LAYTON — A kick to the groin might be the ticket.

The typical Utahn carrying a handgun lacks broad skills to survive unpredictable encounters, say two local experts who are teaming up to run a multidisciplineĀ self-defense program.

ā€œMost people don’t understand it isn’t as simple as pulling out your gun,ā€ said Clayton Mortensen, who owns the Fortified Krav Maga studio in Layton.

RELATED: 5 things to know about Utah’s self-defense laws

Mortensen, with 16 years of martial arts training and competitive fighting in his background, and Jeff Young, a former Michigan police officer and Iraq war veteran who operates Utah Tactical Coaching, are piloting a hybrid training regimen that combines firearm and hand-to-hand skills.

Getting a concealed-carry permit is a classroom experience. Young, of Ogden, offers those permit classes but adds several hours of firearms training, including range time and ā€œforce on force with Airsoft guns — I make them shoot me.ā€

Young’s training points students toward a ā€œtactical mindsetā€ as well, by running through scenarios that teach ways to reduce or avoid threats.

This is also where Mortensen comes in, teaching Krav Maga defensive combat skills. Krav Maga is a discipline created by the Israeli army in the 1940s. Mortensen said there are no robes or belts or traditional martial arts combat forms — it’s stripped-down defensive fighting.

ā€œPunches, kicks, elbows and knees, and there are lots of variations,ā€ he said. It includes techniques fromĀ jiujitsu, judo, kung fu and other styles.

Teaching gun skills and fighting techniques together ā€œis something that’s kind of new,ā€ Young said.Ā 

ā€œWe want to help people be able to make a personal response to any level of attack,ā€ he said. ā€œMost people don’t have the resources to learn that broad spectrum.ā€

Mortensen demonstrated in a recent Krav Maga class how a person knocked to the ground can fight off an attacker. He was able to grasp and pin his opponent’s left arm, creating space and leverage to allow a kick to the attacker’s head.

ā€œJeff is teaching the firearms skills, and we are running scenarios where you can clear your attacker in hand to hand to be able to access your weapon,ā€ Mortensen said.

Lack of hand-to-hand skills ā€œis even a problem in the law enforcement community too,ā€ Mortensen said.

With SWAT teams, for instance, ā€œtheir hand-to-hand skills can be very, very limited,ā€ he said. ā€œA lot of officers get killed because they’re so fixated on getting their gun out and they’re stabbed or attackedā€ in close quarters.

Young said people lacking hand-to-hand combat skills ā€œmay go to the gun quicker than they should.ā€ Self-defense training can help a person ā€œnot have to raise up to a forcible felonyā€ in a confrontation, he said.

ā€œI think we can all agree the world is becoming a more violent place,ā€ Mortensen said. ā€œThere’s lots of unrest and crime is still prevalent. Everybody has guns and knives and it’s a real thing even here in Utah.ā€

He said he and Young hope to help people ā€œtake responsibility for their own defenseā€ because the police won’t always be available right when most needed.

A man once pulled a knife on Mortensen in downtown Salt Lake City, he said.

ā€œHe was not actually attacking me,ā€ he said. ā€œIt was more that he was brandishing it. I think he was mentally unstable.ā€

The solution was ā€œreally simple,ā€ Mortensen said. ā€œHe got within a range where I wasn’t comfortable. I kicked him once in the groin and once in the body to create some space, and I left and he didn’t follow.ā€

Ben Fozzard, 33, of Layton, was participating in Mortensen’s Krav Maga class on a recent evening. He said his 11-year-old son wanted to get involved in martial arts and the family enrolled him at the studio. Soon, Fozzard, his wife and the boy where taking Krav Maga together.

ā€œGood family self-defense,ā€ Fozzard said of his interest. He said he is a concealed-carry permit holder and it made sense to add hand-to-hand skills.

Mortensen said the typical Krav Maga student doesn’t have a lot of time to invest in training, so initially ā€œwe at least want to give them basic skills that apply to a lot of situations and at least inspire more awareness and desire to train.ā€

The more you train, ā€œthe more you realize what you don’t know,ā€ he said. ā€œOne of the core principles with fighting is that it is important to have the competence that you know you don’t have to fight and that you should have humility. … There are a lot of guys out there with a lot of skills.ā€

Mortensen said there are three kinds of hand-to-hand combat: Sports/mixed martial arts, social violence and criminal violence.

ā€œSocial violence involves ego, bar fights, ā€˜You looked at my girl wrong’ or whatever,ā€™ā€ he said. ā€œA lot of homicides start out as social violence — people hit their head or something and end up getting killed.ā€

Mortensen said de-escalating a potential conflict is preferred.

ā€œI will never engage in social violence,ā€ he said. ā€œI’ve been to a few concerts with potentially violent encounters, and I won’t engage in that sort of situation. I put my ego aside.ā€

That should be reserved, he said, for instances of criminal violence, ā€œwhere someone is actually trying to hurt you or kidnap you or kill you.ā€

ā€œAlways react to the immediate danger first, simultaneously attacking back as fast as possible,ā€ Mortensen said.

LEARN MORE, FIND EVENTS:

Fortified Krav Maga

Utah Tactical CoachingĀ 

You can reach reporter Mark Shenefelt at mshenefelt@standard.net or 801 625-4224. Follow him on Twitter at @mshenefelt and like him on Facebook at www.facebook.com/SEmarkshenefelt..

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