Author: HeloMaster

This class for house of worship security teams emphasized two-person escort holds, forward and rearward takedowns, and prone cuffing.

This 2025 guideline First Aid and All-ages (Infant, Child, and Adult) CPR / AED training also had a confined space rescue component (pictured above), as well as Active Violence response training in which we practiced swarming.

This report summarizes introductory expandable baton training for members of a faith-based security organization.

This report summarizes compliant cuffing, searching, and uncuffing training provided to a house of worship security team.

This report summarizes training conducted at a company in San Manuel, Arizona.

This was just a practice session to knock some of the rust off. But range time is too precious to waste simply converting cartridges into empty cases. Every drill and role-playing scenario we did reinforced an important skill or tactical concept. I document those skills and drills here so the participants can replicate them, should they desire, in future practice.

The staff of the Hermitage No-Kill Cat Shelter have some obligation to protect their felines, in addition to their staff and volunteers. ICSAVE provided them with a half-day of Violence Avoidance and Survival training, with an emphasis on Spree Violence Response.

This was an introduction to pepper spray for security teams guarding houses of worship. We progressed from didactic training about OC, the Law, and Use-of-Force, to drills and guided scenarios training retention, use, storage, contraindications, decontamination, and fallback plans should OC fail to induce subject compliance.

This day and night scenario-based training allowed students who already had a strong foundation in firearms safety, marksmanship, and manipulations to hone their skills with weapon mounted lights, handheld flashlights, NODs, and other gear, in simulations replicating real-world incidents.

This class focused on specific applications for methods that are sometimes needed but rarely practiced.

This report summarizes training conducted during the Friday elective periods of a Montessori middle school.

This three-hour Bleeding Control class was taught by volunteers of Integrated Community Solutions to Active Violence Events. Our emphasis was on stopping the killing before stopping the dying. Afterward, we taught some blocks on how not to be taken hostage, and off-lining handguns.

This was the third class Heloderm did for a British television company needing training for their crews doing ride-alongs with a sheriff’s department in the American Southwest.

A TV production company from the UK was in Tucson to film a documentary with the Pima County Sheriff’s Department. Before they could “ride along” with the deputies, the production company insisted they have some form of Care Under Fire / Tactical Survival training. This summarizes what we taught them, and why.

If you ask educators what their worst case scenario would be, most would respond “active shooter.” But there is something worse: a school siege, like at Beslan or West Nickel Mines School. This bonus material to biennial Pediatric First Aid training for educators included case studies of hostage situations and some practice in how to escape from, survive, and / or resist a school siege.

This class was for female summer employees of the Tohono O’odham Nation.

To reduce the dreadful number of MMIW, Missing / Murdered Indigenous Women, several volunteers taught ladies of the San Xavier District, Tohono O’odham Nation, how to protect themselves.

Our emphasis in this semester’s First Aid elective was Fire Safety. Students learned how to put out fires and how to escape from burning structures without dying of smoke inhalation later. Most importantly, we established guidelines for quickly determining when a fire is getting too big to fight.

This in-home course for a single mom and her son was parts I – III of Heloderm’s May / Can / Should curriculum, along with some demonstrations and a site survey with suggestions and practice for defending the mom’s home.

Parents and educators requested a self-defense type elective for middle schoolers at a Montessori school, in the Fall semester of 2024. We sent out a tentative outline of the subjects we thought to address, and several students enrolled. This document summarizes what we covered in class, and why.

This refresher training was part of continuing education for volunteer security teams guarding houses of worship in the Phoenix metro area. The training took place at Gunsite Academy. After doing “dry” room clearing with SIRT pistols in the Playhouse, live fire in the Pit shoot house, and live fire on the Urban Scrambler, students rotated to the TacMed skills station on the Shotquad range. This article details what medical skills were trained and why.

In this live-fire class we trained handgun in the am, and carbine in the afternoon.

Periodically over the last few years, Heloderm has worked with a preschool to train their personnel, harden their facilities, and develop practical action plans for the event of violence and other emergencies. This time, we reviewed Run Hide Fight principles (about a third of the students had not been in previous sessions) before EXERCISING their plans. Simulations included stimulus (blank fire) and the actual communications systems they have to use. This post summarizes what was trained on 05 Aug 2024, and why.

This advanced Bleeding Control, Pediatric First Aid, and All Ages (Infant, Child and Adult) CPR / AED program was for educators at a Montessori school, most of whom had previously trained to a basic proficiency level, and were looking for more challenges.

This class for a mother and daughter focused on empty hands techniques and strategies to stay safe while jogging and dating. We also touched on Active Violence survival, bomb threats, and resisting carjack / abduction attempts.

Hermosa Montessori school offers the Health and Safety Institute (HSI) Pediatric First Aid with Child, Infant, and Adult CPR & AED course for their older students. HSI is also known as the American Safety & Health Institute, or ASHI. Spring Semester 2024 …

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Teachers at a Lutheran pre-school spent an hour learning how to off-line various pistols, as continuing education in support of their school’s emergency action plan. There was also some exposure to countering edged weapons attacks. Although we did not expect anyone to achieve mastery in the limited time available, we hoped that this brief exposure at least convinced them they can defend their kids if necessary, even if unarmed and facing kinetic threats. This training summary outlines what was taught and why on February 5, 2024.

The Friday before 2023’s annual AZ CSN Defending the Flock conference, we did four hour sessions to get deeper into subjects we could only touch upon during an hour and half breakout session. Two of those dealt with movement, and how it’s not always possible to get off the X. This annotated training outline covers aspects of hostage rescue and how proxemics affect use of force.

This was the second part of a free Firearms Safety class for one first-time gun owner, and a Defensive Handgun class for both students.

This in-home session was a free Firearms Safety course for a first-time gun owner and an intro to Defensive Pistol for both students.

This Intro to Shotgun course exposed the students to various aspects of the shotgun as a defensive tool.