Alan Baker 
In grappling, one of the first things many people learn is how to bridge, shrimp, and recover position from the ground. Those skills are important. They build movement, timing, pressure …
After 47 years in the martial arts, people often ask me why I still train. The answer has very little to do with fighting. Over time, I came to realize that the martial arts are far more than a system of self-defense. They are a vehicle for physical development, self-education, personal responsibility, and lifelong growth. In this article, I share some of the lessons the martial arts have taught me and why they continue to play such an important role in my life today.
During a recent trip to Orange County, California, for the CSW World Conference, I had the opportunity to spend some private training time with Sensei Erik Paulson. In this session, we explored a series of highly effective shin locks and lower-body submissions while discussing the concepts, transitions, and details that make them work at a high level. This experience was a reminder that no matter how long you’ve been training, there is always something new to learn from great coaches and dedicated practitioners.
Fresh back from another outstanding week at the Executive Protection Institute, I had the opportunity to teach Protection Response Tactics®, work with an exceptional group of future protection professionals, and spend several days on the range during EPI’s Personal Pistol Course. This trip was especially productive as I introduced new material into the PRT curriculum, captured valuable video content for future YouTube projects, and was honored to be invited to join the EPI instructional staff as a firearms instructor. It was a week filled with learning, teaching, professional development, and exciting opportunities for the future.
In this seminar highlight, Sifu Alan Baker breaks down the backdoor escape and explains why some grappling habits can become a liability in more hostile environments. This is not just about escaping bottom position. It is about understanding posture, access, movement, awareness, and why staying flat can cost you when the environment changes.
As human beings, we have enormous potential, but one of the greatest limitations placed on that potential is our perspective. Whether we realize it or not, we are constantly drawing conclusions based on our background, ourexperiences, our conditioning, and the things we have been exposed to throughout life. This happens automatically. It is one of the natural functions of the mind. We compare, categorize, interpret, and
In today’s world, your attention is under constant attack. At any given moment, there are countless forces competing for your focus. Notifications, messages, news, social media, conversations, and problems are all pulling at your awareness, trying to redirect your attention away from what you are doing and toward something else. Most of the time, that “something else” has very little value.
In this segment, Professor Sauer breaks down subtle but powerful mount adjustments that make submissions from the top position far more effective. From elbow placement and weight distribution to proper foot positioning for armbars, these small details prevent escapes and make transitions feel effortless.
In this video I finally get my hands on a new Ganuting sword from Traditional Filipino Weaponry.
In this seminar session in Cleveland, Tennessee, we’re working through half guard sweep concepts and how to create the reaction needed to make those sweeps work.
Instead of forcing techniques, the goal is to build an environment that makes your opponent uncomfortable and forces them to react. Once that reaction happens, the sweep becomes available.
