Modern Army Combatives

[musicmano3596]

Hey Rangers and Vets,

Wondering what opinions any of you may have in regards to the army's new MAC program. I have a small amount of experience in it (Lvl 1, working on 2), but I am sure their are those on the page that have much more.

In my opinion as of now, is that the army could have chosen/developed a much more applicable hand to hand program. Krav Maga (Which I have 6 months experience in) would be a more appropriate program. I have been told Judo has applicable portions to "real world" scenarios as well, though I have yet to recieve any form of instruction in it.

What are some other opinions on this page?

[rangertough]

Hey Rangers and Vets,

Wondering what opinions any of you may have in regards to the army's new MAC program. I have a small amount of experience in it (Lvl 1, working on 2), but I am sure their are those on the page that have much more.

In my opinion as of now, is that the army could have chosen/developed a much more applicable hand to hand program. Krav Maga (Which I have 6 months experience in) would be a more appropriate program. I have been told Judo has applicable portions to "real world" scenarios as well, though I have yet to recieve any form of instruction in it.

What are some other opinions on this page?

I was there when it started. The problem with MAC is it's mutation from a relatively easy to learn, adjustable force H2H system, that is executable in armor. To a recruiting tool, taught by a bunch of douches that think they're the next UFC champ.

According to Matt Larsen (to paraphrase) "If all you remember from Combatives is to close the gap, achieve the clinch, takedown to the mount and feed the guy his teeth with your elbow, you've learned the essence of the system." When we first started we talked about head butts with helmets and creatively using the environment to make your opponent stop doing whatever made you kick his ass, they don't discus that anymore instead they roll in their custom MACP Tapout shorts. The system was designed to be trained on grass in shirt sleeves. The Combatives facilities have an Octagon for fucks sake. I was disappointed when a portion of Level 4 training was running a fight bracket.

The ground fighting portion of the system is based mostly on BJJ which in my opinion should have been Japanese Ju-Juitsu. Seeing that MAC is supposed to be focused on techniques that are "Armor Capable" and the Japanese style was developed for Samurai IN ARMOR. The Gracies were the name in BJJ at the time and the style you could easily get access to was "Tournament" (eg. With a Gi). The stand up was based on American boxing/kickboxing and focused way to much on closed hands and not enough on elbows and palm strikes. Low leg kicks being about the only kick you might pull off when your torso has an added 45-60 lbs of equipment on it.

Judo focuses on throws and takedowns many of which involve moving your body in ways that are impossible in combat equipment.

Krav Maga is an impressive art that is great for severely beating or killing someone but isn't really adjustable regarding amount of force. For example if a crazy old lady comes after one of my guys with a frying pan while we are conducting a search. In that scenario with KM I can continually and rapidly beat her to death. With MAC I can put a blood choke on her, secure her and not have the death of a crazy old lady on my conscience.

[Slowpoke]

I studied Judo for three years in High School, back when the books were written on papyrus. I prefer it to the more attack types of combative because it's so much fun to see an overeager attacker sail through the air and land in a painful heap. If nothing else, it taught me to land gracefully when knocked on my ass.

[musicmano3596]

Ranger tough, I almost feel like a better system for fighting in kit (at least basics) would be not give a single piece of instruction. Just put Joe's in full rattle and let them at each other and keep it at 50%

[fatboy]

Bumping this one back up. MAC was fine for teaching guys how to stop being afraid of their shadow, absorb a punch or two, and get control their opponents. The main problem is the levels they came up with. When you start with ground fighting, but don't teach how to accomplish it you set yourself up for failure.
IMO, the levels should have started with weapons at arms length / striking, then take downs to a dominant position, and ground fighting (singles and in teams). All done slick then in gear. Where the system shines is the ability to train at close to full speed, all the way up to the pain level once the basics were mastered.
And for the record, my experience with it was 10 years worth of at least weekly and sometimes daily use and instruction.

[musicmano3596]

Fatboy,

I do agree with the statement "Where the system shines is the ability to train at close to full speed, all the way up to the pain level once the basics were mastered."

I actually discovered that there is a Krav Maga studio in anchorage and I am very much looking forward to being able to pick back up my Krav Maga training once we get out of this retarded place that can't be called a country

[fatboy]

Fatboy,

I do agree with the statement "Where the system shines is the ability to train at close to full speed, all the way up to the pain level once the basics were mastered."

I actually discovered that there is a Krav Maga studio in anchorage and I am very much looking forward to being able to pick back up my Krav Maga training once we get out of this retarded place that can't be called a country

The key part in all of that is "once the basics were mastered." It never failed that there was always that guy that wanted to go full tilt in the first few minutes. My SOP for taking care of that was to then use them as the training dummy for showing what some one getting choked out looked like. That never failed to enforce that the basics were needed first.

[centermass]

[rangerjd]

ScreenHunter_539 Mar. 29 13.38.jpg

Now that's funny right there.