Classes

Talon Combat training is fundamentally different from traditional martial arts in that it's primarily taught to military special operations personnel and select law enforcement agencies. It's a highly pragmatic, combatives-focused system designed for extreme close-quarters combat (CQC) in life-or-death scenarios. The primary goal is to rapidly neutralize threats, create space for weapon access, or control an adversary in a dynamic and unpredictable environment. The training is eclectic, drawing effective techniques from various disciplines and constantly evolving.

Here's a breakdown of what they learn:

1. Empty Hands (Hand-to-Hand Combat - H2H / Close Quarters Battle - CQB): TCS empty-hand training prioritizes effectiveness over aesthetics. It's about immediately incapacitating or controlling an opponent, often to transition to a firearm or exit a dangerous situation.
2. Striking: Focuses on high-impact strikes to vital targets (head, eyes, neck, groin, joints) using punches, elbows, knees, and low kicks. Techniques are designed for generating power in close range.
3. Grappling/Takedowns: While ground fighting is generally avoided if possible (due to vulnerability to other threats or environmental factors), you'll learn effective takedowns, throws, and standing joint locks and chokes. This emphasizes control and submission for rapid resolution or access to weapons, rather than prolonged ground combat.
4. Disarms & Retention: Crucial skills include disarming an opponent of their firearm or knife, and critically, retaining their weapon under attack.
5. Body Mechanics & Aggression: Training emphasizes explosive movement, balance, leverage, and cultivating controlled aggression to overwhelm an opponent.
6. Knives: Knife training in TCS is not about traditional forms or dueling, but about the knife as a primary or secondary combat tool for extreme close range.
7. Offensive Use: Efficient stabbing (to vital organs, arteries), slashing (to tendons, muscles for incapacitation or creating openings), and understanding target anatomy.
8. Defensive Use: Defending against knife attacks, including parrying, blocking, and trapping, followed by counterattacks or disarms.
9. Draws & Grips: Rapid deployment from various concealed or open carry positions, and understanding different grips for different applications.
10. Integration: How to seamlessly transition between empty-hand techniques to handgun deployment or knife with practical blade work.
11. Other Weapons (Beyond Primary Firearms): Train to utilize whatever is available;  H2H skills often translate to improvised or secondary weapons.
12. Improvised Weapons: Using everyday objects found in the environment – a stick, a rock, a backpack, an entrenching tool, a broken bottle – as an extension of their hand-to-hand skills for striking, blocking, or leveraging.
13. Impact Weapons: Training with short sticks, batons, or even tools like axes/tomahawks for close-quarters striking and control, applying principles of leverage and power generation.
14. Weapon Retention/Disarms (General): This extends to preventing an opponent from seizing any weapon, including their firearm, and effectively disarming an opponent who possesses a non-firearm weapon.
15. Lethal and Less-Lethal Options: Understanding when and how to apply techniques with lethal intent versus those aimed at control or de-escalation, depending on the rules of engagement and the threat level.

Overall, TCS training is characterized by its adaptability, intensity, and focus on practical application under extreme stress. It's a continuous process of refinement, incorporating scenario-based drills, stress inoculation, and live-action role-playing to ensure readiness for any close-quarters encounter.