My Journey as a Personal Defense Instructor

A few months ago, I sent an email to all my subscribers informing them that going forward I will be offering more self-defense courses to complement the firearms courses. In that same communication I also hinted about some exciting new developments surrounding that decision, and today I am happy to announce that I am now an affiliate of Blauer Tactical Systems as a certified instructor for S.P.E.A.R: Personal Defense Readiness™. After over two decades of martial arts training and being involved in personal defense, I can confidently state that this system, developed by Tony Blauer (front and center of the photo above) is the most practical, realistic, and effective one I’ve ever come across, without a shadow of a doubt.

I want to explain how I came to this conclusion and take the opportunity to tell you about my evolution as a martial artist and instructor. As a personal defense and firearms instructor, I get asked my credentials a lot—and rightfully so—given the sensitive nature of what we do. Providing people incorrect information and teaching them the wrong skills could get someone killed. As such, I am happy to go over some of the places where I’ve trained, under whom, and provide some insight into the things I’ve learned along the way. However, now 23 years into this it can get pretty long and convoluted given the amount of times I’ve moved and changed gyms, traveled to different schools and seminars etc. So, I decided to make a blog post detailing my experience that I can point people to and that can be vetted accordingly.

I really enjoyed putting this together and going down memory lane. Thanks to the internet it was possible to re-visit a lot of people and places that made a mark on me and made me into the instructor I am today. I will try to include as many links a possible to corroborate my story as well as to add texture. Everything I outline below is in correct chronological order, but I will not include dates as my middle-aged memory cannot be trusted on such things.  If you take the time to read this I hope it proves informative and instills some confidence in my skills and abilities as your instructor.

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I have a vague memory of taking Karate lessons around the age of seven. I don’t think I did it for very long as we moved to San Diego from Mexico City soon thereafter, but I always maintained an affinity for martial arts; it would be another ten years before I would dip a toe into that pool. During junior year in high school, I decided to check out a martial arts studio a few blocks from my school. It was called Twin Dragons and it was situated in an upscale location right next to the world-famous Comedy Store in La Jolla, California. It was run by Terry Sanchez, black belt in Karate, who taught many other disciplines. I was most interested in Kickboxing (probably due to a steady diet of Jean Claude Van Dam movies like Bloodsport and Kickboxer). This was my first real foray into combat sports. This is where I got my first punch in the face outside of a schoolyard fight. Terry was a soft-spoken, gentle soul and a good instructor. He got me started in proper striking technique and took his time helping me improve my form, and how to wrap my hands properly.

From what I recall, the studio closed. I remember being amazed that such a humble studio could stay afloat in such a high-end location, but in doing some research it appears that it relocated further away from downtown La Jolla. I’m not sure if there was a gap between opening the other location but I never trained at the new location. Check out Twin Dragons here (you gotta love the internet).

How I stumbled on my next gym is too hazy to even try to put together. All I can tell you is that I ended up at the American Training Center run by Jeff Gibson. Jeff is an International Karate Hall of Fame inductee and a heavyweight kickboxing champion. He was a big deal to us because, at the time, he was said to have beaten Dennis Alexio who is one of the best kick boxers of all time. There was some hubbub because supposedly the fight was not sanctioned, or it was technically an exhibition fight, I don’t remember the details, but for all we cared we were training under the world champ. Jeff and Dennis faced off again in 1997 and Alexio won decisively via knockout. I tried to find more information about the circumstances surrounding the first fight but could not find anything. All I know is that things started to go downhill after the loss. There was a lot of murmuring at the time and as a young kid surrounded by older hardcore fighters—some of them pros—I was too intimidated to pry. At some point we were notified that the gym would be closing, and from what I had gathered it appeared that Jeff had gotten in some legal trouble. Again, I was not privy to the facts or the details. The only thing I could find on Jeff was this.

My time at ATC was significant for a couple of reasons. That is where I met my first martial arts love: Muay Thai. In addition, the main instructor, Wayne was a beast. I wish I remembered his last name. He’s probably one of the most impressive strikers I’ve ever seen in person. His kicks would make a full-size 250 lb. heavy back swing as if it was filled with only air. Here is where I had my first taste of real, no frills training that was heavy on conditioning and sparring. While Jeff was a nice enough guy, I remember thinking that he was a bit of a douche. Wayne, on the other hand, was a very humble and dedicated coach.

If I remember correctly, there was a bit of a lapse after ATC closed since I was in college and focusing on my studies (and partying, I’m not going to lie). I do remember that I bought some gym equipment that I set up in the garage and would train alone a few days a week. However, I was still very eager to get back into training and having some direction as opposed to just being left to my own devices. Sparring was also missing from my life and I knew that there is very little to learn from fighting a bag that doesn’t punch back.

As luck would have it, a boxing gym opened just a few miles from my house. It was called The Boxing Club. Unlike the previous 2 gyms (and my garage), this facility was state of the art, and clean! Initially it had a couple of locations but would grow to have about 5 different gyms across San Diego County. The one I attended was the headquarters and the Muay Thai program was run by none other than two-time world champion Mel Menor. This would be the gym where I would train for the next several years.

It was a thrill training under Mel. As the head of the program, I didn’t get to train with him directly as much as I would have wanted, but his assistant trainers were very good. Here is Mel on NatGeo Sport Science (the first time I took a leg kick from him I couldn’t walk for three days). The main trainers were Lawson Baker, a professional heavyweight, and Caine Gayle, both very good coaches. It appears that Caine now runs the program at TBC. However, the trainer that most had an impact while I was there, came in a year or two after I first joined. His name is Fabrizio Bergamini and the man was a beast. He was probably the trainer that had the biggest impact on improving my skills and abilities. He was charismatic, patient and an all -around good guy, but he knew when to get serious and get to work. He made sure to be tough on his students who he knew were serious about Muay Thai while being the “cardio-kickboxing coach” to those who were beginners or were taking the class for fitness purposes only. About a year into attending his group classes I started doing private training sessions and sparring with him and Lawson, which took me to the next level. Here is Fabrizio fighting Yuki in Tokyo

As my ADD is wont to do, as soon as I start getting consistently good at something, I start to look for a new challenge (this has made me mercurial in some regards but has served me tremendously as an entrepreneur; not getting content or complacent drives me to keep innovating. But I digress). This was around the time that the UFC and Pride FC were blowing up. No longer was cage fighting a couple of brutes wailing on each other mercilessly without any rules, it had evolved into a sanctioned sport with rules that we now know as Mixed Martial Arts.

By then, the results were in: the most viable arts for combat sports were Muay Thai for striking, and Jiu Jitsu/wrestling for grappling. I remember watching the UFC in the mid-90s when it was a total shit-show and how Royce Gracie would beat everyone handily. At the time I didn’t even know what I was seeing. A decade later Brazilian Jiu Jitsu was all the rage and I knew that I had to try it.

The gym near my apartment unfortunately did not offer Jiu Jitsu or MMA, but most of the others in the chain did. As such, I would train boxing or Muay Thai at HQ two or three days out of the week and Jiu Jitsu/MMA another two or three days a week. I would only take Sundays off and I was in the best shape of my life at a lean and mean 175 pounds.

The Jiu Jitsu/MMA program at TBC when I started was run by Dean Lister, Abu Dhabi champ and UFC alum. He is a BJJ black belt under Fabio Santos. I mostly trained under Elias Gallegos, who was a brown belt and also had trained under Santos. He eventually received his black belt from Lister. Around a year into my training, Dean left the club and started his own school. Elias and a new trainer Johnny (Joao) Faria took over the program. Johnny is a Flavio Behring black belt who brought in a couple of other black belts, but I mostly trained under him. Elias then left to go work a Dean’s new place and he now has his own school in south San Diego.

I started training Jiu Jitsu for the sake of MMA so I only did no-gi for about a year. Johnny then advised me that to improve my form and technique I should start training with a gi as well. So I did. A couple years in I earned my blue belt from Johnny. He later went on to open a Gracie gym with Royler Gracie and now runs an Alliance gym in San Diego.

I had a good run of over 5 years at TBC and was hitting my stride. I had gotten out of a bad relationship and met the love of my life (now my wife) and things were looking great. It was then that I suffered a terrible ankle injury. I could not put any weight on it and had to do PT for 4 months. My doctor said it was the worst sprain he had ever seen without there actually being a broken bone (I don’t know what that meant). That put me out of commission for about six months, at the end of which my girlfriend and I bought a house in a different part of town and moved.

I dropped my membership at TBC since I was no longer near any of their gyms, and due to my work schedule the commute was near impossible (commuting from San Diego to LA at least 3 days a week!). What is worse, the six months off had put me in a very bad place. I was lazy, put on weight (I was eating the same amount without the benefit of burning 2k+ calories every day of training) and I felt weak and out of shape. This was a slow decline that would have a profound effect in the rest of my journey.

Click here for part 2

You can learn more about Personal Defense Readiness here.