Training Rorion and Royce Gracie with NCOs from the 2nd Ranger Battalion in 1996 louisiana National Guard learning Ground fighting techniques Any effective martial arts system must have a base that ties all of its techniques together. For example, many Philippine systems use the techniques of stick fighting as their base. Familiarization with the techniques translates into both empty hand and bladed weapon techniques. So the fighter can easily flow between the different types of combat with the same techniques. Along these same lines, NinJitsu and many Japanese Jiu-Jitsu systems teach stick fighting as an extension of standing grappling techniques. The stick serves more to increase the fighters leverage for the same techniques than as a stand-alone weapon. In this same way the concept of dominant body position from Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu is the base for Modern Combatives. The dominant positions are the spine that connects all of the techniques. A fighter always knows what he is fighting for. Even one class can then produce a better fighter by simply giving him a sense of what his objective is. Grappling competition in the 3rd Ranger Battalion Championships The reason that the ground grappling technique of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu is so advanced is that it is practiced in “free play”. In other words you can actually do it, real-time, against a fully resisting opponent. It is this concept of “free play” that all of the base arts of Modern Combatives have in common. Wrestling, Judo, Boxing, Muay Thai, its easy to see the connection. Each of these however not only exhibits the strength of free play training, but also its weakness. The practitioners of each have allowed their particular arena to become the focus of their training.    Students Boxing at the Ranger Training Brigade By looking for the limitations of each form of free play, we can identify where the artificial boundaries have been placed between the techniques and consciously work to reintegrate them. As a fighter begins to learn how the techniques fit together. The principle factor is range. The three basic ranges of combat are: projectile weapon range, striking range, and grappling range. As he becomes more competent and confident moving between the ranges, the concepts of controlling the angle and the level are introduced. Soldiers are taught that the fighter who controls the range, angle, and level can dictate what techniques will dominate the fight. As fighters progress through the system, they learn the language of fighting, understanding what is happening at any time during the fight. This is a prerequisite to understanding fight strategy. To be successful, a fighter must have a strategy. For instance, a boxer has the basic strategy of striking his opponent with his fists until he is rendered unconscious. The basic fight strategy that we teach is: close the distance, gain a dominant position, and finish the fight. As a fighter develops higher-level skills he also gains the ability to use the higher-level strategies that are dependent on those skills. In real fights people bite, shove their thumb in your eye, grab your testicles and more significantly have friends with weapons who are more than happy to jump in. These things must always be considered during training. You may never know that your enemy is armed until it is too late. You must therefore always assume that he is. Your techniques must always be grounded in these realities. Just as we teach techniques in order, based on the ease with which they can be learned, we also teach from the simplest scenarios building to the more complex. The difference is only one of degrees. The techniques and strategies for instance that are used for one on one unarmed fighting must teach the principles and body mechanics necessary to learn the higher level techniques required in more difficult scenarios such as armed opponents or multiple enemies.