Why did they choose Mar? “There were maybe 300 other people that either approached the educational training staff or were approached by them,” says Mar. “Taiwan is one of the free world’s martial arts camps, there are so many different styles that are available. I demonstrated hundreds of times before they finally said, ‘OK, we like it.” “My strengths came in three parts,” continues Mar. “One; for me it was a matter of strict interest, I wasn’t doing it because I needed this opportunity to promote myself, it wasn’t a career choice for me—for the Chinese mind, if you have interest, you don’t have ulterior motives, and no political or intra-agency agenda. Two; I was not, at that time, already part of the military or the police, so they thought I could accepted by all camps in an authority position. This was due to an attitude situation in dealing with the Chinese—they would not necessarily have accepted someone from their ranks to be their instructor in a specialized task force (as there are 400-500 certified law enforcement instructors around the island. And, three; they felt that what I was offering was in many ways a traditional martial art (yet exclusive to Law Enforcement). The system I teach, Antagonist Perpetrated Aggression (APA), is very high-speed Combat Tal Chi – a lost component of this Internal System.” Beyond his abilities, according to Mar, the ROC government wanted something that was unavailable to the common man, so it made perfect sense for them to look outside of the boundaries of what’s in-country.
In Taiwan, all males are required to serve in the military, for at least two and sometimes three years. A large part of their military training is hand-to-hand combat (the armed forces learn Tae Kwon Do, a Korean art—primarily because the government felt that it was the easiest to learn and apply, immediately), posing a problem for civilian police enforcement when these trained fighters assimilate back into society. Explains Mar, “Marines have the best Tae Kwon Do on the island, the M.P.’s have the best grappling and control moves and the Officer’s Training School has the best judo. What happens after the mandatory military service if some of these guys become criminals? What happens if the policeman, who has six months of training (if he’s lucky), meets the guy who’s been training for seven years? He’s going to be much ahead of any kind of police training the officer has. So we try in a very short amount of time to enable tactical police officers to take the percentage away from this guy who has been training. He is going to want to spar with the officer to get the opportunity to knock him out with a roundhouse. The Last thing we want is for our police officers to get into a fighting match, we want an instant take- down, instant results.” So, given the situation in Taiwan, Mar took the system he was already using and developed it into the APA system—a secret system that is only taught to police, SWAT teams and the occasional special group. “If I’ve got something only police officers know, and you come up with your kick, I might be able to take you out in a couple of seconds.
