III Combatives

You can not learn combatives from a book.  Let me get that out of the way first. 

Now let me say this: If you are trying to learn a solid combatives course, especially at the Militia Unit level, you can’t properly learn combatives without the book above, written by Greg Thompson.

I have never had the pleasure of meeting the man.  I have no financial interest in promoting his book or his training.  I am not an Amazon affiliate, so I don’t even get a commission if you buy his book.  I have perused his book and if you trust my judgment at all regarding fighting Warriors at ugly, dangerously close ranges, I’m suggesting you buy his book, find a competent vet or Warrior who has any experience in the MACP or grappling arts, and start at page one.  Use this book as your unit bible for CQB.

MACP (Modern Army Combatives Program) is the fundamental core.  He shows you the techniques, does an excellent job describing details you need for proper execution (and defense), then at the end he even includes an equally outstanding primer on SOCP (Special Operations Combatives Program).  I’m calling it a primer ONLY because I strongly suspect there are more techniques that are reserved for students in the official program.  In the Japanese martial arts world we’d call these the “Hidden Techniques”.  SOCP specializes in fighting in full kit.

When you flip through H2H, if you have been through my Fight to your Weapon course, you will recognize many techniques.

Is the Marine Corps program good?  Yes sir, it is outstanding.  But if you are looking for a well-designed set of techniques, laid out in a logical order for the student, order H2H from Greg Thompson.  The level of information publicly available regarding MACP & SOCP is sufficient to get your unit’s combatives program standing up and effective, especially if you occasionally bring in an expert to help you work through a few of the spots where you get stuck.

If you have no serious combatives program, your unit is fooked.  Eventually, no matter how well-trained your team is at SUT, urban or rural runnin’ & gunnin’, sniping or counter-sniping, intel, Comms, et cetera – your Team WILL unexpectedly find itself surprised and buckle-to-buckle.

Something I discovered reading H2H is Mr. Thompson’s patent-pending knife design.  When looking at how and where he deployed it in various techniques, it looks pretty darned effective.  So, I ordered one.  I’ll train with it for a while, then give you all my thoughts.  I can already tell you it is designed in such a manner that it is a situational blade – it won’t replace my Randall for offensive and most defensive wetwork, or my KA-BAR as a field knife – but in certain circumstances, it may become my go-to blade.

Here’s an Amazon link to his book.

Here’s an Amazon link to the SOCP blade.  I purchased the dagger option.

Kerodin
III

**Disclaimer**  “My” system for “my” Tribe is not MACP/SOCP or any of the .mil systems.  I mentioned the other day that grappling as the fundamental core of a Combatives program in a Kill or Die unit must be more aggressive and avoid the ground – most of the time.

But that is not the purpose of this post.  I wholly advocate the H2H/MACP/SOCP for you – unless you are in my Tribe and plan on working on my Team.  The Mission of my Team is…different.