What is hand-to-hand combat?
(This material will hardly be of interest to experienced martial arts practitioners).
For some reason, many of our contemporaries think that fist fights (in particular, wall-to-wall fights) are hand-to-hand combat. But this is not at all the case. Fistfight (as well as the same Muay Thai, held on agricultural holidays) are ritual fights whose goal is not at all injury or death. Yes, there were cases when a fighter went to another world, but this is the exception, not the rule. In fistfights there were rules, a whole series that strictly regulated their conduct. In folk terminology, fistfight is not a "mortal combat."
Fistfight is fun, cruel, but fun, and only indirect is related to hand-to-hand combat. For example, fist fighters learned to endure pain, harden their spirits. In the "wall" they learned to keep the line, to perform some tactical maneuvers necessary for hand-to-hand combat, but no more.
The only type of wall combat that could be used in the training for hand-to-hand combat is a stick fight - forbidden as early as the 17 century due to increased cruelty. By the way, there is an opinion that it was precisely for stick battles that the fight “at the door” was created - when the fighters make a preliminary seizure of clothing at the collar with one hand and carry out throws with their feet (with the help of a grab-lever). The second hand can not be used at all, or only at the moment of the throw. It is believed that in the second, free hand should be a stick imitating the sword - and therefore you can use only one hand in the fight.
So what is the real hand-to-hand fight?
Let's move into the depths of time, in the era of harsh samurai - and what do we see? What today is called ju-jutsu was an auxiliary technique - zalomnymi techniques were used only to disarm an armed enemy. The fight was also revered - at close range, close up, it is difficult to hit the enemy with a sword, and, given the armor and helmet, you can’t harm him with your bare hands. The only way out is to throw it down with a throw and there to kill or trample. At least, to knock down and thereby turn off from the battlefield.
By the way, aikido is kenjutsu without a sword. It is known that prior to the creation of Aikido, Morihei Ueshiba passed the kenjutsu school, and then three ju-jutsu schools. Movement, movement - everything is designed for the sword in hand (or the selection of the sword from the enemy). Therefore, to master aikido well, you must first practice kenjutsu.
We see the same picture in the Middle Ages in Europe too - Thalhoffer and Auerswald write almost nothing about fistfights. But the struggle and the use of cold weapons in their books in bulk. In the European wrestling, the enemy often had a dagger (or similar weapon) in his hand, and the techniques themselves are very similar to the same jujutsu. Accident? Or the general laws of evolution on the planet?
Go deep even further.
In ancient Greece, fistfight, unlike wrestling, did not at all belong to the martial arts. For the same reason - it is useless to beat an opponent in armor with a fist (only you hurt your hands), but it’s quite realistic to knock him down.
We turn to learning in different countries and eras.
In Greece, in China (let us remember the tales of the masters), in the monasteries of various orders of knights (Livonian, Teutonic, etc.), training began with OFP (general physical training). In China, students did all the hard physical work; novices did the same thing in Christian monasteries.
Further TFP (special physical training): stick twisting, turning into fencing (wooden swords are found during excavations), horseback riding, hunting,
And at the end of participation in the first raids, and then full participation in campaigns and battles (that is, the hand-to-hand combat itself).
The founder of the first order, who lived in the 9th century, the French knight from Provence, Godfroy de Prey, defined as the main requirement for members of the order the assimilation of seven skills formed in the framework of mysticism connected with numbers. According to this, young men from aristocratic families should learn: 1) ride, 2) swim, 3) hunt, 4) archery, 5) fight. They were taught: 6) entertaining games at playgrounds and ball games for court service, as well as 7) the art of reading poetry needed for a court man with good manners and basic dance moves. Later, numerous local orders of the Order arose, but even seven knightly skills remained the basis of physical education in them.
To physical exercises of the rural population can be attributed folk games. The games of the rural population, including traditional contests, were shaped by local customs. Winners in games won authority and recognition. The strongest stone throwers in the village, the most enduring dancers, dexterous hunters and fighters received universal recognition, material encouragement and social privileges. In the girls' competitions one could see the motives of the possible choice of a spouse, since women were judged only by their husbands.
Physical exercises during this period were varied - wrestling, throwing stones, running, fighting with sticks, running on skates, racing, dancing, various games with a bat, lapta, stuffed animals. The decisive word in determining the winners was for the community.
Nowadays, athletes are taken to various "special forces" —that is, who has already gained OFP. It remains to be given to TFP and, on its basis, to develop the necessary skills for using weapons in any conditions.
As in our, modern conditions, to apply all of the above when training in the civil section:
- Engage in OFP from six months to a year: weight-lifting, skiing, crossfit, gymnastics (i.e., species that provide integrated development)
- Then TFP: torsion with sticks a la modern Cossack flanking with checkers is quite suitable. After it begins to turn out, start practicing strikes on the “blockhead”, first from the spot, then in motion. You can enroll in a club of normal historical fencing.
Well, running a snake, stops, working with trees, flip-flops and rapids - all this is TFP.
OFP-TFP - it will take exactly a year, provided that the person is "complete zero".
- Then the transition to the knife, the study already at the base of the stick strikes the knife on the pole wrapped with rags.
- And when the base of strikes with a stick and a knife is already established, they start learning to strike with their hands and feet.
In principle, OFP and TFP can be combined, but only this way: the OFP month, another month - TFP.
Then in this way the time of preparation can be reduced to six months.
This approach - from the weapon to the technique of combat with bare hands is military. The popular (peasant) approach, on the contrary, was a study of struggle and fist fighting in childhood-adolescence, and a gradual transition to work with weapons in adolescence.
In the old days, people were stronger, because unlike modern people, burdened by physical inactivity and overweight, they were forced to spend almost all their time in the fresh air, doing physical work - peasants, warriors, artisans. Even monks, as a rule, made obeisances all day long (by the way, also a practice about which few people write), combining this with a certain breath and prayers.
That is, with the OFP of the ancestors everything was in order. They were more sinewy, with a better muscular corset, and more resilient. It seems that many of them would be perfectly suited to the requirements of modern special forces.
By the way, there are versions that hand-to-hand combat of K.T. The bun (originally a fencer), as well as RB A. Kadochnikov, are also based on fencing.
Summary: hand-to-hand combat is a battle, first of all, on melee weapons. Techniques of combat with bare hands are auxiliary and secondary. Due to legal prohibitions, people have forgotten this, but it is necessary to at least know it. Wrestling bouts were also ritual in traditional society, but in contrast to fisticuffs, wrestling also had practical significance. Nowadays, when the “armor” (equipment) is worn only by special forces, riot police, and capture groups, the striking equipment (with arms and legs) has an applied meaning. In principle, the percussion technique also became “applied” as soon as the firearm appeared, and the armor was a thing of the past. By the way, in the pre-revolutionary Russian army, there were also wall-to-wall battles, and at that time it was already justified, as there were no helmets and in the melee you could easily beat the enemy with your hand without fear of injury.
Thus, you need to see the whole picture, and know what came from.
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