Brazilian Jiu Jitsu For All Police Officers

Brazilian Jiu Jitsu

Brazilian Jiu Jitsu For All Police Officers

As a practitioner of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu I know for a fact that, at 50 years of age, I can easily control just about anyone who has not trained. I routinely handle 20-something 200+ pound muscular men with ease when they come in off the street to try it out. It doesn't take much training either to do this to untrained folks. I have been able to do this to just about everyone since I was a blue belt (which takes roughly 1 1/2 - 2 years of regular training to get).

The article linked below highlights not only how effective BJJ would make Police at dealing with resisting opponents, but it also points out aptly that a regular practitioner of BJJ understands how not to hurt someone they are grappling with in spite of being potentially lethal with dozens of choke holds and joint locks. In short, BJJ practitioners know how much pressure is too much pressure, and when to ease up not to hurt someone, but not so much that they lose control of the situation.

The ability to safely deal with scared and adrenaline-hyped folks happens naturally as you go up in rank in Jiu Jitsu.  Many new students are in fight-or-flight-panic-mode for the first few months of training.   At some point you start being assigned by instructors to roll with brand new white belts in their first few weeks of training.  This is a recognition by the instructor that you are able to control the new student well enough to keep both of you safe.  

In this capacity, I have been able to spar with women, children ,400 pound men, and 200 pound former champion wrestlers... all without anyone getting injured, and generally with me coming out on top and in complete control of the situation the whole time.  By contrast, the the new person is this scenario is often wheezing from exertion while I am calmly reassuring them in an unlabored voice throughout the experience.  This is because the new person is using maximum physical exertion the whole time whereas I am very efficient.  I only move when I need to move and use as only as much force as is required at the optimal time to apply that force.

Now, do I think that Police Officers should automatically attempt to apply blood chokes and joint locks they will learn in BJJ when Policing?  Of course not, except in a literal life and death scenario when lethal force is justified.  Submission is the highest goal you can achieve in BJJ sparring or competition, but it's not the focus of the art, and it should not be the focus of leveraging BJJ for Policing.  

There is also an old maxim in BJJ which states that position is more important than submission. New BJJ practitioners learn quickly that giving up a superior position to chase a submission is usually a mistake that ends up with them being caught in an inferior position and then submitted themselves.  Thus, the most important skills that one learns in BJJ are how to safely establish and maintain a dominant position using grappling.  In this way, BJJ would allow Police Officers with a year or two of regular training to control almost anyone - and do so safely - without the need to use submission techniques. 

Put another way, Police Officers who train BJJ would have the skills to use proportional force in a grappling scenario and recognize the dangers of techniques they might apply. The number of accidental deaths in grappling situations from poor training would plummet and the ability to say that an Officer didn't understand how dangerous something they were doing really was, would also be removed from plausibility.  In short, BJJ training would make things safer for both the suspect and the Officer.

Lastly, beyond the ability to subdue someone with superior grappling, the Officers would gain confidence. In speaking with Police Officers that train, this is perhaps the most important thing they believe that they gain from BJJ. This confidence translates to a calmer demeanor and a less threatening posture (often without a weapon drawn or hand in a threatening ready position).  The calmer demeanor and posture of the Officer in turn helps deescalate many situations.

Bottom Line: Police need a baseline of skill in BJJ to make everyone safer. This is something that liberals, conservatives, and everyone in-between should be able to get behind.

MMA Junkie Article

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