FOURTH PILLAR - COMBAT

You should have seen this one coming. What’s the point of being agile or strong if someone can deck you with one well placed hit? This pillar is one that we should pray we never have to use in the real world. But if the time ever comes we will be eternally grateful that we trained it. If you’re a father, you have to protect your wife and children from danger. If not, you still have your family and friends, the people you worship with - there’s a lot of people out there!

Some people would claim this is the most useless pillar, in the sense it’s the least likely to help statistically, but in the four pillars framework we are preparing for all contingencies, and the good thing about training martial arts is that often it directly builds, to a very good degree, the other three pillars in conjunction, as wrestling and fighting requires all the other pillars to be performed well.

So we highly recommend you incorporate this into your training. Hand to hand combat such as striking. Wrestling and groundwork - jujitsu. The best response is usually to play neutral or leave the situation, but if it comes to it you should know how to handle yourself. Not just for your own safety, but to be able to take someone down without giving them a head injury with a bottle.

There is also a weapons training aspect to this pillar. Don’t bring your jiu jitsu moves to a gunfight. Home invasion is a legitimate scenario and if you have the ability be prepared. Train with and be familiar with firearms. Hunting is also a great pastime, and provides the excellent skill of being able to provide food in your family, and also trains wilderness navigation and endurance.