Reality-Based Combat Training
Bear's Bio

To be very honest with you, writing this personal biography is a very difficult thing for me to do. However, I do feel that it is necessary. The reason that it is difficult for me is quite simple… I do not want to appear like a pompous ass to my students… or anyone else for that matter. The reason that I feel it is necessary is also rather simple… I want you to know why you can deem my instruction and methodology extremely effective in reality combat situations as well as for achieving incredible levels of athleticism and physical fitness.

Here is a quick synopsis of my training background

My formal training as a child I trained and earned various belts in:

• Shaolin Kenpo (Trained for 2.5 years)
• Tae Kwon Do (Trained for 6 months)
• Kung Fu (Trained for 9 months)
• Traditional Kung Fu (trained for 6 months)
• Aikido (trained for 6 months)
  
  

My “informal training” as a child.

From 1st to 3rd grade I got “jumped” (1 person versus several others) by a horde of Mexican boys, both older and younger than me twice a day, everyday. I got jumped once on my way to take out the trash, and once again coming back from the dumpster. Taking out the trash was my daily chore…. And man was it a chore. My father was the manager of the apartment complex in which I lived. My grandfather was the owner. ALL of our tenants were Latino. In the eyes of my neighbors I was the spoiled, rich white boy that needed a beat down, and I got one, or two, everyday.
When I was in grade school my father could never figure out where the heck all of his broomstick handles had taken off to. (He was the proprietor of a construction company, so he had a lot of push brooms with handles that could be screwed in and out)
Everyday after school in 5th grade my friend Ken Matsushita, fresh from Japan, would teach me how to stick fight. I learned that and a few other cool things from him, like how to break someone’s nose with a “sun” punch.
My luck growing up was incredibly bad. You could line up 30 kids and tell a bully to pick one, and the bully would pick me four out of five times. I learned to never act scared, realizing that showing weakness only made them stronger. Eventually, I just stopped being scared.

My Training as an Adolescent

• Collegiate Wrestling (3 Seasons)
• Freestyle or Olympic Style Wrestling (3 Seasons)

I also attended multiple wrestling training camps and clinics during my summers as a teenager The wrestling room is where I truly started to understand fighting. More importantly the wrestling room is also where I chose to take the path to become a fighter. I became captain of the frosh soph team (B squad) and wrestled for the Varsity team (A squad) as a sophomore.
During these years I had contact and instruction with some of the very best and well known wrestling coaches and athletes like Dan Gable and a plethora of Olympic and state champions. Because of the wrestling summer camps and additional training at various wrestling facilities, I was able to develope a technically sound wrestling game.

My Informal training as an Adolescent

Bullies are aggressive, but they aren’t too smart. It took awhile for word to get around that they could find an easier target. Examples were made. Also, I was a reporter for 6 years for my High School and Junior College. I covered self defense, rape prevention and racial and cultural tolerance seminars because I felt that they were important issues that needed to be reported on.

My training as an Adult

By far the most I have learned from any one single establishment/methodology is from Todd Medina and Sean Etchagoyan, the owners of the very well known Fight School. It is here that I learned to freestyle fight. This means cross training wrestling, boxing, Jiu Jitsu, Muay Thai kick boxing and anything that works. (Big Brother moves included!) I have trained at Fight School for 5 years, and I will continue to do so, albeit now a bit more sporadically. I also lived in Thailand for 2.5 months where I studied and trained authentic Muay Thai Kick Boxing. In addition to this I have trained grappling in Italy and Kick Boxing very briefly in Spain and Hungary. My training and technique have brought me to No Rules fights in Mexico, Japan, Thailand, Arizona and of course California.

I have had the pleasure of training with a few Western Boxing legends. Jesse Reid taught me how to power punch gave me a better uppercut and helped me with the psychology of boxing. He is a coaching legend in the boxing world. He has trained 16 professional world champions, including Tyson, Galindo, and Mayweather. I have also trained with Cuban Boxing Legend Eduardo Correro, two time gold medalist boxing champion of the world and also a technical and phenomenal coach. He bestowed upon me the rare foot work drilling techniques used by the Cuban national boxing team to destroy their opponents with high mobility and hard punches. Eduardo also gave me a hook that I have only seen one or two fighters throw, a modified long distance hook that really helps to control territory. Eduardo also showed me specific training regimens used to create boxing champions.

Trying to list the myriad of cage fighters, coaches, trainers, Olympic athletes, Collegiate Champions, Professional No Rules fighters, professional boxers and kick boxers that I have trained and sparred with during the past 8 years would be almost impossible. Some of the more notable have been:

• Todd Medina – Professional No Rules fighter. UFC Champ. European No Rules Heavyweight Champion.
• Sean Etchagoyan - A sound and experienced Jiu Jitsu Artist, Western Boxer and Collegiate Wrestler and accomplished coach.
• Matt Orlando – A well known and excellent Boxing, Jeet Kune do, and Kick Boxing Coach, with a good knowledge of no rules fighting.
• John Lober – Otherwise known as the Machine. An accomplished professional fighter who is known as one of the very few men to beat Frank Shamrock in the cage.
• Romi Aram- King of the Cage Champ, UFC contender, freestyle champion
• Javier Vazquez – Kind of the Cage Champ. IFC Champ. Has dominated over 30 jiu jitsu tournaments…. At 135 lbs!
• Earl Loucks – Cage Fighter, Jiu Jitsu Black Belt, has fought the likes of UFC Champ Pat Militich.
• Jeff Newton – National Karate Champ and semi professional cage fighter. King of the Cage Champ. Strike fighting championships champ.
• Aaron Brink – Semi pro Boxer, Professional Cage Fighter.
• Jimmy Ambriz – Professional No Rules Super Heavy Weight Champion, previously ranked 4th in the world.
• Darryl Holiday – My High School wrestling coach, state champion wrestler.
• Juan Ayala – Professional no rules cage fighter and submission wizard.
• Sean Ruiz – Strongest freak alive (besides Medina), accomplished Mixed Martial artist, Professional cage fighter.
• Alex Ramirez – Accomplished mixed Martial Artist and Professional cage fighter.
• Emmet Olvera - Professional Cage Fighter, mixed martial artist and wrestler.

Conditioning of the Mind and Body

A 5th generation Costa Mesan, Bear St. Clair’s family was the tenth family to come to Costa Mesa and have a home and a farm. His Grandfather, Bill St. Clair, was on the city council and was politically active and controversial figure. At one time the St. Clair family owned about a quarter of Costa Mesa, but back then it was lima bean fields and Orange groves. Bear’s Father, Both Uncles, Sisters, Brothers and cousins have all graduated from Kaiser elementary, Ensign Middle School, Newport Harbor High School, Orange Coast College, and some of them continued on at Cal State Long Beach.

As a child Bear was fit and strong minus the asthma, exzema, color blindness and dyslexia. As he was struggling his way through these obstacles, at the age of six, he became one of the unlucky few children in the United States to contract a rare disease called Kawasaki’s disease. Because no one knew exactly what the disease was, it ran rampant, and much like AIDS, it quickly destroyed any and all immunity that he possessed. His blood thickened and his muscles atrophied. Cankcer sores filled the mouth, tongue and throat. Internal lesions formed. Eating was not possible. Soon Bear was to move only his eyes and lightly squeeze his hands, despite the best Hospital attention available at Hoag Hospital. The ailment rolled on and he lost 75% of his body weight.

Hoag Hospital put him in an Oxygen tent, a plastic bubble, to stop the onslaught of infectious diseases and tested his thickening blood twice a day. The doctors regretfully informed the Mother and Father that their young son, Bear, was to die very soon. The doctors did not understand the disease and could not stop it. But, Bear did not die. Then they informed the Parents that Bear would survive but be an empty vessel, a vegetable. But, Bear did not become a vegetable, he remained acute and aware. Then, the doctors regretfully informed the Parents of the child that he was to live and be aware, but never to walk again, that was impossible to be sure. Eventually the father confided this news to his young son. Bear looked into his father’s eyes and said, “No. Don’t worry about it. I’ll walk again” and smiled.

He was still dying, but his approach to death had definitely slowed its blistering pace. Eventually the medical staff gave up on the oxygen tent. Shortly after this, despite the obvious dangers, his Mother and two Sisters snuck in small green and gold garden frogs they had caught on the ground floor of the Hoag Hospital grounds for Bear to investigate and play with. Frogs, as strange as it may be, are deemed by Eastern cultures to be a sign of good fortune.

Soon after this a Japanese Doctor that had experience with this particular obscure ailment was located, contacted and flown from Japan to California in order to save Bear’s life. Bear was back home, learning to walk, play and run again within two weeks.

The hysteria of extreme divorce soon took place. All of the common and horrible incidences that we are all too familiar with took place. Courts, police, restraining orders, psychologists, judges, attorneys, decisions, unrest, and Fighting.

Soon after this the frailty of human life and the extreme consequences of negligence were flung into his face. A phone call. There’s been a car accident. A car ride to the hospital. Bear promises, “Just let her be o.k. I will take care of her and be good. Just let her be O.K.” Something is wrong. Bear, now 11, and his father walk into the hospital and ask which room Susan St. Clair, his mother, is in. The nurse responds, “Don’t You know that she has expired?” EXPIRED. EXPIRED? A credit card expires. Milk expires. Mom cannot expire. How can Mom expire? Bear learns that his Mom was lucky, because his Uncle suffered for a month and one half before he expired.

Accident would lead one to believe that the situation was unavoidable. Sadly, it wasn’t. A young, heavily inebriated man with a 2 previous DUI’s, 1 hit and run, a suspended license and 1 count of reckless driving makes yet another poor decision. He decided he needs more to drink and so hops into his girlfriend’s Jeep, which does not have insurance, and decides that 75mph down Wilson St. near Harbor Blvd is just the right speed. He clipped a couple cars before pinwheeling squarely into the car that held Bears Aunt, 2 cousins, Uncle, Mother, and Sister inside. His sister cannot remember anything at all and yet never seems to function in life properly after this event. She must have seen some horrible things. Still, there is a decision to be made, you let it destroy You or You divert the negative energy into positive channels.

High School consisted of Honors Classes, Wrestling matches, becoming editor of the Newspaper. Bear worked 1 -3 jobs and attended High School, moving out at 17 with his own car and apartment. A better environment was needed.

In My adult training I have attained belts in the following disciplines…

• Jiu Jitsu – (Trained for 5 years)
• Combat Grappling – (Trained for 4 years)

I have also trained and sparred with the best there is, a vast array of talented amateur, semi pro, and professional fighters from every remotely effective fighting form there is… including Sumo. I have also watched and continued to watch literally thousands upon thousands upon thousands of hours of instructional videos and fights. I have studied and scrutinized no rules fighting and have my own submission bible. My quest to improve is unending and I plan to train in one manner or the other until the day I die. I have formally instructed Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) for 3 years. Among the more serious semi pro and professional fighters I am known for being able to understand and break down techniques into a very logical, easy to understand format. More importantly for these advanced fighters, I am quickly becoming well known as someone that brings their mental game into focus. When you get to a certain level, it is all about who is having a better day, not necessarily who is flat out better. I make sure that come show time my athletes are on their “A” game each and every time. Every day my athletes compete, THEY are the ones who are having a better day.