Get Certified To Teach The SPEAR System®
The ability to protect yourself or a loved one is the single most important skill you can have. And teaching that skill might be the most important thing you ever do.
Next Courses
October 3–4, 2026
9AM–5PM AEST (Australia)
November 14–15, 2026
9AM–5PM Pacific (USA)
February 20–21, 2027
9AM–5PM PST (Pacific)
March 20–21, 2027
9AM–5PM AEST (Australia)
August 14–15, 2027
9AM–5PM AEST (Australia)
November 13–14, 2027
9AM–5PM PST (Pacific)
How It Works
Apply
Fill out the short application (five minutes).
Get your approval code by email
We review every application and send your code and registration link by email.
Register and start the On-Ramp
2–4 weeks, self-paced
Mandatory pre-work. You go deep on the neuroscience of fear, the startle-flinch mechanism, and the physiology of violence. This is where the intellectual heavy lifting happens.
Two days live online with Coach Blauer
2 days, intensive
This is not a seminar. It's a lab. You bring your pre-course knowledge to the floor to be tested and refined. You are graded on your ability to coach, perform, and articulate the system.
Evaluation and your credential
Attendance Does Not Guarantee Certification.
This is not a pay-to-play seminar. You must complete the pre-course study. You must demonstrate the standard. We fail people who don't meet the requirements — because if you care about safety, we care about standards. That's what makes the credential worth carrying.
Think of Level 1 as an integrity check on the foundation. Before we add complexity, advanced scenarios, force-on-force training, weapons, and multiple assailants, we want to know that you understand the operating system underneath it all.
Do you understand the neuroscience? The psychology? The methodology? Can you teach the fundamentals? Can you communicate clearly? Can you coach another human being? Can you receive coaching? Are you coachable? Do you understand not only what we do, but why we do it?
We want to know how you think before we add more tools to your arsenal.
It's Live, Not Digital
Not pre-recorded video. Real-time coaching with breakout rooms. You train, teach, and observe — learning the pedagogy of presenting.
Economic Intelligence
Travel costs have surged. Training online saves you flights, hotels, and lost days. There's no smarter way to enter the system. We removed the unnecessary friction. Not the standard.
Tactical Athlete Prep
The on-ramp develops you as a tactical athlete and presenter, so you've mastered the movement before any advanced in-person room.
Two Kinds Of People Certify With Us
You Have The Skills. Do You Have The Science?
SPEAR is not a replacement for your style — it's the missing link. We teach you how the body moves before your training arrives.
For Instructors and School Owners →Capability Over Pedigree.
You don't need a black belt. You don't need a dojo. We have certified pilots, teachers, nurses, and parents who simply had the will to protect their community. If you'll do the work, study the neuroscience, and pass the evaluation, we'll give you the skills.
Why The First Moment Behaves Differently.
When danger is sudden and unexpected, rapid threat-detection and survival mechanisms can initiate protective responses before slower deliberate cognition and consciously selected movement fully engage.
Acute stress can also affect attention, perception, working memory, decision-making, and motor performance. Level 1 teaches you to work with that reality instead of pretending it isn't there.
We'll teach you how to convert the flinch and turn fear into fuel.
The SPEAR System® connects a DNA-level reflex to a trained response. We take the flinch and turn it into what we call a biological airbag.
You Don't Learn Moves. You Learn The Method.
The Curriculum
- The neuroscience of fear, threat detection, and the startle-flinch response
- Converting the startle response into a protective countermeasure
- The SPEAR System® tactical template — closing the gap between surprise and skill
- Non-violent postures and the Detect–Defuse–Defend framework
- Fear management and self-regulation coaching (the KNOW FEAR® framework)
- Verbal defusing, pre-contact cues, and the psychology of avoidance
- Scenario design and safe, progressive stress inoculation
- Coaching methodology — how to teach this to people of any age or experience
What's Included
- Pre-course online on-ramp (self-paced, 2–4 weeks)
- Two days of live-online instruction with Coach Blauer
- Course manual, downloadable training tools, and coaching progressions
- One month of Tactical Garage Gym combatives classes with Coach Blauer
- Level 1 credential and permission to teach the foundational material
- Access to the certified trainer network and private community
The Integration Call — Full Replay
We hosted a SPEAR System® integration call with Andy Privett. Great turnout — and the full replay is yours. It runs just over an hour and breaks down exactly how Level 1 Certification helps you:
- Seamlessly integrate SPEAR into any martial art, combatives, or self-defense program
- Differentiate your school with a science-backed, fear-management-based approach
- Grow your student base and create a safer, smarter training environment
Trusted By The People Who Move Toward Danger
"I have studied the efficacy of use of force tactics and techniques for well over a decade and have concluded that the SPEAR System® is the most comprehensive combatives program currently available."
"We have learned more about the psychology and physiology of combat in the last 50 years than in the previous 5,000 years put together... Tony Blauer will be remembered as one of the great pioneers who propelled us forward."
"One man taught me more about the lead up to the fight and most importantly the first few seconds of the fight than all the others combined. That instructor is Tony Blauer."
"I can say without exaggeration that I found as much information, confidence, and truth in a weekend with Tony Blauer as I had in a veritable lifetime of studying classical karate technique."
"It'll be some of the best time and money you ever spent. Beyond the physical drills, beyond the self-defense training, the psychological principles are so powerful that I find I use many of them every single day."
"Learning the SPEAR System® and weaving it into all areas of my life has made me a far more effective instructor and a better human being."
"As a Krav Maga instructor, I have found no other system that prepares one for the fear aspect of violence like the SPEAR System®."
Certified Trainers On Level 1
Four trainers who went through the course. Unscripted.
Brandon Smithers
Certified SPEAR System® Trainer
Andy Privett
Certified SPEAR System® Trainer
Mark Gridley
Certified SPEAR System® Trainer
Chuck Zelek
Certified SPEAR System® Trainer
WATCH A CLASS
A behind-the-scenes look at the drills and coaching progressions you'll be certified to teach. Clear, repeatable, and built for real stress.
Investment
Level 1 Certification — $1,000 USD
Includes the self-paced online on-ramp with the pre-course prep manual, eight curated Tactical Garage Gym lessons and twenty partner-drill videos narrated by Coach Blauer; two days of live-online instruction with Coach Blauer; one month of live Tactical Garage Gym classes; lifetime access to the digital course materials; your evaluation; and the Level 1 credential. Recertification every 24 months is $750.
Affiliation — Optional, $100/month or $1,000/year
Certification gives you permission to teach. Affiliation gives you support to grow. Add it when you're ready. Cancel anytime.
Payment plans available through Affirm — email ask@blauertactical.com before you register.
Buy two HIGH GEAR® suits and your Level 1 certification is included. Email highgear@blauertactical.com with your proof of purchase.
See HIGH GEAR® →The Four-Level Path
SPEAR System® Certification
Online + Live
Where it starts. The psychology, the neuroscience, and the core physical tools — flinch conversion, non-violent postures, and the Detect–Defuse–Defend framework.
Evidence-Based Scenario Trainer®
In-Person
Fundamental drills with a partner, in HIGH GEAR®. How to build scenarios and teach countermeasures safely and intelligently.
High Risk Scenario Strategies
In-Person
Guns, knives, clubs, multiple assailants, taken to the ground. The standard fears people carry about violence, addressed directly.
The SME Course
In-Person + Online + Coaching
Substance Matters Expert. The ASAP Model, Cycle of Behavior, Fear Loop, and Timeline of Violence from original graphics and raw theory.
Levels 2 through 4 are optional. Affiliates carry their level designation (L1–L4).
Can't Get To A Live Course? You Can Requalify Online.
Shift work, budgets, staffing, travel bans — we know why officers and first responders miss their window. Certified law enforcement, corrections, military, fire, and EMS personnel can maintain and requalify their SPEAR System® credential through the L1 online course. Same standard, same evaluation, no travel.
41%
Reduction in head trauma
29%
Reduction in use-of-force complaints
6 hours
Training per year
Dorset Police, UK — independent five-year study. Officers instinctively protected their heads using SPEAR non-violent postures on six hours of training a year.
Already certified and past due? Apply below and note your agency and last certification date — we'll route you to the requalification track.
Continuing Education: Certification is the starting line. Recertify every 24 months so the Blauer Standard stays the highest in the industry — online, no travel.
Ambassador Or Affiliate
Ambassador
Certified. Teaching inside your own world.
- Full SPEAR System® Level 1 credential
- State that you are SPEAR System® Certified
- Teach the foundational material inside your own world — your school, agency, company, private and semi-private lessons
- Access to the certified trainer network
Ambassadors do not teach public seminars and do not run Be Your Own Bodyguard® programs.
Affiliate
For professionals and self-defense entrepreneurs — people going pro, mentored directly by Coach Blauer.
What affiliates get
- Monthly live train-the-trainer calls with Coach Blauer and the team
- Be Your Own Bodyguard® license — run seminars in your community and keep 80% of the revenue
- SPEAR System® brand license for your marketing, website, and presentations
- Listing in the official SPEAR Trainer Directory
- Discounts on HIGH GEAR® and commissions on gear and program referrals
- 40 bonus training videos, the private trainer forum, and referrals from Blauer Tactical HQ for training requests in your area
Affiliates carry their own liability insurance and complete a practice-teaching requirement before running public programs.
Before You Apply
No Backers. No Blueprint. Just A Burning Desire.
"I started teaching self-defense in 1977. By 1980 I'd gone pro and knew this would be my life's work. It's all I ever think about. Since then I've taught everyone from soccer moms to Tier One military teams, law enforcement agencies, and martial artists in more than 30 countries.
I didn't invent fear. I just refused to ignore it. Everything we teach was reverse-engineered from studying real behavior under real stress — then rebuilt into drills that anyone can learn, regardless of age, gender, or experience.
But I can't do this alone. That's why I created this certification. In 2001 I began training other instructors in my system, with one goal: build a community of smart, capable coaches who lead from the front.
The feeling I get when I teach — knowing I'm really helping someone move through fear — can't be put into words. And I still get fired up to teach. If you want to carry this work into your own community, this is where it starts."
Coach Tony Blauer — Founder, SPEAR System® & KNOW FEAR®
Read Our Private Newsletter
Every quarter our certified affiliates get a briefing that never goes public: new drills and coaching breakdowns, business strategy that's working in real schools, case studies from the field, research worth stealing, and the internal conversations that keep this network sharp.
We're opening the door so you can see the caliber of people you'd be standing next to. Read a few issues. Notice the tone — no ego, no gatekeeping, just professionals sharpening each other. That's the community. Certification is how you get the key.
Inside Each Issue
- Coaching breakdowns you can teach the same week
- Affiliate case studies — what worked, what didn't
- Business and marketing plays for self-defense entrepreneurs
- Research, gear notes, and new curriculum drops
- Direct answers from Coach Blauer and the team
Not Ready To Apply? Come Talk To Us First.
The Human Weapon Collective is our free community on Circle — an open room for people interested in personal safety, self-defense, and Coach Blauer's research. Ask questions, meet certified trainers, see how we think before you commit.
Your Students Are Counting On The Part You Haven't Trained Yet.
No travel required. No affiliation fee unless you want it. Six dates on the calendar through 2027. This system will change the way you think about self-defense forever.
October 3–4 (AEST) · November 14–15 (Pacific) · Live Online · $1,000