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First a few words about who I am and my background for no reason other than honoring the people and events that have influence my views and training in Martial Art, Combat Sport, and Self Protection, I owe all my teachers a debt of gratitude.
My name is Tony Torres.
I am the Founder and Chief Instructor of Functional Edge MMA, a new Martial Arts Academy in Sierra Vista, Arizona.
For the past 35 years I have been practicing, and teaching several systems of martial arts, combatives, self-defense, and defensive tactics to civilians, Law Enforcement Agencies and Military Personnel. I have also dedicated my life to deep investigation of how real violence happens; it’s causes and effects, as well as how to effectively and efficiently deal with violent confrontations.
My martial arts adventure started with my cousins; Tony, David and Lee. In addition to pretending we were Kung fu masters and kicking each other around for the fun of it, we all practiced at the local rec center in the art of Pa Kua Chang with Tommy (please forgive me for not remembering your last name since I was a pre-teen) My next art was Judo with the instructors at San Francisco Judo Gym in Puerto Rico. Again I was young and I deeply apologize for not remembering your names.
At age 15 I started Tae Kwondo under Ramon Merediz achieving my black belt. I continued in Tae Kwondo while serving in the US Navy under William Douglas Baldwin under whom I was a member of the All-Navy Tae kwondo Team and I achieved my 4th Degree Black Belt.
While in the Navy I was assigned to the Atlantic Fleet Headquarters Security Team where I was designated as the defensive tactics instructor for the team. During this time I started exploring Boxing and Kickboxing in local clubs and with some friends. I was always searching for more realistic and efficient training.
I left the Navy to become a police officer in Virginia Beach and it was while serving there in 1991 that I met Frank Cucci, an Instructor under Dan Inosanto. He became my instructor in Muay Thai, Jun Fan Gung Fu / Jeet Kune Do Concepts, Filipino Martial Arts, and Maphilindo Silat, and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. Two years later I became an assistant instructor at Linxx Academy and in 1998 I was certified by Guro Dan Inosanto in Jun Fan Gung Fu / Jeet Kune Do, Filipino Martial Arts and Maphilindo Silat.
During this period I was also heavily influenced by Burton Richardson and followed his JKD Unlimited philosophies and training.
During the 13 years of Police Work I became a certified Law Enforcement Instructor and Defensive Tactics Instructor. Although the martial arts and combat sports I was teaching at the time were cutting edge and the contact was realistic, I was still looking for training that was directly relevant to the police mission, and thats how I met Tony Blauer.
I became a certified SPEAR System Coach in 1999. I eventually started an "On The Job Training" or OJT program with Coach Blauer where I would travel with him and help him teach courses around the world while learning more about the SPEAR System. In 2002 I was the first person to teach a SPEAR System Course solo on behalf of Tony Blauer. In April of the same year I left Va Beach PD and started working simultaneously for Blackwater USA, as a Lead Instructor for Force on Force and CQB fundamentals for a US Navy Contract, and for Blauer Tactical as the Chief Instructor.
In 2003 I started working as a Private Military Contractor for Blackwater USA in Iraq, carrying out dignitary protection missions there. In 2005 I started full time work for Blauer Tactical as the Chief Instructor until Sept 2010 when I resigned.
Today I Coach at Functional Edge MMA where I use my unique views and experiences in martial arts, combat sports and self protection to improve the quality of my students' lives.
I am always glad to share my knowledge and experiences of human violent interactions as well as my extensive experience in coaching and training athletes, police officers, soldiers and civilians. My focus is always on the student and their ability to progress and improve in their Martial Arts Journey.
The purpose of this Blog is to share my views on the Martial Arts, Combat Sports and the Self Protection System that I have Developed and currently teach so I will start there. Here is a brief look at the...
Functional Edge System
- Functional-
Affects physiological and psychological action and purpose
- Edge-
Force, vigor and energy of body and intensity of desire
- System-
An Interacting group of items forming a unified whole. An organized and established procedure.
The Functional Edge System is a method of studying violent conflict and learning the skills necessary to efficiently deal with the same.
The training methods are designed to connect to the necessary attitudes, emotions, instincts, and physical skills & behaviors which will enable and empower the trainees in dangerous situations.
We train by cognitively modeling instinctive protective behavior in order to facilitate the physical, psychological and emotional transitions from reactive to responsive.
The goal of the Functional Edge System is to merge instinctive behavior with cognitive attitude.
In future Blog posts I will address any questions that you leave in the comments section as well as continue to post articles about other areas of the Functional Edge System, and the Mixed Martial Edge.
Nice site! Really enjoying KFM.
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