Close Quarters Combat Advice From General Patton

General George Patton once said...

"The object of war is not to die for your country, but to make the other bastard die for his."

While this battlefield mantra has been a driving force for decades in our military mind-set of "never giving up" in combat, applied to the reality of a real street fight, these words ring just as true.

I've seen countless street fights where the person "losing" the battle just gives up...basically curling up into a ball and waiting for the kicks and punches to stop.

Sometimes they do...and sometimes they don't.

So let me throw a different spin on General Patton's quote...

The object of surviving a real street fight is NOT to lay down and take your beating...but to NEVER give up on turning the tables on your attacker.

Even under the worst conditions, you must dig deep for your will to survive and assume that it's life or death when you're on the losing end.

If you lay down like an armadillo, you’re an easy, non-moving target for full force kicks, punches, and bar stools.

Whether your attacker(s) intend to kill you or not, the leg of a chair driven down on your head will do the work just the same.

From my perspective, self defense techniques are great tools for winning a fight...but developing a “never give up” mind-set is an even more important factor.

More from Jeff at:
- www.CloseQuartersCombat.com
- www.AdvancedMassBuilding.com
- www.OptimumAnabolics.com
- www.CombatTheFat.com

Jeff Anderson is a 10 year veteran of the U.S. Army, a Master Fitness Trainer, and Master Instructor of Close Quarters Combat self defense. A full time fitness and self defense author, Jeff has trained thousands of men and women in the practical application of advanced military fitness methods as well as close combat tactics for "real life" self defense.

Comments

[#1 Posted by: Paul Vorenkamp]

I retired after 26 years of active duty and let myself get completely out of shape. I am 6'4' 280 lbs and will work hard to get to 220lbs. Yes it can happen! Never Quit! Please advise me on courses of action to make this happen.

Paul

[#2 Posted by: Jeff Anderson]

Hi Paul!

You've already mastered the first step...the intestinal fortitude to "never quit".

Fact is, you already stated that when you were in the service, you were in great shape. That's why when I developed a fat loss program for civilians, I tapped into some of the more advanced strategies I had learned in my role as a Weight Control NCOIC and other specialized training. I then combined them with my own research with my clients and found the fastest ways to burn the fat fast.

Here are a few tips:

1. Focus on MUSCLE!

Muscle is your body's "fat burning engine" so the more muscle you have, the more fat you'll burn all day and all night long.

2. Bodyweight training rules! For activating your central nervous system to target muscle fibers, you can't beat pushups, pullups, bodysquats, etc. (Check out Nikki's, Stew's and Ken's blogs as well for great tips in these areas.)

3. Stop "dieting"! Diets don't work...counting calories dosn't work...period! Instead, focus on "portion size" to reduce overall calorie intake while training.

If you want a complete plan, I suggest checking out my website at www.CombatTheFat.com. It even comes with a DVD now that shows how I used "military fitness" to get people in shape fast.

Good luck brother!

[#3 Posted by: Brett]

Stew's is for free www.stewsmithptclub.com/45day
if you can't afford Jeff's, yet. Then, you must get Jeff's though, because the body responds to variation.

[#4 Posted by: Brett]

http://www.military.com/military-fitness/weight-loss/need-to-lose-40-lbs

[#5 Posted by: John]

Totally. Now correct me if I am not doing this properly.
When I do my workouts I try to attain muscle failure by the end of my third set. I do sets of 8-12. The reason i have it at 8-12 is because my goal is 8, when I'm lifting if I do 8 reps, then I try to do ten, if I do ten then I try to do 12, and I do this each set. Without changing the weight between sets. If I am able to attain 12 reps on each set, whilst using perfect (quote unquote, near perfect more like) form, then the next workout I add weight. And so on. I do this so I'm always pushing myself and I never have an easy workout. Also I'm never at a plateau. Although when I do reach a plateau I do some German volume training or the 10x10 method for a week, rest for a week and then the next week I dont usually have a plateau.
Does this system seem ok?
John

[#6 Posted by: Brett]

Thanks John. If you are referring to the CTF workout, I think you actually figured it out.

However, there are some things wrong with the CTF workout that makes Stew Smith's workouts superior.

Problems with CTF workout:

1. A lack of muscular balance. After you do ab exercises, you should be doing lower back exercises. Where are the lower back exercises?
http://www.military.com/military-fitness/health/new-lower-back-plan
:D
The same thing with chest exercises and the upper back.

2. Next, depending on your genetics, when you work your muscles to failure, stress your body by not spreading your workout throughout the day, constantly do tons of the same exercise movements, you can age faster. (Not a pretty thing for women.)

3. The body responds to variation. There aren't a lot of different exercises in the CFT workout.

Besides the CTF workout, the "Combat the Fat" book and CTF Nutrition Guide are excellent.

[#7 Posted by: Jeff Anderson]

There's definitely some truth to Brett's comments regarding the workouts in CTF (http://www.combatthefat.com)

The focus of the training isn't on "core" training so there's no real balance between the abs and lower back training. The goal of CTF is strictly to target the largest muscle areas in order to crank up your metabolism and burn fat.

In a few of my programs, I've left out some of these muscle groups because I don't feel that for the intended goal, they were efficient enough to take up your workout time.

If you have lower back problems, then Stew's program that Brett mentioned is a great, great routine because it's focused specifically for that goal. I'm a big fan of ALL of Stew's training and he really knows how to get specific results as well.

Also, I'm definitely a fan of training throughout the day depending upon your goal. This includes for "fat loss" because it keeps your metabolism revved up much longer. It doesn't take much...just knock out a few sets of pushups every now and then...but the payoff is huge. CTF takes into account that 95% of the users are "civilians" and studies show that most people block out 3 days a week for 45 minutes for their training. This is the foundation for the workout program and advanced users (like John and Brett) can build upon there.

And one update for those who DO use CTF...there are additional exercises that are now included on the companion DVD (optional) as well as regular updates on the new coaching site to provide more and more alternatives to the several that are included.

I'm trying to show more and more exercises out on playgrounds to show people how easy it is to get in a great workout WITHOUT a gym membership and all it takes is a bit of creativity.

Great post Brett and John! Thanks!

[#8 Posted by: Brett]

I was just mentioning those points for the updated version of the CTF workout so that it can be better than Stew's workouts :D

[#9 Posted by: Ted Butenas]

I would like to use the Street Fighting information at my units safety brief. Can I cut and paste on to a PPt?

[#10 Posted by: Fat Loss]

Thanks for the advices, Patton. Very useful indeed. Thanks for sharing.

-Sami

[#11 Posted by: Real, Scam Free Fat Loss]

Sami/Fat Loss (from the message above) Turbulence Training is a scam and Craig Ballentine is a con artist. I did it and it is so easy and doesn't give any fat loss whatsoever. He completely wasted my time, dedication, discipline, persistence and money. Of course you can't contact him. You have to pay to join his scam forum. Tell Craig Ballentine he's an idiot and he's wrong. He doesn't know anything about how to do correct training.

If people want results, they can get them from the awesome programs from the military trainers on this site.

-Mel