Unarmed combat night with the 3rd Battalion Royal Anglian Regiment

What a great honour! We have been invited to provide an unarmed combat training session for the 3rd Battalion Royal Anglian Regiment (Steelbacks). Training will held at the local Norwich TA Centre on Aylsham Road in March. All KAPAP students from the Great Yarmouth and Norwich clubs are invited to attend. They have a massive venue with lots of training equipment, so it’s going to be a great session.

Unarmed combat for the military

For the past few weeks, we have been training with a member of the 3 Royal Anglian training team KAPAP. With my understanding of military training, the culture and teaching style, I have been asked to help provide extra interest into the training programme.

Having previously served with the ‘The Vikings’ 1st Battalion Royal Anglian Regiment in the late 80s early 90s. I have always been very proud of serving with her Majesty’s armed forces as a young infantry soldier in one of the world’s finest infantry battalions. The funny thing is the old adage is true, that you can leave the army, but the army never leaves you.

Unarmed combat is generally not part of infantry training. Their role is to engage the enemy with infantry weapons. Close Quarter Combat skills are only provided to specialist units that operate behind enemy lines, like the Royal Marines, SAS (Special Air Service) and SBS (Special Boat Service).

Keep it simple, stupid!

Being a soldier, challenges are much more demanding. Hampered by heavy equipment, restrictive body armour and working in hostile environments. With other factors like operational stress the military like to keep things super simple.

This is where the beauty of KAPAP fits in. Practical, focusing on gross motor skills and natural flinch reflexes. Relative position, two points of contact, balance displacement, high /low and finally push pull. Can’t get any simpler than that!