bushido_man96

1/22/2024 A day of Martial Arts Training. Aikido Class: 5:00 - 6:00 pm. Weapons class. Started with okinage breathing, which is still uncomfortable for me. We did some warmup with the jo, which included some partner work, which is always fun. We did it a more dynamic fashion, which was a lot of fun. Then the instructor used some jo-nage techniques to demonstrate the lever/fulcrum dynamic of the weapons. Lastly, we used the idea of the techniques being done with a stick when we don't hold the stick, a way of "connecting" both hands, where ever they may be, in the technique. TKD Class: 6:30 - 7:30 pm. Black Belt Class. Warmed up with Do-Kangs 1-3. We spent the rest of class doing some defense against a haymaker style punch. The first we did was Aikido-esque, intercepting the strike and working to a kotegashi takedown. After quite a bit of practice with that, we did defenses with more striking involved, finding what targets where available based off how we blocked and what positions we put ourselves in.

I'd be careful here. I'm not sure a coaching change is what would push them over the hump. I don't know that there was anything happening in that game coaching wise that made think anyone's job should be in jeopardy. I feel like in the world of athletics today people are way too eager to see a coach fired. It's really hard to win games in the NFL, and even harder in the playoffs. They could fire the coach, sure, but then who knows what kind of coach the next one will be? Who would it be? And the Bill's coach has had great success. This year was a great coaching job, after starting out on the lam, and then ending up winning their division like they did. I think it's a case of the devil you know vs the devil you don't. Making a coaching change would be a huge mistake, I think.

That's awesome! Glad you two are getting to keep at it together!

I appreciate your thoughts and responses, DP. I see what you are getting at with your analogy of digital and analog. When you have to tangle with a person, things change quite a bit when the rules change. As cops, we have lots of rules that apply to us, which means that we can't just pop someone. There are times when striking is justified, for sure. But there is no way to change the dynamics of how that looks to others (whether they understand what is going on or not). That is one thing that I find frustrating; those who don't understand what is going on still feel they can offer up their opinions which are typically unsubstantiated. People will then get outraged, and the powers that be find the need to force changes to things to make the people that don't understand happier. It's a poor way to approach policy making. A good example of this is the use of "chokes," or what came to be called "lateral vascular neck restraints" in the LEO circles. Due to a very unfortunate incident where some bad judgment got someone killed, "chokes" are banned from use, save for the highest levels of the force continuum. The incident that caused this didn't even have an officer using rear-naked choke, or anything else like that. Thus a valuable tool has been rendered basically unusable, when it could be a very valuable tool for preventing injury to someone.

Why would they trade Prescott? Who would you trade for?

https://www.policemag.com/training/article/15313058/teaching-control-tactics-with-jiu-jitsu Thoughts and Reflections on this Article This article is found on the Police Magazine website, and it caught my eye when I saw the title pop up in my work email. Since I’m both a Law Enforcement Officer (LEO) and a life-long Martial Arts practitioner, it reeled me in. I thought there were some good points in the article, and there were some things that I didn’t quite agree with, and I thought I’d take the time to share them here. I haven’t written an article for KarateForums.com in quite some time, so I figured I’m about due, anyway. This is going to get long, so strap in and enjoy the ride, KF. I need to start out by stating that I am not a consistent practitioner of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu (henceforth in this article denoted as BJJ). I’ve had what BJJ practitioners would call limited exposure to this style, but what I’ve experienced I’ve found useful. There are no BJJ academies in my area to train at, but I have accumulated a very base knowledge of the style. I trained consistently for a couple of years with a Defensive Tactics Club at Fort Hays State University in which the instructor had experience with BJJ and provided instruction on it at the club in a no-gi format. I’ve also attended the GRACIE Defensive Tactics Course for LEO twice (originally for certification, and once for recertification), taught by Royce Gracie. The training was fantastic, and I would recommend it for anyone in law enforcement. Not that it really counts, but I also own and have read several texts on BJJ published by very respected practitioners of the style, including, but not limited to, Royce Graice, Jean Jacques Machado, and Royler and Helio Gracie. With the preliminaries out of the way, onto the meat of this article. I’ll be pulling out various sections of the article to quote, and I’ll try to map it by paragraph number as it appears on the website. This has never been more true. However, I would say that many departments are pre-empting this by providing their officers with body-worn cameras, which means that not only could the general public be recording what’s going on, but the officer should be recording what’s going on as well. I work for a department that issues body-worn cameras to their patrol officers, and I have found them to be quite useful, both in investigations, and in dealing with complaints. I also find them quite useful in use-of-force training, providing a first-person view of incidents allowing for a review of the situation, and how to help officers better protect themselves, and thus better protect others. I would not use video footage to “Monday morning quarterback” what an officer did, but rather use it as a tool to try to understand what happened, what the circumstances were, and how we can get better going forward. Many times, a video of a use-of-force incident will get released to the public (which I have my own opinions on this practice) and it won’t be long before many people post and say, “the officer should have done this,” or, “I wouldn’t have done that, I’d have just done this or that,” without having any idea what the actual situation was from start to finish, or how the officer felt at the time that it happened. I digress; that was a bit of a tangent. But hey, it’s my article…. Moving on in paragraph 1, the authors mention that while baton strikes and punches may be justified by a use-of-force policy, they don’t look good to the public, the authors describing them as “awful but lawful.” I agree that it looks much better on video to see an officer take someone to the ground and control them than it does to have to strike someone to get them to submit. As officers, we tend to want to take all resistance to the ground immediately, and there’s no denying that arts like BJJ and wrestling are very good at this. Get them down, get them cuffed, ending the struggle as quickly as possible, because the longer the struggle goes on, the more likely someone is to get hurt (officer or suspect; yeah, we get hurt, too). Paragraph 2 goes on to talk about how BJJ has grown in popularity and has also become the basis of many defensive tactics (DT) programs. However, the authors referred to these programs as “elective” programs. The fact of the matter is that DT training isn’t always a focus for officers, and some would prefer not to attend DT training if they don’t have to. It’s human nature; I’d prefer not to attend training on computer crimes. The authors also mentioned a movement on social media called #bjjmakeitmanditory, a push to make BJJ a new standard of mandatory training for officers. I had not heard of that social media movement, but then again, I’m not on a lot of social media platforms (just a Facebook account I check infrequently). Is this a genuine push for BJJ in DT, or a marketing ploy by BJJ academies? Not sure, but I wouldn’t be opposed to more BJJ-based training for LEO DT (but it shouldn’t be the only thing trained, either). This is the goal, while keeping everyone involved as safe as we possibly can. I think about this all the time when putting together training sessions, and making sure I do the best job I can to prepare the officers to do this. I think these are very sound points. Striking is not only a good way to hurt someone else, but improper striking by an inexperienced person is a good way to get themselves hurt as well. A suspect’s fractured nose or occipital bone is likely to end up being a doctor’s bill that comes out of the department budget, along with who knows what kind of civil or criminal action could be litigated on the officer depending on whether the use-of-force was justified. Even if it is justified, if a right-handed officer breaks his/her right hand in a struggle, then they’ve shut down the use of their gun-hand for the foreseeable future, thus taking them off the street until they’re healed, which presents its own host of logistical problems for the department. I don’t agree with the idea of changing the terminology here. I think the term “control tactics” is more limiting than the term “defensive tactics,” which could end up limiting officers to fewer options when it comes to responses to situations. Every situation is different, and as much as I think BJJ provides a lot of answers to a lot of problems, it’s important to keep options open for the use of other tactics besides grappling. I don’t mind the use of the term “control tactics,” and see it as a very valid term. I could see the combination of the terms as useful, to “defensive and control tactics.” I think this is a great idea, however, this department is uniquely situated to have this kind of training available. A quick internet search of Marietta turned up no fewer than 6 options for training BJJ, and that doesn’t count what is likely also available in Atlanta, just 20 miles away. In paragraph 5, the authors talk about some of the issues that popped up with the availability of training. They said many of their officers started to seek out BJJ training on their own time, but the open mat sessions they provided had limited success (likely due to the nature of officers’ rotating schedules). As one might conclude, they started having the same officers show up for open mat regularly (most likely the Martial Arts enthusiasts). The authors also noted that their instructors trained at a local gym and were limited to the knowledge they had received. To further this, I agree with this whole-heartedly, and I believe it is a huge issue for law enforcement as a whole. I found it surprising that some larger agencies only trained DT once a year. I’m fortunate to work in a department where the Sheriff believes this training is important and believes the frequency of the training is as important as the content of the training. I hold DT training monthly except when I’m working the night shift. I usually conduct training in two-hour blocks, which I feel allows me to keep the attention of the officers engaged throughout the training, and they don’t have to fret about spending a four hour session getting sore and beat up. This also makes it easier on the department to schedule everyone for training. Later in paragraph 6, the authors mentioned that they made BJJ training mandatory for all recruits before, during, and after academy, requiring weekly training up until they began working the road. I like this approach, but it wouldn’t work for every agency. Most departments in the state of Kansas have to send their officers to the Kansas Law Enforcement Training Center (KLETC) in Hutchinson, KS, to receive their officer certification. When new officers go to the academy, I have no control over what kind of DT training they receive. They get what they get while they’re there, and I have to wait until they complete the 14 week academy before I can get them back into my training regimen. However, most departments run a field training program upon the officer’s graduation from academy, and this would be the ideal time to set up that kind of training. Paragraphs 8 and 9 go on to talk about how a major in their department attended one of the LEO-focused DT classes offered by a local BJJ gym, and decided it was important enough to get it integrated into department training for new officers. Getting some of the brass to experience this kind of training and get behind it is a great start for getting other brass on board. They are often busy and getting them there to begin with is part of the challenge. The next paragraphs go into how the program got set up. Budget is a factor that department supervisors have to worry about, along with all the other issues that come with the job. Supervisors want to provide the best opportunities they can for their officers, but the budget has to be respected, too. Larger departments have larger budgets, and larger metropolitan areas also have more options available locally. The opportunities available to a department like Marietta PD aren’t always available to smaller, more rural departments. This is great, if the opportunity is available. As much as I’d like to pitch something like this to my department, the opportunity just isn’t available in my area, and many smaller departments have even fewer options available to them. In my hometown, there are 5 options available; a Taekwondo school (which I’m a member of), an Aikido club (also a member), a Boxing club, a Karate school, and a local gym that offers MMA training which includes a grappling class (no-gi). Even with these options, each school is limited in the classes they offer and the times they are available. The school Marietta PD chose to work through offered nine classes a week, with morning, afternoon, and evening availability. They required their recruits to attend at least one class per week for 5 months. They negotiated a lower rate with the gym on their “drop-in” daily rate and provided gis for the recruits. They stated their monthly gym bill for training and gis was in the hundreds of dollars, and they average between 4 and 10 recruits at a time. DT instructor courses can be pretty costly; I’ve seen them range from $600 to over $1000 for week-long (5 day) courses over 8 hours each day. In paragraph 15, they talk about the first group they ran through this new program, 7 recruits, three of which had prior experience in Martial Arts or Wrestling. Each recruit attended 1 class per week minimum, but they all had weeks where they attended three training sessions (unknown how long each session was). Marietta PD reported that these 7 recruits accumulated 159 hours of training with no injuries. The paragraph concludes by stating that 30% of the officers continued their training after the 5-month period was over and were willing to continue their training by paying out of pocket. This is a step in the right direction for sure. It’d be nice to see that retention number higher, but the fact of the matter is that not every officer that is hired is going to push themselves to training outside of work. Some have other family matters they tend to, and some just don’t feel the need to do it. Others, as we know in the Martial Arts world, just aren’t interested. Those of us who take an interest in training are willing to go out and find it, pay for it, and attend regularly. Those that don’t may want some kind of incentive or stipend from the department to justify getting themselves into training. I think it would be nice if departments could offer something like that, but again, the budget must be kept in mind. And if supervisors are spending money out of the budget to offer opportunities like this to the officers, they’ll want to be assured the resource is being taken advantage of; if it isn’t, then it will be taken out of the budget, and no one would benefit. The article finishes with how they notified media about their training program and the local media’s response to it. I think this department definitely took a step in the right direction for law enforcement in general. I hope other DT instructors can read this article and use it to promote more improved, more frequent, and more effective use-of-force training in their departments. I like the approach Marietta PD took with BJJ, but it wouldn’t have to be BJJ for every department. There are lots of good options out there, and the more consistent the training is, the more effective the officers become, and the better protected they are. More effective officers can also protect resisting, combative individuals as well. In the end, everyone benefits. I hope everyone got something useful out of this long, rambling reaction to an article I happened to read, and I look forward to any and all comments.

1/19/2024 Strength Training Lat Pull-downs: 160x6, 160x6, 160x5, 2 partials. Pec Flies: 75x12, 75x12, 75x12. Triceps Push-downs: 60x12, 60x12, 60x12. Barbell Curls: 45x12, 45x12, 45x12. Lying Leg Curls: 90x10, 90x10, 90x10. I didn't feel like I could go heavy today, so did these exercises instead, just to get some work in.

DP, that Chiefs/Bills game should be a good one. I'm hoping for more than field goals this week!

One is much more likely to have to know how to fall properly in their life than they are likely to have to actually defend themselves.

1/16/2024 Strength Training Squats: 45x5x2, 135x5, 175x3, 205x3, 205x3, 205x3. Bench Press: 45x5x2, 65x5, 95x3, 115x5, 115x5, 115x5. Lat Pull-downs: 150x10, 150x10, 150x7. I'd had an episode earlier in the week, on Sunday, and my head was not in a good place. Later this evening that I trained, I started having some more issues, but the next day was better. 1/17/2024 TKD Class: 7:00 - 7:40 pm. T-shirt Class. I was late to this class due to my son's baseball practice starting at 7:00 pm. But, it's always been more of an open class anyway, so I made it a point to get in and get some work done. I started off with 10 solid minutes of work on the standing bag, lots of punching and footwork. I did throw in some kicking. I moved to the speed bag after that, and probably spent about 5 minutes working on it. I went back to the standing bag, and worked on punching with the lead hand by stepping up with the back foot, which is a good way to close space and hide it from your opponent. I mixed that up with some step-up front kicks and round kicks. I finished up with a side kick combination: front leg side kick, spin side kick, then switching to a jump spin side kick with the opposite leg. I followed this combination up by doing it as a floor drill, which changes the dynamics of things when you don't have something to hit. I ended with 10 solid minutes of stretching in The Rack.

In wrestling, this is referred to as "chain wrestling," using one move to set up the next, or to a more appropriate response if the opponent does something different. It's really the next level stuff.

I second this. Life throws us curves quite often. Glad to hear you are back to it.

Sounds like it's all worked out. Too bad your CI has that outlook on cross training.

Congratulations!

Welcome back, Luther! Great to see you!

What a week it was. Jacksonville fell out of the playoffs, Pittsburg made it in, and the Dolphins end up the 6 seed and play the Chiefs in Arrowhead. That's going to be a tough one, I think. Hopefully, the cold weather will be to KC's advantage. That AFC East truly went down to the wire. The NFL had to like having what basically amounted to a couple of Division Championship games last Sunday, between the Bills and Dolphins, and the Texans and Colts. It's crazy to think that if the Dolphins would have won, they would have had Buffalo coming back to town the very next week.

I really enjoyed it. We sat three rows from the top, and I was right on the 50 yard line. We were way up there, but we could see the whole field. I had a good time, I just wish they would have won the game. We offered the choice of that game, or the Bengals game. Oh well....

So, should spouses not train together?

I'd echo a lot of what has been mentioned already. Be up front about who you are and what your school will offer. Be honest about who you are and what you are presenting. Along with the other things DP listed about posting, perhaps also presenting an outline of the typical class, or perhaps some short videos of the various sections of class that show what you teach and how you teach it. Just out of curiosity, would you allow your students to enter competitions? Would competition be completely off the board? Would you not do any kind of sparring? I ask because I wouldn't say that our school is competition focused, but we do have students that compete, and host our own tournaments as well.

A blizzard out here really put a damper onto training for the week. But got some sessions in towards the end of the week. 1/10/2024 TKD Class: 5:30 - 6:30 pm. Traditional Class. Been a long time since I've done a traditional class. Basics, forms (Choong Jang), one-steps (low green belt), and a little sparring with the only other student, a little green belt. After sparring, we held rebreakable boards for the green belt to work on his side kick technique. 6:30 - 7:30 pm, T-shirt Class. Did both classes tonight. I went through all the black belt forms except for Choong Moo, did some round kicks and front kicks on the bag, and spent some time before and after this class stretching in The Rack. I'm going to try to make both classes on Wednesdays going forward. 1/11/2024 Strength Training Squats: 45x5x2, 135x5, 175x3, 200x3, 200x3, 200x3. Press: 45x5x2, 65x5, 95x3, 110x5, 110x5, 110x5. Deadlifts: 135x5, 185x5, 225x3, 265x1, 295x3, 295x3.

Hope you get to feeling better soon, DP. That ski erg machine sounds kind of interesting. It definitely helps to do conditioning on something you enjoy, and it sounds like you enjoy it.

It's difficult to determine why the Martial Arts haven't had the popularity that they one did, back in the "golden age" of Karate. I'm not sure what the state of clubs at universities/colleges is anymore, or if that could even help. Perhaps more people are driven to MMA, which I don't think is a bad thing. In fact, I think MMA can help drive some people to the "traditional" arts. At any rate, things tend to be cyclical, and perhaps we can hope for an upturn over the course of the next few years.

That sounds like a positive spin on things for sure! Please keep us posted as to how things go.

I find rep progression to be pretty useful when it comes to some of the ancillary lifts, but can also be useful with the compound lifts.

That's awesome! Enjoy your training, and keep us posted on your progress, and what all you learn!