C4 Combatives: Extreme Close-Range Gun-Fighting w/ Matt Larsen

Here's an old video from 2018 that I reposted. it's from when my buddy Josh Shaw went to Matt's class. I removed the copyrighted music and replaced it. If I recall correctly, the majority of the students for that day were police officers, there was one former Green Beret and current GRS, and me (lol, watching on the sidelines running my yap.)

Matt Larsen is the most successful hand-to-hand combat trainer and program developer in history, responsible for creating the combatives program  currently used by the U.S. Army. For over three decades he has studied martial arts, earning black belts in several styles including Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. 

Larsen earned his BJJ black belt under Romero “Jacare” Cavalcante, leader of  the most successful team in the history of the sport. Early in his career Larsen competed against fighters in many countries and many styles: the All Japan Karate Championship, Kodokan Judo in Tokyo and Okinawa, Muay Thai in Bangkok, Kali in the Philippines, Taekwondo in Korea, and boxing in the U.S. Marine Corps.

Starting his military career in the U.S. Marine Corps, Larsen later joined the  U.S. Army and eventually the ranks of the elite 75th Ranger Regiment. While there, he was called upon to design a hand-to-hand combat program which was quickly adopted by the entire Regiment. Over the next decade as part of Army Special Operations he became the subject matter expert on hand-to-hand combat. Larsen overhauled the Army’s hand-to-hand combat doctrine by rewriting the Combatives field manual – FM 3-25.150. Regarded as the father of the Modern Army Combatives Program (MACP), he founded the Army Combatives School and served as both its commandant and the director of the MACP from 2000 until 2010.  

During his military service Larsen saw combat in Panama and Iraq. Afterwards  he worked as a private security contractor throughout Southwest Asia, the Middle East and Africa. He trained U.S. Marine Corps personal security detachments for deployment to Iraq, designed a Combatives system for the Canadian Special Operations Regiment, and consulted on the design of Combatives training systems for the U.S. Air  Force, the  British Royal Marines and the British Infantry.  

Matt is the author of “Modern Army Combatives: Battle-Proven Techniques and Training Methods” and he co-authored “Sniper: American Single-Shot  Warriors in Iraq and Afghanistan." He currently resides in West Point, New York where he serves as the Director of the Combatives Department at West Point Military Academy.