I am interested in your views on how useful martial arts really are when you are in a close quarter battle (focusing on hand to hand combat but not excluding any other situation)? Any pro's/cons of learning a martial art?

Wing Nut

the art of judo is very useful in CQB and parts of it are taught in BT i believe. in judo the key is to take down your opponent and focusing on counterattacking.

i think the marine corps hand to hand combat would be better..its a Mix of Ju jistsu, Tik Won Do (think thats how you spell it), Judo and a few others i believe.

if you had two guys in combat, one who knew martial arts and the other with a gun, i know which one i would prefer to be.

Most military CQB are based on different forms of Martial Arts, where they have picked out the "moves" that suits that type of combat best.

I've been instructing in unarmed combat a few years, and the form we use here are based on Kickboxing, Krav Maga, and many others.

But you can pretty much forget about the high kicks, jumps and other "fancy" moves that looks good in the movies.
They are pretty much useless when you're wearing your BDU's, Helmet and full combat gear, and you haven't got much sleep or food the last 7 days..
Then it's just not possible (or practical) to kick any higher than the groin..

But if you know Martial Arts before you join, then my experience is that you'll learn unarmed military CQB much faster/easier, since you know at least the basics.

Hmmm, my DS staff have always taught that when it comes to "hand to hand" combat, that any training goes out the window, and it comes down to hitting each other with what ever you've got... it's pub brawling at it's worst. To win you've gotta be the dirtiest fighter.

Originally Posted by AussieNick

Hmmm, my DS staff have always taught that when it comes to "hand to hand" combat, that any training goes out the window, and it comes down to hitting each other with what ever you've got... it's pub brawling at it's worst. To win you've gotta be the dirtiest fighter.

a bar fighter will lose evertime to Chuck Liddell (UFC fighter). the key to professional training in the martal arts is that it gives you sharpened instincts. take school fights for example. you see a whole bunch of haymakers flying around looking for a one-hit-wonder. someone that was trained would easily dodge them and give one quick upward jab to the nose and its all over. (because the nose breaks into the sinus cavity and the eyes start watering so much that he wouldnt be able to see)

Thanks for the interesting comments.

Through my training I have found that martial arts can be both a help and a hinderence.

They help as they (generally) inprove reaction time, equip you with a greater veriety of skills which should be more deadly/cause more damage than what you naturally have. It should also add to your speed and power from the repetative training.

Bad points are generally martial arts spend their time focusing on Forms and routines instead of real world application and the drilling of these techniques. Also they tend to preach peace and avoidance of violence to appeal to parents and to give a good impression.


What I have been finding out is that in a fight one of the most important factors is your mind set. It is important to be able to go all out when you need to. Many martail artists (me too many years ago) think it's like the movies and get their arse whipped by an avarage Joe. This I believe comes down to the prementioned mind set.

"the martial artists will be left trying to figure out what the attacker will do in which case putting him at a disadvantage having to watch and wait for the attacks to come. While the attacker is going for attacking and violent action. "

If your mindset is on defence, which is what is normally taught in Martial arts schools (to the general public) I think that you would end up at a disadvantage, with the possible factors of, Fear of getting hit, or hurt. Anticipating the attackers moves, and the unrealistic idea of what I fight is gained through the ever popular point sparring.

If your mindset is on attack, maybe you will get hit, but it will not make you loose your concentraition your determination to finish the attacker you will not be waiting or antisipating his moves but forcing him, dictating to him how to respond to you thus putting you at an advantage.

Well these are my thorst at the moment. Anyone agree, disagree???

Wing Nut

The hand to hand I got in basic was not as violent as the stuff the Wing Nut does in training. And Nick, it is pure violence, no rules, no bs, face smashing knee breaking stuff. Shifu was Chinese recon in '79. I am double his size and even with all my grappling training and the fact he is over 45 and lost most of one leg to a mine does not give me any chance of whipping his arse. Training consists of 1/3 "show and tell" and 2/3 "now beat each other" hehehe. Bruising is fun my !!!

I still remember senior drill one day laughing at another drill who was a black belt and teaching us hand to hand. He came over and quietly told our squad "Privates, I will tell you the secrets to hand to hand fighting so you will always win... Don't ever lose your weapon and never run out of ammo."

take school fights for example.

Pfft, what ever. School fights, give me a break.

As for hand to hand combat. It is the bloke who smashes the other guy with his entrenching tool, or splits his head open with his rifle butt that wins... not the guy who has his footwork and punches just perfect. Given the situation of a battlefield (the stress, noise, heightened adrenalin etc) it is just not practical. We aren't talking about sparing in a ring (or god forbid a school yard punch up), we are most likely talking about to blokes fighting tooth and nail for their lives in the bottom of some slimey ditch. Put it into perspective, it's not a computer game.