The seminar kicked off with an in-depth look at “threat recognition”. Whilst Lee has covered this topic at previous Irish seminars, this was the first time he has delved into extensive detail about how violent assaults manifest themselves. Here, we covered the three phases of any violent confrontation: before, during and after. As Lee explains, in order to have a solution to a problem, you must have a full understanding of the problem in the first place.

Good self protection skills are made up of “Personal security measures,” which are made possible by good awareness skills and an understanding of the modern enemy. Lee defines awareness as “a cumulative alertness to a potential threat, and an understanding of the environment with an understanding of any movement out of the ordinary that indicates any type of predatory behaviour”. Having a good awareness base will let you see how a threat develops and will hopefully give you an opportunity to avoid any conflict. After all it does not matter how good a fighter you are if you don’t see a threat coming in the first place. Some of following factors should be taken into account to aid in perceiving and avoiding violent confrontation: the use of deception, close range, weapons, multiple opponents and the environment. Where possible its always preferable to avoid any confrontation, as all consequences of violence are negative, as Lee explains.

After explaining the Urban Combatives “Game Plan” to the students, we went into some physical drills that put these tactics into play. This is great way for the students to really grasp the concepts through hands-on experience.

Urban Combatives Ireland - Lee Morrison Seminar January 2010

The second part of the seminar covered Combative skills. These are hard skills coupled with high probability strategies and tactics which are employed should we have no other choice but to go for a physical option. The first drill involved adopting “a fence” position for maximum situational control. As de-escalation is not an option for this particular drill, the student must strike pre-emptively, attach to the target and continue striking until there is no longer a threat.

Building on from this concept we then use a “contact management drill”. This hammers home the need for awareness and 360 degree observation skills, in order to see any secondary threats.  This is always shown the wrong way first, where the student is waylaid by deceptive dialogue from the first contact, while the second contact will draw a knife and put it to the students throat from behind. This really reiterates the point that you have a high probability of having to deal with a secondary threat.

After this the student is given the “correct tools” to deal with the situation. The student is taught how to control the subject using a “fence” while moving around and looking for any other threat. If this secondary threat is spotted in time the student now has some options, as opposed to being blind sided and having to deal with the consequences which is the least desirable situation. After the threat (or threats) are dealt with, the student must keep a high level observation while managing “state”, as blind aggression is not good in any confrontation, and will only serve to impede your cognitive thought processes during the body’s adrenal response. Then the student must evaluate the area while scanning for any further threats.

The next set of drills focused on combative hard skills. The drills start on the high line (head) target area but then goes to the low line, as the subjects’ position and attitude change. This gets the students working for maximum impact and aggression, as well as assessing the target and the need to “branch” (the changing of physical tools when necessary to acquire an available target—for example, should the subject cover his head, you can then attack the low line which is now open).

This drill then escalates and is put into a scenario. Lee chose a common “ bar bump” situation. The subject becomes extremely hostile after you have bumped into him, or split his drink, etc. This scenario can play out several different ways. You may be able to “talk down the subject”. However, the most important thing the students learn from this type of scenario is to keep situational control and position themselves in a less vulnerable position (away from the secondary threat such as the aggressor’s friend).

Urban Combatives Ireland - Lee Morrison Seminar January 2010

The last phase of Lee’s seminar concentrated on “confined combatives” or ECQ range (extreme close quarters). The first thing that has to be said is that this would never be the ideal situation, as we are always looking to take a pre-emptive action. However, we must always have a contingency plan should things go wrong, as they often do in any “live situation”. These tactics are used in order to reverse the confrontational dynamics, thus putting us back in the driving seat. Here we are looking at our secondary tools and options: restricted striking, biting/gouging, ballistic manipulation, use of the environment and weapons of opportunity. The next set of five drills all involved the EQC skills we had previously covered, including recovering from being assaulted via an ambush, by using a default (or cover response), as well as in fight tangles, holds and grabs.

All in all the seminar was great success, and all that remains now is to thank Lee for taking the time to pop over from his busy schedule. And thanks to Pat and Killian for providing a great venue as well as food for everybody. Lastly, I’d like to thanks everyone who attended despite such terrible weather. Keep your eyes peeled as Lee will be back over soon!

For further training contact Rob Pepper at: rob[at]combativeskildare[dot]com

A huge thanks to Lee for taking the time to pop over and deliver such a top notch seminar (as always!), and a big thanks to Pat and Killian for arranging an excellent venue and providing us with lots of grub.

Keep your eyes peeled for a review and some photos in the upcoming Irish Fighter!

The seminar happened despite the adverse weather conditions, and we had a tremendous turn out.

All in all I thought it was a great success and I received some really great feedback. I’d like to say a big thanks to everybody who braved the elements.

Also, a big thanks to Lee for taking the time to pop over and delivering a top notch seminar (as always). And a big thanks to Pat and Killian for arranging an excellent venue and providing us with lots of grub.

Keep your eyes peeled for a review, and some photos in the upcoming Irish Fighter.

Building on previous combative fundamentals, Lee will now be introducing a whole new set of hard skills, as well as his brand new psychological elements from the UC curriculum (or “Psycom”). The seminar will be suitable of beginners and advanced practitioners alike.

Topics will include:

• Combatives in Confined spaces.
• Cultivating Spontaneity.
• Threat Recognition skills.
• Combative Psychology.
• Combative Conditioning,
• and more…

When: Jan 10th 2010
Venue: Castletown GAA complex, Gorey Co. Wexford. (Roughly an hour from Dublin).
Cost: 70 euro (35 deposit guarantees a place).
Time: Starting 11.30am and finishing at 4.30pm.

There will be a light lunch included.

If interested, contact Rob on 0862055395 or email robpepper@eircom.net

Before I go into some of the topics that were covered on the Saturday 31st, I’d like to congratulate my students—Niall Murphy, Brendan Murphy, John Clarke and Shay Barry—who successfully graded in the first Level of the Urban Combatives curriculum. The lads had put in a great deal of effort for their grading, and showed great dedication and commitment over the last six months. It was also great to hear Lee’s feedback after their performance.

After the grading, we started with a three and a half hour workshop which covered a variety of “cutting edge” combative concepts.

For the first module, we covered “pre-conflict dynamics”. As Lee always points out, the brain is a questioning answering machine, so first we must ask the right question: “What is the problem?” Here, Lee covered the anatomy of a violent street confrontation, and expanded upon this by looking at the full spectrum of a violent encounter.

Lee also makes the point that if you’re not training for multiple opponents and weapons, you’re not training for reality and that conditions will more likely favour the criminal.

We looked at what happens before the event, during the event and after the event. Lee points out that it’s not all just about the physical “crash and bash”—there is very little you can do about a “physical confrontation” if you don’t see it coming in the first place. So, in order to be ready, we must first have a good grasp of threat recognition skills or pre-incident indicators. We studied some of the tactics that are often employed by the common criminal, such as the ‘deceptive interview’ followed by distance close-down, or behaviour that could be construed as suspicious. Lee went into the subject in depth, and there were many “light bulb” moments for everyone who attended.

Lee makes the point that even a minor altercation can turn into a potentially fatal encounter. So having a greater understanding of these “pre-conflict dynamics” will give you a much greater chance of seeing trouble well before it develops and thus giving you a much better chance of extracting yourself before any confrontation has a chance to even occur.

After the soft skills introduction we looked at “In fight Dynamics”. In this section we assumed that we have not been able to avoid or escape the potential confrontation, and therefore must assume we have no other choice but to engage the hostile subject. In order to have the highest probability of success in any confrontation we must strive to “hit first” and continue the assault until the threat subsides (if, of course, we have the honest belief that we are in imminent danger) . Lee points out the folly of hitting someone, and then not following up. This can lead to a re-engagement with the subject.

In order to make these tactics work, after the initial strike we must then “attach” to the subject. This will give us a high level of tactile control, and it will also allow us to control the subject’s descent in order to prevent unnecessary injury.

The first set of physical drills trained the lads to strike the pads with maximum aggression while still maintaining an attachment—this enables them to best perform a continuous attack, whilst maintaining forward pressure at the same time. Lee points out that we must “manage state” during any of these physical drills, as mindless aggression is not constructive. We should be able to switch it off so we can then assess the situation, and make tactile decisions during and after any altercation. As with all of Lee’s material, “mindset” is the rocket fuel that will power the vehicle.

Here the lads are smashing the pads and following up with continuous strikes.

One of the core concepts for winning or avoiding any confrontation is the concept of ‘re-framing’ the criminal’s perspective of you. There are many different way of doing this, as Lee points out. We looked at several of these options which you could use depending on the particular subject, from deception to ego stroking. Lee has a vast array of cutting-edge NLP psychological aspects that are incorporated in all areas of the UC curriculum.

The second set of physical drills involved the “stop hit”. While it’s always ideal to strike the subject first, there’s always a possibility of something going wrong, or not quite as you had planned it. Basically, this drill assumes we are the back foot but need to regain the initiate as soon as possible. One great aspect to the drill is that we had an unknown threat. This consisted of a pad man moving around the room, and that would engage as a secondary threat at random. This made sure the students were highly aware and constantly watching—even under the duress of the drill.

Here Lee is showing how the “stop hit” should be performed.

Lee impressed the importance of increasing our awareness skills. He reiterates the point that most peopled in the RBSD community give it “lip service”, but do not give it the full attention it deserves. However, he gave us several drills that we could incorporate into our daily lives and training in order for the concept to become fully functional. These drills are essential for any type of threat recognition training to be successful—the X & O drill is one example.

Here are the lads and Lee “covering” in a default position before exploding forward with multiple strikes to put the would-be attacker on the back foot.

Lee points out that that things can easily go to pieces in a live altercation, so we must have an emergency contingency plan. One of the tactics that we covered is better known as the “default response”, which is basically a non-diagnostic response which will stop you getting knocked out and keep you on your feet. The drills then progressed by forcing the student to act under a more stressful state. This was induced by adding fatigue and disorientation.

The final aspect of the workshop involved a small portion of Lee’s Counter knife concepts. Lee first talked about the properties of an edged weapon and “the intention” behind their use. Lee states that no ‘one’ system has all the answers when dealing with a knife threat—at best, you are looking at damage limitation so you can motor through the threat (if you can’t escape, which is the preferable option). When dealing with any kind of knife “hold up” threat, we must assume that our awareness has not been in play for a variety of reasons. While this is not the ideal, we must have a contingency plan for when things go wrong.

The first set of drills dealt with a knife hold-up from various positions. Again, these hard skills are not merely ‘by rote’ combinations, but a set of sound principals that you can employ in order to give you the highest probability of success. In order to make the drills more stressful and to add more realism, they were conducted when the student least expected it.

Lee showed us the various ways in which the criminal can assault. One of the most difficult to deal with is the “grab and stab”.

The sequence above deals with the infamous grab and stab assault.

All in all we had a great day of training, and I had tremendous feedback all-round. So a big thanks to Lee for popping over and the lads for coming along. We are all looking forward to Lee’s next Irish seminar which should be fairly soon!

Urban Combatives or (U.C.) is a method of self-protection for everyone, regardless of age, size or previous training. The curriculum was designed and tested by world-renowned Close Combat instructor Lee Morrison. The physical applications are simple, instinctual, and most of all, functional.

On this site you will find information regarding everything UC: curriculum notes, articles, seminar dates, training schedules and workshops, as well as information on the latest UC releases and programs. Stay tuned for Lee’s next appearance in Ireland.