Photo By Spc. Nathan Goodall | The first-place winners of a 17th Fires Brigade combatives tournament stand as...... read more read more
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JOINT BASE LEWIS-MCCHORD, Wash. – Soldiers with 17th Fires Brigade battled in hand-to-hand combat during a two-day brigade combatives tournament March 7 and 8.
“The soldiers that got first through third place will be given the opportunity to train daily with our brigade combatives team, and they’ll also represent 17th Fires Brigade in the 7th Infantry Division tournament coming up,” said 1st Lt. Marcel Wright, the assistant logistics officer 1st Battalion (HIMARS), 94th Field Artillery Regiment, 17th Fires Brigade, and one of the tournament’s officials.
While the top three soldiers in each weight class gained a spot on the brigade combatives team, every soldier that competed was rewarded with the experience of fighting in a tournament, Wright said.
For Maj. Bryan Coleman, an Indiana, Pa., native, and the executive officer with 1-94 FA, the tournament taught him lessons he couldn’t have learned from practice alone.
Coleman has experience beyond the grappling and submission techniques that are focused on heavily in the Level I combatives certification course. As a Level II certified fighter, he sparred with the addition of body blows and open-hand hits to the head.
But practice is different from actual competition, he said.
“Actually experiencing the punches (during a match) changes things. You don’t really feel them so much when you’re fighting, it’s more of a sudden jolt, a quick distraction, that can maybe take you off focus just for a little bit,” Coleman said. “In those moments of distraction, you can lose control and do something dumb.”
By experiencing that, Coleman was able to adapt and develop his fighting mindset to win his final bout and secure the third place spot for the light heavyweight class.
“(To adapt), you need to build more confidence that a strike isn’t going to end your game. If you stay focused on what you’re working for, you’ll get it,” he said.
For Spc. Sky Strickland, a generator mechanic with 606th Forward Support Company, 1st Battalion (155mm Towed), 377th Field Artillery Regiment, 17th Fires Brigade, the tournament was a learning experience akin to jumping into water without knowing how to swim.
Strickland has never been through a Level I combatives course. The bulk of his sparring time happened more than a year ago when he was with a different unit in the brigade that would train every other Thursday morning. Every technique he knows he picked up from combatives-certified soldiers, he said.
His lack of experience didn’t deter him from entering the tournament, however. Rather, it was one of the reasons he wanted to compete in the first place.
Going head-to-head with certified opponents exposed Strickland to a wide range of fighting styles and techniques he might not have known about otherwise.
In addition, competing helped him see where his natural strengths lie.
“I didn’t fare half as bad as I thought I would going in against people who are level one and two certified,” Strickland said.
Strickland considers the experience a substantial building block in his development as a soldier, so much so that he’d recommend his peers to participate in a tournament if the chance comes up again.
“It’s a good experience whether you’re certified or not, it shows you’ve got the gumption to get in there and get you’re butt kicked - that you’re brave enough to try,” Strickland said.
Showing bravery and competing helped soldiers like Strickland and Coleman push their limits and improve themselves. According to Wright, that’s always an underlying purpose during a combatives tournament.
“The biggest thing about it is it shows soldiers that by working hard, by putting out maximum effort, you get a chance to do special things,” Wright said. “That’s really what it’s about.”
| Date Taken: | 03.08.2013 |
| Date Posted: | 03.13.2013 21:29 |
| Story ID: | 103431 |
| Location: | JOINT BASE LEWIS-MCCHORD, WA, US |
| Hometown: | INDIANA, PA, US |
| Web Views: | 135 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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