Nearly 50 competitors stepped onto the mats to compete in the Phantom Warrior Combatives Invitational Friday at Warrior Way Fitness Center.
The competitors were separated into brackets by weight, first competing in a grappling format. As competitors were whittled down, the top fighters fought with a different ruleset, adding kicks to anywhere on the body, punches below the face and open palm strikes to the face.
“The importance of combatives is just instilling discipline, confidence and just the comforting chaos for our Soldiers,” said Sgt. Benjamin Hunter James, Headquarters and Headquarters Company, U.S. Army Garrison-Fort Hood. “I think it’s huge for Soldier development. It’s also just a good morale support for our Soldiers coming out, they get to showcase their skills. And it’s also just good skills to have on the battlefield, battlefield survivability. You want to finish the fight."
“It’s getting back to being brilliant at the basics, right?” said 1st Lt. Jeremiah Harrison Smith, tournament director of the invitational and a Soldier assigned to 36th Engineer Brigade. “This is the most fundamental task of being a Soldier. At the end of the Soldier’s Creed, it says, ‘I stand ready to deploy, engage and destroy the enemies of the United States of America in close combat.’ This is what prepares us, is combatives.”
Smith, along with James, organized the invitational after noticing the lack of a combatives program at Fort Hood. “We had a huge turnout, especially for our first invitational we had here,” James said. “This is the first time combatives has been back in almost a decade, and you could just tell the people and the Soldiers have been wanting this.”
1st Sgt. Michael Vacanti, Regimental Field Artillery Squadron, 3rd Cavalry Regiment, agreed about the success of the event.
“I think it went well,” he said. “We should have more of these often. Bring all this back. This is something I think a lot of Soldiers are missing. Like, ‘Hey, we do combatives, but let’s actually put it to the test.’” He competed, winning a majority of the matches he rolled in.
“I’m happy,” Vacanti said about his results. “Five matches, three of them win by submission, and I did a spur ride the day before.”
Another competitor, 2nd Lt. Daniel Richter, 8th Brigade Engineer Battalion, 2nd Armored Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, also won three of his matches by submission, ultimately taking the top place for his bracket.
“I train martial arts on the outside of Army combatives, as well, with a heavy focus on Brazilian jiu jitsu,” he said. “So it’s nice to go out there, see if I actually know what I practice and be able to put it in the application, but it’s always a good feeling winning a fight.”
His final submission, a knee bar, is a particular staple of Richter’s, he said.
“It was nice to pull that out of the bag of tricks,” he expressed.
Bri Vacanti, Michael’s spouse who also practices Brazilian jiu jitsu, saw the event as an opportunity to not only test the Soldiers’ skills, but to also have fun.
“It’s boosting the morale for the post, but also for people who are trained fighters like him (my husband) that are used to the structure of the sport, it kind of keeps them on their toes, helps them refine their skill and gives them that extra mat time. So I think that’s something that they need, and it’s a great way to bring other people out. And I think that’s what this post needs.”
The top competitors from each bracket will move on to compete in a separate event, fighting against the top competitors in another future invitational.
“I hope they prepare the same way that I would prepare,” Richter said of his potential opponent. “I look forward to the challenge.”