When I was young, I saw two police officers save a family from their drunken patriarch by arresting them. It was at that moment that I realized my sacred calling – I decided that when I grew up, I would serve and protect like those police officers.
As I grew older, I realized that serving came naturally to me, but I needed to learn skills to defend myself. In response, my father put me on a training path. As a former boxer, he insisted on teaching my brothers and me how to box.
I remember my father’s message on self-protection, which he vividly demonstrated to me. He said, “You don’t start fights, but if someone else does, you know how to finish them. Let the other guy throw the first punch – dodge, block, and then hit back hard. Hit back first! Most people don’t come back for a second after a well-aimed combination.”
To complement this training, I wrestled for all four years of high school and then pursued martial arts, focusing on control skills. I did not pursue these activities to win championships, awards or colored belts, but rather to consciously train for my planned career as a police officer, because I thought to myself, “How can I protect others if I can’t protect myself?”
Inadequate training of defensive tactics
While studying police science in the 1970s, I investigated defensive tactics training at police recruitment academies and was horrified to find that it was only a 12-hour block and that agencies offered little to no advanced training after recruitment.
I decided that I would first develop security skills myself. Then I would dedicate myself to finding a way to ensure that my colleagues had access to the knowledge and skills they needed to not only survive in this profession, but to thrive.
At the time, martial arts training focused primarily on repetitive movements of basic skills, forms, sparring, and the use of traditional martial arts weapons. While these exercises were valuable, none of them resembled real street situations. I felt that I needed a connection to the street in order to be able to apply my skills to law enforcement.
I found this connection in training with Master Don Cowling, Grandmaster Larry Klahn and Master Ferdinand Roth Jr. Not only were they gifted martial artists, but they were also law enforcement officers. I even worked with Roth and Klahn on the street, which allowed us to use our skills together as partners. We also taught police officers together.
Through these teachers I was able to develop what I call my “first move ability.”
Cowlings approach
Cowling’s style, American self-defense, would today be called “mixed martial arts.” After first teaching all students to fall expertly, which allowed for realistic training, our skills began to take shape.
Each technique taught was a response to a specific attack. The attacks we defended against were realistic and the response trained was designed not only to block the attack but also to control the attacker in a defensible manner. We learned step by step, starting slowly to focus on form and gradually building up to the speed needed in street applications.
Our training started with knowing what attack was coming and then moved on to dealing with sudden, unknown attacks. This could include a chokehold, a chicken wing, a ground attack, punches, kicks of any kind, or an attack with a club, knife or gun. Our training partner would attack and we would counter and control. Then we would retaliate and attack our training partner. This training felt like real street encounters.
When I later experienced some of these attacks as a police officer, my counterattack after the suspect’s first move was so seamlessly connected to the attack thanks to countless repetitions of training that it seemed as if the suspect’s attack had been part of my first move.
Note: The inclusion of training in responding to the first movement of a suspect as a resisting or attacking offender does not prevent an officer who believes it is tactically appropriate, legal and justified from making initial contact with a suspect whose actions warrant an arrest.
Grandmaster Klahn and Master Roth offer a second street nexus
Klahn and Roth ran a traditional taekwondo studio that also offered judo and hapkido. In the studio, students practiced traditional forms – one-step sparring, tournament sparring and judo sparring (rondori).
Additionally, Roth and Klahn introduced a non-traditional drill called “American One-Step Sparring,” which became street training for me. In this drill, students faced each other and one took turns punching or kicking the other without warning. The defending student would block, counter, use an evasive move, a control technique, or any combination of these. Each student chose the most appropriate defense and practiced it repeatedly. The training felt realistic, but none of the techniques resulted in injury.
I incorporated my police techniques into these exercises and significantly improved my competence on the street.
This three-step technique can be life-saving to survive a chokehold
Application for police training
As a police trainer, I have developed exercises to improve each officer’s skills in conducting physical arrests and dealing with initial resistance. The officers:
- Apply controlled holds without a safety harness, first without and then with resistance guided by the instructor.
- Controlled holding exercises applied in the team, first without and then with resistance guided by the trainer.
The officers were trained in advance in certain initial steps to counter the initial resistance of various suspects.
To prepare officers for sudden attacks, attacker training would include:
- Apply a chokehold from the front and back.
- Grab the gun in the holster (use a specially designed, smooth training gun to avoid injury).
- Grab the gun from the holster (use a specially designed, smooth training gun to avoid injury).
- Ride them while they are lying on their stomachs.
- Sit on her back and ride her.
I also trained officers in the ability to act first in deadly force encounters by conducting interactive weapons training. In this setting, officers used their service weapons with service ammunition and realistically trained to win gunfights. (For a full description, see “Street Survival Two, Tactics for Deadly Encounters.”)
The feedback I received after each life-saving first step consisted of many, many repetitions from officers who would contact me again and say, “This training saved my life.”
One of the most important first move drills involves training officers to hold their weapons, including holding their baton, taser, service weapon, and carbine (training weapons should be used for these drills).
Any blow used to stop a suspect from taking your weapon must be delivered with all the force you can muster
Creating exercises to develop reactions to the first step
To construct your own first step exercises, study real street encounters to prepare for what might happen. Here are examples of first-move answers to be taken into account.
Note: The trained response should be carefully selected to ensure that any first course of action you prepare is not only effective, but also defensible, ensuring both the physical and legal survival of your officers.
By properly developing your first move skills in response to specific resistance or street attacks, you may find, as I did, that with proper preparation, the suspect’s first move will be your first move too!
