Reality Based Martial Arts - The Will to Survive

[RACastanet]

Hello all. I'm just back from a 'beginner' martial arts class for Marine officers @ Quantico. The typical class consists of 250 new Lts with little if any martial arts background. A few were high school or college wrestlers, a few had some civilian martial arts training etc, but for the most part they were starting from square one.

The challenge that the Marines face is that unlike 40-50 years ago when I was growing up, these young men and women grew up un a politically correct environment, ie. little or no unsupervised rough housing, friendly fights and the like. Most of them have just never been hit in the head, piled on, and that sort of thing. For the most part, this is a bunch of energetic, motivated, but civilized kids (my apologies to the 'mustangs' in the group). The Marines use their martial arts program to fill the void.

The class is four days of fun out in nature. That adds to the experience. Whatever the weather is doing, rain or shine, hot or cold, the training goes on. This week has been cold but mostly dry. The work surface was nice, hard packed, uneven frozen ground. If it had been raining, it would have been a large mud pit. So, we get what we get.

Again, these are large goups, and the ratio of teacher to student is very high... 40-50 to 1. As such, yours truly is welcome to join a platoon and help out. Great fun!

In the photo link below, the XO is lecturing the group on the most important point in warfare, the will to never give up, never stop fighting, never lose the will to survive, no matter how terrible the situation is. That is what makes Marines Marines.

This same mind set should be part or our civilian martial training. The will to survive will overcome the worst odds. Once you surrender that will, you are doomed.

The XO did an excellent demo to get the reality across. He asked if anyone was a college wrestler. A few Marines raised there hands and he asked the largest to come up for a demo. The XO is about 5'8" 150 pounds. He asked the large wrestler if he thought he could take him down and asked for a demo. before the wrestler could move, the XO quickly deployed his rather large folder and smiled. The wrestler backed up instead of moving forward. "No Fair"? Fair has nothing to do with it. That got the point across. Better than anything anyone could have said.

These young officers are preparing for deployment to a hot spot in the very near future. They will be prepared. While most of us will not face what Marines do, we still need to maintain the proper mindset should we ever be faced with a life or death situation... never give up!

Here is a photo of the open air dojo from yesterday morning just after the sun came up:

http://www.imagestation.com/mypictures/ ... om_album=1

Rich

[Bill Glasheen]

Rich

Great post.

Good comment about training under "whatever" conditions. We are spoiled, no?

I remember the first time I ran my dojo outside in the snow, barefoot, to do sanchin on Mr. Jefferson's lawn... We all should break out of the comfort zone now and then.

- Bill

[Rick Wilson]

Great post, Rich!

[jaybo]

Mr Castanet;

Nice post. We should all be so lucky to step out of bounds. I also remember the first time our class did kata outside on a soft, half way even lawn. Another honest way of doing it is w/o the crisp, snappy gi and just in shorts and a tee. Then again, that was just kata.

I used to spar outdoors also w/ sneakers on to protect the toes and a denium jacket and heavy vest to offer some protection. Of course, that doesn't compare to the hard-core, full till and 200 MPH that the Marines do things.

BTW, we have some Marines in my community seeing some action....tipped a few pops w/ one that was wounded in Iraq...God Bless 'em and all the best to anyone so far away from home, doing a very difficult job.

Back to my comfort zone,

jaybo

[RACastanet]

Hmmmm.... It appears that my link to imagestation is not functioning. Darn.

The CO of the program likes to set an example by upping the difficulty or discomfort of his own training. His personal favorite is to wear a flack jacket during the training, and he recommended that I do so as well. And so I did. Carrying that bulky and heavy thing on your back all day does add to the experience. One positive though, it kept me warmer than most... it was cold out!

One 'Gunny' wore nothing but a tee shirt. A few of the other instructors shaved their heads and did not were a cover of any kind. So, another Marine credo is to lead by example.

The Discovery Channel was on site most of the day filming the training for a special on the Marine MA program. I do not know when it will air, probably not before summer, but it will definitely be interesting. If you see a tall guy wearing a flack jacket in the background, that will be me. My 15 seconds of fame.


Rich