CLICK FOR AUDIO OF PODCAST

Guest: Brian and Jamie Anderson

Release Date: 1/16/2023

Welcome to Trulyfit the online fitness marketplace connecting pros and clients through unique fitness business software.

Steve Washuta: Welcome to Trulyfit. Welcome to the Trulyfit podcast where we interview experts in fitness and health to expand our wisdom and wealth. I’m your host, Steve Washuta, co-founder of Trulyfit and author of the book Fitness Business 101.

On today’s episode, I have Brian and Jamie Anderson of weapon brand. You can find everything about them at weaponbrand.com or @weapon_brand on Instagram. Today we talk about self-defense. Lo and behold, who would have thought an important part of health is staying alive.

And in order to do that, you might have to know some self-defense techniques. I’ve talked about this before in the podcast that I am somebody who practices Muay Thai, both for self-defense. And from a cardio perspective, I enjoy doing Muay Thai to hone my craft in the technique.

But also again, for exercise. it is both great but you know. Brian is going to talk about why it’s so important to make sure that you have a weapon mindset, and that you understand the importance of self-defense and that you don’t put it on the backburner.

This is not something you say will never happen to me, because it’s likely to happen to you or to somebody you know. And skill sets in which you can learn as just in case, they have so much benefit for you both from a physiological perspective and a mental perspective. There really is no reason why everyone shouldn’t have some level of self-defense training, Brian is going to talk about why a weapon brand may be different.

And the weapon mindset compared to other, let’s say charlatans in the industry who are teaching, quote unquote, self defense. But don’t do it the same way in which he does. We talked a little bit about firearms, what might be the best gun for IN HOME self defense, it was a fantastic conversation. And I really do think that understanding yourself.

And being intuitive is such a part of being healthy. And part of that is recognizing that at any given time, something can happen. There’s a reason why we have life insurance. There’s a reason why we have insurance in general, and all the different things that we own. Well, you know, insurance that you can take out on yourself is self-defense, learning how to do this.

And then we can use those self-defense techniques like I do in the health and fitness realm, or you can use them as cardio as strength training. While you’re already feeling more confident in your day-to-day walking around the streets. With your kids or your family not worrying about what to do if and when someone comes and attacks you because it’s the unfortunate truth that it very well could happen to you just as easy as it could happen.

Anyone else you’re not special when it comes to being attacked, so to speak. It was a great conversation with Brian and Jamie, with no further ado, here is weapon brand. Brian and Jamie, thank you so much for joining the Trulyfit podcast. Why don’t you give my audience and listeners a little background on who you are. And what it is that you do. I don’t care who starts whatever. He’s just for you guys,

Jamie Anderson:  Everybody. I’m Jamie, I’m a co-founder of the weapon brand. And my cousin, Brian and I started this company after he came to visit me in Florida. He wanted me and a bunch of my friends to be safe. He knew we were all going to a music festival in the next couple of months. And said I want to do a workshop for you guys on how to be safe when you’re in those types of situations where something bad could happen.

Jamie Anderson:  So like 30 people came just from a post that I put on Facebook. And we’re like, hey, this, this is really a good thing. They wanted more. They wanted to hear more about Brian’s background and his training. And the things that he had been doing for the state of Ohio and the Marines for his entire career. So we started weapon brand and Florida, he was going to do in in in Ohio by himself. And then, you know, we grew up together, we’re three weeks apart.

Jamie Anderson:   And so we thought what a better way to kind of reinvent ourselves what he had been doing during COVID running his training facility. And I have a marketing agency, you know, they were both affected. And so we started weapon brand and it’s just taken off

Steve Washuta: seems like a match made in heaven having somebody who has a marketing brand, and someone who had a lot of friends and people who were interested in self-defense. Which I assume more women than men typically for whatever reason I’m sure we’ll get into that.

But Brian why don’t you first let’s let’s talk a little bit about self-defense. Because I think people are confused about that when you talk about it. There are some misconceptions about it. Sometimes you have charlatans in the industry. Like you know I do Wing Chun or Here’s a special way to take the knife away from you. Talk about self-defense and why it’s important to you and what it’s about. So

Brian Anderson:  Steve, before we even go into the answer that I want to tell you something and this will come back I’m sure throughout the podcast, but I want to tell you something just that happened last 30 to 45 minutes. I even text Jamie and I said hey, I love this guy’s questions. I actually took a screenshot of your preview questions.

Brian Anderson:  And it’s going to come into play I’m sure because of your questions We’re coming from a trained mind and effectively trained mind and you have no idea how much I appreciate that. And the reason that I bring that up is because of the questions that you just asked right there. They’re very different from what we typically get.

Brian Anderson:  And that’s typically from people that either have the misconceptions of self-defense or people that just have been, I don’t want to say ineffectively trained, but not as effectively trained. So I appreciate the questions that you put up there. And I smiled when I read them. I told Jamie, this is it. These questions are perfect.

Brian Anderson:  So I appreciate that. And that was one of them. So to to answer that question to get into it. Self-defense, in our eyes is something that is very easily taught. But even more importantly, than that, it’s something that the student is able to retain, use effectively, and be able to learn very, very simply. So just to start that question off, that’s how I would begin, but thank you for this question.

Steve Washuta: Yeah, of course. And I do think it’s self-defense is important. We talked a little bit on the front end how you know, I’m more Thai practitioner, and I actually have zero self-defense with weapons. So it’s gonna be interesting when we get into that conversation because I’m really going to be asking from the perspective of a complete novice.

But let’s, let’s talk a little bit about your weapon mindset and the psychological portion, and then we’ll get into the physical stuff. What exactly do you need, from a mental standpoint, from a psychological standpoint, to get into this weapon mindset.

Brian Anderson:  So a lot of the stuff that we teach is through visualization, sorry, we present different scenarios for them, we actually have them think them through because obviously, we don’t have a dojo or a facility that our clients will come to two to three times a week and learn one specific set of skills, we can teach that to them, and they can sign up as much as they would if they’re available.

Brian Anderson:  And they like, however, what we teach, we teach it all in about 90 minutes to two hours. So a lot of that is that mindset piece, it’s changing the misconceptions. It’s giving them a perspective to look at. And it’s having them visualize what they would do in that certain situation only because we know and I’m sure you know, this, the body can’t go or the minds never been.

Brian Anderson:  So I could say that I’m going to do something all day long. But if I’ve never put myself in that position, even visualizing it, you have no idea what you’re going to do in that kind of a case.

Steve Washuta: Yeah, that makes perfect sense. And let’s go through some practical things right away. I mean, from my perspective, that what I’ve been taught in the past, and correct me if I’m wrong, but running away is sometimes the best thing to do. Right? It’s not using all of these techniques. It’s getting away from the danger. Would you agree?

Brian Anderson:  Absolutely. Not only would I agree, but I’d say that’s our first thing is always creating distance. When you’re actually in the action, we teach off of what’s called an action line in the beginning of that action line, or pregnancy indicators, which we’ll get to but the action, the actual incident, we explained to people in which I’m sure you’ll appreciate this, which is where I kind of I tend to debate with a lot of jujitsu players with Cheyenne as well.

Brian Anderson:  But getting away as always, first and foremost, if you could get away creating that distance, that’s going to be huge, right, that’s going to avoid that fight. And that’s the fight, you’ll never lose the one you can avoid. However, getting away sometimes isn’t always an option. So if you have to fight, we also teach how to close the distance to cut their effectiveness. So that’s a big part of of our skill set.

Brian Anderson:  But before we even dive into anything else, I’d like to tell you that one thing that we really pride ourselves on our threat profiling techniques, and how to teach people, not only how to get out of the situation, but to be able to recognize the situation and avoid it entirely.

Brian Anderson:  You know, we teach a lot off of universal behavioral patterns and what humans do. Matter of fact, is what animals do as well. But we teach those tactics on how to recognize a situation, then avoid the situation if you can’t avoid the situation, how do you find out

Steve Washuta: I was actually in a situation, maybe 10 years ago, young guy. I’ve honestly really never really been in a fight, not someone to pick a fight, but things happen on the street. And because of some of my training at the time, which was jujitsu, I had pulled guard. Well guess why that was a really bad decision. He had two friends who came around the corner.

So now I’m on my back, and now there are three guys there, right? So I can handle the one in that situation, but not two extra guys coming. And I think that, you know, when you learned some of these fighting techniques, people are always doing them in a one-on-one situation. And that’s not always going to be the case. When you’re in a dangerous situation like as you teach, right?

Brian Anderson:  Right. There’s there’s three Reasons why I would say no jujitsu isn’t bad. I’m sure you’d agree with me. jujitsu is an excellent art. It’s an awesome fighting art, to great combat sport, however, where people make the mistake with jujitsu is they think once again like you did, I’m gonna pull guard I’m gonna try to submit somebody whereas, you know what we need to look at jujitsu as as far as the self-defense goes, it’s to me it’s not a pure Self Defense it’s a form of or not only a form of it’s the foundation from which Ground Self Defense steps.

Brian Anderson:  So if you can teach people some basics on hey, if you do get knocked to the ground, these are the things you have to do to escape the ground. Because of what you just said, you know, for three reasons jujitsu is becomes dangerous on the if you’re on the ground. multiple attackers, like you just said, if the individual now presents we call the law enforcement community, a force multiplier, which is a knife or a gun or a rock or brick.

Brian Anderson:  And the third thing is it decreases your mobility. Your mobility is you being able to move and get away. Well, if you’re on the ground, that’s pretty hard to do. So as much as I love jujitsu and jujitsu practitioner, I you know, I’ve done jujitsu for years and years, I would tell you that submitting somebody with an armbar takes practice takes a long time. And why would you want to submit somebody instead of just getting away?

Brian Anderson:  The only answer should be to control them to possibly detain them if you’re law enforcement, or if you have assets that you’re trying to protect, just for the time being, but then to get away. So that’s just that’s my piece on jujitsu. I get a lot of people that, that really they want to debate it quite a bit. And I, you know, I get to tell them, Look, I love jujitsu. It’s a great sport. It’s just not a great self defense.

Steve Washuta: That makes perfect sense to me, Jamie, why don’t you talk a little bit about because you don’t have obviously, the initial background in self-defense. And you were someone who was learning this and taking this on. What surprised you? Was it more difficult, more fun? Just what exactly was that? What was your first instinct when you were going through this course.

Jamie Anderson:  A few things have surprised me. One, it is so much fun. Like if you watch some of our videos on social, we’re always laughing, we’re joking around, we’re dancing. It’s not something that has to be scary. And a lot of people don’t come because maybe they have some trauma or PTSD. Or they think that if they come something bad might happen, and then they’ll have to know what to do. So almost like a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Jamie Anderson:   But yeah, we have a lot of fun. It is very easy. In fact, the first time I saw Brian teacher class, I was just observing. And then the next time we met with somebody, he called me up and he wanted to use me as an example. Now, mind you, I have never done this physically. And he, he wanted me to demonstrate what I had observed.

Jamie Anderson:  And I was able to do it just like that, just from observing it never having done it physically. So it is easy to learn and easy to remember. And something that you’re we teach off of that it’s something that your body naturally will do in an incident, we just make it more effective. So yeah, it’s fun. It’s easy, but probably the biggest thing that surprised me is I thought, Oh, this is such a great idea for a company.

Jamie Anderson:  Everybody needs self-defense, you know, who in the world can’t use it. But the thing is, a lot of people think that it will never happen to them, or they’ll take it another time and their safety isn’t their priority. You know, going to a boat show or going to a parade or going to you know, shopping this excuse that we get for people who aren’t taking our classes like I’ll take it another time I’ll take it another time.

Jamie Anderson:  That was crazy surprising to me because you know now that I’m in this world of ice I’m much more cognizant of the bad things that can happen that do happen and how you have to be prepared and people just a lot of people don’t take it seriously. So

Steve Washuta: yeah, that’s a great point. I don’t know how you deal with that. Also, Brian, that in some respects before you jump into that class, you have to admit to yourself something bad can happen to me People don’t want to do that. It’s almost like when you get what I call like financially naked with a financial advisor and saying like,

Oh well what if I die I have to get life insurance or when you’re with me when we’re the personal trainer you have to say oh, like I could get sick and die like I need to start eating healthier. They have to come and admit that do you find that is the biggest barrier to entry when working with you?

Brian Anderson:  Is that is that such a huge barrier. You know, the one thing that we teach off of and Jamie so right like when they come into our classes and our seminars, they’re already hesitant a lot of times and We even have people in the class that still are sitting in our class that think this will never happen.

Brian Anderson:  So you’re so right admitting to yourself, first of all that this is something is huge, and what we, we try to pass to each and every one of our students. And every podcast that we do, every interview that we do is we truly do believe that there’s more good people out there that bad, there are there, there’s a lot more people out there that are doing good things for other humans than there are bad people doing bad things to humans.

Brian Anderson: However, it only takes one person, it only takes one incident. So you know, out of 100 people, though, you know, 99 are good people. It’s just you don’t know who that one is. That makes up that 100. So that’s why we teach. First of all that mindset of accepting the fact we teach off of what’s called it’s an acronym AR AR. And the first one is accepting accept the fact that it could happen to you or your family.

Brian Anderson:  Statistics show that and I can guarantee that every single person even listens to your podcast has been in some kind of a situation where they thought, this looks a little bit shady or a little bit sketchy. This person is looking a little bit funny is this person following me, however, they still go through with it, and they got lucky. They just don’t know they gotta look. So accepting the fact that it could happen to you. And then what we teach, like we said earlier, is recognizing the signs. So yeah, absolutely.

Steve Washuta: I want to, I want to I want to hold on to that. Because I think that’s a really good point. Do you teach? Or would you say now, even if you don’t teach it that, if your instincts are telling you, the situation seems shady to not go into that situation? I’m walking on one side of the street, it feels weird. Let me just cross to the other side of the road.

Brian Anderson:  Yeah, we absolutely do. So we teach off of, like, we mentioned earlier, universal behavioral patterns. But the one thing that you have to trust in when you’re watching for those behavioral patterns is what you see and what you feel. We give the analogy all the time that if you’re driving down, we’ll say I’m here, near Pinellas Park.

Brian Anderson:  So we’ll say, route 275, if I’m driving down Interstate 275, and I’m, I’m doing 15 miles over the speed limit, and I see a trooper in the media and automatically, what do we all do? We slow down, we slow down and we watch, we press that gas, the arms aren’t here, the brake pedal at times.

Brian Anderson: And we tried to get below that speed limit. However, when you’re pulling into a gas station, you see somebody that kind of just throws you off a little bit or you see a you’re in a situation and maybe I shouldn’t really be in this area, you still go through with it. It’s like you know, you’re trying to save yourself from getting a ticket spending money,

Brian Anderson:   But you’re not thinking that your self-worth is important enough, or you’re not accepting the fact that it could really happen to you enough that you avoid that situation like you would on the highway. Right? So. So absolutely. So recognizing it, understanding it first and then recognizing it is huge.

Jamie Anderson:  And we do tell the story about Catherine and crossing the street since he had mentioned. Yeah,

Brian Anderson:  Man, that is a great story and something to build off of what you said, Steve, this goes perfectly. So Catherine is she She’s one of our great clients, right. And she’s one of our early clients. So she gave us the story that she is and she’s just your normal, average person that before any of this happened to her. She was already a little bit iffy with some things. But a very trusting person, she was walking on the street, two individuals were on the same side. She didn’t trust in what she saw.

Brian Anderson:  She didn’t trust her intuition and something told her just across that street. Well, when she did cross that street, they started yelling obscenities, they started yelling to her that she was a racist, you know, she’s prejudiced, or you know, all these things. And I really, that left a really bad taste in her mouth. And she brought that up to us.

Brian Anderson:  And she said, you know, she said, I crossed the street because I, I first I needed to because that’s where my house was. And second, I just kind of trusted my gut. But now I don’t know if I would do that because of what they yelled. And we simply said, Well, they probably weren’t good people anyway, if they were yelling that stuff.

Brian Anderson:   And if you didn’t cross the street, what possibly would have happened so at least you did create that distance that we talked about and you were able to see a little bit better visualize what could possibly happen so that was pretty huge for her to hear and for us to backup that you did the right thing you absolutely did even though they’re yelling things well, that just confirmed that they probably weren’t the best people.

Brian Anderson:   And I asked her a very simple question. Are you a racist? And she laughed and said no, absolutely not. I said okay, well then what are you worried about? You know, if you’re if you know who you are, you know that you’re eating across the street because you’re not prejudiced. Why are you worried? You know, so just because they think you are doesn’t make you one, you know? So that was what really hit home for her. I know that that really helped out So I’m glad that both you brought that up.

Steve Washuta: Yeah, and imagine, you know, not trusting your instincts because you think you’re going to offend someone, and what could potentially happen down the road, right, your your, your, your, your instincts are not looking at things like that your instincts are simply saying, I feel unsafe for whatever reason, I’m going to cross.

And guess what the fact of the matter is, if you’re a female, and there’s multiple guys walking on one side of the street, and you’re in a situation where you don’t feel like there’s a lot of other people around, you’re probably going to feel unsafe, right, your your best bet is probably across the road, regardless of who these guys are.

Brian Anderson:  Right. And if anything, what that shows to them is that you were aware enough to see what was ahead of you, and you acted on it. So and that action is huge. A lot of people don’t realize how much those tiny little signs that you put off will make you look like more of a hard harder target than possibly what you are.

Brian Anderson:  So and bad guys don’t want the hard targets, they want the easy target, you know, and something just to just a point, just, you know, one of the things that we tell all of our people that, you know, when you were saying that Steve, that reminded me of is, you know, we try to tell all of our clients and everybody out there that, you know, stop giving the bad guy the benefit of the doubt, you know, his feelings aren’t worth your life.

Brian Anderson:   So when you stop saying, Well, I’m going to, you know, I’m going to try to prevent hurting this person’s feelings and putting my life in danger, giving them the keys to my own life. That’s when you start making yourself a hard target. Also, when you say, Well, I’m done giving these people the benefit of the doubt, and they might actually hurt me. So I’m going to create distance.

Steve Washuta:  Walk me through, I guess you would call it the structure of your model of your class of your course. Day one somebody walks in doesn’t matter how much experience they might have already. We talked before, if I’m walking in, as opposed to somebody who has made me nervous about this, are they starting at the same level? Do they finish at the same level? How exactly does this work?

Brian Anderson:  So the cool thing about our system is, you know, we have we’ve got a ton of stuff, but I’ll just give you a few different examples of our basic, basic courses, we have a personal safety and threat awareness class. And that’s our creating a weapon mindset, which is all lecture-based. In a perfect world, if you could take that first and then take level 1234, you would learn I guess, most advantageously.

Brian Anderson:  So because they would flow the best. However, we tell people, you don’t have to see the first movie to understand the second. So if you jumped into a level three, you’re still going to learn things, you’re just going to learn a little bit more of how it flows. If you took one and two, that’s the same thing with personal safety and threat awareness.

Brian Anderson:    Excuse me, if you take personal safety and threat awareness, you’re going to understand those universal behavioral patterns, you’re gonna learn those pre-incident indicators, those pre-content cues, all those things that humans do directly before the fight. Once you’re in the fight, that’s where levels one through four come in.

Brian Anderson:   Level five is everything together. So it’s almost like the pressure testing of all of it. Level fives are the only one that we say you have to take levels one through four before you get to five, all the other ones are standalone, but they flow together. So just to break that down. As we said, creating a weapon mindset personal safety, and threat awareness. That’s going to give you the indicators what to look out for understanding that you have to accept the fact that may happen recognize them, try to avoid them.

Brian Anderson:   Now level one goes into those pre-contact cues. What are you looking for as far as body language break before the attack once the attack happens? What are your best positions, defensive framing as far as creating a lane and just enough space for you to be able to do a chin lift an eye gouge. We do elbow striking in level two as well as some other defensive strike, palm heel strikes, things like that. Choke escapes.

Brian Anderson:  And then once we get into level three we go into it’s more of a subject control type of element, but its anchor point, it’s closing the distance, isolating the danger and cutting our effectiveness is what it is. So it’s a lot of under hooks and over hooks. And that’s level three, level four is more joint manipulation. What are you doing with it’s kind of an a Keto base, in a sense.

Brian Anderson:   However, I wouldn’t say it’s strictly a Keto because a Keto is what quite honestly, I throughout the majority of it, when I took over the state of Ohio’s defensive tactics program, we just kind of honed in on what was effective and built off of it.

Brian Anderson:  So level four is kind of an aikido base, but it’s mainly joint manipulation, and it’s putting all those other things together you know, can I go from a defensive frame into an anchor point and if I’m still struggling can I do some kind of an outside rich turn to be able to get out of the door get out of the way? That’s the really great thing.

Steve Washuta: Do you think they’ll ever be a one centralized program whether it’s weapon brand or someone else I’m sure you know, this comes someone who disagrees is going to say you should Use a little bit more joint manipulation.

Someone might say no, you should be taping keeping away and then running someone’s to say we should do only headshots. I’m gonna just say just elbows and knees and when, why, and when is it ever going to be sort of more scientifically proven where hey, these techniques work better than the others?

Brian Anderson:  So I would, I hate to say this, but I really don’t ever think because there’s so much cognitive bias with you know, you and I would probably tend to go towards a muay thai clinch, maybe instead of a defensive frame, right? Because we know it, because that’s what we’ve practiced. You know, that’s what our Mo is, however, somebody that’s completely basic.

Brian Anderson:  You know, it’s funny, because before I answer that question, one thing we consistently see with people is they want to punch, they always want to punch closer fists, they always want to punch that self-defense with, it’s like, man, we teach boxing and we teach some more Thai stuff. But that’s probably one of the last things we’re actually showing you just because it’s, you’re not able to do it effectively if you’re not experienced in doing it, and understanding range and things like that.

Brian Anderson:  However, to answer your question, I really don’t think, Steve that there’s ever going to be one centralized self-defense because of what we just talked about, because of that cognitive bias. And all of us are doing different things. And the bottom line is people need to make money. So there’s a lot of self-defense instructors out there that that’s their trade. That’s what they do. That’s their skill set.

Brian Anderson:  That’s how they’re going to make money. Will they spent time, effort, blood, sweat, and tears on learning that are and that’s what they’re teaching because that’s all they know how to teach, typically, right? Which isn’t a bad thing.

Brian Anderson:  And if people are learning something, that’s the thing, if people are learning something, we’re happy. We’re just no something we always we always start our class, especially our physical classes with doing something is always better than nothing.

Brian Anderson:  Fighting back is always better than saying, Okay, I’m going to hope I get out of this situation, right. But to answer your question, I really don’t ever think there’s going to be something centralized. However, this is just a little plug for the weapon brand. Our goal is to be the national household name for self-defense. That’s what we want to be, we want to be known as a if you need self-defense for your corporation, if you need self-defense for your family, and you need to learn it fast.

Brian Anderson:  You need to learn something effective, and something that’s going to be pretty easy. Call us up and we’re going to teach you how to how to avoid that fight. If you can’t, we’re going to teach how to fight out of it using those techniques that I’ve learned throughout the years, then will we pass on to everybody else.

Jamie Anderson:  Steve, I wanted to mention you had asked about, you know, as somebody who’s trained going to get the same experience as someone who isn’t trained. And one of our very first self-defense classes, my dad came, and he’s a black belt in karate.

Jamie Anderson:  And he’s actually come to several of our classes since and he said that, every time he comes, he learned something new. And so it doesn’t matter if you you are a trained master and have been, you know, practicing martial arts for your entire life or you know, you’ve never thrown a punch or defended yourself in any way. We can help even kids. You know, we started around ages 789 up to very elderly people.

Jamie Anderson:  We have people who are in Walker’s wheelchairs, use canes. You know, Brian’s an adaptive athlete coach. So we deal with some young adults who have cerebral palsy. I think he trains a blind boxer back up in Ohio, a woman who’s deaf, so whatever, we’ve done self-defense with some women in wheelchairs as well. So whatever your ability level is, you’re gonna get something out of it.

Steve Washuta: Yeah, that’s great. And I’ll add real quick, Brian, before you hop in here. If you’ve ever played poker with someone who doesn’t know how to play there, it’s very difficult. Because, you know, they’ll get a to seven and they’ll go all in and you don’t know if they’re bluffing or not, but they just really don’t know what they’re doing.

And that you know, if you’re in a street fight or martial art with someone who’s who doesn’t practice that martial art, you don’t necessarily know what’s next.

So when we’re learning martial arts, when I’m, when I’m learning when I’m in a more Thai class, I’m against somebody else, and I know all of their techniques. I know what I should be blocking what I should counter with. But when you’re fighting someone on the street, it’s there are no rules,

Brian Anderson:  right? Yeah. Absolutely. You know, they that’s such a good point that, you know, you’ve taken some jujitsu classes, you’ve done some jujitsu, Steve, you know, as well as I have, but the hardest people to spar with at the end of class are the white belts.

Brian Anderson:  The people that have no idea but they’re just going full force, you know, flailing arms doing anything they can use every bit of money that they can they burn out pretty quick, but it’s like, you know, those are the ones that are the hardest ones to roll with. Because There’s so unpredictable and a sense that that goes right back to your point.

Brian Anderson:  And I think if it’s like that when we tie it’s like that with jujitsu, it’s like that with anything really. But, you know, something that I used to do to get by, man, you know, I used to teach when I worked for the state. At one point, I was teaching 80 to 100 students every other week for three days straight three, eight-hour days.

Brian Anderson:  And, you got to think about the environment. You know, there were a lot of correction officers, a lot of law enforcement officers, parole officers, people that worked in different types of badge settings, you know, so those people already and anybody in that field knows what I’m talking about, they already kind of have that ego in a sense, you know, especially when they’ve had some type of martial arts, some type of fighting background.

Brian Anderson:  So from a wrestling background, they already have kind of that preconceived notion that, you know, what could this guy really show? So one way that I would get buy-in one way that and this is for any self-defense instructor that’s listening out there one way to really get your students to buy in is first of all, don’t look at it what is what you can show look at it as what they can learn what can you show them to learn?

Brian Anderson:  Not what you know, they could care less what you know, that sounds great, right when from the very beginning but if you can actually teach them something that’s where you start to get that buy and then how I would get it from the very beginning was I would ask from the very beginning where my boxers right they raised their hands were my wrestlers. Were my backstreet fighters my BB rollers?

Brian Anderson:  Okay. jujitsu guys where you get MMA, you know, girls, and ladies and guys, where you guys so and you get all these people raising hands, right? How about people that have taken self-defense at your church, where my military people, you know, all these people are raising their hands. And you look, and you pretty much hit everybody, right? And I tell them, so everything that you’ve learned is worth something.

Brian Anderson:    Because something doing something is always better, than nothing. However, what we’re going to do and what Jamie and I do with this system and our other instructors, obviously, is we teach you how to make those things a little bit better, because we add to all we’re doing is giving more, more guns for your armory, is what it is we’re giving you more for the arsenal.

Brian Anderson:  And if you don’t like what we’re doing, if you can’t attach it to what you already do, then you’re good. But if you know nothing, then learn something. And what we have is what we feel is the best because it’s it’s approximately 10 different arts 10 different systems. All filtered and put into what is once again, easiest to learn, the simplest to retain, and the most highly effective with those three things combined.

Steve Washuta: Now that you use that analogy, more guns for your arsenal, let’s hop into guns here. So I’m somebody who is only shotguns, maybe a handful of times, I do not own a gun. And I don’t know a lot about guns. So you can talk to me like I am naive because I am in this situation.

And I’m always under the impression that if a gun is in the mix. The situation is now more dangerous, whether Brian has it or whether Steve a novice has it? Is that the case? Is that not the case? How do you go about talking about bringing guns into a situation

Brian Anderson:  100% The case? You know, we have there are so many misconceptions, not just with guns, but any tool, you know. We consider a gun a defensive tool. Just like we would consider a rock defensive tool, pepper spray a defensive tool, brass knuckles, a defensive, anything that you’re going to use outside of your hand.

Brian Anderson:  And what you could actually physically do with your body or mentally with your brain. That’s a secondary tool because you weren’t born with it. You know, I’m 47 years old, and I could tie my shoe without thinking. You know, however. I’ve been shooting guns and doing things in the military and law enforcement community since I’ve been 19 years old.

Brian Anderson:  And I could still tell you that I still feel like there’s a ton I need to learn only because I’m not using that gun every single day, day in and day out. So yeah, to answer your question, it definitely presents more danger of having a gun in the mix regardless. No matter if you if you’re well-trained or not. Because of these three reasons, you don’t know if there are multiple subjects.

Brian Anderson:  You don’t know if they have a gun, and you don’t know what their skill level is. And their skill level also includes luck. And we can’t count on luck but luck counts, right? So a gun being presented in any situation obviously is always more dangerous.

Steve Washuta: What do you consider the most effective gun or the recommended gun for IN HOME self-defense? I briefly looked it up at one point and I you know. People are all over the map obviously whatever you have is what they’re going to tell you is best. So it’s hard to read into it. But what would be your suggestion? Or what is the general suggestion?

Brian Anderson:  So I would say a great suggestion for home defense would be a shotgun, I would say a shotgun would probably be one of the better things only because one, everybody knows that noise, right? When you rack that shotgun, everybody knows what that noise is.

Brian Anderson:  The other thing is, it’s, it’s you don’t have to be very accurate with a shotgun, there’s a wide pattern that spreads out, obviously, and they’re pretty easy to use. The only thing about a shotgun those are they’re clunky, they’re long, and they’re heavier. So for me, I’m a Glock guy. But I’m not going to say it’s a personal preference. a big misconception with handguns that we have. We have our demographic is are our women generally.

Brian Anderson:  And we have a lot of them that say, Well, you know, this person told me I should get this smaller gun because it fits my hands. That’s a big misconception. Because there’s more power coming out of the thing, there’s, there’s usually a lot more kick. So something a little bit more to grab onto is usually a little bit easier for you. However, you still need to be able to handle it. But I would say to answer your question directly for me, I would always suggest some type of shotgun.

Steve Washuta: Yeah, that’s what I’ve read. That makes the most sense. I think, you know, like you said, there are always caveats, right? If you’re walking around with a shotgun again. I know nothing about guns. But I assume if you come through a doorway, the shotgun could be sticking out.

There are people. The bad guy has more likely chance of grabbing the shotgun, let’s say but like, again, that’s a caveat. Who knows what situation you’re going to be in? At any given time? But that’s good to know. And then And then as far as, like, what do you do? This is I know a very general vague question. But how long does it actually take to be somewhat proficient?

You just sort of hinted on it and said that you’ve been shooting guns. Since you were 19 years old and you still don’t feel like you’re the absolute most proficient person? Is this just one of those never-ending tasks where it takes you a lifetime to become good at it? Yeah,

Brian Anderson:  I mean, you know, the one thing is, those skills are perishable. So, if you’re not practicing, they go away. And you know, and when I say that. Right, now, you’re gonna have some people that are thinking, Oh, crap, oh, you know, these three are talking about that, maybe I need to get to the range more. Once again, that’s another misconception.

Brian Anderson:  You know, if you ask any special operator, they’re going to tell you that they practice more fundamentals, dry firing, and drawing from the holster, also in different positions, more than 85% of the time compared to shooting the actual gun. So you know, a lot of people. What they don’t realize is, they think. Well, I’m gonna get this gun, and I’m going to take this CCW class. Or I’m gonna go, you know, watch some YouTube videos. And then I’m gonna go to the range once or twice a month, and I’m gonna know how to protect myself.

Brian Anderson:  Well, you know, there’s a lot of things that are factored in to that. And that’s a dangerous situation, because shooting the gun is is is obviously the, that’s the detrimental part of it. But it’s are you able to get a well-laid or well-placed shot? Are you able to get more than one shot? You know. I’m going to run through some of this stuff with you real quick. You know, that we put out in our weapons retention class.

Brian Anderson:  Shooting one person one time, unless it hits an extremely vital area is not going to stop them. Typically. They don’t even know their shot. Adrenaline cortisol takes over. You ask any ER nurse or doctor and when when you ask them about gunshot wounds or even stab wounds. They will tell you one of the first things that the individual says was I didn’t even know what happened. Or I didn’t know what it was.

Brian Anderson:   Because they don’t feel it until later. So that’s one thing to consider. Another thing to consider is how well-aimed or how well placed is your shot going to be? If you’re struggling with that gun, did you practice Did you practice moving with a gun do practice shooting a moving target. You know, when people go to the range. They shoot at a piece of paper that’s not swearing at them, it’s not running at them, that’s not trying to attack them that’s not trying to get to their kids. That piece of paper is sitting still.

Brian Anderson:  And your adrenaline isn’t high, they might be slightly higher. Because if you’re not used to going to the range a whole lot. But it’s you don’t go through those gross motor skills or have to resort back to those gross motor skills. For instance, when an event happens, your sympathetic nervous system effects take over, you start to lose that fine dexterity. You no longer have complex and fine motor skills. You go to groups.

Brian Anderson:  So think about what that is manipulating something with my fingers like writing something with a pencil or using chopsticks, right? If I gave Jamie a set of chopsticks and said, Hey, we’re going for sushi tonight. However, you’re going to do 100 Push-ups and I’m going to be trying to strike you while you’re doing it. It’s not going to be easy for her to use chopsticks, right? Imagine that with a gun. Now imagine that was something that could possibly kill you, right?

Brian Anderson:  So so many people don’t understand In the end, that’s one of the biggest reasons why we push more than anything a weapons retention class to get them in that mindset to think, Okay, now that I have this gun I need to classes, not so much my CCW because I’m not going to be comfortable enough to carry this thing out in public in case something happens until I take weapons retention, which is, how do I hold on to this in a shooting event?

Brian Anderson:  How do I hold on to this if somebody is trying to attack me? Or even if I’m trying to pull this gun? And then the other class is the fundamentals class? Do I know how to actually function this gun? And then do I know how to function enough to eat? Or I was gonna say, like. I would have bought cereal to eat cereal, I can eat a bowl of cereal under pressure.

Brian Anderson:  But can you actually function that gun under pressure, can I take that magazine out, put it back in, can I rack the slide? Am I able to clear a malfunction or clear a stoppage? If you know, a tiny little point. if your slide from a pistol gets pushed back one millimeter. It’s considered out of battery, it will not fire. So if I’m grabbing your gun. And you’re trying to shoot me with it, you’re either a going to 20 a one shot off because the recoil isn’t going to be natural, and it’s not going to recycle.

Brian Anderson:  Or it’s not going to go off because the slide is being pushed back. So many people don’t realize that. So taking that weapons retention class, you learn a lot of that. And the cool part of that is the byproduct of that is now. You start to learn also how to disarm people.

Steve Washuta: I’m going to ask you a question here being selfish. The thing that I’m most scared of, I have an 18-month-old daughter, and we go on a lot of walks. And if this is outside of your wheelhouse. You can just say, but what I’m most nervous of, is giant dogs. I don’t know, you know. Rabid dogs that are running around, do you have general or specific self-defense against, let’s say, large animals.

Brian Anderson:  So we don’t teach it. However, it kind of goes back to some of the stuff that we teach with animals. And a lot of times depending on the animal. The biggest thing I would say is from anything that I’ve read, or I’ve learned. Obviously, you’re going to create a barrier for your child. You’re going to get in front of it, and then you’re going to get as large as you can and as loud as you can.

Brian Anderson:  And then obviously, this actually goes back to the human aspect of it, if you are being attacked, or if it’s trying to go after your child go straight for the eyes, go to where it hurts at the most, you know, if you can get to the eyes, that’s going to be your best bet physically, if you’re going to carry something, you know, I know people carry sticks, things like that, but, you know, maybe some type of a spray wouldn’t be bad for dogs.

Brian Anderson:  However, I would say, you know, don’t don’t be misconceived spray is maybe better for dogs than it is for humans. You know, we have a whole bit on that, you know, as far as people carrying pepper spray. But I guess my amateur answer to that would be create a barrier. Get large. Get loud and if they do attack over the eyes.

Steve Washuta: Well let me let me sort of feed off that question. Because you know my brain was going as you were answering that. Let’s go ahead and say somebody just didn’t want to carry a gun. They were against it they said you know what. I don’t want to carry a gun that’s just not part of who I am. What I want to do I can’t carry a gun for some reason or another maybe it’s a legal reason. Would you recommend that they have a knife on them do is that is now that situation way more dangerous. If I’m carrying a knife or would you recommend that if somebody was worried about you know. Caring about their self-defense that they carry some sort of knife on them.

Brian Anderson:  So that there’s a couple of different avenues that that the first thing that I would tell you is your confidence level sometimes will create a harder target. If you have something that makes you more confident you’re going to carry yourself more confidently right? So if that helps you Okay, I can’t buy into that. However, once again, we categorize that as a secondary tool, a secondary measure.

Brian Anderson:  If you are well trained with a knife you’re well trained on how to also defend a knife which we have that class knife defense then carry your knife you know I carry a knife but I still would fight with my hands before I would grab my knife. I typically use my knife to open packages and things like that right instead of carrying it for self-defense.

Brian Anderson:  However, it goes right back to you know how how often has somebody that carries a knife practice stabbing with a knife same thing with pepper spray, you know ask all your listeners now that carry pepper spray.

Brian Anderson:  When was the last time you tested it? Does it work? When was the last time you actually shot at something that’s fighting you? When was the last time you shot it at something in. When was the last time you actually got it in your own eyes? to see if you were able to fight through it? Because that’s typically what’s going to happen.

Brian Anderson:  I haven’t been sprayed several times in my eyes with pepper spray When I tried to attack Jaime, that’s a joke when, when, you know it was my career, and I had to fight through it each time, and I’m telling you, it’s absolutely horrible, but I did it. Now, imagine if somebody’s committed to that act of taking your child. Or taking you and getting you into their car. Or you know, trying to try and do damage to you somehow. They’re committed to that act, because they know now that they get caught up going to prison.

Brian Anderson:  So they’re gonna do everything they can not to get caught, and still commit that act. So to answer your question, as far as any kind of a secondary device. If you’re trained on it, you’re proficient with it. But you’re effectively trained on it, I should say, and it makes you more confident, go for it, carry it. But I can just tell you, what we teach is we teach, how to avoid. You can avoid how to fight using your hands, using your hands, the body things that you are born with.

Brian Anderson:  And then if you have to go to a secondary measure, I will tell you this, the when people, criminals, when typically when they see that you have something on you, it is a deterrent. But let’s keep something in mind, the majority of police officers that are killed in any kind of shooting event. They’re killed with their own gun. So you know, if you really think about that, you know. There’s really nothing different with a knife or pepper spray it could still be used against you.

Steve Washuta: I think there are so many people who believe that they currently have some system of self-defense. Like pepper spray, Like a knife that their parent gave them. I’m not picking on females by any means.

But lets you know my wife at one point. Before we met carried around pepper spray. And they believe that they now have self-defense. But what they’re missing is what you guys teach that weapon mindset. What situation would you use this if an attacker came to you and you had the time to pull it out?

 Wouldn’t it be better maybe to just run if you had the time to pull it out? You might have had the time to run if he’s already three, four or, five or six feet away from you.

And you don’t know that until you go through courses like yours. And you get put into those sort of psychological experiments of what I do. Or what should I do at any given time?

Brian Anderson: Absolutely. So 100% On point

Steve Washuta: Let my listeners know where they can find everything about you guys. Personally about the weapon brand what you do. Anything that you want to tell my audience. As far as the easiest way to find you and to hopefully use you guys.

Jamie Anderson:  Yeah, so you can find us online at weapon brand.com We’re on most of the socials we’re on Facebook, Instagram YouTube, Tik Tok made up if you’re in the Florida area we have lots of events so a lot of of our all of our events are listed on weapon burned out COMM And also on our Facebook events.

Jamie Anderson:  So yeah, just check us out there you can always email us at info at weapon brand.com There’s also a link on our website for that. But if you look for weapon brand, you’ll find us

Steve Washuta: Great my guest today had been Brian Anderson and Jamie Anderson of weapon brand. Thank you so much for joining the Trulyfit podcast

Steve Washuta: Thanks for joining us on the Trulyfit podcast. Please subscribe, rate, and review on your listening platform. Feel free to email us as we’d love to hear from you.

Social@Trulyfit.app

Thanks again!

CLICK FOR AUDIO OF PODCAST