Core Combative (C2) Foundation Course

I am a true believer in the power of situational awareness as a necessary foundational element in personal safety but I also believe there is a significant chance that at some point we may be unable to avoid a threat. We may find ourselves in a “Wrong Place/Wrong Time” (WP/WT) situation where all we have left to defend ourselves are our physical fighting skills. And while I am highly trained in firearms (and other “weapons”) the only tools we can truly count on having when the chips are down are our limbs.

In an effort to enhance my skills for the WP/WT moment, I recently took a 4 day combatives training course, the Core Combatives (C2) Foundation Course, from Mick Coup and it was eye-opening.? Let me tell you why.

But first some background information. I am a former US Division 1 National Wrestler who spent 24 years in the CIA and received combatives training as part of my job as a CIA officer tasked with protecting CIA personnel and as a member of a counter-terrorism team working in hostile locations. In my personal life, I have trained in Tae Kwon Do, Krav Maga, BJJ, and some Filipino martial arts. I have also taken training directly from Bruce Siddle, Geoff “Tank” Todd, Tony Blauer, and other lesser known combatives instructors. I am by no means an expert on combatives or martial arts, but I am not a stranger to these subjects.

C2 Foundation Course

The C2 Foundation course is strictly focused on the situation where you have no choice but to use your physical tools to defend yourself.? I can say that I was humbled by my experience in this course. The course was physically demanding (1000 pushups over 4 days, more than 3,200 quality strikes on the pads, and 15 full effort “fights”, etc.), and there were very specific well thought out reasons for these activities. But it was not the physical demands of this course (which were considerable) but the information in it that was so fascinating and which revealed some real ignorance on my part in some of the critical components in a physical confrontation.

Critical Elements

Without giving away any of the “secret sauce”, there were three areas where this course stood out against my other training.

The first concept covered was a focus on basic human physiology – how do we move, exert power, and transfer energy. The second concept involved the realities of an altercation, a breakdown of the characteristics. What really happens in a “fight”? And the third area was some of the very specific training modalities that are needed to address the characteristics of an altercation (accuracy, weapon selection, and specific techniques).

Physiology and Physics

The first concept covered was a focus on basic human physiology – how do we move, exert power, and transfer energy. In a physical altercation, our goal, like in any self-defense situations, is to “stop the threat”! This is the physiology and physics of striking!

Realities of Altercations

The second topic was the breakdown of the characteristics of an altercation. What really happens in a “fight”? Mick Coup, in his C2 Foundation Course, has reverse engineered the physical actions in? a fight, focusing strictly on what has worked in altercations and created a system that can incorporate these “facts” with appropriate, and more importantly, effective techniques to use in our defense.

Physiology and Physics of Strikes

Looking at a physical altercation, our goal, like in any self-defense situations, is to “stop the threat”! What do I have with me all of the time that I can use to defend myself? The answer to that question is our body.? We need to learn how to maximize our physical capabilities to inflict devastating damage with our limbs to an attacker! This is a necessary skills for anyone who wants to protect themselves or others!

If we truly intend to be as efficient and effective as possible to achieve this goal, we have to look at what has historically been proven to “work” in physical altercations.? And equally important, we have to understand why it works and how we can replicate it. This is the physiology and physics of striking! So how do I learn to maximize my physical ability to transfer energy/impact into a target (using my fists, elbow, etc.) to stop them from being a threat?

The first step in this process is learning how we can transfers energy from the foot through the body into the waist and then up the arm to the fist (or elbow, etc.).? Striking is the ability to make our bodies capable of transferring energy/impact to a specific area of an opponent in an effort to make them combat ineffective (no longer a threat). In the course, learning to maximize our physical capability to transfer force was stressed at every point in the training. This is aspect cannot be over emphasized as it is truly the “foundation” of striking.

Realities of Fights

What I found out in this training course was I had several misconceptions about my ability to react to an “immediate” threat – the almost split second reaction time we have to either put up a physical defense or go down in a heap under the onslaught of an attacker. Like other physical skills, unarmed combat skills are not as easy to learn as one may expect – partially because we often do not dictate the location, the timing, or the targets in a fight – our opponent does.

The ability to recognize and react to a threat, incorporating correct striking techniques, and putting accurate shots into the target area under the “fog of war” is challenging to say the least, and this is what the course was all about.? The methods used in this course allowed us to experience as realistically as possible, under relatively safe conditions, the huge psychological and physical stress that happens at the moment when a physical confrontation begins. There is no substitute for experience, and the “live action” segments put the students in an environment the closest to real “fight” conditions I have every experienced.

Modalities of Training

The first part of the combatives equation is very physical – can I make (use) my body to effectively hit with sufficient force to stop a fight (aka knockout or damage an attacker sufficiently that they are combat ineffective – out of the fight)?

This can be very easily explored with just a hand pad and a good partner. Standing relaxed, throw a punch. Did it hit the pad with real force and weight or did you push the pad? Did you even hit the pad without any preparatory measuring (accuracy)? I can say that my performance on this initial test was woefully disappointing. There is so much more to striking than throwing your arm and fist out and hitting a target. The ability to throw your weight, momentum, and then lock out your bone structure so that all of the force transfers into the target is a real skill – one that has to be learned and practiced.

I also learned that we tend to try to over use our muscles to throw the strike, which can easily interfere with the efficient transfer of power from our body into the target. Doing the “400” drill (individual strikes that are only counted towards the total if they meet the strict objective of a solid hit) forced me to use body mechanics and movement (basic physics) to generate real force as my muscles became too fatigued to continue to “muscle” the strikes.? It is an amazing thing to hit the pad on your 400th strike harder than you landed the first 20!!

Accuracy

Accuracy and timing are incredibly important and training your body and mind to choose the right weapon and then use it at the right time in the right way was much more difficult than I imagined it would be. Specific drilling has to be done to help you learn to adjust your strikes to different distance and circumstances. Repetitions and stress are the only way to burn the information into your mind’s “harddrive”!

Weapon and Techniques

In a physical altercation, we need to be very specific in our techniques as we want our actions to be high probability – in other words we want to use whatever weapon and technique that is the most likely and capable of stopping the attacker.? A kick to the thigh may be available but will it have a better chance of stopping the fight than a straight overhand right? We have to remember that we have very limited time to get into the fight and finish it.

If we think about “ring strategy” the fight, for us, will most likely be over before we know it. In other words, we have to be very economical with our strikes sending our best shot now! And the target that provides us with the best opportunity to put our opponent out of commission is a head strike with our best, most accurate weapon, our fist.

Examining potential targets and their characteristics, we very quickly come to the realization that we have to simplify our thoughts, processes, and actions to those that will allow us to react instantaneously with sufficient force to stop an attacker in their tracks. So we minimize/reduce our “options” (read strikes) and stick with the reality of the situation – which is the attacker picks our target and our strikes. What does this mean? The attacker’s actions determine the distance and his/her arm/hand/body position will determine the target.?

A simplified explanation of this is - if the attacker is at arm’s length and their hands are low, we use a high line long strike (overhand right), if they are closer and their hands are low, we have to use a high line short strike (elbow). On the surface, this appears very logical and straightforward but training yourself to recognize and react immediately with the right tools and accuracy is the real trick!

Live Drills

Stress inoculation, fatigue, and limited time and space, are elements used in this course in an effort to replicate the experience of an actual physical altercation with the all the chaos and urgency that is inherent in this situation. The live drills are the test to show us ?how compressed time and space effect all of our techniques. The training emphasizes that “perfecting” basic striking techniques in the training section is the only way to get to “probable effectiveness” in the street. If you cannot do it close to perfect in they gym, you chances of using it effectively in the street drops to less than possible!

When doing the live drills against an opponent I found the drop in my actual performance to be startling. I quickly realized that my distance management, my technique delivery, and my planned “tactics” were far from my hoped for level of effectiveness. But… every repetition of these drills gave me better insight on how important it is to train on and perfect the basic body mechanics of striking and by the last rep I was more effective in my actions. Experience is the great teacher and getting hit really makes the lessons sink in!

Summary

In the C2 Foundation course, we focused on a simple pyramid of concepts: strategy, tactics, tools, support skills, and of course attitude! Together all of these concepts form a solid base for effective combatives training with a realistic goal of learning to react quickly and efficiently to an altercation by maximizing our ability to use our physical tools to stop an attack. This training was definitely a visit to “combat chaos” – an invaluable lesson as “The body will not go where the mind has not been”!

I would highly recommend this course to anyone who really wants to understand some of the critical aspects of a physical confrontation and who wants to test their abilities against the realities of combat chaos!!