Combatives Class 2-001: Becoming an Instructor
This past week I finished running my very first Combatives class! It was absolutely phenomenal and amongst the most rewarding things I've ever done within the Army.
A Rocky Start
The days leading up to the class starting, it seemed destined to get canceled before it could get off of the ground. There were a number of challenges facing us. Facilities, scheduling, personnel, transportation were just some of the things we had to figure out to make the course happen. The first was finding where to train. It's one thing to run fight club in the evening out on the turf for a couple hours, but it'd be a completely different beast to put the troops through a course as rigorous as the Tactical Combatives Course for 8 hours a day out in the hot Texas sun. The next challenge was with fitting the class into the schedule requirements of my Team Leader responsibilities.
I was incredibly fortunate though to have a phenomenal company commander working with me. Time and time again he assisted with either creating a solution or finding me someone that could help me to overcome every one the challenges that we ran into.
Sunday night before class started I couldn't sleep. I was studying the Combatives material and anxiously awaiting to see what would happen. I was certain that I would wake up the next morning and find out that the class was canceled. The Wednesday that the class graduated though, I looked back on the course that we found solutions that were better than I could have ever have asked for like having an air conditioned facility with spring-loaded mats (The nicest that I've ever trained on.)
The Course
My very first class as a freshly minted combatives instructor ended up being the Tactical Combatives Course (TCC), formerly known as Level 2. It is a demanding 80-hour, a two-week-long course that teaches striking, submission grappling, vehicle extraction, detainee operations, and culminates with them taking everything that they've learned on the mats and applying it to real-world scenarios that Army soldiers may encounter. The goal is to develop warriors that embody the warrior spirit of closing with the enemy, and give soldiers a skillset that will make them capable of handling any altercation they may encounter. It is much different from any traditional martial arts style I've ever trained in and was simultaneously challenging and rewarding to teach.
For novice practitioners to fighting, the course is like drinking from a fire hose. On take-down day, the students learn upwards of 30 different techniques and spend close to 8-hours drilling various take-downs. I worried that it may be too much too fast for the beginners, but the improvements that were made from Day 1 to Day 10 were noticeably dramatic and left me really impressed with the program though and the results that it produced. It really solidified my belief in the Combatives program and the impact it can have on Soldiers.
The Students
When word of the class got put out, 60 people volunteered, and 20 were able to enter. I knew that these guys were motivated when they showed up ready to train Monday morning outside on the turf. That impression held true throughout the course. No matter how grueling the training had been from the day before, the class showed up eager to train the next morning. A frequent complaint I've heard over the years from instructors is that students will drill a technique three times and then stop and talk, thinking that they've "gotten" the technique, but not these guys. These guys drilled and drilled and drilled, and I'd practically have to pull them away from drilling to teach the next technique.
No two classes are ever the same. Not because the material changes, but you will never have the same group of people together in the same course again. These guys were an absolute delight to train. They worked hard every day, soaked up everything that I taught them, constantly cracked me up with their humor, and asked me a million questions showing that they really cared about what they were learning. I think there's no joy greater for a teacher than having students that are hungry and appreciate what they are learning, and that was something that was constant throughout this course for me. They also made me look like a rock star on their final practical exercise when a bunch of brass showed up and they seamlessly incorporated the techniques that they had learned into the exercise.
Overall I couldn't have asked for a better group of soldiers to teach my first class to, and I already miss getting to work with them on a daily basis.
Instructing
I've done some assistant instructing over the years, starting out in Kyuki-Do, and then in different capacities within JiuJitsu. Being a kids class instructor, teaching newer students one on one, or going through the Instructors program at Wakizashi. All of the instructors that I've trained under, and all of the schools I've visited have allowed me to soak up a wealth of knowledge and see many ways of teaching and conducting a class. I believe that experience allowed the class to be the success that it was, and I'm extremely appreciative of all of the many people that have poured into me to make me the instructor that I am now.
I carried a lot of stress throughout the duration of the course. Nothing will get a combatives program shut down faster than an injury. It doesn't matter how many people get injured playing football, basketball, ultimate frisbee, or even just stepping out of a vehicle and breaking a leg (Something that has happend). One soldier gets injured during combatives and the plug gets pulled. I consequently spent every training session closely monitoring students to ensure that they maintained an intensity that produced realistic feedback, but didn't get carried away and cause any injuries. The guys all left bruised and a little beat-up, but we were fortunate to graduate everyone without any significant injuries.
I got little sleep during the class as a result of this stress combined with wanting to ensure that the students got the highest level of instruction possible. We left for class at 0430-0630 in the morning and didn't get back until 2000. That long day was followed up by hours of writing up notes and other administrative tasks, as well as lesson planning for the next day. As an avid JiuJitsu practitioner, I wanted to make every effort to ensure that I was teaching Combatives to the doctrinal standard, and not teaching my class some form of McMahon JiuJitsu. This meant staying up until 1200-0100 every night studying the Combatives TC 3.25-150 manual to ensure that every single technique was taught to the book standard. The guys constantly teased me as I was frequently downing white monster energy drinks to keep up the energy that I wanted to deliver to the class.
From an instructor standpoint, these guys really challenged me and I grew a lot as a result. They constantly asked me "why" while we were going over techniques, which required conceptual knowledge of the material and fighting mechanics to deliver answers to. I also had students of all sizes and backgrounds, which required tweaking and discussing techniques to allow my 6'6" and my 5'4" students to effectively apply the techniques. I had pretty much day 1 practitioner, along with experienced boxers, wrestlers, JiuJitsu, and traditional students within the class. I not only feel that I taught them a lot but also learned from them while we went through the course.
Overall I'd have to say that I've loved being a student and an avid competitior, but none of that compared to how rewarding it was to watch these soldiers develop their fighting ability, were they started to where they were at the end of the course, how well they implemented the material into the live training exercises, and I was incredibly proud of handing each one of them their certificate at the end.
Highlights
The two weeks of the course were packed with memories. Funny moments like watching a class full of students try to learn how to break fall for the first time, or SGT Ortiz exclaiming "Ooooh my goddd" when I'd demonstrate a particularly devatating submission. While there are too many memorable moments too mention, I want to share some of the things that are highlight memories for me:
-The class internal Combatives tournament: I didn't sleep at all the night before this one. The whole entire company to include the company commander, battalion commander, and Sergeant Major all came out to see this live practical exercise on Day 5, where the class combined everything they had learned from striking, clinching, and submissions grappling in a tournament-style format. The tournament was an incredible success though! The class put on a beautiful display of fighting, and had exciting matches that had the crowd roaring! SPC Gatson was 90lbs heavier than the heaviest competitor in the class, but he pulled off a stunning win with a combination of striking, wrestling, and swift submissions to claim the class tournament champion title, and earned a SOCP dagger from me as a reward.
-Grappling with a JiuJitsu "Black Belt." I'll never talk about in-house rolling on this website, but I'll make an exception for this story. This soldier was making claims to be a 4-year black belt. He showed up to the tournament, and he and I ended up rolling in a sort of exhibition match for the crowd that had turned out. Our match lasted about 30-seconds and cast a lot of doubt on that claim. For me, earning the title of black belt in JiuJitsu is one the hardest and arduous things you can accomplish within the fight community, and I don't take lightly to anyone claiming that title that hasn't truly earned it as it cheapens something dear to me that I hope to one day call my one. Getting the opportunity to expose someone like that was an unexpected treat during the class.
-The dundee awards: Those of you that have watched the show "The Office" will be familiar with these. A sort of fun, goofy style awards given out for different behaviors. I thought of this the day of graduation (Next time I'll actually give out little awards) and during our graduation ceremony gave out the class a couple dundee awards. "Best roleplayer," "Most beat up graduate" "Class comedian" " most improved" were a couple of the ones that I passed out. This moment was a ton of fun, and really captured the spirit of comradery that we had all developed throughout the class.
-The MOUT site: The final practical exercise a TCC class goes through is a culmination of everything that they've learned into a close-quarters environment. The class dons their "Full Battle-Rattle" putting on body armor, helmets, and slinging rifles to take what they've learned on the mats and apply it into a battlefield scenario. This day was a smashing success like the tournament was. The class ate the training up and got really into it, with combatant roleplayers jumping full swing into their roles and the students efficiently employing the Combatives techniques they had learned. Their chain of command showed up again, and I beamed with pride as they put what they had learned proficiently on display for them.
There was a multitude of other memories that I'll carry on from this class. They say that you never forget your first one, and I think that will definitely be true for me. I'm extremely grateful for the opportunity I received to pass along the knowledge that has been given to me, and to have gotten to instruct a group of individuals that were so eager to learn. I hope that this is the beginning of many more such classes to come for myself and this Brigade.
Steven McMahon earned his Kyuki-Do Black Belt in 2011 from Grand Master Kim at Kim's Black Belt Academy and his BJJ Purple Belt in January 2017 under Professor Charles Nunley. He currently trains out of Wakizashi BJJ in Oak Harbor under Professor Eli Trevino. He is an active competitor at Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and Army Combative tournaments.
A Rocky StartThe days leading up to the class starting, it seemed destined to get canceled before it could get off of the ground. There were a number of challenges facing us. Facilities, scheduling, personnel, transportation were just some of the things we had to figure out to make the course happen. The first was finding where to train. It's one thing to run fight club in the evening out on the turf for a couple hours, but it'd be a completely different beast to put the troops through a course as rigorous as the Tactical Combatives Course for 8 hours a day out in the hot Texas sun. The next challenge was with fitting the class into the schedule requirements of my Team Leader responsibilities.
I was incredibly fortunate though to have a phenomenal company commander working with me. Time and time again he assisted with either creating a solution or finding me someone that could help me to overcome every one the challenges that we ran into.
Sunday night before class started I couldn't sleep. I was studying the Combatives material and anxiously awaiting to see what would happen. I was certain that I would wake up the next morning and find out that the class was canceled. The Wednesday that the class graduated though, I looked back on the course that we found solutions that were better than I could have ever have asked for like having an air conditioned facility with spring-loaded mats (The nicest that I've ever trained on.)
The Course
My very first class as a freshly minted combatives instructor ended up being the Tactical Combatives Course (TCC), formerly known as Level 2. It is a demanding 80-hour, a two-week-long course that teaches striking, submission grappling, vehicle extraction, detainee operations, and culminates with them taking everything that they've learned on the mats and applying it to real-world scenarios that Army soldiers may encounter. The goal is to develop warriors that embody the warrior spirit of closing with the enemy, and give soldiers a skillset that will make them capable of handling any altercation they may encounter. It is much different from any traditional martial arts style I've ever trained in and was simultaneously challenging and rewarding to teach.For novice practitioners to fighting, the course is like drinking from a fire hose. On take-down day, the students learn upwards of 30 different techniques and spend close to 8-hours drilling various take-downs. I worried that it may be too much too fast for the beginners, but the improvements that were made from Day 1 to Day 10 were noticeably dramatic and left me really impressed with the program though and the results that it produced. It really solidified my belief in the Combatives program and the impact it can have on Soldiers.
The StudentsWhen word of the class got put out, 60 people volunteered, and 20 were able to enter. I knew that these guys were motivated when they showed up ready to train Monday morning outside on the turf. That impression held true throughout the course. No matter how grueling the training had been from the day before, the class showed up eager to train the next morning. A frequent complaint I've heard over the years from instructors is that students will drill a technique three times and then stop and talk, thinking that they've "gotten" the technique, but not these guys. These guys drilled and drilled and drilled, and I'd practically have to pull them away from drilling to teach the next technique.
No two classes are ever the same. Not because the material changes, but you will never have the same group of people together in the same course again. These guys were an absolute delight to train. They worked hard every day, soaked up everything that I taught them, constantly cracked me up with their humor, and asked me a million questions showing that they really cared about what they were learning. I think there's no joy greater for a teacher than having students that are hungry and appreciate what they are learning, and that was something that was constant throughout this course for me. They also made me look like a rock star on their final practical exercise when a bunch of brass showed up and they seamlessly incorporated the techniques that they had learned into the exercise.Overall I couldn't have asked for a better group of soldiers to teach my first class to, and I already miss getting to work with them on a daily basis.
Instructing
I've done some assistant instructing over the years, starting out in Kyuki-Do, and then in different capacities within JiuJitsu. Being a kids class instructor, teaching newer students one on one, or going through the Instructors program at Wakizashi. All of the instructors that I've trained under, and all of the schools I've visited have allowed me to soak up a wealth of knowledge and see many ways of teaching and conducting a class. I believe that experience allowed the class to be the success that it was, and I'm extremely appreciative of all of the many people that have poured into me to make me the instructor that I am now.
I carried a lot of stress throughout the duration of the course. Nothing will get a combatives program shut down faster than an injury. It doesn't matter how many people get injured playing football, basketball, ultimate frisbee, or even just stepping out of a vehicle and breaking a leg (Something that has happend). One soldier gets injured during combatives and the plug gets pulled. I consequently spent every training session closely monitoring students to ensure that they maintained an intensity that produced realistic feedback, but didn't get carried away and cause any injuries. The guys all left bruised and a little beat-up, but we were fortunate to graduate everyone without any significant injuries.
 |
| The class resting during a lunch break |
From an instructor standpoint, these guys really challenged me and I grew a lot as a result. They constantly asked me "why" while we were going over techniques, which required conceptual knowledge of the material and fighting mechanics to deliver answers to. I also had students of all sizes and backgrounds, which required tweaking and discussing techniques to allow my 6'6" and my 5'4" students to effectively apply the techniques. I had pretty much day 1 practitioner, along with experienced boxers, wrestlers, JiuJitsu, and traditional students within the class. I not only feel that I taught them a lot but also learned from them while we went through the course.
Overall I'd have to say that I've loved being a student and an avid competitior, but none of that compared to how rewarding it was to watch these soldiers develop their fighting ability, were they started to where they were at the end of the course, how well they implemented the material into the live training exercises, and I was incredibly proud of handing each one of them their certificate at the end.
Highlights
The two weeks of the course were packed with memories. Funny moments like watching a class full of students try to learn how to break fall for the first time, or SGT Ortiz exclaiming "Ooooh my goddd" when I'd demonstrate a particularly devatating submission. While there are too many memorable moments too mention, I want to share some of the things that are highlight memories for me:
-The class internal Combatives tournament: I didn't sleep at all the night before this one. The whole entire company to include the company commander, battalion commander, and Sergeant Major all came out to see this live practical exercise on Day 5, where the class combined everything they had learned from striking, clinching, and submissions grappling in a tournament-style format. The tournament was an incredible success though! The class put on a beautiful display of fighting, and had exciting matches that had the crowd roaring! SPC Gatson was 90lbs heavier than the heaviest competitor in the class, but he pulled off a stunning win with a combination of striking, wrestling, and swift submissions to claim the class tournament champion title, and earned a SOCP dagger from me as a reward.-Grappling with a JiuJitsu "Black Belt." I'll never talk about in-house rolling on this website, but I'll make an exception for this story. This soldier was making claims to be a 4-year black belt. He showed up to the tournament, and he and I ended up rolling in a sort of exhibition match for the crowd that had turned out. Our match lasted about 30-seconds and cast a lot of doubt on that claim. For me, earning the title of black belt in JiuJitsu is one the hardest and arduous things you can accomplish within the fight community, and I don't take lightly to anyone claiming that title that hasn't truly earned it as it cheapens something dear to me that I hope to one day call my one. Getting the opportunity to expose someone like that was an unexpected treat during the class.
-The dundee awards: Those of you that have watched the show "The Office" will be familiar with these. A sort of fun, goofy style awards given out for different behaviors. I thought of this the day of graduation (Next time I'll actually give out little awards) and during our graduation ceremony gave out the class a couple dundee awards. "Best roleplayer," "Most beat up graduate" "Class comedian" " most improved" were a couple of the ones that I passed out. This moment was a ton of fun, and really captured the spirit of comradery that we had all developed throughout the class.
-The MOUT site: The final practical exercise a TCC class goes through is a culmination of everything that they've learned into a close-quarters environment. The class dons their "Full Battle-Rattle" putting on body armor, helmets, and slinging rifles to take what they've learned on the mats and apply it into a battlefield scenario. This day was a smashing success like the tournament was. The class ate the training up and got really into it, with combatant roleplayers jumping full swing into their roles and the students efficiently employing the Combatives techniques they had learned. Their chain of command showed up again, and I beamed with pride as they put what they had learned proficiently on display for them.There was a multitude of other memories that I'll carry on from this class. They say that you never forget your first one, and I think that will definitely be true for me. I'm extremely grateful for the opportunity I received to pass along the knowledge that has been given to me, and to have gotten to instruct a group of individuals that were so eager to learn. I hope that this is the beginning of many more such classes to come for myself and this Brigade.
About the Author:
Comments
Post a Comment