RMAX Faculty Directors
TACFIT® was created by RMAX International co-founder Scott Sonnon, former USA National Police Team Coach for Sambo submission fighting - part of the Police and Fire Fighter Olympics. As US Coach, Sonnon trained extensively for six years with the former USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs (MVD) and Special Operations Unit (Spetsnaz) Physical Conditioning and Performance Enhancement Specialists at the RETAL (Physical Skill Consultant Scientific & Practical Training) Center and was the first American to be licensed by the Russian government. Sonnon is one of a handful of individuals outside of the former USSR to earn the coveted “Honourable Master of Sport” – the highest athletic distinction recognized in the former Soviet Union.
Due to the physical and learning disabilities he overcame in his youth, Sonnon capitalizes upon advances in biomechanics, stress physiology, athletic biochemistry and sports/combat psychology to become an international champion martial artist in both Russian Sambo and Chinese Sanshou kickboxing.
He discovered that it wasn't merely being bigger, faster or stronger than your opponents, but being better which counted most. Studying motor development technologies, he evolved his Delta-Alpha motor sophistication approach which allows rapid advancement of skill and fitness for all populations.
Rather than just catering to the genetic 2% who can train in anything and get results, he knows how to take a zero to hero and crafted the TACFIT® 26 Program array to exploit the natural tendencies of the body to adapt to waves of stress - physically, mentally and emotionally.
However much science underpins it, Sonnon’s approach itself is austere, primitive, primal and portable: Clubbells, kettlebells, monkey and parallel bars, medicine balls, jump boxes and ropes, gymnastic rings, and sandbags. This array of equipment is as old as physical culture itself because each successfully allows the greatest potential for functional, varied and improvised use of the entire body matrix.
Scott's peak performance enhancement methods are on the scientific cutting-edge proving themselves again and again where it counts: in the real world on and off the field of athletics.
Scott Sonnon
Creator of the Circular Strength Training System®
Inventor of the Clubbell®
RMAX Faculty Director
TACFIT® Team Leader
"I have been a full-time law enforcement officer for over 12 years. I spent over 3 years as the head physical fitness trainer for one of the largest law enforcement training academies in Tennessee. I am currently working as a federal marshal working on a Special Federal Task Force.
TACFIT® completely changed the way I train, and completely changed the way I train LEO recruits. I was lucky enough to be one of the first TACFIT® trainers in the USA.
TACFIT® completely addresses all of the physical needs of a Law Enforcement Officer in a fast efficient workout. The specificity of the workout translates EXACTLY to the energy system and physical needs of a LEO.
Shortly after being certified using TACFIT® principles I trained a LEO recruit class of 35 people with ages ranging from 21-55, and fitness levels that vary even more. In 22 weeks of training, using TACFIT® a minimum of 3 times a week, all 35 members of the 20 class passed their final PT exams, improved their numbers by an average of 25%. They also lost weight and increased muscle tone. The most amazing part was that we had zero (0) injuries in 22 weeks. This was a first in our training program.
In the last 3 years I have trained over 500 LEO and Jail recruits using TACFIT®. I have trained and certified members of Police forces, Sheriff’s offices, the United States Marshals, the United States Secret Service, the United States Army, and the United States Marines.
Everyone that I have trained has raved about the results and the results of their recruits. Thank you Coach Sonnon for developing TACFIT®."
Detective Joseph F. Wilson
Shelby County Sheriff's Office
Federal Task Force Officer
RMAX Faculty Director
TACFIT® Team Leader
"In my experience working with MMA fighters, martial artists and other combat athletes there is simply NOTHING out there that can compete with TACFIT®. The challenge for a coach when it comes down to conditioning their athletes is always maintaining the proper balance of skill training and conditioning. Too often, conditioning modalities negatively impact the fighter's performance due to the fact that they don't address the specific demands of the sport. The idea that conditioning is a simple matter of making the athlete stronger or giving them "more wind" is pedestrian at best.
The average conditioning program out there for fighters is, quite simply, inadequate for the demands of the game. They address only General Physical Preparation or "work capacity" and even in regard to that they come up short. Every sport taps a specific energy system. To excel, conditioning-wise, requires that the focus be not only on "doing more work" - but in doing more work, more efficiently within the energy systems tapped in that sport. The 26 programs of TACFIT® excel in this regard, training completely, the "Burst-Recover-Burst" pattern of energy output as well as increasing the athlete's recovery rate.
In addition, the CST concept of "compensation" is built in to the program. With every bit of training that an athlete does, there are both positive and negative effects. The TACFIT® program(s) design addresses this extremely important, but mostly ignored aspect of training. When training a combat athlete (or any other athlete for that matter), the primary emphasis needs to be on the skills NOT the attributes. The attributes must be addressed but not at the expense of the technical training.
Too often, today's combat athletes are "robbing Peter to pay Paul" as the saying goes. They are put through inadequate, though exhausting, programs and then taking all of the injuries, delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS), and fatigue from their conditioning session right into their technical training. While their ability to perform a random set of tasks within an irrelevant energy system improves - their technical performance suffers. By providing an applicable energy system focus, proper compensation for the work done and easy to follow format, TACFIT® excels beyond what is generally available and takes the fighters to new levels of preparedness all while not compromising their ability to focus fully and apply themselves to the best of their ability in their skills training.
The TACFIT® program is also incredibly simple to administer. It's easy to present in a group format and is unique in that it can simultaneously delivered to fighters of any level. The various levels of exercise complexity will allow the newbie to jump right in while pushing the elite athlete to new levels of conditioning. When training a number of athletes, time is of the essence and TACFIT® will allow you to train your fighters in an extremely sophisticated manner, get the results you want and get them back to their technical training.
It's not uncommon to have an athlete get their technical training from one source and their conditioning from another. This always causes a problem in that there is almost never good communication between the two. Quite often in technical training the workload pushes into the conditioning realm - as it should be. Unfortunately, poorly designed conditioning programs can push into the technical realm - as it shouldn't be. The TACFIT® programs do an outstanding job at stimulating the muscles rather than simulating the skills and risking "undoing" what the technical coach is trying to do and/or instilling bad habits with the fighter.
Because of the ease of administration and the clarity of the programs, the technical coach can take the conditioning of their fighters into their own hands and provide elite level conditioning on the spot.
TACFIT® produces results that are second to none. I can't recommend it enough."
Brandon Jones
RMAX Faculty Director
Professional MMA and Boxing Coach to World Champions
TACFIT® Team Leader
"My work as a writer has taken me to some of the world's most unforgiving places. I've walked across vast grizzly-infested stretches of Canada's remote Northwest Territories. I've led jeep expeditions through central Mongolia and its south Gobi regions. I've ventured by camel into the sandy wastes of the Taklamakan Desert, a place whose name means "those who go in don't come out." And I've learned that when things go wrong out there, help is at best several days or weeks away.
TACFIT® earned my trust because I've bet my life on it more than once. Every exercise in the TACFIT® circuits carries over directly to the sort of strength, endurance, explosiveness and sophisticated movement ability I need in the field. Linear training with barbells and dumbbells never cut it. Neither did so-called "functional training." Only TACFIT® adequately approximates real-world skill. I also love the unique waving energy system approach to TACFIT® programming. My body has adapted incredibly quickly to increasing loads of work, and it got faster at doing so. Training my body to recover more quickly between bursts translates to not getting winded in the field-a major benefit when I have to respond with fine motor skills in the midst of intense effort.
TACFIT® is also the only program that specifically builds mental toughness training into the progression. I need to know I've built the sheer stubbornness and wherewithal to keep going even when I'm too exhausted to see straight-and I need to be confident of that before I go out the door.
As a traveler, the other aspect of TACFIT® that appeals to me is its portability. I'm on the road a lot, and I don't have time to mess around with health clubs or gyms. All the gear I need for my TACFIT® sessions can travel with me-just like my laptop, iPod, GPS or any other tool of my trade. What's more, the exercise sessions are time-compressed. They're focused and intense, because I don't have time to mess around."
Ryan Murdock
RMAX Faculty Director
Travel Writer and Author TACFIT® Team Leader
"The ability to perform under high stress and adapt to unusual situations on the fly calls for a strong mind and body. TACFIT® forces you to intelligently push past what you think you are capable of doing. "Working out" in this way doesn't just create a stronger body--it creates a sharper mind. TACFIT® taught me how to deal with and adapt to intense situations off the field so I could do a better job in the field. Thanks to the TACFIT® protocol, being highly mobile no longer means being out of shape."
Ryan Hurst spent three years in the information gathering/planning division of an intelligence organization before breaking away to become a freelance operative. His seven total years in the field involved real-time intelligence gathering, client interpretation, data analysis, and conducting sensitive negotiations for organizations in both the public and private sector.
Ryan Hurst
RMAX Faculty Director
Japanese Police Judo Black Belt
TACFIT® Team Leader