I took Craig’s ECQC class this past weekend, 20 hours of training from roughly 6PM Friday to 6PM Sunday.
I have quite a few thoughts on my experience in the class that I would very much like to share, but work travel and some personal challenges have delayed my ability to capture and record them. It will probably take me a number of posts before I am satisfied.
First, a little about me and why I sought out instruction from the infamous Craig Douglas aka @SouthNarc.
Once upon a time I was very active in the grappling arts, with a focus on sport submission grappling. I am mostly a grappling mongrel, with training and experience in Sombo, Judo, a couple of flavors of Japanese Jujitsu, a little BJJ, and smidges of other stuff. I started my Martial Arts career relatively late in life at about 30 YO, and was pretty active running a local club from my basement dojo until about 43. That was 10-11 years ago...
For the past 5 years or so I’ve been very active with firearms, focused primarily on sport action pistol applications. I’m a solid USPSA A-Class in Production, knocking on the door of M-Class. I hold or at least have held a variety of certs (USPSA RO, ISPA SO, NRA RSO, NRA Pistol Instructor, etc.). I also engage in some self-defense firearms training, most notably a couple of classes with Gabe White @Mr_White where I have earned a Light Pin twice but fell a hair short of Turbo Pin in the most recent class.
Recently I took a ‘Stop the Bleed’ class and now have a SOFTT-W tourniquet and considered Trauma Kit with me or nearby pretty much always - one in the truck, another in the Range Bag or in my business travel kit. If I get on a plane and can’t be conventionally armed, maybe I/another could at least be able to survive until medical professionals arrive. I’d like to invest more energy to build my competency in this area - maybe a weekend class with Dark Angel or equivalent.
While I have done a little knife defensive work in years past in Sombo and Japanese Jujitsu class, I don’t consider myself to be competent in this space. I do generally carry a Clinch Pick and a Kershaw/Emerson wave style folding pocket knife and have been meaning to get more meaningful training.
It’s been over 10 years since I’ve stepped onto the mats, and to be honest I am pretty active with a very high metabolism but I don’t work out, stretch, do cardio or anything else. I’m 54-year old, 6’0”, 175-180 lb. So, I’m no spring chicken, but I’m not throwing in the towel either. What’s next in my life? More pistol work putting more and more energy into smaller and smaller increments of improvement? Action long guns? Get back on the mats with a BJJ class? Break down and start actually working out?
I went looking for instruction that appealed to me and Craig Douglas just jumped off the page at me. I spent a good while researching his multi-disciplinary approach to MUC and ECQC. Almost immediately I decided that it was the right thing to do to help me decide what’s next. I found an upcoming class and signed up.
I’m pretty confident in my pistol skills. I was hoping that my (well-aged) grappling skills would re-manifest in my moments of need. My biggest concern was physical ability and interity: Would I have the strength, flexibility, endurance and durability to complete and survive an ECQC class? Assuming I did, would I be able to complete the almost back-to-back professional conference I was attending afterwards, and what would my recovery be like?
I have lots more, but this is all I have time for at the moment.