- Kelly Mccann
- Apr 28
- 3 min read
It’s a sad fact that when we conduct combatives seminars, some attendees who have spent money and effort developing their martial arts skills say they regret having done that.
Usually, it goes something like this: “Man, I wish I had taken this approach earlier instead of spending so much time doing [this or that] martial art.”
In fact, a lot of combatives practitioners impugn traditional martial arts training, and that’s a shame. Don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater! If anything, what should be impugned is the lack of effort to “streetify” the martial art being discussed or the practitioner’s decision to choose form over function.
Take stances, for example. Few would argue that you should assume a traditional stance in a street confrontation, but learning how to use your hips to generate power in those stances is definitely useful. The principle simply needs to be applied to a more practical boxing or combatives guard rather than a horse stance.
To preserve an art, the curriculum should be taught accurately and respectfully exactly as it is. It shouldn’t be altered or contaminated by outside influences. People who pursue learning an art form shouldn’t think they wasted their time because they followed through and actually learned it. But neither the sensei nor the students should delude themselves about what they’ve actually learned, either.
Because traditional martial arts are about discipline and form, practitioners initially find it difficult to become more fluid and “natural” (for lack of a better description) in their thinking and application when they first experience combatives.
There is no kata, there are no ranks and there’s little structure (except for the curriculum). This can be totally liberating or oddly confusing to traditionalists.
The ease with which martial artists adapt to combatives is more a result of how they trained than what they trained in. If the focus was on kata, they’re likely going to be stiff. If, however, their training focused on sparring and contact, their performance will reflect a “looser,” more relaxed and practical approach.
Defense is another area in which traditional martial artists may feel like they come up short when they're first attacked in a combatives training scenario. High, low, outside and inside blocks aren’t very effective in street encounters, but the principle of perpendicularity that those martial artists apply while doing them is.
In other words, keeping the arms perpendicular to incoming punches is an integral part of both pursuits.
A boxer’s head is punched at more often than perhaps anyone else’s. There’s a reason the boxing guard is taught and used by all pugilists — the arms and hands are simply more often available and more immediately available than in any other configuration. The boxer can usually meet an incoming blow with perpendicularity and punch back at will without having to re-chamber.
Traditional martial arts blocks tend to get you “out of shape” quickly when multiple punches are thrown, especially punches from different angles. They also force you to re-chamber before you can counter, thus restricting you to whole-beat counters instead of half-beat counters.
Another difference is that many martial arts offer students a never-ending arsenal of techniques. Combatives, in contrast, is intentionally finite. Practitioners learn only what the instructor determines to be the most effective techniques, and they learn them right away. Neither approach is wrong, mind you. They’re simply different pursuits taken for different purposes.
Instead of chastising a martial artist for having undertaken something they don’t necessarily agree with or see the utility of, combatives practitioners and instructors should look for ways to facilitate the transfer of the existing skill set to a new pursuit.
All students start out seeking to improve themselves, right? Whether it’s to boost athleticism, balance and coordination, discipline or self-defense ability, we all have to start somewhere. Over time, however, our needs change and life happens, and we vector our interests accordingly.
The fact that a person may have started with taekwondo and now wants to pursue a more succinct approach to self-defense through combatives doesn’t mean everything he learned is bullshit. It means what is important to him has changed, that’s all.
Nobody does anything because they think it’s stupid. They do it because they believe that it’s what they need, that it’s what they want or that it benefits them in some way.
Rather than alienate someone who presents himself as “here to learn,” welcome him and help him make the transition from -do to -jutsu the way combatives teaches.
