The HaganaH Blog

IPTT Counter Terrorism Lotar Level-2 Course using a semi automatic hand-gun this last friday was Great!

Garret Machine and one more Duvdevan Operator that came from Israel to help Garret with this course delivered an exeptional intense course on friday. This course was packed with hands on information on how Israeli Special Forces currently navigate themself in a gun fight in Israel today!

First we reviewed the Level-1 IPTT Course that is a pre-requisite to this course and then we  went deeper into Urban Warfare with advanced materials.   4 and a half hours of Dry-Shooting techniques and drills here at the National Headquarters were the first half of the day. Urban Warfare scenarios were cover using props that were build specifically for the course…then, we took those props to the range for a full after-noon of shooting, appplying the dry-shooting drills with real live fire!

HaganaH Black Belts and Practitioners from Pensylvenia, New York and Florida attended the course, it was a BLAST!!!

“100% goes into the dominant threat” Jacob , Duvdevan Warrior

Would you know what to do if you were in a deadly situation and who ever was with you got shot? or, more importantly….would you know what Not to do!

On Saturday August 14th, 2010  HaganaH IPTT Intsructor, Garret Machine, will teach our first Combat First Aid Course here at the National Headquarters. This course will include materials such as how to address attending to a wounded individual while still under fire, and more.

This course is open to anybody who would like to be prepared for worst cases scenarios…great course for first responders!

call (954)475-2333 to enroll

The name of the game is to be in a position to cut without being cut. Easy said, but not easily done!

Because of the knife being an “extention” weapon to the arm holding it, if you are within arms reach you can both cut and be cut. So on a reach level from the moment the fight starts the fight is life on both sides to begin with. So what will be the determined thing that will give the advantage to one fighter over the other?

I found the answer to the way we approach knife fighting in HaganaH from the way Bruce Lee introduced the “5 ways of attack” in his Jeet Kune Do system, and later on how my mentor in the Martial Arts, Joe Lewis, further refined it for Full-Contact fighting/sparring in his Joe Lewis Fighting System.  Both Bruce Lee and Joe Lewis are advocates of “the one that controls the rythm and distance, controls the fight” …that is done in their systems with methods such as broken rythm and specific closing the gap methods and strategies.

Taking from the method mentioned above and applying it to knife fighting I came up with a strategy of our own in HaganaH for knife fighting, or what we call ITK.     ” The one that controls the rythm and ANGLE , controls the fight”!

Since the reach is not an issue and will render you even with you opponent, the one that has a better trigger squeeze to launch his attack will have an advantage at the biginning of the engagement and depending on the defensife skills of the other attacker, he will be succesful or unsuccesful in his attack. If the defensive skills of the other fighter muffles the initial launched attack than one more factor will determin a clear advantage: The Angle of the attack!!!

both Rythm and Angles are controlled by the footwork of the fighter.

Got to go on the mat to teach, more to come on this subject…

On fridays, unless I am teaching a Certification/Seminar/Work-shop , it is my day off from teaching and working out. I only do one thing each friday….a 30 minutes “Dry-Shooting” module to keep up with my muscle memory.

Back in year 2000 when I  to developed my ICS-1000/2000/3000 handgun curriculum I used to shoot much more than now, in other words I was shooting life fire rounds much more than I was dry shooting.  There were days I was shooting up to 500 rounds in one session and most of the time I was shooting 4 to 5 times a week. In the Golani Brigade there is a motto ” After 40,000 rounds even a donkey can shoot” , so I guess that was my mentality at the time lol

With the years I found out that dry shooting has a very technical skill enhancement value and year by year the ratio of life fire versus dry shooting has changed for me. Today my mentality is “Dry-Shooting Is King!”   The ratio for me is 3-t0-1, in other words I will do 3 dry-shooting workout sessions before I will hit the range to shoot a single bullet. The life fire session will tipycally put me through about 300 to 350 rounds…

But the last few weeks my dry-shooting sessions have shifted to take an hour. Why?  IPTT upgrades by Garret have me changing some of my muscle memory and it is taking me more time to go through the new module…today one of my Black Belts who took the IPTT course with me in may , Larry, joined me for my dry-shooting session. He loved it, Its nice to have to enhance what you already know and upgrade your training!

Our next Israeli Combat Shooting Counter Terrorism Level-1 course using a semi-automatic handgun is set for friday, July 23rd 2010. This will be our 3rd course at this level with the first 2 ones who were held in june and may…

a Level-2 Israeli Combat Shooting Counter Terrorism course using a semi-automatic handgun is set for August, this course is designed for those who attended the Level-1 course, I will be attending this course as I did the Level-1 course.

also , we have added two courses for the month of August : 

1) Israeli Counter Terror Rifle Course

-basic rifle set up for urban warfare

-body positioning and points of contact

-multiple targets

-standing, kneeling and laying

-jam corrections for speed

-rapid reloads

2) Combat First Aid For 1st Responders and Soldiers

-class room on the trauma first aid schematics

-practice stopping bleeding TQ bandage

-asherman valve placement

-airway control

-hemcon use

-preparation for transport

-scenarios

All these courses are taught by Garret M , those who have taken the Level-1 course in may or june can attest to the level of instruction in these courses!

Our Israeli Professional Tactical Training (I.P.T.T.) division will be offering a few added courses over the next 90 days. Senior IPTT Instructor, Garret M will be conducting small group training in tactical rifle, advanced combat pistol, land navigation, aggression drills, combat medic, and a dry fire review. He may be bringing in a couple of other high level Israelis to assist, as he did with the first combat pistol course taught a month ago. It looks to be an awesome addition to the Haganah repertoire of programs and another opportunity for Garret M to deliver an excellent experience to all of our clients. Details will be posted on our new website, which will be launched in the next month or so. Stay tuned.

Randy Proto: Every tactic has a weakness

Occasionally people point out a weakness in a specific tactic in “the other guys system,” as though they have the holy grail. It’s interesting. In Haganah we recognize that every tactic – yes every one – has a weakness. Including ours.

The idea is to blend together tactics and establish strategy in such a way that the exposure created by those weaknesses is minimized and the strengths of the tactics line up with the need in various situations and can be exploited. By differing audiences.

I was recently reviewing two gun disarms – from a purely technical perspective – and saw a clear weakness in each. One was ours, one from one of the various Krav Maga organizations. On the other hand, each was designed for a last resort scenario. One where the victim concluded that the assailant was going to shoot him/her. And he/she couldn’t maneuver for better position. Help arriving wasn’t an option. Time for compliance was over. In the victim’s mind, the situation was a fixed one.

I decided that a tactic with a weakness was better than the alternative. And, I also decided that everyone who has the skill should be working toward finding improved tactics in these types of situations. We certainly are.

As I travel and teach seminars around the country I get the following question a lot :  What is your training regimen consist?

since arriving in the USA about 22 years ago I have been following a Matrix method that has been updated throughout the years. My first Matrix was divided according to ranges of empty hand combat. Kicking range/skills, Punching range/skills, Trapping range/skills, Clinch/skills and Grappling range/skills.  I entered in the Matrix a skill number system with 1 being the lowest and 5 the highest. In the beginning all the numbers were at 2 or 1 and I then decided to work on rising all of them. For kicking I joined a Tae Kwon Do school under Grand Master Je in Sunrise FL, which later on I ended up opening a Tae Kwon Do school. It took me about 4 years to pick up that number 2 to number 5 in kicking, that included jump kicks as well…for punching I became a Joe Lewis student and learned how to box. That  took me about 2 to 3 years years to become a good boxer…Joe Lewis also adjusted some of my kicking , especially my side kick, to power kicks versus “scoring” kicks. To this day I still do Joe Lewis Fighting Systems at my school in my kick-boxing/sparring classes.For trapping I did Jeet Kune Do under Lamar Davis. That came to me faster than kicking or boxing since I am naturally good at close quarter combat techniques…about a year and a half. For clinching I sought out Legendary Muay Thai Master Kru Vut Kamnark from Thailand. All my elbows, clinching and knees techniques come from Muay Thai…I Love Muay Thai!  For grappling I sought out both the Gracie family and the Machado Family for world class instruction in Brazilian Jiujitsu…this is the art that comes to me the slowest, and I have not to this day reach a number 5 on my Matrix….all other ranges are at a solid 5 , which I maintain through training.

The Matrix above was my original Matrix for my own fighting skills development. It takes time to develop fighting skills and a Matrix can help you focus and not lose your way up…

my Matrix today looks completely different than my original one about 20 years ago. Today it is divided by subjects , not by ranges.  Combat Fitness, Hand-To-Hand Combat Stand-Up, Combat Wrestling, Ground Survival, Tactical Knife Fighting and Combat Shooting. I divide this subjects by amount of percentage I budget in my training. Combat Fitness and Hand-To-Hand Combat consist of  50% of my training regiment. Combat Wrestling and Ground Survival/Fighting consist of 20% and Tactical Knife Fighting and Combat Shooting consist of the remaining 30% of my training regiment. This is my current Matrix. It helps me stay on my game and stay focus….not to mention it helps stay young lol

I hope this can help you in your training plans….have a Blast building your training Matrix.

This last weekend I traveled to Boston to teach a seminar at one of my FIGHT Authorized Centers. The subject of the seminar was multiple attackers , both empty hand and with weapons, and 3rd party disarms. It is in this nature of materials that a lot of our principals in our regular one-on-one FIGHT curriculum start making more sense to our students. Some tactics are implemented into the regular FIGHT curriculum that my partner Randy Proto and myself put together to be able to support more complex scenarios such as multiple attackers and 3rd party disarms in the later stages of training in HaganaH.

That specific integration was very important to me when developing the HaganaH system, in many other systems tactics do not “mesh” together so to speak….and different subjects in training follow complete different principles from one another. Without that integration practitioners will have to scan not only through a lot of techniques under pressure , but also they will have to scan through principles as well!  While I was teaching the seminar this last weekend a few times my FIGHT Instructors kept saying ” Wow, now I see why we do this….” .    A lot of my FIGHT Instructors will only get the dept of our system after spending a good amount of time in our system, both training and teaching. I always say in Instructor FIGHT Certifications : ” I won’t know how good a FIGHT Instructor really is until at least 3 to 5 years from now”

As long as an Instructor teaches HaganaH in modules only, without the deep understanding of the integration between those modules….he is teaching FIGHT with the addition of the modules such as ITK, Ground Survival, ICS etc….   only when an Instructor teaches HaganaH in true integration in both Principles and Techniques, then and only then, is he/she teaching HaganaH!

Thought everyone would be interested in this press release:

Local Area Business Announces New Military and Law Enforcement Counter-Terror Training Capability

May 18, 2010, Ft. Lauderdale, FL – Today, Randy Proto, Co-founder of International HaganaH Federation, a Davie based self defense and tactical training company, announced that it has added a former Duvdevan Israeli Special Forces Operator known as Garret Machine as an Israeli Professional Tactical Training Instructor for its US operations. “Duvdevan is one of the most prestigious counter-terror units of the IDF, therefore, we are very pleased to bring this special skill set to our organization,” stated Proto.

“Each member of our instructional staff brings a completely different real world experience with them that all of our clients benefit from,” added Proto. “Our US operations, particularly those serving our military and law enforcement clients, will see great enhancements from our new course offerings including numerous added handgun combat shooting courses, rifle combat shooting courses, home and facility defense courses, high profile security professional courses and extensive military tactics courses including counter terror and unit security procedures, structure entry and clearing tactics, urban warfare tactics, hostage rescue, and others. Garret Machine has been trained in numerous Israeli methods, including LOTAR and YAMAM Hostage rescue, and participated in numerous small team urban counter-terror combat missions during his nearly 7 years in the Israeli military. These exciting and challenging classes will certainly enhance the skill sets of those who participate in them. We have also conducted a review of and added updated variations of a few gun disarm tactics in the Haganah system as a result of working with him over the past few months”

“Garret Machine is an outstanding IDF veteran and adds to Haganah a full set of updated weapons skills and current counter-terror tactics skills,” said Mike Lee Kanarek. “I created Haganah with a commitment to continual enhancement and growth. We have done so each year at our annual conference. Self defense and military tactics don’t change every day, but over time they change – sometimes in subtle ways that are only applicable to a small but important part of our student base. We hope to add a Senior IPTT instructor and partner for International Operations soon as well.”

“As part of our commitment to our team, all active Haganah Black Belt level certification instructors who wish to train with Garret Machine will be able to at no-cost for a two day special session in Florida this fall to expose them to his skills and enhance theirs,” said Proto.

The HaganaH system is an Israeli based comprehensive self defense and defensive tactics system that has certified instructors and authorized training centers nationwide and internationally. IHF has relationships with many law enforcement and military professionals. IHF’s objective is to assist all levels and types of individuals and professionals – from Housewives to Homeland Security – to continually enhance their self defense and defensive tactics methods. For more information regarding the International HaganaH Federation or any of its course offerings please visit us at www.fight2survive.com.