Tenth International Combatives Seminar AAR

We had a pre-seminar get together this evening, to go over some of the Tac-med material with Shackleton.
Afterwards nine of us had a pleasent dinner at the course hotel
More soon

Shackleton demonstrating on SI



Ad applying an Israeli Dressing to Den

Si and guys arranged for this really amazing banner to be displayed at the International....



.. It was a nice surprise for me.

That's a cracker! Like the F-S daggers.Wish I could attend.

Thinking of you lads! Tip a pint at the Chung Kuo for me!

cheers, m

Awesome weekend as usual. Great presentations and a brilliant job by Steve in the suit too! It's a pleasure to be able to attend a seminar with such a good bunch of people. And eat such huge amounts of Chinese food!

Chris

Hat;s off to everyone involved.
Just got home from the PTS at the Chung-ku [we kept you in mind Marcus].

Just a quick couple of photos before I turn in after a long day....


[The only guys to have attended all ten Internationals, Nick, Den and Si]



[The course teeshirt]

I have loads more photos to post later

Great weekend; great presentations....more importantly a great crew of people all sharing info and shaping how we go forward.

Personally I learned loads and it was great to see people travelling front he length and breadth of the UK with special guests from Germany and Belgium.

Great to be around that "safe space" and see people getting stuck in....great to Steve doing those horrible suit fights.

Tac Med (Awesome info), to ISR, OODA to reminiscing, situational control to suit fights.........a real honour to be involved with such good people.

Warms the cockles to know they're out there as its easy to to see the bad side of life at times !

Thanks fellahs and especially to Dennis for making it happen.

Si

Yet another great International. A great time during the weekend and loads to take away and work on. A big thank you to Den and everyone there.

Mark

How's the shoulder, champ ?

A bit sore today. I'm getting it checked out later but I've got a spare one anyway.

The international remains an absolute privilege to attend.

The quality of the people and the diversity of skills and experience in attendance make it solid gold.

The take up of new skills and the validation in training of all involved was of the highest level. Thanks to all those who attended. Special thanks to JimC for being an outstanding training partner with an acute handle on the value of realistic training and were the boundaries should lie (a bruised elbow from a particularly effective lift and drop of a non compliant subject serves as testament here!).

Thanks all & cheers to Den, Si and Steve in particular.

What can i say lads.. This weekend has to have been without doubt one of if the THE best training experiences ive had.

I thought the tac med section from shackleton was absolutley brilliant, having done various first aid things before and speaking to those notorious 'first aiders' out there it really gave me a sense of perspective on the matter and how deluded some people are with regards to it. This being the first time ive done anything like this 'tac med' i came away with exactly the same feeling as when i finished my first ever combatives session with Den "when the shit hits the fan, thats what you're going to use".... Loved every second of it... Next time one of the kids in the street scrapes his knee hes going to be upto his ears with tourniquets!!

Moving onto the isr matrix PM stuff from slacky i was really impressed the way it all linked in together so well and there was never really an eventuality where you come stuck, theres always something simple to revert back to. Also really enjoyed the presentation from him on the second morning and it really showed the amount of effort he had put into researching it beforehand... Very interesting stuff.

Then im sure it goes without saying that si's stuff was outstanding as usual.... Loved the suit scenario and how the tac med questions were asked once we were all pumped up. I could just about speak nevermind think about the goalposts of life! Also a well done to ste for surviving his first international!!

I must admit my favorite part of the whole weekend was the meals afterwards as theres countless hours of riveting conversation to be had (as we realised when they kicked us out so they could go home!!)

To sum it all up a brilliant weekend and experiance all round! This group is second to none and we are all very lucky to be a part of it. Im yet to meet any instructors so modest in there skills although in reality we all know they are shit hot!

Cheers

-Michael

A blast from the past.....



...the class photo from the First International in 2003

Sorry I am a bit late posting lads just finished a 15.5 hour dayat work. The 10 th international was a great learning and training experience as all internationals I have attended in the past were. Big thanks to slackly and Shackleton and Si for there presentations they were great. The tac med was very eye opening experience and one I will not forget and is something I would like to learn more about in the future. It was a honour and a privilege to train with such a great bunch of guys, who love training and learning and helping one another. It was a great honour to wear the suit for the scenario fights and it was a great learning experience for me. A special big thanks to Dennis for making it all happen. 10 great internationals and I hope there will be many more in the years to come. All my respect to everyone you are all great guys. Thanks again. Steve C

Mark I hope your shoulder heals fast mate.

I can only second all the above posts, it was a great weekend. Thanks to all the instructors for the quality subject taught over the two days. Special thanks will have to go to steve for letting us all beat the shit out of him, you're a star. Thanks to Dennis for making these events a reality and all the guys and gals attending for making it another great international.

si

Hi
I would like to share my suit experience and how it effected me.

Getting hooded a number of times meant the last thing I was seeing was Steve minus his head guard shaking hands with his assailant, then I was getting hooded. Shackleton questions just went over my head to be honest it was self preservation and looking after number one and ready for anything. I kept saying this is my time it me now I’m next…only to be disappointed yet again Hood Goes On. Each time fixing on Steve and what I would do to him etc. This went on about 3 times I think, I must have been leaking adrenalin by now. The last thing I always saw was Steve head gear off…I get hooded again. This time hood came off and Steve hits me and was in my face. The strange thing was I immediately saw Steve with out the head guard hitting me. This lasted only a second or two but my mind had evaluated the previous picture or pictures of the suit and Steve with out head gear, very weird.

Needless to say I was still going to do damage regardless….. Nothing personnel Steve .

Fantastic weekend and I can only concur all the above training with a great group.


Regards

Rob

A great weekend! Slacky-esque travel to and from the International for me (got back this morning!)
but all worth it for the time I got to spend with the great bunch of guys who attended.
Shack's Tac-Med stuff was an excellent immersion in essential practical skills that most of us do not train regularly enough in, the verbalised 'hand rail' is an excellent tool and we all saw how drifting from it created problems - I now will definately remember to verbalise "Can what happen to him happen to me!" a big point to the success of such training is the engagement of the participants and the groups all made the training that much more effective by getting stuck in. The excellent scenarios on Sunday rounded off and anchored the skills despite using minimum kit.
Den raised some very valid points about the necessity for a level of lower impact skills in his presentation then Slacky ran us through the interlinked techniques.
Also great to get the input from ChrisS, many thanks to Shack as well for being considerate of my shoulder injury (next year you can rag me more : ))
Denis Mcgee's presentation of his impressions of the International over the years was a great insight into the diversity & quality of what is on offer, then Si's Combat Judo session was a fantastic insight into the core essence & practical effectiveness of the original fighting system, will need to look into Feldenkrais more!
Slacky's OODA presentation opened the door to the simple complexity (or was that complex simplicity?) of Boyd's ideas, lots of information to follow up on.
The suit was again an excellent learning experience, the build up and distractors thrown in created just the right mental uncertainty that is present in reality before things kick off, when the fight starts its almost a relief!
I echo all the previous praise for Steve's guts and endurance in the suit fantastic effort and control!
The PTS on both days were as always great food and great conversation!
Thanks again Den, Si, Adam & Sue, Shackleton, Slacky, Denis McGee and Super Steve : ) and everyone who attended.

As mentioned we have loads of photos, taken by Si, Steve, Al and myself. Here's a few more...


[Den welcoming the participants and introducing the program]


[Shackleton during his Tactical-medical presentation]


[Working in syndicates during the Tac-med module. Den McGee is evaluating the casualty]


[Tac-med kit]

As a testament to the effective delivery of the med session by Shackleton: Dave, Ad and I were sharing a room at the hotel on the Sunday night. At some point in the wee hours Dave and I awoke to hear someone talking. Ad was performing first aid in his sleep and repeating the acronyms etc out loud! We laughed. And then looked for things to throw...

The other major module on the Saturday was what we termed Dynamic Intervention to encompass all the usual terms such as Control & Restraint, Physical Intervention etc

Slacky then presented a couple of hours of intensive training covering the various elements

Loved this session by Slacky - he has a brilliant way of making the info so accessible.
That session is something we'll all be practising at our classes !
Thanks Slacky & all the Ad, Chris & Dave for adding their technical bits !

Now that system plus tac med - what an awesome learning experience !

I enjoyed every minute.

Came away much more educated. Top class instruction.

The control and restraint was a departure for us but true to the open minded attitude of the group. Another lesson for the old dog.

Slacky did a brilliant talk on the OODA. My only criticism of slacky is that he doesn't do these often enough and doesn't post enough.

As for Shackleton's material, I felt almost out of my depth but enjoyed it. No offense to anyone but my fight with the packaging was the toughest for a while.

Each presentation was worth the trip on its own and it was great to see so many of the old faces there.

Denis

Rob Bynoe wrote:

Hi
I would like to share my suit experience and how it effected me.

Getting hooded a number of times meant the last thing I was seeing was Steve minus his head guard shaking hands with his assailant, then I was getting hooded. Shackleton questions just went over my head to be honest it was self preservation and looking after number one and ready for anything. I kept saying this is my time it me now I’m next…only to be disappointed yet again Hood Goes On. Each time fixing on Steve and what I would do to him etc. This went on about 3 times I think, I must have been leaking adrenalin by now. The last thing I always saw was Steve head gear off…I get hooded again. This time hood came off and Steve hits me and was in my face. The strange thing was I immediately saw Steve with out the head guard hitting me. This lasted only a second or two but my mind had evaluated the previous picture or pictures of the suit and Steve with out head gear, very weird.

Needless to say I was still going to do damage regardless….. Nothing personnel Steve .

Fantastic weekend and I can only concur all the above training with a great group.


Regards

Rob

A lot of food for thought in there, tying in directly with a lot of recent discussion on vision skills, perception and cultural/experience driven filters on what & how we see the world.