David Burnell - Training Overview

Training Overview

David Burnell is formally trained in many fighting styles, tactics, weapons, and unconventional tools. He is a National TaeKwonDo champion in forms and full contact. He has taught U.S. Special Operations, Federal agents, SWAT Teams, and Civilians his unique fighting style. His unarmed fighting style and methods are crystallized into a principle-based and simple system. His extensive experience includes being Chief of Security in post-earthquake Haiti and Chief Bodyguard for the Task Force Commander. He is a USAF Veteran and a distinguished graduate of several shooting, tactical, and emergency response programs. He has mastered many firearms and is a qualified Senior Instructor for both unarmed and armed combat. His operational experience extends from Military, RESCUE, and Recovery to Personal Protection in High-Risk Areas.

Photo 2003 - training day at the Urban Warfare Center SAS Style. Force-on-Force Training with an American Military Unit deploying to the Middle East. "Hard training by hard people, to create hard people, to do hard things."

Founder of the Urban Warfare Center

After the 9/11 attacks David founded the Urban Warfare Center and the Combat Stress Program. Thousands of soldiers, federal agents and police were trained to win the fight in through his branded stress inoculation training. According to senior military and law enforcement leadership these programs saved lives and reduced casualty rates.

Learn more...

Urban Warfare Concepts Course

Get an inside look into one of the most elite training programs in the world by David Burnell the founder and senior instructor of the Urban Warfare Center. The Combat Stress Program ran for over 10 years and thousand of military, police and federal agents were trained in the dynamics of urban fighting using stress inoculation and force-on-force techniques.

FREE Urban Warfare Concepts Course

FREE Women's Self-defense Course

This is a LIVE taught course and it is great for young women's groups, adult women's groups or a group of family and friends. You provide the place and the people and David will come and teach. This is his way of giving to his community.

Learn more about Women's Self-defense

FREE Self-defense Concepts Course

This course will give you the critical and proven methods used by special operations, agents and specialists that see threats and avoid problems before they happen.

FREE Self-defense Concepts Course

FREE Self-defense Skills Videos

These lessons will give you the simple and straight forward no non-sense self-defense skills needed to stop an attack and break the will of the attacker so you can escape.

FREE Self-defense Skills Videos

Unconventional Preparedness Seminar

From growing up on violent streets in Los Angeles County to the Urban Warfare Center where he training thousands of soldiers and police, to the streets of Haiti and the jungles of Burma David has been involved in unconventional missions all over the globe. The same principles he has used for success in these austere environments are shared with you and your group in this live seminar. This video is a summary of one of the course he live taught.

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

“The Defensive Handgun Course was top notch. Some of it was a reinforcement of what I already new, but its' always good to go over the basics again. The best part of the class was doing the different scenarios that you might find yourself in real life and how you would react. To include getting the feedback from Jager/David. The longer I look back at the feedback and go over the drills the more I take away from it. In Utah you don't even have to own a gun to get your concealed weapons permit, so starting off with this under your belt would be a great asset. You can always talk the talk, but it's not until you really find yourself in that situation do you know what you're going to do under stress. I am really looking forward to doing another class taught by Jager and Bravo. Another part of their philosophy that I liked was that was always about breaking contact as much as possible. I have looked at other instructors and schools and I can't tell you how little I heard that statement. Using your firearm is always your last resort, even at that point, it's stop the threat and break contact. Again it was great class. Oh and if Jager tells you to stop you really ought to do just that. He asked me to come at him to demonstrate using your voice to help deter people coming at you. I however didn't stop, so he pulled his training knife, rubber, and stabbed me in the belly. Had it not been a training environment I'm pretty sure I would have stopped. Didn't mean to hit me that hard, however he got well enough to leave a good bruise that is still healing. Doesn't help that I have Buddha belly! LOL. Thanks Jager for pain reinforcement. Next time I WILL stop!”

Keith Twohill