I teach them how to fight with a knife. Clearly there is a difference.

Sotis explains that AMOK! includes extensive empty hands training because knife combat involves tow types of situations: those where the opponents come together and apart-“that’s largely knifework and footwork”- and those where the opponents come together and down. “Bringing a person down involves head control, arm-locks, wrist-locks, elbow-locks, sweeps, throws, and all those things by which you then get situational control over your enemy.” he says.

Simple distinctions like this are at the core of AMOK! theory, as is simplicity itself. When you are fighting, it’s not what you know, it’s what you can distinguish; what your mind sees in the moment and can react to, it’s your distinctions that present to you your opportunities, and therefore your course of action,” says Sotis. He breaks all the flashing of blade and life-and-death jousting into a few simple principles” “Safe or unsafe- that is your distance; single or combination strikes- that is your timing; to the inside or outside of the arm or body- that’s your position and targets; supported by your checkhand, on demand or command- you either use it or you don’t, and that will depend on your distance, position, and your timing.

“Almost everything you learn about fighting from me falls somewhere in that category.” he says. “And when you’re fighting, those are the only things you can distinguish anyway.”

As our intermittent sparring indicates, trying to decipher whether you are receiving a number 8 or 9 strike in the heat of combat is not only impossible, but unnecessary. “You know what those names are good for?” says Sotis emphatically. “So after you’ve kicked somebody’s ass you can say exactly how you did it- but it’ not what you were thinking in the moment.”

A comment from a man at one of his seminars was the impetus for this realization. “He said, “If just for one minute I could be inside you and look through your eyes and see what you see, I’d give you my car.” And he had a nice one,” laughs Sotis, “So I was thinking, How could I get that car? I began to think about that. What is it that I am looking for and that I do? When you’re fighting, it’s basic; is this a kick or a punch? You don’t start thinking; wait a minute that was a front-kick or a reverse-action punch. Your mind doesn’t think that definitively in combat.”

”These distinctions become ultimately important because what you can distinguish or see determines how you act. And the more clearly you can distinguish what’s going on, the more options you have to act on. So these kind of distinctions are very generalized, but in doing so, they make your reactions much faster.”

Sotis recalls a formula for reaction time used by biochemical engineers: 270logE times P plus one. “P” means the number of things your mind has to consider before it can make a decision and act on it. Therefore, as the value of “P” rises, your mental reaction time begins to increase. So the paradox is- how can I continue to learn without adding new labels, which then spoils my reaction time?” Sotis solution is that the labels are still learned for the purpose of learning and training, but are discarded in combat.

For those who think the approach is too simple to be the work of a master instructor, Sotis has many anecdotes to persuade them otherwise. In a break he tells of a man who challenged one of his instructors in South Africa telling him he could disarm him. Ignoring the instructor’s advice he attempted to kick the knife (a large tanto) from his hand. A simple tilt of the instructor’s wrist guided the blade down through the man’s incoming lower leg out the other side. With a knife stuck in his leg and a better understanding of knife defense tactics, the man was taken off to the hospital.

But for all the stories he has collected there’s no bravado in Sotis’ tales and even when he is making jokes – which is reasonably often – his words have an underlying seriousness. He has trained many elite military and law enforcement units, including Russia’s Spetsnaz, the South African Special Forces, and the US Secret Service, FBI, and DEA, and his extensive experience has lent him an intimate knowledge of the subject matter’s gravity. He wants no-one to leave with an inflated sense of their abilities.

“You meet people who say, “We have knife defense”, Well, I don’t have knife defense,” he says a matter-of-factly. “I have practices that I think will give me a better chance, but I don’t think I have knife defense”.

It is sobering to see a world-renowned blade-fighting expert throw his wallet onto the floor of the dojo at an imaginary attacker’s feet. “That’s free. If you want to touch me, it’s going to cost you.” he says. “That’s what I tell people. I don’t think I have enough pride and ego to face a blade empty-handed for what’s in my wallet. I’ve seen guys tougher than me bleed to death in my arms because they made that mistake, and I just realized I wasn’t going to.”

The high stakes for a knifefight for both parties means establishing an attackers intent is important, says Sotis. While an aggressor may be exhibiting the means and capability to harm you (by threatening you with a knife), it is important to ensure he has the intent before you act, lest you escalate the situation. Trying to attack him could be the worst move of all, Sotis warns, because it is easy for him to defend himself- with the knife. I realized early on in the sparring sessions that waiting to cut an incoming limb is a safer tactic than lunging for the kill.

“If they pull a knife on you thinking its to scare you and then they’re forced to defend themselves, they’re going to react violently, explains Sotis, “That’s why I usually advise people to wait and let them attack you, because if so, they’ve demonstrated their intent.”

Interview with Tom Sotis

This is one of the few interviews available with Tom Sotis 's that he was has approved, many times has he was misquoted and for that reason he does not do many interviews. Many journalist take a few photos, write some cue words, then head back and create a story based on the few cues he wants to use to create his story and chooses those who fits his own biased angle on the story he wants to tell. I remembered a journalist that had too many zeroes on an interview with me and my friend about how much money we spent each weekend, 1000DK Kr suddenly increased to 10000 DK Kr.

http://www.laspirale.org/pages/afficheArticle.php3?id=200&lang=en

Article about AMOK! in SWAT magazine

Todd Burgreen has written an excellent article about AMOK! that is in this month's SWAT magazine

Why you need a sharp edge

This is a quick demo showing why you need a scary sharp edge on your EDC even if your tactics involve only thrusting.

Thieves and liars, exposed for their failed attempt to steal the AMOK! brand and lie about its heritage.

Adding to the public shame of their failed attempt to steal the AMOK! name and brand, students of the founders of Mommy’s Little Worriers continue spreading propaganda claiming that they are co-founders of AMOK! when it is a provable fact they didn’t come on board until a full SIX years after Tom Sotis founded it in 1992.

If this were true, why don’t the founders of Mommy’s Little Worriers publicly claim this themselves? Because they know it is just another big lie and so they use their loyal people to eat that shit sandwich for them.

These students do not yet realize know how foolish this makes them look and they should get used to that taste if they’re going to take their direction from under a skirt.

Of course, founders who believe in themselves would stand on their own merit and every time Mommy’s Little Warriors or their students mention their past connection to AMOK! they further reinforce to everyone that they need to stand on AMOK!’s shoulders to validate themselves.

If you want to know for sure – ask the founders of Mommy’s Little Worriers on their Facebook page to publicly declare what year they joined AMOK! and let's see what answer they give.

Fell free to Like and Share the truth.

By: AMOK!

Secret Teachings of Yagyu Shinkage Ryu (Ken Jutsu) with English Subtitles

“Opening the dragon’s mouth” is exactly the same way we prefer to grip blades in AMOK!, Kratos and limbs when we wrestle.

Spartan Training Gear Goddess Hoplite vest

For those women brave enough to challenge themselves, test if they can survive an assault, we have a set of the Spartan Training Gear Goddess Hoplite vest and complete protection from head to toe. Fitted for the today’ woman warrior, who need the fastest way to learn how to defend themselves in a busy life with children, job or studies. We can provide both, the functional skills set and the gear to train and fight hard without injuries that will inhibit everyday life.

At Copenhagen Combatives our goal is to acquire functional defence skills fast with the use of non compliant resistance training, no katas or forms, only technical training with aliveness and oppositional partner training. This method is used in our AMOK! training were this method comes from, in our Kratos Combatives training fighting with weapons from any time and place in history, predominately European weapons.

Copenhagen Combatives Group new system The Kratos Combatives™

The Copenhagen Combatives™ Group have launched an independent systems besides our regular AMOK! training, which is the most ultra functional system proven in combat based on short blade techniques. This is what we predominately teach as a defence system against armed and unarmed attacks, how to use any object as a weapon, recognising and evading an assault by learning how to spot the subtle cues before an attack is launched.

The independent systems is:

The Kratos Combatives™ a methodology to use any kind of historical weapons inspired by my mentor and teacher Tom Sotis. This is to show how the framework and methodology from AMOK! can be utilized to any kind of weapon. A hybrid martial art based on geometry for empty hand defence, where the goal is to give functional self-defence skills with the minimum amount of time, by utilising the most common flinch responses as a defence. Utilising genetically pre-programmed movements as attacks, as for example using the movement from throwing an object to use it for a punch, throwing is such a complex movement that its not a skill learned its there from birth, but can be improved by training and change it to other purposes. 

After waiting for this project to launch, we can finally announce that it now is possible to see instructional videos with Tom Sotis about how to defend yourself against knife attacks, unarmed or with a knife.