29 Nov

6-Week Bowie Knife Principles and Tactics Course Now Enrolling for January 2019

Posted under: Antagonistics

6 Weeks, Beginning January 10
Thursdays 7:30 PM
Cost: $125.00

It’s hard to believe the new year is nearly upon us, but it’s time to start planning that post holiday, back to training regiment now. And what could be a more interesting way to get yourself up and moving than with the premier weapon of the American frontier — the fabled blade of Jim Bowie?

The Weapon

Following in a long-line of heavy, northern European fighting knives that go back to the medieval messer and the Anglo-Saxon/Norse saex, the Bowie knife is a long-bladed weapon with a wide belly that allows for devastatingly powerful cuts — almost a short sword in its potential! Its length and strength also makes it capable of actually parrying blows, allowing for a fencing-style of combat that many knives can’t match. But what really makes the weapon shine is its clipped point and back-edge, which allows for powerful back-cuts and thrusts. A more elegant weapon for a more savage age…

The Fighting Art

KNIFE DUEL, 1865.
Two men engaged in a duel with Bowie knives. Line engraving, American, c1865.

This 6-week course we’ll look at the basics of handling the Bowie Knife, it’s signature and unique techniques and motions, such as:

The straight thrust;
The snap-cut;
The back-cut;
Parrying with the reinforced spine;
Linking techniques;

If you’ve never taken our Intro to Bowie Knife course, there are more than enough basics to get you started. For those who have already done the Intro course, a good portion of this course focuses on the tactics of knife fighting: Analyzing your opponent, learning how to shut-down and control his actions, and using various techniques to stop an attacker using not only a similar weapon, but other, large knives and anyimprovised weapons, such as bats, crowbars etc.

The History

Although a modern fighting knife, the Bowie is a key piece of American martial heritage, and I will address how it was used in the early days of America.

The myth of “Jim’s knife”: Did James Bowie really invent a new fighting weapon for his famed duels, or was it already a common fighting weapon?

Bowie and Tomahawk: tools of survival on the American frontier.

Knife Duels in Old New Orleans: Fought under the famed giant oak trees or on top of a moving train.

The Bowie Goes to War: Did you know the bowie knife became a fighting knife in WWI and WWII, and was taught as a weapon of last resort against bayonets? Now you do!

Throughout the classes you will be learning about some of the historical people who made the blade famous.

Part history less, part martial arts class, of course, there will be putting the Knife to work through focus sparring and full sparring!

The Instructor

Thayne Alexander has been studying and a practitioner of the martial arts, weapons combat and defense, and the modern combative’s world for well over 28 years. Starting with Aikido at age 14, after graduating high school, he became interested in MMA and spent years learning a blend of Muay Thai and Jeet Kune Do and while he got thrown around a lot, he had the opportunity to learn from exchange students from Japan using various Koryu (“old school”) styles of jujutsu. He found Western arts in 1999, when he began the study of Armizare, and is still active today as a senior Scholar and Instructor of the Chicago and Rocky Mountain Swordplay Guilds.

In 2005 Thayne started Martial Blade Concepts/ Counter Blade Concepts training along with Kali Eskrima Silat and became a Full Instructor in the MBC system under the founder Michael Janich in 2013. Around the same time of starting MBC. Thayne’s love for the old American melee weapon styles got him involved with Bowie knife and Tomahawk weapons and has been teaching the big knife in on-going classes and a few seminars since 2014.

Today, in addition to Armizare and MBC, he is a student of realistic based defense systems, studying under giants in the field such as Lee Morrison and Kelly McCann’s, and is a practicing savateur in the system of Boxe Francaise and street Savate.

27 Mar

Martial Blade Concepts with Founder Michael Janich

Posted under: Combatives, Events

June 23rd and 24th. Saturday noon – 6 pm. Sunday 11 – 5.

This is a fantastic opportunity to train with the Head Instructor and founder of Martial Blade Concepts (MBC), Michael Janich. This intensive two-day seminar will include instruction in the MBC edged-weapon system (one of the only knife-based systems specifically geared toward small, Chicago-legal folding knives), Counter-Blade Concepts (CBC—unarmed defenses against knives), elements of his Damithurt Silat empty-hand system, and the integration of these skills into close-quarters handgun tactics. All these skills are designed to give you the ability to immediately and decisively stop any assailant!

This seminar is for all skill levels—from beginners to advanced-level practitioners.

Saturday: This session will focus on the practical application of the knife as a defensive weapon and putting knife skills into realistic context. It will dispel many long-held myths of knife stopping power and teach you how to rapidly and reliably disable lethal threats with legal-to-carry edged weapons. Although the focus will be on the critical skills of MBC’s standard-grip system, it will follow a progressive format designed to push the limits of each participant’s skill development. It will also include the latest refinements to the MBC system and skills normally only shared with Janich’s inner-circle classes and instructors.

Sunday: This session will include two major components. First, it will present Janich’s proven Counter-Blade Concepts (CBC) system of unarmed defenses against knives (and other weapons). This versatile, extremely effective system is based on a clear understanding of the realities of street knife attacks and the use of physical structure—not muscular strength—to control and disable an attacker.

The second component will focus on “earning your draw” and methods of realistically getting your weapon into the fight. No matter what weapon you’re carrying, if you are attacked at close range, you must survive long enough to create an opportunity for in-fight access of your weapon. Janich will teach proven methods of integrating unarmed defensive skills with high-speed knife, gun, or other weapon deployment, as well as back-ups and recoveries to imperfect draws. He will also address weapon retention skills, disarms, and contact-distance gun and knife fighting. Participants are encouraged to bring “blue gun” training pistols, holsters, and inert/training versions of their other carry weapons.

This seminar will be held at:
Forteza Fitness and Martial Arts, 4437 N Ravenswood Ave, Chicago, IL 60640. For more information, call (773) 271-3988 or email info@fortezafitness.com orthaynealexander@gmail.com.

Cost: Pre-pay cost $200 until before May 15th. $250 after.
Single day cost $125

Register
via PayPal (“Janich Seminar”) at gmele@fortezafitness.com.

About the Instructor

Michael Janich has been studying and teaching self-defense and the martial arts for more than 35 years. He has earned instructor’s credentials in American Self-Protection (ASP – an eclectic art that includes elements of judo, aikido, boxing, fencing and French Savate), the Filipino art of Serrada Eskrima, and Joseph Simonet’s Silat Concepts and is a member of the elite International Close-Combat Instructors’ Association. He has also trained extensively in wing chun gung fu, tae kwon do, wu ying tao, Thai boxing, arnis de mano and military combatives. Janich is also one of the foremost modern authorities on handgun point shooting and is one of the few contemporary instructors to have been personally trained by the late close-combat legend Colonel Rex Applegate.

Janich served nine years in the U.S. Army Intelligence and Security Command, including a three-year tour at the National Security Agency. He is a two-time graduate with honors of the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, California (Vietnamese and Chinese-Mandarin) and a recipient of the Commandant’s Award for outstanding linguistic achievement. After completing his military service, Janich was recruited by the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) and served as an Intelligence Officer for that agency’s Stony Beach Program in Hong Kong and the Philippines. He also served as an Investigation Team Leader for the Joint Casualty Resolution Center (JCRC) and Joint Task Force-Full Accounting (JTF-FA) and has led numerous investigations into remote areas of Vietnam and Laos in search of information regarding American prisoners of war and missing in action (POW/MIA).

Janich is the sole author of six books and co-author of seven. He has also been featured in more than 20 instructional videos on defensive edged-weapon use, use of the Filipino balisong knife, the use of throwing weapons and exotic weapons, stick fighting, and combat shooting. In addition to books and videos, Janich has been published in more than a dozen magazines and newsletters and is a columnist and contributing editor to Tactical Knives magazine. He is also the co-host of the Outdoor Channel’s The Best Defense and The Best Defense: Survival.

A popular seminar instructor, Janich has presented instructional programs for the world-famous Gunsite Training Center, James Keating’s Riddle of Steel, and Joseph Simonet’s Wind and Rock training camp. He is the developer of Martial Blade Concepts (MBC, formerly known as Martial Blade Craft) — a comprehensive curriculum that covers all aspects of employing knives as personal defense tools — and Counter-Blade Concepts (CBC) — a highly effective system of defending against edged-weapons with empty-hand and improvised-weapon tactics. Janich’s MBC/CBC curriculum also forms a foundation of skill that is easily transferred to improvised weapons and empty-hand fighting skills, including his personal systems of Damithurt Silat (unarmed combatives) and Sobadiwan Eskrima (the use of sticks, canes, and other impact weapons). Collectively Janich’s teaching constitutes one of the most comprehensive and practical personal defense programs available today.

Janich’s accomplishments were formally recognized by the martial arts world when he was featured on the cover of Black Belt magazine in September of 2009 and later inducted into the prestigious Black Belt Hall of Fame as the 2010 Weapons Instructor of the Year.

Janich is widely recognized as an authority on edged-weapon design and has designed knives for Spyderco, the Masters of Defense knife company,BLACKHAWK!, noted custom knifemakers Mike Snody, Wally Hayes, Brent Beshara, and Mickey Yurco, and Combat Elite. His designs, including the “Tempest,” “Yojimbo,” and “Yojimbo2” tactical folders and the “Ronin” and “Kalista” fixed blades, have developed a tremendous following among dedicated knife users.

31 Aug

Forteza Welcomes Three New Instructors and Two New Programs to the Family!

Posted under: Combatives, Fitness & Physical Culture, News

The Yin & Yang of Forteza

It’s been a crazy busy summer at Forteza, and the fall looks to be even busier, so much so that we have a brand new expansion to FightingFit!, an entirely new *program* and not one, not two, but three new instructors joining the Forteza Family.

Taoism is based on the principle of two opposite, yet complementary energies: Yin & Yang, which comprise everything. Yin energy is soft, feminine, nurturing, while Yang energy is harder, male, more aggressive. What does this really mean? Although they are totally different—opposite—in their individual qualities and nature, they are interdependent. Yin and Yang cannot exist without the other; they are never separate.

What does Ying & Yang have to do with Forteza? We have tried to reflect the idea of complementary training in everything we do, combining traditional martial arts with modern self-defense, old school bootcamps, with innovative training and adventure racing. Although we didn’t plan it this way, the new class expansions we are about to show you really reflect this interweaving energies, both in the classes themselves, and the instructors you will meet. But don’t take my word for it, see for yourself!

First the Yin…as in Yoga.

We have offered yoga classes and workshops periodically over the years, and while there has always been interest in an on-going class, either there wasn’t an instructor available for the times people wanted the classes, students couldn’t make the times we offered classes, or in some way things weren’t quite the right fit. We’re happy to say that we feel that we finally have the right instructor, the right program and the right time!

Yin yoga (or “Recovery yoga”) is a slow-paced style of yoga with postures that are held for longer periods of time — for beginners, it may range from 45 seconds to two minutes; more advanced practitioners may build the flexibility and endurance to stay in one posture for five minutes or more.
Yin yoga targets deep connective tissue, applying moderate stress to the body’s tendons, fascia, and ligaments along with certain breathing techniques with the aim of increasing circulation in the joints and improving flexibility. A more meditative approach to yoga, yin allows you to gain more clarity and mobility in the body, both physically and mentally, making it the perfect complement to more active, explosive training.

The new Yin Yoga class meets Wednesday mornings at 6 AM. Classes start the week of October 2nd. You can attend as part of your FightingFit! membership, via punchard or by purchasing a month of classes through the website.

About the Instructor

Caitlyn Shaver, LMT/RYT found yoga in 2009 while studying to become a licensed massage therapist at the American Institute of Alternative Medicine (AIAM).During this time period, she found that yoga allowed her mind to re-center from studying, and her body to heal after workouts. The combination of these two practices created a synergy and balance which led Caitlyn, upon completion of her degree from the AIAM, to embark on the journey of becoming a 200 hour yoga instructor. She received her training over nine months in Columbus, Ohio with Janice George at the SamYoga Institute, where she was also the program’s student assistant. Certified in multiple types of yoga styles ranging from Yin Yoga to Vinyasa Flow Yoga, she is able to modify poses for each individual student in her class while also catering to advanced practices.

…and then the Yang: Introducing Our New Combatives and Counter Violence

Combatives has been a part of the Forteza course offering since we opened our doors in 2012, with the studio hosting the biggest names in combatives, from Kelly McCann, to Lee Morrison of Urban Combatives and Dom Rasso of Dynamis. But a lot of confusion still remains on how “combatives” and “martial arts differ.

Martial Arts are the formalized training of a set, or subset of armed or unarmed combat skills, in an equal environment. Today, some martial arts are taught for fitness or competitive sports, others as cultural preservation. To survive the test of time, traditional martial arts have to have contained real, practical fighting skills, but they are usually taught in an environment of equals — a duel between warriors — precisely how assaults DO NOT happen on the street. Unfortunately, this means you can spend years developing great skills for sparring in a fair fight or in the ring, and be helpless when sucker-punched by a mugger.

That’s where Combatives and Counter Violence come in.

Combatives is about stripping fighting down to its raw essence: simple, gross-motor skills that can be applied quickly and effectively when under attack. It isn’t a “system”, it’s an approach.

Counter Violence is where martial arts, combatives and combat psychology meet: combining the combative mindset with learning how to read a situation, avoid confrontation, anticipate violence, and then, if necessary, quickly and ruthlessly employ your skills so you go home to your loved ones.

Now, in one of the most exciting developments since we opened our doors, we are pleased to announce a completely new Combatives and Counter-Violence program, spear-headed by renowned Chicago-based instructor, Michael VanBeek of Focus Counter Violence, with the able assistance of Forteza’s own Jesse Kulla. In addition, after a long hiatus, Martial Blade Combatives (MBC) returns in a short-course format, led by full-licensed instructor Thayne Alexander.

This new program is module based and divided into an Introduction to Counter-Violence class, a small Master-Class, a Combat Conditioning class to refine your striking skills and improve your physical well-being, and an on-going series of short workshops and training camps. Here’s how YOU can be a part of it:

Intro to Focus Counter-Violence (Thurs 7 PM)
Your journey into realistic personal-protection starts here! This 12-week course crushes the stereo-types of martial arts and self defense. You will be introduced to the realities of violence — how to sense its signals, how it initiates, what it takes to respond quickly and effectively, and how to deal with the physical, mental and emotional aspects of this reality. This course is all inclusive! The physical elite need not attend, and indeed, that isn’t the point. Whether by size or number, attackers are looking for the underdog: Learn a direct solution to a complicated problem in a transformation process that turns the underdog into an angry pitbull! (Includes immediate access to Combat-Conditioning.) JOIN NOW!

Focus Counter-Violence Master Class (Thurs 8 PM)
This 12 week course is for the serious! This is the culmination of Martial arts and Combatives smashed into one course. Simulation and emotional content training will be taught through the best drills and skills module there is! If you have any previous training at all you will love this. The perfect blend! Jeet Kune Do injected straight to the streets using the only Counter Violence training Algorithm in existence. Classes are kept to a maximum of ten students, for maximum student-teacher interaction. SEE YOU THERE! (Includes immediate access to Combat-Conditioning.)

FightingFit! Combat Conditioning
(Tues & Thurs 6 PM)
Get into fighting shape with a blend of pad work, kettlebells, body weight exercises, and fighter conditioning. We will get you in fighting shape…..guaranteed. Besides being a robust, complete fighting system, combatives and counter-violence are designed to be practical, efficient and tactical. You’ll train your bodies hard, but you’ll also hone your minds, learning how to boil empty-hand and weapon tactics down to the critical skills that you really need to survive a violent encounter, while putting a heavy emphasis on skills of tactical awareness, avoidance, and de-escalation.

Special Topics & Seminars
Forteza has also been home to seminars, workshops and monthly gatherings of local, national and international combatives and self-defense experts, covering a wide-variety of topics from metal-preparedness to combat scenario training, stick, knife and improvised weapons use to firearm preparedness and retention. These programs are listed on our Events page, and Facebook and are open to the public.

About the Instructor

Earning several different rankings in various traditional arts, Michael stumbled upon Jeet Kune Do in the late 1980’s. This art, made famous by its founder Bruce Lee, led VanBeek to train with many of the greatest martial artists alive. In the early 1990’s he not only maintained a victorious cage fighting record but also trained with firearms and tactical weaponry as a professional body guard, while finishing his education in Criminal Justice. As a security guard in the greater Chicago land area, Michael was exposed to a side of self-defense/fighting not often seen in the martial arts. After a few years modifying the way he taught martial arts, Michael began creating the “Anatomy of Violence”, a comprehensive breakdown of the workings of violence from an insiders perspective.With a unified goal and service to educate and train people to save their lives from real violence, without the rituals, uniforms or the time required by most training systems, Focus could now offer “Real Solutions to Real Problems for Real People.”

Today, Michael spends most of his time in service working with special needs children, lecturing and presenting seminars on Counter Violence to families, corporations, security firms, organizations and individuals. In addition to running his company, Michael speaks to groups about performance-related matters, using his story to inspire others.

Martial Blade Concepts (MBC) and Big-Knife Training Returns!

The choice on whether or not to carry a weapon is a personal one, but even today, many people carry small knives as utility tools and, if necessary, a means of defense. As such, knowing how to successfully deploy and use a knife, and how to defend against it, is useful skill for anyone interested in practical self-defense. Developed by well-known self-defense personal protection instructor Michael Janich, the MBC Self-Defense System is the result of more than 30 years of training, research, and analysis of the world’s most effective fighting arts, emphasizing the development of “all-purpose” defensive skills, and learning how to apply them to literally hundreds of different defensive situations. MBC is a compact, “plug-and-play” curriculum that you an add to any of your other training.

MBC full instructor and life-long martial arts student will be bringing MBC back to Forteza in a series of periodic, thematic short-courses (4 – 6 weeks) as a complement to Focus Counter-Violence, or a stand-alone modern defense system in its own right. Thayne will also be working with us to (finally!) expand our American Heritage/Antagonistics program with short courses in Bowie knife, tomahawk and single-stick. Watch this space for more!

About the Instructor:

Thayne Alexander has been studying and a practitioner of the martial arts, weapons combat and defense, and the modern combative’s world for well over 28 years. Starting with Aikido at age 14, and moving onto and achieving a high rank. After graduating high school, he became interested in MMA and spent years learning a blend of Muay Thai and Jeet Kune Do.

Thayne found Western arts in 1999, when he began the study of Armizare, and is still active today as a senior Scholar and Instructor of the Chicago and Rocky Mountain Swordplay Guilds.

In 2005 Thayne started Martial Blade Concepts/ Counter Blade Concepts training along with Kali Eskrima Silat and became a MBC Full Instructor under the founder Michael Janich in 2013.

Around the same time of starting MBC. Thayne’s love for the old American melee weapon styles got him involved with Bowie knife and Tomahawk weapons and has been teaching the big knife in on-going classes and a few seminars since 2014.

08 Jan

Forteza 2014 Year in Review and 2015 Teaser: Combatives

Posted under: Combatives, Events

The past twelve months of Combatives training at Forteza has been so epic, we almost feel bad for everyone who didn’t get to train with us. Almost.

In 2014, Forteza played host to literally the who’s who of teachers in the field of Combatives and Reality Based Self Defense training. We kicked off the year with an in house Bowie knife seminar taught by Forteza instructor Keith Jennings. Students learned the basics of American big blade fighting, and with many of the students having some training in historical fencing or Martial Blade Concepts, everyone took right to the weapon, and Bowie knife sparring has been seen at the monthly Fight Night ever since.

In the Spring we hosted an Urban Survival course taught by Johnny Tsai. This informative seminar was one half lecture, helping students with contingency plans and how to assemble a bug out bag in case of a local disaster, and the other half we went out to the woods and learned how to build shelters, how to start a fire with a variety of tools, and even practiced some self defense skills.

In May, Forteza played host to Martial Blade Concepts founder and head instructor Mike Janich for a two-day seminar. Since Forteza instructor Keith Jennings is one of Mike’s senior instructors, and most of the students in attendance had a solid training base, we were able to really amp up the training and focus on the more advanced aspects of MBC training. On the first day, Mike presented a state-of-the-art seminar on the MBC forward grip knife curriculum. Mike tuned up everyone’s basics, and then got everyone rocking out on flow drills, combat applications, and even a bit of knife chess. The second day was a bit treat for all of the attendees, as Mike showed his seldom taught interpretation of classical Filipino machete and sword and dagger training. Mike was able to blend the traditonal aspects of sword and dagger with the logic of the MBC methodology into a brutally effective big blade system.

Forteza was honored to host Lee Morrison for an absolutely epic five days of training in July. Lee is a UK Combatives instructor who is know for both his soft skills training, helping students cultivate the proper Combtives mindset, as well as the hard stills needed to survive a brutal street altercation. And when we say hard, we mean hard. Lee spent two days doing private training with the Forteza staff, focusing on developing explosive power and bone crunching power. Then the two and a half day seminar pushed everyone to the edge. Everyone took some hard shots, and gave just as much as they got. The increase in skill level and overall toughness by the end of the last day was a sight to behold.

Self defense guru Hoch Hochheim taught a two day seminar in October. Hoch is a legend in the field, and was one of the first instructors in the United States to teach self defense removed from the hangups of traditional martial arts. Hoch covered a wide variety of material in his two day seminar. We went over his empty hand striking skills, knife vs knife, and his modern version of traditional Filipino stick fighting. Perhaps the best part of the seminar was hearing Hoch’s war stories of his police days, as well as the many martial arts personalities he’s met over the years.

Lastly, Forteza was extremely honored end the year hosting Kelly McCann for a two day seminar. Kelly is the most sought after instructor in the field of Combatives, but until recently his training was never available to civilians. Thankfully, that has now changed. After Keith trained with Kelly at his Civilian Training Center in Virginia, he had been trying to figure out a way to train with him again ever since. When Kelly announced we was taking his Kembativs training on the road, Forteza jumped on the chance to be one of the first gyms to host him. Students were introduced to Kelly’s boxing training, both in the sportive sense and bare knuckle boxing for the street. We also did some classic Combatives training, doing everything from self offense, to stick and knife, and the dreaded pocket stick. After a weekend full of bare knuckle boxing, chin rips, and combative throws, the amount of pain induced by the little pocket was almost comical, especially to Kelly. It was an epic way to end an epic year of training.

COMBATIVES 2015

We are only a week into the new year, and 2015 is already shaping up to be an even better year of Combatives training. To meet the demand of our students, we are going to be offering more weekend focus classes on specific self defense topics, and launch our invite-only Forteza Combatives Club. Our first class of the new year is the Martial Blade Concepts Fundaments class. More details to come.

Also, for our first big Combatives seminar of the year will be hosting Dom Rasso of Dynamis Alliance for a two day seminar. We will be covering situational self defense, team tactics, car Combatives, and Dom will be showing the unique reverse grip knife tactics he used when he was an active Navy Seal. To register, please follow this link:

https://www.dynamisalliance.com/gear/situational-combatives-course

05 Mar

Martial Blade Concepts/Sobadiwan Eskrima Progressive Skills Seminar May 3-4th

Posted under: Combatives, Events

Internationally-known and respected personal defense and protection expert Michael Janich returns to Chicago for a special, two-day workshop!

PROGRAM
In this two-day seminar, Michael Janich will present intermediate and advanced instruction in the skills of his MBC system, focusing on the latest refinements of MBC’s standard-grip methods. It will also include rarely-seen instruction in the MBC approach to traditional weapon skills, including single stick, double stick, sword/machete, and espada ydaga (sword and dagger) tactics.

Day One: MBC Practical Knife Defense
Day 1 of this course will provide step-by-step instruction the “state of the art” of the MBC system. It will review the critical skills of using a knife as a practical defensive weapon and maximize the efficiency of those skills by focusing on the details of structure, timing, body position, angles, footwork, and leverage. Day 1 will also fine tune the students’ execution of MBC’s reflex training drills and show how drills can be combined into strategic training sets to isolate, refine, and challenge specific reflex patterns.

Day Two: Practical Use of Traditional Weapons
In day 2 of the seminar, Janich will share his perspective on traditional Filipino weapon skills, applying MBC’s proven analytical process to classical Filipino martial arts technique to extract practical, combat-worthy skills and tactics. This session will address the use of sticks, swords/machetes, and sword-and-dagger tactics, as well as other aspects of Janich’s Sobadiwan Eskrima system.

ABOUT THE INSTRUCTOR
Michael Janich has been studying and teaching self-defense and the martial arts for more than 35 years. He has earned instructor’s credentials in American Self-Protection (ASP – an eclectic art that includes elements of judo, aikido, boxing, fencing and French Savate), the Filipino art of Serrada Eskrima, and Joseph Simonet’s Silat Concepts and is a member of the elite International Close-Combat Instructors’ Association. He has also trained extensively in wing chun gung fu, tae kwon do, wu ying tao, Thai boxing, arnis de mano and military combatives. Janich is also one of the foremost modern authorities on handgun point shooting and is one of the few contemporary instructors to have been personally trained by the late close-combat legend Colonel Rex Applegate.

Janich served nine years in the U.S. Army Intelligence and Security Command, including a three-year tour at the National Security Agency. fter completing his military service, Janich was recruited by the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) and served as an Intelligence Officer for that agency’s Stony Beach Program in Hong Kong and the Philippines. He also served as an Investigation Team Leader for the Joint Casualty Resolution Center (JCRC) and Joint Task Force-Full Accounting (JTF-FA) and has led numerous investigations into remote areas of Vietnam and Laos in search of information regarding American prisoners of war and missing in action (POW/MIA).

Author of six books, co-author of seven more, he has also been featured in more than 20 instructional videos on defensive edged-weapon use, use of the Filipino balisong knife, the use of throwing weapons and exotic weapons, stick fighting, and combat shooting. Currently, he serves as the Special Projects Coordinator for the Spyderco knife company of Golden, Colorado. With Spyderco’s support, he continues to offer state-of-the-art tactical training as co-host of The Best Defense on Outdoor Channel.

REGISTRATION
Early Bird Registration (before April 1st) $150

Pre-Registration (after April 1st, before May 3rd) $175

Day of Registration $200

For more information or to register, please contact:

Forteza Fitness and Martial Arts
4437 N. Ravenswood Ave
Chicago, IL 60640
773.271.3988

info@fortezafitness.com

05 Nov

Joint Lock Seminar Review (“Junkyard Aikido”)

Posted under: Combatives, Events

Our wrists were sore, but we were happy!

On October 27th we had Eric Mayes, owner of Rocky Mountain Self Defense, out for a one day seminar on joint locking. Eric is a black belt in Combat Hapkido, as well as a fully certified instructor of Martial Blade Concepts, so his approach was a good combination of martial arts fundamentals, as well as a more pragmatic, combative approach.

Jesse gets taken for a ride!

Eric began emphasizing that applying joint locks is not necessarily going to be your primary goal in a self defense situation. Rather they are a tool, and are often times either accidental or incidental to your achieving your goal, which is to get out of harms’ way. Eric they went over where people usually fail with their locking techniques, and broke down how you actually put a joint into position where you can actually either damage or lock out the joint. Outside wrist lock, center lock, a “Z” lock, and an escort/come-along wrist lock were all taught in fine detail. Eric then showed how to link all of these locks together in a flow by taking advantage of knowing how you partner would realistically try and escape the lock.

We finished the day’s training with how to counter each lock, as well as applying joint locks in a combative situation off of punches and blocks. By the end of the seminar, all of the students in attendance were able to apply various joint locks from different positions, flow from lock to lock, and successfully escape even the most painful of joint locks. Special thanks to Eric Mayes for making the trip all the way out to Chicago to share his expertise with us!

You can catch a bit of the excitement in this video clip, where Eric demonstrates a wristlock flow drill:

<
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SsxUacOzA4k&w=420&h=315]

23 Jul

Congrats to Trey Ptak – new MBC Affiliate Instructor

Posted under: Combatives, Martial Blade Concepts

Last month, Forteza instructors Keith Jennings and Trey Ptak traveled to Detroit for a three day seminar with Martial Blade Concepts founder and head instructor Mike Janich. In addition to the knife instruction for which MBC is famous, Janich also brought students through the core skills of Sobadiwon Escrima; his direct, no nonsense approach to stick fighting.

On Sunday, there was a special segment dedicated to instructor development. Trey has been working closely with Keith to get his MBC skills up to par, and has been acting as the assistant instructor for the Forteza Combatives classes. After evaluating Trey’s skills, Janich felt confident in having Trey represent MBC, awarding him with an Affiliate Instructor certification, which is described by MBC’s founder as:

An accomplished student of MBC who has trained directly with me and displayed the skills, understanding, and character to earn my recommendation as a source of training. Affiliate Instructors are typically already certified instructors of other martial arts systems and therefore have teaching experience. At their discretion, they may include as much or as little of the MBC curriculum as they want in their teaching; however, they remain a resource for accurate, authentic inquiries regarding the MBC system.

Congrats, Trey! Trey hopes to test for full proficiency in MBC within the next year or two, and will continue to assist with the development of the weekly Forteza Combatives classes.

30 Apr

Introduction to Martial Blade Concepts this Sunday at the Nearing School of Wing Chung

Posted under: Events, Martial Blade Concepts

To help our good friend Phil celebrate the opening of his new studio, Keith will be teaching an Introduction to Martial Blade Concepts, at Philip Nearing Wing Chung. The seminar will be at 1363 W. Chicago Ave. in Chicago from 12:30-4:30pm. The cost of the seminar is $50. Come and familiarize yourself with the knife and the fundamentals of how to use it to defend yourself with a top drawer instructor. Any questions or inquiries can be made via Facebook email or simply calling me at 312 282 9571. See you there….

19 Apr

After Action Review: Mike Janich and Martial Blade Concepts at Forteza

Posted under: Combatives, Events, Martial Blade Concepts

The Forteza-MBC Instructor Crew

On April 6^th and 7^th, renowned self-defense instructor Mike Janich presented a two day workshop on empty hand combatives, and empty hand vs. knife tactics. Mike is the founder and head instructor of Martial Blade Concepts, which is described on the MBC website as:

Martial Blade Concepts (MBC) is an edged-weapon system specifically designed to meet the needs of today’s concerned citizen and armed professional. Based on Michael Janich’s extensive analysis of the Filipino martial arts and many other systems, MBC takes combat-proven tactics and adapts them to modern tools, threats, and legal concerns. The result is a practical, easy-to-learn system that is ideally suited to modern self-defense.

Mike Janich’s Martial Blade Concepts, as well as the adjutant systems of Counter Blade Concepts and Damithurt Silat (Practical Unarmed Combatves), is the base system four own Combatives program taught at Forteza. Students were very excited to train with the founder of the system they train in, most of whom had never met or trained with Mike before. Forteza instructor Keith Jennings also ran a prep seminar two months prior, so by the time Mike arrived in Chicago, all of the students in attendance had a solid base level of skill, which allowed us to skip right past the basics, and jump right into the good stuff.

Mike Janich takes Thayne for a big ride!

Day One was dedicated to empty hand skills. Mike focused on taking the instinctual startle response, and educating it to make for a functional tool that can be used under stress. Students were brought through variations of the cycling drill, Hubud, and shoulder stops. Saturday ended with a look at Junkyard Aikido, his expression of joint-locking techniques. Focus was on how to apply joint locks in an actual combative situation, and to use them to either viciously stop the fight, or use the lock to transition to either a weapon or escape. Special shout out to visiting MBC alum Thayne Alexander for taking so many hard falls on the hard wood floor! It was an impromptu school of hard knocks style clinic on how to fall properly.

Day two was Counter Blade Concepts, and how to transition from empty hand into knife deployment. Mike started with his signature video presentation which shows footage of actual knife attacks, and the aftermath of such an assault. The message was clear: knife attacks happen suddenly and violently, and seen over and over again in the footage were pre-fight indicators, off hand probing, and aggressive gross motor forehand thrusts and slashes predominately coming from right handed attackers. This reality check helped to bring a very serious tone to the day’s training, and with the problem clearly defined, Mike brought people through his counter-blade system. Rather than flashy disarms done against static attacks, focus was on shutting down the attack using a split X-defense, compression locking the attacking limb, mobility kills using low line knees and kick.

The MBC patented “Yojimbo” and its Chicago-legal little brother. Porkmen beware!

After lunch, Mike set-up his famous “Porkman” demo: a pork roast attached to a PVC pipe and rigged with twine and Ceram wrap to provide a model of bone, muscle, tendons and skin. Forteza instructor Keith Jennings did the honors with his newly acquired “Chicagojimbo”, a modified Yojimbo 2 with the blade ground down to the legal Chicago length of 2.5 inches. Even with the shortened blade, and with very little effort, the knife had no problem cutting straight to the bone. This impressive demonstration showed not only how capable even a small carry knife can be, but also how dangerous it really is to face off against a knife attacker. With the demonstration fresh in the students’ minds, everyone trained with newfound enthusiasm and respect for what even a small blade is capable of.

There were over forty people training on the floor, with room to spare. The positive feedback from the seminar was overwhelming, with everyone asking when we’ll have Mike back out for a follow-up seminar. The answer: as soon as we can! Thanks to Mike for making the trip out to Chicago, all of the MBC alumni from all over the Midwest who came out in support, and for all of the students in attendance who trained hard.

Full house!

11 Sep

Introducing the Forteza Combatives Method

Posted under: Bartitsu, Combatives, Fitness & Physical Culture, Martial Blade Concepts

Join us tonight for the official first class of Forteza’s newest martial arts offering, the Forteza Combatives Method (FCM).

The term combatives originates with the military close quarter methods of WWI and WWII were men like Rex Applegate and Col. Anthony J, Drexel Biddle devised simple, direct fighting methods with empty hands, sticks, knives and bayonets that soliders ould learn fast and apply in a wide variety of situations. Combatives weren’t about dueling or competition fighting, but about “getting the job done”.

Today, the term combatives has expanded beyond military combat, but still describes eclectic fighting arts aimed at practical self-defense. In this sense it can be seen as the post-World Wars inheritor of Barton-Wright’s “New Art of Self-Defense”, Bartitsu.

Inspired by these predecessors, the Forteza Combatives Method is an eclectic blend of proven fighting arts designed to meet the needs of today’s martial artists and self-defense enthusiasts. We offer a well-rounded approach to take your fighting skills to new heights, by combining boxing, kicking, clinch fighting, ground fighting, edged weapons survival, and physical conditioning into one cohesive system.

Closed Fist Combatives: a blend of old school Western bare knuckle boxing, combined with the devastating knees, kicks and elbows of Muay Thai and old school Korean Tae Kwon Do.
Ground Survival: the FCM’s’ ground fighting techniques are a mix of military ground-fighting combatives, jujitsu, and American Catch Wrestling. Our Catch Wrestling curriculum comes from Dr. Les Moore, in the lineage of Billy “Pops” Wicks. Ground survival training teaches throws, holds, submissions, and escapes to give you the skills needed when a fight goes to the ground. This is decidedly not grappling for sports competition, but rather for reality of the street.
Empty Hand Combatives: practical unarmed combatives training focuses on gross motor skills that you can use to brutal efficiency in the chaos of an actual violent encounter. This includes open and closed fist strikes, joint locks and breaks, throws, and trapping skills.
Edges Weapons Survival: learn the defensive and offensive use of the knife. Our edged weapons program is based on the world renowned Martial Blade Concepts system as taught by MBC founder Mike Janich.
Combatives Conditioning: get into top fighting shape with a blend of pad work, kettlebells, body weight exercises, and sprints, and more. You may not be a professional fighter, but you’ll be in shape like one!

If you are like to train hard, this is the class for you! No experience in martial arts are necessary – we’ll train you from the ground up, but the program is also designed to strongly appeal to students coming from a background in Krav Maga, boxing, Muay Thai or MMA who are specifically interested in integrated training and sparring focused on self-defense, rather than competition.

The Forteza Combatives class will be running on Tuesday evenings from 7:30-8:30, right after the Bartitsu class.

Bring a water bottle, a towel and enthusiasm and we’ll see you there!

1 2 Next »