……….. Just as we had predicted our first seminars in Cologne was a success. First of all we had a lot of professionals: Active duty soldiers of the German Army, a German corrections officer, Swiss police officers, security personnel from the U.S. Embassy in Switzerland, one Department of Justice employee out of the U.S. Embassy in Brussels, a German maritime anti-pirate security agent, and Spanish security agents. As expected, there were martial arts students and instructors from several systems: Krav Maga, Musado Military Combat, Jeet Kune Do, Aikido, Thai boxing, Tae Kwon Do, Karate, and Gung Fang. There were also a fair amount of beginners who have had no previous training attending. It was people’s desire to learn how to defend themselves against today’s crime and terrorism, and yes, even against the ego fight (a shoving match or the proverbial bar fight) that brought them all together. Every system needs Reality-Based Personal Protection, unless of course you have gone through a police academy, boot camp, counterterrorism school, Combat Lifesaver Course, and dozens of other tactical courses.

Joachim Roux, whom has become a good friend of mine over the years, made sure that on his end things ran smoothly. On our part Tobias and I had to deal with a few glitches, but that was to be expected having relocated a ton of training equipment and having a lot of last minute sign ups. 20-year-old Sevil, a Knife Survival instructor, assisted me and Tobias with Defensive Tactics, she took Ground Survival as a student this time, and then again assisted us during Knife Camp. I don’t normally have such young students help me, but Sevil has taken to the Reaity-Based system like a duck takes to water. I was so impressed with photos that she sent me of her emergency Go Bag a few weeks ago that I asked her to be in one of my training videos featuring her Go Bag. She agreed and we did some taping around Cologne. We also stood before the Dom for the introduction on Saturday evening on the 28^th. Sevil, Tobias, and an assistant that cannot be named due to the nature of his work, his girlfriend, and I met up with one of my most faithful students and Level 3 instructor Dominik Klose with two of his hard charging students. We met up at the entrance of the Dom and walked over to Farmer’s Restaurant no more than 200 meters away. It’s an American style steak house, and their steaks were juicy and filling.

Dominik Klose first came to me when he was a military police soldier. For many years the German Army chief military police instructors were sending me all of their Combatives instructors to train. They liked very much how my system dove tailed into their own techniques and training methods. To catch up on all of the news, and to “talk shop,” I hung out with Dominik and his two students, after the others had gone home, at the Gaffel Kolsch beerhouse called Papa Joe’s Biersalon in the old part of the city. He ordered a kranz (a tray of Kolsch beer glasses) and once they were all gone we had caught up on everything we wanted to talk about. When we were just about to leave the beer house a street artist came up to our outdoor table and asked if we wanted a character drawing done of any of us. Dominik, in German, said to the ma that he wanted a drawing done of him and me together. He wanted me, his RBPP instructor, in the picture and to be mounted in my headquarters. I thought it was a terrific idea, and so we posed for several minutes for the character drawing. When the artist flipped his board around to show us we were quite pleased. It was a good souvenir of the nice evening we had. Dominik Klose is a friend, quiet professional, and a top notch martial artist.

on a job well done………