Strength (Numerical and Physical)

a) YOU: Your strength depends on how fit you are to handle the situation and how reliable your comrades are.

b) THE ENEMY: Is the enemy younger, fitter, faster, fatter, more confident, more experienced, or drug crazed? Are they accompanied by comrades or are they close at hand?

2. Weapons (Legal, Illegal, Improvised and Procured)

a) YOU: Have you time to go for a weapon? Is it safe to go for a weapon? Are there objects lying around that can be used as weapons?

b) THE ENEMY: What weapons do the enemy have? If you can improvise, will they also improvise? Have you adequate defences against their weapons?

Aim (Purpose and Attitude)

a) YOU: Your aim, at all times, will be survival at any cost. How you achieve this depends on your appreciation of all the other factors.

b) THE ENEMY: Your opponents aim can include detaining, crippling, raping or killing you. It is up to you to find out fast, by arguing, observing, moving, listening, talking, cooperating, thinking and distracting.

Terrain (Surface Conditions and Troop Disposition)

a) YOU: Are you in an area that is familiar to you? Can you use the ground to your advantage? What type of tactics can you use on that terrain to escape or stay alive? Where is the nearest refuge? Can you step, roll or fall without danger? Where is your nearest back up?

b) THE ENEMY: Is this their territory? From which direction will their support come?

Consideration of these four factors will help you to survive.

Quarter

In a boxing match, when your opponent falls, you immediately go to a neutral corner.
This scenario does not occur in close combat. When your opponent falls, this simply indicates the next phase of the fight. Always continue the fight until your survival is guaranteed.
Never give the opponent the opportunity to recover. Never expect quarter and never give it until your operational aim has been achieved.

Nerve Points

The illustrations in chapter 2 show 32 frontal and 17 rear targets on the human body. Not very many people will have the clarity of mind, in the heat of the fight, to remember these precise points.
Just remember that the maximum damage pressure points lie down the centre line of the body from between the eyes to the pubic area. This centre line is usually well defended with body armour or the opponents forearms. The best way to get to the vulnerable areas of the body is to attack either side of the centre line to open up the opponents defence, then attack the centre.
You can also work your way around the opponent and attack the rear areas.
In the heat of the fight, there is a low probability of striking the vulnerable areas with accurate and powerful strikes. Consider using combination attacks to weaken the opponent and break down their defences.

Hand Techniques

The bones of the hand are very delicate and easily damaged. Most people have a natural tendency to clench their fists in violent situations. Because of this fact, some closed fist techniques have been described in this textbook. The fist must only be used when it is protected by heavy duty gloves or knuckle dusters. This will be discussed in much more detail in Chapter 3.

Defensive Stances

Think about this point. If you have the time to adopt a defensive stance, it means that an attack on your person has been either unsuccessful or you have time to perceive an attack on your person and time to adopt a stance.
On many occasions your perception of an attack will be preceded by a feeling of semi-consciousness after a surprise attack or else your body hurtling to the ground after a rear attack.
Stances are secondary to learning how to run from, duck, dodge and parry attacks as they occur. Stances are also secondary to learning how to break your fall and carry out a defence from the ground.
If you have time to perceive an attack, that time would be better spent either escaping or else attacking, rather than presenting a static target and the static mind set that stances can encourage.
Use stances as part of your distracting techniques. For example, adopt a boxers stance and use your feet.
Despite these points, stances for stick, knife and unarmed situations will be discussed further in Chapter 2.

Foot Techniques

In sport combat, many foot attacks are directed at difficult to reach areas. For safety reasons, kicks are never allowed to the most vulnerable areas. These areas include the ankles and sides of the knee cap.
Try and keep your kick and sweeps low where they are at their most powerful. This approach will keep you away from the opponent's hand and grappling techniques.
The terrain you are fighting on will restrict the type of foot techniques you can use. Try to revise foot techniques on a wide variety of terrain.

Body Movement

Text book illustrations always fail to convey the degree of body movement involved in any technique. The figures used in illustrations can only represent a single phase of a physical action. Do not slavishly follow the illustrations. It is important that you modify the techniques illustrated in order to suit your height, dress and situation.
In close combat, you must move continually. Keep stepping both in and out of the opponent's line of attack. This will disrupt their timing. Also sway, bob and weave in order to avoid strikes. Body movement is the priority in avoiding attacks. This is because ducking and dodging is much more instinctive than blocking techniques.

Holding the Opponent

Grabbing or holding the opponent will place you at a disadvantage. With your hands employed, your defences are restricted. This is particularly true when you may have to fight with more than one person. Always weaken or distract the opponent before trying to apply a hold. When you go for a hold, try to apply it to the hair, ears, testicles, throat or fingers. Also use pincer grips, arm and leg locks, chokes and strangles.
The application of holds depends on the successful use of distractions and combinations.

Holding a Weapon

Holding a weapon can place you at a disadvantage, if you are focused on looking for an opening to use that particular weapon.
The weapon can also be used as a distraction by you. While the opponent is focused on the weapon, attack by any other means.

Unconventional Techniques

Survival in combat can be attributed to many factors other than numerical and technological superiority. History has shown us that many a battle has been won by a weaker opponent who can disrupt the enemy with an sudden or unconventional attack.
If you pull an opponent's hair it will cause a great deal of distracting pain. It will also make their eye's water. With a good grip on someone's hair it is possible to slam their head into the wall, the ground, your knee or head butt. When you claw at someone's face or throat, their natural reaction is to either copy the action or at least lift their hands in defence.
This can be used to apply another technique in response to the opponent's behaviour.
A strong grip can be broken by sinking your teeth into the opponent's hand, wrist, cheek, throat, nose, eye brows or the lower part of the leg.
If you know the opponent's style, unbalance them mentally by breaking all their rules of engagement.

Emergency Techniques

In some standing or grounded situations you may become either blinded, stunned, shocked or surprised.
Do have a set of well rehearsed techniques that do not rely on visual contact. They will occupy the opponent and give you time to recover.

• Trap their arms in a bear hug. This will allow you to stamp on their insteps, use head butts, or bite their throat and face.
• Grab a handful of hair and move back, pulling their head into a knee lift or slamming their head into the ground.
• Push the palms of your hands up the opponent's cheeks. Your thumbs will fall naturally into the eye sockets. At this stage use one hand to palmheel the lower body targets.
• If the opponent has their back to an obstruction, you can palm heel the chest area. This will whip lash their head into the wall and back into your head butt.
• Grab at their throat and attack the groin area with the free hand.
• Grab the groin area and attack the face area with your elbows or head butts.

Training Sessions

For combat efficiency, the training requirement is twice weekly for one year. There are two main reasons for embarking on a training programme.

First, the ability to fight in either armed or unarmed combat is not a skill that can be learned from either books or videos.

Second, some individuals do not posses the ability to fight and find it impossible to be totally aggressive.

For these reasons, a training programme must be employed in order to assess the fighting ability of individual soldiers. There is no point in learning technique from books or videos unless you can apply it to a living, retaliating opponent. Knowledge is the reserve of the instructor who may or may not be able to fight. Fighting experience is the reserve of those who can survive.

The length of the training programme also depends on the operational role of the troops involved. This may vary from a short but intensive programme to instill self confidence, to a longer programme for training future instructors.

Each training session should last for two hours. An all round training approach can be tailored to cater for the units operational requirements. A basic training session would contain the following elements. These elements will be discussed in more detail at the end of this chapter:

10 min - Safety checks

20 min - Basic sparring drill

20 min - Bag work revision

20 min - Ground work revision

20 min - New material

10 min - Free sparring

10 min - Match fighting

10 min - Bag work revision

10 min - Ground work revision

20 min - Yoga and Visualization

Revision Sessions

To promote speed, self confidence, and fighting skill, the revision sessions must contain as many variables as possible, for example;

1. The attack can be structured as a rush attack, rear attack, side attack, group attack, ground attack or combination attack.

2. The defence can incorporate withdrawal, ground fighting, friendly support or weapons.

3. The opponent can be either tall, short, fat, thin, drunk, crazed or armed.

4. The conditions must also be varied. Train within a crowd of people, in a cramped room, in darkness, your hands may be tied or you may be blindfolded or stunned.

The stunned condition may be simulated as follows:

1. Place the end of a brush shaft on the ground.

2. Place both your hands over the other end and then rest one of your ears on top of your hands.

3. Run round the broom shaft without lifting the shaft off the ground or lifting your ear from your hands.

4. After 30 seconds of this exercise, try to either adopt a fighting stance or use a punch bag.

Close Combat Training

There should be at least four phases to close combat training. Furthermore, these phases must be broken down into stages. This will help to ensure that your training programme has a progressive structure.

Phase 1 - Basic Techniques.

Stage 1 - The Basics.

Practise single offensive techniques from all sections of the text book. Make maximum use of the training aids, including punch bags, static and active partners. Practise until you have a thorough knowledge of the basic techniques at the different fighting ranges.

Stage 2 - Defence.

Practise different defences against the same offensive technique. Learn how to counter attack as well as defend. Keep the physical contact under control so that undefended strikes do not have a serious impact. Move around the training floor using stepping drills and distractions.

Stage 3 - Combination Attacks.

Combine two techniques from one discipline only. One partner remains passive and simply observes the line of the attack. Use this procedure until you are proficient in using combinations.
Both combatants must be continually moving round the training floor. This will teach you how to judge distances and time your hits. By acting as an observer you will also learn how the combination is set up. Pay attention to the way most moves can be "telegraphed" by the attacker, long before they materialize.

Stage 4 - Defence.

Practise several defences against the same combination attack. Use light contact only at this stage. Again, you must make maximum use of the floor space.

Phase 2 - Free Sparring

Before this phase, sensitivity training and sparring drills may be introduced. The aim of free sparring is to develop your spontaneity in attack and defence. In this phase, there is no collusion between the combatants. The techniques used in free sparring are personally selected and tested out by each individual. You are now learning to use offensive and defensive techniques on an opponent who has the same intentions.
Free sparring is a vital phase in your training programme. It will bridge the gap between basic technique and match fighting. Free sparring is used to develop your fighting ability. It is the practical application of the former four stages you have just progressed through.

Lethal tactics are not permitted at this stage and all strikes are directed to full body armour.

Always work in teams of four. The teams are made up from two combatants with one observer each.
Spar for one minute and then allow the observers to discuss both combatant's strengths and weaknesses. The observers are also expected to control dangerous play.

Two sparring sessions, with a total of two minutes, will be quite sufficient in the early stages of your training.

Constantly change your training partners. Fresh partners will demand a fresh approach on your part.

Phase 3 - Match Fighting.

A match fight is a knock down contest to establish the superiority of a particular fighter. There is no time limit to a fight. A fighter will lose the fight when:

• They fall down and remain open to lethal attack.
• They are knocked out.
• They are caught in a strangle or choke hold.
• They have to submit on account of a lock.
• The observers decide who has lost.

The judgement of the observers is necessary because protective clothing will nullify some of the lethal attacks.
The observers are also necessary because either of the fighters may become stunned and incapable of responding to submission holds.

Phase 4 - Close Combat Drills

Close combat drills will allow you to advance your practical knowledge of close combat without the requirement of lethal contact.
Your knowledge has already been advanced as far as practically possible. You must now use that practical experience to formulate individual drills. The complexity, duration and practicality of these drills will depend entirely upon the effort you put into the preceding three phases.
Combat drill is the prearranged form developed by the combatants. It is used to practise the application of lethal tactics. At the critical stage, all the strikes are controlled with minimal contact.

The subject areas to cover include:

• Attacks, either front or rear.
• Attacks and counters.
• Combination attacks.
• Weapon drills.

Training Practice

Keep changing the training partners over. This will stop students from becoming too familiar with each other and thus developing a complacent attitude.

Durind a training session, have a Team Leader detailed to control the class. The Team Leaders role is to formulate a specific training and stick to that programme. The team Leader must be capable of stopping dangerous practices and also motivating the students to maintain a high work rate.

Obstructive Practice

During practice sessions, it is possible to develop an obstructive mind set. This is where you start to anticipate the training partners movements and you apply counter moves. This will slow down your partners development. Allow your partner to practice a move until they are proficient at that technique. Remember that all techniques are usually set up with distracting punches or kicks. Your ability to anticipate your training partners moves will be properly tested during match fighting.

Perfect or Practical

Spend at least two minutes on each technique. Work fast to develop power, speed, recovery, accuracy and tactical movement. Get away from the mind set of doing 200 kicks or 200 punches.. Practice each technique for at least two minutes, even if you only manage 50 repititions. You must try to incorporate the technique into a fighting framework. The aim is to make the technique part of a defence and attack strategy rather than a sterile exercise in technique.

Bag Training

The punch bag is a passive training aid. Spend too much time on it and you will neglect your defence and ability to react positively to an attacker.

Kick Training

Keep your kick training as realistic as possible. Move back and forward, left and right, counter and use combinations. Close combat is both dynamic and demanding, you must keep moving an remain difficult to predict. Kicks are powerful techniques, they will have an effect, not only on the opponent, but also on the applier. Anticipate these effects through a rigorous training procredure that involves an active training partner.

Yoga Exercises

The following Yoga exercises will help you to relax mentally and physically:

• Salamba Sirasana - Head Stand
• Salamba Sarvangasana - Neck Stand
• Uddiyana Bandha - Stomach Isolation
• Savasana - Corpse Pose

Total relaxation is neither desirable nor a prerequisite to fighting success.

There is an ideal level of relaxation to be aimed at. The ideal level that allows you to cope with battle field stress and continue to think tactically.

To Blitzkrieg or to Hammer

In a fighting situation, you have two avenues of attack. First, you can Blitzkrieg the opponent by hitting from every angle.

Second, you can Hammer away at the same spot until the enemy is defeated.

For the untrained, the Blitzkrieg is more difficult to activate and is also less instinctive. This is because it demands an active, analytical form of thinking.

Combat is always performed at a very base level of intellectual consciousness. Thinking, seeing and hearing are usually focused directly on the immediate threat. For this reason, the Hammer approach is a better tactic for the inexperienced fighter. The Hammer is more instinctive, single minded and can be used to break down the opponents covering up tactics.

The physical strength required to defeat an opponent is a limited commodity that evaporates after 5 - 10 seconds of hard combat. The flow of adrenalin, that occurs at the start of a stressful encounter, will sap your strength if it is not controlled.

Using the Hammer tactic will sap your strength if the opponents defence is good. Why persist in using valuable energy on an opponent who can cover up and bide their time until your energy level drops? Against an aggressive opponent, hammering away with a single technique will give the opponent time to switch tactics and counterattack. For example, why try to head butt an opponent who is pushing away at your chest. You may try the head butt several times before realizing there is no connection taking place. Meanwhile your strength is sapped, the initiative has gone and the mind set of a single tactic will leave you in an impasse, open to counterattack.

Blitzkrieg or Hammer? It all depends on the opponents approach and responses to your attack.

Visualization

The mental practice of visualization can be used to enhance your fighting skills.
This is a process where mental and physical feed back can accelerate your practical fighting ability.
If you can hold a mental image of a technique, your practical performance will improve.
When you can perform a technique properly, enhance your image of it through visualization.
Visualization can also be used as a form of battle field inoculation. Consider a specific set of techniques required for an approaching operation. By visualizing these techniques, your fears and stress levels will be reduced.

General Principles

In combat, it is difficult to think in terms of specific responses to specific attacks. Your mind must remain uncluttered from this baggage.

• Fight without thinking, hit first, react second.
• Reduce the targets to the center line.
• Defend the center line, angle it away from the opponents.
• Never fight the opponents fight, do the opposite.
• Keep changing your tactics.
• Dogged determination and flexibility beat perfect technique every time.

CHAPTER 2

Chapter 2 - Intro

This second section will describe in more detail the fundamental techniques outlined earlier. The subject matter will include:

· Pressure points and appropriate mode of attack

· Stances

· Body movement

· Footwork

· Kick defences

· Punch defences

· Basic sparring drills

· Coping with the different fighting ranges and styles

The Pressure Points

Pressure points are areas of the human body that are vulnerable to damage when attacked with the appropriate weapon. The effects of strikes to pressure points will also depend upon a combination of the following five factors:

· The weight behind the delivery.

· The speed of the delivery.

· The accuracy of the strike.

· The type of weapon used.

· The opponent's physical and mental state.

Operational dress and equipment will directly influence technique as well as the effect of any strikes. Specific pressure points are difficult to reach, especially when the opponent is moving and attacking you at the same time. The exact pressure points can only be attacked when the opponent's defence has been broken down with strong attacks to general areas. Real combat will never be a display of perfect form. It will always be a display of quick opportunities. There will always be a high rate of low power strikes, forced throws and imperfect techniques. Because of this factor, consider the principle of overkill by using combinations in your attack and defence.

Primary Pressure Points

Front

Fig.1

1. The top front of the head can be attacked with:

• Hammer fist
• Palm heel
• Heel stamp

2. The temples lie between the tops of the ears and the eyes. Attack the temples with:

• Palm heel
• Hooking palm heel
• Head butt
• Toe kick
• Knife hand
• Elbow
• Knee
• Heel stamp

3. Attack the area between the eyes with:

• Knife hand
• Palm heel

4. Attack the ears by grabbing or clapping:

• Grab and rip up or down
• Grab and chop with knife hand
• Clap with cupped hands to damage the ear drums

5. The eyes can be attacked with any weapon. Minimum force is required to create maximum damage. The only danger to the attacker is the rigid bone that surrounds the eye socket. Remove the eye by pushing the fingers or thumb in at the top middle of the socket.

6. The jaw line can be attacked with:

• Palm heels to the point to cause knock outs
• Palm heels to the side in order to break the jaw or cause knock outs
• Knife hand
• Elbow
• Kick

7. The throat area targets cover the wind pipe, Adam's apple and the hollow of the throat:

• Fingers and thumbs
• Palm heel hook
• Elbow
• Knife hand
• Pincer grip
• Heel stamp

8. The heart can be attacked with:

• Palm heel
• Side kick
• Roundhouse kick
• Roundhouse shin kick
• Knee

9. The solar plexus area is usually well protected. Any attacks to this area are usually part of a combination that opens up the opponent's defences. Attack this area with:

• Palm heel
• Knee
• Toe
• Elbow
• Back elbow
• Head butt

10. The ribs are usually protected by the elbows. They can be attacked with:

• Forward and rear elbow strikes
• Palm heel hook
• Roundhouse knee
• Roundhouse shin

11. The spleen can be attacked with:

• Palm heel
• Toes
• Elbow

12. The bladder and groin area can be attacked with:

• Palm heel hook
• Palm heel
• Elbow
• Back knuckle

13. The genital area is usually well protected. Direct attacks to this area can be used to draw the opponent's defence down and leave other targets exposed. Attack this area with:

• Pincer grip
• Grab and twist
• Knife hand
• Knee
• Shin
• Forearm

14. The knee caps are best attacked when the opponent has most of their weight on them. Attack with:

• Side kicks when the opponent is side on to you
• Roundhouse shin kick
• Roundhouse heel kick

15. The insteps have a very delicate bone structure. Attack this area with heel stamps.