LAYTON āĀ 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.
āMost people donāt understand it isnāt as simple as pulling out your gun,ā said Clayton Mortensen, who owns the Fortified Krav Maga studio in Layton.
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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 āforce on force with Airsoft guns āĀ I make them shoot me.ā
Youngās training points students toward a ātactical 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 āĀ itās stripped-down defensive fighting.
āPunches, 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 āis something thatās kind of new,ā Young said.Ā
āWe want to help people be able to make a personal response to any level of attack,ā he said. āMost people donāt 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 opponentās left arm, creating space and leverage to allow a kick to the attackerās head.
āJeff 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 āis even a problem in the law enforcement community too,ā Mortensen said.
With SWAT teams, for instance, ātheir hand-to-hand skills can be very, very limited,ā he said. āA lot of officers get killed because theyāre so fixated on getting their gun out and theyāre stabbed or attackedā in close quarters.
Young said people lacking hand-to-hand combat skills āmay go to the gun quicker than they should.ā Self-defense training can help a person ānot have to raise up to a forcible felonyā in a confrontation, he said.
āI think we can all agree the world is becoming a more violent place,ā Mortensen said. āThereās lots of unrest and crime is still prevalent. Everybody has guns and knives and itās a real thing even here in Utah.ā
He said he and Young hope to help people ātake responsibility for their own defenseā because the police wonāt always be available right when most needed.
A man once pulled a knife on Mortensen in downtown Salt Lake City, he said.
āHe was not actually attacking me,ā he said. āIt was more that he was brandishing it. I think he was mentally unstable.ā
The solution was āreally simple,ā Mortensen said. āHe got within a range where I wasnāt comfortable. I kicked him once in the groin and once in the body to create some space, and I left and he didnāt follow.ā
Ben Fozzard, 33, of Layton, was participating in Mortensenās 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.
āGood 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 doesnāt have a lot of time to invest in training, so initially āwe 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, āthe more you realize what you donāt know,ā he said. āOne of the core principles with fighting is that it is important to have the competence that you know you donāt 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.
āSocial violence involves ego, bar fights, āYou looked at my girl wrongā or whatever,āā he said. āA lot of homicides start out as social violence āĀ people hit their head or something and end up getting killed.ā
Mortensen said de-escalating a potential conflict is preferred.
āI will never engage in social violence,ā he said. āIāve been to a few concerts with potentially violent encounters, and I wonāt engage in that sort of situation. I put my ego aside.ā
That should be reserved, he said, for instances of criminal violence, āwhere someone is actually trying to hurt you or kidnap you or kill you.ā
āAlways react to the immediate danger first, simultaneously attacking back as fast as possible,ā Mortensen said.
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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..