Coach Wright: From Bus Driver to Combatives Instructor

One of the funny stories from my first Tactical Combatives Course (formerly and still popularly referred to as Level 2 combatives) class was how Specialist (SPC) Wright became a student in the class. The class had a roster full of people eager to train, an instructor, and a facility to use, but we needed a licensed bus driver that could take us to and from the facility, which was over an hour away. Our designated bus driver?  SPC Wright.

Day one of class, everyone eagerly rushed into the facility to check out what our home for the next two weeks looked like. I forget who, but someone went back to the bus and ask Wright what he'd be doing for the rest of the day while we were training. "I guess just waiting here until ya'll are done" he responded. The rest of the conversation went something like: "You have a Level 1 combatives certificate? Yes? Well, you wanna do level 2? Hell yeah man get in here and let's do it." And, just like that, SPC Wright became the 16th member of my very first combatives class.

Fast forward four months and SPC Wright volunteered when the call went out for assistant instructors to help with a Basic Combatives Course (Formerly and still popularly referred to as Level 1 combatives) for 15 soldiers in the 30th Brigade. The class was a resounding success in large part because of the assistant instructors that I had with SPC Parks and SPC Wright. Wright not only ran the class through warm-ups, acted as a puncher for the Option 3 Drill, served as a role-player in the class's culminating React to Contact practical exercise, but walked the mats throughout making technical corrections and answering questions that the students had.

The next week we ran another Basic Combatives Course, and again Wright volunteered to help out. This time as the only TCC certified assistant instructor for the class's 18 students. This time he stepped up even more, filling the same roles as before, but this time expanding into teaching techniques as well. I saw many times throughout the five-day course where students approached him with technical questions, and he did an outstanding job of answering all of them. His presence in these two classes greatly increased the quality of them, and his hard work was directly responsible for 33 soldiers in the Brigade getting trained and certified.

My goal with this combatives program isn't just to train soldiers, but to teach and develop them so that they have the ability to return to their Units and train others. In this way, creating a ripple effect that spreads throughout the Brigade and impacts its lethality and warrior ethos culture. To me, no one has exemplified this goal better than SPC Wright. I'm incredibly proud of him, and I look forward to seeing how he continues to help grow combatives within the Brigade.

About the Author:

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 is a certified Master Trainer of Combatives in the Army for the 30th Brigade in the North Carolina National Guard. 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.