MCMAP (Marine Corps Martial Arts Program)
The United States Marine Corps combat program, officially adopted on October 1, 2000. It combines armed and unarmed fighting with mental and character training and uses belts.
Quick Facts
United StatesCharacter & Origin
Training
Who It Suits
Organisation & Competition
What the style is built from
Editorial rating on a 0–3 scale, based on how much room each area gets in ordinary training.
Catalogs & Databases for MCMAP (Marine Corps Martial Arts Program)
About MCMAP (Marine Corps Martial Arts Program)
The Marine Corps Martial Arts Program (MCMAP) is the combat program of the United States Marine Corps. The manual MCRP 3-02B describes it as a weapons-based system that joins three disciplines: physical, mental and character. Its motto is One mind, any weapon.
Read more
The program grew out of earlier close combat training. According to the manual, in 1996 a review of the LINE system and other training, together with advice from about ten experts from various martial arts, led to the Close Combat Program. Commandant General James L. Jones presented his vision of a martial art for the Marine Corps in June 1999, and after testing, according to the thesis of Major Richard D. Hall (2002), MCMAP was officially adopted on October 1, 2000 as mandatory training for all members of the Corps. An article in Marine Corps History (2026) names Lieutenant Colonel George H. Bristol and Master Gunnery Sergeant Cardo Urso as its main creators. The combat component has four elements according to the manual: rifle with bayonet, knives, improvised weapons and unarmed combat. Hall states that the program covers the whole spectrum of violence from verbal commands to deadly force. Training has five belt levels: tan, gray, green, brown and black, with black divided further into six degrees. Every member of the Corps receives the tan belt already in basic training. Advancement requires meeting the requirements of all three disciplines and a recommendation from a superior. The belt may be worn instead of a waist belt with the field uniform. Order MCO 1500.59A of 2019 revised the program, and for October 2025 the Marine Corps announced celebrations in Quantico of 25 years of the program.
History
The manual MCRP 3-02B states that in 1996 a review of the LINE system, strike practice and training with padded sticks merged with the advice of ten experts from many martial arts, and the Marine Corps Close Combat Program emerged. In June 1999 Commandant General James L. Jones presented his vision of a martial art, and according to the manual the close combat program went through a period of testing and review, from which MCMAP emerged.
Read more
The thesis of Major Richard D. Hall from the Marine Corps Command and Staff College (2002) states that Jones ordered a study at Camp Pendleton in May 2000. Two programs were tested, an improved version of the earlier Close Combat Program and the Marine Warrior program of the firm SportsMind, and the resulting system took over elements of both and other elements, for example jujitsu. According to Hall, MCMAP was officially adopted on October 1, 2000 as mandatory training for all members of the Corps. The work of Captain G. S. Rooker (2005) states that almost a year after its introduction in the summer of 2000, the program was formally announced by ALMAR 042/01. It was followed by the message MARADMIN 537/01, according to Hall from October 2001. In December 2002 order MCO 1500.54A was issued. According to the erratum of February 26, 2002, the manual MCRP 3-02B was renamed from Close Combat to Marine Corps Martial Arts. The article by Daigle, Goff and Ott in Marine Corps History (2026) names Lieutenant Colonel George H. Bristol and Master Gunnery Sergeant Card Urso as the main creators of the program. Among the experts of the 1996 review commission was, according to the article, Jack Hoban.
How it differs
According to Hall (2002), MCMAP differs from the LINE system and older close combat programs that focused on unarmed fighting in that it includes weapons and the previously neglected mental and character discipline. According to guidance from the program's press office, MCMAP builds on the success and development of the LINE and Close Combat programs, but is unique in linking three disciplines. Blanton's thesis (2008) states that the departure from the manual FMFM 0-7 was an acknowledgment that not every situation requires lethal force. According to Blanton, it differs from the Army program Modern Army Combatives in that it resembles a traditional martial art with a belt system more closely, whereas the Army program uses instructor levels 1 to 4.
Technique
According to the manual MCRP 3-02B, MCMAP is a weapons-based system. It begins with assault fire and continues with the four elements of the combat component: rifle with bayonet, knives, improvised weapons and unarmed combat. According to the manual, all four elements have a role in the whole spectrum of combat. The tan belt chapter covers fundamentals, punches, falls, bayonet techniques, upper and lower body strikes, an introduction to chokes, throws, defenses against strikes, chokes and holds, unarmed and armed manipulations and knife fighting. Higher belts add improvised weapons and ground fighting (gray), shoulder throw and side choke (green), ground chokes, major outer reap, unarmed defense against a handheld weapon, firearm retention and removal (brown) and hip throw (black). Bayonet and knife techniques appear at every level. Hall (2002) describes MCMAP as a mix of combat-proven techniques that covers the spectrum of violence from verbal commands to deadly force. According to him, about ten experts from karate, judo, jujitsu and aikido took part in the 1996 review.
Training
Each of the three disciplines is divided, according to the manual MCRP 3-02B, into blocks of instruction at every belt level, and lower-belt material is repeated in later training. The mental discipline covers warfighting and professional military education, for example the study of the art of war, decision making, maneuver warfare, and the history, customs and traditions of the Corps. The character discipline rests on the Marine Corps values program and the leadership program. The physical discipline consists of fighting techniques and a combat conditioning program built on the idea that in combat there are no time limits, no level playing field and no second chances. The trainee's duties include technique lessons, links to values, the study of warriors, maintenance of techniques, practice by belt level and free sparring. Singleton's work (2012) lists combat sports, meant to strengthen unit cohesion, as a further component.
Ranks and progression
According to the manual MCRP 3-02B, the belt system has five basic levels: tan, gray, green, brown and black belt, with black further divided into first to sixth degree. The colored belts are levels of users. The tan belt is earned in basic training and is the minimum for every member of the Corps. Advancing requires meeting the requirements of the mental and character disciplines and the prerequisites for the given belt, and demonstrating maintained skills of the physical discipline for both the current and the next belt. Hall (2002) states that belts are awarded for mastery of techniques, participation in values education and a superior's recommendation, and that the belt may then be worn instead of a belt with the field uniform. The 2011 manual gives minimum training hours for individual belts, from 27.5 hours for tan to 20.7 hours for black. Instructors have their own courses. According to the 2011 manual, a holder of the gray belt may apply for the instructor course, and the instructor-trainer course lasts seven weeks at Quantico. Order MCO 1500.59A of 2019, according to message MARADMIN 580/19, recommends that active-duty members earn the gray belt within two years and the green belt within four years after technical training, and reservists within four and eight years, and it raised the pass threshold of recruit tests from 70 to 80 percent.
Competition
We have not found a Corps-wide MCMAP competition with official rules. The news site DVIDS describes a ground-fighting tournament held on March 3 and 10, 2012 by the logistics battalion CLB 1 at Camp Dwyer in Afghanistan in four weight classes, where members used skills from MCMAP together with Greco-Roman wrestling and Brazilian jiu-jitsu. The newspaper Marine Corps Times wrote that the Marine Corps command is preparing mixed martial arts tournaments modeled on the Army program Modern Army Combatives, from squads to the whole Corps, and that competitive bouts will not be mandatory.
Today
The program is today run by the Martial Arts and Fitness Center of Excellence (MAFCE) at Camp Barrett on the Quantico base. DVIDS reporting from 2011 mentions the Martial Arts Center of Excellence (MACE) with the task of unifying training in the Fleet Marine Force. Its director at the time, Lieutenant Colonel Patrick A. Beckett, called character education the core of the program. Order MCO 1500.59 and message MARADMIN 219/11 in November 2010, according to DVIDS, simplified the program and nearly halved the hours for the gray to black belt. Order MCO 1500.59A of September 23, 2019 is the first revision since 2010. Message MARADMIN 396/25 announced celebrations of the program's 25 years at Quantico on October 6 to 10, 2025.
Did you know
According to the manual MCRP 3-02B, the program's motto is One mind, any weapon. According to the manual, the result of the character discipline is meant to be a service member capable of the right decision in any situation, from combat to liberty, that is, an ethical warrior. The encyclopedia Martial Arts of the World (2001) states that a Marine company went through an abbreviated version of a course in biofeedback, aikido and mind-body psychology, created by Jack Cirie and Richard Strozzi Heckler, in 2000. Captain Rooker's work from 2005 states that two captains postponed gray belt training so as not to get injured before joining a new unit, which Rooker took as evidence of the program's persisting image as a tough-guy club.
Frequently asked questions
When was MCMAP introduced?
According to the thesis of Major Hall (2002) and the journal Marine Corps History, it was officially adopted on October 1, 2000. It was formally announced by ALMAR 042/01 and MARADMIN 537/01 in 2001.
What belts does MCMAP have?
Tan, gray, green, brown and black, with black in six degrees. Every Marine earns the tan belt in basic training.
What does the motto One mind, any weapon mean?
It is the program's motto according to the manual MCRP 3-02B. MCMAP is a weapons-based system that works with the rifle and bayonet, the knife, improvised weapons and also unarmed.
Similar styles
Selected by overlap in the style profile, not by historical lineage.