The Perpetual White Belt: Training With Tactical 21
After training with Tactical 21, Alan Baker reflected on remaining a student, responsible marksmanship, and using the C-TAC Combat Blueprint to identify gaps in training.
Field Notes
Knowing a Technique Isn’t the Same as Being Able to Use It
Knowing a technique is only a beginning. After teaching and training at the Executive Protection Institute, Alan Baker reflects on practice, feedback, and the responsibility of educators.
It’s Not Supposed to Look Like a Fight
A drill earns its place by the skill it develops and what you can do with that skill when the conditions change. Five questions for more purposeful, adaptable training.
The Gap Between Knowing and Doing: How Capability Is Built
Sifu Journal · Capability & Learning The Gap Between Knowing and Doing: How Capability Is Built Information matters. But how do we turn what we learn into something we can …
Judgment in Martial Arts: Are You Training It?
Physical skill does not automatically create good judgment. Alan Baker explains why observation, timing, positioning, and decision-making deserve deliberate attention in martial arts training.
When the Fundamentals Have to Change
A monthly range session forced Alan Baker to reconsider a familiar handgun grip. The result offers a larger lesson about adaptation, coaching, and the continuing path toward mastery.
The Capable Life: Education Should Change What You Can Do
Education should do more than inform you. Alan Baker explains how self-education, practical application, feedback, and humility build a more capable life.
When Less Becomes More: Learning to Become an Intuitive Driver
After years of training with Joe Autera, Alan Baker finally began to understand what it means to feel your way through a driving problem. This reflection from Pocono Raceway explores intuition, simplicity, protective driving, and the lifelong work of becoming more capable.
Ahead of Time: Why Early Recognition Matters in Self-Protection
Situational awareness is more than a slogan. C-TAC teaches students to prepare, train their eyes to see, recognize developing pressure, and make better decisions while they are still ahead of time.
The Nucleus: How Keysi Fighting Method Trains Problems, Not Just Techniques
Technique gives a martial artist the notes, but the Nucleus teaches the student how to play the music. Sifu Alan Baker explores how Keysi develops adaptable problem-solving through drills, laboratories, progressive variables, and self-education.
