The most dangerous one is the one in the middle.
Warrant Officer Clint Oosthuizen of the South African Police Service is my Brother From Another Mother. He’s a master instructor of karate, military combatives, knife combat, handgunnery, combat tactics urban and rural, and an ordained minister. Clint has been in and won some hundreds of armed encounters, something not common in the United States, or most places in the world. When I went to Johannesburg in the mid 90’s, Jo’burg was the most violent city in the world. Over 250 police officers a month were killed in gunfights. The wards in which they were treated were armored and protected by other officers, as the criminals would often follow the ambulances to the hospital to complete the execution of the police.
I lived and worked with Clint during that time.
Clint was my student then. He went on to implement the training he received for the entire South African Police Service. He proved and expanded his personal evolution of my training during multiple tours as a contractor in Iraq and elsewhere, and upon his return to the violent streets of South Africa.
Clint, on contract, holding Uday Hussein’s personal pistol, near where Uday was killed.
During the 2007 CQB International Conference in Liverpool, UK, Clint gave a presentation and discussed how his evolution of the mental resilience training saved his life during a violent home invasion when he was shot in his bed at close range with an AK-47
“I came awake right before they entered the room. When they shot me I was reaching for my pistol to fight back…”
Clint survived his encounter, and so did his family. The home invaders, after their initial escape, were not so fortunate.
Left to right Conrad (RIP), Rich (RIP), Marcus, Clint, Den.
Clint remains a full time police officer. He also runs a full time international training consultancy, specializing in hard skills presented using accelerated learning concurrent with stress inoculation. High end tactical training presented by an instructor skilled in the latest methods to train the brain concurrent with hard skills is taken very seriously in South Africa, Africa, and the Middle East.
Clint’s classes are booked far in advance. He’s popular with his students, most who’ve survived personal violence before they attend his class, for his humor, humility, extraordinary experience base, and accelerated training methods.
Clint teaches traditional martial arts, as well as classic bush tracking. Seen in the top photo with one of my teachers, David Scott-Donelan.
I mentioned in a previous post HERE how an instructor needs to keep his ego out of the classroom, and put all his skill and energy to the SERVICE of his student’s betterment. There’s no greater kudo than to be surpassed by a student, and to watch a former apprentice evolve into a master. I’m especially gratified by how Clint has integrated a spiritual maturity in lock step with his skills as an instructor and operator. He passes on the lessons he’s learned in a lifetime of professional violence as a minister and youth counselor. He continues to operate at the highest level daily and passes on those lessons to other violence-professionals — as well as to those we who are violent are charged to protect.
I’m honored to have had a small part in his evolution.
Well done, brother.