Hello and welcome to mercop’s blog
My name is George Matheis AKA mercop on the internet. Those of you who haunt the firearms, knife and tactical forums may recognize me. The majority of folks know me from my website www.mercop.com which started as a vanity site about four years ago and has become the home of Modern Combative Systems.
I am often asked by people what mercop stands for, the truth is that it stands for mercenary cop. Of course people’s kneejerk reaction to that is that I am a jack booted thug, acutally quite the contrary. Mercop was conceived about five years ago when I was complaining about my agency to my mentor Charles White who was a Black Hawk Scout in the 7th Cavalry in Vietnam before becoming a policeman in NJ and retiring at the rank of Lieutenant. Charlie and I had beeen friends since I was 10 yrs old. He stopped working on his toy soldiers and said “what do you expect, you are nothing more than a mercenary, a private soldier.” His point was that a police officer should not love his agency, but only his profession. He should also not expect them to support him with anything other than pay, benefits and equipment. The other part of this that an officer has to have his own Code, Bushido (the way of the Warrior) and that has to come from the officer not the agency. Integrity is often spoken about in police circles but for too many agencies that is where it ends. Integrity is not situational. Enough about the history of mercop.
MCS recently provided edged weapon training to the Air Force Special Operations Command DAGRE Course at Hurlbert Field FL. A few weeks later we also did demonstrations at the New York Custom Knife Show. MCS provides training for citizens, law enforcement and the military and realizes that everyone has different needs and capabilities. This understanding allows us to provide instruction in highly adaptable skill sets ranging from open hand combatives to firearms. Our staff has in excess of 40 years of experience in law enforcement and the military.
The core of MCS training is the study of open hand, stick, knife and pistol within 7 yards (where real attacks occur). A huge portion of the MCS doctrine is Combative Anatomy which is a phrase that I coined and define as the study of incapacitating an attacker by exploiting weaknesses and involuntary reactions of the human body. MCS does not believe in pain compliance as a primary goal for techniques since due to adrenaline, alcohol and other chemical substances it cannot be relied upon to stop attacks. The primary target in Combative Anatomy is the Central Nervous System, or more specifically Central Nervous System disruption. This is achieved by striking the head with the open hand and impact weapons. The secondary target is the skeletal system and more specifically the elbows and knees, again best attacked with open hand and impact weapons. There is a saying, “control the elbow, control the warrior”. Whether you are being attacked with the open hand, stick, knife or pistol the elbow is in play. Destroying the elbow limits the effectiveness of your attacker. By attacking the knees we destroy the base of our attacker again further limiting not only his ability to continue the attack but also his ability to pursue us.
Well I think that is enough for the first post. Thanks for reading and stop back soon.