Saturday, January 29, 2005
MCMAP
MCMAP week. The Marine Corps, in 1999, adopted the Marine Corps Martial Arts Program, a refined system of hand to hand combat training called for by then Commandant General Jones. He wanted a hand to hand combat system which made sense, was easy to learn, and encouraged the Marines to develop their skills over their careers. It is a good system, well thought out and effective.
The belt you wear indicates your level of proficiency in the program; tan, gray, green, brown, and black. I earned my tan belt at my reserve unit, so while the rest of the company was training for their tan belts, 84 of us were training for our gray belts. There were 8 gray belts who were training for their green belts, and one brown belt who just had to play with them for the week, there was no time to train him for black.
The unfortunate thing about gray belt is the number of throws involved. We started Monday with the hip throw in which you flip someone over your hip and throw them to the ground. Repeat and repeat. My whole body was sore. On Tuesday, we practiced ground fighting, and I couldn't lift my head off the mat when I was laying on my back. I was really worried I had hurt myself until I found out that everyone else was hurting as bad as me.
Wednesday we did pugil sticks and the LZ drill. Pugil sticks are supposed to simulate fighting with bayonets. We strap on flack jackets, football helmets, and groin protection then wail on each other. I can be fun, but most of the time people just wail on each other with no technique, they just push and flail. After everyone went through yesterday, they had grudge matches, we could call out anyone we wanted to fight. My room mate Kelly called me out, not really pissed or anything, just for fun. I landed the first blow, a strike to his throat, but he landed the next three, winning the bout. It can be arbitrary how the matches are judged, you may land a great blow that the ref doesn't see. Oh well, it's all in fun.
LZ drills suck ass. The martial arts instructors sit around and think up the most sick, twisted ways to torture us and then tell us it's a "team building exercise." Yeah, right. It was good PT though. Some highlights: A 50 meter buddy crawl in which a lieutenant of approximately your size lays on your back and you have to low crawl to your objective. He's supposed to be wounded, so he can't help you. Nothing but excruciating pain. We did two of those, switching with our partners for the second one. There were japanese sit-ups, 50 meters of star jumps, break falls, just endless amounts of torture. The second half of the company got the worst of it, they did it after lunch, when the snow had melted and they were covered in mud from head to toe.
The Quantico weather jumped up and bit us once again. It had been warming up, on Wednesday it was sunny and warm, almost 50 degrees. Then on Thursday, the bottom dropped out, it was 17 and windy as hell, the Weather Channel said it felt like 4 degrees. I agree. Fortunately we tested inside, but we spend about two hours outside before we could go inside to test. The ground was frozen hard as concrete, throws were out of the question.
Testing went well for me, but many of the people in my group didn't even test for their gray belt, they didn't think they would get it. I almost didn't do it, but I refused to walk away from the challenge. I have in the past avoided failure by not trying and I am not going to do it anymore.
Most people got tested by the enlisted instructors, I got the CO of the MACE LtCol Shusko. This guy is a stud if there ever was one. Here is his bio: https://www.tbs.usmc.mil/Pages/Martial_Arts/staff/director.htm
The Mace is the headquarters of the MCMAP program, so my gray belt was issued by the commander of the MCMAP program. That's pretty cool. He wasn't lenient either, he really tested me. Unfortunately, my partner Gooch didn't make it. You have to demonstrate five tan belt maneuvers before you can even try the gray belt test and he executed the wrong wristlock. I feel bad for him, it sucks to do all that training and not get a chance to do the test.
So we're on to land navigation, communications, and combined arms this coming week. More fun. Thankfully, we don't spend any serious time in the field until March, so we have some time to ride out this terrible weather. Our instructors keep telling us that we are earning our nickname; "Arctic Alpha." That's fine and dandy for bragging rights later, but it sucks at the time.
The belt you wear indicates your level of proficiency in the program; tan, gray, green, brown, and black. I earned my tan belt at my reserve unit, so while the rest of the company was training for their tan belts, 84 of us were training for our gray belts. There were 8 gray belts who were training for their green belts, and one brown belt who just had to play with them for the week, there was no time to train him for black.
The unfortunate thing about gray belt is the number of throws involved. We started Monday with the hip throw in which you flip someone over your hip and throw them to the ground. Repeat and repeat. My whole body was sore. On Tuesday, we practiced ground fighting, and I couldn't lift my head off the mat when I was laying on my back. I was really worried I had hurt myself until I found out that everyone else was hurting as bad as me.
Wednesday we did pugil sticks and the LZ drill. Pugil sticks are supposed to simulate fighting with bayonets. We strap on flack jackets, football helmets, and groin protection then wail on each other. I can be fun, but most of the time people just wail on each other with no technique, they just push and flail. After everyone went through yesterday, they had grudge matches, we could call out anyone we wanted to fight. My room mate Kelly called me out, not really pissed or anything, just for fun. I landed the first blow, a strike to his throat, but he landed the next three, winning the bout. It can be arbitrary how the matches are judged, you may land a great blow that the ref doesn't see. Oh well, it's all in fun.
LZ drills suck ass. The martial arts instructors sit around and think up the most sick, twisted ways to torture us and then tell us it's a "team building exercise." Yeah, right. It was good PT though. Some highlights: A 50 meter buddy crawl in which a lieutenant of approximately your size lays on your back and you have to low crawl to your objective. He's supposed to be wounded, so he can't help you. Nothing but excruciating pain. We did two of those, switching with our partners for the second one. There were japanese sit-ups, 50 meters of star jumps, break falls, just endless amounts of torture. The second half of the company got the worst of it, they did it after lunch, when the snow had melted and they were covered in mud from head to toe.
The Quantico weather jumped up and bit us once again. It had been warming up, on Wednesday it was sunny and warm, almost 50 degrees. Then on Thursday, the bottom dropped out, it was 17 and windy as hell, the Weather Channel said it felt like 4 degrees. I agree. Fortunately we tested inside, but we spend about two hours outside before we could go inside to test. The ground was frozen hard as concrete, throws were out of the question.
Testing went well for me, but many of the people in my group didn't even test for their gray belt, they didn't think they would get it. I almost didn't do it, but I refused to walk away from the challenge. I have in the past avoided failure by not trying and I am not going to do it anymore.
Most people got tested by the enlisted instructors, I got the CO of the MACE LtCol Shusko. This guy is a stud if there ever was one. Here is his bio: https://www.tbs.usmc.mil/Pages/Martial_Arts/staff/director.htm
The Mace is the headquarters of the MCMAP program, so my gray belt was issued by the commander of the MCMAP program. That's pretty cool. He wasn't lenient either, he really tested me. Unfortunately, my partner Gooch didn't make it. You have to demonstrate five tan belt maneuvers before you can even try the gray belt test and he executed the wrong wristlock. I feel bad for him, it sucks to do all that training and not get a chance to do the test.
So we're on to land navigation, communications, and combined arms this coming week. More fun. Thankfully, we don't spend any serious time in the field until March, so we have some time to ride out this terrible weather. Our instructors keep telling us that we are earning our nickname; "Arctic Alpha." That's fine and dandy for bragging rights later, but it sucks at the time.
// posted by Josh @ 1/29/2005 12:14:00 PM 
