"Combatives is a police-derived fighting style that originated in China in the 1920's and 1930's, with Fairbairn and Sykes, and was eventually utilized in WWII by specially selected troops from England, America and Canada. It is an aggressive style of combat (nowadays primarily striking) that exhibits a willingness to close with the attacker. Some combative styles offer ground, counter-knife and counter gun skills. Combatives deals mainly with the conflict phase of the attack, not the pre-conflict and post-conflict phases. Many practitioners are advocates of the original WWII version, even though more efficient contemporary interpretations are available. In my opinion, the style of combatives which represents the most up-to-date, efficient and effective concepts and techniques is taught by Kelly McCann's Crucible Security group." W.R. Mann   www.realfighting.com 

 Rules / Requirements / Prohibitions

Students must be at least 24 years old. We require notarized proof you are free of injuries, in good mental health and have no criminal record (obtained from a practicing MD and local county Clerk of the Court or Office of the Sheriff / local jurisdiction PD) - there are no exceptions. Students are required to sign "Hold Harmless" agreements prior to training. Minimum class size is 12 students and will not exceed 24 ensuring optimal student : instructor ratios. Kelly personally teaches each course; the whole course - not just highlights.  He is assisted by his staff of operationally experienced, vetted, full-time instructors. 

Digital video cameras, camera phones, digital voice recorders or recorders of any type are not allowed aboard the facility during civilian courses. Our staff will take photographs during training, documenting your experience and will ensure each student receives a CD-ROM of the photographs at the completion of training. Only students are authorized to attend training - spouses or friends who are not training and children will not be admitted to the facility.

We reserve the right to disallow any holster we deem unsafe. All student owned firearms will be subjected to a Limited Technical Inspection by our armorer to ensure any modifications meet our safety specifications and/or the firearm is fully functional as designed. Only commercially obtained ammunition may be used (student provided or purchased at our facility). No hand loaded or reloaded ammunition is authorized. If you prefer to ship your weapon in advance of your arrival we will accomodate you and your weapon will be stored in our armory.

Training is intense and physically demanding, please arrive in the appropriate physical condition with the correct mindset.

Students are treated with the utmost respect and consideration at all times by experienced instructors skilled at coaching, encouraging and mentoring the highest level of proficiency from each student. Please check any attitude at the door or your money (less registration fee) will be refunded and you will be shown the door. Unsafe behavior is not tolerated; if an unsafe condition is created by a student they will leave immediately and course tuition will not be refunded.

We are not a competition based school.

Please - no pissing and moaning about our rules, requirements or prohibitions. We are offering civilian courses for the first time through a new, civilian-only division of Crucible. We relaxed some of the original requirements for civilian attendance. Crucible provides training exclusively to the US Government and military. We are a serious school as you can see from the article below. We are committed to ensuring the safest environment is maintained during our courses so we can train as hard as possible, covering as much material as possible. It is our responsibility - you should expect no less.

We teach our curriculum. We do not provide opinions about other systems, techniques or instructors. We do not waste valuable time (student time) discussing the virtues or failures of any system or anyone not germane to the style of combatives we teach. If you're used to interrupting courses in order to relate what "you do" or what "so and so" does - please, stay home and keep doing what you and "so and so" do

Student / Instructor / Visiting School Groups

We can accomodate groups, providing airport pick-up, local transportation to and from the facility, a hosted and catered dinner with live entertainment, and airport drop-off. Groups must consist of at least 20 students and cannot exceed 150 students. Group rates apply. 

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