Please note that these are my views and opinions alone and don't necessarily reflect the views of the SFCA management or instructors. If you wish to undertake CQC you should not rely on my comments, do your own research and consider seeking medical opinion before taking on any form of vigorous physical activity. You should also consider the moral and legal issues such as the distinction between fighting and self-defence.
CQC
Contents
Links
CQC Tactics Home page.
Glenn's Blog has links to various lessons on YouTube plus other resources.
Example YouTube Video if you want to check out a sample of Glenn's style. He has more videos up there if you search around.
Introduction
This is somewhat of a blog about my experiences learning self defence at CQC Tactics run by Glenn Zwiers.
I have had a passing interest in self defense and martial arts for some time, after I stacked my paraglider and spent 3 months in hospital I went along to several karate lessons in the hope that it would help me with my rehab. Unfortunately I just got very bored of doing various forms in the air and also the teaching environment didn't cater to beginners very well. To be fair I was in a bit of pain at the time and getting along to the dojo on a walking stick must have appeared pretty weird.
That was maybe 7 years ago, fast forward to 2006 and my wife suggested maybe the two older kids (ages 9 and 5) could get involved in some sort of self defence. I liked the idea but was looking for something practical and I had heard of CQC (which stands for "Close Quarter Combat") from time to time before and we found out they had kids classes on Saturday mornings. Two free lessons later and we had signed the older one up, the 5 yo needs another year or two before she has the concentration span.
After taking the kids along for a couple of weeks, I joined up for 6 months at a little over $100/month. You can join up for longer and get a better deal. There is also a gym there and for a nominal extra fee you can join that too (which I opted out of). In a normal week I would train 5 or more hours and given that it is a supervised class the value is not too bad.
Note that you are required to buy a uniform. Other items, although not compulsory like the training manual, range from useful to indispensable and add to the cost. There are also plenty of other opportunities to spend your "hard earned" like private lessons, camps, DVDs, training gear, dietary supplements and so on. Grading sessions cost $40 whether you pass or not.
You can find much more info at the website but the key thing to me is what they tout as "reality based self defense". In practice what that means is that most of the time you are working with a partner doing stuff in a full contact, yet restrained kind of way. It certainly isn't for everyone, but if you don't mind some physical contact (remember the old footy days?) then maybe you should consider it.
I have signed up with gyms at various times in the past and I just get bored. There is no way I can say that about CQC.
Health Progress
The plot below shows how my weight and body fat percentage have been progressively dropping since I started. In my footy playing days I was a pretty lean and mean 72 kg. In my mid 40's now and I don't really have the desire to go that low but it would probably be 15 years or more since I dropped below 80 kg. I need to stress that I am not fanatical about losing weight, I am not really on any sort of planned diet except maybe I am eating more protein and less carbohydrate.
The weight loss is clearly a positive step however health and wellness are far more than a number on the scales. I have copped a few injuries in the several months I have been training and you also need to take into account the muscle soreness and stiffness that become part of your week. It is not unusual to be sporting a bruise or two (you don't get that punching the air).
I have had a string of soft tissue injuries and although not debilitating for any length of time, they do interfere with training and day to day living.
Why?
I sometimes ask why I do this to myself. I guess there are a few reasons:
- If it is good enough for my kids then it should be good enough for me.
- The physical fitness (minus the boredom of pumping iron) is great. My weight has gone down by more than 10% (all fat).
- I like to learn new things. In some ways it is not different to learning to play guitar or taking up paragliding. Keeping the mind and body active has got to be a good thing. Over the first 6 months of my training I saw heaps of evidence of "learning" in terms of skills, reaction, co-ordination, strength and motion. I am not learning some form that will take a year just to remember the steps - that kind of thing is just not for me.
Self defence. This is an interesting one - I am not the kind of guy who goes out looking for a fight (I don't even frequent night clubs) and my primary strategy re physical confrontation is avoidance. The closest I have been to a "real" fight was 30 years ago in high school and I won't be disappointed if I never have to use these skills outside of training. On the other hand, most of my friends and colleagues have one or two stories to tell of some crazy situation that they found themselves in the middle of and it's nice to know that I am better equipped now to evade, diffuse and/or apply appropriate levels of force if necessary.
- Enjoyment. Sure I go through times when I need to drag myself along to training, but most of the time I really look forward to it. It is a great bunch of guys (not to mention one or two girls) and it is fun to hang around them.
Blog
Enough intro, here are some blog entries.
2007 Mar 02 ABC
Every government initiative these days seems to come with some kind of acronym mnemonic kind of thing, for example, for CPR there is ABC (Airways, Breathing, Circulation). At least that is about the only one I can remember.
So in the spirit of ABC I came up with a few:
Avoid. Don't be like a moth drawn to a flame. If you were paragliding you wouldn't fly into a thunderstorm now would you?
Back off. Ok so you find you yourself in a bit of a gnarly situation but it hasn't turned into a confrontation yet - just move away quietly and enjoy the rest of your evening.
Co-operate. If someone is holding a knife to your throat and suggests that you hand over the car keys, you have to ask yourself whether it is better to take your unarmed vs armed skills for a road test or maybe just hand over the keys.
Diffuse. Use your negotiating skills. Someone is in front of you abusing you, hey maybe you really did cut in front of them with your car, so say sorry. Giving them "the bird" is probably not going to smooth things over.
Engage. Don't wait until the knife/fist/barstool is inches from your face. Comes a time when you are in clear and immediate danger of being assaulted - be single minded, your safety and possibly that of friends and family is number one.
Finish. Why go 12 rounds when you can get a KO in the first. Also you probably need to consider when you are done defending yourself.
G I will have to get back to G.
2007 Feb 02 Elbows
Elbows are a pretty boring topic I suppose so I won't spend much time on them. Level 4 introduces elbow strikes and one of the first things I realised is that my body is not conditioned to finely target my elbows to a co-ordinate in 3D space. Compare this with your hands, no one really talks about "elbow-eye co-ordination".
Striking with your hands is a somewhat natural kind of movement. When it comes to striking with your elbows, it really does require a significant degree of learning. Another point which comes home is that to make contact with your elbows, you have to put yourself well within striking range of your opponent.
2007 Jan 27 Force on Force
Well I enjoyed the first 6 months so I signed up for another 6.
In levels 3 and above, gradings involve "force on force" which is a kind of restrained sparring with hand protection and mouthguard. I say kind of restrained because it can escalate in force pretty quickly but since people are paired up within their own level it kind of works out, and Glenn is on the job telling people when to back off. Having said that, the odd blood nose or black eye happens.
Funnily enough, most of my injuries have occurred when not sparring. I guess during drills you are not expecting to cop an elbow or an uppercut with any great force (maybe there is a lesson here for me!). Today I chipped a tooth in a drill - it was a fairly intense drill and in hindsight I should have had the mouthguard in.
To explain the sparring (see a short clip on YouTube) it involves all the material, hand strikes, kicks, blocks, throws, take downs, grappling, counters etc.
It really does bring home the training and you soon learn to keep your guard up, use your footwork and "economy of movement" not to mention strategy and the mind games. As you get more experienced in the sparring I guess it becomes more an exercise in refinement (apart from the cardio aspect). In contrast, when you step up for the first time (today was not my first, but I am still pretty new at it) you have this sudden realization that the other guy is trying to hit you - a feeling which many people would have rarely, perhaps never experienced. Dealing with that realization is a powerful learning exercise in its own right.
One of the things that I have noticed, even watching the more experienced guys, is that getting a grab on someone who is moving and doesn't really want to get grabbed is not easy.
Under stress I notice that I resort to "moves" from earlier levels, ie the stuff I am currently training just doesn't come out automatically. That is kind of good news to me and supports my understanding of how "learning" works for me personally. There is clearly a repetition element, there is also an internalization aspect which involves time for the moves to somehow get imprinted on your mind. For example, if I trained intensively for 50 hours in one week, I would not expect to have the same capability as if I had spread that 50 hours over 10 weeks. That is even ignoring the fact that during intense training, I find that the physical exhaustion really leads to sloppy technique and the repetition can actually be counter productive.
2006 Dec 16 Level 3 grading
If I was disappointed about dragging my feet for level 2, then level 3 was a bonus being only 3 weeks after my level 2 grading. I wasn't intending to grade. Although I felt close, I thought another month would have been helpful to consolidate the material.
I had to hang around anyway since my son was attempting level 1 of "Combat Kids" (same syllabus as adults minus the throws and dirty tricks). The grading had started already with me on the side lines and the instructor said "so are you going to jump in?". That was all the prompting I needed and I made it through after a 2 hour session. I did score some comments on a couple of aspects I needed to work on (which is all good feedback) so waiting another month wouldn't have been a bad thing.
Level 3 is the first one where sparring is part of the test. This was all pretty new for me but I acquitted myself ok and didn't cop a black eye. The next morning I woke up with a sore hamstring which I think happened when I took my partner down with a spear throw. One thing I have learned, you have to really commit to a spear throw, if you don't take them down with the initial impact it turns in to a strength exercise and you are in a fairly compromised position.
I am noticing more soreness in my (injured) ankles after sessions. I can't be sure but this is probably due to both longer sessions, and greater impact moves (eg thrust kicks).
2006 Nov 25 Level 2 grading
It took me a little longer than I was planning to attempt my level 2 grading. The lesson I learnt was to keep going back to the manual, reviewing the material and ask questions. The instructors systematically work through the material but unless you are at every lesson, you might miss out on some of the detail.
The good news is that I made it. I did gush a bit of blood from the head when I copped an accidental elbow from my partner (who was going for level 5). That resulted in a stop on play for about 15 minutes but no problems.
The level 1 DVD was so useful I bought the level 2 and 3 DVD's ($40 each) figuring I would be able to work on stuff at home. I must say they were disappointing compared with the level 1 DVD. Apparently the syllabus has changed around and the level 2 & 3 DVD's don't reflect the current syllabus (despite assurances that they did). When I mentioned this to Glenn he said "we'll see what we can do" so stay tuned. That is not to say the material on the DVDs is not useful, just lots of gaps in the designated levels.
2006 Oct 6-8 RRT Camp
I signed up for the RRT (Reality Response Training) camp that Glenn organised. I saw it as a way to accelerate my training. I probably wouldn't have been able to afford it except that an unexpected bonus came through from my previous employer.
This was a unique experience and well worth the cash. An added bonus was getting to know some of your training mates as well as get some insight into Glenn on topics other than self defense.
2006 Sep 29 Dodgy Finger
Glenn is obviously a master at what he does and doesn't do things by halves. He really believes in the reality stuff and he doesn't think that going soft on students is doing them any favours. I guess his thinking is that if you are unfortunate enough to get into a street fight it is going to be full on. In addition, if you don't feel some of the pain of say a wrist lock, then you have no idea what affect you are having on a training partner.
Having said that, when he demonstrates a move on you, you kind of hope that you won't need weeks to recover. This particular night I was the bunny for a finger lock and there was a massive click - goodbye right index finger. Shit happens. Two weeks later and it is still swollen but I can make a fist again without much pain.
2006 Aug 26 Level 1 Grading
Being my first grading, I didn't know what to expect. All was good at the end of the day and I passed my grading and can start training for level2.
Glenn has produced a variety of training DVD's which I have tended to buy on an as needs basis. The level one DVD (CQC has 10 grading levels) was very useful and really helped me work on things at home before I attempted (and passed) the level one grading. Just for the record, the level 1 DVD shows the order of the 8 angles of footwork as front, left, right, back, front left, front right, rear right, rear left.