The Marine Corps Martial Arts Program is a combat system developed specifically for use by United States Marines and combines elements of various fighting platforms into a single discipline in which all Marines must undergo training. MCMAP uses a belt system similar to that of traditional martial arts disciplines, with tan standing in for white on the belt spectrum, followed by gray, green, brown, and black. Once a Marine attains a black belt, there are additional levels of qualifications he or she can pursue, referred to as leveled degrees.
Among Marines, there are two different camps regarding “Semper Foo:” Some believe it serves as an excellent introduction into hand-to-hand combat techniques, while others tend to laugh it off, calling the low-level belt techniques useless and even accusing the training of giving young Marines a false sense of security, believing their training to have made them a better unarmed combatant than they actually are.
Full disclosure: I actively pursued MCMAP training throughout my entire time in the Marine Corps, earning my black belt as a corporal and transferring much of the training I received into competition when participating in civilian mixed martial arts tournaments.
The following is my attempt to bridge the gap between those who feel MCMAP is important, and those who disregard the value it offers our warfighters.
Prior to a policy shift in the waning years of my own Marine Corps career, it was not required that any Marine pursue MCMAP beyond the tan (white equivalent) belt all Marines must earn in order to graduate recruit training. An order released in 2010 mandated different belt requirements for different MOS’s—requiring direct combat arms occupational specialties to earn a green belt in the discipline before being considered fully trained.
In what promises to be the most inflammatory statement I’ll make in this article, it’s my experience that those who discount MCMAP for being useless are usually the same Marines who never achieved a higher belt level than tan or gray. Of course, that’s not always the Marine’s fault; occupational specialty, unit operational tempo, the availability of instructors, and any number of other variables could affect a Marine’s chances at chasing higher belts. Still, it’s worth mentioning that my own unit offered no formal MCMAP training beyond mandated annual refreshers. I had to seek out senior instructors and jump through bureaucratic hoops for each belt I earned, and conduct nearly all of the training during my liberty hours. As I’ve written about before, I’ve always chased after new and interesting ways to get punched in the face, so in my mind, MCMAP was a logical thing to dedicate my off time to.
MCMAP’s biggest weakness is also, in my opinion, its biggest strength. The Marine Corps places a larger emphasis on small unit leadership than most of the world’s military branches, and the MCMAP program is no different. You can earn your MCMAP instructor tab as a green belt, and begin training and testing Marines in the techniques of the belts lower than your own immediately thereafter. That means there are tan, gray, and green belt courses being taught all over the Corps by junior-ranking Marines with instructional experience limited to their tab course. Although there’s a strict syllabus, outlining the number of hours that must be spent practicing each technique, discussing moral and ethical tie-ins, and conducting combat conditioning, there’s still a chance that you get an instructor who’s lazy, unmotivated, or just downright not all that good at teaching someone to fight.
The opposite side of that same coin, however, is that the variety of Marines who teach the course offers the student an opportunity to seek out the type of instructor from whom they will learn well. Some people learn best in an aggressively competitive environment, for instance, while others may need a more conversational explanation of the movements entailed in each technique. Some Marines want to be thrown in the mud and given a chance to fight for their lives (idiots like me), while others prefer to learn the exact technical details of the discipline before busting any knuckles—or skulls.
The biggest complaint I see levied at MCMAP within Marine circles is the claim that the techniques don’t work in real-life situations. These folks, again, tend to be the ones who left Parris Island with a tan belt and never gave the discipline another thought. The techniques taught in the tan and gray belt syllabi are generally not intended to serve as stand-alone training, but rather as preparation for more complex techniques that are taught in higher-level belt courses.
The front choke is an excellent example of just such a technique. As demonstrated in the video below, the front choke is a gray-belt movement that involves gripping the collar of your opponent’s shirt with crossed arms, and using it as a means to restrict blood flow through his or her carotid artery. The video, like the technique, isn’t particularly dynamic, and critics of MCMAP will point to movements like these as evidence that the discipline wouldn’t fair well in a real-world scrap.
If this was the last time we saw the front choke enter the MCMAP syllabus, I might be inclined to agree, but a few belts later, you run into this:
If you’re at work, or just aren’t really into watching old training videos of guys choking each other, the second video depicts the same gray-belt front-choke technique, but from the mounted position on an opponent. Although the gray-belt version of the front choke isn’t particularly effective in itself, by incorporating it into different positions, it becomes an extremely viable offensive movement against anyone wearing military-style uniforms, jackets, or, as was the case in my Brazilian jiu-jitsu days, a Gi.
MCMAP wasn’t initially designed for Marines to spend a few weeks training in the tan-belt techniques and then hang up their gloves for the rest of their careers. It was designed to establish a simple procedure Marines could use to compound their fighting skill sets over time. By teaching techniques like the front choke at lower-level belts, instructors are able to discuss the important elements of using submission chokes (such as the value of a blood choke over an air choke, and how best to subdue an opponent silently and quickly if need be). That allows higher-level belts to rely on previous training and begin incorporating increasingly realistic situations in which to use some of the techniques the student already knows.
This lack of understanding about how techniques build upon one another speaks to one weakness in the program that I can’t defend, however. The MCMAP program relies on strictly established guidelines for belt advancement that include demonstrating an expertise in the techniques of the belt you are testing for, as well as each of the lower belt’s movements, but does not mandate enough regular maintenance of these skills. Fighting, like anything else, is a diminishing skill set when not used. In other words, I may have earned my black belt fairly early, but if I stop practicing the skills I gained through the training, I become less combat effective by the day. Training is ongoing, and martial arts belts are not a destination to reach. Although refreshers are mandatory, and higher-level belts require more regular training to keep your status, keeping a black belt, in my opinion, should require frequently exercising your skills—and demonstrating a continued ability to do so.
Ultimately, MCMAP is no different from most other fighting disciplines in that you will only get out of it what you are willing to put in. If you hear there’s an instructor who passes everybody, and you arrive at your course with the mindset of someone just trying to improve their chances at promotion, chances are good you won’t gain much in terms of fighting ability. On the other hand, if you’re driven, you can learn a lot from even the worst instructor, and if you continue to train in your off time, you can find yourself becoming a pretty capable tough guy.
For a long time, I had a running bet with the Marines who worked for me that if one of them could choke me out, make me submit, or knock me out in training, I would give them my black belt. I almost lost once to a new guy who turned out to be a competitive grappler and one hell of a scrambler. It gave us a great way to let off steam, it gave me a good excuse to punch troublemakers in the neck without being accused of hazing, and it demonstrated to my Marines that a guy who joined the Corps as a 155-pound punk could become a force to be reckoned with if they were willing to put in the work. For what it’s worth, that black belt is hanging in a frame in my office now despite dozens and dozens of attempts from my guys—and it’s not because I’m an unstoppable bad ass (lord knows I tap out 10 times a day in training), it’s because I paid close attention to the lessons I was taught and I worked regularly to try to keep those skills sharp.
So as I read posts on social media from Marines who lament having to go through another round of MCMAP training and complaining about it being useless, I look at my belt hanging in its frame and wonder: If the training that got me that belt was so useless, why didn’t anybody take it from me?
Maybe that’s a cocky thing to say, but hey, neither the Marine Corps nor its martial arts program are particularly renowned for their humility.
You can see a brief demonstration of MCMAP black belt techniques below.
Featured image courtesy of the U.S. Marine Corps
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Yes, you're right. Training a few times a week, or once a week, won't make you all that you a complete martial artist, but for a non-martial artist, practicing a handful of high percentage techniques is a whole lot better than nothing. I'm not sure what you mean, by not practicing submissions, makes for reality based training. You just go full speed and rip their tendons and ligaments out? You guys are choking each other unconscious, and snapping each other's bones in training? When you guys spar each other, do you wear gloves and head gear, or just bear knuckle it, and mop up the blood and teeth after training? Instead of using focus mitts, do you guys really gouge each other's eyes out? It's got to really hurt getting an elbow through the eye socket like that. You guys are pretty hardcore if that's the case. Or do you mean, you practice escapes and get out of there? What would you do with someone on PCP? I've heard of guys who go looking for trouble in places like South Africa, to practice their techniques in reality, including knives, when needed. Thanks for the chat ma'am. I appreciate the input. G'd day.
I agree with you what you've described is different from what I m talking about. It takes a LOT of repetition and practice to make something 'natural' ... training once a week for an hour for a few months doesn't cut it and it makes issues worse if training doesn't comprise some sort of duress or under stress ... the kind of half assed training is the kind that gets you hurt . I'm also about training for reality. Street fighting isn't a submission game. It's use what you can to get your ass out of there ... anything else is sport
Alex Hollings, why do they teach techniques with no conclusion until later? What was wrong with that LINE training the Marines came up with? It certainly seemed effective, for what it was. Why not start off with that, then add onto it? Or is that what you are doing? How do you compare Marine Corps Martial arts to Army combatives, Krav Maga, Kapap, or Combat Sambo?
You're mostly right. If you practice something enough I guess it becomes part of you. In high stress situations techniques you haven't practiced in years, will come back, as if you never stopped. That's my personal expirence anyway. In fact the only Bruce Lee martial artist I ever trained with, had this same expirence in Japan, and it kind of saved his life. He was a 5'6" 135 pound guy, who could submit Brazilian Black belts, and 250 plus pound catch wrestlers at will, and knock out heavyweight pro boxers like they were drunks in a bar. Got into a car accident, hurt his back, sat around for years, waiting for his mother to die, so he could, end things for himself. Then he went to gym, lifting little lady weights, and famous martial artist in Japan, that could bench press about 440 pounds kept berating him, and challenging to a fight. Then one day, with nothing left to lose, accepted the challenge and beat his ass. He realised martial arts was a part of him, and it brought out of his suicidal depression, and it saved his life. My expirence recalling my training, is less dramatic, but it did come back suddenly, and dramatically, to the point it some what scared me. I was applying techniques before I realised what I was doing.
The A-B-C fashion is actually basic adult learning theory. Students who haven't yet gained maturity in how techniques really work and why aren't going to learn a thing if they are allowed to insert what ever they want in a technique. I totally agree that learning concepts and the application of them is the real world but new students still have to show they can crawl before I let them run. That being said if experienced students are solving the problem but the instructor is stuck on rote memorization I think it's the instructor who really doesn't understand what he is instructing.