Cecil burch culpeper va imediate action pugilism & jui jitsu 10/19-20/2019

GREAT CLASS !
This was a most excellent class!

A lot of material was presented by Cecil: in clear concise fashion, in understandable and digestible chunks, and followed a logical progression.

I have almost no ground experience, this was great for me because it showed a logical structure to learn and progress with and gave me a real interest in going further.

All my classmates were great to train with. I learned from each person.

I will do this again. It was worth the 400 mile drive!

John Murphy set this up quite well, thanks.

You beat me to the punch!

...or, should I say, to the Default Cover Position.

My review:

I was also in this edition of Immediate Action Pugilism & Jui Jitsu.

As a way of background, I'm a gun guy primarily. My focus has always been on the use of weapons as tools of personal defense. I don't have a background in combatives or martial arts. I have taken multiple combatives classes ranging from brief seminars at an event like Tac Con to ECQC and EWO with Craig Douglas. Exposure to the material in those classes certainly did not leave me with what I felt was anything approaching a mastery of any of the material presented.

I'll put it like this: In a good class you are presented with 20 pounds of material but you have, at best, a 5 pound bucket that you can take home with you. In a class where you are unfamiliar with even the basics of what is being presented, that 5 pound bucket is more like a 2.5 pounder. I didn't wrestle in high school and I have no experience in any of the grappling arts so my bucket was pretty small in a class like ECQC. The class was presented well and I certainly learned some things, but the learning I retained was somewhat disjointed. Some concepts were clear, some were fuzzy, and some were just completely lost on me.

It is clear that repeated exposure to the material is necessary. Both in the class itself and in supplementary work outside the class.

So that's what I was bringing in to the IAC curriculum.

Attachment 43926

I post this image because the banner contains a summary of the philosophy Cecil is espousing in his coursework.

Cecil's coursework assumes the worst case scenario: You have been blindsided by a criminal assault. You did not see the attack coming. Your first indication that something is wrong is when you are hit. Unequal initiative is the typical circumstance where violence occurs for the law abiding. Outside of training or sport, fights are generally a circumstance that your typical citizen or police officer is forced into.

Given that assumption, Cecil lists the priorities on the banner:

Survive: preserve consciousness and, as much as possible, position in the initial seconds of the assault
Defend: prevent as much damage as possible while working into a better position
Escape: getting into a neutral position
Reverse: reverse the course of the assault by getting to at least a better than neutral position...think 55/45 or better
Stabilize: before seeking to advance the fight make sure you have the situation stabilized so that you don't get knocked back down to the first three circumstances
Progress: attack towards a position of positional dominance that maximizes your opportunities while minimizing the opportunities of your opponent
Finish: after positional dominance has been established, achieve the appropriate end state for the situation

This is a useful framework for managing the worst case scenario.

The underlying theme of everything presented was the concept of control and positional dominance. If you are in an inferior position, always work towards improving your position. If you are in a neutral position, you may have the opportunity to attack, but it is kind of a jump ball situation so looking to advance to a superior position is likely a better call. Once in a superior position, you can bring force to bear...whether that is striking or the use of weapons.

In BJJ there is apparently a saying: Position before submission. This arises from watching people attempt to gain a submission while in a vulnerable position and losing as a result. The same applies to attempts to access and use a weapon. If you go for a gun while in an inferior position your opponent need not be terribly skilled to take that weapon or at the very least neutralize your ability to use it. This was demonstrated and experienced by everyone in the course of working through the exercises.

Pugilism:

The instructional approach was quite literally ground up. After a safety brief, medical brief, and pat-down to ensure no live weapons or ammo made it into the training area Cecil explained the principles the class was based on. The first thing discussed was getting into an athletic base. A positioning of the feet and hips that allows taking and managing incoming force, allows application of massive outgoing force, and allows explosive movement in any direction. This was explained and drilled.

Once that had been drilled with Cecil coaching and assessing, he explained the default cover position. Default cover uses the athletic base and ads arm positioning to stabilize the head and neck while covering the multiple knockout buttons of human anatomy. The combination of these two elements are crucial for the "survive" stage, as they allow you to take incoming force while remaining conscious and mobile. Fights are much easier to win if you are conscious and mobile. This was drilled repeatedly, including using a training partner to attempt making physical contact to prompt assumption of default cover.

To those elements Cecil added getting your belt line below the assailant's belt line. This assists in staying mobile because it will prevent being taken down to the ground against your will.

You can see a pattern developing here. Starting from the ground, Cecil explained an element and then had us drill it (often with a partner) coaching on improvements and if he saw a common failing or problem explaining a solution to it. Extremely useful and simple concepts like keeping one's head above their tailbone to preserve balance helped people judge the effectiveness of their positioning. Once the concept was drilled, another element was added. This progression proceeded throughout the day. Each new concept built on proper use of the previous concepts. So every drill built in reps of all the previous drills.

Body positioning, limb control, and weapons access were taught in the same manner. After that, Cecil discussed methods of breaking out of the very same techniques if they were being applied to you.

He had a mantra that I found incredibly useful: Feet, hips, elbows, head.

This is essentially a checklist. If you can get your feet, hips, elbows, and head in the right place you will be able to weather just about any assault and you will be able to advance your position. If you cannot advance effectively, you likely have one or more of those things out of sorts. Fix it and you can improve your position. The idea of always being on the attack, always seeking to improve your position and diminish the other guy's is useful...and the checklist provided gives something easily referenced under the stress of the attack to get you through it.

Pugilism is essentially grappling from the standing position with a focus on surviving and prevailing against a surprise assault.

Jui Jitsu:

The same instructional methodology was applied for the IAJJ class: You begin from the premise that you have been knocked to the ground. The first drill was simply orienting to the threat. Again here, a survival position was described and students drilled getting into a survival position and orienting to the threat by kneeling, eyes closed, and being pushed over.

Here again the mantra of feet, hips, elbows, head was employed. Keeping oneself in that survival position gives you the ability to work from an inferior position towards a superior position and control. Getting the mentioned body parts in the right position and keeping them there lets you survive the initial seconds of the assault and allows you to begin the process of defense.

Students did most of their work assuming that their opponent had side control, which is the position that gives the person on the top the most attack options. The defender has to be prepared to defend against a wide variety of attacks. (Again, worst case scenario, knees, elbows, fists, weapons, etc) The focus was on using the survival position to make space and set up escapes. Cecil's explanations here were brilliantly simple: The positioning of your opponents weight tells you what escape is going to work. He then demonstrated how attempts to use strikes or even access weapons would invariably involve a weight shift which then opens an opportunity to improve your position. (Mounted was also discussed and drilled)

That deserves special mention: The mindset being taught in this class is that when an opponent who has you side mounted shifts their weight to load up a strike, it's an opportunity for the guy on the ground. When they dedicate less of their attention to holding you down it gives you the ability to improve your position, gain space, and ultimately work your way to control. You aren't laying there hoping to not get hurt, you are seeing that guy trying to crack your skull as exactly the opening you've been hoping for. Even from your back, you are always on the attack. You are always driving to guard, or driving to your knees. (Which allows you to get to your feet)

Weapons were integrated next. Cecil covered strategies for dealing with a weapon being brought into play. First it was on frustrating access of the weapon in the first place, then on diverting the weapon away from you if it was successfully accessed. Diversion of the weapon usually shifts the opponent's weight...which, as mentioned before, is an opportunity. The general idea being you can effectively divert the muzzle AND while the other guy's weight has been shifted by that diversion you are working on an escape that allows you to improve your position. Always working on gaining distance and control.

Students got to play both roles learning the importance of establishing control prior to weapons access, or the weapon essentially becomes a jump ball.

Cecil then covered offensive action...accessing weapons yourself, or the use of some effective chokes. Even if you fail to achieve a proper choke, a failed choke still leaves you with exceptionally good control of your opponent...from which you can improve your position.

Class concluded with fully competitive evolutions for those willing to engage in them.

My thoughts:

I have never seen such a cogent presentation of grappling before. The presentation was clearly the product of a great deal of experience, experimentation. The distillation of all of that into common themes easily digested and remembered took the mystery out of grappling and provided a useful mental map even under pressure. With someone on top of you going pretty hard you could remember what to do and actually achieve success.

A student in the class who had been doing BJJ at a gym for a year stated that he learned more about what he was doing in the two days of these classes than he had in his entire year of consistent training at his gym. When Cecil told the class that he routinely coaches people in his gym on the exact same fundamentals that he was coaching us on...even at elite competitive levels...I have no trouble believing him. Comparing it to shooting where we are looking for a good enough sight picture, a good grip, and good enough manipulation of the trigger to prevent moving the gun off the intended point of aim no matter what else is going on, I can see the parallels for how the advanced stuff is just perfect execution of the fundamentals.

I learned a phenomenal amount in this class. By the end of each day I was seeing things that were invisible to me before. Cecil boiled everything down to its most essential elements and presented them in as comprehensible a manner as I've ever seen. No one left the class a master of the grappling arts, but they did leave with a solid understanding of the principles for successfully defending yourself even under the worst circumstances.

One of the great barriers for people attending a class like this is their concerns over their physical condition or conditioning. While the class would certainly have been easier if I was 20 years younger or 50 pounds lighter, those things were not a barrier to learning or to getting results with the principles and techniques taught. The students in class ranged the gamut of ages, size, and physical condition. It was harder on some than others, but everyone walked away with useful learning and experience of how their physical state related to their ability to deal with a superior opponent. No one suffered any serious injuries.

You'll be sore, but not broken.

I highly recommend this class to anyone who is looking to develop close quarters techniques. You will walk away understanding the "why" and a considerable level of experience applying the techniques and principles taught with varying levels of pressure.

Cecil's ability to distill such a potentially complex topic to commonalities that can be remembered and applied is amazing. He is a superb teacher and coach. A lot of people teaching firearms...including myself...can learn a great deal about how to present a class from the way he constructed these two days of training.

If you have the chance to attend anything Immediate Action Combatives is presenting, do it. Do not worry about getting in shape first or learning some basics first...just get in the class and start doing the work.

^Great info Tim. I really really really wanted to take these, either in VA or back in June in Philly. Cecil doesn't often come easy and I figured one would work. Sadly, the June iteration was when I had some family carp going on, and this one in VA was my wife's birthday! Sometimes you just can't win!

But, I was also a little apprehensive about this course due to my lack of experience in these areas. You have put any such concerns to rest. Hopefully I can get to these down the road.

What specialized gear/equipment (if any) did you need or utilize for this class?

Just a bite guard and a cup.

Thanks for coming guys, and for the very kind words. I truly had a great time working with that group. Normally, by Sunday night, I am mentally and emotionally exhausted from two days of coaching, but I felt really good even after dinner because of the energy and the hard work everyone put in, and that energy helped keep me pumped up and wanting to teach more. I am really looking forward to getting back there next year.