Meet the Chief Instructor
Cameron T. Gary, Sensei

• Introduction
• Training Experience
• Formal Martial Arts Rankings
• Defensive Tactics Instructor Ratings
• Work Experience
• Other Experience
• My Budo Philosophy 

Introduction:
Cameron is the Chief Aiki-Budo instructor (or "Sensei"). "Sensei" does NOT mean "master" or even "teacher".   A "sensei"  is simply "one who has gone before."  Cameron does not consider himself to be a "master", nor does he allow his students to refer to him as such.  Cameron considers himself to be a student first - who hopes to guide his students along the path so that they can make their own "Way" and eventually surpass him.

Throughout your life advance daily,
becoming more skillful than yesterday,
more skillful than today. This is never-ending.

The Hagakure (Book of the Samurai)

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Training Experience:
Cameron began his practice of combative arts in 1979 with informal exposure to Tae Kwon Do and Kung Fu. This training was brief and through various instructors. The majority of his early practical combative experiences came via "on the job" training while working security ("bouncing") in concert halls and college beer bars.

Cameron's first formal exposure to Taihojutsu (Japanese Police Arrest Methods) was in 1985 as a San Diego County Probation Officer working in adult and juvenile detention facilities. His Taihojutsu training continued when he joined the San Diego County Sheriff's Department in 1988.  In 1989, he was briefly introduced to Togakure Ryu Taijutsu through Keith Moon-sensei, a student of the Bujinkan.  In 1991, Cameron began his practice of Yoshinkan Aikido, Yoshin Ryu Bujutsu, and Goju Ryu Karate under Thomas Snowden-Shihan of what was then the Seibukan Dojo (now Aibukan) in Chula Vista. In 1995, he began Aikido training under Kazuo Chiba-Shihan of the San Diego Aikikai. Cameron  now does frequent Aikido Yoshinkan and other Japanese martial arts training with David Dye, Soke (Head of the School) of the Shuyokan Dojo in Costa Mesa, CA and Amos Parker-Shihan, of Houston, TX.  Parker-sensei is the senior non-Japanese Yoshinkan Aikido instructor in the world.

Cameron's formal martial arts rankings:

• Third Degree Black Belt- Aikido (Kokusai Shuyokan Ryu)
• Second Degree Black Belt - Aikido  (Aikikai)
• Second Degree Black Belt - Taihojutsu (San Diego Associated Yudanshaka Alliance) 
• First Degree Black Belt - Aikido (International Yoshinkai Aikido Federation)
• First Degree Black Belt - Jujutsu (Yoshin Ryu Bujutsu no Kai)
• Brown Belt - Karate (Goju Ryu Karate Do)

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Cameron's Police Defensive-Tactics Instructor Certifications:

Defensive Tactics Certifications

• S.P.E.A.R. System Level One Intra-Agency Instructor
• FBI - Defensive Tactics Instructor
• San Diego Regional Police Academy - (Unarmed & Impact Weapons) Instructor
• Controlled F.O.R.C.E. Institute - Unarmed Defensive Tactics Instructor
• Monadnock Expandable Baton Instructor
• Tactical Technologies Chemical Agents Instructor
• San Diego Sheriff Oleoresin Capsicum (Pepper Mace) Instructor
• International Shuyokan Ryu Renshukai Renmei - Taihojutsu Instructor
• United States Navy - Master-At-Arms Instructor
• San Diego District Attorney's Office - Lead Defensive Tactics Instructor

Court Certifications

• San Diego County Superior Court - Court Qualified as an Expert Witness in Defensive Tactics & Use of Force Issues
• San Diego District Attorney's Office - Subject Matter Expert & Consultant re: Use of Force and "Cold" Weapon Engagement

Other Teaching Experience

• Professor of Criminal Justice - Remington College (San Diego)

Professional Memberships (Current and Past)

• American Society for Law Enforcement Training
• San Diego Yudansha Alliance
• International Association for Counterterrorism & Security Professionals
• The Association of Threat Assessment Professionals
• The International Hoplology Society (IHS)
• International Association of Financial Crimes Investigators
• Peace Officers Research Association of California
• United States Aikido Federation - Western Region (USAF-WR)
• International Yoshinkai Aikido Federation
• American Women's Self-Defense Association - Past
• California Narcotic Officer's Association - Past
• California Gang Investigator's Association - Past
• National Tactical Officer's Association - Past

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Work Experience:
Cameron is a California peace officer with over 22 years of experience. He was a Probation Officer for three years, a Deputy Sheriff for 12 years (detentions, patrol, investigations, Community Policing, SWAT) and is currently a Supervising Investigator with the San Diego County District Attorney's Office assigned to the The Computer And Technology Crime High-tech Response Team (CATCH).  He is also a member of the District Attorney's Witness Protection, and Dignitary Security teams.  He has taught Arrest & Control tactics to Sheriff's SWAT, the Lemon Grove Sheriff's station, the Sheriff's Mobile Field Force and Explorers, the San Diego Regional Police Academy, the Mexican State Protective Police (P.E.P.) and the U.S. Navy Master-at-Arms academy.  Cameron currently teaches Defensive Tactics for the District Attorney's Office.

Cameron is also available as a consultant for Defensive Countermeasures.  He provides training seminars in threat assessment, rape defense, and personal protection strategies to women's organizations, student organizations, community organizations, citizen groups, and businesses.

". . . I do not know the way to defeat others, but the way to defeat myself."
 the Hagakure

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Other Experience:
Cameron has extensive coaching (track & field) experience at the high school (Helix High, La Mesa, CA and Monte Vista High, Spring Valley, CA) and collegiate (San Diego State University - SDSU) levels.  He has coached several athletes who achieved success at every level.  Cameron is considered one of the foremost triple jump authorities on the West Coast. He is currently the Horizontal Jumps Coordinator for the LA84 Foundation, the foremost Coaches Education Clinic in Southern California.  Cameron has earned the endorsement of such luminaries as 1976 Olympic Long Jump Gold Medallist Arnie Robinson and the current SDSU Head Track & Field Coach, Rhan Sheffield. 

Cameron was a NCAA Division 1 track & field competitor at SDSU where he won the 1983 Western Athletic Conference (WAC) Triple Jump championship.  Cameron was undefeated in WAC competition that year. He was also a Collegiate, a Open U.S. National Championships and a U.S. Olympic Trials qualifier.  Cameron currently holds the SDSU men's Triple Jump record at 53 feet 2 3/4 inches.  Cameron was also the 1989 World Police & Fire Games champion in the Long Jump and Triple Jump.

Cameron holds a Master's Degree in Business Administration from the University of Redlands as well as a Bachelor's Degree in Psychology from SDSU.

My Budo Teaching Philosophy:

"Do not speak of me as someone who has taught you how to fight. Every man who is always scared seeks and sees only that. Give a coward effective techniques and you'll create a braggart who challenges everyone to prove himself, and has little respect for others. Give a great man a great art, and you will create a quiet and gentle man, who appreciates life and respects it.

True Budo is life. That is what I have always tried to teach, because that is what I was taught. I pray that our world would never run out of individuals capable of understanding that. I am counting on each of you to do your best to find them. If there are none left, then there are no more reasons to teach techniques. In the meantime, let's embrace the art with our whole spirit, or step aside and let those who are willing, do so. Do not ever compromise."

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Questions for Gary-Sensei? 
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