[Skorzeny]

One more thing. As much as I LIKE BJJ and Muay Thai, the one really overlooked hybrid system in the US is SAMBO.

The Soviets really did a good job of developing a great combination of 1) sportive Sambo (throwing and grappling with uniforms), 2) self-defense Sambo (combative style training) and 3) military Sambo (weapons, such as knives, rifles and especially SPADES plus others).

Sambo is a sort of AK-47 or Makarov of the martial arts. It borrowed heavily from foreign designs (Judo, wrestling, etc.), but distilled to local flavors, emphasizing simplicty, reliability and practicality. It is definitely not as "pretty" or "artsy" as Western and American systems (but then again, neither are AKs or Makarovs), but like the guns, they seem to work well ENOUGH.

I wish there were more Sambo schools in the US.

Lastly, there seems to be a great deal of emphasis on what varous LEO agencies adopt as a means to "prove" superiority. To me, this has about as much validation as the US military teaching basic BJJ to soldiers (Wwhhaatt??? What the hell for?) - which is to say very little.

In the first place, cops and soldiers cannot run away from a "scene." A civilian sure can and most definitely SHOULD. Even between cops and soldiers, levels of acceptable lethality are VASTLY different. Secondly, cops and soldiers (as demonstrated by BJJ being adopted for example) are just as subject to fanciful whims of marketing and hype as the rest of us are.

Skorzeny