Responses: 10
When I joined the Army was teaching the stuff you see in the old WW2 combatives manuals. Hip toss, knife disarm, a few other things that look good on paper. When I got to RIP we were learning what would be the future of Army Combatives. Matt Larson taught us what would become level one. But, what the Army took a week to learn, he taught us in about theee hours. It was a lot more brutal and less refined. It was practiced throughout the 75th Regiment and once a year they would fly instructors in from the Gracie academy in Brazil to teach our best fighters who would pass on what they learned.
I rejoined the Army in 2004 and everyone was getting certified in level one in Basic. The Army had a big push on combatives, and a few injuries later commanders stopped doing it for PT. That’s when the Army eliminated Level 4 and made level 3 only available at the school house in Benning.
A few years after that USASOC gets interested in something called SOCP from Greg Thompson. It’s definitely an evolution that makes sense. What Matt Larson was looking for was an effective, easy to learn, hand to hand system to replace the old hand to hand, and what he developed was revolutionary at the time. With his background in Martial Arts and karate it makes sense that he would lean towards something empty handed for when you’re unarmed. It’s still an extremely effective empty hand program considering how much you can progress without spending significant amounts of time on it. SOCP was an evolution that brought more weapons and was geared towards the door kicker entering a room. A situation that has a lot more applicability to the USASOC community.
I’ve been pretty impressed with the whole evolution. 22 years ago when I joined, Basic training was doing pugilist sticks and bayonet course for combat training. Five years later and we have a working combatives program. For the previous 50 years it remained unchanged. We’ve come a long way in a little time and we’re still evolving
I rejoined the Army in 2004 and everyone was getting certified in level one in Basic. The Army had a big push on combatives, and a few injuries later commanders stopped doing it for PT. That’s when the Army eliminated Level 4 and made level 3 only available at the school house in Benning.
A few years after that USASOC gets interested in something called SOCP from Greg Thompson. It’s definitely an evolution that makes sense. What Matt Larson was looking for was an effective, easy to learn, hand to hand system to replace the old hand to hand, and what he developed was revolutionary at the time. With his background in Martial Arts and karate it makes sense that he would lean towards something empty handed for when you’re unarmed. It’s still an extremely effective empty hand program considering how much you can progress without spending significant amounts of time on it. SOCP was an evolution that brought more weapons and was geared towards the door kicker entering a room. A situation that has a lot more applicability to the USASOC community.
I’ve been pretty impressed with the whole evolution. 22 years ago when I joined, Basic training was doing pugilist sticks and bayonet course for combat training. Five years later and we have a working combatives program. For the previous 50 years it remained unchanged. We’ve come a long way in a little time and we’re still evolving
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The Marine Corps taught us hand to hand combat sufficient to kill the enemy. The key is to keep all your skills current so that you are fully prepared for the fog of war.
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I was an experienced martial artist when I joined in 1982, the stuff the Army taught at the time was out of the WWII Era Combatives. I always thought that it was as much about getting people who hadn't ever been in a physical conflict used to making contact and getting hit as teaching real skills, although most of the stuff was very basic. The Gracie style stuff was just coming in when I was getting out, but it did revolutionize combatives as much as it did Mixed Martial Arts.
Now the real and ugly truth of unarmed combat. If you don't train with it constantly, you will not maintain the skill level to use if effectively. When I was very active in the Martial Arts, I was training 20+ hours a week, which put me in the skilled amateur level. My buddy and I used to go down to the local gym that trained the areas Full Contact fighters that were either pro or going pro and get into the ring as sparring partners. Like I said, Mike and I were both training what most people would a lot, but 3 rounds with one of these guys would show you just how much difference training makes. Having some 20 year old that has worked out 6 hours a day for the last 3 years roundhouse you and you feel it the next day no matter how many pads you wear.
Now the real and ugly truth of unarmed combat. If you don't train with it constantly, you will not maintain the skill level to use if effectively. When I was very active in the Martial Arts, I was training 20+ hours a week, which put me in the skilled amateur level. My buddy and I used to go down to the local gym that trained the areas Full Contact fighters that were either pro or going pro and get into the ring as sparring partners. Like I said, Mike and I were both training what most people would a lot, but 3 rounds with one of these guys would show you just how much difference training makes. Having some 20 year old that has worked out 6 hours a day for the last 3 years roundhouse you and you feel it the next day no matter how many pads you wear.
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