DEMYSTIFYING COMBATIVES

defensive training principles:

By Mark “Six” James CPO, EPS, CAS Demystifying Combatives

Whenever I am teaching combatives or defensive tactics to law enforcement officers or security personnel, inevitably someone will ask, “What do I do, if someone grabs my gun?”

My response if usually pretty similar each time. This issue wasn’t that the suspect reached for your gun, the issue started when you decided to interview the suspect at contact distance. Now everything on your duty belt was accessible to both you and him, without the benefit of a reactionary gap. • Proximity and • Violence

Once you have an understanding or proximity, you understand what tools you can use against your adversary and what tools your adversary can use against you.

When it comes to combatives regardless of style or martial arts discipline fighting is about two things: • Close-Range is bad breath distance and often involves grappling, headbutts, elbows and knees.

• Mid-Range is punching distance. • Long-Range is kicking distance.

Violence is about intensity and focused aggression. Here we are often looking to create injury via shock and awe. Professional predators are excellent in this area. They are looking for compliance not necessarily combat. In the special forces community, you often hear the words: SURPRISE, SPEED and VIOLANCE OF ACTION. In the world of self-defense our goal is to stop the aggression RIGHT NOW!

Angles and Lines

Once you learn to understand the lines or angles of attack you both simplify and expedite your response. A jab, a prison shanking and a basic firearm draw stroke all come on the same line – a straight one. The homeboy haymaker and a high knife slash to the throat both travel on the same path – a circular one.

The Importance of Movement

If someone is trying to hit you and you don’t want to get hit, what do you do? You move, correct? If

someone is trying to stab you and you don’t want to get stabbed, what do you do? You move, correct? If someone is trying to shoot you and you don’t want to get shot, what do you do? You move, correct? So, movement is fundamental to all things combative whether empty hand or armed.

Understanding Where the Danger Lies

When you can’t move outside of the reach of the threat, you are often forced to move the

When you can’t move outside of the reach of the threat, you are often forced to move the threat or redirect the weapon

threat or redirect the weapon; or the instrument that controls the weapon the hand. You can either parry it away from you or move inside the most dangerous part – the tip or the end. Whether that tip in an Escrima stick, baseball bat, knife, or the muzzle of a firearm.

The challenge most people have when it comes to dealing with combatives, is the defensives are often counter intuitive. As example when a baseball pitcher doesn’t want a batter to hit a home run, they often pitch them inside. They don’t pitch the ball over the middle of the plate because that would allow the batter the potential to put the fat part of the bat on the ball. The danger for the home run lies at the end of the bat, the barrel. You can’t hit a home run off the handle. Thus, the safest place for the pitcher to place the ball is inside. That is often the same strategy that we employ when it comes to combatives, we want to step forward inside the arc of the haymaker punch. When the opponent has a weapon, we want to block the bat, the bottle, or

the pipe closer toward the hands where there is less momentum, energy, mass, or danger.

One of the other challenges when it comes to armed combatives, is people often become preoccupied with the weapon, and spend their time chasing the weapon as opposed to recognizing its presence, avoiding it, or parrying it away and simultaneously attacking the attacker. If your strategy is to constantly defend against the blade and not mount your own attack, sooner or later you will not be fast enough. The best way to lessen your exposure is to make the attacker have to defend. When they are forced to think about their own injury or mortality, their focus is less acute.

Real fights are ugly. They rarely have the surgical precision of the dojo, so your goal is to learn to become very efficient and getting to your strengths as soon as practically or tactically possible. If you are a grappler you want to

Real fights are ugly. They rarely have the surgical precision of the dojo, so your goal is to learn to become very efficient and getting to your strengths as soon as practically or tactically possible

get to grappling distance as soon as possible. If you have good hands you want to try and stay at midrange. If you are a gifted kicker, seek to keep the fight at long range. Regardless of your strengths, it pays to be versatile so practice at all ranges to make you a more complete warrior.

Principles Verses Techniques

Whenever I am teaching combatives, I believe in focusing on principles verses techniques. If they understand the principles, they will create their own techniques. If you happen to be fast, strong, or athletic that is just extra credit. I like to focus on principles that are size and strength neutral. • Disrupt the Vision • Disrupt the Breathing or • Disrupt the Balance Any combination of the above is good for you and bad for them. No matter how strong a person gets their eyes, nor their throat gets any stronger. Your knee allows you lower your leg forward and your body down; the kneecap doesn’t work well when you take it in the opposite (backwards) direction. Translation it doesn’t take much strength to take the joint in the opposite direction and cause injury. If you understand the concept

of disrupting the vision, that can be achieved multiple ways: an eye rake, finger jab (index and/or middle), thumb to the eye etc. There you have a solo principle but three different techniques. I am a seasoned warrior, I realize most young predators may have more cardio than me and might be able to potentially fight longer, so if I impact the breathing and we both are old, I like my chances, whether that is a traditional chop (air or blood), Y strike to the throat (air), C Clamp/Eagle Claw (air) or rear naked (blood) choke.

Creating Your Out

If I can avoid the confrontation that is my goal. I just want someone to leave, either me or them. I don’t have a big ego, my objective is simple, get home to my family. If de-escalation will get me there safely let’s negotiate. When my best de-escalation attempts fall on deaf ears, and we are forced to engage then my goal is to stop the threat immediately or as soon as tactically or practically possible. Often you must create an injury to insure you have the ability to safely leave. Whether that is creating a severe injury to the solo combatant or whether it is to make an example of the lead combatant in a multiple threat situation to make the other combatants decide they no longer want to pursue their current aggressive paths. It usually sounds something like, “I told you to leave buddy alone,” or “Can we just get our guy?” Your goal is not to beat the brakes off the guy, it is to leave safely. Your response should be proportionate to the threat level and within the law.

Six Sense – My Combative Essentials

Below please find my combat essentials:

1. Learn to Recognize Pre-incident

Indicators – The easiest way to win a fight is to not have one. If you can’t avoid the confrontation, you can at least be ready for it.

2. Never Confuse Sport with Street - A mistake in a sporting tournament may cost you a point or takedown, a mistake in the street may cost you your life.

In the street we must win at all costs, remember you are the first responder.

3. Never prematurely display your skills – We are not looking for a duel, we are looking to create our own ambush.

4. Understand the lines or angles of attack – If you understand the lines/angles of attack or how the threat holds the weapon, it will often give you an indication of how they plan to use it.

5. Focus on Principles verses Techniques – If you help people

Never Confuse Sport with Street - A mistake in a sporting tournament may cost you a point or takedown, a mistake in the street may cost you your life.

understand the principles, they can create multiple techniques consistent with their own demeanor, skill level, flexibility, or dexterity.

6. The Body Moves Away from Pain – Thus there is a predictive response in combatives. It you finger jab someone in the eye, the head naturally moves back away from pain; the opponent’s hips naturally come forward facilitating a knee to the groin or vice versa.

7. Remember your ABCs – always

Attack by Combination. Fights are ugly and never have the surgical precision of the dojo. The initial strike may be a glancing blow, so be prepared to immediately follow up the initial strike with multiple ones. You keep hitting the bad guy as hard as you can, as often as you can until they stop trying to hurt you.

8. Not Getting Shot will always be More Important Than

Shooting, shooting is extra credit – Movement can often compensation for a lack of marksmanship, but a fast draw and great marksmanship often cannot compensate for a lack of movement. Movement will always be essential to all things combative whether empty handed or with weapons.

Regardless of the situation you may find yourself in, never allow a person to take a position they can’t walk back from. Because usually it forces their hand and makes a confrontation inevitable either out of fear or loss of face.

Mark “Six” James is Founder and Executive Director of Panther Protection Services, LLC. He is an internationally published author, keynote speaker, security consultant to educational institutions and frequent contributor to several print, broadcast and online media. Panther Protection Services is a full-service protection agency focusing on Risk and Crisis Mitigation, Protective Services, Self-Defense Training, and Firearm Instruction. www.pantherprotectionservices.com