Tag Archives: hand fighting

Question: How do I Become a Scientific Fighting Congress (SFC) instructor? Or obtain rank? How Does This Training Work?
The SFC is the corporate name of all this. The year 2025 is the 30^th year of our international operation. We have thousands of members in many countries as far as China and Australia. Under that corporate SFC umbrella are the 7 big programs or courses. First pick a course or courses.
Force Necessary: Hand! The unarmed course
Force Necessary: Stick! The impact weapons course
Force Necessary: Knife! The knife course
Force Necessary: Gun! The gun course
Close Quarter Concepts Group: Completion of the above hand, stick, knife, gun. For example, if someone is FN: Hand 3, FN Stick 3, FN Knife 3, FN: Gun 3, they are automatically in the CQC Group 3.
Defender!: The Police Judo, enforcement-security course
Essential Filipino Martial Arts (FMA) and Pacific Archipelago Concepts (PAC): Materials from Indonesia, Hawaii, Japan, Philippines. A ranker gets two certifications for “the price of the one” in FMA and PAC.
Note- Due to my long engagement with Kajukenbo and an 8^th Dan ranking, I am capable of shepherding FN: Hand practitioners into this fantastic martial art. Contact me for details.
Note- These levels are not long, not complicated and built to be an easily digested progression. Technically everything should be in level 1 simple! But it can’t be squeezed into Level 1. It has to be spaced out for this digestion. Various rankings in each or all the courses can be achieved in seminars and classes. Train with us and master these levels. Instructorships are available in each course. Instructorships involve classroom training, hands-on practice and both written and physical testing in a designated camp or course.
The teaching levels are:
Class Organizer authorized to develop your skills with partners for advancement.
Basic Instructor upon completing any 3 levels in a course.
Advanced Instructor upon completing any 6 levels in a course.
Specialist Instructor upon completing any 9 levels in a course.
“Black Belt” Instructor upon completing Level 10. We know that in the business of teaching, one important credential among others, among the students of the world, is the accomplishment of a Black Belt. And with that? Your training/understanding truly begins. This is an old black belt adage that is and should be very true.
Finish any three levels in one course (they need not be order) and then qualify as a basic instructor. Finish any 6? Advanced. Finish any 9? Subject Matter Specialist.
Much of the early testing is done at seminars as I will teach that level’s material and watch a candidate perform it in amongst other students.

My typical seminars are about 12 to 14 hours over a weekend. I only plan on teaching certain themes for about 6 to 8 of these hours. The other hours I select material needed by the attendees. Some camps are geared specifically for rank advancement and those are the best places to go to for advancement. Most seminars are just about various subject matters. Also, of course, your regional instructor, or your favorite non-regional instructor can promote you too, in his or her regular classes, semi-privates or privates.

Question: Must Instructors Teach Only Force Necessary Material?
NO! Of course not. You are free to do as you wish. Some SFC instructors..

Exclusively teach SFC material, or…
Run SFC courses in their school or other schools, and-or…
Mix SFC material into their existing program, and-or…
Lease time in schools, gyms, rec. centers, etc..
Use their backyards and garages to teach.
Travel on their own seminar circuit.
Are also instructors of other very famous courses! And teach those too.
Are military and police instructors and teach those services too.
I don’t care what you do! It is important to improvise and grow. These programs are about you not me. Your growth, success and education.

Question: Is there expensive, re-certification or instructor re-certification?

No. It’s free and automatic when you simply attend another annual seminar. If you don’t attend, after a while, unless there are common-sense, extenuating circumstances, you sort of drop-drift off the active rolls. I don’t want to bother people with annual fees. You need your own money!

I do need to see ranking practitioners and instructors about once a year when common-sense-possible, because a common seminar will have a new theme, new materials and new evolutions. We never stop processing and progressing material. So, about once a year you need to swing by and see me if you can. I try to get close to you. No doubt I will travel more than my share to get within striking distance of you.
Re-certification? We need to see rank holders and instructors about once every year. Or some reason why we can’t. (I am very flexible.) People listed on our instructor pages on our website, are active certified instructors. There are people not on the list that have attained various ranks to include Black Belt levels ranks in the last 30 years, but for whatever private or professional reasons, they are not recently active within this organization. They take up golf!? Have kids? Etc. They still possess these rankings, they are just not listed here on the active-duty pages. We are constantly improving and honing the material, as well as checking on the instructors and their progress. If he doesn’t see them for a long period? They simply fall off the active-duty list. Want back on the active list? Just Attend a seminar.

Question: Can instructors promote their people? Yes.

An instructor can make/promote one rank level under them.
Basic instructor can only promote their students to levels 1 and 2, No instructorships.
Advanced instructor can only make a basic instructor and up to level 5
Expert instructor can make basic and advanced and up to level 8
A level 10, a so-called “master” (as in range master not martial arts masters) can promote up to 9
Each level above makes a level under them. In a way, work in the individual courses help build the time and grade for the CQC Group. An instructor earns the right to purchase rank certificates at a discounted, “wholesale” rate and charge “retail.” Ask me for that information sheet. Ask at Hock@hockscqc.com
As far as the CQC Group…Only I can make a Hand, Stick, Knife, Gun Close Quarter Combat Group rank or instructors, as each individual CQC Group level is like its own “black belt test.” This is real slow going and only a few folks, maybe less than 95 hold (now in 30 years of travel), CQC Group rank, yet I teach over 1,000 people a year, sometimes more.

Question: How do SFC Tests Work?

We have been using the “College Approach.” Simply put? You do not have to take our modules in order. You can complete course levels out of order. I am already scheduling seminars for 2025, my 30th year on the road. In some circumstances, I may only return to a city around the world in a year and a half now, not every year. Worse, complicating the mission, I really am consistently asked for rank progressions and instructorships. Squeezing all this in, IN PROMOTIONAL ORDER for each person, is just about impossible to schedule.

Every single thing I teach is within a course we have. Though there are ten levels in each course, the tenth is a big test, so there are 9 levels of study in each course. That’s nine times four. 36 levels. 36 modules. Granted the modules are short and simple, but they take time to do, to teach and get to. Getting to them all, for everyone gets harder and harder each year. In a perfect world, like the perfect college schedule, you would start with “Subject 101” and proceed in perfect order, on through the “Subject 400s.” Ever done that? Who do you know that has? It is next to impossible.

When folks go to college, they do the best they can, getting the courses they need. But when registering, they take the subjects and classes that are open to them at the time, wrestling with both their schedules and the college-scheduled offerings. This means a college student may actually start in class “Subject 105,” rather than “Subject 101” because the 101 class is full. (I actually took all my college senior level business courses first!. Yes! As a night student no one seemed to care. So I took “401, 402- on up.” Took the others later as I could get them.) So, you can achieve out of order.

Complete any three levels? You can become an instructor. Instructors can teach ANY SFC level material, but only promote people in the levels they tested for. Any six levels? Any nine levels? And so on. Another simple way to put this, if on any given Sunday I teach Knife 6 and you complete it successfully? You can get official credit for Knife 6, even though you haven’t finished knife 5. We’ll all catch up with everything you in the end.

This will facilitate more people to achieve what they deserve this way, given our constricted opportunities.

Some arts and programs have prerequisites. Seen this before? “Must Take Class 301 Before Class 302.” Fortunately, in my practical/tactical course modules, these subjects are not brain surgery or rocket science, nor do they contain difficult katas. They are simply basic, simple things spaced out over time, because not all things can fit in level 1 or “101.” Plus, we expect people will already be working with their local instructors, have the training videos, and also have experience (most folks I see, have experience) in a variety of systems and schools.

So now, simply put? You do not have to take or test for our modules in strict order. You don’t ever have to take a test. You can just train for knowledge. Nice if you would? Best if you would. But like college, you can complete course levels out of order.

Get a jump start! Watch tens of Hock’s one hour training films for free on his Combatives TV Channel, click right here!

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SEARCHING FOR EPIPHANY… In the Martial World

April 16, 2022 Hock

What does having an epiphany mean?

a usually sudden manifestation or perception of the essential nature or meaning of something.
an intuitive grasp of reality through something (such as an event) usually simple and striking.
an illuminating discovery, realization, or disclosure.

For me, in martial-combatives studies this is quest for that somewhat, magic moment of a new understanding and progress.

Lots of people are addicted to their martial sport or art and for many good reasons like “tribal” friendships, exercise, goal achievement, etc. and they become purposely or naively entrenched in what they do. Which is fine for them, providing they understand what I just said. Where it all fits. But, however, if they were like me years ago, doing all those things, and STILL frustrated, it is a problem. I worried, was I on “on mission” or “off-mission?” I was a soldier. I was a cop. I worried about the real world of crime and war, not martial hobbies, not arts or replicating systems.

One day in the mid-1990s, I “awoke” with a big epiphany. As I have written here about before, and I went from “mixed-up” martial arts to “mixed martials.” That is what I realized, what I wanted and needed, my real “on mission,” pursuit, which in my case was the maximum, total blend of hand, stick, knife, gun (“gun” as in pistol and long gun).

Following this big epiphany, came smaller ones, like these examples:

Example 1: Finding single skill drills that work with hand, stick, knife and gun. Or as many of the 4 as possible.

Example 2: Searching for things as simple as possible, yet allowing for as little complexity as functionally possible.

Example 3: A format for individual tactics like…kicking. Take the simple front snap kick (to the shin or groin) Do it –

Standing, arms down as in a “sucker kick,” work both legs.
Standing in a ready position, like a fighting stance, front and rear legs, switch leads.
Kneeling snap kicks– experiment with this if you can. Some can. Both legs.
Grounded on your back. Both legs, with and without a “crab walk” lift. Grounded on your left or right sides. Both legs.
All of the above while holding a stick, single-hand grip.
All of the above while holding a stick, double-hand grip.
All of the above while holding a knife, saber and reverse.
All of the above while holding a pistol, one or two-handed grip.
All of the above while holding a long gun.
Total package of the front snap kick use in reality.
Oh, and NOT barefoot!

So, just a simple snap kick? Yes and no. Total use. Of course, all of these have nuances, and it takes a veteran martialist or a smart mind to develop, fix and alter. I still have to teach separate courses for hand, stick, knife and gun.

The simple universal formula of:

1: standing,
2: kneeling,
3: grounded (on back and sides).
4: unarmed and,
5: while holding weapons.
Five universal realities-blended. The formula foundation.
Run all rudimentary moves through this formula when plausible.

Most people want to “do their thing,” follow their isolated interests for the reasons listed way above, which is fine. I still have to teach separate courses for hand, stick, knife and gun. I am paid, like a job, to make customers happy and cover these subjects separately. But my real interests lay in the big, generic quest of the blend. This blend pursuit is more important to me, and not at all important to most others. Which is why I will never become so-called “famous” in the martial arts world. I am an outlier. In fact, most people won’t even read this.

There have been movements to martial blend, as in some Krav Magas and Combatives. Certainly handy and productive, but I think many do so without a formula foundation, and therefore with just collections of random sets of things thrown together. Or, the instructors cannot escape their root martial arts, like BJJ or boxing, and overdose their outlines with sport, mini-failures in reality, which leads us back to the “Mixed-Up Martial Arts” world,

Epiphanies. Many mental experts like to suggest, that to have an epiphany, one must leave the “work table” of your problem and like, “walk in the woods” to free the mind. Answers will manifest? However one of my favorite neuro-heroes, the great Gary Klein, with a resume too long to list here, has written “What Others Don’t See,” his case history studies on epiphanies-insights-discoveries, and he lists another 4 big ways these lightening flashes of ideas arrive adding a few more strands of other ways too.

How does the quest begin? Inventor Charles Kettering suggests, “A problem well-stated is half-solved.” I de-construct all problems by investigating the “Ws and H.” Who, what, where, when, how and why questions. This helps me. Helps you?

Discoveries change the world in many big and small ways. Search for epiphanies.

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Hock’s email is HockHochheim@ForceNecessary.com

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How Long Before Perishable Skills Perish?

May 21, 2021 Hock

We humans always knew we need to keep training to keep sharp, but still we “chip away” at the edges through time. All your performance bases in every topics are covered in this demise. Cave men practiced their spear throwing, and their wounded prey chasing until they could no longer hit the target or run well. The concept of “perishable skills” evolved into our vocabulary.

Life has gotten way more complicated than tossing pointy sticks and just about every job, chore, hobby and skill has multiple layers of mental and physical performance that are stabilized, honed then slowly disintegrate.

The first time I officially heard about “perishable skills” was in police training a very long time ago. The 1970s. But we also heard the phrase “use it or lose it” and versions of similar advice for decades.

Diminishing abilities abound, no matter the topic, tennis, typing, rodeo, baseball, racing…life. In many businesses like policing and the military, there’s never enough time, money or manpower to enforce rigorous training cycles and fight back the “expiration dates.”

How long before perishable perishes? In hot pursuit of training ideology, various US state police and military, even in the business-world, training criteria has segmented the disintegration times into three categories:

1) Perishable skills (half-life of less than two and a half years),
2) Semi-durable skills (half-life of two and a half to seven and a half years), and…
3) Durable skills (half-life of more than seven and a half years).

How were these timetables developed? By whom? For whom? Organizations have to start somewhere and justify their timetables. We were once inundated with the “10,000 hour to expertise” training-experience rule and this idea further advertised by Gladwell’s bestselling Outliers book, but then we quickly learned from about a ton of experts that everyone’s aptitudes are different and “hours-to-expertise” differ greatly from person-to-person. (And please quit quoting the 10,000 hours rule, people!) I too would like to suggest that such time limits are arbitrary and discretionary because all people are different. This established, we might therefore, logically think that “hours-to-perish,” despite attempts to quantify is also different too for different people, different on both the up and down scales.

Lifetime dedicated commitment lingers longer. There has been considerable study in these performance matters and the topic of tennis is often used in sports performance analysis. So, I will use a quick tennis analogy. Imagine a lifelong super tennis champion, like Serena Williams or Roger Federer. They age, they just lose a step, even though they are constantly working out and playing. Eventually they must retire as fresh kids rise up. They retire to a tennis club and become resident tennis pros. There they teach tennis and so forth. It is hard for me to imagine that a 60, even 70 year old Serena or Federer would not still beat almost ALL “normal” tennis people in the neighborhood, country club. I think this because they have indeed accumulated so much time in the enterprise that even Serena and Federer, at their near-worst, are still above-average, darn good tennis players. Aspects have perished, but since they were once so high up, that even with significant perishing, they might still pretty darn good for a long time.

I could go off on an in-depth tangent, deep-dive on this topic and I have in various books, essays and articles, but in summary, it’s simple, I (and we-many) think that perishable skill timetables are highly situational in topic and person.

Ol’ René Descartes started that little ditty, Cogito, ergo sum, Latin for – “I think, therefore I am.” And we are human and therefore will stop thinking someday. Perish the thought! We’ll slow down and stop…playing. In other words – “I perish, therefore perishability is inevitable.”

But while we are still alive, kicking and un-perished, we can use that caveman idea that we humans need to keep tossing spears, keep training to keep sharp and this simple caveman idea instantly covers all your bases. You still might end up a pretty good ol’ pro at the old Caveman, Spear Pro Shop and Country Club.

More on this subject https://www.chieflearningofficer.com/2020/10/29/skills-arent-soft-or-hard-theyre-durable-or-perishable/

Hock’s email is Hock@hockscqc.com

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Your Signature Moves?

April 6, 2021 Hock

Your Signature Moves and the Pareto and the Mental Model?

Mental models are descriptions of reality that apply across every area of our life, usually don’t get outdated, and provide good results by helping you make better decisions. What is an example of a mental model? One of the most famous and valuable mental models is called the Pareto Principle. Use the 80-20 Pareto Rule to create your signature moves

You probably know it as the “80-20 rule.” This mental models says that most of your results are going to come from just a small percentage of your effort or work.

Vilfredo Pareto, the man who “discovered” this principle noticed that 80% of the land in his area was owned by 20% of the people. He looked in his garden, and saw that 80% of the peas were in 20% of the pea pods. Then he realized that this was something like an organizing principle of life.

This phenomena applies across many domains including productivity, happiness, business, health, etc. Here are a few examples:

20% of relationships lead to 80% of happiness.
20% of exercises lead to 80% of health benefit.
20% of items on your to do list lead to 80% of productivity.

You know me, the eternal skeptic, and maybe the percentage might be 18% or 25%? But I do get the overall idea. This model is much more complex and it can be applied to infinitely more, but this basic concept allows you to quickly acquire what counts. In our “fighting world,” just look at the UFC and see what is actually and consistently done, juxtaposed with the total martial arts systems, techniques and methods of the world and history. Who, what, where, when, how and why?

In the “fight world” competition fighters have a small collection of go-to signature moves (and strategies). Opponents study those moves by way of films, personal observations and interviews to win. But what of war and crime? You might say that militaries have overall, signature strategies. But what of defending yourself against criminals? Criminals and the classic bullies have no films to study on you, to prepare for your signature moves.

I am not talking about hobby sports and arts here. Just survival. I would venture to say that you need some personal signature moves that best suit you, compiled after you do an extensive study in the “who, what, where, when, how and why” questions. This is why the cookie cutter, martial arts systems are not the best manufacturers of the survival, self defense product, and they can be very one-dimensional. Thai fight Thai. Boxers box. Wrestlers wrestle with no strikes. Etc. One dimensional, offering abstract skills to deal with the harsh, mixed-weapon chaos of the world. (I might add that I do not like the words “self defense” and “fight” or “fighting,” as they can be misleading and hackneyed when discussing survival. Still, I must use them for the lack of more succinct nouns.)

I resolved this signature concept by insisting that people study to develop their signature moves for their size, shape, strength, age, coordination and predicable situations-and then later, non-predicable situations. It’s the biggest part of the “Who” question.

“Who are you…really!”
“Who do you think you will really be fighting?”
“Who are you legally, as in the eyes of the law? (Pee Wee Herman or Hulk Hogan?)”
I frequently confess in seminars that “I can never tell you how to fight.” That is your job and the job of your local instructor, if he or she has sufficient “Martial IQ.” Not my job as a traveling seminar circus. I must shoot for concepts. You must experiment, pick and choose your so-called signatures. That is why in my hand, stick, knife and gun courses, I want to expose people to a college-like, experience-collection of many good things. Work on them, select wisely and collect what you want, need and can do. You cannot and should not embrace them all, because, here is where we get into the age-old debate of “too many techniques.” Too many techniques to choose from and therefore slows you down, it is claimed. I don’t think there is one universal “too many line” to draw because every person is genetically different. in terms of retention and education-ability. I have decided to create an exposure course (like college). You pick your majors and minors. You experience diversity and savvy. Study systems, but study systems to defeat them, not become them. I do think one might become “Martial Sick,” just adding and adding and adding until you vomit. There are indeed some things that are so smart, so simple and universal.

Some instructors will say “get 5 things.” “Come to my ‘5 Things’ school.” But then they one-dimensionally speak of only unarmed things. What of stick things, knife things, gun things? Five, then 5, and 5 and 5 more? What of standing through ground problems? That’s a matrix of mixed things! That’s a whole lot of simple things. I struggle with this numbers games by seeking the drill/exercises that are multi-purpose. Learn one movement, change the position and weapons. I must be ever vigilant in finding these short cuts for you. That’s my job. My mission.

In the end your signatures are also facing perishability. Will you do these things, say…for the rest of your life? Or, will these signature things slowly erode away. Perishability is another topic for another time, but will your signature become dim and unreadable. And in this vein, let me mention quickly that you need to review your signature moves every 5 or 6 years or so because as you age, you may not be able to execute them as well, or at all.

We fight criminals, enemy soldiers and our “drunk uncles.” I could go on with a lot of anecdotal stories, lessons and name-dropping here, but I think you get the point? Please take a deep dive in the “who, what, where, when, how and why” questions. Exercise and experiment with unarmed and mixed weapons. Collect things for you, yourself. Improve your “Martial IQ” and your “Martial Savvy” with skepticism and awareness. Don’t get yourself, “Martial Sick.”

This is all about YOU. Not me. Not the perpetual-ization and worship of systems and their god-heads. YOU! Get some signature moves for situations.

Sign your name on these dotted lines…

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Hock’s email is HockHochheim@ForceNecessary.com

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