Handle your opponent with your bare hands, defend yourself without countering his strength, use it to neutralize him: is the cardinal principle of the CMCC, Combat Military Combat conceived and developed by the marine brigade Saint Mark. Fundamental for soldiers in combat, it can be replicated in situations of generic danger, when even a known road becomes the scene of an unexpected aggression. Objective: to keep a cool head despite surprise and fear, to avoid the enemy with some techniques and to overwhelm him.
The method is as revolutionary as its goal: the goal is to manage 'altered' people without ever being lethal, combining physical contact, balance and proportions.
Added value and distinctive feature of the Marine rifleman, this method is based on the philosophy of Wing Chun, “the Eternal Spring", an oriental defense technique that allows for rapid adaptation to the movements and strength of the attacker.
But realistically, for a citizen, especially a woman, how useful can it be to know these moves? We talked about it with Lieutenant Chiara Cola, instructor and coordinator of the CMCC group serving at the Caorle Schools Battalion of the Carlotto Barracks, the beating heart of the technical-operational training of our Lions, on the occasion of the women's self-defense demonstration organized by the Brindisi Petty Officers' Club on the eve of November 25, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women.
What is CMCC?
Our method is a distillation of noble martial arts, to be practiced with or without weapons: judo, freestyle wrestling, boxing, Brazilian jujitsu, K1, Philippine escrima, even bordering on MMA. It can be defined as a fusion of different disciplines that allows the Marine rifleman to face an opponent at close range, using not only his own body, but every part of the equipment provided. In our profession, the fighter must be a boxer from the waist up, and a wrestler from the waist down: it is the essence of our training, aimed at creating automatism and readiness of action and reaction.
When and how was CMCC born?
This is a peculiarity of the San Marco Marine Brigade, an adaptable response to the most diverse situations. The idea started in 2000 and took shape in 2014, when the 1st stage for Navy Instructors in “Combattimento Militare Corpo a Corpo" took place, a training process lasting about a month. To date, the CMCC is the result of a process of constant evolution and improvement over time.
What is the physical preparation behind this technique?
Since these are sports, the ideal is to train daily. Maintaining physical performance and mental attitude to combat is a prerogative of the Marine rifleman and the fighter in general. Added to all this is a healthy lifestyle and proper nutrition.
Regardless of actual professional training, are there moves that can be replicated by anyone?
There are certainly techniques that are common to our specific professional field and to personal defense in general. But unlike self-defense systems, which promise potential victims absolutely life-saving solutions, the CMCC takes into account the fact that the variables are infinite, and that sometimes the priority may be to protect someone else, as well as oneself: this is the case of a woman with a child by the hand, who cannot immediately escape, or someone trying to quell a fight between drunks. Paradoxically, once you have gained a good physical distance from the aggressor, you can save yourself and control him, protecting him at the same time, perhaps blocking him to prevent him from hurting himself. The focus is on the body, on the hands: they must be used as a resource, to free yourself and save yourself, which in the case of an attacked woman is the main objective. This is where our method is useful and close to citizens. We would like to point out, however, that only constant practice can make it effective and create automatism.
In the event of an attack, does mental clarity or physical preparation matter more?
CMCC is a discipline for the body and mind, it teaches us to be masters of ourselves. The constant is balance, harmony. Surely a good physical preparation is necessary to better manage stressful situations and to react promptly in every circumstance.
Sometimes fear “freezes” the victim, preventing him from moving. How do you manage stress in these cases?
It happens often. This is why we create situations as close to reality as possible both during our training and during the practical demonstrations that we organize free of charge for citizens. It is a way to "make friends" with stress. This concept is fundamental: knowing fear allows us to know ourselves better and to manage it. We freeze when we think about the problem and not the solution. In the specific case of a woman suddenly attacked, the advice is to focus on what to do and not on what is happening. The solution is to practice the technique to immediately know how to act.
