We were lucky to catch up with Tony Blauer recently and have shared our conversation below.

Tony , thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Let’s start with the story of your mission. What should we know?

I was attacked when I was 12 years old, I can still remember the fear I felt. It was 1972. I was able to intuitively improvise my way out of danger and made it home. Shortly thereafter I began studying martial arts. I felt such a strong calling that I told my mom when I was 15 that I was going to develop my own self-defense system with the goal to help people learn to manage fear and live safer lives. That eventually ignited my journey into personal safety and self-defense. Now, almost 50 years later, we run one of the world’s most trusted self-defense and empowerment programs.

Tony , before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I’ve been in the martial art, self-defense, defensive tactics, and combatives industry for over four decades.

After years of teaching privately, I founded Blauer Tactical Systems (BTS) in 1985 and it has grown into one of the world’s leading consulting companies specializing in the research and development of performance psychology, personal safety, and close quarter tactics & scenario-based training for law enforcement, military, and professional self-defense instructors.

My team and I have done extensive empirical research on the neuroscience of fear and the startle-flinch which led to the development of the SPEAR System® a modern personal defense system based on physiology, physics, and psychology. It has been used by defensive tactics and combative trainers all over the world for over 30 years.

I spent five years developing the world’s first impact-reduction scenario-based training equipment, called High Gear®, which revolutionized force-on-force training for police, SWAT, and military organizations.

After decades of interviewing victims of violent encounters and studying violence, we created the KNOW FEAR® program which focuses on managing fear through self-awareness, resiliency, and a ‘movement’ mindset. This program has also been integrated by psychologists helping vets deal with PTSD.

I’m proud to know our programs have influenced over three decades of trainers and coaches as well as most contemporary reality-based martial artists.

I live in California with my wife, kids, and 6 dogs, but still, travel extensively working with individuals, corporations, and government organizations around the world providing solutions for training, performance assessment, and credentialing. My company is dedicated to enhancing the mental and physical safety of everyone we help train.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

The biggest pivot was quite recent — my main source of revenue was LIVE IN-PERSON training. When the lockdowns went into full effect, my training business came screeching to a halt and within a few weeks, we had canceled over 30 courses representing hundreds of thousands of dollars. At that moment, I realized I was in a dangerous situation where I could lose everything I had worked for during the last 30+ years.

I gave myself 24 hours to wallow in fear and then the next day, I called my team and told them that we had to become an online training company – today. We had to figure out very quickly what content from our diverse repertoire could translate easily to the online format.

Within three months, we had three new websites up, had contacted all of our clients around the world, and made a focus on how to choose courage and manage fear during times of uncertainty. We jumpstarted a consulting business to help teams and organizations manage emotional and psychological duress.

In hindsight, these were programs and offerings we should’ve always had, but didn’t realize until the pandemic hit. Now they are another staple in our corporate offerings.

Can you talk to us about manufacturing? How’d you figure it all out? We’d love to hear the story.

My company is unique in that we only do two things really well. We design custom training and we produce a scenario training suit that allows practitioners to move at real speed, with real impact, while they practice self-defense or defensive tactics.

The piece of equipment I’m referring to is world-renowned and is called High Gear, and it took me five years, multiple prototypes, and hundreds of thousands of dollars before I finessed it and launched the first fully functional suit in 1993.

I went to multiple manufacturers with the idea. Everyone said they could do it, and then we found out that they couldn’t. It was too technical. I lived in Montreal, Canada, at the time, and bumped into a friend who recommended I go speak to a hockey equipment manufacturer – bingo! Hockey players needed the mobility and impact reduction capability to withstand slashes from sticks, getting hit with pucks, and falling on the ice, not to mention they fought too!

That meeting turned into another meeting and another, and then I finally found somebody who was a real craftsman, he built gear by hand and he was able to put together the original prototypes.

When we finally had a working prototype, it took another 18 months before we could get the first run off the line because everything was handmade.

There were ways to simplify the manufacturing process, but it would’ve changed High Gear’s functionality and it was that unique attribute that I had promised all my clients.

Despite pressure to modify, I stayed true to my vision to create training gear that could help police and military scenario training as well as mixed martial arts or any martial artist from any style. That was the vision for what I wanted this innovative product to do.

Now, years later, we have sold tens of thousands of suits to military, law enforcement, and martial arts groups all over the world.

The experience also gave me a newfound respect for the manufacturing business — I had had some prior experience in a previous part of my life, but when it’s your own product that you need to deliver on time for military & law enforcement clients, the pressure certainly changes.

Contact Info:

• Website: Www.Blauertrainingsystems.Com
• Instagram: @spear.system
• Facebook: Www.facebook.com/Tonyblauer.spearsystem
• Linkedin: Www.LinkedIn.com/in/Tonyblauer
• Twitter: @Tonyblauer