Combined Arms Training can train local families in defense
Woodrow Wilson, right, helped found Combined Arms Training, LLC in February 2022. The company aims to teach and equip civilians with essential skills its core partners have gained through decades of experience. Wilson is pictured teaching Heidi Troyer self-defense moves.
For Woodrow Wilson, protecting family is essential, so he decided to help others in his community defend theirs.
The retired veteran and law enforcement officer is spreading the word of his growing company, Combined Arms Training, LLC, which aims to serve the northeast Ohio region.
Founded in February 2022, the veteran-owned and operated company took off in a grassroots effort to teach and equip civilians with essential skills its core partners have gained through decades of experience.
“The main reason I’m here on Earth is to protect my family, and if I don’t protect me, how am I going to protect my family?” said Wilson, a founding member of the company.
The company teaches basic, intermediate and advanced classes in family defense and weapons, a basic pistol course with concealed carry license, acute trauma care basics and AR rifle basics for family defense.
The courses are geared toward civilians — individuals and families who desire to protect themselves and their loved ones. Background checks will be required.
“Right now, we’re going to start with basic (courses) because most people don’t have basic training in them,” Wilson said.
Wilson and his partners, who, combined, have backgrounds as veterans, law enforcement officers, martial arts instructors and other self-defense training, are pooling their knowledge and expertise for these courses.
Wilson will be offering unarmed self-defense and defense using improvised weapons. Jim McBane, his former Taekwondo student, is assisting in self-defense and pistol courses. Lt. Col. Joseph Shusko, retired marine and director of the Marine Corps Martial Arts Program, is in charge of ethics and morals training. Loren Kirchner, a retired Colonel in the US Army and MD at Wooster Community Hospital, is teaching trauma medicine. Jim Figley, a teacher and wrestling coach at Wooster City Schools, is leading church security and general self-defense. Steve James, a marine and assistant varsity baseball coach at West Holmes High School, is teaching shotgun courses. Howard Funk, retired chief of police in Smithville, is training in concealed carry. Martial artist and retired Ashland County Sheriff Larry Overholt is overseeing firearms training involved in all courses.
And Jan Pritchard of Canton City Schools; Lisa Fogal, a tax accountant for Seaman Corporation in Wooster; and Rachel Figley, a marketing consultant at a corporation in New Jersey, are taking charge of all the necessary business operations.
“There’s a bunch of like-minded people, and we all decided that what we wanted to do was to train regular people to be able to protect themselves and their families,” Wilson said.
Wilson has taught martial arts and self-defense for decades and has taught the Ohio concealed carry course in recent years. He’s led church security training throughout Ohio and a few other states prior to founding the LLC.
In addition to safety, Wilson believes the courses instill discipline and self-confidence that can spill into other areas of one’s life, such as he witnessed when he taught Taekwondo.
Currently, Wilson teaches in his home and local venues in the Killbuck area. Other members do the same, covering pockets of Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia respectively. The core group members hope to organize courses where they find interest, eventually branching out to larger venues in Canton, Akron and Cleveland and outside the state as it picks up momentum.
To learn more visit www.combinedarmstraining.com/.