Specialized Defensive Tactics For Real-World Operational Environments
Training, instructor development, and program design for law enforcement, executive protection, military, security, corrections, healthcare, and professional protective services.
Baker Defensive Tactics develops practical training solutions built around the realities of modern operations. Our programs integrate defensive tactics, firearms, edged weapons, weapon retention, verbal de-escalation, situational awareness, and decision-making under stress. Whether supporting an individual operator, training cadre, or an entire organization, our mission remains the same: to build professionals capable of making sound decisions and achieving safe, lawful outcomes under pressure.
Specialized Training Programs
Baker Defensive Tactics offers specialized programs built for real-world operational environments, including law enforcement, executive protection, security, corrections, healthcare, and professional protective services.
Protection Response Tactics
A comprehensive system for protectors that integrates defensive tactics, de-escalation, contact-to-control strategies, vehicle encounters, team movement, and lawful force decision-making.
View ProgramVehicle-Centric Defensive Tactics
Specialized tactics for fighting, controlling, escaping, and protecting others in and around vehicles, confined spaces, doors, frames, seats, and close-range mobility problems.
View ProgramWeaponised Grappling
A close-quarter grappling program focused on weapon access, weapon protection, positional control, and survival when empty-hand skills and weapons-based realities overlap.
View ProgramOut-of-Position Fighting
Also known as Dog Boxing, this program develops survival, recovery, and counter-offensive skills when the operator is placed in compromised or inferior positions.
View ProgramGround Fighting & Counter Grappling
A professional ground survival and counter-grappling program designed to avoid unnecessary entanglement, recover position, protect weapons, and return to a functional operational posture.
View ProgramGun Disarm & Retention
A principles-based program for firearm retention, weapon control, timing, prevention, recovery, safe transitions, and realistic scenario work for armed professionals.
View ProgramClose-Quarter Gun Manipulation
A close-range firearms program for critical-distance encounters where the operator must control, off-balance, or neutralize a threat before safely accessing the weapon system.
View ProgramEdged Weapons
Training focused on edged-weapon awareness, defensive response, control concepts, close-quarter survival, and practical applications for professional environments.
View ProgramClose-Quarter Combatives
An integrated defensive tactics program covering close-range striking, clinch control, combative movement, pressure management, and functional survival skills.
View ProgramApplied Armed Pummeling
A standing grappling and weapons-integration program focused on clinch control, weapon retention, access denial, positional dominance, and armed entanglement problem-solving.
View ProgramBuilt For Professionals Who Operate Under Pressure
Our programs are designed for professionals who must make sound decisions, manage risk, and perform effectively in dynamic and often unpredictable environments.
Law Enforcement
Defensive tactics, control and restraint, weapon retention, instructor development, and scenario-based training.
Executive Protection
Protective operations, client protection, vehicle tactics, team movement, and close-quarter response strategies.
Military
Close-quarter tactics, weapon retention, combatives, and operational performance under pressure.
Private Security
Practical defensive tactics, de-escalation, client management, and real-world security applications.
Corrections
Control tactics, team-based response, weapon protection, and inmate management strategies.
Healthcare Security
Managing resistance, patient control, de-escalation, and lawful use-of-force applications.
Corporate Security
Protective operations, workplace violence response, executive protection, and security readiness.
Training Academies
Instructor development, curriculum design, program implementation, and long-term training solutions.
Your Environment Is Unique. Your Training Should Be Too.
Baker Defensive Tactics offers proven training programs that can be delivered immediately, but our greatest strength is designing training solutions around the specific mission, environment, policies, and operational realities of each client.
We do not believe every organization should be forced into the same defensive tactics model. A hospital security team, executive protection detail, law enforcement agency, correctional facility, corporate security department, and military unit all operate under different pressures, rules, liabilities, and expectations. Our job is to help you build training that fits the reality your people actually face.
Program Design & Development
We can help build or refine a defensive tactics program around your personnel, mission requirements, policies, equipment, and operating environment.
Policy-Aligned Training
Training can be adapted to support your use-of-force standards, reporting requirements, liability concerns, and organizational procedures.
Instructor Development
We can develop internal instructors who are capable of maintaining standards, teaching the material, and continuing the program long after the initial course.
Scenario-Based Validation
We help test and pressure-check the training through realistic scenarios that reflect your environment, threats, constraints, and professional responsibilities.
Set Curriculum Or Custom Build
We can deliver established Baker Defensive Tactics programs or design a custom solution based on exactly what your organization needs.
Long-Term Implementation
Beyond a single training event, we can help organizations create sustainable systems, instructor pathways, training progressions, and long-term development plans.
We Help Organizations Build Training Systems.
Whether you need a ready-to-teach course, a custom defensive tactics curriculum, instructor development, or a complete program built around your organization, Baker Defensive Tactics can help create a solution that works in the real world.
Why We Build Training Differently
Most defensive tactics programs are built around a system. We build our programs around the people who must actually use them.
Coach Alan Baker has spent decades studying martial arts, defensive tactics, executive protection, firearms, edged weapons, and real-world violence. Through that process he discovered a simple truth: no single system solves every problem.
A hospital security officer, executive protection agent, police officer, correctional officer, military operator, and corporate security professional all face different environments, liabilities, equipment, and responsibilities. Their training should reflect those realities.
In this video, Alan discusses the importance of being a perpetual student, integrating multiple disciplines, pressure-testing ideas, and designing training around real-world operational needs instead of forcing people into a one-size-fits-all system.
Built By Practitioners.
Refined Through Experience.
Baker Defensive Tactics is built on decades of experience studying, teaching, testing, and refining defensive tactics across multiple operational environments. Our focus is not on collecting techniques. Our focus is building capable professionals who can perform effectively under pressure.
Decades Of Experience
Our programs are informed by decades of experience in martial arts, defensive tactics, instructor development, executive protection, and performance training.
Pressure-Tested Methodology
Every program is built around practical application, operational realities, and the ability to perform under stress rather than memorizing isolated techniques.
Integrated Skill Development
Our training integrates defensive tactics, firearms, edged weapons, grappling, control tactics, mobility, communication, and decision-making into a unified system.
Instructor Development
We help organizations create qualified instructors who can sustain training standards and continue developing personnel long after the initial course.
Operational Relevance
Training is adapted to the realities of the environment in which it will be applied, whether law enforcement, executive protection, healthcare, security, corrections, or military operations.
Beyond The Seminar
Our goal is not simply to deliver a class. We help organizations build sustainable training systems that continue producing results over time.
Training Is Not The Goal. Performance Is.
The purpose of training is not to create better students. The purpose of training is to create better performance when it matters most. Whether delivering one of our established programs or developing a custom solution, Baker Defensive Tactics focuses on helping organizations build professionals who can make sound decisions, manage risk, and perform effectively in real-world environments.
Organizations Trust Us
When Performance Matters
For over two decades, Baker Defensive Tactics has worked with executive protection professionals, law enforcement agencies, military personnel, security organizations, training academies, and corporate clients across the United States.
“Simple, straightforward, effective, and directly applicable to the realities of their work. Whether military special operations personnel, law enforcement teams, or executive protection practitioners, the response is always the same.”
“Alan designed a program specifically built for the clients we teach. Our instructors have decades of experience, and we found his systems and curriculum provide the best vehicle for delivering this knowledge.”
Ready To Build A Better Training Program?
Whether you need a ready-to-teach course, instructor development, a specialized training module, or a complete defensive tactics system designed around your operational environment, Baker Defensive Tactics can help you build a solution that works in the real world.
Experience Matters When Training Must Work.
Alan Baker is an internationally recognized martial arts, self-defense, and defensive tactics instructor with more than four decades of continuous training and professional teaching experience.
Through Baker Defensive Tactics, Alan has designed and delivered programs for law enforcement, SWAT teams, executive protection professionals, Fortune 500 corporate security teams, military groups, and specialized government organizations.
His work is built around one core principle: training must fit the environment, policies, equipment, and real-world responsibilities of the people who will actually use it.
Your Training Path
Whether you need one of our established programs or a custom solution designed around your organization, the process is built to identify your needs, close training gaps, and develop a system that works in the real world.
Discovery Call
We discuss your team, mission profile, operational environment, policies, equipment, and training objectives.
Assessment
We look at your current training, identify gaps, and determine whether a set program or custom build is the best fit.
Program Design
We recommend a proven Baker Defensive Tactics program or design a tailored curriculum around your specific needs.
Training Delivery
We deliver onsite training, instructor development, consulting, scenario work, or certification based on your goals.
Long-Term Support
We help refine the system, support instructors, and continue developing the program as your organization evolves.
Designed Around Your Mission
Some clients need a focused training course. Others need a complete defensive tactics system built from the ground up. Baker Defensive Tactics supports both paths and helps organizations develop training that fits their people, policies, and operating environment.
Organizations We Have Supported
For more than two decades, Baker Defensive Tactics has provided training, instructor development, program design, and consulting services to law enforcement agencies, executive protection teams, military personnel, corporate security departments, healthcare organizations, training academies, and private sector clients throughout the United States.
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What Our Clients Are Saying
Alan Baker’s reputation as a world class designer, developer, and instructor of leading edge training is not only well deserved, it is reflected in every facet of the work he and his team at Baker Tactical Training and Design perform with the hallmark of true professionals – they make even the most complex tasks look easy! Case-in-point is the Vehicle Centric Defensive Tactics (VCDT) program he and his team designed, developed, and have continued to evolve over the course of more than a decade.
From the very first time we introduced the program to one of our military clients to this very day, and regardless of whether we are delivering a VCDT course to military special operations and special mission units, law enforcement tactical teams, or private sector executive protection practitioners, the response is virtually identical. To a one, our students are impressed with not just how simple, straightforward, and effective the philosophies, tactics, and techniques that form the foundation of the program are, but just how applicable they are to the realities of their work.
Joe Autera, President & CEO, Vehicle Dynamics Institute
Alan Baker, head of Baker Tactical Training & Design, has designed a defensive tactics program that is the answer to real-world questions for the civilian and the professional alike. Allan designed a program for us at Royal Range USA, (https://www.royalrangeusa.com/ ), specifically built for the clients we teach.
We are involved with training the private sector, law enforcement, civilian, and other government entities. Our instructors have been teaching defensive tactics since the early 80s to various clients, and we have found Allan Bakers’ systems and curriculums to provide us with the best vehicle to impart this knowledge that we have ever seen. Look into what Baker Tactical Training & Design has to offer, it will answer all of your questions and then some for real-world applications.
Feel free to contact me at [email protected] if there is any more information about our experience with Allan Baker and his training company.
Art Cason, General Manager/Co-Owner, Royal Range USA
Several years ago, while evaluating the capabilities of the protective detail for the Governor and the first family of California, I realized that our defensive tactics needed to be redesigned. My Department had years of experience with different law enforcement DT programs, from Aikido-based systems to Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, and most recently, one that is derived from Krav Maga. All the systems were designed for the typical LE officer environment. But, protective operations, either government or corporate, is far from the typical LE duty. After an exhaustive search, I was fortunate to find Alan Baker of Baker Tactical Training & Design. Alan’s Protection Response Tactics (PRT) is specifically designed from the ground up for executive protection. Moreover, Alan has designed many unique programs that are unprecedented (i.e., systems for fighting in and around vehicles while stationary and on the move). This type of innovative system design comes from a lifetime of martial arts and combative study. Alan doesn’t try to force his style into your environment. He designs a style that matches your needs. This is exactly why I had Alan Baker and his team come to teach his PRT course at the CHP Academy, not only for the Governor’s Protective Detail but also for our Dignitary Protection Section, Threat Assessment Unit, and the Advanced Officer Safety Training instructors.
Lt. Jerry Jacobs (ret.) California Highway Patrol, Governor’s Protective Detail
A career in public safety has taught me that officers must have relevant defensive tactics training that meets the threats of today and those that officers will encounter tomorrow. Furthermore, this training must adhere to the highest legal standards and be defensible in the court of public opinion. This is no simple task! Successful outcomes require subject matter experts who are adept in modern defensive tactics systems and who possess a comprehensive knowledge of the environment in which practitioners will perform their duties. They must also clearly understand the integration of and flow between armed and unarmed combat inherent to law enforcement interactions at all levels (patrol to SWAT). Sifu Alan Baker and his team fit this bill!
It has been my pleasure to have trained with him and his team for over 15 years. In my experience he has never been rigidly bound to martial arts traditions which pigeon-hole students into inflexible systems which are unsustainable and inadvertently create liability. He is also not one to introduce the “new hotness” nor any other technique without in depth, in context pressure testing. With over 45 years of in-depth study, Sifu Baker develops applicable techniques and procedures which are simple, straightforward, effective, and can be performed with a high probability of success. His curriculum for high level tactical teams and individual officers are second to none!
David Collins, Lieutenant, City of Marietta Police Department
Your thoughtful approach to the need for protectors and their unique need for a system of protecting their clients developed into the absolute best defensive tactics system for the EP profession, bar none. Several years ago, when we first approached you to develop a specific defensive tactics system for protectors, as most we using borrowed tactics from the police and the military, I remember that before you recommended anything, you questioned experienced practitioners and those who had to protect others and what their specific needs were. Then you began to develop a system that is “client-based” and not “self-defense”. This is extremely important in our profession, where we must be focused on keeping a third party safe from harm’s way.
The different levels of PRT that you developed are new and innovative and are a welcomed addition for EPI to offer our students. Once again, thank you for your contribution to the EP profession and for your personal involvement in our exciting and growing profession!
Jerry Heying, CPP, PPS, CST – Executive Director, Executive Protection Institute
The Cincinnati Police SWAT Team took EPI’s Providing Executive Protection course. Alan was tasked with instructing the Protection Response Tactics block. Having a class of operators at different skill levels, Alan dialed everyone in and provided simple and effective practical responses to unavoidable confrontations. From a Law Enforcement perspective, everything was reasonable. Alan is a consummate instructor and professional.
Sergeant Dwayne L. Wilson – City of Cincinnati Police
As an Executive Protection Agent working and training around the world, when it comes to defensive tactics, Alan Baker’s PRT system is the best I have ever seen. His knowledge and techniques on how to de-escalate a situation are applicable to real-world scenarios and incredibly effective. And if the situation develops into one that requires violence, Alan’s understanding of closing distance, and neutralizing a threat quickly is unmatched. PRT is simply that impressive.
If you are fortunate enough to train with Sifu Alan Baker, I can promise, you will leave that training a much more confident, better prepared, and a far more dangerous human.
Brent Magnussen,
Executive Protection Agent
and former U.S. Army Combat Engineer