Jim Wagner Shoots Cover
Story for Feb. 2008 Issue!
Jim Wagner Shoots Cover
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Author of the critically acclaimed book Reality-Based Personal Protection, Wagner was inducted into the Black Belt Hall of Fame as the 2006 Self-Defense Instructor of the Year. His current project with Black Belt is a new book called Defensive Tactics for Special Operations. At age 14, Wagner studied taekwondo with Alfonso Uceda and was encouraged to experiment with other martial arts. Eventually, he studied karate with Kiyoshi Yamazaki and in the 1970s he studied jeet kune do and a variety of Philippine martial arts under Dan Inosanto and Richard Bustillo. Wagner’s U.S. Army training ater exposed him to what would later be developed into Jim Wagner Reality-Based Personal Protection. The Army used soldiers in enemy uniforms and real explosions—an approach Wagner would soon apply to civilian experiments he called “simulated reality training.” During his two years as a corrections officer at the Costa Mesa Police Department, Wagner learned about criminal behavior from the inside and developed practical defenses against them. Following resignation after 10 years with the CMPD, Wagner delved into instructing domestic and international law-enforcement and military units. His schedule would take him to countries on both sides of the Atlantic, where he provided advanced training to the world’s finest police, military and counterrorist units. Wagner’s High Risk column debuted in Black Belt’s February 1999 issue. And after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, Wagner was featured on the magazine’s cover for an article about terrorism survival. This appearance spurred an explosion of interest in reality-based training—a fact reflected in reader letters and a flood of new ads for reality-based seminars and products.
And yet Wagner was perplexed as to why civilian self-defense and martial arts schools still didn’t use this style of training, but his Federal Air Marshal experience would change that. Their approach of short-duration, high-intensity full-contact scenarios using a handful of hard-hitting techniques, gun takeaways, and knife defenses in an accurately-simulated environment paved the way for him to apply this approach—plus his many years of specialized-tactics training and traditional martial arts—to a comprehensive program that could be applicable to police, military and civilian purposes. This new program evolved into the acclaimed Jim Wagner Reality-Based Personal Protection system. ________________________________________
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