Fall 2019 Tengu Training Review

We deviated from our usual Tengu Training formula for the Fall 2019 Tengu Training Retreat. Rather than head up to “Shin Togakure” (a private mountain training site dubbed by An-Shu Stephen K. Hayes “New Togakure”) for a weekend To-Shin Do, Jiujitsu, Wilderness Skills, and Meditation focused retreat we instead, went to Stafford Virginia to participate in a three day Primitive Skills course led by my good friend, survival trainer to the stars, and the owner of Advanced Survival Training (advancedsurvivaltraining.com), Tim MacWelch.

Who Is Tim MacWelch?

Tim MacWelch has been an obsessed devotee of survival and self-reliance for over three decades. His love of the outdoors started at a young age, growing up on a farm in the Piedmont hills of Virginia. Eating wild edibles and learning about the animals in the forest were part of his rural youth, but as a teenager – he couldn’t get enough of the subject of survival. In his early 20’s, he began working with kids through youth workshops for schools, church groups, the Boy Scouts, Cub Scouts, and other youth throughout the region. He still continues to volunteer his time, and over the past 30 years – he has worked with thousands of Scouts and other children.

In the spring of 1997, he opened a business teaching wilderness skills to adults and he still continues this business today. Over the years, Tim has been a featured survival expert for National Geographic, CNN, Good Morning America, Conde Nast Traveller, Washington Post, Men’s Journal, FOX 5 DC and several other organizations. Tim has also written scores of articles for OFF-GRID magazine, and is the lead storyteller for their regular feature article “What If?”. Tim has been writing for Outdoor Life magazine since 2010, and has become a regular contributor to the Outdoor Life Survival website, creating hundreds of blogs and articles for
OutdoorLife.com.

Tim’s strong relationship with the Outdoor Life brand led to the publishing of Tim’s first book with OL’s sibling company, Weldon Owen publishing. Tim’s first three titles with Weldon Owen were on the New York Times Bestseller list in 2014 and 2015. Tim’s titles to date include:
Prepare For Anything – NY Times Bestseller, #3 Travel Dec ’14 and #3 Travel Jan ‘15
Hunting & Gathering Survival Manual – NY Times Bestseller, #5 Travel Dec ’14 and #5 Travel Jan ‘15
How To Survive Anything – Released May 2015, NY Times Bestseller Nov ‘15
The Ultimate Winter Survival Handbook – Released Oct ‘15
How To Survive Off The Grid – Released Oct ‘16
The Ultimate Bushcraft Survival Manual – Released Oct ‘17
Ultimate Survival Hacks – Released Nov ‘18

At the end of 2017, he also found a position at Survival Dispatch, writing for their monthly online magazine. Tim is also a husband and father of two beautiful girls, still residing in Virginia.

Our training was led by Tim and a group of assistant instructors including the legendary “Loch Wes Monster”. Training topics included but not limited to, “survival mindset”, shelter construction, water procurement, primitive tool construction, fire building, container construction, snares and traps, and my favorite, primitive cooking (eating).

When we split into teams for the shelter building part of the class we had a “build off” between team Pancakes and team Waffles. The “International House of Pancakes” and the “Waffle House” were declared equally desirable survival huts by our fearless leader. The battle between delicious breakfast carbohydrates rages on. Two of our dojo leaders braved a night in the huts and both said that they slept very well!

Group favorite activities included throwing Atl-Atl darts, bow drill fire practice, and squirrel stalking. The trainees enjoyed several domestic and some more exotic treats and Tim prepared a couple of meals for the group over the night’s campfire. I don’t think I have ever eaten this well on a survival course and I have taken a few.

As To-Shin Do practitioners striving towards the “Tatsujin” (fully actualized individual) ideal I believe that having a strong base of self sufficiency is critical. Not because we won’t need other people, but so that we can assist others when they need us. “As protectors, being powerful is the most loving thing that we can do.” – Stephen K. Hayes.

As an outdoor enthusiast (hunting, fishing, and backpacking) I can’t recommend training with Tim MacWelch enough. Attend his classes at Advanced Survival Training, buy his books, and the next time (will be soon) that we hold a Tengu Training Retreat with Mr. MacWelch come out with us.

NinjaEveryday