More about the Origin of Combat Fitness

The idea of Combat Fitness started when my sister was driving home from university while travelling through Braamfontein. In the bumper-to-bumper afternoon traffic, an unassuming pedestrian walked past her car, turned around, and then smashed her window to steal her handbag. She was shaken up, but fortunately she was not assaulted and she only suffered minor glass cuts. This incident got me thinking: with my five plus years of kung fu training, what would I have done differently? Would I have been more alert? Would I have been able to confront the perpetrator?

So I began to started to think deeply about the situation and I deduced seven action steps to follow in any event. I began to research the concept of “self-defence” and I realised that most people would not be willing to dedicate several years to master kung fu so I had to find a range of simpler techniques that would still be effective. In my research I came across a concept called O.O.D.A which stands for Observe–Orient–Decide–Act developed by Colonel John Boyd, and it was strikingly similar to what I came up with, but was three steps shorter and more concise.

These concepts perfectly sum up the process to keep in mind while applying self-defence:

• Observation: being aware of your surroundings and potential threats.
• Orientation: taking cognisance of your position not only relative to potential threats, but also to potential weapons and escape routes.
• Decision: formulating plans and sifting through the best alternatives.
• Action: choosing a plan and following through with it.

Fight, flight or freeze

When faced with a bad situation your base instincts are to fight or flight, but there is also fright or freeze which I’ll discuss later. The best form of self-defence is to avoid conflict, that’s were the first two Os particularly help. Fleeing from fights will save you from being beaten, getting shot or stabbed. But what happens when you cannot get away, or if you are with loved ones? If you have to fight then you have to make sure that whatever you do is effective and efficient. Actively making a decision and acting upon it (the D and A in the loop) allows you to make a conscious decision to fight or flight, which grants you better control of yourself and the situation. So there are two parts to Combat Fitness training: gaining fitness and stamina, in order to escape (flight), and practicing combat techniques to defend yourself (fight).

Fitness Training

We utilise a tactical fitness system that focuses on marginal improvement, using functional training, and incorporating movements of increasing complexity.

The first component, marginal improvement, is the process of building yourself up step-by-step, one day at a time. For example, if you can’t do ten pushups in a row, start with one today, then do two tomorrow, and keep adding one until you reach your goal. There are long term benefits to incrementally increasing your abilities as opposed to sudden, harsh changes in your exercising lifestyle. If you set unrealistic expectations in unreasonable timeframes, you are more likely to give up on your fitness goals. Following a marginal approach on the other hand will help you progress more easily and while measuring your results.

The second component, functional training, has many aspects: it is not only about using the body’s natural movement but also about maintaining correct body alignment and utilising the correct muscles and tendons during each session. Functional exercises are those that have more than one benefit apart from just doing them as simplistic drills. Take squats, which are great for leg strength and toning hip muscles, quadriceps, hamstrings etc., but they can also serve a functional purpose: as a primary method of standing up. To use an analogy, when life “knocks you down” you need to get back up; if someone physically knocks you down you need to stand up again, either to face them or to run away. Doing more functional exercise drills helps to maximise the value of each workout.

Comparatively, CrossFit is fitness regimen that often pushes participants to their limits; with consistent training, many of them can reach amazing levels of strength and stamina in relatively short periods of time. The downside is that the strain on the body can be so taxing that it cannot be continued at those levels indefinitely; many participants report joint, muscle and tendon injuries, which prevent them from carrying on their training, and then they drop out. Alternatively, tactical fitness we use is about sustainable training, so no matter what stage you are in your life or even how old you are, you can maintain strength and stamina without wearing out your body. This is possible because it uses different levels of complexity which allows you to choose the level that you are comfortable with on any particular day.

This differs from most other two-dimensional exercises, like running or cycling, whose motions are repeated continuously in one plane of movement, and they remain straight-forward with little to no variation. Over time these repetitions cause wear and tear and can also lead to long term injuries; take Tiger Woods for instance who’s had surgery on his back five times! By incorporating varying exercises with incremental levels of complexity, this challenges our bodies to learn and adapt continuously, which helps to maintain suppleness, youthfulness and flexibility, furthermore keeping you strong and fit throughout your entire life.