This page will describe the system I developed for warriors that carry a weapon for a living as well as for the ordinary citizen as a last ditch defense when victimized in a violent assault. The RAD Program draws heavily from Hsiao Chui Tien, Splashing Hands and Ba kua; while this system is mainly intended for retaining or disarming a weapon it has evolved into a unique blend of movements that form the tactics, techniques and procedures (TTP) of a very effective close-fighting system that is useful from standing to flat on your back. While the individual components are not of my invention, the method of combination into a coherent effective fighting method is all my own, with drills and tactics that are gleaned from a life of experience and taking the basic drills shown to me by Lao Tzu and carrying them to the next level using modern training techniques and my own desire to encompass every eventuality.
This system of weapon retention and disarm, while designed for law enforcement and military personnel would be beneficial to anyone that carries or owns a gun or knife or is concerned about being under the gun or knife, which should be everyone in these times. Swift decisive action and some practiced techniques could save your life or the life of another. It is called the Weapon Retention and Disarm Program (RAD) and is based on core techniques taken from Splashing Hands, L9H and Ba kua. The program focuses on firearms and edged weapons; both retaining your own and disarming and neutralizing the threat of someone who attacks you.
I have a program established to accommodate any desired student time-frame from a four hour period of instruction to a full two week basics course. A full training block for this system would require a twelve week course to full address the intricacies of this comprehensive program and would be a specialty course for SWAT or Special Operations. The student would be presented with a multi-tiered approach to threat that could fit within any rules of engagement guidelines. The full program is also available to the individual student except for the use of Simmunition which is a restricted training tool and some of the course syllabus would be scaled down for use with the solo operator.
The three fighting styles selected, along with Iron Hand, which I consider mandatory no matter the style a student learns, form the core of this fighting system. These styles were selected for specific attributes they have to solve the inherent problems of weapon retention and disarm. In fact that is how I developed this program; by satisfying a specific need I had as a security operator and that I had found somewhat lacking in my own search for weapon and small team military-style tactical training. Some of the things I was taught in this regard by the trainers I worked with over the years but I found it was missing something; first and foremost, I never really had any instructor offer much in the way of techniques to counter a two-handed weapon grip. Everything was from this western style one arm extended shooting position which is really only utilized by a tactical shooter when one arm is disabled. This is what you don’t want to see;
Immediately the light went on and I knew a proper technique would have to be based around a two hand grab in order to control an opponent presenting a weapon with a proper two-handed grip. If you can deal with this then an opponent using a one handed grip is much easier to deal with and really does not need to be trained for; very little if at all. The majority of the training time should be spent against the two-handed grip. The perfect basic grabbing method is contained in the Ba Kua style using the Monkey Bears Fruit hand form.
I saw the necessity for a different way while seeking training for going overseas to the Middle East to work as a Private Security Contractor. After my failure to join the military as outlined on the Instructor page of this website, I sought out private instruction from one of the foremost trainers in the field Max Joseph of the Tactical Firearms Training Team/ Direct Action Group (TFTT/DAG) now just DAG. A former Special Operations professional with unique qualifications, I could go on for pages about this guy, he was the next best thing or even better as he told me later, than what I MAY have gotten to do in the military if I was lucky. Except for getting paid for jumping out of planes and SCUBA diving and blowing shit up training with Max and his gang fit the bill and I learned a lot. Over the course of the next fifteen to twenty years I amassed over 3000 hours of training time running the full gamut of the courses that he offered. During that time were many defensive tactics classes with retention and disarm of weapons as the primary focus.
With all due respect to the cadre at TFTT/DAG and other sources I have studied on the subject, I have always found the standard techniques to be flawed on their face due to the fact that the scenario is always against an opponent using a one hand extended grip on the pistol; I believe that because of the far greater power of retention afforded by the two handed grip most standard techniques won’t work without modifying the grab. Coupled with the fact that I have a pretty strong grip and I showed more than once that the standard techniques won’t always work. So I set my mind to the task because it would be vital to my survival possibly if I was deployed to a hot zone and even in the cities of the U.S. where crime is only on the rise.
Once I realized that the two hand grab was the key the Ba Kua Monkey quickly came to mind and coupling it with the side shuffle I had the basic beginning of the comprehensive system known today as the RAD System. I have a lot of training experience doing hand to hand while armed and equipped with a holster rig and all the accompanying gear and it can be very challenging. But before I began training with TFTT I had two separate incidents, one with a knife and one with a gun where the necessity for this type of skill was driven home. Stand by for more.
This story illustrates perfectly the necessity of having this type of training and what can happen to even a trained fighter when exposed to an “under the gun” type situation. This story was originally written for and posted on another internet forum which is why this website is referred to, even though it is posted to this site now.
TPIC JUMPS ON THE GUN
After Colins’ comment about saving it for the campfire I debated whether to write this up and post it here. Most who know me are aware of my substance abuse issues in the past and I am open about it on my website, which is already out there, so here goes. Other than being high at the time, which affected my reaction to the situation, I was the “victim”, I guess, in this story so nothing incriminating there. I am going to put this on my website and in the other book I am writing, ‘Great Ambition, Harsh Reality: Memoirs Of A Kung Fu Masters’ Protege’, so it is a little long for a forum post. It might add a little life to this place LOL!
Those of you familiar with my website will know of my friend the infamous TPIC (the partner in crime) who even Lao Tzu wrote off as dead or in prison by the age of thirty. Against all odds he is closing in on sixty with a beautiful young wife and two cute kids, who obviously take after her, and has a successful business in the drug rehab world; he made his past work for him. He remains to this day one of the few people that I know I can count on no matter what, fully vetted literally under fire.
He and I have always had a contentious back and forth relationship, feuding as much as we were friends. We both let each other down and saved each others’ ass several times over the years. I saved him from certain death one night in the hood, one of my finest hours, but that’s another story. In this story it was he who showed me his true colors.
His mom was just like mine, a total enabler who would let us party at home, citing that old cliche that it was safer doing it at home than out running the streets. Well, we did both so what was the point? We were at TPICs’ moms’ place early one morning with one of the many in the parade of characters that we knew that were straight out of Central Casting for a Punk Rock Apocalypse movie. This dude wasn’t even Punk although he hung out at big punk shows selling dope. His name was Victor and he was a short little guy who was built like a brick shithouse and indulged heavily in his own product. He always ran around wearing some version of a pair of tight-fitting OP surf shorts with a cowboy hat and cowboy boots and a leather vest with no shirt on underneath. He was a pretty annoying dude and a total psychopath.
It was early in the morning after a night without sleep and we had called him to “re-up”. He came over to deliver personally and we did a few hits. I have wracked my memory and I still can’t remember what it was exactly but I got a phone call and I believe someone that I was close to had died. Victor said something stupid and, again, I don’t remember what, but in my grief and anger I snapped back at him and told him to fuck off. Without a word he walked out the door and into the garage which was open to the street. He was only gone a few minutes when he came back in the door and asked if what I had said was personal.
I didn’t think anything of it and just said “fuck yeah it was personal, fuck you” in typical Jim Doty style. This was about five years into my training with Lao Tzu; I was 25 and had transitioned from practicing all the time to running wild in the streets with crazy questionable characters to “test myself” and by then people were familiar with the fact that I could handle my shit. I wasn’t worried about fighting Victor but in my drug-induced haze I was totally misreading the situation.
He continued walking into the room and came up to where I was sitting and I immediately jumped up because it looked like I might be wrong and he was about to attack me. He was just beyond my arms’ reach in front of me and he started reaching for his waistband. This was well before I had any real, tactical firearms training or had any practice at taking a pistol away from someone. We had never done anything like that with McNeil Lao Tzu. It was like he was moving in slow motion and thinking back on it now I had plenty of time to make a move even though he was a little further away than was ideal. I would have absolutely planted him into the drywall and asked questions later, knowing what I know now. He dragged a hog leg .357 revolver out of his waistband where it had been concealed by his vest and pointed it at me, asking again if it was personal. I remember being annoyed that he kept asking that same stupid fucking question as I was moving towards him, jutting my face forward and almost pushing my forehead against the barrel, telling him “go ahead and fucking shoot me”. I was at a point in my life where I think I truly didn’t care.
Before the results of this decision could play out TPIC came flying out of the bedroom where he had been getting high and had heard our commotion out in the living room. Without hesitation he jumped on Victors’ back and tried to grab him in a headlock as they wrestled around for a few seconds, all the while the gun was pointing at TPICs’ gut. I watched almost fascinated, anticipating it going off, not sure what to do. Suddenly Victor swept the gun up and backwards, nailing TPIC on the forehead with the forward sight on the gun barrel. TPIC dropped like a sack of bricks and the asshole ran back out the door to the street.
We found out later from word on the street that he was pulled over right after leaving the scene for reckless driving and when the cops made the stop he came out of the car waving the pistol around and raving like a loon, advancing on the cop car and beating on their hood with the pistol. It is a miracle he wasn’t killed but it was a different time, he for sure would be today. Too bad they didn’t and save the world some trouble. He gave it up finally and ended up only doing 30 days in County and I never saw him again. He apparently got less of a sentence because he had ditched the bullets along the road as he was fleeing before he got pulled over. It probably wouldn’t matter today and he would be charged as if it were loaded, which it was. I know he had bullets in the thing, I remember staring at them from the wrong end at point blank range! Gods only know what happened to that psycho but the event definitely cemented my friendship with TPIC, who proved he would literally jump on a gun for me.