Team Spotlight: Meet Alain Burrese

May 29, 2020

Our black belt instructor tells the fourth story.

Meet Alain Burrese.

I’ve been fascinated with Asia and martial arts since I read Fred Neff and Bruce Tegner books in the 1970s and practiced moves in my living room. I’ve been at it ever since, including living and training in South Korea while studying Hapkido, in which I hold a 5^th degree black belt.  My first book on self-defense was published by Paladin Press in 1996, and since then I’ve put out 11 instructional DVDS and eight more books. I’ve always loved teaching, both Hapkido as well as safety and self-defense programs for people who didn’t want to learn a traditional martial art.

Although I returned from Korea to attend law school and practiced law for a few years, I felt the most fulfilled writing, speaking, and teaching on the topics of martial arts, safety, and self-defense.

Then in 2012, the shooting at the Aurora, Colorado, movie theater occurred. My students and friends started asking what to do in these situations, so I added Active Shooter Response to my teaching.  As shootings around the country continued, I ultimately wrote the book Survive a Shooting: Strategies to Survive Active Shooters and Terrorist Attacks. Through it all, my philosophy has always been to help people stay safe, not to be paranoid. I want to help people enjoy life, safely.

When I met Joe Anderson in 2018, and learned about Reflex Protect, my immediate thought was: “This is the missing piece!”  

I’d been teaching people how to defend themselves with improvised weapons simply because my school and hospital clients didn’t allow firearms, and pepper spray couldn’t be used inside without affecting innocent bystanders and having the entire building evacuated and shut down.  But Reflex Protect brilliantly solves these issues.  It is a unique non-lethal self-defense product – the best I’ve seen during decades in this field. 

Reflex Protect’s mission and philosophy align with what I’ve been teaching for years, and I’m proud to be the Director of Active Defense Training for the company.  It’s truly rewarding to work with such a committed and dedicated team helping empower people with the knowledge and tools to keep themselves and those they care about safe.

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