“The society that separates its scholars from its warriors will have its thinking done by cowards and its fighting by fools.” —Thucydides

Entangled bodies struggle to gain dominant positions while droplets of sweat mark the mats inside the Cadet Gymnasium. An instructor — set apart from the sea of camouflage by his all-black ensemble and cauliflower ears, divulging years of grappling experience — reminds the group that the goal is to control their training partners on the ground. Strangles and joint locks will come in due time. 

It’s a Thursday in January and about a dozen cadets are participating in the U.S. Air Force Academy’s mandatory PE 215, also known as Combatives I. The core physical education course includes boxing and two levels of combatives. Recently, it expanded to offer electives to include self-protection and marksmanship. The program also supports the broader Air Force by developing curricula and certifications for a variety of groups and situations, including Security Forces, Special Warfare and pre-deployment training.

Combatives is made up of a variety of functional martial arts systems such as freestyle and Greco-Roman wrestling, judo, Brazilian jiu-jitsu, and even some Filipino and Thai disciplines, according to Dave Durnil, Ph.D., chief of training and education, Air Force Combatives Center of Excellence. Each, he says, was selected for its ability to be effective under stress and teachable in the time constraints of the program.

Hand-to-hand combat training, Durnil adds, helps forge warfighters to win, but the program’s benefits go beyond simply learning how to fight.

Traditional meets modern

Anthropological studies have found evidence of martial arts and their societal impact throughout human history. 

“Ultimately, martial arts, just like food or language, are inherent to every culture, and so they exist because there’s a need for them,” Durnil says. “It’s this concept of developing internal hierarchies and also repelling external threats. But martial arts encompass more than just empty-hand skills. They include weapons. And you could say operational planning, handcuffing — all those are martial arts utilized in a military framework.” 

Combatives training evolves to meet the changing needs of airmen and guardians, blending traditional arts like judo with more modern disciplines.

The Air Force’s martial arts roots trace back to World War II, when Gen. Curtis LeMay promoted judo as a path to exercise and teambuilding. By the 1960s, judo tournaments were not uncommon for Air Force personnel, Durnil says. And over the next couple of decades, several USAFA-affiliated judokas competed internationally.

Combatives struggled over the next few decades, however. Durnil says a shortage of ranked instructors and shifting priorities brought many programs to a halt.

But in 1999, USAFA’s Combatives program saw a resurgence. A mix of judo, wrestling and other techniques emerged, and the Air Force’s modern combatives curriculum was born. Some notable changes: The more combat-realistic Operational Camouflage Patterns replaced the traditional judo gi, and the program expanded to include verbal de-escalation techniques, weapons handling and tactical strategies.

“After 9/11, we started deploying with the Marine Corps and the Army and finding ourselves in more of a joint role,” Durnil says. “So there was a cease and desist of all training in 2007.”

Gen. (Ret.) T. Michael Moseley, then-chief of staff of the Air Force, ordered a unified program be developed for the branch. 

“I got here in 2007 and was part of that initial discussion and how this centralized approach can be utilized to help airmen throughout the Air Force,” Durnil says. “Initial adoption was something based on the Army system, which had been in existence since the ’90s, initially in Ranger Regiment, and should be used as a template.”

By 2009, the Academy became the Air Force Combatives Center of Excellence and by 2019, it had produced over 100 master instructors, impacting thousands of airmen, and now guardians, annually, Durnil says.

The current combatives training program at USAFA is built around three key components: mandatory physical education training for all cadets, mission-specific training for those preparing for deployment, and career-specific instruction within fields such as Special Warfare or Security Forces. The courses ensure airmen and guardians are prepared to physically defend themselves while also build mental preparedness and strengthen ethical decision-making under stress. Included in the curriculum, of course: the development of character, leadership and adaptability — skills that extend beyond combat.

‘Stronger people are harder to kill’

“Yes, I’ve been hit in the face — I’ve gotten into a couple of fights in high school — but it’s not a natural thing, right?”

Lt. Col. (Ret.) Mark Clifford ’97, Ph.D., the Academy’s head boxing coach, observes his class from the Cadet Gym bleachers while instructors work with groups of cadets on their power hand.

He explains over the thump thump thump of gloves meeting heavy bags how, as a cadet, he was first drawn to a different sport. 

“Even in basketball I was rough, physical. I’m gonna get some fouls. So I’m OK with the banging and the pushing, but I’m not OK with people punching me in the face,” Col. Clifford says.

Col. Clifford traded “riding the bench” for hand wraps and rounds after showing promise during his own cadet training. He would go on to become a three-time National Collegiate Boxing Association All-American and NCBA national champion in his weight class.

Col. Clifford explains that when he attended the Academy, boxing was only offered to male cadets; the curriculum opened to USAFA’s female population about a decade ago. 

And the program’s focus, Col. Clifford says, is not on producing national champions but rather building resilience and teaching cadets how to handle stress, respond to pressure and maintain composure in potentially dangerous situations. 

The boxing training emphasizes safe techniques, especially jabs, and includes sparring with controlled punches. Cadets get a couple of power punches per round, so they have to make them count. 

“There’s apprehension,” Col. Clifford says of some boxing newcomers (most cadets), “but they know they have to get through it. And I think there’s an evolution of understanding: ‘Yeah, getting punched in the face hurts, but I can withstand that pain and I can fight through it.’ That’s what we look for from the cadets. Are you going to get knocked down? You can get punched in the face, metaphorically, throughout your career. But how do you bounce back from that?” 

Durnil, a 30-year practitioner of and black belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu, echoes Col. Clifford’s intent: forging resilient warfighters.

“Looking at both the Great Power Competition component and looking at the future Air Force and Space Force — we want to develop people who are not only effective within their jobs, but are able to deal with stress, able to make ethical decisions under stress, and able to support our nation’s needs regardless of environment,” he says. “And so a big aim of our program is to develop resiliency and anti-fragility within our users so that those individuals can conduct a mission regardless of what the needs are.”

Durnil adds, “Combatives is a bridge that allows us to get to many of those outcomes — individuals who are able to thrive in adversity and to encounter it in a healthy and safe way, which allows them to take the lessons they learn from the curriculum and apply it to everyday life, to use it as a way of destressing and understand the effects of stress on their body, and, in a lot of ways, make them stronger. There’s a quote — Mark Rippetoe — that goes something like ‘stronger people are harder to kill and therefore more useful.’ I think that they’re more useful in many different ways. They’re more useful in high-pressure environments at home, high-pressure environments in the workplace, and ultimately just better individuals for service.”

Grounded

“It just clears your head,” Cadet 1st Class Nathaniel Pimentel says.

Pimentel, the cadet in charge of the combatives competitive club, pursued an appointment to the Academy from his native Carbondale, Illinois, because he sought “a little more exciting experience” than a traditional university can offer.

“I think there are a lot of physical activities you can do as a hobby,” he says. “You can run, bike, whatever, but nothing for me attracts my focus like combatives does. You absolutely can’t think about anything else while you’re down there, and so having that opportunity to mentally reset helps me come back better for the rest of the day. 

“And also it’s just really, really fun.”

Pimentel wrestled in high school, so combatives club seemed like a natural continuation of that. 

“I wasn’t good enough to wrestle at the collegiate level, but it was an awesome way to still have that competitive environment for grappling, just a little bit less competitive,” he says.

The club meets three times a week and resembles civilian jiu-jitsu clubs. Participants warm up, spend time learning and refining techniques, then “roll,” a term for sparring, typically with the intent of submitting one’s training partner. Submissions are indicated through physically and verbally “tapping” one’s opponent.

Club members may also compete at local jiu-jitsu tournaments.

“I try to get out once a month,” Pimentel says. “It keeps me sharp.”

More advanced club members also assist those readying for the core grappling class. 

And while the mandatory classes focus on self-defense and ensuring airmen and guardians are prepared if ever in a dangerous situation, the club is more focused on sport jiu-jitsu. 

“What I really picked up from the Combatives program that’s different from the club was that situational awareness that you would need to have in a real situation,” Pimentel says. “Things like looking out for weapons, looking out for other individuals who might want to harm you. In the club, we’re getting ready for competitive tournaments and we’re less focused on real-life self-defense.”

As a former wrestler, Pimentel’s confidence on the ground was high coming into the program, but he still experienced the boxing shock to which Col. Clifford referred.

“I had a lot of confidence in myself from wrestling, and that was pretty shattered when I realized how bad I was at boxing, how different it is,” he says. “And so it’s great for me to get exposed to that other side of combatives, because I don’t think I would have been prepared at all.”

Pimentel says the mandatory program and the club have made him “a more confident, relaxed individual.” 

“You’ve realized that you can handle it,” he says. “And I think you can take those skills outside of combat as well. When I find myself in a stressful situation, I’m like, ‘This is nothing. I was just down at practice getting beat up on.’ So it’s definitely given me some confidence to handle stressful situations.”

Combatives 101: Primary disciplines comprising USAFA's Compatives program

Boxing
A martial art where two competitors, often wearing protective gloves, face off in a contest of strength, speed and endurance by throwing punches at each other. The goal is to land punches on the opponent’s torso or head while avoiding their punches. Arranged bouts typically end with judges’ decision following the final predetermined round, technical knockout or knockout.

Greco-Roman wrestling
A style of wrestling characterized by the prohibition of using the legs to attack or hold an opponent, and by the emphasis on throws. The core objective of sport Greco-Roman wrestling is to either pin both of the opponent’s shoulders to the mat to win the match or accumulate more points by the end of the match. In competition, wrestlers can score points by successfully completing holds, locks, throws or other takedowns.

Freestyle wrestling
A martial art where the primary objective in a sport setting is pinning the opponent’s shoulders to the mat for a short duration of time. Wrestlers can also score points by executing legal holds, throws, takedowns or reversals. Freestyle wrestling allows for a wider range of techniques than its Greco-Roman counterpart because competitors may attack their opponent’s entire body.

Judo
One of the longest-taught hand-to-hand combat systems in the U.S. Air Force, judo is a Japanese martial art that involves throwing and grappling opponents to the ground. In sport judo, a perfectly executed throw results in an ippon, comparable to a knockout in boxing. Judo, like Brazilian jiu-jitsu — a related martial art — also includes ground techniques (newaza) and submissions via strangles and joint locks.

Brazilian jui-jitsu
Brazilian jiu-jitsu is a martial art focused on ground fighting and grappling. Moreso than judo, it emphasizes techniques like joint locks and strangles to control or submit an opponent. The art is widely used in mixed martial arts and law-enforcement self-defense curricula due to its effectiveness in real-world scenarios.