F.I.S.T. - Fight Survival Training - is a collection of techniques loosely based on those taught in the military, specifically the French Foreign Legion. It was created after the tragedy of 9/11 made it obvious that civilians, like their military counterparts, need an effective way of defending themselves without devoting years to studying the traditional martial arts.

Nick Hughes, F.I.S.T.’s creator, was approached by a multitude of people immediately following 9/11 requesting training in self defense. They had realized that, despite the best intentions of law enforcement agencies, there will always be a time when you are going to have to defend yourself. These same people though wanted answers now. They didn’t have three to five years to devote to traditional martial art study nor did they want to wear uniforms, learn foreign terminology or study acrobatic techniques designed only to catch a judges eye or look good in the movies.

Despite holding black belts in seven different styles and instructors certification in other systems Nick went back to his antecedents in the French Foreign Legion. A former Legion Unarmed Combat Instructor Nick knew that Legionnaires, like their counterparts in other armies around the world, need to know how to defend themselves with their bare hands in the event of a malfunction, running out of ammo, being taken prisoner, and covert ops (silencing sentries or capturing prisoners for interrogation) when silence is crucial. They also don’t have years to devote to learning complex traditional styles. Instead, almost all special forces units around the world, take techniques from all the traditional systems, provided they are simple and efficient, and combine them into their unarmed combat training. Obviously there are techniques that are unique to the military such as disarming an enemy attacking you with a bayonet on the end of a rifle that do not apply to civilians. These have been eliminated from F.I.S.T. and replaced with more practical techniques for this day and age.

Nick went one step further with F.I.S.T. He realized a lot of the techniques were geared to young, very fit special forces operatives and required fair amounts of strength to perform. Those techniques have been eliminated from F.I.S.T. and replaced with techniques that will work for both men and women, despite a huge disparity between attacker(s) and defender.

All the techniques in F.I.S.T. have been tested in the heat of battle on either the battlefield or in the streets.