Matt Larsen
American soldier, author of the U.S. Army's Modern Army Combatives doctrine and founder of the Army Combatives School.
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United StatesBiography
Matt Larsen is an American soldier and instructor, author of the U.S. Army's modern close-combat doctrine and founder of the Army Combatives School. We have not been able to verify the date and place of his birth in the sources.
In 1984 he joined the U.S. Marine Corps as an infantryman, serving until 1988, among other places in Japan and Okinawa. In 1988 he transferred to the U.S. Army and joined the 75th Ranger Regiment. He took part in Operation Just Cause in Panama and combat in the First Gulf War. He trained, among other things, judo, Shotokan karate, boxing, Shobayashi Shorin-ryu, sayoc kali, Russian sambo and Brazilian jiu-jitsu under Romero "Jacare" Cavalcanti.
The army published a comprehensive training manual in 2002 as Field Manual 3-25.150 (Combatives). Larsen reached the rank of Sergeant First Class and left active duty in 2005; the Combatives School was then originally based at Fort Benning, Georgia.
After his military career he worked as a private contractor in Afghanistan and Iraq. He designed the LHR Combat Knife (2006). Since August 2017 he has been the director of combatives training at the United States Military Academy at West Point.