Done mincing words...
One immediate observation of content from the SCARS site -
*** is that?!?!
I'm sorry... but there are very very few people who can realistically kick that high in the speed and rush of a real fight. Most would get knocked on their butt.
Hopefully that’s not what they actually teach people to do in SCARS.
I realize this doesn’t represent anything near and over-view of the system - but man... that’s just messed up.
With most people, I will say 905, they try to kick like that, they will end up on the ground getting (properly) kicked in the head.
Geez... scary. And not because its a "fearsome" technique or anything.
Among things I note is a seriously disturbing (as in BS-O-Meter needle burying) amount of "I've killed more men than you can imagine" type talk. EVERYONE I ever met who talked like that was full of sh*t up to his eyeballs.
EVERYONE I ever met who was a "killer" didn’t talk about it, didn’t use it as a selling point, and didn’t brag on it. Every serious, dedicated and truly FOR REAL soldier, operator, fighter, or regular Joe, who had killed - did not use it as a point of personal chest thumping or verbal masturbation.
I am HIGHLY suspicious of all who use things like that as a mark of pride, to denote skill, or as a selling point.
As a selling point, and a mark of skill - its not. ANYONE can kill someone, its a natural ability we all have, might not be good at it, but anyone can stick something point in another person and kill them, 15 year old Nortenos, Crips, Bluds, etc. Housewives who catch their husband in bed with his secretary and go apesh*t with his hunting rifle. Anyone can be a killer. It doesn’t take skill, it’s not proof of anything. ANYONE can kill. It proves nothing.
As a mark of pride - anyone who is truly proud of killing (anything) needs to seek immediate psychological counseling. When you start enjoying it, in any fashion (and pride is a fashion), you have a serious problem.
The only people who brag about killing other people are A. Liars or B. Seriously disturbed, anti social personalities, psychopaths, etc.
No, my experience is not all that vast - but I have known several killers, and met a lot more liars.
Jerry Peterson may be the exception to this rule I have for myself - but the kind of crap he has to say seriously sets off my alarm bells. Believe it if you wish... I know a guy who always sets up at the gunshows who was in the CIA Phoenix program, you might want to talk to him... and if you believe him, I've got some nice Arizona beachfront for sale you might be interested in.
What is SCARS by well-educated guess? Green or Yellow belt level Kung Fu San Soo, which Peterson has said he studied. Jimmy Woo Kung Fu that pimply faced little punks and pretenders have been learning in strip-malls for a couple decades - hot damn, who'da known all those little twerps were such ultimate commando types.
Well that’s great actually... I am sure there is value in Kung Fu San Soo - but go to a Kung Fu San Soo school, don’t pay thirteen hundred bucks for this crap.
Did SCARS have a SEAL Connection? YOU BET!
SCARS was taught from '89 to the early '90s as part of BUD/S - SEAL Qualification and Training. Why? As a "morale builder - a motivator - that’s all", so sayeth a Navy public affairs officer in 1994 (Source - Full Contact magazine June 1994*). It was never taught on an authorized basis to actual SEALs, only to trainee's, and only as a morale builder.
I already know your next question so save your breath, Who did train the SEALs then, Mr. smarty-pants? Paul Vunak trained SEAL teams from '87 to '90 and has worked with them since.
There is no classified level of SCARS taught to the SEALs, don’t buy into that. Didn’t happen.
Yes SCARS was taught, but it was only taught to trainees - many of who COULDNT HACK IT, as BUD/S regularly proves of many young men who thing their balls are brass and their chests bulletproof but don’t have the mettle. And that’s fine too. But lets me real about what SCARS was to the SEALs.
Is their a classified method, or training material, yeah probably - in all likelihood its simply tapes and transcripts of training sessions with Paul Vunak getting down to the serious hard core nasty and brutal on tape, if there’s anything secret from that time period, that have been filed as "secret" simply because that’s what the military does with things like that. SOP to keep the enemy guessing. Its all material that’s out there in other places, from OPS, from GunSite, from Vunak even. If they have done anything that’s been labeled as "Secret" you don’t see them selling with that do you? NO. Why?
Because there are no frigging secrets - only so many ways to take apart a human being - some of us are better at it than others, that’s why some are instructors of real note, and some only get to PRETEND they are and SUCKER people with KUNG FU that little girls are doing.
If you cant dazzle them withy our brilliance, baffle them withy our bullsh*t - as the old saying goes.
SCARS is no longer at all connected to Naval Special Warfare - wonder why that might be, if it is this super duper take all comers (the Jenna Jameson of CQC?
) system, wouldn’t it still be being used? Well yah, it would - if it was better than everything else ever invented, they would be using it - because that’s what spec-war training is about, we can safely assume, being better than the other guy so you can KICK HIS A$$ and KILL HIM better, harder and faster than he can kill you, or you could kill him five years ago.
If SCARS was so great, wouldn’t there be a whole host of former SEALs out there teaching it now? Well, yeah, there would be. BUT THEY ARENT - the former SEALS who are instructors, such as C.J. Caracci and Frank Cucci are teaching material that bears abso-freaking-lutely no relation to SCARS.
I could go on and on... but that’s the nut of it... SCARS was in, for a little while, as a moral booster, Peterson's ego and BS finally were seen for what they were, we can assume, and he was bounced out on his arise.
I think its all pretty obvious given that SCARS isn’t in today, and no one IN THE KNOW, gives two shakes about SCARS other than to be turned off by it.
There may be some valuable things in SCARS - there are things of combative value in baseball for Chris’ sakes - and if applied with the right mindset and a strong forward drive you can probably make use of them (just like you could things from Baseball) - but it is not what it claims to be. It is far from it.
It is over-priced, over-hyped, unrealistic, basic McDojo type material repackaged as a kick butt commando fighting system. Snake Oil salesmen type techniques.
If anyone out there wants to but into it, fine, your choice - but SCARS is more rife with BS than my corrals, and I run a working cattle ranch. Just so you know.
*
Originally Published in Full Contact Magazine, June 1994June 1994:
Hostile Control Systems
Jerry Peterson's Hostile Control Systems is out of control and this issue's big video loser. Despite superb video production and creative packaging - not to mention a big bucks marketing campaign - HCS is pure BS, any way you cut it. Full Contact was so amazed at the claims made by Peterson in his advertising that we did some checking, starting with the United States Navy's elite SEAL program in Coronado, California.
In the original four page promotion - run first by Black Belt Magazine - Peterson claims to have taught a martial arts system called 'SCARS' to the Navy SEALs for over five years. HCS is said to be a civilian version of this 'classified' fighting system developed especially for the military's elite.
One capable of making any zero-sum streetfighter a lean, mean ???-kicking machine - even when it comes to any black belts presently walking the face of the earth.
We interviewed both Peterson and his business partner after discussing 'SCARS' and the ensuing ad campaign for HCS with the Navy, and here's the scoop:
Mr. Peterson has only taught the SCARS system to those sailors attending the UDT/SEAL qualification course, known as BUD/S, since 1989. This program consists of roughly 24 hours of basic hand to hand training spread out during the over 30 week course. As Lt. Commander King, NAVSPECWAR public affairs officer, told us: 'It hardly teaches anyone how to kick anybody's ???. It's a morale builder - a motivator - and that's all.'
Full Contact has confirmed that the SEALs have enlisted the professional guidance of Paul Vunak, who trained various East Coast SEAL Teams in self-defense from 1987 - 1990. In November of last year, Vunak agreed to train a selected SEAL platoon and invited personnel representing the West Coast Teams.
We invited Peterson to present his SCARS/HCS system for a hands on test with several martial artists, all of whom are black belts in their chosen style. He refused.
What is 'HCS' and/or 'SCARS?' According to Bob Taylor, who has studied several diverse martial systems, the techniques come from the yellow/green belt levels of a well known Kung Fu style fathered by Jimmy Woo. Whom Peterson confirmed he trained with for a short time in Los Angeles.
Full Contact agrees with P.T. Barnum. Indeed, 'there's a sucker born every minute.' Pass on this two-tape package - and avoid ticking off anyone having a higher belt ranking than orange should you believe this stuff will make you invincible."