While times may have changed in civilian arts and sports training/techniques not much has changed with mil close quarters combat/non-ballistic weapons threats. The faced threats still include same or similar threats such as striking, kicking, clinching, grappling, stabbing and bludgeoning.
Unarmed and non-ballistic weapons mil CQC tactics and skills are all about best most proven safest threat neutralisation trade-craft practices and our military basic close combat programs must provide the capabilities for the combatant to be able to neutralise faced threats by a best of battle proven primary capabilities modus operandi.
Tactics and skills of close quarter’s threat neutralisation must be role, threat and situational specific to military close quarter’s actions on.
The skills must fit with full battledress/body armour, combat boots, load bearing realities and all considerations of effective safe as humanly possible threat neutralisation.
They must reduce risk and danger to the lowest level possible and this means not including skills where the combatant will be compromised by taking the enemy on as in a fight over taking the enemy out as in deliberate threat neutralisation.
The skills must even with minimal training hours provide the highest chances of quickly dispatching the most formidable of foes.
Any skills or components of skills that expose the combatant to increased risk and reduce the chances of quick as humanly possible threat neutralisation including offering an enemy easy access to the combatant’s life-support systems and delicate targets must never be included.
Eliminating techniques that require turning your back on your enemy, reaching, offering the arms or sporting sweeping of reaping techniques over stamping skills as well as competitive practices such as take on punches or high kicks are not part of our mil CQC primary practices for obvious reasons. Standalone wrestling and submission type grappling techniques for operational CQC actions on that do not include simultaneous seizure and destructive take out armed or unarmed objective achievement primary threat neutralisation capabilities must never be part of our primary trade-craft practices for mil CQC actions on threat neutralisation.
One rule of European mil CQC dating back to our expert Master Chief instructors from the great wars was that all skills must enable lethal terminal actions employments from the outset or when through increased risk or specific situations terminal threat neutralisation is the best and safest means of winning/objective achievement.
If skills do not allow for immediate transition to lethal options without losing dominance/momentum they should not be included in primary mil CQC packages.
If they don’t fit with battledress/body armour they cannot be included if safety and effect are the objective and this is a primary reason why most sporting and traditional techniques are deemed not fit for purpose and are not included.
Likewise if an easy stop to the application of techniques could easily be achieved by simple foul/dirty/deadly targeting of the life support bodily vitals or delicate human senses then such techniques would not make the cut.
The following is an outline of but some of our basic military close quarters combat/armed and unarmed combat military self-defence skills inclusions.
Brain to boot mil CQC mental toughness training for military CQC/military self- defence.
Tactics and skills to increase confidence and objective achievement competency through increasing/enhancing will/commitment to achieve objective/threat neutralise. Primary practices for expected and unexpected actions on.
CQC medical aspects.
Understanding the probable/possible outcomes of armed and unarmed combat threat neutralisation employed actions.
Unarmed offensive assault.
Skills that are simple, direct overkill gross motor unarmed and non-ballistic weapons primary threat neutralisation capabilities applicable to neutralisation of individual and multiple aggressors. Complete same systems support skills strategies and contingency options.
Unarmed counter offensive assault.
Tactics and skills to clear the confrontation line/kill zone combined with quick quiet threat neutralisation, or when compromised stationary direct line incoming threat neutralisation. Counteroffensive strategies and situational specific threat neutralisation tactics and skills.
Seizure/grabs holds prevention.
Front side and rear flank grabs and holds prevention and threat neutralisation.
Seizure escapes, and immediate threat neutralisation.
Secure and insecure holds and grabs escapes by armed and unarmed means combined with aggressor neutralisation.
Weapons disarming of edged, bludgeon, primary and backup weapons combined with threat neutralisation.
Including under incoming armed threat and armed ambush threat by armed and last resort unarmed means and methods.
Improvised weapons/implements.
Tools/implements and non-ballistic fit for purpose CQC weapons/improvised weapons threat neutralisation.
Ground combat.
Destruction of limbs/life-support vitals by armed and unarmed ground combat take out deadly/foul means and methods.
Dagger combat.
Offensive/counter offensive dagger threat neutralisation means including armed option seizure escape. Dagger versus unarmed and armed enemy threats.
Detainee handling.
Enemy prisoner taking/snatching moving manipulating/applying mechanical restraints.
Combating enemy fighting arts/styles.
Singular principles to neutralise enemy styles threat categories by overkill life or limb destruction.
Bayonet combat.
Offensive bayonet to neutralise an unarmed-enemy/bayonet armed enemy.
Counter offensive bayonet to neutralise an unarmed enemy/bayonet armed enemy.
Bayonet disarming.
Evasive and stationary bayonet disarming and threat neutralisation.
Primary and backup weapon protection
Weapon seizure prevention/retention and regention (remaining control of your weapon).
This has been but an outline insight into our basic military CQC course package.
There are different basic packages for different services/units in relation to their specific/specialist roles.
Elite forces basic courses packages would include considerably more specialist role specific skills as well as the basic primary principles tactics and skills.
The most important factor is that the skills can be learned and retained in minimal training time and when employed effectively will provide the capability to dispose of or disarm and disable even the most formidable foes by proven deadly foul/dirty tricks brigade means and methods.
This file has not provided the specific individual primary skills and it is such skills that maximise threat neutralisation. If you want to learn such skills in the words of Baz a close friend and former mil elite operator and CQC instructor; sign up step up and all will be revealed.
Ensuring practices are never included that do not provide the quickest, most effective and safest means of formidable enemy threat neutralisation is a must and reducing options to tradecraft proven primary practices that provide a complete singular means of destruction of most if not all threat category variants reduces risks and factors of confusion as well as time in decision making under real time threat.
Thumbs through the eyes or a CQC short dagger will put an end to unarmed clinching/ ground fighting and are a brutally factual description of such means of neutralising an entire threat category.
Ensuring combatants have an understanding of the risks and dangers of take on techniques that are contested in gender categories or weight divisions including techniques that are designed to score points or submit an opponent over a military CQC kill or die actions on mentality and modus operandi is most important so they can identify techniques flaws and risks and know what will stop an enemy in their tracks in an instant and what will not.
Initial training is by means of our military CQC methods of instruction followed by regular drilling tradecraft practices and then irregular executions of these skills under BHE unpredictable unorthodox close quarters actions on.
Anything that is of a fine motor skills complex action including techniques that require specific enemy responses/compliance are not included in our basic CQC training as such skills require predictable responses/actions that are far from the realities of unpredictable overkill military battlefield close combat actions on.
Primary tradecraft practices must be the most effective, safest, most proven means of enemy threat destruction.
For example, employing stamp kicking skills provides maximum target reach/high level destructive impact and safety by means of contact with the sole of the combat boot.
Stamp kicks are directed at the knee joint or below and provide highest threat neutralisation capabilities by ligament destruction incapacitation in a military close quarter’s combat actions on in full battle dress/body armour load bearing and on difficult terrain.
When effectively employed they incapacitate an enemy leaving them on the deck unable to escape.
‘KISS: keep it simple stupid’, as my mentor the late Col Rex Applegate would say by means of best of deadly dirty battle proven principles and practices far removed from as he would say ‘flowing robe brigade’ techniques.
Nothing less than our best of deadly/foul threat neutralisation tactics and skills is acceptable in our military close combat training packages.
Fist fighting against a formidable foe with a dagger is foolish to say the least like many other take on styles/techniques that against an armed combatant are suicidal.
The important requirement is the combatant being trained and armed with all the capabilities required to deal with all the threat likelihoods by a deliberate decisive overkill military close combat means
It’s no good only knowing how to attack with a rifle and bayonet and not knowing how to counter attack with your rifle and bayonet or only knowing how to dispatch an unarmed enemy and not knowing how to combat or counter-engage an enemy also armed with a rifle and bayonet.
You also need to know how to disarm a bayonet charge/threat by armed means and if you are not armed by unarmed means.
Weapons ownership in mil CQB/CQC has been described as: if you are going to be trained in a weapons usage you had better know how to neutralise it if your weapon is taken from you and used against you under all threat realities and possible probable actions on.
The same/similar applies to unarmed/non-ballistic/improvised weapons in that you need to know not only how to use it to combat an enemy but also to counter engage and disarm an enemy of the weapon. It comes down to the correct and best tools to get the job done and knowledge and intestinal fortitude equating to power and providing competency and capability.
Skills commonality by being of a same mil CQC system ensures quick cohesive actions on employments and being instructed in principles to combat or counter entire threat categories by a single principle based means increases your threat neutralisation capabilities.
There is no reasoning for having a different method to counter every individual technique included in every same/similar threat category as this would be a negative factor in decision making and with skills competency/capabilities and retention.
