Introduction
What is it?
If you have ever studied martial arts or a real combat
art, that is, you know that you spend at least 1/3 of your training time in
close quarter combat. Every natural, real-world warrior must understand the necessity
of having these skill sets to prevail in a fight. Ah, but wait, there are three
areas of unarmed combat!
Long-distance fighting, at the very end of the reach of your
arms or feet. Next, you are touching each other up close, and with or without
your eyes, you are able to see your opponent's moves, weight shifts, or base movement.
The next area is on the ground, where you can't expect to use your eyes in your
defense at all.
A person's self-defense is defined by distance from the person to the attacker.
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On the broadest scale, this is from one ballistic missile or
strategic military platform to your location. In the beginning, we had our
hands, then perhaps rocks, and then a spear. The spears were much like today's
ballistic nuclear missiles in that they gave you stand-off range to your
opponent. Today, we might think of anti-personnel missiles like drones as digital
spears.
Later, there was the Atlatl, which used leverage to achieve
greater velocity than a spear or a dart. Greater velocity equates to harder
hitting and more kinetic energy being delivered to the target, thus creating
more damage. Next were bows and arrows, and I'm sure you are getting the point.
In some cases, weapons were brought right into close quarters
combat, like the knife, ax, samurai sword, and other medieval-bladed weapons. So,
it comes down to distance in many ways of thinking, with the minor caveat that
some other weapons are brought into a ground fight, for example. Thus,
knowledge and skill sets for dealing with those types of weapons are very
important for surviving a close quarters combat experience.
For this blog post, we will cover empty-handed close quarter combat,
and in future blog posts, we will add weapons to this foundation. I, Master
Peter Brusso, want to cover one of the most critical aspects of close quarters
combat that isn't addressed by most others, and that is one of brain neurology.
Three types of Neurology
One day in the Dojo, I was doing a basic punching drill for
the class. I was focusing on some fundamental concepts in a simple yet
overlooked front punch we all knew about since we used one of those air-filled
children's punching bags in our bedrooms. Well, or at least I did and can admit
that.
You punch at the bag, which has various faces on the bag for
fun, and it rotates down to the ground from your punch but then comes rushing
back up at you. Now what? Well, you learned to punch at it again, but harder,
if that was possible. It did develop hand/eye coordination, movement, and
follow-up techniques. It was a good thing to learn to fight without knowing what
it was doing.
Now, back to the Dojo (School) drill, I was showing how you punch
with your front hand fist and take the weight off your front foot just before contacting
the target. This places a component of your body weight into the punch.
This punch wasn't just the power you generate with your
muscles and speed, but it also had another force added to it. If you didn't put
your foot back down on the ground, you would fall forward onto the ground.
Thus, you are putting a force into the punch that is
connected to your body movement or a two-point contact. Your rear foot and
front hand are the only things holding you up from falling at the time of
contact with the target.
Now, there was one Ph.D. person in the back row. A very smart
man. His punch didn't look like what we were performing. He would use his rear
hand to punch, for one thing, in contrast to us using our front hand. He was
also doing some "Windup" hand movements, much like you might see in cartoons.
Something was truly amiss here.
So, I turned the class over to another instructor and went to
work with the Ph.D. I wanted to see if I could understand his behavior in this
training sequence, and it was a simple one at that. I talked him through
it in parts. I showed him the punch. Then, the step is followed by
the extension but not extending or locking out your elbow.
I did all these things slowly. He followed each part of what
I showed him. Giving him a verbal command to punch or put these things together
generated an even more messed up performance. How is that possible, I
thought.
I have been training since I was six years old. As of this
month, I will be 71 years old. I never saw an issue like this before, and that
was when I was in my late 40s. However, something came to mind that I had been
taught many years back. I remembered how people learned to perform anything in
life.
There are five levels of how they do that. Here, for
simplicity, we will keep it to three levels, but you will see it right away.
Then, I will map that into close quarters combat, at which point, there will be
many things made very clear to you. You have been subject to these things
without really knowing it, and when you hear this, you will do one of those,
hitting your head with your hand, an AHA moment. I guarantee it unless you
have been one of my students.
Visual,
Kinesthetic, and Auditory Learners
Visual learners learn by watching, kinesthetic learners learn
by sense of feel, and auditory learners learn by sound. You have heard people
say things like, "That looks right to me," "I feel good about
this path," and "This sounds good to me!" Yes, they have been
telling us what their primary sense of learning or neurology they use.
So, back to that Ph.D. older student. He was a mix of two of
these neurology’s. Specifically, he had 70 percent kinesthetic and 30 percent auditory
neurology working and no visual at all.
Now, I'm a mix of visual and kinesthetic learners, so I
reached over and grabbed his arms, physically moved his feet, and told him how
it should feel to move or glide into the punch, slightly losing contact with
the floor at the moment of target contact.
I had him hold onto the lapel of his Gi, or martial arts
uniform, with his right hand, as this was a left-hand front punch we were
attempting to perform. Now, the Ph.D. lessons have become more fruitful once I
have done two things.
First, I needed to teach in his neurology, and second, he
needed to start learning in his neural style.
Dummy me.
Well, that front punch… he got really good at that technique.
So much so that he almost knocked out a training partner with it about four
weeks after this wonderful learning event.
Later that month, I visited two other martial arts schools
and saw it again. The entire school or fighting system was for those who liked
to fight far away. That is a long distance, and they hated to fight close
quarters or on the ground.
At another school, they specialized in taking opponents to
the ground and fighting them there. These were kinesthetic warriors who hated
to fight far away.
Most of their opponents in real life would be visual learners
and hate to be without their eyesight. Or, to translate that, they hate to be
on the ground fighting. There it was again, learning styles popping up in the
martial arts world, and strangely enough, I taught the mental side of the golf
game.
The learning styles are there, too. We must embrace this
finding if we are going to teach close quarter combat to visuals or neurological
mixes.
So, I coined a phrase about teaching warriors: Far Field, Up
Close, and on the Ground. These are the three areas warriors need to fight
within, and each neurology thrives in one of these three fighting worlds.
So, to be a well-rounded fighter, you need "Stand-up or
far-field fighting," "Up close in the grapple, and "Ground fighting
skills." Few total martial arts systems address these three various areas,
but I know of a few. Most schools specialize in one of these three areas and,
in most cases, acknowledge the others but don't teach you many skill sets in
those areas. So, if you are a person who wants to conquer all three areas, you
need to find one school or system that does that or go to various systems to
gain your warrior skills.
Weapons
in the mix
I said I was going to stay in the empty-hand world of close quarter combat, but I want to spend just a few moments giving the reader some important things to think about. There are two essential things that you MUST understand about close quarters combat. Most of the time, it will involve some weapon. The
traditional ones are a firearm or knife. There are others called weapons of opportunity. You must understand a few basic things about these unarmed close quarters combat martial arts add-ons in your fight.
How to disarm the weapon
There is something called "The Universal Law of Escapes."
It has nothing to do with how powerful you are or pushing against the thumb, as
some are taught. Those are power techniques.
In battle, you might not be very powerful for a number of
reasons, so learning a system based on power isn't that smart. Instead, it is
about angles, anatomy, and leverage.
The scope of this blog doesn't allow me to get much into this;
however, if readers are interested, I can write one, that is for sure. The
power of this way of thinking is that you only need to learn one technique. Yep,
just one technique. The cool thing about it is that this technique applies to
weapon disarms, as well. Yep, just one technique.
How to use a weapon
There is a misconception about weapons. We think we all know
how to use a gun or a knife. The truth is that we don't. It would be best if
you learned how to remove the safety from a weapon to load or reseat an ammunition
magazine so it will feed rounds into the weapon.
Do you understand "Tap, slap, and rack" and use
that after a disarm? Do you know the difference between the environment of a
rotary gun and an automatic one?
Do you know how to use a knife? You might think you do, but
can you tell me the difference between stabbing a solid blood organ, an artery,
or a vein? Do you know where to find them?
These skill sets are critical for you to survive a close quarters
combat situation. It means two things to a warrior. First, how fast are they
going to be dead?
How fast is it until they are no longer a threat?
These two things are very different. In one case, when can you
expect them not to be functional at much of a level? The second is when they will
never be a threat.
For example, if you stab your opponent in the kidney, how
long until they are in shock? How long before their blood pressure drops to the
point their body isn't functional any longer?
Or they have a gun but can't pull the trigger. They can't
reach out and stab at you or swing a machete. How long is that? How long before
they succumb to their stab or cut injury from you? It is essential to know the results
of your attacks in close quarter combat.
So,
what do you study for Close Quarters Combat?
A striking and Punching Art
The first area of close quarters combat is movement, punching,
and kicking. If you can focus on taking the opponent's base away, that is one
of the primary strategies.
For example, if you break their legs or knees, they can't stand up to fight you empty-handed. So, destabilizing the opponent is a primary goal in close quarters combat.
These skills can come from most combat-oriented martial arts
but not a sport art. In sport art, you cannot or are not allowed to kick the
knees, ankles, testicles, or the like.
Footing and movement are also involved in that same strategy.
In sports art, you are always indoors, on a well-defined fighting surface. This
is the best condition to fight on. There are no slopes, hills, or ponds of
water.
However, if you are fighting on a slope, it is best to fight downhill
if you are armed with projectile weapons. This is just the opposite of empty-handed
fighting.
If you have knives, then it is better to fight uphill. If both
of you have knives, you can cut away at the base of the opponent, and all he
can ultimately do is throw his knife at you.
If your opponent can be maneuvered so they are uphill, all
they can do is kick at you. You, on the other hand, can block and punch or
grapple with their legs. That grapple can lead to broken knees or ankles. You
have more strategy and weapons to bring into the fight if you are fighting uphill.
Their punches cannot reach you, and they can be off balance
trying to kick you. Ultimately, the uphill battle will allow you to pull them
down the hill and perhaps use other environmental features or opportunities that
can lead to your opponent's demise.
Stand-Up Grappling Art
A close quarters combat art that focuses on grapple and
counter-grapple is the next thing to study. This can be Jiu-Jitsu, Ninjutsu, or
even Judo. Let's look at the less obvious one of Judo.
Enter Judo
The history of Judo is rooted in the Japanese Samurai, who needed some martial skills if their weapons
got broken, smashed, or rendered useless. Armed warriors surrounded them, so what could a warrior do other than die or run? Enter the art of Judo.
It is claimed to be a gentle art, but it is anything other
than gentle on the battlefield. Basically, you close the distance, grab or grapple
with the opponent to off-balance them, or throw them onto the ground.
Now, throwing them onto the ground part sounds gentlemanly or
is a part of some honor code in Budo, but it isn't. The design of the throws was:
one, you throw them, so they land on their neck, and the force of their body
breaks their neck.
This is the permanent end of round one of the empty-handed
Judo fight.
Or two, you go down to the ground and choke them to death.
One of two chokes is used to attain Judoka's goal, but that is out of the scope
of this blog post.
The Art of Jiu-Jitsu
Jiu-Jitsu is an excellent art that requires skill sets. Not
only does it have counter-grapple escape techniques, but it also has to
grapple ways to cripple the opponent. A broken body can't form a sizeable
physical threat to you. When arms, wrists, elbows, legs, knees, or ankles don't
function well, they are done as a combatant. Projectile weapons might not
follow this rule as much, but almost everything else does. This art also has throws
or transitions to ground fighting plus chokes to the death. It also comes in
two flavors, sport and combat, so you know which one to ask for when you are
going to study their art.
Enter the Ninja
I must admit I am prone to Ninjutsu as I have studied it since 1982, and it does bring all these worlds
together. But I will overlook that to mention they have close quarters combat down to a fine art. They are no sports art, so they close the distance to kill you. They study that all the time, so their techniques have been proven on the battlefield for over the last 1500 years. Now, as long-distance fighters, they use weapons and not their hands or feet. However, when they do, there is no other art on the planet that uses what they do. To that end, it has many advantages over any other art.
On the Ground
Fighting
MMA fighters have become more or less an excellent overall
model for close quarters combat. The only thing I would say is they can't
strike the eyes, throat, or groin. They are hunting for a knockout or a
submission on the ground. Neither of these is highly valued on the battlefield.
Also, being on the ground should be emulating a frog in a frying pan. You want to get the job done and
get the heck off the ground because of the multiple attackers on a battlefield. It is the multiple attackers that change the equation between law enforcement and military encounters. There are a few exceptions in each, but you don't see multiple attackers in MMA.
If I get on the ground, I try to kill or maim as fast as I
can, then get up. I don't mind being on the ground, and in some situations, you
want to stay there and not be shot by the enemy. But, as far as more combatants
come to get you, most times, it's best to get back up into the fight.
I have studied techniques used by multiple attackers on the
ground, so those do exist; however, it does depend on the situation.
Conclusion:
The art of close quarters combat is an absolute necessity for
any serious martial artist or self-defense enthusiast. As we’ve learned, you’re
not just teaching techniques; you’re teaching the differences of ranges, your
learning style, and how you will survive on the battlefield.
Key takeaways:
1. There are three areas to be considered: Far Field, Up
Close, and on the Ground.
2. Finding your neurological learning style (visual,
kinesthetic, Auditory) is significant for training and usage.
3. The fighter that has an edge will require knowledge of
far-field combat, close quarters, and ground fighting—in addition to using
your environment to your advantage.
4. Weapons Awareness & Disarming are integral
aspects of close combat training.
5. Martial arts provide different strengths in ground combat
– from striking arts to grappling systems such as Judo and Jiu-Jitsu.
6. Combat situations on the battlefield or street can
sometimes be different from competitive MMA in terms of multiple threats and
rapid, decisive responses.
Always remember that proficiency in close combat is only
achieved with time and practice. It would be best if you learn far-field, up-close,
and ground techniques tailored to realistic combat situations. From
martial arts gurus to novices, your route to becoming a master of close combat
is continuous and developing.
In training, always focus on the efficient, everyday
exercises that work with your personal learning style and physical limitations.
Stay informed, stay prepared, and most importantly, stay safe.
PS This blog post is important for the Coast Guard, Marine
Corps, Special Operations, The Army, police, security units, or teams. It
should be a core component of tactics, entry, counter home invasion, or even if
you make entry through a window or a door. This kind of thinking and strategy
should be the main content in training manuals and elements, and anything less
for the warrior fighter would be false counsel. Hand combat, or as some call it
close quarters battle, is a main component to the survivability of our current
warfighters. It's a must-have, and it should not just be given some
afterthought. Stay safe!
Master Peter Brusso
Pdws.biz is the home of the
Defenders' self-defense weapon.
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