Human Weapon System

Robert Smith is an M.D. and the medical director of Direct Action Medical Network, a group of physicians providing medical training and support to organizations that work in high-risk, remote, and/or austere areas. In this video, he talks about the tactical and safety benefits that people working in such environments can gain from understanding the body as a human weapon system. There are significant advantages of training the whole human body in ways that engage natural abilities and hard- wired instincts, and these techniques are underutilized in most kinds of combat training. Thinking of the body as a human weapon system is about integrating medical and physiological knowledge into combative wisdom. It's about having faith in our physiology.

In any combat system, your equipment has to be properly tuned, and in this case, the equipment is the body. Tuning it means being prepared to utilize it optimally--being trained and conditioned to handle the unexpected, physically and mentally. You have to train the way you're going to fight: with intensity, and in accordance with the body's natural functions of perception, reaction, and response. The relevance to martial arts, self-defense, and athletics is obvious.