Close Combat Video

NousDefionsDoc · 05-01-2005, 20:53

Damian has a new feature up:

Click Me

**Bill Harsey** · 05-01-2005, 21:33

NDD,
Can I comment on some of this using what Col. Rex Applegate told me face to face?

Go For Broke · 05-01-2005, 21:39

Real interesting stuff. Lot of it looks familiar, thus proving :

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kyobanim

... if you look close enough you'll see the similarities. What's important is what you want and what you expect to get out of it.

As an somewhat interesting aside, one of the contract instructors we had, conducted a seminar in Canada. He ran into this older lady (who was a teenager during WWII) who found out that he was teaching martial arts. She said something along the lines of, "Oh I know that stuff..." as she proceeded to demonstrate, "eye jab, palm strike, knee to the groin, kick to the shins"... Needless to say, the instructor was suitably impressed.

Guess she definitely proves the adage of keeping it simple.

**Bill Harsey** · 05-01-2005, 21:50

Go For Broke,
You nailed it, keep it simple can also be "mastering the basics."
A long time ago in another life time I did some martial arts. I was the team captain for Chuck Norris's Northwest Team. This position was not granted for some degree of failure.
I was a player/coach competing all over the place. My observation after working out with some of the best in the world and getting to watch those who dominated on a regular basis is this:
The most competant fighters (street, self defense, tournament, etc.) are the individuals who have mastered and execute the basics very well.

Go For Broke · 05-01-2005, 21:57

Mr. Harsey, I think you put it a lot clearer and more spot on though WRT "mastering the basics"

Humans have been evolving for how many years...and the lucky ones can only throw punches with the left hand or the right hand...

I think what is most evident in these videos is the clearing away of unnecessary movements or material...kind of like a sculpter chipping away the marble to reveal the final vision (to paraphrase Bruce Lee) or yourself grinding away the unnecessary metal to make the knife.

V/R

NousDefionsDoc · 05-02-2005, 08:08

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bill Harsey

NDD,
Can I comment on some of this using what Col. Rex Applegate told me face to face?

Of course

**Kyobanim** · 05-02-2005, 09:30

Quote:

You nailed it, keep it simple can also be "mastering the basics."

Holds true for anything that anyone does. Problem is, no one wants to master the basics. Most people think that after you've progressed past the basics you don't need them anymore. What they don't realize is that everything that a Master, or expert in their art, does is just basics.

They just do them very good.

**Bill Harsey** · 05-02-2005, 09:54

Quote:

Originally Posted by NousDefionsDoc

Of course

This goes to those who say they (Applegate/Fairbairn) didn't spend enough time training the military students.
I asked Col. Applegate about this once and his response was, ( I'm paraphrasing as close as I remember)

" We didn't have the luxury of training someone for 6 plus years until they became expert martial artists, we were at war and had to train soldiers fast. We did this by teaching very direct and simple methods of hand to hand combat that."

Of course the war he spoke about was World War Two.

Cincinnatus · 05-02-2005, 14:00

A really stunning testament to the effectiveness of combatives is the experience of women who've completed Melissa Soalt's (aka "Dr. Ruthless") Model Mugging program. Soalt has had forty odd students report back to her that they successfully used the techniques taught (a purist might argue that they are not pure WWII Combatives, but anyone with any background in combatives can see the similarities) against a real attacker. Nearly half of them KO'd or disabled their attacker, so that the BG was lying there when the police arrived.

It's important to realize that simply by virtue of their gender the male attackers are likely to be bigger and stronger than their intended victim, some were armed, all chose the place and time of the attack.

Her program was twenty five hours long.

While I'm admittedly no expert, from what I've read FAS almost never had more than forty hours of H2H in their SOE, OSS, and commando training programs.

This is why I'm a believer.

05-02-2005, 14:11

What I'd be interested in is how they altered those persons attitude enough in 25 hours, assuming not all were born with a knife in their mouth. Any word on this?

Based on the little I've witnessed, aggressiveness and will to use violence harshly does not come naturally to many around here, in civilized society.

Perhaps it's a different mood or something on courses with such a specific purpose to unite behind.

Cincinnatus · 05-02-2005, 15:48

Soalt's background is in psychology and ingraining mindset was a primary focus of the classes. I know that they did role playing and adrenal stress training using a guy in a "BulletMan" suit. The suit is armored well beyond what FIST, RedMan, and whatever Blauer calls his suits are. In a BulletMan suit one can take full power shots, even ax hands and chin jabs, with relative impunity.

My training buddy has done a lot of work w/ Soalt and appears in her videos, both in the armored suit and as the REALLY ugly woman in the bathroom scenes. He told me that when she first explained her curriculum to him his reaction was "BS! You can't teach someone to fight effectively in only twenty five hours." He was won over almost immediately as he got to serve in the suit for one classes graduation exercise. He then went on to work with her for a number of years and became, despite beaucoup TMA experience, a believer in combatives.

Soalt has a website, IIRC, www.Dr-Ruthless.com you can check out her methods there. I have her videos and recommend them highly, after Cestari's and McCann's they're the best I've seen. Disclaimer - my MA experience is pretty limited so take all this with how ever much salt you feel appropriate. This stuff works for me and I probably get a little evangelistic in my opinions at times.

My buddy has done a fair amount of work w/ the WVA state cops, and a couple of SF folks, not sure which group, and the armored assailant training has been well received. If there's interest in the suit and what he's doing, I'll get more details and post pics of the suit in use in the here if it meets w/ Sneaky's approval.

If, after looking at Soalt's website, you have add'l questions, let me know and I'll try to get them answered the next time I see her. HTH

I just noticed that you're in Sweden, Martin. Do you know Mika? He's a combatives instuctor in Stockholm, IIRC. A real Viking warrior, too.

Edited to correct redundancy and to add the last paragraph above.

rubberneck · 05-02-2005, 16:28

Quote:

Originally Posted by NousDefionsDoc

Damian has a new feature up:

Click Me

If I ever get my back issues sorted out I am going to train with Damian. He dojo is only 5 minutes from the house and the two times I talked to him he seemed like a really good guy. Not one of these self absorbed blowhards that are in love with themselves.

05-03-2005, 06:29

Thanks, Cincinnatus! No further questions yet.

Unfortunatelly, I haven't heard of him.

NousDefionsDoc · 05-14-2005, 22:51

Quote:

Originally Posted by rubberneck

If I ever get my back issues sorted out I am going to train with Damian. He dojo is only 5 minutes from the house and the two times I talked to him he seemed like a really good guy. Not one of these self absorbed blowhards that are in love with themselves.

Living in NJ is a small price to pay for training with Damian.

I hope you get well soon so you can go and tell us all about it.