Integrative Defense Strategies

When ego and shady deals are the norm—be the exception. Everyone plays the game. Few play it clean. Ya dig?

1 day ago | [YT] | 8

Integrative Defense Strategies

Beyond the Gun: Reels with Todd Fossey


Beyond the Gun: Reels dismantles the comforting myths surrounding modern firearms training. Created by professional human-performance coach and firearms-training innovator Todd Fossey, this series goes deeper than gear, drills, or square-range proficiency.

Grounded in neuroscience, motor-learning science, force science, and real-world violence data, each reel exposes what actually survives when decision-making collapses, timelines compress, and chaos takes over. This isn’t about becoming a better shooter—it’s about becoming a more capable Citizen Defender when everything is on the line.


Beyond the Gun: Reels launches January 15th. Follow along—and rethink everything you’ve been taught about training for armed personal protection.

1 week ago | [YT] | 7

Integrative Defense Strategies

Beyond the Gun: Reels with Todd Fossey

Created by professional human-performance coach turned firearms-training innovator Todd Fossey, Beyond the Gun: Reels challenges the outdated, surface-level approach to personal protection with a handgun. Drawing from neuroscience, motor-learning science, force science, and real-world violence data, this series explores what actually holds up when chaos, uncertainty, and human stress collide.

3 weeks ago | [YT] | 7

Integrative Defense Strategies

St. Louis — It’s Go Time.


This week (Thursday–Sunday), I’ll be at Xtreme Krav Maga putting a motivated group of Instructor Candidates through the IDS APEX Level 1 Instructor Development Course.


If you're local, come by and say hello.


#IDSAPEX #BeyondTheGun #FightIQ #RealTrainingForRealLife #StLouis

1 month ago (edited) | [YT] | 7

Integrative Defense Strategies

THE GUARD IS 85% LEGS AND HIPS.
THE OTHER 85% IS CONTROLLING THEIR ARMS.
— From the Mind of Greg Nelson

At first glance, it looks like a mathematical joke — something that shouldn’t add up. But if you’ve ever fought off your back against a resisting opponent, you know this is one of the truest statements in all of grappling.

The guard is a dynamic environment where the most important thing is always shifting.

One moment, your legs and hips are doing 85% of the work — elevating, off-balancing, redirecting force, managing distance. Meanwhile, your hands might only be doing 15% — just enough to interrupt posts or keep an arm from recoiling into a punch.

A breath later, the ratio flips — 15% legs, 85% arms — because now the immediate fight is the opponent’s hands: stripping posture, killing frames, shutting down access to weapons or strikes.

85/15 ➜ 15/85 ➜ 70/30 ➜ 50/50 ➜ 90/10

This isn’t multitasking —
humans can’t truly multitask under stress.
We stack and prioritize information based on where the threat lives right now.

Your nervous system is constantly reallocating bandwidth:
Where is the danger?
Where is the leverage?
Where is the opportunity?

Guard isn’t just a position.
It’s a real-time math problem with changing variables —
a constant negotiation between structure and disruption.

Your legs and hips create the biomechanical truth:
Control the pelvis, win the fight.
But arms and hands deal with the survival truth:
Uncontrolled limbs = punches, posts, and weapons.

That’s why Greg’s “double 85% rule” isn’t a joke.
It’s a model of adaptive resource allocation inside chaos.

Guard mastery is the ability to fluidly pour your attention, leverage, and neuromuscular drive into the next critical 85% — moment by moment.

When you understand that, the math suddenly makes perfect sense:

85% legs and hips + 85% arm control
= 100% of what matters in the exact second it matters

That is Fight IQ.
That is real guard.
Not just holding someone between your legs —
but using your entire organism as a continually recalibrating, problem-solving weapon system.

1 month ago | [YT] | 9

Integrative Defense Strategies

The moment you recognize a threat… you’re already behind.

This card is a glimpse of what’s coming.

Beyond The Gun: Reels with Todd Fossey
Premieres January 15th.
Weekly. Relentless. Uncompromising.

#BeyondTheGun #ToddFossey #TrainWhatMatters #ArmedPersonalProtection #FightIQ #CCWTraining #SelfDefenseTraining #MotorLearning #RealViolence

1 month ago | [YT] | 4

Integrative Defense Strategies

Shooting well isn’t enough.

You must be able to fight with a gun.

And the higher your Fight IQ, the better your odds when it counts.

Follow along — new content every week.
#BeyondTheGun

1 month ago (edited) | [YT] | 8

Integrative Defense Strategies

Spoon-Feeding and Watering Down Information Defeats the Purpose

Growth doesn’t happen when everything is softened, simplified, and neatly spoon-fed. In fact, that kind of approach creates the opposite of what serious defenders need. It conditions people to expect comfort instead of competence.

My intention is to challenge you.

If I strip away the complexity, if I dilute the message so it goes down easy, you might feel good in the moment—but you won’t grow. And neither will this industry. Real evolution requires friction. It requires revisiting ideas, wrestling with them, and allowing them to reshape your understanding. It requires a moment of “Wait… am I sure about this?”

That tension—cognitive dissonance—is a feature, not a flaw. It’s the internal signal that something important is happening. It means you’re being pushed out of the echo chamber and invited to examine blind spots that most of the industry won’t even acknowledge, let alone address.

Staying inside the Overton Window may feel safe, but safe rarely leads to progress. If we keep reinforcing the same comfortable illusions, nothing changes. And the stakes in personal protection are far too high for stagnation.

Lean into the discomfort. Rewatch the clip. Reread the paragraph. Sit with the friction instead of avoiding it. That tiny shift—from seeking comfort to seeking clarity—is how decision pathways evolve. And, It’s how serious defenders separate themselves from the crowd.

1 month ago | [YT] | 6

Integrative Defense Strategies

2026 IDS APEX Training Schedule
The 2026 calendar is officially live.

If you’ve been watching the evolution of IDS from the outside, this is your invitation to step inside. IDS APEX Instructor Certification Courses are designed for serious practitioners who want evidence-based training, pressure-tested skill development, and a clear pathway to becoming part of the most forward-leaning instructor community in the industry.

If you’ve ever considered becoming an IDS APEX Certified Instructor or Affiliate, 2026 is your year. Demand grows every cycle, courses fill fast, and the instructors who come through this program quickly separate themselves from the noise. If you want to raise your capability, your credibility, and your professional value, this is where you do it.

And make no mistake—the highlight of the year will be the 2026 IDS Fight IQ 4 CCW National Conference. This event is rapidly becoming the gathering place for people who care about what actually works in violent encounters. We’re stacking the lineup with world-class instructors, cutting-edge curriculum, and the kind of high-pressure, high-truth training you simply won’t find anywhere else.

2026 is not just another training year. It’s a leap forward. A turning point. A chance for committed defenders, coaches, and instructors to sharpen their edge, embrace what the science demands, and leave behind the outdated traditions that hold the industry back.

If you’re ready to be part of the shift—if you want to train with purpose, lead with clarity, and represent a standard that others can’t match—now’s the time.

Check the schedule. Choose your path. Join us. DM me to take the next step.

1 month ago | [YT] | 5

Integrative Defense Strategies

Coming Soon!

Beyond the Gun: Reels

A force-scientific, psychological, human-performance, and motor-learning exploration of what it truly takes to survive violent encounters—far beyond marksmanship, gear, or technique catalogs.

1 month ago | [YT] | 3