Hand to hand combat in the Military?

Question

Hand to hand combat in the Military?

Answer 1

I hold two black belts and I've been involved in one martial art or another my whole life. I could take the average street punk apart bare handed, no problem. I don't mean this in a bragging way. Most experienced martial arts competitors who read what I just wrote will just shrug and like "yeah, so?" I only say it to set up the rest.



That being said, the true "martial art" of the military is squad tactics and the use of your weapons. Rifle, grenade, AT-4, SAW, what have you. That's the stuff that wins life and death battles.



But you asked about hand to hand. In my professional opinion, the marines have it. Their system is pretty impressive and incorporates both empty hand fighting, jiu jitsu / grappling and close weapons like the knife and bayonet. It's some lethal stuff.



Worldwide, the korean ROK soldiers are widely respected for their hand to hand skills, as is the Israeli Defense Force. Krav Maga is the israeli hand to hand art, and you can learn that here as a civilian. (though probably not as well.)



If you want to own at hand ot hand in single, unarmed combat, just take MMA for a couple of years. If you want more of a street fighting style, krav maga is your best bet.



EDIT: I'm in the army myself, and they MACP program they teach there is pretty weak.

Answer 2

Marines receive a considerable amount of training in MCMAP. MCMAP moves are designed to be flexible. Many can kill someone when needed, or simply weaken him, so he can be captured. Before almost all Marine martial arts moves were designed to kill, but now that has changed. Not all Marines are giants, but most are very good fighters. Go on youtube and search Marine Martial arts human weapon. They have the entire episode there. The Army also teaches martial arts, but I don't know how serious it is. My friend in Army military police says its available if you want it, but not required. In the Marines depending on your MOS and station, you can receive more or less MCMAP training.

Answer 3

most marines arnt friggin no clue WWE stars those guys are just wannabes. the real marines do teach you hand to hand combat, infact it is now required you obtain their first rank in their martial arts program to graduate, but as your career progresses you have a chance to try and move up in belts and abilitys

Answer 4

There have been changes over the years. SEALs, for instance would go through their BUDS, and if they seemed decent, they were referred to specific Kung Fu, and Martial Arts experts. Often, Wing Chun, as taught by Master Dave Meadows, or others who know how to control a crowd of opponents. Marines would often get a crash course in something akin to Jiu Jitsu, and learn how to crank someone's neck, or stomp on their head. Other militaries, like Israeli use Krav Maga, and Russian Spetsnaz have their art, and Green Berets have theirs (Fairbairn and Applegate), and the old OSS definitely used the "Fairbairn and Applegate" system. The old WWII commandos followed the Fairbairn and Applegate system where it is more one-on-one, but VERY dangerous if that person is good at it. For many, Fighting a group requires different techniques. Martial arts is a "buy-in" for specific types of martial arts, and get taught because the person in charge prefers it, and not because it is the best. Some of the old OSS guys were absolutely lethal, and their methods could be burned in easily, if the student had a specific personality set (Self-control, can follow direction, and gets along with others, etc). Even old Jiu Jitsu, from back in the day, is lethal. A person only has to be willing to learn it and carry it out. It is not unusual for a Green Beret, for instance, to kill a dozen people with his hands, in a single night, or a SEAL to kill multiple opponents while grappling.

Answer 5

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Marines have the most extensive out of all the basic levels of hand to hand and they really aren't anything that special. There are some much higher levels of hand to hand that can run into though. I know some special units train in Gracie Style Jui-jitsu and stuff like that. Fighting a experience member of special forces would probably be a challenge, but no regular marine is going to beat a golden gloves fighter. It also depends on the job. Infantry men with a commander that has a hard on for hand to hand combat are going to be something you wouldn't want to face on the ground. But again, over all, you'll beat majority of military in hand to hand.

Answer 6

The Navy teaches a course about hand to hand combat. It ir run by a group called VBSS. You can ask your command to attend the sessions. We have both military and civilian Instructors.

Answer 7

Marines recieve MCMAP, which is probably the best. An easier way is just to fight 1 guy from each branch. Joke.

Answer 8

I think the best hand to hand combat training easily goes to the Marines, everybody else (Army,Navy,USAF) has basic combatives in BCT.



In the Marines I think the F.A.S.T teams are very well trained in hand to hand combat.

Answer 9

Oh you talking about that movie with John Cena in it???? Thats a pretty good movie. Marines is the most physically demanding branch and that means every aspect of fighting is best in the marines. Second is the army. But we are forgetting about the army rangers and the Navy Seals i bet are extremely good at hand to hand combat.





But my guess is Navy Seals

Answer 10

In the Marine Corps we have MCMAP. Its basically Kickboxing 101 meets Grappling 101, some police like restraint stuff, dirty stuff like (eye gouges, stomps, open hand strikes, groin kicks) weapons defense, and weapons training(Knife, baton, rifle & bayonet, garrote, improvised weapons). Its much better than what was trained before and fairly complete, albeit relatively basic. Training is supposed to involve a lot of conditioning, sparring, hitting pads, training in full gear and uneven ground, two on one fighting, or situational one one one scenarios. Such as two guys will be sparring and someone will throw a rubber knife into the mix, the first person to get to it and stab the other guy wins. The philosophy is to use the best weapon you have, improvise a weapon if you have none, and only go unarmed if that's your only option. Its not too advanced and won't make you a MMA champ, but it'll teach you what you need to fight well enough. After all, I don't plan on playing spider guard or using a spin kick in a real fight. Apparently its almost identical to Krav Maga. Most instructors will have experience in other martial arts, and its a requirement to become an instructor trainer(can train instructors).



Problem is how its trained is a matter of what unit you're sent to, i.e. luck of the draw. For example my unit was fairly motivated and would run hard box training sessions when we got big boot(new guy) drops to qual all the new guys up to green belt(the standard for infantry by Marine Corps Order). We would also train it for 2 hours once or twice a week as part of PT, and we'd go fairly hard. We also didn't teach just up to green, we taught the whole syllabus plus whatever other stuff the instructor wanted to ad based on his experience in other styles. The only difference between greens brown and black in our unit was rank(you have to be a Cpl to be brown and Sgt to be black). That said a lot of units didn't do that, after all as a Marine you'll almost never need to go hand to hand unless you messed up bad, that's why we have rifles and pistols. Since the training is supposed to be full contact, a lot of injuries happen for something some see as relatively irrelevant to actual warfare. I mean if Pfc Moron hyper extended his elbow because he didn't tap soon enough, or LCpl Idiot got his knee busted with a low kick, well, those are two marines that can't go on patrol. Therefore a lot of units just do half @$$ box training when they get a boot drop just to qual people as a "check in the box" deal. Its really up to your Battalion and/or Company commander.



The Army has something called MACP. Which from what I've seen is almost intermediate Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu with very basic kickboxing, and Kali weapons techniques. Their system seems to have more grappling, but a striking and weapons training. MCMAPs equal parts grappling, striking, and weapons, MACP seems to be almost 70-75% grappling. Then again I've never trained MACP, I've only seen the books, so I don't really know. Maybe an Army dog could give you more insight on it.



I have no idea what the Airforce, Navy or Coast Guard trains, if anything. I'm sure their bad@$$es like SEAL teams and Combat Controllers get some hand to hand training.

Answer 11

I know the Army teaches Modern Army Combatives. It's not taught as how to kill people with your barehands (think you've seen too many movies) It's a MMA fighting style that you can take simply by asking your chain of command. If your chain of command isn't assholes or you're not about to deploy they'll usually send you. I know there is 3 levels and you would be "Combatives Level 1 Certified" if you complete level 1 and so on. I'm not sure if there are more than 3 levels in the Army and alot of units will make Combatives 1 "mandatory" I.E. they'll treat you like a piece of crap til you go.

Answer 12

Mcmap Syllabus

Answer 13

We have guns now, but spec ops get additional training for a last resort like hand to hand.