Cecil Burch's Immediate Action Jiu-Jitsu & Immediate Action Pugilism - After Action Report

A couple of weeks ago now I had the pleasure of attending a two-day class held at the local Crazy Monkey Defense facility. The instructor for this class was Cecil Burch, out of Arizona.
This was my first time taking a class with Cecil and it was an amazing experience on a number of levels.

Since it's a bit long, here's a link to Cecil's bio on his website: Cecil Burch bio
As you can see, Cecil has an extensive resume and all that training really shows. His ability to convey information efficiently is fantastic, right up there with some of the best I have ever seen, regardless of topic.

On to the class itself.
A lot of the people that attended ECQC back in November showed up for this class. It was good to see the familiar faces again, as I think we really do have an outstanding group of people here. There were a few new faces as well, and we had a very diverse group all told. From college students to super-secret squirrel guys, we had it all! And that makes things interesting, as everybody brings something of their own to the table.
At the end, no matter the level of experience, I think everybody came away with useful skills.

Day 1 consisted of pretty much all jiu-jitsu. We spent only a little time going over theory and most of the time doing the work, with Cecil and his co-instructor/ "mat bitch", Nathan, going around and helping out where they saw issues. This was amazingly helpful and the constant overwatch and engagement with the students was outstanding. Questions were encouraged and promptly addressed. One thing that was frequently stressed and that was to sort of... Well... Titrate your pressure to your partners skill level. With the vast disparity in experience and sometimes size, it would have been far too easy for some people to just steamroll their training partners, which might be fun for them, but not much of a learning experience for the steamrollee.
Luckily, everybody played along nicely and with frequent tradeouts between partners, I think everybody got a chance to do some good learning. I had the chance to roll with a guy who, while lighter than me, has considerably more skill and experience training in brazilian jiu-jitsu than I do. And that disparity of skill resulted in me getting schooled rather thoroughly more than once throughout the day!
Throughout the day, weapons access and use during grappling was emphasized as well. I had the pleasure of being molested with one of my own training knives, as one of the attendees had purchased a Maleficus and trainer set a while back. I got some interesting bruises from that!
Despite the bruises in odd places, the mat burns, the sore trachea ( I apparently need to remember to tuck my chin more when I'm being choked), and the overall sore muscles, I had an absolute blast!

The second day was the Crazy Monkey Defense pugilism. This was also somewhat new to me, as I have never received any actual training in CMD. It's a very interesting system, one that I think appears to have a lot of merit. Certain elements also tie nicely into the stuff being taught by Craig Douglas in his ECQC classes.
Again, everything was explained very efficiently and we quickly got into the thick of things. Lots of emphasis was placed on the importance of range and what to do with said range. What is interesting for me especially was the emphasis on a non-diagnostic defense. That's something I think is quite valuable, as it takes away some of the ninja mysticism you see espoused in a lot of system, that requires years of intensive study to be effective, and instead provides the trainee with a very simple approach that will be effective in the vast majority of encounters. One thing that Cecil does stress is that none of the material he teaches is intended to make you unstoppable in the ring against pro-fighters. That's not what any of it is really about.
But providing simple, efficient tools, that can help keep you alive and conscious, that's the crux, the core of the system that he teaches.

In conclusion, I want to emphasize just how important I think this class is, especially if you're planning on taking an ECQC class. I have no doubt that I would have fared far better if I had taken Cecil's class first. I wouldn't have done the rather stupid thing that ended up leaving me with a partial tendon tear, for instance.
But even if you have no intention of ever taking ECQC, this is still an extremely valuable class. Cecil is an outstanding instructor, despite his protestations otherwise, and if you pass on the chance to train with him, you're cheating yourself. The price is more than reasonable for a two-day class and the sheer value of the material you will learn far outshines the monetary cost. That, and it's just so much fun!
I would love to train with Cecil again and I hope to do so at the earliest possible opportunity!