WELCOME TO THE FLORIDA CORRECTIONAL OFFICERS ASSOCIATION, INC. (FLCOA)
Gracie Survival Tactics® (GST)
Gracie Survival Tactics (GST) For LEOs
FLCOA's VP of Defensive Tactics for the North Florida Region Sergeant Diaz and FLCOA's VP of Defensive Tactics for the South Florida Region Detention Deputy Carreras recently attended and graduated from GST. Congratulations to both of them! We look forward to learning from them both on and off the mats.
Gracie Survival Tactics (GST) is a revolutionary defensive tactics system based on Gracie Jiu-Jitsu that incorporates time-tested techniques into an easy-to-learn system designed to help officers humanely prevail against larger and stronger opponents. Active-duty law enforcement professionals, as well as military personnel and first responders, can access the GST system and become Certified Instructors via our Live Instructor Certification Program (Live ICP) or via our video-based Online Instructor Certification Program (Online ICP).
Explore this page to learn more about the origins and objectives of GST program, and then visit the other tabs to learn about the path to GST Instructor Certification.
The 5 Pillars of GST
Through the GST program our goal isn’t merely to teach defensive tactics to an agency but rather to provide the agency with the tools to completely transform its culture form the inside out. This culture shift occurs when the following five pillars are in place at an agency.
In the GST program, everything taught falls into one of these five categories:
- Survival & Escape Strategies: One of the worst-case scenarios for a law enforcement officer is to be taken to the ground by an aggressive subject. The GST course trains participants to use reliable leverage-based techniques to neutralize the initial barrage of strikes and escape from underneath the subject to regain a position of advantage. Additionally, since the techniques do not rely on strength, speed, or athleticism, they can be employed by smaller officers against larger, stronger subjects.
- Weapon Retention Techniques: A number of law enforcement officers who are killed in the line of duty are shot with their own weapon. Furthermore, when a subject disarms a police officer of any of their less lethal weapons, chances of the officer having to escalate to deadly force increase exponentially. The GST course teaches a series of simple yet highly-effective weapon retention principles that will defeat an attacker’s attempt to disarm the officer from any position in the fight, standing or on the ground.
- Tactical De-escalation: For most, de-escalation is limited to the verbal strategies, but in the GST course officers learn the great extent to which de-escalation is also physical. Since the techniques are all based on non-violent control holds, and do not emphasize the use strikes, they are inherently de-escalatory. So even in the middle of what would otherwise be perceived as a violent physical encounter, a GST-trained officer can stay calm and mitigate the need for a higher level of force.
- Arrest & Control Procedures: In a physical altercation with an actively aggressive subject, the interaction isn’t resolved until the threat has been neutralized and the subject is safely in custody. As such, the GST course specializes in the application of easy-to-learn highly effective handcuffing techniques that can be applied from any position in the fight and are effective in both solo and multi-officer arrest scenarios.
- Gracie Teaching Methodologies: The GST course introduces participants to the time-tested Gracie Teaching Methodologies – perfected over nearly a century. Upon learning these skills, Gracie University certifies course participants to return to their organizations to share the invaluable survival skills with their colleagues. At many agencies, including the Los Angeles Police Department, the Gracie Teaching Methodologies are said to have completely changed the culture of the defensive tactics programs at the agency.
