About

Mike Malpass has been a police officer in Arizona since 1996. He was assigned to his department’s S.W.A.T. team as a tactical operator, in 2005. Prior to that, he was a police officer for the Dublin, Ohio Police Department since 1992. Currently, he is assigned to the police training academy as a lead defensive tactics instructor and is involved with a new neuroscience study on training the brain for better decisions under stress. In 2019, he published his first book, Taming the Serpent: How Neuroscience Can Revolutionize Modern Law Enforcement Training.

Mike is a five-time national kick-boxing champion. He is a second degree black belt in Burmese Bando under Dr. Maung Gyi and a first degree black belt in Shotokan and Isshinryu Karate. As well as the Naban grappling found in the Burmese Bando system, Mike has also studied and practiced Catch-as-Catch-Can Wrestling, Sambo and Brazillian Jujitsu. He has recently achieved the status of Full Instructor of Combat Systema under Kevin Secours of Montreal, Canada.

Mike holds the following certifications from the State of Arizona through AZ POST:

  · Lead Defensive Tactics Instructor
        · Impact Weapons Instructor
        · Firearms Instructor
        · Taser Instructor
        · Force on Force Instructor
        · Level 1 Grenadier Instructor
        · Distraction Devices Instructor

Prior to being assigned to the S.W.A.T Unit, Mike was assigned to the department's Tactical Training Detail for four years. There, Mike taught courses in: Building Search, Active Shooter Response, Tactical Handgun, and Patrol Vehicle Tactics.

Mike also authored many lesson plans that are approved through AZ POST to be taught to his agency and to law enforcement personnel from numerous agencies in Arizona, as well as, military personnel prior to deployment overseas. These courses include: Ground Survival, Advanced Defensive Tactics Concepts, Dignitary Protection Defensive Tactics, Rifle Retention, Edged Weapons Defense, Team Arrest Tactics and Women's Self-Defense classes.

In 1989, Mike earned his bachelor's degree in Exercise Physiology from Ohio University in Athens, Ohio.

Building on his education, police training and over 30 years of fighting experience in boxing, kick-boxing, and mixed martial arts fighting, Mike has found a way to adapt the skills learned for sport into a reality based system designed for real-world force encounters.