Inverted Edged Tactics DVD by George Matheis - Review by Terry Trahan

George Matheis is a regular feature on several online tactical/knife forums, and has a training company, with which he conducts a wide variety of training programs, generally short duration, seminar based self defense classes. He also has a small selection of DVDs available through his website, either as a refresher for his seminars, if you attend, or for stand alone training at home. His website is www.moderncombativesystems.com

Here is a short bio George wrote, on my request:

"I recently retired after almost two decades of civilian and military law enforcement. The vast majority of my carreer was with a municipal agency in northeast Maryland. I served on patrol and SWAT. As a firearms and officer survival instructor I was instrumental in our agency being the first municipality to issue and train its officers with a tactical folder. I also started our patrol rifle program and using air soft for force on force. I had always been involved in training but after a deadly force incident in 2000 I realized that the reality and training had little to do with each other. My core art being Yoshi Ryu Ju Jitsu I began to incorporate the best of that and other arts into brutal open hand combatives that would either allow me to prevail in conflicts or create space and time to upgrade to the appropriate level of mechanical force. We encountered way more edged weapons on the street than firearms and none of them looked like what people were training with. When people hear edged weapons they think about knife fighting which I find a pretty useless skill set for two reasons. One is that if you wait until you see a knife to defend against it you are too late. The other is that if you do get a chance to use a knife during an altercation it has to be introduced with open hand skills. Stick stuff came to be because I hate OC spray and used my ASP all the time, seldom for stricking but more for joint presses and takedowns. The firearms were just natural since I am a gun guy an have a bunch of FI credentials. In Modern Combative Systems we seldom shoot outside of seven yards."

George sent me his Inverted Edged Tactics DVD at my request for review, and I requested it for one main reason. Of course, I will say whether or not this is a good instructional, but I wanted to see for myself if the claims that this was a rip off of the Reverse Edge tactics that I have been affiliated with, and teaching, for several years. When George first announced the pre-release of this DVD, several people started assuming, as the DVD had not been released yet, that it was another case of copy someone elses work, and take the credit.

After watching it a few times, and being very familiar with all the material involved, I can say without reservation that it is not Reverse Edge methodology. It will work as an adjunct to FGEU bladework, but is significantly different.

The first way this is apparent is by the fact that RG methodology, whether from www.jamesakeating.com, www.shivworks.com, www.donrearic.com, or myself, is primarily thrust oriented. We use the edge as a secondary method, but the emphasis is on the thrust, as we feel this can transfer over to any handheld tool, whether edged or not. George's method is more knife specific, and edge oriented.

He only teaches reactive slashes in this presentation. If you are looking for a comparison for the material he teaches, it is very similar to Michael DeBetthencourt, and the classes he taught through a certain firearms company several years ago.In this DVD, George introduces a knife he has chosen for the "official" IET blade, which is the AL Mar Payara, which appears to be a well constructed folder, and it has an available training drone. Even though he states this is the official knife for his method, he does state that one can use whatever knife one has, which is good, as I generally harp on that kind of crap, as it costs you more money than it should.

Now, onto the meat of the program. Do I think this is any good. Yes, I do. Will I use this method as my own, probably not. The whys are; I have a few methods of knife work that I have trained for too long to drop for this method, and, as mentioned, I am primarily a thrust oriented tool user, even with impact weapons like saps. But, as a crash course in edged weapons survival, and knife use, this DVD has some very usable material, is easily learned, and if given a modicum of practice, easily retained. There is no fluff on the discs, and the production and sound are surprisingly good for a private production.

Things I would note as needing improvement are: a more thorough explanation of some of the concepts taught, such as the iron Triangle, and the Panic Push, as well as demonstrating this method against unequal weapons, and multiple assailants.

Overall, this is a good production, and if you have no previous knowledge of the use of the knife, you can learn to defend yourself using the material presented, which in the end, is what really matters. And if you have some knife combatives background, you can use this to add to your tool box.

Thanks for reading.

Terry