Why police officers need to train to win

March 26, 2019 04:54 PM •

Ongoing martial arts training can first develop and then enhance all personal body weapons and control tactics.

As you prepare seriously for your next fight, unlike an MMA fighter your contest will not be fought for money or fame; it will be a fight for your life. If impacts become necessary, they should be intense, focused and performed with full power to end the fight quickly.

I would like to share with you how I personally prepared to survive 33 years of policing, which brought with it fights that were started by other people, but that I had a sworn duty to finish.

Here is my training regimen for you to consider, which prepared me to win when words failed:

Ongoing martial arts training to first develop and then enhance all personal body weapons and control tactics;
“Thump sparring” while padded making light contact to practice actual combat;
American one-step-sparring where you and a training partner take turns attacking and defending, with specific trained techniques practiced for repetitions;
Arranging for and training in an on-going police defensive tactics class;
Personal fitness training 3-5 times a week;
Regular sessions on a heavy bag, focus bag and speed bag as a part of that fitness training;
Shadow fighting/boxing as part of that fitness training;
Doing knuckle push-ups to prepare fists to survive punches.

To read more tips, see How to prepare for a fight for your life.

Defensive Tactics Police Training

Lt. Dan Marcou

Lt. Dan Marcou is an internationally-recognized police trainer who was a highly-decorated police officer with 33 years of full-time law enforcement experience. Marcou’s awards include Police Officer of the Year, SWAT Officer of the Year, Humanitarian of the Year and Domestic Violence Officer of the Year. Additional awards Lt. Marcou received were 15 departmental citations (his department’s highest award), two Chief’s Superior Achievement Awards and the Distinguished Service Medal for his response to an active shooter.

Upon retiring, Lt. Marcou began writing. He is the co-author of “Street Survival II, Tactics for Deadly Encounters.” His novels, “The Calling, the Making of a Veteran Cop,” “SWAT, Blue Knights in Black Armor,” “Nobody’s Heroes” and “Destiny of Heroes,” as well as two non-fiction books, “Law Dogs, Great Cops in American History” and “If I Knew Then: Life Lessons From Cops on the Street.” All of Lt. Marcou’s books are all available at Amazon. Dan is a member of the Police1 Editorial Advisory Board.