On the weekend of Oct. 24-26, 2008 we finished up the Level One training of the Personal Protective Measures program as taught by Phil Legare.
Because of his “real world” experience while serving in the US Military and Government, Legare-sensei was directed by his teacher, Grandmaster Masaaki Hatsumi, to teach this particular aspect of our martial arts. Shinken Taijutsu is the Japanese name of Personal Protective Measures and translates as “Real Combat Body Skills.” This training at Level One goes into the absolute bare essentials of self defense and combat survival. Even experienced instructors were gaining new insights for their training at the seminar.
At this weekend’s seminar, several folks completed the Level One Practical Evaluation and earned their Level One Certification. Dan Reiher of Virginia Beach completed his Level One Instructor Certification. Congratulations Dan!
Legare-sensei gave us a spoken preview of what to expect at Level Two. I am personally very excited to start on Level Two. Everyone should look forward to that in 2009. This was one of a few first seminars that Legare taught this system publicly. He rarely teaches the Level One course these days, instead relying upon his certified instructors across the globe to do that job. Legare now focuses on teaching Level 2 and developing Level 3. Level 2 involves much more weapons skills: knife, tactical pen, flashlight, collapsible baton, and firearms. Level 2 also works on other specialized skills such as tactical driving.
Anyway, thank you to all who attended and we look forward to seeing you again in 2009!
For more info on this incredible system, check out our page on Personal Protective Measures Level 1.