Martial arts and combatives, Part 1: What’s out there?

I’ve written here about the study of one of my two primary martial arts styles Pekiti Tirsia Kali , and about the new fad for the study of “combatives” based on the training for soldiers and OSS operatives that evolved in the Second World War.

I wrote about the three foci of combatives for military, civilian and law enforcement, and how putting together a combatives training program tends to arrive at a new martial arts style.

Pardon the length between posts on the subject. What I’ve been doing in my copious free time is reviewing classic and modern texts on military combatives, and modern videos on the subject. It’s a very limited subset of what’s out there, but I think I’ve go a representative enough sample.

One of the classics I was already familiar with from the well-equipped library on the Navy base I grew up around, such as Rex Applegate. I read Fairbairn’s Get Tough years ago, and recently read his more detailed
book ‘Defendu.’

I also picked up the classic Jack Dempsey manual he wrote for the Coast Guard in WWII, a reprint of Charles Nelson’s, ‘The Red and Gray Manuals,’ and Cosneck’s 1959 manual of ‘American Combat Judo.’

For moderns I’ve read some of Peyton Quinn’s stuff, a scenario-based book by Larry Jordan, and most everything by Marc “Animal” MacYoung.

Currently I’m going over Mark Hatmaker’s, ‘No Second Chance,’ Complete Krav Maga and Kevin O’Hagan’s, ‘Special Forces Close Quarters Combat Systems’ on DVD.

I got the set of DVDs from a used DVD sale at Goldstar Video Rentals, a treasure beyond price for serious martial artists wanting to research different approaches to the age-old philosophical problem of, “How do I get out of this $#!+?”

Another treasure for the serious martial arts researcher is SmartFlix. Go to both, there is a difference in emphasis in what they carry and not a lot of overlap. Rental fees are very reasonable, especially since you’re probably only interested in watching most of them once, and Goldstar has a buy option.

I should mention Nakayama and Draeger’s, ‘Practical Karate’ series. Though this is not “combatives” per se, it’s about the practical application of Japanese Karate with scenario-based illustrations.

Scenario-based training is something I’m going to develop further. If you’ll have a look here, you’ll find a kind of scenario-based training that is very intriguing, in a terrifying sort of way. I’ve trained a very little bit in Russian Systema and will have more to say about it.

An example of scenario training in Systema for a more likely scenarios can be found here.

Please note I am not trying to slight anyone by omission. There is a lot of interesting-looking product out there I simply do not have the cash to check out, or the time for that matter.

One warrior I’ve heard referenced with respect and awe is Geoff Thompson of the UK. I haven’t seen his videos or books, but I’m dying to.

When I win the lottery. First thing. Him and about a hundred other DVD sets.

Next: Martial arts and combatives, Part 2: What can you get out of it?