April 15, 2016 –
Army mixed martial arts and hand to hand combat is something all Soldiers learn, and retrain on constantly. These are skills that can be the difference between life and death in certain situations overseas. The problem is that most Soldiers don’t get this training that often, and become rusty on the techniques.
For Army Reserve Captain James Quiqq, a public affairs officer with United States Army Civil Affairs and Psychological Operations Command (A) out of Fort Bragg, North Carolina, a simple college requirement rekindled an old passion and inspired a new life goal.
“Going to college at West Point, in our summers we were required to do a military detail - in my case that meant taking a grappling with strikes class (so trying to get submissions while you're also trying to hit them in the face and body) then learning a self-defense curriculum and teaching it the incoming freshmen and incoming sophomores for that year. The next year I had to do a military school, and I was fortunate enough to get to do Combatives level 1 and level 2.”
For Quigg, this was training he was already very comfortable with.
“I'd been wrestling for so long, and I loved the challenging, competitive nature. When I got to college and they wouldn't let me try for the wrestling team, i got into doing jiu jitsu. When they told me it was like wrestling, but most of the "potentially dangerous" moves were the WHOLE POINT of the sport, I was even more convinced this was something I really wanted to do. I love the fighting a living breathing opponent responding to my actions in real time. I love testing my skills against a guy who's sweat and bled and worked to hone his skills just like I have.”
The world of Mixed Martial Arts and the Military also have many similarities.
“One of the things my Army training brings to my MMA, is the demand for adaptability. You look at METL tasks and subtasks - those are detailed tasks and there are often a lot of them. When you combine that with limited training time and resources, it means you have to get creative and adapt to shifting core tasks. The same is true of MMA,” said Quiqq
“I've certainly never struggled earning the respect of my peers, subordinates, or superiors. The work ethic that combat sports ingrained in me from a young age is generally apparent. I've also been able to push through hard army training by telling myself it's not as hard as fight camp, and on the other side, I am pushed through tough moments in fight camp by reminding myself of some of my more difficult Army experiences.”
Quigg went on to win his Pro MMA Debut in Augusta, Georgia. Quigg has already started training for his next fight, and plans on doing it for a while. He one day hopes to open his own gym in his hometown of Sanford, North Carolina, where he can try and help the sport grow, and maybe help some other Soldiers get into it.