Hand to Hand offers self-defense training

“In combat there are no rules,” said former Army Special Forces soldier Michael M. Foley. “The ultimate prize is your life.”

Foley, who owns the Post Falls Hand to Hand Combat Training Center, has taught and trained for 22 years – dedicating his life to martial arts – and enjoying every minute of it.

Foley currently is a senior military adviser and consultant who travels internationally to train and evaluate senior military staffs through the use of computer-generated battle simulations.

In martial arts he has an eighth-degree black belt in koden kan martial arts, a seventh-degree black belt with the American Jujitsu Institute, and a black belt sash in tai chi chuan kung fu.

A former Hollywood film and television stuntman, local residents might remember Foley, who starred in a local KXLY 4 television news program called “Defend Yourself With Michael Foley.”

An internationally acclaimed instructor, Foley is fluent in Korean and has “tourist language skills” in Japanese, Serbian, German, Russian, Arabic and Albanian.

At 55, Foley said, “I have lived enough for three lifetimes, and I am still not finished.”

Foley’s interest in martial arts began in high school.

“I was a music geek and a bully knocked my new trumpet case out of my hand,” Foley said. “I was so angry that I decked him.”

A retired Air Force colonel witnessed the event, and told Foley that he needed to learn to control his rage, and so Foley began his study of the martial arts in the form of jujitsu. He continued training in various forms of martial arts for the next six years, but always wanted more. One of his instructor’s masters lived in Hawaii, and Foley decided that was where he wanted to go next.

Foley decided to enlist in the Army, which offered him opportunities to study different forms of martial arts. Foley studied in Hawaii and a number of foreign countries as the Army connected him with many prominent instructors.

“The Army gave me many opportunities to learn from great masters,” Foley said.

Since leaving active duty and joining the Army Reserves, Foley has had opportunities to teach martial arts all over the world – Japan, Korea, Kosovo, Bosnia, Macedonia, Germany, the Caribbean Islands, three years in Iraq, and all over the United States.

Most of what Foley does on training trips is classified, but he recently returned from Rwanda where he taught hand-to-hand combat to members of the Rwandan army.

Hand-to-hand combat is a term referring to close quarters fighting. Foley’s own system of mixed martial arts is called koden kan martial arts. The original systems that make up koden kan go back thousands of years, but contemporary koden kan martial arts combines techniques from karate, tae kwon do, judo, jujitsu, aikido, kick boxing, kajukenbo and kenpo.

Foley also teaches tai chi chuan kung fu whose literal Chinese translation means “supreme ultimate fist.” This Chinese martial art that has a multitude of training forms, both traditional and modern, and it is known to Westerners as simply, tai chi.

Foley and Heath Wiltse will give a free tai chi demonstration, in celebration of International Tai Chi Day and as part of a Wellness Fair Saturday from 9 to 9:30 a.m. at Post Falls Peak Health and Wellness Center, 927 E. Polston.

Although there are different types of tai chi, some medical studies support tai chi’s effectiveness as an alternative exercise and a form of martial arts therapy. The continual movements for a period of time reduce pain, open internal circulation, increase flexibility, help to control stress, improve balance and overall physical and mental health.

Foley believes the study of martial arts in general is all about desire, dedication, discipline and good self-control.

“Good self-control definitely enables the martial arts practitioner to influence others – hopefully, in a positive way,” Foley said.