Alain Burrese

Alain Burrese tries to live by a number of guiding principles, two of the most prominent of which are to learn as much as possible and to try as many different things as he can. Combine this with a passion for Asia, and it is no wonder that his studies and travels have taken him to the teachings and lands of the Far East.

At a very early age, Alain became fascinated with everything Asian, especially the different martial arts and ancient warrior traditions. It is no surprise that he journeyed to Japan and Korea to live and train in the martial arts and that his fiancé, Ham Yi-Saeng, is Korean. Of the traditional martial arts Alain has studied, the Korean art of hapkido is his favorite because of the emphasis on self-defense and the relationship he formed with his hapkido instructors.

Throughout his army and college years Alain also found himself in a thundering herd of barroom brawls, barracks ruckuses, and dormitory disturbances as a result of his hot temper and attitude. Added to this mix was a heaping dose of realistic training methods taught by the likes of Marc "Animal" MacYoung and Peyton Quinn. Alain quickly applied these lessons to the actual physical confrontations he engaged in, modifying and adapting them to his own build and style. It is this combination of traditional martial training and hard-core brawing that influences the hapkido and self-defense that Alain teaches and writes about today.

From the time Alain was very young, his father, Robert Burrese, instilled in him the importance of strength and fitness. Alain immediately saw the benefits of this when he joined the army. Not only did his physical strength and conditioning help him succeed as an infantry paratrooper with the 82nd Airborne Division and as a sniper with the 2nd Infantry Division in South Korea, but, combined with attitude, it was what enabled him to prevail in so many physical encounters.

Alain’s studies have always included learning about training methods and incorporating a variety of these into his own training. This includes his becoming certified by the International Sports Sciences Association (ISSA) as a fitness trainer and a specialist in martial arts conditioning. Alain states that size and strength do matter in a fight, and that a solid program of exercise and strength training can be more essential to a person’s self-defense capabilities than many of the "self-defense techniques" taught at most martial art schools. (Not that a smaller person cannot defeat a larger opponent; it's just that strength and conditioning are important for fighting and many other activities.) It pays to be in shape, for many reasons.

Self-defense, physical training, and warrior studies are not Alain’s only pursuits. In fact, one thing that has always puzzled him was that he has such a broad spectrum of interests and feels comfortable in such an array of circumstances. He was as comfortable discussing politics with President Ronald Reagan as he was being alone in the sleaziest of bars in Bangkok, Thailand. He is as comfortable walking into a courtroom wearing a suit in his current job with a law firm as he was walking out into the street with Marc MacYoung to break up a fight while doing security and bodyguard work in southern California. His memories of instructing at the 2nd Infantry Scout Sniper School, Camp Casey, South Korea, are as fond as those of attending the Asian tour of Les Miserables in Seoul.

His teaching has covered a broad spectrum as well. Instructing at one of the army’s sniper schools was much different from teaching his "Strategies for Success" class for the University of Montana’s Davidson Honors College. Likewise, his current hapkido and self-defense classes are different from the Vision-Values-Goals workshops he presents at UM’s Center for Leadership Development. And, of course, his writings on goals and personal development are different from his writings on self-defense.

Alain currently lives in Montana, where he attends the University of Montana School of Law. He will receive his Juris Doctor in May 2001. Besides being a full-time student again, Alain has the opportunity to apply what he learns at school to actual legal problems in his job as a law clerk. Alain relates this to his self-defense training: "Reading a book or watching a video will do nothing for your self-defense capabilities if you do not actually practice what you learn, and that means getting out on the mat with a training partner and trying the stuff out and getting where you can do it proficiently. The law, like almost everything else, is the same. You learn a lot at school from books, but until you actually work through a case and apply the book learning to real situations, you won’t know what being an attorney is all about. I’m very fortunate to work at a firm that provides such a learning experience for the three student clerks there."