Modern Military Martial Arts, Is It Effective

Caveat: Although an Active duty Marine for ten years I have not been a part of a military martial arts programs as the USMCMAP program came into existence many years after my duty ended. I also have not served in combat so this is my perceptions as to a theory about military martial arts and its effectiveness.

The short answer is yes. The short answer is also no. I read a quote at the Classic Budoka blog that I felt was relevant toward finding the answer to my questions, i.e. "One of my (the Classic Budoka's student) students served in military intelligence, and he noted that modern combative training emphasized MMA-style grappling. When he complained to the drill instructor that they wouldn’t encounter nearly naked grappling fights on a modern-day battlefield, the instructor replied, basically, that he knew that was true, but with only a few days for hand-to-hand training in between cardio and marksmanship, at least the raw recruits would develop a SENSE of competency in hand-to-hand, even though they really weren’t going to learn much of anything. At least they’d FEEL more confident."

This made me think that possibly this mind-state could lead to lives lost if a Soldier, Sailor, Airman or Marine had to go hand-to-hand. Granted, in my day in the Marines we were taught some hand-to-hand but it was always emphasized that regardless it is best to always find a weapon, i.e. yours, the enemies if they died and had one with the body, or your fellow Marines if they fall or are wounded so you can do your Marine thing. But, hand-to-hand is still taught because there are times when you will need it so is the modern martial arts programs sufficient to get that job done? Remember, once in the combative situation of hand-to-hand it is literally a matter of life or death for either you or the enemy. 

I think that if the quote above is accurate through out military martial arts that to hold responsibility for not just success in combat but success and life for each and every person is critical. It means that we should provide "realistic" martial training or some hybrid of that where those who have served in harms way, with experience in hand-to-hand with the enemy - who is trying real hard to kill you - should be the modern combative training method. Similar to the Isreali Krav Maga and the British special services hand-to-hand training. 

After all, it is not a matter of what is most popular so that the individual will readily learn it but rather what training will ensure that the same individual will increase their chances of surviving a hand-to-hand encounter. 

I have watched the training via video's of some martial arts programs in the military and that was the fist thought that entered my mind, they are teaching them the sport version of grappling, etc. and then I thought to myself that this would possibly get folks killed. Then I thought, "Well, except in special forces situations how often would a combatant actually have to use their hand-to-hand?" This is similar to today's self-defense martial arts industry. The probability of any individual actually encountering a need for their self-defense is very, very, very low so if they learn crap in all likelihood they will never find out that it is not effective and the few that do will have no effect on the industry. 

The modern martial arts self-defense industry along with many others in martial arts who "feel or think" they teach self-defense in the decades since I began my involvement in martial arts, karate, I have had "no one" come to me and say they had to defend themselves and their martial arts saved the day for them. I am not saying it does not happen as I know of, not personally know, some professionals who have made it work but often a hybrid martial arts based tactic, strategy and techniques. Nothing wrong with this in my book but hey .... think about it.

In the military it is critical, in my view, to have what is realistically going to work in a combat environment. I don't want to just "feel" more confident because that confidence will die quickly the first time it doesn't work provided I survived. I don't want to find out I really just learned something that is not actually proven as effective so I can feel confident I really want something that is proven to make the enemy die for his country so I don't die for mine.

Granted, at sixty years of age I doubt seriously I will ever have to go to combat but what about all those serving now. I want to feel that all our military combatants, not just special forces types, have the tools to get the job done and come back to family and friends "whole and alive." In the end I hope that the quote is just an "isolated" situation and that most are getting it right, I hope. 

Even if they use this model in recruit training it should lead to further relevant training as they progress through their time in the military. So, the stuff must be basic and an introduction to realistic relevant training that is enhanced in further training after boot. The Marine Corps Martial Arts program starts in boot but is a part of Marine life through out the time you serve. As to its realistic relevance I can only give a limited assessment from the videos of training I have seen but is seems to have both sport aspects and more realistic and relevant aspects - maybe that is a good start but the Marines may also be influenced by the sport MMA-style stuff as well. 

I wish the Marines in my time of service had more of a program than the standard hand-to-hand. We were on our own to find additional martial arts training and that tuned out to be pretty good because that is how modern karate came to the west, with our military who took the initiative to learn something outside the military requirements. OhRahhhh! After all, I managed to realize sport over self-defense and combatives even if many years later. I take that as a part of learning fundamentals of martial systems and that may have been the sense of training from the Asian perspective where observation and self-realization were the essence of learning a martial art. 

Bibliography:

Classic Budoka. "107: Why Do You Train?" January 27, 2014.