subject: What Kind of Martial Arts Are Involved With Military Self Defense? [print this page] What Kind of Martial Arts Are Involved With Military Self Defense?
The idea of learning military self defense has become much more popular over the past few years. Before you choose what type of class to take or video to buy, it is important to know what you will be getting into. Every branch of the military trains in different styles of martial arts and some of them are very different from each other. To give a better idea of what to expect, here is a quick look at the different styles you would learn from the Marine Corp, Air Force, and Navy SEALs.The Marine Corp internally designed their own program of martial arts in 2001, known as MCMAP (Marine Corp Martial Arts Program). The purpose of this program was to provide a more versatile set of non-lethal options for controlling hostiles because of the increased number of urban and police-peacekeeping missions. This includes a variety of different martial art forms including: boxing, jujitsu (opponent weight transfer), wrestling (ground grappling), and chokes. MCMAP focuses on dealing with people who, while hostile, are unarmed. The Marines program is considered to be a completely independent style of self defense in which moves and techniques are borrowed from a variety of different places.The Air Force is most well-known for utilizing two styles of martial arts: Tae Kwon Do and Judo. However, more and more bases are adding Ju Jit Su classes as well. Members of the Ravens Security Force has added Ju Jit Su as part of their standard training. Military self defense has been a part of the Air Force dating back to the 1960's. It was originally added because the risk of aircraft being shot down in places like Vietnam and other enemy territories was much higher than it is today.Navy SEALs utilize a wide variety of martial arts during their training. They do not focus on any one specific style, but cross-train extensively. Some of the most noted styles include: Jiu Jitsu (grappling), Krav Maga (close quarter weapons and striking), Judo (takedowns), and Muay Thai (clinch techniques).Of these styles, Krav Maga has gotten the most attention lately because it is the same style of fighting that is taught to the Israeli Army and emphasizes powerful, precision strikes. It is important to note that the Navy SEALs train more for offensive purposes as opposed to self defense. However, once the lethal elements are removed, their type of military self defense can still be a great benefit to learn.When comes to learning from the learning, it seems that one thing is clear. There is no single martial arts style that is better than the rest. All of the branches make use of a variety of different styles to create their forms of self defense. While the idea of learning self defense just like those in the military, it is important to remember that the military is training soldiers to take on threats directly and quickly, whereas most people that want to learn self defense would rather avoid the conflict in the first place. Fortunately, there are a variety of different programs available that mold the intensity and quality of military training to the needs of the average person.
