The Relationship between Combatives and Reality-Based Training

The Relationship between Combatives and Reality-Based Training

by WR Mann (RealFighting.com):
There's a great deal of confusion about the terms combatives and reality-based training nowadays. Most people assume they are one and the same; they are not, although there are many similarities; having evolved in a very similar manner.

Combatives is a police-derived fighting style that originated in China in the 1920's and 1930's, with Fairbairn and Sykes, and was eventually utilized in WWII by specially selected troops from England, America and Canada. It is an aggressive style of combat (nowadays primarily striking) that exhibits a willingness to close with the attacker. Some combative styles offer ground, counter-knife and counter gun skills. Combatives deals mainly with the conflict phase of the attack, not the pre-conflict and post-conflict phases. Many practitioners are advocates of the original WWII version, even though more efficient contemporary interpretations are available. ...

Reality-based training (RBT) is a collective of concepts, skills and techniques based on modern (contemporary) conflict situations that the practitioner is likely to encounter in his or her environment. It also deals with ground defense, counter-knife and gun, female self-defense, dealing with mentally ill and violent subjects, spontaneous conflict situations, and criminal and terrorist activity. RBT encompasses all phases of the attack with equal attention to pre-conflict, conflict and post conflict phases; RBT also employs extensive conflict rehearsals with realistic props which combatives does not. Although many people have participated in facets of RBT, it was Jim Wagner who first tied these disparate elements together into a comprehensive methodology in 1998.

There's much more...