By Patrick Miller

 Combatives is made up of the following:

1. 
   Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (BJJ): BJJ is a grappling-based martial art that focuses on ground fighting and submission holds. It emphasizes leverage and technique to neutralize opponents, making it a valuable component of army combatives for close-quarter combat and controlling adversaries.

2. Boxing: Boxing techniques, including punches, footwork, and defensive maneuvers, are integrated into army combatives. Boxing provides soldiers with striking skills and enhances their hand-eye coordination, timing, and overall punching power.

3. Muay Thai: Muay Thai, also known as the "Art of Eight Limbs," is a stand-up striking style that utilizes punches, kicks, knees, and elbows. It offers soldiers a comprehensive striking system and enhances their versatility and effectiveness in combat scenarios.

4. Wrestling: Wrestling techniques, both freestyle and Greco-Roman, are incorporated into army combatives to enhance takedown skills, ground control, and clinch work. Wrestling provides soldiers with the ability to control opponents and dictate the flow of a close-quarters engagement.

5. Judo: Judo, a martial art that focuses on throws and grappling techniques, contributes to army combatives by providing soldiers with skills for off-balancing opponents and executing effective takedowns. Judo techniques emphasize leverage, timing, and the efficient use of an opponent's energy.

Now let’s focus on jiu-jitsu wrestling and judo. I believe these are the core components of combatives, and in a self-defense situation, they are the most important. If you are at projectile or striking range, you can just run away. As long as you don’t have a reason to stay and fight like someone is attacking your family. Your ego is not a good reason to trade blows with a drunk guy at a bar; remember, your ego is not your amigo.

If you are at grappling range, you are now in a fight. Hands have been placed on you, and it’s go time. Here’s the good news and why I think judo, jiujitsu, and wrestling are the core and most important. You have the ability to train these styles 100% full-out with very little risk of injury—not none; there is always going to be a risk, but it’s minimal, so you can fake kill people all day without actually hurting anyone. Your opponent has the ability to tap before enough pressure is applied to choke you unconscious or break a limb. I understand a broken limb won’t kill you, but it will make it all the harder for you to fight back.

It’s not like being in a fight; it’s actually being in a fight with rules, so no one gets seriously injured. Now you’re going to have some people say that these martial arts are for sport, and yes, they are, but if you don’t respect the tap, then they're for the street. A judo throw gets substantially more real if you're throwing someone on concrete or if you get someone’s back belly down and start grinding their face into the concrete to open up a choke. What about the GI? What about the GI if it’s cold and they have a jacket on? I’m using the jacket to choke them or drop them on their head if it’s hot out and they have a t-shirt on. I’m wrestling and using Nogi Jiujitsu techniques. Combatives covers the most important grappling arts and melds them together so you are prepared for most situations. Not all situations, you can never be prepared for everything.