There is a phrase that is in vogue in the intelligence community at the moment in relation to the war on terror.  It is known as “feeding the machine.”

 

Perhaps a brief description is in order?

 

In order to keep on winning the counter-terror war, the intelligence services have to keep a supply of useful information in order for the military to track down the insurgents and terrorists.  Once the intelligence reaches the command and control centre Predator UAV’s are dispatched to that area and engage the targets with extreme force.  Thus the information keeps the machine constantly fed with live targets.

 

So how does this rather extreme parable apply to us as exponents of self protection or close combat?

 

Well once we have passed the usual “soft skills” of awareness, avoidance and de-escalation we are in what we like to call the “live action training phase.”  In other words a fight!

 

Now when I say a fight, I mean a FIGHT!  Its not pre-emptive work, it’s not sucker punching, its not using the whole gamut of deceptive practices to get inside the other fellows guard and take him down without him having had an opportunity to be combative.

 

IT’S A FIGHT – with blood, snot and tears, and your training should cater for that eventuality.  Training for the “one shot” KO is all very well, but a well rounded combative practitioner needs to gear his fitness and training for something that may last more than a few seconds.

 

To go back to our parable, simply put, we are the UAV “Hell-fire” missiles that are constantly seeking out new targets on the guy we’re about to start smashing.  We are constantly feeding the machine with viable and live targets until the food supply – the opponent - is subdued either by being knocked out or knocked down.

 

From our point of view the best and most effective way to do this is to aim at the correct targets.  We want to be able to work smarter as well as harder.

 

There seems to be a trend, propagated over recent years, that says for self protection we should aim generically at our targets as that under extreme stress we won’t be concerned with which is the best target as our body will react adversely to physiological stress. They give you a general area and it’s up to you to do your best.         

 

 

I think these statements do practitioners of martial or combative training a disservice.   This may be the case for the individual that has no experience with any sort of combative training, but for people who train well it’s a fundamental of the skills that are taught.

 

Aim to target strikes for the best effect – generic targeting may be what you end up with but we should endeavour to aim for the optimum spot.  Rather than what some trainers propagate about just throwing strikes out haphazardly and hoping, we want to be able to hit first, fast and hard……but hey, we also NEED to be accurate.

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Now of course things can go wrong and we are all fallible and by all means if the latter happens and we should miss or our target moves then so be it – but our priority should be to connect with a strike zone that will have the optimum impactive effect as quickly and efficiently as possible.

 

This trend is not unique to all instructors; there are some excellent combative instructors out there that have excellent training and targeting strategies.  If anyone would like their names please feel free to contact me and I’ll gladly recommend them!

 

From a training point of view when we decide to strike a focus mitt we set ourselves up with a process.  This process consists of;

 

• Recognition of the Target – head, limb, torso, ancillary parts

 

• Assessment of the Target – size, angle, distance,

 

• Application of the Striking Tool – open hand, fist, elbow, kick, contact weapon

 

• Contact Effect – knock out, break, stun, pain,

 

Of course in the seconds before it all goes “belly up” this process may happen in a matter of seconds, a blur even.  One vital part of the targeting matrix is the assessment level in which situational factors can hamper our efforts and we should be able to assess the likelihood of impediment.  How and what we hit the person with may depend on a number of factors or situational limitations which can consist of build, clothing, demeanour and training.

 

At a basic level we will have to interpret and analyze the size of the assailant – does he outweigh us?  What is his demeanour – drunk or very aggressive?  His stance – did this guy look like he knew what he was doing – or was he all over the place?

 

But at a more advanced level we should be scanning to see what he is wearing – steel toes caps or trainers?  This might make the difference with a foot stomp!  How many layers of clothing – T-shirt, Jumper, Coat – he is wearing, which may determine what type of impact strike we are going to use and where we are going to place it!

 

Then of course there is space and distance. In order to actually have an effective strike we have to be able to physically reach the strike zone.  I had one situation where I was unable to directly get to a rather large individual - who was swinging a baseball bat at me at the time - so as to subdue him.  This was due to him backing up every time I took a guarded step forward.  I moved forward, he moved back all the time swinging that tree trunk – at times it was almost like a Mexican standoff!  So can we restrict his movement and more importantly can he restrict ours?

 

This matrix can be used not only for unarmed combat strikes but also covers the spectrum of weapon systems from edged weapons, sticks to combat pistol.  As a knife combative practitioner and instructor I know the importance of being able to get the weapon to the target that is going to have the maximum “stopping” effect on a pumped up and armed attacker.  And I want to be able to do this ASAP.

 

All the above is never truer than in the use of closed fist (or punching) techniques.

 

Previously I wrote an article entitled; “Bare Knuckle Combatives” which broached the subject of the use of bare knuckle boxing techniques in the modern use of combatives….If you wail away blindly with your fists, then yes, at some point (probably sooner) your bare hand will impact on hard cranium and you’ll more than likely “bust” your hand and be unable to function. 

 

This is the argument used by many combative instructors to justify a dogmatic approach to “open hand” only.  And in that context it is a valid argument.  But it is only a selective view based on a narrow assumption.

 

However when you train for street based pugilism we are training not to blast away at a hard-headed opponent as if we have gloves on, but to place the strikes at a main priority target.

 

Yes of course we want power into our combative strikes, but more importantly we want correct placement of the striking tool on the target that will have the best effect.  After all a howitzer has massive amounts of power, but if its targeting is off then chances are it will probably plough up a field and nothing more.  Wasteful in the extreme!

 

As we sometimes have to do with the TMA and self protection we have to separate the techniques of what we use for the Dojo and what we would use for modern day street applications.  The same is true with pugilism.  Sports based boxing and punching on the street are two very different beasts and while both have excellent training regimes and condition the exponent for a prolonged battle, it is maybe the tactics, and how we apply them, that we have to “tweak.”

 

Where should we be placing our strikes for optimum effect?  Well broadly speaking we want to be able to hurt the assailant in a number of ways by attacking;

 

• Main Target:  We want to get to the “holy grail” of knockouts as quickly as possible in short the point of the chin.  This more than anything is where our targeting skills come into play, and at the very least we will want to aim for the jaw line, nose, in order to disrupt his operating process

 

• Secondary Target:  Well we’ve got limbs, hands, shins, fingers and knobbly joints, as well as feet to smash, break and pulverise.  Sounds easy, well its not!  However if we can “take away” one or two of his fighting tools our strategy then is to break these down in order for us to get back to the main target.

 

One area that I would stress is the ability to track the target rather than simply following it.  The former is formalizing an “educated” guess as to what the target zone will do and where it is likely to end up.  Whereas the latter is simply playing catch-up with wherever our assailant chooses to be. 

 

For example if I can drive a strike straight into an attackers face his head will “jerk” back…now depending on the effect of the strike he will either go down or re-orientate himself back up.  From here I can start forward motion to close the distance, striking all the while until the machine is fed and he is no longer a threat.

 

However, if he has gone into “bobbing and weaving” mode then you run the risk of constantly trying to track his main targets movement, and it’s possible to become so fixated on trying to lock onto it that other more opportune targets that have presented themselves are neglected.

 

One of the best training drills that we still use is the old SOE “mad ½ minute” drill and the more updated red zone mitt striking drill, where in a crowd/mob environment we are constantly moving and hitting to viable targets that will have maximum effect.  They are superb timing and targeting drills that are the start point before moving onto full contact padded assailant work.

 

Another training alternative is the use of training dummies, this is why (in my not so humble opinion) the body opponent bag (BOB) is excellent for practising your targeting skills.  It provides contours, texture and a visual platform to see how your striking tools would operate against a dimensional figure – add in a training partner to act as “puppeteer” moving the BOB forwards, backwards, sideways – and you have a half decent mobile target.

 

Now you can blast away at the focus mitts or your BOB and you’ll probably develop decent power in your hitting.  No question about that. However, try the specific targeting drills in unison – they give your training regime a whole new flavour and twist - and bear in mind that without the ability to “place” those shots we are leaving ourselves open to attack and operating with a less than effective combative strategy.

 

 

Copyright – Modern Combatives Group – 2009