History of ALIVE! Combatives

History of ALIVE! Combatives
& Its Roll at Fort Worth Combatives

ALIVE!™ Combatives is a reality-based self-defense system developed from decades of military combatives, weapon-based fighting, and practical self-protection research. Unlike traditional martial arts that rely on memorized sequences or rigid forms, ALIVE!™ emphasizes context, timing, movement, and decision-making under pressure. Its training methodology is built on progressively introducing unpredictability, resistance, and situational elements early in the learning process — allowing students to build confidence and capability that actually transfers to real-world scenarios.

The system was shaped by instructors with deep experience in military combatives, force dynamics, and interactive partner resistance. At its core, ALIVE!™ seeks to get students out of the “exercise stage” mentality and into alive training interactions where timing, distance, and threat response are learned by doing rather than memorizing.

Fort Worth Combatives integrated ALIVE!™ into its curriculum in the mid-2010s, providing students with a powerful complement to our grappling, striking, and trauma response pathways. The system’s focus on real timing and adaptive application fit naturally with our evolving philosophy: train with pressure, learn through structured repetition, and develop skills that work outside the classroom.

In 2017, Robert Klenka earned Group Leader status under ALIVE!™ head instructor Steve Miles, formalizing Fort Worth Combatives as a recognized ALIVE!™ training site and provider.

ALIVE!™ is a fighting system that prioritizes the use of weapons for personal self defense. Using a contextual training methodology that builds skill fast, ALIVE!™ asserts that to learn to fight effectively one must fight an “alive” opponent. ALIVE!™ was founded and trademarked in 2012 by Steve Miles as ALIVE! Gunfighting®, and in 2014 was broadened to incorporate knife, stick, improvised weapons, and empty hands skills into a single unified system.

ALIVE! was developed by Steve Miles through the use of the Central Texas Combatives Training Group. Steve used the CTCTG as a form for laboratory to test tactics, techniques, gear, and other parts of personal defense. During these he noticed three things, that his lifetime of martial arts, combatives, and some military training was proven to be of little use in dealing with a living opponent who is determined to win. Two, it showed him the "path ahead", meaning the areas he needs to focus he training in order to win in the context of his expected personal defense threats. And three, he realized he wanted a single comprehensive system to train in. One that addressed the usage of knives, guns, and empty hands into a single set of tactics. This lead into the birth of ALIVE! Combatives.

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