Hard times create strong men — this adage rings true for many of the instructors and subject matter experts we have interviewed in RECOIL OFFGRID, and Raul Martinez Jr. is no exception. Growing up as a first-generation American alongside seven siblings in a low-income home, life was never easy. Compounding this, his home was located in Chicago’s Lower West Side. Inner-city gang violence was pervasive, and more than a few of Raul’s childhood friends ended up in prison or dead as a result. To break free from this vicious cycle, he joined the Army, which soon exposed him to a new type of violence in Iraq. Years later, his path came full circle as he returned home and signed up to be a patrol officer with the Chicago Police Department. Ironically, most of his days were spent dealing with the same hodgepodge of low-level gang members, drug dealers, and misguided teenagers he grew up alongside. A subsequent promotion to the undercover narcotics task force allowed him to pursue the most ruthless and well-funded echelons of Chicago’s criminal hierarchy.
Today, Raul has blended lessons learned from his time in law enforcement, the military, and growing up in one of America’s most dangerous cities to create his own training company, Rogue Methods. His courses cover a seamless mix of hand-to-hand defensive skills, edged weapons implementation, shooting, and medical training, all within the context of a real-world, no-holds-barred fight. He has also partnered with instructors such as longtime RECOIL OFFGRID contributor Ed Calderon for joint classes. In the end, his goals are simple: to motivate everyone he meets to become better prepared for a violent altercation, and to provide them with the knowledge and experience to come out victorious.
After attending a recent Rogue Methods class, we took the opportunity to speak to Raul about his upbringing, career path, and thoughts on the self-defense training landscape.
RECOIL OFFGRID: Tell us about your upbringing. Which part of Chicago did you live in?
Raul Martinez: What can I say about Chicago that the news hasn’t already? Like most major cities, it has a highly diverse population. I was
