The VITAL Tour -- Military
Combatives
So lets get one thing clear
right up front. In the VITAL System, most of our programs
apply to ordinary citizens. We do have some programs that
are specifically designed for our heroes in the military,
but they are very specific to their needs. What is
appropriate to teach to soldiers for the battlefield isn’t
even appropriate to teach police officers, much less
citizens, because they are two different jobs; although
both are what we would categorize as Violence Enforcement
Professionals.
The point being, countervailing force training for military
personnel has a dramatically different set of objectives
and conceptual origins. It is the career of the military
person to go towards the sounds of gunfire and engage that
threat swiftly, decisively, and lethally. As ordinary
citizens, we are free of that obligation. We are lucky
enough that we can run away from the violence and avoid it
altogether. As you can imagine, those two contrasting
premises yield different sets of violence education
information / training content.
We think that in people’s quests to find a martial art or
self-defense system that actually works against violence,
that military combatives have become a popular selection.
It’s seems to be a common understanding that things taught
to the military must be very effective with all the
extraneous and frivolous stuff cut out. Many who have been
searching have found something they feel comfortable
betting their life on if ever engaged in actual physical
violence.
Imagine this however. Let’s say you wanted a really fast
car to drive to and from work and other mundane places
around your town. You have searched all the major car
dealers, and you always walk away unsatisfied with the cars
for sale in those places. Then you get a chance to drive in
an actual NASCAR vehicle. It seems as though it’s exactly
what you have been looking for. No nonsense, industrial
strength, and extremely fast. However, how practical would
it be for you to drive that NASCAR vehicle to and from
work?
Sure, it would be pretty neat the first couple times, but
then it would become obvious that this is a professional
racing car designed for a specific task and environment.
You realize that as soon as night falls and the headlights
on the NASCAR vehicle turn out to be just decal stickers.
Oh, and don’t think you will be fitting your kid’s car seat
in there either.
So as you can deduce from this parallel story, average
people learning military combatives for their everyday
lives is not the appropriate set of knowledge and goals for
them. Citizens and military have different objectives, and
therefore need different training and learning.
Can you imagine an ordinary citizen who has trained in
military combatives dealing with a crime altercation? A
criminal approaches a citizen who was inappropriately
taught military combatives. Instead of just giving up his
wallet and counting his blessings that was all he wanted,
the citizen uses his military training to twist snap the
criminal’s neck so hard it kills the unarmed criminal
nearly instantly.
Sounds really hardcore, effective, heroic, and neat-o
right?
On the surface you would think that guy could, after
filling out a police form or two, drive home and brag to
his friends that he will be a hero on that night’s TV news
story. The reality of that citizen’s future is that he will
probably be going to jail for a very long time. Why? The
citizen (depending on many factors we are glossing over
here) is guilty of murder or manslaughter. He employed a
technique designed for people who need to inflict lethal
force due to the nature of their profession. He did not
have a justifiable case of lethal force self-defense here
(which is a whole other conversation for later).
Military combatives are just that… physical violence
training for those in the military setting. Although the
tough allure and down-to-the-nitty-gritty vibe combatives
can persuade many that it is a good violence response tool
for them, this can be potentially counter-productive in the
end. If one of the biggest goals of violence response
training is to ensure that violence brought to you and
unavoidable has a minimal negative impact on your present
and future, then the citizen in the above story failed
hitting that goal miserably. His future is now sitting in
Crime College (prison) for a very long time.
Be wary of schools, systems, and ex-military guys that
teach military combatives to ordinary citizens. They may be
very fierce fighters in the correct context, but overall it
is not the appropriate thing for people to be learning to
handle violent crime in our society.
SIDE NOTE: Most of the 10 flaws with martial arts used for
self-defense purposes also apply to military combatives;
especially:
#1. Narrow vision of violence with limited response
options.
#2. A foundation built on fighting with techniques.
#4. Omission of preventative and pre-contact
counter-measures.
#5. Exclusion of medical, legal, and emotional aftermath
issues.
#6. Male-centric with size, speed, strength, and macho
aggression prevalent.
#10. Absence of criminological information. (Notice we
deleted “violence mindset information”. Military combatives
do a pretty good job at that.)