What Beyond the Holster Actually Looks Like
A walk-through of the weekend, hour by hour, so you know exactly what you're signing up for.
The biggest hesitation people have about a class like this is honest and reasonable: what am I actually going to be doing for two days?
Self-defense and combatives training has a reputation problem. Some of it is earned. Too many courses are either soft-focus seminars that never get hands-on, or chest-thumping warrior-camp stuff that scares off the people who would benefit most. Beyond the Holster is neither. Here's what the weekend actually looks like.
Saturday morning: framing the problem
The first hour is introductions, safety brief, paperwork, and weapon checks. Real ones. Nobody steps on the mat with anything that goes bang.
From there we spend the first block of the morning on the part most classes skip: what are we actually trying to accomplish? We borrow a phrase from the Department of Defense and adapt it for civilians: full-spectrum superiority. Dominance in mindset, strategy, tactics, firearm, contact weapon, and empty hand, including the legal and psychological aftermath. You will leave the weekend with a mental model for thinking about violence, not just a list of moves.
Then we cover training methodology. Why we teach principles rather than memorized techniques. How myelination actually builds skill. Why we use interleaved learning and rotating focus instead of drilling one move 200 times. This sounds academic. It's not. It's the difference between leaving with skills you can use and leaving with skills you'll forget by Wednesday.
Saturday late morning: strategy
This is where the weekend gets interesting. We work through what John Farnam called the Rule of Stupid: don't go to stupid places, at stupid times, with stupid people, doing stupid things. Sun Tzu's principle that the greatest victory is the one that requires no battle. The mental discipline of leaving your troubles off the mat when something starts.
Then we get tactical. The AOJP framework for use-of-force decisions. Hard-target body language, how to walk in a way that makes predators choose someone else. What criminals are actually looking for in a victim. The Reactionary Gap, why instincts matter, and why verbal de-escalation is what military doctrine would call "recon by fire" rather than weakness.
We cover the three types of violent encounter you might face: the Ego Fight, the Interview, and the Ambush. Each one demands a different response, and most people only train for one of them. Some don't train for any.
Saturday afternoon: empty hands at contact distance
Lunch break, then we hit the mats for real.
Breakfalls first, because if you don't know how to land, nothing else matters. Then mobility, footwork, and what we call "the battlefield" — the live side, the dead side, the unbalance line. The geometry of a real close-quarters fight.
From there into the Crazy Monkey defensive cover, developed from your natural flinch response. Bullet Time drills, which scale partner work from slow-motion isolation up to flowing exchanges, with reset and pause keywords so nobody gets hurt and everyone learns. The MASCH framework: Maneuver, Adhesion, Sensory disruption, Control, (W)hole-body power. These are the principles that connect every technique we teach.
Then the Plan of Attack itself: avoid or nullify the initial strike, set up, flank to the dead side, strike, control, neutralize as appropriate. We work through targeting, basic boxing, infighting, the clinch, headbutts, and shredding. Takedowns and how to defend against them. Ground work, including escapes from chokes, mount, side control, and the worst position you can find yourself in.
By the end of Saturday you will be tired. You will also have working empty-hand skills you didn't have when you walked in.
Sunday morning: weapons in close
Sunday opens with contact weapons. Not as exotica, but as the inevitable continuation of empty-hand work. The principles are the same. The geometry is the same. The tools just change.
Then the section that gives the class its name: weapon retention and access. This is the actual answer to the question the entire course exists to address. What do you do when someone is on top of you, your hands are occupied, and your firearm is buried under a cover garment? Power Low Ready. Sit and shoot. Timing. Limb Jail. How to keep your weapon from becoming the attacker's weapon, and how to access it when the situation finally allows.
We work through fighting with a flashlight, because most violence happens in the dark and most people carry one. We cover pain compliance and the joints that make it work. We do hands-on with inert pepper spray so you've actually deployed it before the day you might need to.
Sunday afternoon: putting it together
The last block of the weekend is integration. Scenario work. Decision-making under pressure. The legal and psychological reality of what happens after a violent encounter, even one you survived and were justified in.
What you walk out with
By Sunday evening you will have a complete mental model for thinking about personal violence. You will have working empty-hand skills against the most common attacks. You will have trained weapons retention against a resisting partner. You will have deployed pepper spray, used a flashlight as a tool, and worked through the decision-making process that turns training into action.
That's what Beyond the Holster actually looks like.
The class
Beyond the Holster: May 16-17, 2026Public Safety Training Center (PSTC), Portland ORCo-taught by Phill Juffs and AJ Hall8 students maximum. 4 seats remaining.
If you've read this far, you know whether this is for you. If it is, the next step is simple.
Questions first? [Email Phill] or book a free 20-minute consult call. We'd rather answer your questions now than have you wonder.
