R.E.A.C.T. DEFENSE SYSTEMS® INSTRUCTORS
R.E.A.C.T. Defense Systems® takes great pride when selecting their instructor candidates, all of whom are hand selected and certified by Chief Instructor, Jay Ackerman. There are no “weekend warrior” certification and graduates must undergo countless hours, months, and years perfecting their teaching methods with on-going education and training post certification. This guarantees the highest quality of training, the ability to build an aggressive fighting mentality, and never sacrificing student safety. That is why they are the best at what they do.
FOUNDER & CHIEF INSTRUCTOR, JAY ACKERMAN
Chief Instructor Jay Ackerman is a 6th Degree Black Belt and the founder of both R.E.A.C.T. Defense Systems® and Tactical Black®, a comprehensive street self defense system. These two systems place an emphasis on hand-to-hand combat, weapon defenses, weapon retention, firearms safety, and environmental scenario based training, making them one of the most advanced self-defense systems in the world today. Jay was one of the first to become a fully certified Krav Maga instructor in 2000 and 2 years later was the first to go through the FORCE training program (civilian law enforcement) as well as the Advanced FORCE training program. He is recognized as the highest level of FORCE training instructor.
Jay has been a martial arts and fitness entrepreneur for the past 40 years. He holds black belts in several martial arts, in which he started his training in 1977. Jay brought the original Krav Maga system to the valley in 2000 and he keeps quite busy with more than over 130 classes a week between locations.
As an experienced ACE certified Group Fitness and Personal Trainer for the last 20+ years, Jay developed our A.L.E.E.T. 24® (Advanced Level Explosive Endurance Training) program. He is also a nutrition specialist and responsible for the development of the A.L.E.E.T. 24® 90 Day Challenge. This trademarked system of sports specific-training is used to train professional athletes, law enforcement, military, and the average person who wants to lose weight and get into incredible shape.
Jay has spent many years training and teaching full-contact fighting, along with having the only school to teach the Bas Rutten fight program for 7 years. Jay also received the Humanitarian Award in ‘07, ‘08, ‘09, ‘10, ‘11, ‘12, ‘14, ‘15, and 2016 for his efforts in training law enforcement and raising money for Stop Cancer, an organization for breast cancer research.
In October 2016 Jay developed the “House of Bruise” our 2 story state of the art training facility inside our Phoenix Regional training center. This 1500 sq ft training space allows us to recreate realistic scenarios for our first responders and our civilian students.
In July 2018 Jay will have been teaching for 20 years in the valley and has logged over 50,000 hours of teaching. Jay’s hand to hand, weapons defenses, and street fighting expertise is sought out from around the world from law enforcement, military, corporations and civilians. Throughout his career Jay he has taught thousands of students street self defense with the goal that one day all can “Walk in Peace”.