The initial vision of an “MMA” for LEO and that mission to modernize defensive tactics began for me in 1995 with about a dozen LEO from Pembroke Pines PD and a couple of firefighters at Chapel Trail Martial Arts working with BJJ, wrestling, Judo and our JKDC curriculum at the time. My JKDC instructor since 92 who also introduced me and my training partners to GJJ via the local Carlson Gracie affiliates was a LEO and our gym and training always had that POV/ mindset integrated into its training.
Our overall curriculum greatly improved in 1998 with my joining the instructor cadre and efforts of the Straight Blast Gym and its emphasis on athleticism and especially Greco Roman wrestling’s value to fighting in general. The Straight Blast Gym at that time was imo the very best camp of instructors, coaches, athletes and students training BJJ/ MMA in this period of history. It was one of those magical moments in time where super hard working and innovate people had come together to openly share and grow together.
I was ahead of the curve having been coaching kids and LEO “mma” since 95 and took the lead by focusing on those two aspects and commercial fronts of the industry. Most everyone in the states during these years was hyper focused on their own training and very few had gyms and if they did, were not making the jump to teaching kids or cops “mma”. The fragment of a % that might have certainly were not attempting to develop it systematically via any uniform curriculum or training methodology.
The same could be said by the small % of LEO at the time who had the fortune of such training between 92-99 as even less that their numbers were actually attempting to introduce and bring their partners and teams into this world. One of those at the forefront of this effort to teach LEO was Paul Sharp who had been a training partner of mine since 92. We trained out of Lord’s Boxing Gym in Hialeah Florida, garages and occasionally parks with about 6 other individuals. When that group dissolved (we were all growing up at the time with new families, homes etc) he moved to Chicago and we kept in touch long enough for me to ask him join what was happening within the SBG. He would be a big part of its early years.
Naturally, when it was time to launch my original vision of an LEO system designed to take exclusively what would work within LE’s very particular world of legally and morally defensible tactics and SOPs, Paul was the natural and best choice. He was doing it. He had left Florida and sought out to become an LEO in Chicago while I would turn down a full scholarship ride to the Police Academy to grow my gym in South Florida and remain a martial artist and coach.
It wouldn’t take much more than a phone call, a brief discussion on what I was thinking to do and then two days of improvised filming to create what would be the first view of the ISR Matrix. We shot it in two days late that fall and it was released via a 5 tape VHS set by that year’s winter. We just started filming what we liked and thought would fit it and though I ended up editing out about 2/3rds of the footage, captured what would be the foundations that would be refined by us over the next few years. He would continue teaching his peers and friends in Chicago while I taught and continued to run courses in Florida. We would meet yearly at SBG camps and summits and typically deliver a a few hours block on the material or short seminars. Quite a few popular faces in LEO, Combatives and knife material were present at those blocks, clinics and seminars.
Paul and I would each eventually take our own views on what we brought to that transformative weekend of filming LEO tactics our own ways as coaches and by 2005 or so we were developing our own “schools” of thought among our friends, peers and students. The rest is both history and yet still alive today as those we taught also would go their on way and develop their own approaches and slight adjustments to the particulars of martial arts and sports in the realm of LE and Special Teams.
Though I personally believe that without the work that Paul and I put forth from 99-2005 much of what is today as it is today would have been much different or at least taken much longer to arise, I also know quite a few more people are part of these origins as they were our first training partners and peers. I would like to list them here from my end and I’m sure Paul has his list as well. I am not talking about our mentors here but rather those that helped us evolve as both athletes and coaches while being partners and friends along the way.
Fletch Fuller was there before the SBG and attended my LEO courses. He remains the only LEO & BJJ practitioner who saw the ISR Matrix launch and come to fruition and remains the only one who took courses with both Paul and I. He along with Ray Price and James Walker helped me build and develop the company stateside and overseas. (To be cont.)