Adam Seegmiller
Retired Sergeant Major · 24 years of serviceWhen Adam was a young man, his girlfriend's ex cornered him outside a trailer on a gravel driveway. Adam had years of Taekwondo behind him, a brown belt, state-level competition. He was pinned with no room to kick, on gravel where fancy footwork meant falling on his face.
That fear stayed with him, so he went looking for the real thing. He took a job working the door at the roughest bar in town, on purpose: two to three fights a night, Thursday through Saturday, for two years. On his first night a man was beating his girlfriend and Adam stepped in. She smashed a beer bottle on Adam's face, and the boyfriend beat him badly. When his own girlfriend asked how long he'd keep doing this, he told her:
"Until my knees stop shaking."Adam Seegmiller
Those years set the test he has applied to every technique since: does it still work when you're terrified, exhausted and surprised? The Taekwondo kicks failed it. In his words from HAVOC lesson 30: "The only time I ever tried that in a bar, in a real fight, I got put on my ass."
He spent 24 years in the military and retired as a Sergeant Major. He served on a special operations fight team, traveling and training with units and agencies around the world. For more than a decade he worked high-risk close protection, guarding the Canadian Ambassador in Kabul and leading a small team protecting members of the Saudi Royal Family, with five cumulative years in combat zones, much of it without a weapon.
The moves that passed his test became HAVOC. The six steps he relies on to calm a situation before it turns physical became DIFFUSE.
"The genius is in the simplicity. If it's complex, you're not going to do it when someone's trying to kill you."Adam Seegmiller
- 24 years of serviceRetired Sergeant Major
- Special operations fight teamTier 1 unit
- 10+ years close protectionCanadian Ambassador in Kabul, Saudi Royal Family
- 5 years in combat zonesCumulative, across multiple tours
- Hundreds of real fightsTwo years working the door at the roughest bar in town
- Trained alongsideNavy SEALs, Delta Force and Australian SASR
- Blackwater-certifiedClose protection operator
- Sparred with UFC championsIncluding Michael Bisping
- iPREP instructorPerformance resilience under stress
