Ellis Amdur (born March 27, 1952, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) is a writer, an American practitioner of martial arts and as of 2024, retired crisis intervention trainer. He has published a number of books on martial arts, on crisis intervention, hostage negotiation, and fiction.
Career
Amdur began his study of martial arts in 1968, learning
karate and traditional Chinese arts. He started training in
aikido in 1973, and after moving to New York, lived in Terry Dobson and Ken Nisson’s Bond Street Dojo. He also started training daily at Yamada Yoshimitsu's New York Aikikai school of aikido. After gaining a degree in
psychology, Amdur traveled to
Japan in 1976, and while there, entered the Tenshin Bukō-ryū Heihō and Araki-ryū, two traditional
koryu. He is
shihan (full instructor) in both these arts, one of only a few non-Japanese to attain teaching licenses in any koryu. He has also studied
judo,
Muay Thai and
xingyiquan.
In recent years, Amdur has continued his training in several areas: a study of 'internal strength' paradigms, as suited to use within traditional Japanese combative arts; Arrestling, a mixed martial art specifically for law enforcement, created by Don Gulla; Amdur's 'new-old' development,
Taikyoku Araki-ryu in which, in collaboration with established groups of expert martial artists, one or more 'modules' of Araki-ryu are studied in depth, and applied to the environment where the particular group functions (competitive grappling and law enforcement being two examples).
Amdur developed and taught courses on tactical communication for law enforcement and corrections as well as social services and businesses.
Works
Amdur is the author of several books on the martial arts (
Dueling With O-Sensei,
Hidden in Plain Sight,
Old School,
The Phenomenologist) as well as nineteen profession-specific books on crisis intervention, crisis negotiation, hospice social work and the art of psychotherapy, which are published under his own Edgework Publishing imprint.
In addition, he has also published four works of fiction:
-
Girl with the Face of the Moon - WINNER: First Place in the Mystery/Thriller category of the 2023 Writer's Digest 11th Annual Self-Published E-Book Awards & READER'S VIEW: First Place Award - 2023/24 Historical Fiction Classic
-
Lost Boy
-
Little Bird & The Tiger - WINNER: First Place in the Mainstream/Literary Fiction category of 2023 Writer’s Digest Self-Published Book Awards
-
Along with Neal Stephenson, Charles C. Mann, and Mark Teppo, the graphic novel, Cimarronin.
