As part of its initiative to upgrade its hand-to-hand combat training, the Army will be introducing a brand new Master Trainer Course.
The new training program will become official procedure in the spring, noted Army Times. Because of the course's total redesign, many soldiers who are certified under the old system will need to undergo evaluation again. The new course pulls from existing training – the basic combatives instructor course and the tactical combatives instructor course. Each of these old programs was two weeks long, and the new Master Trainer Course will take four weeks to complete.
According to Army Times, there have already been pilot programs testing the new course's efficiency. A successful test run was completed at the beginning of September, with 29 of the 32 original participants passing the training. Two more trials have already been set up – one will begin Monday, Nov. 17, and the other will take place in January.
The upgrades focus mainly on the tactical application of combatives, such as fighting hand-to-hand while in full body armor and carrying a loaded rifle in a locked room. The idea is to prepare the servicemembers for whatever will come their way, so the education takes place in a variety of environments, noted Military Times.
Soldiers who will enter the course should be ready for a challenge.
"It is a more rigorous course both physically and mentally. Some [soldiers] have been waiting for a course like this because not everybody has eight weeks to come do this. Others have already gone through [the tactical instructor course] so they don't want to do it again," Staff Sgt. Colton Smith, the senior instructor for the III Corps and Fort Hood, Texas, combatives program, told Army Times.