Martial Arts have come a long way, today there are Dojos on seemly every corner, most people seem to dapple in various arts (like me), and MMA is being the hot sport of the 21st century. It is also very common today to see our soldiers taking and training in some form of Martial Art, most popular is the mesh-mash of arts, called MMA. The general public were introduced to Martial Arts, through Master Bruce Lee, James Bond and Chuck Norris. Today, what they began is now commonly seen in the use of MMA/Kali style with rapid fire hits and fancy camera work, like the latest 007 and the Kali-using Jason Bourne. Modern military organizations have fully embraced all manner of Martial Art styles and ideas into forging their own brand of tactics for hand-to-hand warfare, much like the USMC MCMAP and the gold standard of all military Martial Arts: Krav Maga.There is a real difference between a traditional Martial Art, sport art, like Sport Taekwondo, and a military Martial Art. Traditional arts have not been altered to fit modern times, they are classic...while sport arts focus more on speed and point sourcing via hit placement. Then there is the military hand-to-hand arts...
The Beginning of Military Hand-to-Hand Arts





The Asian Martial Arts that originated around the 5th or 6th centuries from Chinese monks or trade with India have the advantage of being built upon for thousands of years, and some are still in there "classic" forum. From China and India, the idea of a system of blocks, strikes, and mental discipline spread through the region, apexed in the lethal Korean Hwarang Warriors and the Japanese Samurai. To me, as a lover of Japanese culture and history, the true beginning of the modern path of systematic hand-to-hand military training is in the Samurai. Due to the conditions in feudal Japan, where combat between Hans and warlords existed, arose a need for trained loyal warriors,the Samurai warriors. Samurai were a social caste, and sons born into the samurai were expected to train for most of their early years to achieve single-minded devolution to Bushido and perfection with their weapon of choice via formal schooling. Samurai were expected to be able to deal with threats, if they came from an arrow, gun, sword, or kick. This meant, Samurai were trained in all manner of warfare. This began the arts we know today, like Judo In some ways, those classically Martial Arts are a living record of the days of the Shogunate.

Hand-to-Hand Combat during the Age of the Gun
The gun. It changed the world and the how soldiers forever fought. It also levelled the playing field, gone were the days of the highly trained Samurai, Knights, and Spartans (well...until SPARTAN-II's anyways.). Now a small ball of metal propelled by an explosion could tear a man down before he could slash you to death with his sword. All of those years of training that a Samurai or Knight spend would be ended by a poorly trained foot soldier with good aim. The use of guns in the military caused the need for standardized training technique and safety while traditional hand-to-hand combat fell by the wayside.
Due to firearms, up until the 19th century,needing to be reload after each shot, allowed for their enemies to close the distance. We have all seen the modern Civil War epics like Glory. Soldiers during these black powder wars still engaged in hand-to-hand combat, with the massive sword-like 18 inch bayonets (!). This required governments to train their soldiers in the use of bayonets, and the empty-handed defense of someone charging at you with a bayonet. The bayonet charge was romanticized, by commanders, and society, causing them to be ingrained in military tradition. This can also be credited to the unpredictable of smoothbore weaponry, often not hitting the enemy with mortal wounds,while the 18 inches of metal being driving into the soft flesh of your enemy was lethal, or as Russian General Alexander Suvorov said "The Bullet is foolish, the Bayonet wise". The last bayonet charge in US military history? That was in 1951 during the Korean War.
But oddly, the gun helped restore hand-to-hand combat via the bayonet. In Jock Haswell book, The British Army, A Concise History, he sums up the era of the musket and hand-to-hand combat.
"In the early days of musketeering, circa 1639 or early 17th century, gunpowder replaced the bowstring which inadvertently decreased the fire rate of 15 arrows per minute to one soft lead bullet every quarter hour (providing the soldier was well trained and nothing went wrong). The loading itself required 30 something drill moves to prime and load the weapon. Thus the musketeers were out of the battle at this point and were vulnerable to cavalry. Therefore, they had to be protected by pikemen (whose weapons were 18 foot long to counter the cavalry). Once again, showing the superiority of cavalry in battle as Lord Protector Cromwell dictated, 'the best military weapon is a man on a horse.' Now, the musketeer and pikeman were inseparable until the invention of the bayonet. Which gave the infantryman a dual-purpose that replaced the pike. In 1663, the 2nd Foot in Tangier (a British regiment) was issued the first bayonet. This is the one that plugged into the barrel. The 'socket' bayonet that has now became the traditional bayonet that overcame the first major disadvantage of the early model in 1697."

The war that started modern military organizations thinking on the limitations of their hand-to-hand training, was the Great War. It seems odd dichotomy, during a war when the use of so many modern tools of the trade were introduced that some of the oldest tools of the trade were used, like the mace, the knife, and tomahawk.It was in those dirty, muddy trenches, were men engaged in brutal and savage hand-to-hand combat, often resorting to the dirtiest of tactics. One as to remember, the trench knife was developed for a reason. During the Second World War, Americans confronted a military that harbored a great love for Martial Arts, the Japanese, and during those savage jungle encounters, one as to wonder if the Japanese training in various arts gave them any upper hand? I have read that soldier that came from large urban areas during the Depression, gave these American boys experiences in street fighting, which made German soldier view the Americans as gangsters and thugs. But that was far from the case.
Western powers were thinking of new hand-to-hand combat systems as the second world war raged, with men like Applegate, Fairbairn, and Sykes. Colonel Rex Applegate of the OSS developed and trained special forces in the art of close quarters combat with knives and open hand. He wrote one of the great book on hand-to-hand combat, which had one of the best titles of all time, Kill or be Killed. William E. Fairbairn experienced Chinese Martial Arts in Hong Kong and became one of the founding fathers of developing an western military fighting art. In Hong Kong, he trained the police in his own hybrid style, Defendu, and long with Sykes, developed the greatest combat knife, the Fairbairn-Sykes: However mass exposure to Asian fighting arts would come during US occupation of Japan, while we gave them animation, leading to Anime and Magna, they gave us martial arts. That exchange would led to an awakening in western militaries to incorporate Asian Martial Arts into their training...but it would take years before western military organizations would listen, while their soldiers would train independently in Dojos, inspirited by masters like Bruce Lee. This can be seen with the Marine Corps, when Gunnry Sgt. Bill Millar began developing a new H2H combat system based on Japanese/Chinese Martial Arts, in 1956!
Let's be clear here, most military organizations did train their soldiers in hand-to-hand warfare, with a few moves, special operations units, like the SAS and GSG-9, would train ore in dept, but a truly military combat martial art was still years away, unless you lived in Israel or in Asia, or even in Russia. The USSR developed SAMBO, which was unarmed combat system from Japanese Jodo. Oddly, one of the founders of SAMBO was accused of being a spy for Imperial Japan in the 1930's, and die in prison. Besides, Krav-Maga, SAMBO maybe one of the easiest MMA styled military H2H combat systems. The sea change came when the military began to see patterns, in their soldiers going off-base in places like Japan, and getting into fights, in addition to the changes in the types of battles that would be fought. With the rise in urbanization, soldiers are more likely to engage with civilian populations, and soldiers need tools other their firearms to deal with them. If we look at the military operations after WWII, especially now in A-Stan and Iraq, how the native population sees us (conqueror or liberator), depends on how smooth things will go. The USMC developed their H2H combat system to quell the incidents of barfights via the discpine that Martial Arts teaches. since the introduction of their so-called, "one mind, any weapon" MCMAP, barfights are down, and this system as been modified for use by the entire US military.


Martial Arts within the Regular Military
Modern military Martial Arts have come a long way from the days of the bayonet charges, simple shoulder throws, and ineffective blocking. Today, there seems to be a real commitment to training soldiers in the art of hand-to-hand warfare, but it seems a little late. If one looks at modern soldiers, they are wearing all manner of tac-gear, ballistic armor with plate inserts, and Kevlar helmets...where are you suppose to hit them? The Samurai warrior also faced a similar issue, when they engaged in hand-to-hand combat, due to the armor that the Japanese warriors donned. The solution can bee seen in the classic forms of Judo (founded in 1882) and Japanese old-style Jujutsu (rumored to have founded in either the 15th or 17th centuries.). Today, most military organizations make an effort to develop and field an "military martial art", and soldiers will also seek out additional training. This came about after World War II, when American soldiers, sailors, and Airmen were stationed in Japan. People like Chuck Norris would take Martial Arts lessons on their own time and off-base.


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The Deadly Flying Russian Attack |

If one watches the scene were Tom takes out his target in the club Fever and where he takes down three dirtbags with an H&K USP .45 in less than 1.3 seconds, than you get an impression of the cold, deadly efficiency that operators utilize to end the dance and get home for a cold one.
Another fine example is from 2010 (and my favorite military shooter) video game Medal of Honor. During the assault on Bagram airbase, one of the Tier One Operators, Voodoo, is confronted by a Taliban when he is clearing a room. The Taliban fighter slashes with a knife, Voodoo counters with a forearm block, takes control of the arm, snaps it, then a knee strike, brings down the fighter to the ground. The finishing strike is with a military tomahawk to the fucking back of the head! Brutal, effective, efficient, and deadly.

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"I'm Jack Bauer, bitch." |
"Elite troops are not taught to 'fight fair' they are taught to fight and win as quickly as possible. They are taught to gouge eyes, break fingers, crush toes, kick testicles, break arms and break necks. Most martial artists do not concentrate on such vicious, brutal attacks except maybe at higher levels. This may be because of the psychological trauma involved in such brutal attacks. Such a fight may insure the student is victorious but there is still a psychological price to pay for crippling and killing another human being in a face to face confrontation." -William S.Frisbee
Here's the link: http://www.military-sf.com/mararts.htm
The Best Martial Art is...?
Some people may say, that Martial Art X is better than Martial Art Y, what really matters is who are you fighting. If it is a fully trained black belt from a good school with a good teacher that is honest about belts being earned, than that person is a serious threat. Now, someone that watches too many youtube videos, never works out, but watched the entire DVD set on some Ninja death art could be taken by a group of 3rd graders.In my own experience, the most dangerous fighters are experienced ones, and I've seen older boxers take black belts, because of speed, experience, and pain. The boxer hit over and over, not allowing the martial artist time to mount an offensive...and his blocks were took slow to counter the jabs of the boxer. It was over real quick...So,the real secret to what the best art is, lays within you. Depending on your training, skill, strength, and hand-eye reaction can put you on top in a fight.
My Personal Views on Martial Arts

So, I searched again, until I came into a school teaching Jeet Kune Do/Gun-Fu/Chinese Boxing/Wing Chu, and there I discovered my Martial Arts home. Being an asshole and a critic, I always things negative to say, and here is some of negative aspects of Martial Arts in general.
The over importance of blocking:
most Martial Arts, including JKD, have the cool-looking and complex system of traps, blocks, and strikes to overcome an attacker's blows. The issue is with catching that blow the right way to setup the trapping system. Some people are fast, fast at blocking and fast at strikes, speed can overcome some one's ability to counter. I always hated blocking, a majority of the time, it didn't work. Now, if someone laid hands on me, kicked, or got me in a lock, I was good, I could use my training, but just blocking blows...I normally resorted to kicking knees, and hitting to cause pain to overwhelm their attacks, then attacking myself with rapid strikes.
Over the head kicks
Every watched the helicopter kick by Jean-Claude Van Damme? Or when someone who took Tae Kwon Do kicks? These types of kick broadcast easily, and take time to set up and delivery. Now, if they connect, like Van Damme's 360 kick, it would most likely knock me out, but they have to hit me first. In the meantime, they have opened themselves open for my attack...and you don't want that
Thinking the Attacker is Stupid

Fights are NOT in straight lines
JKD and other arts have attacks being made from "off-the-line"of tradition face-to-face combat. When I took other arts, attackers were always directly in front or behind. Nothing is worst that throwing a punch, and having someone go off-line and hit you sideways, followed up with a knee to the ribs. That's a bad day....trust me.
You are NOT Duncan McLeod!

What is the future of Military Martial Arts?
LINKS
A Slient Film of US dough boys training for World War One:
A Slient Film of US dough boys training for World War One:
Here is the link to the USA TODAY story about the USMC MCMAP
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2001-03-08-marines.htm
Now, a few closing words from SIFU LEE
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We still miss you, Sifu Lee |
"When in actual combat, you're not fighting a corpse. Your opponent is a living, moving object who is not in a fixed position, but fluid and alive. Deal with him realistically, not as though you're fighting a robot. Traditionally, classical form and efficiency are both equally important. I'm not saying form is not important - economy of form that is - but to me, efficiency is anything that scores. Don't indulge in any unnecessary, sophisticated moves. You'll get clobbered if you do, and in a street fight you'll have your shirt zipped off you."
This was very informative thank you for taking the time to type it all out.
ReplyDeleteA very nice overview informative and concise. the editorial at the end is also interesting
ReplyDeleteThe vast majority of the times "hand to hand combat" is used is when Soldiers are dealing with prisoners of war. Zip tying them, searching them, and moving them from once place to another involves being in very close proximity to the enemy. If they become combative in those situations being able to quickly and safely choke them out is a very useful skill. Of course, the fact that the average American Soldier is about 6 inches taller and 50 pounds heavier than the average Iraqi helps too.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the information! I've been wondering about the hand-to-hand combat situations in these modern wars...very little is talked about. I wonder what the Iraqi teaches to their soldiers....
ReplyDeleteNice Information
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