Special Combat Aggressive Reactionary Systems (SCARS) is an American combat fighting system created by Jerry L. Peterson.

History

SCARS is based on sciences of psychology, physiology, physical movement as well as research on the

nervous system In Biology, biology, the nervous system is the Complex system, highly complex part of an animal that coordinates its Behavior, actions and Sense, sensory information by transmitting action potential, signals to and from different parts of its ...

. SCARS was developed by Peterson after serving two tours in the

US Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, c ...

173rd Airborne Brigade The 173rd Airborne Brigade ("Sky Soldiers") is an Airborne forces, airborne infantry brigade combat team (IBCT) of the United States Army based in Vicenza, Italy. It is the United States European Command's conventional airborne strategic respo ...

during the

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (also known by #Names, other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vie ...

. It was debuted in 1987, and began to be taught to various military, law enforcement, and security units, such as the

Arizona Arizona ( ; nv, Hoozdo Hahoodzo ; ood, Alĭ ṣonak ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southwestern United States. It is the list of U.S. states and territories by area, 6th largest and the list of U.S. states and territories by population, 14 ...

State police State police, provincial police or regional police are a type of sub-national territorial police force found in nations organized as federations, typically in North America, South Asia, and Oceania. These forces typically have jurisdiction ...

. Currently, SCARS is taught through private seminars, larger scale contracts, online training and

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kin ...

s. It contains no defensive actions, as all checks against the enemy's kicks or punches are delivered as strikes to vulnerable

nerve A nerve is an enclosed, cable-like bundle of nerve fibers (called axons) in the peripheral nervous system. A nerve transmits electrical impulses. It is the basic unit of the peripheral nervous system. A nerve provides a common pathway for the ...

s. The program is based upon the idea that every human body reacts in the same way to specific injuries, and the program puts together various strikes to specific nerves, bones, and organs in order to debilitate an aggressive individual. The goal is to produce an "autokinematic reaction", creating a spinal reflex that happens in all humans. For example, if struck with kinetic force above the solar plexus, the upper body will react moving backwards. If struck below the solar plexus in the same way with kinetic force the body will buckle or the head will come forward. This reaction has nothing to do with pain, although it may hurt after the spinal reflex. It has everything to do with your spine reacting to protect your body. The three main elements of SCARS are geometry, physiology, and physics, and avoids the spiritual aspect that is prevalent in many martial arts.

Government personnel training programs

SCARS was initially presented to the

Department of the Navy Navy Department or Department of the Navy may refer to: * United States Department of the Navy, * Navy Department (Ministry of Defence), in the United Kingdom, 1964-1997 * Confederate States Department of the Navy, 1861-1865 * Department of the Na ...

in 1988. SCARS Institute of Combat Sciences has developed training courses for the US Army and

Air Force An air force – in the broadest sense – is the national military branch that primarily conducts aerial warfare. More specifically, it is the branch of a nation's armed services that is responsible for aerial warfare as distinct from an ar ...

, as well as foreign governments and various

law enforcement agencies A law enforcement agency (LEA) is any government agency responsible for the enforcement of the laws. Jurisdiction LEAs which have their ability to apply their powers restricted in some way are said to operate within a jurisdiction. LEAs ...

. For the first seven years the fighting system remained exclusively known to and practiced by US Special Forces. The program was taught via seminars, government contracts, and also the SCARS Institute of Combative Sciences, once known as "the most expensive school in the world". The US Navy developed a training manual for teaching SCARS to members of the Navy and SEALs. It states in its introduction that it was used as "an educational system dealing primarily with the thought process in high risk areas of combat" and meant to "increase an individual's decision making skills in high stress areas of conflict".

Public education

In 1993, the company produced video programming to teach its techniques to the general public. Live seminars are also available to the public in which are taught reliable hand to hand, and hand to weapons combat techniques over the span of three days. The remainder of the Navy program was not released to the public in the videos or otherwise. The videos were first distributed in 1993 as the most expensive collection of defense videos ever produced; however, they sold a large number of copies, and grossed $1 million in the first nine months. In 1999 a SCARS TV program was scripted and cast, though it was not produced. Blake Peterson also published the book ''Attention! Teachers, Students and Parents! Survive the Unsurvivable! - What Science Tells Us About Fear, Self-Defense, School Shootings and Why Guns in Schools Might Not Be the Best Solution'' in 2013, using SCARS as the basis for teaching supervisory figures how to deal with the increasing gun violence in US schools.

Cancellation by US Military

By March 1998, internal

Naval Special Warfare Command The United States Naval Special Warfare Command (USNSWC), also known as (NAVSPECWARCOM and WARCOM), is the naval component of United States Special Operations Command, the unified command responsible for overseeing and conducting the nation's ...

documents confirmed that the time commitment for the 30-day course meant that no units of Naval Special Warfare Command had been trained in the SCARS system in over two years; on April 17, 1998, the SCARS course was cancelled by Naval Special Warfare Command. As of 2011, the Naval Special Warfare Command had implemented

mixed martial arts Mixed martial arts (MMA), sometimes referred to as cage fighting, no holds barred (NHB), and ultimate fighting, and originally referred to as Vale Tudo is a full-contact combat sport based on strike (attack), striking, grappling and ground f ...

inspired combat training.

References

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External links