CONTINGENCY OPERATING BASE BASRA, Iraq - "You're not fighting in the UFC," said Sgt. 1st Class Erin James, brigade provost sergeant, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, during the Multi-National Division - South self-defense class on Contingency Operating Base Basra. "You're not there to stick around and fight."
"They have sexual assault meetings throughout theater and they put out a lot of ideas. This is one of their ideas that they're trying to initiate."
James has taught unarmed self-defense since 1991. Jarvi, a third-degree black belt in Americanized Tae Kwon Do, has been teaching for eight years. They hold the hour and a half class at the Morale, Welfare and Recreation Gym four days a week. The class is divided into two blocks of instruction.
The class begins with James' lessons in Mechanical Advantage Control Holds. MACH is a new curriculum to the Armed Forces under the nonlethal weapons course instructor's curriculum.
"My portion of the class is initial contact and hopefully to put the guy down and make him think twice about messing with you-the element of surprise," said James, a resident of Smyrna, Tenn. "So many times you have to be able to use the element of surprise. I tell my students that the element of surprise is ideal for them because you have that little four-foot (tall), petite Soldier that comes up against a guy (larger than her) it takes the element of surprise, mechanical advantage control holds and pain compliance to escape the situation. I don't train them to stick around and fight. I train them to immobilize long enough to get away from their assailant. That goes for anybody; I don't care if you're six-foot-two or four-foot-two. I want you to be able to move against and get out." The second portion of the class is divided into four progressive parts based on skill level. The first part is the basics of striking and blocking a punch from a stand-still position.
"My style of martial arts is more of a stand-up fighting so there's no grappling or rolling around on the ground," said Jarvi, who hails from Edina, Minn. "I do a lot of blocking for punch defenses and grab defenses." The second, third and fourth part of the classes are going to be more developed around frontal grab defenses, punch defenses and grab defenses from the rear.
"Depending on how the interest is, I can go into more containment and joint manipulation and things like that," said Jarvi. "There's a lot of potential for it. It just depends on how involved the Soldiers get and if it's something they want to push." According to James, it's important to teach multiple techniques to allow Soldiers to rotate through the possibilities as the situation dictates.
According to Jarvi, this is not a beneficial class if Soldiers do not attend it on a regular basis. "Repetition is really the key," he said. "I don't expect Soldiers to be able to go to one class and then they can defend themselves. A lot of this stuff does take time to get that muscle memory because a lot of these movements aren't things that they've done before.
Jarvi also encourages working outside the class as well.
"It's important that they attend multiple classes and they work on it with fellow Soldiers or they practice it on the side, on their own," he said. "But that's really the key. It becomes part of their routine to walk through a couple of grab defenses. When and if they ever had to they would be able to bring back that muscle memory for a punch or grab defense."
James said anyone should attend the class, but stresses it would be most beneficial to people seen as "soft targets."
Classes are held four days a week, Monday and Wednesday from 2 - 3:30 p.m. and Tuesdays and Thursdays from 6:30 - 8 p.m. Classes are also available for individual units upon request.
