there was recent news about combatives in the seal teams what was the evolution towards mma so the seal teams has gone through a whole plethora of various kind of hand-to-hand combat type things when i when i first came in there was something called scars and i it stood for scientific something something something something but it was uh it sort of looked like a kung fu yeah it was it was very um actually i think it was based on on san soo right uh which is a martial art anyways so that was kind of when i showed up there then we kind of morphed towards something a little bit more modern and then we morphed towards something else and so we were constantly kind of looking and searching for something that was efficient we ended up going with uh this one this one contractor for several years and you know so use this this one contractor for several years and then eventually especially once the war started and we had guys on a regular basis doing hand-to-hand combat against the enemy in front for those who don’t understand when that would happen if we go into a building and there’s people in there that don’t have weapons well you can’t just gun them all down you have to get control of them if their military age males you probably got to cuff them you got to get them down to the ground you got to control them now there’s a whole variety of things that can happen the guy can be unarmed but literally combative you know he can square up and say okay it’s on we’ve seen that and people might be surprised to hear that uh people actually do that you know you got a gang of big tough seals there they’re gonna gonna put you down we’ve had multiple people like not comply oh you’re not gonna put me down and uh it doesn’t usually go too well for them so that’s that’s one of the spectrum you then you go down the spectrum where it’s someone that just is scared and they’re frozen with fear so but but you’re yelling at them to get down and arabic which is you know your arabic’s not great you’re yelling at them they’re scared they freeze so now what are you gonna do you can’t just stand there and keep yelling at them you gotta get them to the ground get them control so you continue the clearance then there’s people that are gonna so you’ve got all the way down to someone that just you know you they see they see you they put their hands up they lay down that’s great that’s easy so as we started getting into these scenarios on a regular basis we we realized that the system that had been taught was ineffective and that’s and and also luckily we had a bunch of guys in the seal teams that were into jiu-jitsu and muay thai wrestling and mma in general and so that kind of came in and started people started saying hey why don’t you just do this and this will actually get a person under control and actually you told a good story uh to me today when we were talking about jiu jitsu about that that’s a good that’s a good little uh explanation of where we were and where we where we got to in my first platoon we went through that that training uh and uh that was our prisoner handling training so that’s what that’s what we did and and uh that’s we we practice handling prisoners and searching them and putting them on the ground all that stuff handling them um and so you know we’re told this is the way to do it this is you know well when we start going against role players i remember one in particular um we’re going against we’re in the kill house and we’re moving through and of course we’re this isn’t live fire you’re going against role players they’re shooting back at you with simunition which is a paint round throughout our actual weapons it’s great training because then you have then you have to deal with people you have to actually wrestle with people you actually have to engage targets or they’re shooting back at you outstanding training and we’ve talked about that before but but uh it is one of the things that really stood out to me was i remember one particular guy one of the role players was a a pretty large guy i mean he’s probably six four six five like 250 pound guy big guy and me and and this guy wasn’t a seal he wasn’t a seal i think he was a gunners mate or something he was just volunteering to come up and be a role player great you know helps us with training um and so you know a small role player you’re able to get them down to the ground hold them and and uh you know get a search on them and um me and and another one of our guys who is a big a big guy this guy arms big rounds my legs this seal was was a large large man very strong guy and we grabbed this guy we’re trying to get him the ground and he’s not being compliant he’s being he’s resisting us and it’s hard i mean this this is difficult for me and this other guy we’re not we’re not small guys i mean we’re we’re strong guys we’re we’re getting this guy to the ground but he’s not cooperating we’re having a hard time keeping him down another one of our guys who was actually a lot smaller than us he was probably 180 pound guy i’m 200 pounds and and the other sea i was describing it’s probably 230 pound guy and uh his uh so this this other seal comes up and he’s like 180 pound guy he’s trained jiu jitsu he’s got a little bit of that he spent uh spent a little time you know at the gracie academy and and uh had was one of the one of the first guys i knew who who was pretty pretty skilled in jiu jitsu and and uh he he gets this this uh this big guy that you know the role players wrestling around that gunners made and uh not cooperating we’re wrestling around with him he comes up there gets a guy gets it gets a knee on him goes like knee on stomach and the guy the guy can’t do anything and you know here’s this 180 pound guy completely controlling this large guy that two of us couldn’t do before and i was like i need to start training some jiu jitsu because that stuff works and it was just a it was just a reality of like body control i can control this guy i mean neon stomach get his arms got him zip tied done i mean he’s and he actually when we debrief with him you know he he comes and now now he’s out of his role player realm and he’s like he’s like hey that was pretty cool and then i think he actually probably started training some jiu jitsu because he he he realized like just how effective it was for a guy who really understood body control to be able to just get a knee on him hold him down you know and and be able to control him even though he was half the size of this dude interestingly that’s almost that’s why most of us start because they feel it happens to you and you’re like whoa whoa whoa that was like you’re like how’s this guy you know he looks so much smaller than me and he’s just crushing me how’s that possible yeah so that was you know and that that case that you just described happened like you know every day in the seal team somebody else that that knew some jiu-jitsu you know would have that scenario happen and eventually the the the correct answer rises up and people say hey look this is working this is not working and so that’s how we ended up with uh with more of an mma-based approach because it’s not just pure jiu-jitsu it’s everything it’s muay thai it’s boxing it’s it’s you know weapons retention pieces to it it’s hitting people learning how to hit people with your gun what we call a muzzle strike which is again this is one of those things where we kind of would get be told that like the muzzle strike would would just kill people yeah it would kill people or it’s gonna definitely incapacitate me instantly and knock people out and the fact of the matter isn’t i know i know leif and i have seen i don’t even know how many people i’ve seen muscle strikes over and over and over again and it just the the amount i don’t even think i ever saw an actual knockout i mean you see some damage it hurts and it cuts the person’s face open and it makes them bleed everywhere and it’s a complete nightmare and you have to take them to medical and it’s it’s just a bad thing whereas somebody that knows a little bit of mma can go in and control these people and take them down and it’s it’s no factor so that’s what ended up taking over and it’s definitely a good thing and a positive thing and it’s been it’s been cool to talk to the guys that are now carrying on with the program
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