Background
Bolkat Kontakta (lit. "contact combat", "close combat" or "full contact") is an eclectic hand-to-hand combat system developed on Canceron that involves wrestling, grappling and striking techniques. It is mostly known for its extremely efficient and brutal counter-attacks, as it is also taught to various military teams and units throughout the colonies. It was derived from street-fighting skills developed by Jimi Parzentz, who made use of his training as a boxer and wrestler, as a means of defending the Scorpian Quarter of Opinera City, Canceron, during the independence riots. Following his immigration back to Scorpia, he began to provide hand-to-hand combat training to members of the military based on Scorpia as a means of defending their homeland. It is here that Parzentz developed the martial art as it exists in 2041. It has since been refined for both civilian and military applications, though the civilian/law enforcement skillset is far less lethal than that taught to military personnel. Some refinements include, but are not limited to, the incorporation of elements from the traditional Colonial Marine Corps Martial Arts Program. Bolkat Kontakta, or simply "BK", has a philosophy emphasizing threat neutralization, simultaneous defensive and offensive maneuvers, and aggression.
Basic principles
Generally, there are no rules in BK, as it is a defense fighting technique which is not regulated, but utilized to keep the user safe and incapacitate the opponent by any means necessary. Men and women always undergo the same drills and tests regardless of size, height, weight, or body structure. As far as the art is concerned, there are no differences between men and women. One of the guiding principles is “There is no weapon but the mind, the body is only a tool at its disposal.” This attitude is taken because the art takes advantage of biomechanical movements and can be practiced by anyone, of any size, against any opponent regardless of disparity on the part of the defender.
It has no sporting federation, and there are no official uniforms or attire, although some organizations do recognize progress through training with rank badges, different levels, and belts. Its practitioners do not consider themselves members of a sport and there are no points awarded for the use of attacks in sparring - which is generally done bare-knuckle against a heavily padded opponent. ‘Weapons’ are not typically employed with early training as the art focuses on the body and mind’s ability to be used as a lethal weapon without the aid of tools. The only exception are law enforcement and military branches who have the option to be instructed on how to use the tools available to them. Many of the advanced techniques focus on dealing with armed opponents, which may be provided with anything from knives or clubs to military-grade assault rifles. BK teaches the user to exploit the enemy’s body in order to quickly gain control of these tools and turn them around on their opponent.
General principles include:
- The best way to win a fight is by avoiding it altogether. Any and all verbal resolutions should be exhausted before resorting to physical responses. If this means that the practitioner looks like a coward, so be it. You may very well be saving the life of the aggressor by not attacking.
- Counter attacking as soon as possible (or attacking preemptively) by aggressively attacking into the coming attack or combining a defensive and offensive movement. The shortest movement is quite often the best. To overcome the opponent, avoid or spoil their attack and step to make your own power felt.
- Targeting attacks to the body's most vulnerable points such as the eyes, jaw, throat, groin, knee etc. In the military style many movements are practiced that will leave the opponent’s throat open to a highly lethal strike to crush the larynx or head. The civilian and law enforcement style will focus on knees, shoulders, elbows, and the groin.
- Neutralizing the opponent as quickly as possible by responding with an unbroken stream of counter attacks and if necessary a take down/joint break. While the goal is not always to break a joint (control is preferred), sometimes it is inevitable to incapacitate an attacker. This is more common to the civilian and law enforcement community.
- Maintaining awareness of surroundings while dealing with the threat in order to look for escape routes, further attackers, objects that could be used to defend or help attack and so on.
Basic training is a mixed bag of aerobic and anaerobic workouts. Protective pads and other personal protection equipment may be used during initial training but are strongly recommended at higher skill levels for simulated opponents. Scenarios are used to train personnel for situations typically encountered in street patrol or combat situations. Training scenarios teach students to ignore distractions as well. Other training methods to increase realism might include blindfolding or exercising trainees to near exhaustion before dealing with a simulated attack, as well as training outdoors on a variety of surfaces and restrictive situations. Training also covers situational awareness to develop an understanding of one's surroundings and potentially threatening circumstances before an attack occurs. It may also cover ways to deal with potentially violent situations, and physical and verbal methods to avoid violence whenever possible.
Training Availability
In the last thirty years, the art left Scorpia and spread around the colonies when a group of ten trainers traveled to Virgon to do a demonstration for the colony’s domestic police force. Quite a few people were highly impressed with it and the instructors were invited to come to other colonies and teach the art. Five years later, due to how easy the art is to become quite good at, the number of qualified instructors outside Scorpia went from two dozen to hundreds. Over the next twenty-five years, the instructors traveled and opened up their own training dojos. While the art is not terribly popular (due to the complete lack of competitions), training would have been available across all the colonies to anyone who sought it out.
Currently, with the lack of active dojos in a nuclear-fired colonial system, the only training left available for BK would be those who already practice it. Below is a list of current practitioners on the Battlestar Cerberus. Feel free to contact them IC or OOC to up your Melee scores and make use of their Instruction points. Expect to do scenes appropriate to training.
Demonstrations
OOCly, these tactics are a hybrid mix of Ju-Jitsu, Aikido, and heavily based in Krav Maga. The latter of those three is what BK is based off of. It is essentially what Bolkat Kontakta would look like in practice.