Blauer-Jeff Gonzales Concealed Combatives Course

[TNacp99]

My thoughts on this course from November 21-23, 2014

Course Objective: to teach physical combatives in the event of a surprise ambush/attack prior to drawing your concealed weapon. The ideal scenario is that we are so situationally aware that we can draw our weapon and stop the threat if our life was in danger. However, this course assumes a worse situation; you are physically preempted by an attack and must fight the attacker effectively to create distance and opportunity so that you can use your concealed weapon. This is NOT a shooting course. This is a how to survive an attack and position yourself so that you CAN shoot.

Instructors: Tony Blauer of SPEAR combatives (San Diego) and Jeff Gonzales (former Navy Seall) of Trident Concepts.

Location: Conroe, facilities of the host Conroe Sheriffs Department
Attendees: 19-21 people. All male except one. LEO or former LEO/Military at least 12-15 individuals. Civilians had to have CHL to register and attend. I am estimating age ranges between mid 20's to late 50's.
Cost: $800
Equipment: concealed carry holster, training knife (whatever your EDC gear is, bring it). Training folder knives were available for those who did not have one. Pistols were safety checked and empty during the drills and many had inert blue guns or SIRT pistols

Concepts Skills Learned: Biomechanics of arm and body strength, use of leverage, How to use the instinctive flinch response as a defensive/offensive combat technique, Open versus closed hand strikes, How to disarm knife and pistol pointed at your face, How to create opportunities to draw your weapon, Modifying your pistol grip and body position during close combat (ie arm's length or closer). Weapon retention during combat.

Safety was a high priority in this course: All attendees were checked at the beginning of each day and after anyone left the building for any reason. We were checked to ensure that our pistol was safety cleared and that our knives were dull training blades, and that we did not carry live ammo into the building.

Day 1 Friday: 7pm-9pm Lecture format. Tony Blauer presented his thoughts on the flinch response and cycle of fear. Very informative examples.
Day 2 Saturday 9 AM -3 PM: physical combat drills. Mr Blauer and Gonzales alternated in demonstrating maneuvers with attendees and then we paired up and went at it. We switched partners several times to mix it up.
Day 3 9AM-3pm: more combatives, but focusing more on drawing pistol from concealment during the fight. After practicing pistol draws, we then practiced drawing practice blades from our support side and weapon retention of both our blades and pistols while our partner (bad guy) was grabbing for it. We ended the last day with a debriefing by Jeff Gonzales and everyone shared 1-2 thoughts about what they learned.

Eureka Moments: I am 5'6" and weigh 130 lbs. Although I am fit, I am not muscular and have no grappling skills at all. Nevertheless, I was able to effectively defend against much stronger and larger attendees by using the biomechanics and leverage taught in this course. By positioning my arms greater than 90 degrees but less than 180 degrees, and by splaying out my hands rather than clenched fists, I was able to hold off much larger partners. This was also the first time I trained at all in edged weapons and pistol retention skills.

Conclusion: I highly, highly recommend this course. It is pricey but the lessons are priceless. The skills I learned were quite simple applications of leverage and the flinch response. You do NOT need any former training in MA or wrestling to grasp and deploy these techniques. It gave me confidence that I can resist a much larger/stronger opponent. The course fills the gap that I have always felt was missing as a CHL citizen. I feel quite comfortable deploying my handgun to protect my life or others. I feel that I can deliver my shots accurately and effectively. The gap I had was how to reach my gun at all if I was suddenly ambushed or caught off guard.
Mr Blauer and Gonzales were great teachers. They were funny and taught effectively without self promotion.
WHo should not attend: if you are highly politically correct, then this course is not for you. There was alot of profanity but it created the right mood for the course. If you are not fit, then you will not maximize your benefits. There was only one person who did not show up for the last day. However, there were several attendees who had to sit out of the drills because of sprained shoulders or muscles. I am personally still sore a week later.

Thanks for reading.

[TNacp99]

Here are some photos of our class in action