This was an AAR posted on another forum (TPI). I am re-posting here partly because the author is not a member here (something I told him to rectify!), and partly because I thought it was a good indicator of the coursework regarding people new to H2H work. About half the class had little to no empty hand combatives experience, but the feedback from everyone was positive in that they all felt like they were able to get something useful and needed out of the class. And more importantly, no one felt like they were overwhelmed at any point. One of the most satisfying comments was from a local LEO who was the DT groundfighting instructor for his department. He said afterwards that he did not know what he did not know, and it changed his perspective on the subject.
The AAR follows:
AAR: IMMEDIATE ACTION COMBATIVES
Hannibal, MO May 30-31, 2015
I recently had the opportunity to host Cecil Burch for his Immediate Action Combatives course (http://www.iacombatives.com/). Cecil is a World-class BJJ black belt and boxing instructor from the Phoenix, AZ area. This was the second time I've hosted Cecil for this class, but it won't be the last-- more about that later. The class was held at Gracie Barra Hannibal (http://gbhannibal.com/), the BJJ school I attend. As an aside, if you are anywhere near Hannibal, Missouri and are interested in training BJJ, you should check out GB Hannibal. It is a great gym which is owned and run by a great brown belt, Beau Viehmann.
As a bit of background, I've done a bunch of training over the last few years. I've taken a ton of carbine and pistol-centered classes. While I enjoyed those classes and learned from each, I put Cecil's classes in a different category. I enjoy shooting a carbine and pistol, but the reality for me is that I'm much more likely to find myself going hands-on with someone than I am to engage someone with a pistol or carbine.
I put Cecil's class in the same category as the Craig Douglas (AKA Southnarc) ECQC (http://shivworks.com/) course-- absolutely necessary! I highly recommend ECQC, as well, and both classes compliment each other. When I took ECQC a few years ago it was a humbling gut-check. I walked in thinking I could solve most potential violent problems I might face-- after all, I religiously carried a gun and trained frequently with my pistol. I was quickly humbled when I realized how woefully unprepared I truly was. It was at that point that my training focus changed. I started taking Jiu Jitsu classes and got much more serious about being able to physically handle problems I may face. I still take shooting courses and shoot a lot, but the biggest part of my training is now focused on hand-to-hand type combatives. This focus shift is what led me to contact Cecil.
To climb up on my soapbox for a minute, I'm constantly amazed by the number of “bad asses” who think (just like I did) that carrying a pistol equips them to handle any and all situations. Their Glock-fu will ensure that they are always prepared, no matter the situation. Add to that that most of these guys never really train with their carry weapon. They'll go out and burn through some ammo from time to time, but they don't do anything other than the fun stuff. I get it-- it's more fun to blaze away at stationary targets than to put in work and get your ass kicked during a force-on-force training evolution. But what was really accomplished? It's ballistic masturbation, at best. To paraphrase Tyler Durden from the movie Fight Club, “How much can you know about yourself if you've never been in a fight?”
TD1: Grappling
The first day started with introductions. I knew most of the guys in attendance personally, but there were several I knew only via e-mails. I was very pleased with the makeup of the class. There were no douche bags, just guys who wanted to learn and put in the work necessary to improve. There was a fairly even mix of guys with some grappling/BJJ experience and guys who'd never grappled before. Also, there were a couple of guys who had attended Cecil's class when I hosted it in 2014-- we all agreed that it was a bit less stressful the second time through. The class had several local LEO, but the majority of the students were civilians (and even a HSLD former SF face-shooter).
After the intros and some discussion about the concepts we'd be covering, we got to work. Cecil's teaching style is well suited for this type of material. While many instructors use the crawl-walk-run progression with more emphasis on the run portion (the fun stuff), Cecil spends plenty of time on the crawl-walk portion-- where the real learning occurs. The extra time spent on the fundamentals really pays off during the run portion of the class. An added bonus with his methodology is that you can continue to work and improve you skills long after the class is over. If you really grasp and understand the fundamentals, improving is much easier. Cecil is good at pushing each student to improve and get better without pushing too far.
I know that most guys on the inner-webs say that a fight should never go to the ground, but that's not reality. Reality is that you very likely could end up on the ground for any number of reasons that are out of your control (sucker punched, tripped, tackled, etc.). Cecil's groundwork instruction addresses this reality. You're on the ground, for whatever reason, so what do you do about it? What if your attacker has a weapon? What if you have a weapon? What if your attacker has friends with him? The situation gets complicated with a quickness.
First and foremost, Cecil stressed the importance of staying conscious and in the fight-- it's impossible to defend yourself if you get KTFO. Some of the newer guys had to fight their natural inclination to turn away from their attacker and turtle-up (and not turtle-up in the BJJ sense of the word). A good deal of time was spent hands-on, getting tossed around on the mats-- first with eyes open, then with eyes closed. We drilled positions by facing the threat and engaging by either pulling the bad guy into your guard or making space and getting to your feet. As a guy who's been training BJJ for a couple of years, my default was to pull him into my guard and I did that fairly well. I need to work on getting to my feet and making space however.
I won't go into too much detail about the specific drills we did, but they all stressed the main important point: Stay conscious and dominate your attacker. As the day progressed, the drills added more and more wrinkles and complications. Throughout the day the drills got harder and the attackers were instructed to get more aggressive and forceful. It should be noted that although the pressure ramped up, I never felt unsafe. With one freakish exception (a guy caught an inadvertent knee to the nose early on day 1) there were no injuries-- there were a few bruises and much soreness from the guys not used to grappling, but nothing a beer and some rest wouldn't fix.
The day culminated with a final evolution which tied together all of day one's lessons. It was a full-speed force-on-force (no knees/elbows/hard punches, so not really 100%) drill with weapons (blue guns and training blades) involved. One guy was the attacker, and one guy was the victim. Both were really trying to win the evolution. It was a stressful, but satisfying way to end the first day.
TD 2: Striking
The second day started with lots of complaints about aches and pains from the previous day. Even the fit guys who didn't grapple/spar on a regular basis learned a valuable lesson. Force-on-force is hard work.
Day two took up where day one left off. Again, the mantra was stay conscious and dominate your attacker. Cecil talked for a while about the reality of getting knocked out, and more importantly how to keep from getting knocked out. While no training can keep you from getting knocked out from a sucker punch (just Google the Knockout Game), there are ways to ensure that you remain conscious if you survive the first shot. The entire day was built on the default cover position which we learned first thing Sunday morning. We drilled it until it became somewhat automatic, then we built on that skill.
Although there was a heavy emphasis on defense, we also worked on a couple of offensive tools-- after all, nobody wants to be just a punching bag while a bad guy pounds away at you. Our main focus was on the straight right/left depending on your dominant hand. Cecil briefly covered jabs and hooks, but this was a class on how to survive and dominate a street encounter, not a boxing seminar. A good straight right goes a long way toward helping you survive a real-life encounter with an aggressive bad guy.
Along those same lines, we didn't spend any time bobbing, weaving or any of that other boxing-type defense. None of us are going to be the next “Winky” Wright, so our focus was on putting in the work to get a solid, workable defense, not slipping punches. We worked on cycling elbows any time the aggressor was in range and mixing in a few punches when the opportunity presented itself. Again, we ramped up the pressure all day with the bad guy getting progressively more aggressive as the day advanced. We didn't ever go 100% with our punches (the goal wasn't to knock out your training partner) but we did go hard enough to really learn the effectiveness of the simple defense Cecil taught us.
The keystone evolution (in my opinion) was Cecil's “Wall Drill.” In this drill, the defender takes his defensive stance with his back foot braced against the wall. All he can do throughout the entire round is cycle his elbows and defend himself while his partner hammers away at him. We each went through this drill for three rounds (each round was thirty seconds) alternating who was the defender and who was the attacker. This drill was awesome. After not being allowed to move during the wall drill (other than to rotate to face your attacker), the rest of the drills seemed easy. It's much easier to defend yourself if you're mobile.
Day two ended with a de-brief about the class. Like all good teachers, Cecil really wanted feedback to make the class better. I thought the class was great the first time I took it (or else I wouldn't have gone through the work required to host the class again), but it was even better this time. Cecil has really worked to hone his craft and his teaching ability and it shows. There are tons of guys who are good at something, but can't teach it to save their lives. Cecil is one of those rare guys who can do it and teach it. I'm going to use (steal) some of Cecil's methods when I teach my CCW courses.
Final thoughts:
This class is a must for anyone even remotely interested in defending himself or his family if things go sideways. I can't recommend this class (or Southnarc's ECQC, for that matter) enough. If Cecil is anywhere near your AO, make time for this class. Whether you're a battle-hardened, HSLD face-shooter, or just an average guy, you'll get something out of this class if you show up and put in the work.
I plan to host Cecil again in March/April of 2016 in Hannibal, MO. If you're interested in taking the class, contact me and I'll get the particulars to you when I know them.
Reply With Quote
Originally Posted by Chuck Haggard
