“As well as the impact and partner work, I find that strength training benefits the tools dramatically, after all what good is any tool without the right machine to make it work?”
Mick Coup – C2: Core Combatives
In the previous two articles I have discussed some of the fundamental theory and practice behind C2: Core Combatives, ‘designed’ by threat management consultant, ex-soldier and personal security specialist – Mick Coup. Being a martial artist who is concerned with the pragmatism, realism and principles behind fighting arts, I had no hesitation in plunging into Mick’s instructor programme. There are few instructors who have his level of experience and are still involved with the type of work he does.
Core Combatives philosophy teaches that priorities have to be set against criteria and the primary objective must always be at the forefront. The objective in this case is survival. This even means that areas such as no-holds-barred full-contact sparring, which is cited by many as the closest thing to real fighting, must be brought into question:
“As brutal as you can make the sparring, there has to be some form of safety restriction, and following the famous doctrine of “As we train, so shall we fight,” this doesn’t work for real combatives. I do heartily advocate the heavy contact scenario drills – but these are often limited by available equipment, heavily padded full contact suits are huge and cumbersome, very unrealistic and the neck or back of the head still cannot be attacked properly because it is extremely vulnerable due to mobility issues with the suit. Quite often in these drills, for example, you see the head hit all over, anywhere, everywhere, especially on top when the head is down, rather than the specific actual targets only, for example the medulla region. So if you practice hitting to the top of the head under duress then this will develop as a conditioned response and done for real – with little result compared to the real shot. Or if you drill hitting to the chest, you’ll get a shock when you discover what the ribs and sternum were actually designed for in the first place! (Good for safe ‘won’t injure’ strikes to drunks on the door, or similar – nothing more!)
This point has to be heavily stressed and constantly addressed – no matter how much pressure – specific targets must be at least aimed for! All my stuff is gross motor skill only, and under extreme stress accuracy will be seriously impaired, still, if I don’t aim specifically, and over generalise the target areas, I could be miles off the mark and won’t get the desired result. So I will have wasted the shot that could have ended the ‘contact’. If I constantly drill that accuracy and specific target selection then I might, very likely will, still be off, but close enough!Think of the difference between Kenjutsu and Kendo – every single scoring technique in Kendo is worthless in a real battle, which is what Kenjutsu is all about. Why worthless? – Because it is where the real armour is strongest, but in order to facilitate contact in the sport of Kendo it has to be this way.General free-sparring promotes a certain sparring mentality, and think about the whole affair – the start, the circling, to and fro exchanges etc, even the whole issue of range, this has many benefits (pseudo-aggression, fitness etc), but for effective combatives the limitations have to be recognised, addressed and over-ruled with very intensive drills that replace the undesirable ’safety’ element with that desired ‘danger’ element. Real fights are like car crashes, train wrecks and the like! This has to be done on the pads and similar equipment until someone – maybe me – designs a suit that will allow for real (not just ‘realistic’ or ‘reality based’) applications. Until then abstract equipment like the simple focus pad can be used to fantastic effect, if used properly with good handling and accurate visualisation, to ‘program’ the required full-bore instinctive actions and reactions.
Combat is all about getting stuck in, as suddenly and as hard as possible – exerting maximum force against the weakest most vulnerable area of the enemy – completely the opposite of most sparring as such.
I used to have a term for general combative tactics – core strategies – that was represented by the initials G.L.F. which stands for Go Like F***! “When the time comes just G.L.F. right through him!” was something I often used to say to my guys! So the reaction/action drills simulate this much better than sparring in my opinion. Drilling for that explosive assault, hunting the targets relentlessly at full power and speed until the threat is destroyed is what is required, and would make for crap sparring!
The military exercise of ‘milling’ is designed to emphasise the aggression ethos – attack is all that is allowed – which (shock, horror) would hold up for most people better in a real fight (because it actually resembles what a real fight is more than most ’systems’ ever will!) and the crazy thing is that this is accidental! It was only developed as a ‘bottle’ tester – never as a fighting method, but it underlines how important will is, over skill. Mindset is the underpinning requirement for combat – with it even the worst tactics and techniques prevail, without it the best skills fail. Keep the mindset/will/intent required for milling as the base element, then tune up the tactics and tools utilised (remove the ‘front crawl’ fighting style for starters!) and you will have a potent combative method. If I had 5 minutes to teach someone how to win a fight, I would not hesitate to recommend this approach – and it’d work too!
Infantry units participate in ‘exercises’ using blank ammunition, but no matter how realistic these exercises are they are a long way from reality. Real combat training is done with live ammunition against targets – solo and static at first to develop competency and accuracy with the weapons (like basic static pad/bag drills), progressing to full tactical team simulations against dynamic targets, accompanied by all the sights and sounds of a real battlefield, even simulated casualties to throw the odd spanner in the works (like padded-man scenario drills – same progression). Advances in technology have improved combat training tremendously – for example specialist ammunition allows hits to be registered (like advanced paint-balling!), but is costly and usually restricted to specialist units only. Padded suit gear is also getting more advanced and so drills can be more relevant too.
To conclude the whole sparring question, I actually rate good action-reaction scenario drills, with set objectives, backed by intensive intelligent and relevant pad/shield work, way above free sparring. In real combative training there is no such thing as ‘free’ sparring – my reaction to a grappling attack, for example, is to peel the guy’s head into primary-tool striking range using an eye gouge, and I program this to become a conditioned response, not a decision – if I can’t use this in ‘free’ sparring and have to substitute something ’safe’ instead, then I end up de/re-programming myself, and I would be a fool to assume that this will do on the day. I don’t teach sparring with someone, I teach attacking them!”
Mick applies such an objective-centred approach to all aspects of his training. After developing target acquisition, instinctive attack methods and offensive intention via intense pad-work, Mick then looked at the strength training needed to further enhance the primary training tools. There are several different training methods, each serve a purpose, but each have to be considered in order of importance. Before I explain them it is appropriate to point out here that Mick has little patience for martial artists who frown upon “weight training”. If you do any form of resistance training – be it doing press-ups or sitting in a deep horse stance for long periods – you are practicing weight training (it is your own bodyweight in these instances).
The more specific a method of training the more valid and the more time and emphasis should be placed upon it. There is no point working hard on cosmetic “weekend muscles” designed to impress others as you prop-up the bar with a beer in hand, if your main area of concern is to eliminate very real life-threats to yourself or others.
Free weights have long been the preferred method for the “hardcore” trainer. As martial artists, we have often taken our cue from power-lifters and strongmen, who explain that machines do not drill “pure strength”, but instead teach you to work resistance in set grooves of movement. Mick argues that although free-weights are excellent for certain exercises and, if taught correctly, makes the lifter work secondary muscles to secure stability and co-ordination, a fully adaptable multi-purpose cable crossover machine reigns supreme in the C2 kingdom.
To understand the importance of this piece of equipment, one has to address a common fault many well-meaning strike-based martial artists do when trying to supplement their dojo, kwoon or dojang training. Many of us, at some time or other, have entered a gym and picked up a pair of dumbbells or put on a pair of very heavy boxing gloves in the mistaken belief that shadow boxing or pad training with the extra resistance will improve our punching power. Geoff Thompson points out in his “Weight Training for the Martial Artist”, “when you punch with a weight, gravity pulls you to the floor. This isn’t in the line of resistance used in the punching technique.”
Punching with weights can improve the function only if we apply the principles of attack lines and adjust it so that the resistance, or gravity, pulls along this line i.e. punching from your back. In fact, there is an excellent bench press exercise in the C2 curriculum that emphasises this point. One hand remains static holding a dumbbell (or a bench press machine that allows for independent movement off both sides) at arm’s length and the other pushes the weight forward. What you are recreating is the almost precise shape of “indexing” with one hand and striking the highline with a punch or palm (it is also the same shape of a typical “fence” line-up and pre-emptive strike). However, an adaptable cable crossover can provide you with the exact position for a highline strike without altering anything and providing the exact line of resistance, in addition to working the core muscles as you struggle to maintain an upright posture.
The resistance of the machine makes it difficult for you if your weight distribution “leaks out” upon delivery. The goal is to make the movement easy – as this means efficiency. The high-line attack makes use of the of the knee and hip movement along with the elbow all lined up along the attack line, as you push from one cable using the straight strike. Unlike free weights or even a bench-press machine the resistance is constant. From the half extension point (the point of impact) and beyond (the line of penetration) is the part requiring the most effort and therefore is the part that provides the biggest results. In order to make a strike efficient we should always aim to penetrate completely through the target, generally at 90 degrees to its surface, in a straight ‘attack’ line. This is in keeping with Newton’s First Law, to the effect that force is easiest applied in straight lines, and it actually requires more force just to alter its course.
“Not all C2 strikes are straight, just the most effective!”
Therefore it is fairly easy to see the logic behind using this piece of equipment to help develop our functional muscular action. Although velocity, more specifically acceleration, is the prime factor in impact, without structural strength to overcome solid resistance and recoil the striking limb will most likely collapse before expending maximum energy into the target.
Another conditioning method following on with the control/index and strike principle is the humble press-up. Of course, there is nothing humble about properly executed press-ups, where the body is held straight to develop core strength and the arms bend and straighten within their full range of movement. In more specific C2 training one arm holds the body up while the other strikes downwards onto a strike-shield, repeatedly and ferociously. By altering this exercise and propping the body up on a forearm you can then apply the short-range primary tool “attachment”, the elbow strike. A very intense and aggressive drill if executed correctly, excellent for drilling the ‘constant offensive pressure’ strategy and mindset that is the heart of C2.
Using the cable crossovers to enhance the muscular structure of the offline primary tool strike, resembling an outward hammer-fist blow, you hug your own body, extending the striking arm across the front, and pull the cable using a towel as an attachment across in a backward motion. You can vary heights with a good machine in order to get different angles on your attack lines. Mick showed me a very specific way to strengthen a typical low-line attack. This involves strapping one side of the crossover machine to the ankle and thrusting upwards, as if delivering a knee strike, and using a towel to pull the other side down to represent your enemy’s head. As an example to develop a secondary tool, the curved palm-hook attack, Mick uses a full range of motion on the cable crossover, starting at the feet and hips (inward pull) pulling the cable across the body’s centreline.
After the needs of specific training are addressed, the C2 student needs to attend to his supplemental training. In weight training terms, this means exercises used to develop stability and co-ordination. This is more holistic training used to further develop the major muscle groups used in the priority methods of attack. In order to make a person work for stability you need to de-stabilize the stances adopted by the weight lifter. All the standing free-weights exercises are done from positions where the person lifting is prohibited from having “rest spots”, in other words resistance must be maintained throughout the range of motion. The exercises chosen are generally compound movements, super-sets and combination exercises. An example of these exercises is the high-repetition alternate combined hammer-curl and shoulder press combination with dumbbells or some of the kettle-bell methods. There is no pausing in this part of the programme and, wherever possible, full range of movement is emphasized. Eyes should never be closed, even when a student works through the harder parts of his workout. There should always be a point of focus, as every high stress situation should always be handled in the same way and one should be mindful of developing bad habits. Heavy weights and low reps are not the order of the day for the priority weight training exercises, although they do have a place further down the line.
The physique of the pragmatic C2 student is neither the ripped swollen form of the bodybuilder or heavyweight professional wrestler nor the bulky “raw strength” body type of the power-lifter or competitive strongman. Impressive looking musculature is to be regarded as a side effect of hard pragmatic training, just as a strong cardiovascular system should be a side-effect of “will training”. The build should be lean and in proportion without any muscle restricting movement due to an artificially enlarged state. The muscles should be long and strong due to training through a full range of fully resistant movements.
In conclusion, fighting is a physical affair – so relevant physical training is vital to increase any odds in our favour, to gain and maintain any and all advantage wherever possible. In the words of Mick Coup, “If you are serious about training for the real thing, then functional strength development is crucial. If you disagree, then just try a good resistance training programme for 1 month, and if you don’t notice how every single technique that you have improves when you’re stronger, just stop and the extra strength will fade away as if you never had it. But I guarantee you’ll want to continue!”
Next Issue – “How C2 Relates to the Martial Arts”
