Personalities

Michael Janich

Michael Janich has been an avid student and instructor of self-defense for more than 40 years. He has an extensive background in the Filipino martial arts, pencak silat, judo, aikido, boxing, Savate, and military combatives. Mike was inducted into Black Belt magazine’s prestigious Hall of Fame as Weapons Instructor of the Year in 2010. 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 (NSA). 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. Janich also served as an Intelligence Officer in the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) and an Investigation Team Leader for the Joint Casualty Resolution Center (JCRC) and Joint Task Force-Full Accounting (JTF-FA), leading numerous investigations into remote areas of Vietnam and Laos to resolve the fates of American prisoners of war and missing in action (POW/MIA).

A prolific author, Janich has been published in all the major publications in the tactical and martial arts industries and is the author or co-author of more than a dozen books and over 20 instructional videos, including Bullseyes Don’t Shoot Back: The Complete Textbook of Point Shooting for Close Quarters Combat, which he wrote with the late Col. Rex Applegate.

Janich is a leading authority on edged-weapon design and tactics and his knife designs have been produced by Spyderco, BlackHawk Blades, Masters of Defense, Combat Elite, and many noted custom knife makers. He is best known as the founder and lead instructor of the Martial Blade Concepts (MBC) and Counter-Blade Concepts (CBC) systems of self-defense, as well as their related systems of unarmed and impact-weapon tactics. Janich is in extremely high demand as an instructor and teaches regular seminars for civilians, law enforcement, and special units around the world.

Janich is currently the Special Projects Coordinator for the Spyderco knife company of Golden, Colorado. With Spyderco’s support, he also co-hosts The Best Defense ­on Outdoor Channel, sharing his extensive knowledge of armed and unarmed self-defense and personal and home security.