ICS - training and company information

"This is the law:
There is no possible victory in defense,
The sword is more important than the shield,
And skill is more important than either,
The final weapon is the brain.
All else is supplemental."
John Steinbeck

The Goal - One Mind Any Weapon

Most modern training systems take a compartmentalized approach to training the individual in non-natural, fabricated fighting skills. Such training generally covers only very specific weapons and techniques related towards and driven by those weapons. Handgun use, for example, is typically considered a completely different set of skills from any other weapon, even other firearms. Instruction in handgun use rarely, if ever, is related to non-firearms combat, such as with blades, sticks (batons), or empty-hands. As a result, each of these areas tends to be taught (and learned) as separate and distinct skill sets. Unfortunately, this is a proverbial ass-backwards perspective on human combative behavior and performance.

In any combative confrontation, the weapon does not do the fighting; the human wielding the weapon is the combatant. Any weapon can be nothing more than a tool to be used more or less efficiently in whatever situation the user applies its use. The tool does not need training, nor does each tool require a distinct set of behavior and performance skills for the user to engage in combat. Tools do need training in their efficient operation, however, that is not training in or for combat; that is merely training in the simple basics of operating that particular tool.

ICS training courses are designed to enhance the individual's combative performance and behavior capabilities. All training is aimed at making the individual competent and capable in combat no matter what the weapon. To that end, ICS training is designed to enhance the natural human responses and capabilities that have evolved with the human species. Rather than attempting to learn artificial or fabricated skills that will inevitably breakdown under the extreme stress of combative confrontation, ICS training aims at enhancing natural human attributes that evolved in humans and their ancestors to deal with combat and the stress of combat. That core instruction is combined with training in the operational skills of weapons.

Those capabilities form the foundation of effective fighting whether with handgun, empty-hands, knife, or shotgun.

As combat always involves at least one opponent - an adversary. Two elements are vital in performing effectively against an adversary: the operational aspects (weapons handling, movement, etc.) and the behavioral aspects (handling the stress of an adversary who is attacking with the aim of causing death or injury). No matter how good an individual's operational skills are, if the individual is not prepared for the stress of fighting another human being, the fight is likely to be lost. All ICS courses put a great deal of emphasis on adversary drills. In these drills, instructors act the parts of motivated adversaries in a variety of scenarios that are utilized to work from the most basic level of combat operational competence, to tactical capability. The structure of adversary training in the ICS courses allows the individual to learn to deal with the stress of an adversary simultaneous with developing operational skills. This is the only way to simulate not only the physical but the psychological stress that occurs in combat.

All ICS courses are aimed at developing each individual's natural abilities to deal with personal combat. In any conflict situation, the weapons available to the individual are not as important as the individual's own capabilities.

Here is the foundation of the ICS motto: One Mind - Any Weapon.