I have read and/or seen material, attended a few seminars and trained with some Combatives & RBSD instructors. As Tant01 pointed out, the techniques are nothing new. It is simply the training methodologies and mindset that make their approach so effective and easy to learn. And that is what counts!
Military Combatives such as the WWII methods aka defendu has its roots in Combat Judo and other traditional arts so the techniques are a lot more rigid in execution i.e. shuto, chin jab etc. but no less effective cause the principles are always emphasized. I was fortunate to train with Carl Cestari and his Close Combat Group in NJ and found them to be some of the most hardcore players in Combatives today. Senior instructors Clint Sporman and Ralph Grasso are top notch in hand-to-hand. The goal is simply to “take your enemy out”. This goal is mutually shared with RBSD instructors as well. However, I found there are significant differences in training methodologies and even philosophy. RBSD instructors tend to educate more on adrenalin stress, fear management, legalities, the psychology of violence and incorporate many more contact scenarios. You will not find de-escalating or diffusion exercises in Combatives, when it comes down to throwing down …they will strike first and strike viciously.
Here is my pick of some instructors:
WWII Hand to Hand
Charlie Nelson
Carl Cestari
Modern Combatives
Jim Grover (aka Kelly McCann)
Bob Kasper
Bill Wolfe
RBSD
Rich Dimitri
Peter Conterdine
Geoff Thompson
Tony Blauer
Peyton Quinn
Marc MacYoung
Good luck in your endeavors!
JohnJ
www.swacom.com