Since Pat Miletich made his Octagon
debut at UFC 16: Battle of the Bayou,
fight fans have associated his name with
one of the greatest Mixed Martial
Artists of all time. Through Team
Miletich – one of the world’s most
respected MMA training academies – Pat
has also earned international notoriety,
having assisted such pedigree combatants
as Matt Hughes, Tim Sylvia, Jeremy Horn,
Robbie Lawler, Tony Fryklund, and more
recently, Justin Eilers.
So it was due
to Miletich’s impeccable fight-related
reputation that he was sought after by a
defense-training establishment.
"I’ve been working with police and
the military for almost nine years now,
and I was called up by a company called
Controlled Force that is the
number one company in the United States
for training police and military. They
asked me to help them write some
certification courses and then help
develop programs to assist members of
various forces in life-threatening
situations.
"So I’ve been really busy with that.
I’m going to be travelling a lot in
2005, training an awful lot of people.
We just sold to the whole state of
Florida for their correctional
facilities. And many other states are
following closely behind, so we’re
looking forward to that, and that’s
going to keep me pretty busy."
Other UFC/Team Miletich names
involved in Controlled Force
include Matt Hughes and Tony Fryklund,
who are certified trainers and national
instructors. Pat foresees having to
train an army of instructors to deal
with the huge demand for their services.
And whilst it will require a particular
level of instructor to train these
people in Pat’s certification courses,
and other specified courses required of
them, Pat’s ultimate goal is to train
the US military and police to be capable
of defending themselves in all
situations.
"The course is not available to
members of the general public unless
they’re a professional-level fighter who
would like to end up being an
instructor. They’ve got to be able to
pass background checks, obviously, and
have no felonies on their record. We’ve
trained people all over Europe, and
we’re more than willing to travel all
over the world to help out, as long as
they’re friendly countries, such as
Australia," laughs Miletich.
"The main thing we teach the forces
is how to control their own bodies
before they can control somebody else’s.
There are a lot of instructors who
insist on teaching people different
moves, which is where they’re making a
big mistake. Moves are not important.
The transition of movement is what’s
important. And that’s what we’ve always
concentrated on.
"The majority of police officers
coming out of college have never been in
a fight in their lives. You can't teach
someone like that how to fight as I
would fight. You have to teach them how
to survive and make sure they get home
alive every day to their families.
That’s the difference. People try to
teach submission holds to police
officers, and it’s just not wise.
"The craziest move is when people
spend a lot of time showing police that
it’s okay to fall on your back and fight
from there. That’s insane in a military
or police situation, because: one,
you’re often dealing with more than one
person, and two, you never put yourself
in a position of disadvantage. When
you’re working with a police officer
who’s never fought before, to tell him
to fall on his back in a street fight
when he’s got a weapon on his hip, is
insane, as far as I’m concerned. They
need to be taught to disengage from a
situation like that, and get to the tool
on their belts: whether it be an asp
baton, pepper spray, or their gun."