Ireland's Reality Based Personal Protection & Self Defence Experts

Defensive Tactics is literally everything you need to know for empty hand conflict: strikes, blocks, tactical movement and the Will to Survive.

Defensive Tactics is based on easy-to-learn modern military and police techniques and training methods put into a civilian format. This includes knowing how various threats will attack you: criminals, persons under the influence of a controlled substance, mentally disturbed persons, and other hostile persons. Hundreds of SWAT officers, Special Forces Operators, Prison Guards, and martial artists from every system imaginable have gone through this course and swear that nothing more could be added or subtracted. It is a complete stand-alone system, and it is the only self-defense system that also includes Pre-Conflict and Post-Conflict training.

In this course you start off by learning Threat Zones and the Criminal Assault Cycle. We’ll show you how to prepare yourself mentally and physically for an attack with the Alert Stance then the Imminent Conflict Stance when the line is crossed by the suspect.

We’ll then move on and show you how to move tactically, like how to do a Hasty Retreat without running into something, how to run up and assist a loved one who is being attacked, or how to get away from someone who wants to bury a knife in your back. When it comes to learning to use your arms and legs as weapons you’ll discover that there are basically only four primary angles to work with: front and back, horizontal, vertical, and diagonally. Coincidently, these are the same angles for blocking, with a few extra tricks added in.

We’ll teach you how to launch devastating kicks and two simple ways to block any kick coming your way. You’ll also learn how to properly execute a head butt, and the life-saving ABCs of choke holds defense regardless of how a suspect grabs onto you.

Unlike the cookie cutter approach that most systems teach, where every opponent is the worst-case scenario generic attacker, we teach you what you can and cannot do legally when it comes to self-defense. By using the Jim Wagner Use-of-Force Ladder TM, the Conflict Cycle TM, and the Means, Opportunity and Intent graph TM, you’ll know the context in which all of your new skills fall into.

In addition, you’ll learn all about how the O.O.D.A. process works, what all Special Operations personnel learn about when it comes to conflict mentality, and many other concepts that has only been made public since 2003.

Ground Survival is like no other ground fighting class in the world. Unlike traditional-based or sport-based ground courses, this course teaches you how to survive modern situations where you will be forced to defend yourself from the ground: drive-by shootings, terrorist attacks, multiple attackers situations, takedowns, and more.

We’ll start you off slow and easy by teaching you how to fall from various positions, then well take it a step further with tactical falls; stuff usually reserved for police and military training. Next, we’ll teach you the two simple methods in taking someone down to the ground and in what circumstance you would attempt it. We’ll also show you how to avoid being taken down to the ground (important to know with the growing popularity of BJJ, MMA and UFC).

In the second phase of the course you’ll learn the Ground Conflict Position and the techniques required to maintain the tactical advantage. You’ll develop your striking power from the ground, learn how to block and get someone off of you, and most important – how to do a Ground Recovery and get back to your feet.

This course has techniques and training methods you won’t find anywhere else: citizen’s arrest techniques, Positional Asphyxiation awareness, victim ground rescue techniques, Wall Ground Maneuvers, and more.

Defend yourself from dangerous situations like this!

The knife is most commonly used weapon in the world by criminals, and is the weapon of choice by many terrorists. The average knife attack is over within five seconds. The first critical wound is incurred within one to two seconds after weapon deployment. The techniques taught by 99% of the self-defense systems on the market today simply will not work against a real knife attack. 

The techniques in Knife Survival, taught by Paul 'Batman' O’Brien, are the same techniques taught  to the German GSG9 (Europe’s top counterterrorist team), the U.S. Coast Guard Sea Marshals, Brazilian GATE (Brazil’s State SWAT team), California Department of Corrections, U.K. Police, Irish Gardai, U.S. Border Patrol, Israeli Police, and dozens of SWAT teams, police agencies and military units around the world. This experience doesn’t just come from just teaching and being trained by the world’s elite, but from being involved with several knife incidents and more than one life-and-death knife attacks against him.

In this eye-opening course you will learn Knife Avoidance against criminal attacks, the 21 feet / 7 meter Rule, the 12 Angles of Attack, the Four Primary Blocks, proper weapon handling and stances, and the Jim Wagner Knife Disarm Rule when distance is not an option.

This course is unique in the fact that you will have a chance to see how criminals attack with knives, terrorists, various ethnic groups, and even techniques taught to the world’s militaries in order to know how to defend against such attacks.

You’ll be surprised at just how easy it is to be a knife fighting expert, and you’ll get there fast with conflict conditioning drills such as The Feeding Drill, The One-for-One Drill, and The Freestyle Drill; not to mention Walking the Gauntlet, Leap Frog Drill, and others. Whatever you learn in this course can also be applied to other weapon systems as well: improvised edged weapons and impact weapons.

Lesson: The Jim Wagner Knife Disarm Rule

An except from a private presentation for a tech group on proven reality based techniques. This was one of the most important lessons covered - The Jim Wagner Knife Disarm Rule, which I have taught to LEO and military officers for over 15 years. 

Personal protection goes beyond the proverbial bar fight, ultimately a form of social violence. Personal protection is equally about surviving asocial violence. It’s about surviving modern criminal conflicts such as assault and battery, armed robbery, carjacking, gang violence, caustic chemical attacks, and other situations you may face. Crime Survival is the only civilian self-defense course in the world that walks you through every step of a crime: how to remember the description of the suspect, how to identify and preserve evidence, contact with the police, avoiding legal pitfalls, Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome, and most important of all – courtroom survival.

In this learn-by-doing course you’ll learn how to deal with multiple attackers, how to survive a point blank and Close Quarters firearms situations, how to protect loved ones just like professional bodyguards do it, and how to rescue a person right from the jaws of a deadly situation.

In Crime Survival we’ll teach you things that not even regular police officers learn such as K.I.M.S. (Keep In Memory System), Criminal Chemical Attack Defense developed by Jim Wagner, Impact Weapons Survival, and counter-surveillance (knowing when you are being targeted by a criminal and how to lose them). After all, a criminal just does not appear out of thin air, they select certain people for a reason, and we’ll show you what they are looking for.

This course is all about making you a Hard Target; someone who is inaccessible, unpredictable, and aware. We’ll cover concepts such as Threat Assessment, Situational Awareness, and Position of Advantage in various public situations. We’ll also cover home security, vehicle security, and workplace security.

This is a course that every good citizen should take, because you never know when you will be a victim or a witness to a crime.

Public Transport Assault

Mr.O’Brien demonstrates how to survive an attack on simulated public transport during a private session for a tech group on proven reality based techniques. This can be applied to seating in variety of locations.

What would you do if you were caught in the middle of a grenade attack or if a fanatic went on a killing spree? Terrorism Survival is a hands-on, step-by-step course that will teach you how to survive such attacks and more.

Few self-defense instructors in the world are qualified to teach such a course. I have trained with the best in the business, from former US Naval Warfare, to Private Military contractors, and qualified under a former counterterrorist agent for the United States government, who developed this course to teach civilians how to survive office and school shootings, small arms terrorist attacks, bomb threats, sniper attacks, suicide bombers, and Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD).

Although this course briefly covers the history of terrorism and the types of terrorist groups that an American is likely to face, the course concentrates on practical techniques and exercises of survival. We’ll show you how to avoid being kidnapped, what signs to look for that a terrorist attack is about to go down, improvised explosive weapons, bomb searching methods, vehicular checks, chemical attack survival, precautions you should take while traveling, and all about Shelter-in-Place and Incident Recognition and Reaction for home, school or work.

Since I first qualified in the field in 2005, it has become abundantly clear that the threat of terrorism will not go away. The attacks will come and go. They will respond to our actions and change in nature. We have seen this in the increasing use of vehicles to target and mow down civilians. This course not only makes you more capable of personal protection, but will give you a better appreciation of the War on Terrorism.

Weapon Control

Mr.O’Brien observes two students work through an office shooting scenario during Terrorism Survival Training with British Police officers.

The following are some recent clips from our seminars and public demonstrations. 

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