Carmine Downey

Carmine Downey has over 40 years in the Martial Arts and formerly served 12 years of active/reserve service in the U.S. Army Special Forces (Green Beret). He is a Career Law Enforcement Officer and served 15 years on his Agency’s Elite Tactical Team. He is one of the most well-rounded martial arts Instructors available today having studied both. empty hand and weapons systems of Eastern and Western combat combined with his training by the U.S. Military. Holding titles of Master, Sensei & Shifu he humbly chooses to only use the term “Coach”. He has over 30 years of teaching experience; has trained numerous Champions in both Kickboxing and MMA; has trained combat soldiers. throughout the world as well as elite Law Enforcement personnel. Coach Downey holds International Level San Shou Kickboxing Instructor Credentials under the U.S.A.W.K.F. and served as the U.S. San Shou Team’s Assistant Coach representing the U.S. at the World Championships in 2010. Additionally, he holds 5 th degree black belts in both Mu Do Kai Karate and Mugendo Kickboxing under I.S.K.A. Commissioner Robert Mason and has had the opportunity to train under such Kickboxing legends as Bill “Superfoot” Wallace and Don “The Dragon” Wilson. He is a Muay Thai/Boran Instructor trained by Military trips to Thailand and has extensive Boxing training at both the former Army Boxing Team Center at Ft. Bragg and the world-famous the 5 th Street Gym in Miami. As a well-rounded Instructor, he has extensive experience in the grappling arts beginning with Wrestling in both H.S. and later College, and went on to earn black belts in Japanese Judo and Ju Jitsu. He was at the MMA forefront teaching. these at Shihan Mason’s Karate & Kickboxing Dojo years before the first UFC. He has studied Russian Sambo, Chinese Shuai Chaio, American Catch Wrestling, and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu (which he continues today) and has trained under such notable BJJ instructors as Rickson Gracie, Pedro Sauer, and Ricardo “Frajinna” Miller. Granting all this, he is best known as a Master Instructor in reality Combat. As a former Green Beret, he became an Instructor in the (then) Special Forces H2H/Knife Combat System (which was a combination of the original Fairbairn-Sykes System, Muay Thai and Kali) and was afforded the opportunity to become an Instructor in authentic Cherokee. Tomahawk and Knife and later went on to study numerous Kali/Escrima systems. He cross-trained in Krav Maga with Israeli Commandos in preparation for Desert Storm and later became a certified FORCE Division Instructor with Krav Maga Worldwide; having trained with such renowned instructors as John Pascal and Darren Levine. When he later learned Chinese San Shou rather than the sport version, because he was a Law Enforcement Officer, he was taught by a retired Taiwanese Police Officer, Master Fong, Sanda, the H2H combative version. In recent years he trained with Gregg Thompson, founder of the Army’s new Special Operations Combatives Program known as S.O.C.P. Carmine Downey has taken this vast experience and created Elite Blade Combatives a complete system for empty hand and modern weapons survival. Combined with this martial expertise Carmine Downey is certified as a H.A.L.O. parachutist, S.C.U.B.A. diver, rappel/fast-rope insertion, waterborne infiltration and is both a former Motocross and Auto racer. He uses these combined skills to work in T.V. and film as a stunt coordinator.