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.