From Scott Sonnon:
Hi CST pros and TACFIT athletes,
This has been a long time coming. And I want to give you a free taste of whatʼs to come
so that once again you feel comfortable that Iʼm providing you with high-quality, no nonsense tactical fitness. But before we get to that, let me tell you how we got here,
why Iʼm went through all the trouble of putting this into a new release, and why Iʼve
expanded the TACFIT fleet with the release of Tactical Gymnastics.
TACGYM is the end result of several evolutions of material. A few bitter people complain
that I continually repackage my prior work (and what I learned from my teachers).
Theyʼre right. There is a reason for this, and Iʼll explain if youʼre interested.
If not, then just scroll down and get the free book and videos to see for yourself that this
is a uniquely innovative iteration in my coaching development and the ongoing
refinement of the TACFIT system, and the CST philosophy in general.
—> Download the TACFIT Spartan Challenge (book and videos) <—–
All of this started when I began athletics, and found that due to my physical and learning disabilities that I needed to exploit every training technology possible in order to approach and exceed my genetic superiors. I needed to dissect a skill; find its trainable components; strengthen and hone those nuances; and plug them back into the larger tactical application to assess the performance enhancement. So, you see my formula: thereʼs science involved, but it was and is just as much a journey of discovery as it is an calculated and researched hypothesis.
I needed to be better. But over the years, I found that I wasnʼt the only one like this. Certainly 15% of the athletes and operators out there performed well in spite of ineffective coaching and training methodologies. Certainly, TACGYM can help them, but this isnʼt necessarily designed or rather, it hasnʼt evolved for their (lack of) needs. Youʼll see my signature coaching approach embedded in TACGYM, and can sample it to confirm the high quality with which youʼve become expectant in all TACFIT courses.
You can see for yourself in the free sample workout videos and book that you can get today.
I researched all manner of alternate movement modalities with my parents aid: Korean Chisanbop, Total Physical Response, Suzuki Method (across 7 instruments), and later Montessori Method, Feldenkrais Method, Laban Movement Analysis and Alexander Technique. Each provided me with additional tools.
When I began my martial art education, I took these tools and my remedial “baby step” process and applied it to my study and practice. The results accelerated my internalization of the complex movements I learned in Chinese Pa Qua Chang Kungfu, Japanese Aikido, Korean Tae Kwon Do, and American Catch as Catch Can wrestling.
But when in Russia, studying their approach to combat biomechanics with my teacher, General Alexander Retuinskih, that I was able to begin systematizing my coaching approach and the movement palette I was compiling and creating. It began with Zdorovye – the Russian Natural Health System. You can see in Zdorovye the influence of Russian and Cossack martial dance upon their study of human movement in combat.
But as my study expanded to include not only those initial martial art approaches, but movements from Indonesian Silat, French Parkour, Brazilian Gymnastica Natural, Persian Zurkhaneh, and Indian Vyayam, my approach evolved into the Grapplers Toolbox. We are all human. No one cultural has a monopoly on any particular movement. How do these movements all connect and coordinate? The GTB and later my book “Body-Flow Freedom from Fear-Reactivity” evolved as an expression of my coaching development to sew these widely-dispersed threads of power and grace into one tapestry.
If this history isnʼt important to you, just scroll down to get the free video and book and skip it. Itʼs only interesting if you like to know where this all comes from.
—> Download the TACFIT Spartan Challenge (book and videos) <—–
That iteration provided very useful motor learning tools and technologies, but I needed
to refine the structural alignment of the dance like positions. Some of the movements
were being performed for conditioning only. I wanted to focus on the integration of the
movement and breath with precise structural alignment. Thatʼs when I dove deeply into
my Hatha Yoga, the oldest form of biomechanics. The result of that exploration was
Prasara Yoga.
In Prasara Yoga, I had refined an approach to integrating movement, structure and
breath in such a way that any two or more postures could immediately be brought into
flow. And any sport or tactical skill could be dissected, refurbished and rebuilt using a
customized Prasara flow. These coaching tools and training technologies comprise the
central thesis in the Circular Strength Training System.
But in the tactical realm, the people I teach really werenʼt interested in full blown yoga
classes, or a several year commitment to exploring their physical well-being. It was just
too touchy-feely for most people, especially when some people attached the stigma of
hatha yoga being a “Hindu” religious method. It doesnʼt need to be. The movements can
be denuded of any cultural or religious relevance. Remember Body-Flow: weʼre all
human, and no one group has a monopoly on any movement.
So, I had to get people moving in a condensed format that fit within the TACFIT format
in a way that was progressively trainable and incrementally developmental. It had to be
tactically relevant, creating usable, functional shooting, striking, kicking, throwing and
grappling platforms. It had to be described within those contexts, with the appropriate
language (yoga language can be a bit to crunchy-granola for a lot of people.)
Youʼll experience this in the free videos and book that Iʼve made for you that you can
download today. No strings attached. Just give it a go. And your nervous system will
immediately recognize the benefits, even if your mind reels a little bit at first. Just scroll
down a few paragraphs if you canʼt wait any longer.
If you can hold on just a bit longer, Iʼll wrap up how we got to today, and why youʼll
specifically see something unique and innovative in this current 4.0 version of my
coaching evolution.
You see, there are 6 protocols in the TACFIT system: six specific methods of training
movements so that in only 20 minutes youʼve achieved all of the tactical fitness benefits
that youʼll ever need. But not all movements can be performed in all 6 of the protocols.
Some movements take too long to perform, and as a result are unsafe, in very short
bursts. Others happen so quickly that over a protracted time period, youʼd never
survive. And thereʼs a range in between of protocols that work well in some formats, and
those that donʼt in others.
If you study the science of movement, youʼll eventually understand the art of composing
programs. It took me 30 years to figure this all out; not that Iʼm done evolving, but
Tactical Gymnastics certain represents the pinnacle of my coaching development. It
drops seamlessly within the entire TACFIT suite of programming, so that youʼll be able
to perform these 12 programs integrated with the rest of the TACFIT army.
Of course, you can use this with the larger CST System, not just for TACFIT. And itʼs just
as efficiently used as accelerated recovery periods throughout the year, or integrated
with other conditioning protocols such as Crossfit, P90X, SEALfit, or Insanity.
I donʼt want you to believe me. I feel so confident in the men and women from the
various units, agencies and teams who “volunteered” (joking) to undergo this 5 year
process, and tweak, and tinker, and hone and refine this into a finely-tuned coaching
pedagogy.
TACGYM takes the best of all of the worlds and ties it neatly into a turn-key, simple-to follow
progression for developing your movement mastery, from fresh recruit to
seasoned commando.
Just see for yourself. Get the free book and videos Iʼve assembled for you, and youʼll see
for yourself. This is something that many of you have been looking for, but werenʼt able
to put into words for the asking. Why? Because, quite candidly, if youʼve found Tactical
Gymnastics, youʼre probably already on the bleeding edge of the spear. Most people
that end up here have already been through the commercial grinder of functional fitness
and high intensity interval training, as well as the mosaic of movement modalities across
the planet.
TACGYM is my systematic approach to this evolution. I look forward to sharing more
with you in the upcoming few days, my friends. Thanks for reading.
But they weren’t. Our community is really an off-the-chart phenomenon. As your coach and teammate, I couldn’t be prouder.
Here’s how…
You see, I’ve had the incredible honor of teaching this system, Tactical Gymnastics, to top tier special operations teams, as well as federal law enforcement academies. And in that process of expanding our community of training, we’ve learned more and more about the subject matter.