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Old 08-24-2012, 02:29 AM   #43
Kevin Leavitt
 
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Dojo: Team Combat USA
Location: Olympia, Washington
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Re: Combat and war affecting the early training training of Aikido

Quote:
Adam Huss wrote: View Post
You may be interested to know the MCMAP syllabus includes a heavy emphasis on warrior ethos, character development, and mental discipline. Marine students are required to study about the Marine Raiders, Zulu Warriors, Apaches, and Spartans. In testing, Marines are presented with written tests that include case study identification of past instances in war. The testing requires the Marines to identify leadership values, warrior ethos, Core Values, and martial philosophy in each case study. Some teachers place more emphasis on these values than others, but the requirements are still there at certain levels. This may be dependent upon who you talk to, but from what I understand the primary goal of MCMAP is development of warrior spirit in Marines. This is why most MCMAP tests are prefaced with some extreme form of physical exercises designed to 'wear out' testing candidates, forcing them to push through physical limits and find that 'budo' or 'martial' spirit. Granted there is some potential for hand to hand combat in modern war, particularly with troops embedded with local national forces as trainers, but that does not effect the majority of Marines. I did have a friend use his knife in an altercation while on deployment, but he never identified to me any reverence toward the MCMAP program as helping him in that situation.
Adam,

Are you a Marine by chance?

Yes, MCMAP did a more deliberate job of linking their program to Warrior Ethos than the Army did. There were a number of reasons for this difference, but mainly cultural and institutional differences between the Army and Marine Corps. Matt Larsen, who founded the Modern Army Combatives Program could not have "sold" the MACP program to the army in the same way the Marine Corps did. Both programs do acknowledge that the primary purpose of the program is to reinforce or instill Warrior Ethos.

I'm at a unique crossroads at my current position. I run a club here in Germany with MCMAP instructors, MACP instructors, BJJ blue, purple, and brown belts, and COL Bristol, the founder of MCMAP is our senior mentor here as well. In addition the founder of LINES, Ron Donvito is a good friend of mine and I train with him once a year. LINES preceeded MCMAP and it is interesting to hear Ron's perspective as well as COL Bristols on the evolution of Martial arts/Combatives Training in the Military. Also, Matt Larsen, the founder of MACP is a good friend of mine who I talk to on a fairly regular basis. So, I am absolutely fascinated to look at the evolution of "modern budo" within the military and how the past informs the present and future.

I am sorry that this kinda is off topic, but I think if you are going to discuss how War informs things like Aikido, it is important to consider the spectrum of social, polictical, and institutional factors, as well as the current war time environment and the impact they have on Modern Military Budo/Combatives.

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