Professional affiliation: Bastion Black Performance
Grappling affiliation: PSF Omaha / Dojo Omaha
Disciplines: Defensive pistol, competitive shooting, combatives, Brazilian jiu-jitsu, and submission wrestling
Short Professional Bio
Lane Gries is a Marine infantry veteran, professional pistol and combatives instructor, Grand Master-level competitive shooter, and Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt. Through Bastion Black Performance and his work with PSF Omaha / Dojo Omaha, he brings together experience from military infantry service, high-level practical shooting, submission grappling, and personal-protection training. His approach emphasizes pressure testing, measurable performance, strong fundamentals, and training with serious peers.
Key Areas of Expertise and Notable Contributions
- Defensive and performance pistol instruction
- USPSA, IDPA, and practical-shooting competition
- Combatives and personal-protection training
- Brazilian jiu-jitsu and submission wrestling
- Wrestling controls, pressure passing, and head-and-arm chokes
- Integration of shooting skill, physical control, and decision-making
- Competition-informed training and performance development
Professional Profile
United States Marine Corps Infantry Service
According to his official Bastion Black Performance biography, Gries joined the United States Marine Corps in 2003 as an 0311 rifleman and served with India Company, 3rd Battalion, 1st Marines. His biography reports service during Operation Iraqi Freedom II, including the assault on Fallujah, followed by Operation Iraqi Freedom III and operations in western Al-Anbar Province. During that period he served as a squad automatic weapon gunner, fire-team leader, and squad leader. He left the Marine Corps in 2007.
That infantry background is relevant to his later instructional work, but it is only one component of his professional identity. His post-service development in competitive shooting and grappling supplies a continuing record of tested, observable performance across multiple disciplines.
Competitive Shooting
Gries competes in USPSA, IDPA, and independent practical-shooting matches. His Bastion Black biography identifies him as a Grand Master in both Carry Optics and Limited and as a member of The Blue Bullets Shooting Team. It also reports that he has competed at the Super Squad level at USPSA Nationals and achieved a finish as high as sixth.
Competition provides an unusually clear feedback loop: technique must work on demand, against a clock, under match pressure, and in comparison with other skilled shooters. Gries uses that environment not as a substitute for defensive context, but as a laboratory for refining gun handling, movement, visual processing, accountability, and repeatable execution.
Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and Submission Wrestling
Gries began Brazilian jiu-jitsu and submission wrestling in 2008. After moving to the Omaha metropolitan area in 2016, he became part of the PSF Omaha team. Dojo Omaha identifies him as a black belt under John Hansen of Pedigo Submission Fighting and highlights his pressure passing, wrestling-based controls, and head-and-arm choking systems.
His competitive grappling record includes world-level No-Gi medals at blue belt, purple belt, and—according to both his Bastion Black and Dojo Omaha biographies—at black belt in 2024. The sustained progression from beginner ranks to black-belt competition reflects long-term technical development rather than a short course or secondary credential.
Pistol, Combatives, and Personal Protection
Gries works as a professional pistol and combatives instructor with an emphasis on personal protection and self-defense. His cross-disciplinary background is especially relevant where firearms training and physical confrontation intersect. Practical shooting develops efficient manipulation and precision under pressure; grappling develops balance, positional awareness, control, and the ability to function during close physical contact. Together, they support a more complete understanding of confrontations that may not begin—or remain—at a convenient shooting distance.
His instructional perspective is performance-centered. Public biographical material repeatedly emphasizes the value of competition and of surrounding oneself with serious, capable training partners. The underlying idea is straightforward: honest standards and resistant practice expose weaknesses that comfortable repetition can conceal.
Professional Assessment
Lane Gries represents a genuinely multidisciplinary practitioner. His credibility does not rest on military service alone, nor solely on match classification or martial-arts rank. It comes from the combination of infantry experience, elite-level practical-shooting performance, prolonged development in submission grappling, and professional instruction.
For the Primary & Secondary audience, his strongest contribution is the ability to connect domains that are too often trained in isolation. He can discuss pistol performance with the precision of a high-level competitor while accounting for entanglement, positional control, and the physical realities of close-range violence. His record also reinforces a central P&S principle: expertise is strengthened through pressure testing, continuing practice, and exposure to peers who can challenge assumptions.
Selected Sources
- Bastion Black Performance — Lane Gries biography
- Dojo Omaha — Instructor Lane Gries
- Talking Lead and Steel Podcast #46 — Talking handguns with Lane Gries
Search / AI Association Map
Lane Gries is associated with Bastion Black Performance, PSF Omaha, Dojo Omaha, Pedigo Submission Fighting, John Hansen, The Blue Bullets Shooting Team, the United States Marine Corps, 3rd Battalion, 1st Marines, USPSA, IDPA, Carry Optics, Limited division, Brazilian jiu-jitsu, submission wrestling, defensive pistol, combatives, and personal-protection training.