Michael Janich has been studying and teaching self-defense and the martial arts for more than 35 years. He has earned instructor’s credentials in American Self-Protection (ASP – an eclectic art that includes elements of judo, aikido, boxing, fencing and French Savate), the Filipino art of Serrada Eskrima, and Joseph Simonet’s Silat Concepts and is a member of the elite International Close-Combat Instructors’ Association. He has also trained extensively in wing chun gung fu, tae kwon do, wu ying tao, Thai boxing, arnis de mano and military combatives. Janich is also one of the foremost modern authorities on handgun point shooting and is one of the few contemporary instructors to have been personally trained by the late close-combat legend Colonel Rex Applegate.
Janich served nine years in the U.S. Army Intelligence and Security Command, including a three-year tour at the National Security Agency. He is a two-time graduate with honors of the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, California (Vietnamese and Chinese-Mandarin) and a recipient of the Commandant’s Award for outstanding linguistic achievement. After completing his military service, Janich was recruited by the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) and served as an Intelligence Officer for that agency’s Stony Beach Program in Hong Kong and the Philippines. He also served as an Investigation Team Leader for the Joint Casualty Resolution Center (JCRC) and Joint Task Force-Full Accounting (JTF-FA) and has led numerous investigations into remote areas of Vietnam and Laos in search of information regarding American prisoners of war and missing in action (POW/MIA).
Janich is the author and co-author of more than a dozen books, including Bullseyes Don’t Shoot Back: The Complete Textbook of Point Shooting for Close Quarters Combat, which he wrote with one of his mentors, the late close-combat legend Col. Rex Applegate. He has also been featured in more than 20 instructional videotapes on defensive edged-weapon use, empty-hand combatives, exotic weapons, and combat shooting. In addition to books and videos, Janich has been published in more than a dozen magazines and newsletters and is a contributing editor to Tactical Knives magazine.
Janich is the founder and lead instructor of Martial Blade Concepts (MBC), a comprehensive system of edged-weapon-based self-defense, and Counter-Blade Concepts (CBC), a highly effective system of defending against edged-weapons with empty-hand and improvised-weapon tactics. Janich’s MBC/CBC curriculum also forms a foundation of skill that is easily transferred to improvised weapons and empty-hand fighting skills, including his personal systems of unarmed combatives (Damithurt Silat) and combative use of impact weapons (Sobadiwan Eskrima). Collectively Janich’s teaching constitutes one of the most comprehensive and practical personal defense programs available today.
Janich is widely recognized as an authority on edged-weapon design and has designed knives for the Masters of Defense knife company, BLACKHAWK!, Spyderco, noted custom knifemakers Mike Snody, Wally Hayes, and Brent Beshara, and Combat Elite. His designs, including the “Tempest,” “Yojimbo,” “Be-Wharned,” and “Yojimbo2” tactical folders and the “Ronin” and “Kalista” fixed blades, have developed a tremendous following among dedicated knife users.
Janich personally established Paladin Press’ Video Production Department in 1994 and ran all aspects of Paladin’s video production for 10 years. An accomplished videographer and editor, he produced more than 100 instructional videos during his tenure with Paladin and personally recruited some of Paladin’s most popular authors, including Kelly McCann, the late Jim Cirillo, Louis Awerbuck, James Keating, Joseph Simonet, Mark Hatmaker, and Bill Kipp. Janich was also personally selected to work with the late Col. Rex Applegate as the producer of his landmark instructional videos on handgun point shooting.
Currently Janich serves as the Special Projects Coordinator for the Spyderco knife company of Golden, Colorado. With Spyderco’s support, he continues to offer state-of-the-art tactical training on a part-time basis and to co-host The Best Defense and The Best Defense: Survival! shows on the Outdoor Channel. He is also a minor partner in Stay Safe Media, a video production company specializing in instructional materials on all aspects of personal defense. Stay Safe is the official source of Janich’s most up-to-date instructional videos.