The first Eclectic Combat Systems School opened in Arizona in 1992 and was an early laboratory for hand-to-hand combat and Mixed Martial Arts.   Later, it was inspired by the early UFC and other Mixed Martial Arts competitions that were, for the first time, being conducted in America.  The focus at that time was to demystify the Martial Arts and come up with a well-rounded, practical strategy that would work on the street as well as in the ring.  ECS, at that time, was mainly influenced by Kickboxing and Korean-style striking with modified Wrestling and Judo as its grappling base.  Over the past 16 years, ECS has constantly evolved and improved its strategies and is now primarily a Combat Sambo \ Jiu-Jitsu training center that is diverse in its source of technical and tactical training. The eclectic training approach has proven itself time and time again and, as a result, many competitions and titles in different venues have been won following the ECS training concepts.

The concepts for the ECS training program were originally developed by Grant R. Gilliam and Steve Bigelow.  Steve Bigelow is an avid martial artist with more than 30 years experience and has cross trained in many martial arts long before it was the “in thing” to do.  He is a fantastic striking coach with a ton of real-world experience coming from his credentials in the law enforcement and executive protection fields, both of which are long and distinguished.

Grant was focused and trained daily with Steve Bigelow, Wes Fukushima and many other talented local Martial Artists and was officially awarded a Black Belt under Bigelow and a Judo Brown Belt (Sankyu) under Fukushima in 1995.  With encouragement from Steve and seeing the need for a more improved grappling game, Grant devoted the next 14 years to refining his grappling skills and the grappling curriculum for ECS.

A throw is coming...

Grant has received world-class training from some of the best talent around and is one of only two Black Belts living in Texas in Judo and Jiu-Jitsu under Christophe Leininger, as well as the only Nihon Jujitsu Black Belt under the late Walt Sweet. He has also been awarded a Purple Belt in Brazilian Jiu-jitsu from Marc Zee, a Black Belt under Gracie Barra - Phoenix.  

ECS is a Professional Member School in good standing with the American Sambo Association (ASA).  In addition, ECS is working with the ASA and Vlad Koulikov of Ultimate Sambo towards heavily integrating Sambo \ Combat Sambo principals into the ECS training programs.  Combat Sambo is the future of ECS.  The added strategies and techniques will assist to expand the knowledge base of all who train at ECS and will aid them in their quest for a well-rounded, personal combat strategy.

ECS is committed in furthering public knowledge of the exciting and dynamic sports of American Freestyle Sambo/Combat Sambo and hopes, with help from the ASA, to pioneer competitions within the state of Texas.