I am a lifelong students of the martial arts, and am drawn to the Filipino arts because of raw effectiveness, adaptability, and pragmatic approach that FMA offers. While living in Colorado, I had the privilege of being a personal student of Mike Janich, founder of Martial Blade Concepts (MBC). I am not back in my hometown of Chicago, and I'm looking to share MBC with anyone who wants to learn, as well as other FMA groups and instructors to train with. I consider myself first and foremost a student of the martial arts, and I'm always open to learning something new.

http://www.martialbladeconcepts.com/

Martial Blade Concepts(MBC) is an edged-weapon training program specifically designed to meet the needs of today's concerned citizen and armed professional. Based on Michael Janich’s extensive analysis of the Filipino martial arts and many other systems, MBC emphasizes the development of “all-purpose” defensive skills. Rather than learning a large number of specific techniques to defend against specific attacks, MBC focuses on perfecting a few proven techniques and learning how to apply them to literally hundreds of different defensive situations. Through this easy-to-learn method, students develop defensive proficiency very quickly and have both the ability and the confidence to employ their skills after only a brief period of training.

MBC’s basic physical goal is to “learn how to fight effectively with a knife” – applying the attributes of the knife to the broadest possible set of defensive circumstances. At a more advanced level, the physical skills of the MBC method are also designed to form the basis for unarmed defensive skills – including unarmed defenses against knives – and the use of improvised and other purpose-designed weapons for personal defense.

The purpose of this group is to bring the MBC method of self defense to the Chicagoland area. I had the privilege being a personal student of Mike's for a number of years, and I have received full proficiency and am an associate instructor in MBC. The focus of our training with be on the use of the tactical folding knife for self-defense, and close-quarters unarmed tactics. We will also do some cross training with sticks, improvised weapons, and some big knife (Bowie knife, machete/barong, ect.) training. Right now, I'm looking to start up a weekly class in the North Chicago burbs, with the possibility of a downtown location in the near future.