BLUF
An excellent crash course in the in extremis utilization of common objects to hurt people.
The School
The class was hosted at The Frisco Gun Club (FGC), which bills itself as, “The nation’s premiere indoor shooting range.” I can’t compare FGC to other luxury gun ranges, as I was hitherto unaware such places existed. I can say that FGC is really, really nice. It feels more like, say, Nordstrom than a gun range. The class itself never moved to the ranges (it wasn’t a firearms class), but was hosted in FGC’s conference room.
FGC has a restaurant on the premises, with an actual chef. The food is fantastic, and they even go so far as to smoke their own meat on the premises. They also have a café which brews an excellent cup of coffee and espresso, with free refills as long as you’re on the premises. FGC provided lunch on both days, courtesy of 5.11.
They have an exclusive VIP lounge, where rich people can congregate and discuss… whatever it is rich people talk about, presumably how awesome it is to be able to afford such things. Despite the fact the staff periodically find themselves around the Dallas elite, everyone was exceptionally friendly, and I was never treated like the unwashed schmuck that I am.
The Instructors
The lead instructor was Steve Tarani. Copy-pasted (e.g., stolen) directly from Steve’s website:
Steve is soft-spoken, energetic, and very easy going. He’s so soft spoken that he doesn’t even raise his voice to shout over the murmur idle students inevitably generate. His demeanor is so relaxed that you may very well be lolled into thinking Steve is benign. That perception is dissipated in about as much time as it takes Steve to stab someone twice, then cut their throat (maybe 1.2 seconds at full speed, but I didn’t have a stop watch handy). Once that perception is shattered, Steve is as friendly as he ever was, but an abundance of caution will have your subconscious flinching whenever he makes eye contact.Professional educator, author and keynote speaker Steve Tarani has served the United States Defense, Law Enforcement and Intelligence communities for over 25 years as a respected Protective Programs subject matter expert and service provider to numerous high/ low-profile federal agencies. Specializing in operational readiness, he is a federally certified force options instructor actively contracted by the US Department of Defense (DoD), National Security Agency (NSA), Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), and throughout the private sector.
Mr. Tarani, formerly sworn in the states of California and Nevada, is a former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) employee, protective programs educator and formerly on staff at the US Department of Energy (DOE) National Security Institute (Security Force Training Dept.) at Kirtland Air Force Base (NM). At the time of this writing, he is a published author of eight books, an active protective agent, remains an adviser to the US Department of Justice (USDOJ), US Department of Defense, the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) and is a member of InfraGard in good standing.”
Accompanying Steve was his wife, Denise. We didn’t get much of a bio on Denise, though we were told, in no uncertain terms, that she can put a bullet through your ear at 1000 yards (there were photos to prove it). Denise acted as an auxiliary instructor, jumping in to answer questions and demonstrate techniques as needed, while also scurrying about behind the scenes for admin purposes. She definitely knew Steve’s system, and I’m confident she could be out there teaching classes solo.
Co-hosting the class was Darryl Bolke, co-owner of HiTS. Everyone here knows Darryl, perhaps more (in)famously recognized as nyeti (a prolific contributor to our own humble forum), but I’llstealinclude his bio here, in case anyone wanders in from the Internet at large.
Darryl and Steve have known one another for a long time, and Darryl is one of Steve’s many students to put his techniques to practice in the real world. Darryl was amiable, exceptionally knowledgeable, and admirably patient. I admired his patience because I followed him around asking stupid questions about the karambit for most of the two day class, and even I would get tired of me in that amount of time.Darryl Bolke retired from a Southern California police department as a Sr. Corporal after 19.5 years as a full time officer due to injuries sustained during a violent on-duty confrontation. He was a Firearms Instructor and Armorer for the Special Weapons and Tactics Team for 17 years, and the primary instructor for all firearms systems used by his agency. He also provided mandatory firearms training for the fire department Bomb Squad and Arson investigators. He assisted on the investigation of over 75 officer involved shootings assisting the administrative investigation team with the firearms portion of these investigations. He provided expert testimony in regards to firearms usage and police tactics in numerous court cases. Bolke also developed and implemented a nationally recognized edged weapons policy and training program for law enforcement.
His past assignments have included 3.5 years in a full time bicycle unit and 4 years as a Tactical Flight Officer in the Air Support Unit, as well as 10 years as a Field Training Officer and a year assignment primarily working vice. A majority of his career was working at night in a patrol environment. He also spent several years as a licensed Private Investigator specializing in high level corporate cases and worked high level executive/VIP protection and high threat protection details in the private sector. He has been on staff with several organizations providing firearms and edged weapons instruction.
Darryl Bolke is also the Unconventional Weapons editor for Surefire’s Combat Tactics magazine and has had numerous published magazine articles in both the U.S. and Japan on firearms, edged weapons, and related equipment. He has also authored numerous California P.O.S.T. certified classes.
Rounding up our hosts was 5.11 Tactical. Some of the minutiae of the 5.11 partnership was lost on me (Darryl would have to fill in the blanks), but a number of their reps were present and several students took the opportunity to corner them and recommend various product upgrades, and so forth. 5.11 is carrying a line of products that were designed by Steve, including a folding karambit that is now sitting in my pocket.
Class Makeup
Class makeup was forty students, with some of the 5.11 staff also participating. Most everyone was in the vicinity of middle age. I’m guessing no one there was much under 30, and we did have a few senior citizens with us practicing severing arteries with the best of ‘em.
In the lineup were five FBI agents, a few cops, several veterans, and your average joe, such as myself. Predominately male, with five or six females. I think having Denise around was an asset to the class, as these kind of events can be intimidating for the best of us, especially for the better half of the best of us. I’ve introduced my own significant other to self-defense training, and having female instructors helping her was invaluable (she doesn’t listen to me, anyways).
It was a tad crowded, but included in the 5.11 staff were some husband / wife teams. Combined with a few auxiliary volunteers, there may have been upwards of ten people participating that weren’t actually on the roster. The space really wasn’t an issue until you were trying to catch the nuances of the technique demonstrations, but Steve, Darryl, and Denise were constantly working the room to answer any questions in the event you missed something.
Day 1
The first day began with your typical admin orientation. FGC is very easy to find, provided you can stomach toll roads, and most everyone in the class showed up well in advance of things getting started.
Safety briefing, liability waivers, et cetera. Steve provided a free copy of his new book to the entire class, and the 5.11 folks were dropping off a variety of swag. There was also a selection of some of the knives 5.11 had available, and FGC is a 5.11 retail partner in case you wanted to scope out other 5.11 products. We were also given a discount code for anything on the 5.11 website that wasn’t available on hand.
When people say “martial arts”, they usually picture little kids in elaborate gis, wearing colorful belts, and doing high kicks. This was definitely not a “martial arts” class. Everything was very thoroughly grounded in reality, and covered the most pragmatic way of injuring an unpleasant person with something other than a firearm. It was made very clear that weapons other-than-firearms, and training in such, were not a replacement for firearms. The class was about what you can do to buy time to get to your firearm, or options available to you if you’re fortunate enough to find yourself safely ensconced in a citizen disarmament zone.
Steve began with a PowerPoint presentation that was essentially a condensed version of his new book, PreFense. He discussed the motivation of learning self-defense (including plenty of real world examples of how terrorist groups are planning ill for us, as well as your more mundane street crime), discussion of the OODA loop, what goes into planning and executing an attack, the importance of maintaining a proactive protection mindset, and whole host of other things. He also had a number of gory pictures to illustrate that the techniques we were about to be taught were firmly founded in other people’s misery.
After the PowerPoint, we cleared the conference room, and Steve got started with the principles of defense sans firearms. There were plenty of people in the class who had never had any experience with gun-free personal protection, and Steve had to quickly give them a foundation to build off. Once we finished with the basics of fighting stance, posture, balance, et cetera, we broke for a delicious lunch consisting of a roast beef sandwich (which warrants reiterating that FGC smokes their own meats on the premises) and homemade chips.
When lunch was finished, we started with edged weapons. Steve brought training knives, and training karambits, the latter of which they had available for sale. When my girlfriend saw my schmancy new training karambit, I had to return the next day and buy another one for me.
Which segues into my next topic: the karambit. Dude. Like, for real. My new most favorite thing ever. I had seen it, and was curious, but never had a formal introduction. Steve has spent a great bit of time learning the ends and outs of the karambit, and I have become a complete believer in its utility as a weapon. Darryl is also an advocate, and shared his own host of experience.
While the end of the day did cover curved edges, the segment also showed us how to use our own folding knives. Steve had happened upon a completely brilliant way of deploying a folding knife, which was something far too obvious to be apparent. We learned this technique and, while we were drilling on our own, Steve wandered around the room and timed our presentations.
If I recall correctly, everyone in the class could draw and present the folding knife in less than two seconds. Consider this for a moment: there were students in the class who had never worked a folding knife, and didn’t even know how to open it, much less defeat the locking mechanism and close it again. With roughly fifty people in attendance, everyone could draw the knife from their preferred place of carry and open it in less than two seconds.
Well over half the class could draw and open in less than a second and a half (myself, at 1.78 seconds, was not among them, but I now know what I need to work on to get the blade in the fight). The lady Steve picked to demonstrate in front of the class did it in 1.4 seconds: she had no experience with knives prior to that, and had to dig the knife out of her pocket, as the clip wasn’t mounted the correct way for her to keep it clipped to her pants.
Fairly impressive, if you ask me.
Steve covered the seven zones of the body you can attack with an edge to sever an important artery. There are a variety of arteries you can get to, and a variety of angles from which to get to them. The run down was to the… point (see what I did there?) and all the info was clearly explained along with relevant rationale.
Day 2
The second day began with a knife disarm. Disarms were explicitly not a part of the curriculum, but Steve made the mistake of disarming a role player the first day. When you see the good guy take away the bad guy’s knife, then stab said bad guy with said bad guy’s knife, all in around 0.9 seconds, you tend to be intrigued. We spent maybe an hour on this, before moving on to impact weapons.
Darryl had cut up some wooden dowels for us to practice our impact weapon techniques. They worked well for the most part, although having a pair of sticks strong enough to demonstrate techniques full blast would have been helpful, as I think having a full grasp of the violence of action to expect in an attack is important to framing techniques you’re learning (speaking from experience). We practiced blocking, attacking, and finishing with impact weapons, all of which led perfectly into our segment on flexible weapons.
Steve structured the course in such a fashion that one technique was rarely taught in a vacuum. Attacks with edged weapons became relevant in defense with impact weapons, and both rolled into flexible weapons. It was tiered learning very carefully put together.
Lunch was a delicious turkey sandwich (again, meat prepared on premises) and more mouthwatering homemade chips. I believe the 5.11 folks conducted an informal survey during lunch, but I wandered off to admire the firearms and accoutrements FGC had available, but that I could never afford (including a host of Wilson Combat 1911s… *drool*).
After lunch, we covered “flexible weapons”. When I first heard the term “flexible weapons”, I was thinking bicycle chain, or Indiana Jones whip. Both of those will probably work, but the segment focused on common pieces of fabric, like t-shirts, scarves, belts, et cetera. It turns out your average towel can be used for credible defense, and, believe it or not, offense (I was skeptical too, but I have bruises to prove it).
Most students worked with a t-shirt, although one or two grabbed jackets. A few wanted to try their belts, but Steve recommended against that for the sake of their associated role-player. Blocking with a flexible weapon was very straightforward, although some of the attacks and disarms took some practice. That’s not saying the techniques were convoluted, because they weren’t, we were just saturated with new information at that point, so nuance was lost on many of us.
The flexible weapon segment was easily my favorite of the course. Having been into various types of fighting since I was a kid, I never would have thought your average dish towel was something you could defend yourself with. Very much an eye opener, and something that I will be looking into in depth in the future.
Once the flexible weapon segment concluded, we did a comprehensive review of techniques learned, then rounded up in half the conference room for debrief (FGC needed the other half). We received our certificates, filled out a brief survey from Steve, then said our goodbyes and headed out.
The Improvable
Regarding the material and the presentation thereof, I really have no complaints.
Steve and Denise are inherently limited on the training aids they can bring to their classes, as they have to fly everywhere, and I’m sure have spent a good deal of time not amusing the TSA. Ultimately, this was a non-issue, but it did exclude the benefit of having a plethora of examples of various things lying around.
I actually wouldn’t have minded a few minutes’ worth of “did you know you can hurt someone with this?” show and tell. I’m sure Steve and Darryl have plenty of stories that go something like, “I once saw a guy that had his [insert sensitive body part] [insert horrible injury] with a [insert common item you’ll never look at the same way again].” For instance, a friend once showed me how a few seconds worth of work, a method that was - again - too obvious to be apparent, can turn an average coke can into a nasty edge.
I also would have appreciated a bit of, “If you like this, here’s what to do next.” There’s a lot of hokum in the martial arts world, and people stepping into it for the first time can easily be charmed by snake oil salesman buying into their own BS. So something along the lines of, “If you like the karambit, look for a school that emphasizes _______, but stay away from people who do _______ because that’s nonsense.”
It would have been nice if Steve and Denise could have accepted credits cards for the wares they had available. Having stopped carrying paper money with me long ago, I had a Scooby-Doo “Rrgh?” moment when I was told cash only. With the ridiculous overhead that comes along with credit card processing, I can’t blame them at all, though I did have to make a trip to the ATM (…three times).
The Good
It was a great crash course to a fairly wide range of things. This isn’t a martial arts class, and many of the people attending had no training in anything outside firearms. By the end of the second day, most everyone had picked up a few tricks they could have used immediately after walking out the door, and everyone definitely picked up new knowledge to research further.
I am in love with the karambit, and fascinated by flexible weapons. It was an eye-opening course that even seasoned self-defense practitioners can get a lot of out of. The instructors and hosts had many decades worth of experience to draw from in the event you had any questions, and you could easily learn a lot just from eavesdropping on their casual conversation.
Did I mention the food? The food. Dude.
Summary
Good course, good people. Even those that have been around the martial arts world for a while will have something to learn from Steve, as he draws upon his own real world experience, as well as that of his students, who have actually killed bad people with the techniques he teaches. Not many instructors at your average gym or dojo can truthfully make that claim (but a lot will, anyways).
Absolutely worth the price of admission if you can make a class.
I know I’m forgetting a lot of things, but everyone please ask questions, and I’ll answer as best I can.
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. Snarky and easily butt hurt. Favorite animal is the Cape Buffalo....likely indicative of a personality disorder.
