OLATHE, Kan. — This week, some local jiu-jitsu students had a chance to study with a man known as "UFC royalty," Royce Gracie — the original UFC Champion.
Gracie put on a seminar at Jeff Speakman’s Kenpo 5.0 Total Martial Arts in Olathe.
The seminar drew a large crowd, including men, women, and kids.
There was also another group of students, a group that’s becoming increasingly involved in this sport — members of local law enforcement.
It’s a trend other locations are seeing as well.
At the Kansas City Regional Police Academy, for the example, they've been teaching Brazilian jiu-jitsu for about three years.
Sgt. Joe Rizzo is the supervisor of the physical training and defensive tactics section at the Regional Police Academy.
"It's very applicable to our job. We have to physically control people," Rizzo said. "It's a method of controlling someone without striking them or hurting them."
Unlike karate, which is based on striking, jiu jitsu is based on grappling and controlling a person's movements.
"Most struggles or arrest situations if someone fights with us, they end up on the ground," Rizzo said. "And that's why this martial art of grappling or being on the ground is so applicable to our job, because that's where we end up most of the time in a fight is on the ground."
The classes at the academy happen multiple times a week, and are open to new recruits as well as current officers.
After hitting the mats at Kenpo, many officers go on to join other martial arts academies through the Kansas City area.
"It’s probably 30 to 35% of the students [who] are in law enforcement and all types of law enforcement, not just you know county deputies, but city officers from both small and large departments," Johnson County Sheriff's Office Capt. Tyson Kilbey, who is also a jiu jitsu instructor, said. "We even have federal agents, and we have officers who actually travel from quite a bit way away to train with us, so we’re happy about that."
Many of those officers took time out of their busy schedules Tuesday evening to learn from one of the sport's greats — Gracie.
"Jiu-jitsu is a self-defense style, so you don’t depend on strength, you don’t depend on speed," Gracie said. "You don’t depend on power to knock somebody out or striking somebody, it’s technique; it's how to subdue your opponent without hurting them."
These lessons are even prompting some officers to get their families involved.
"It’s great for our kids because we want them to learn self-confidence," Roeland Park Ofc. Jonathan Enriquez said. "We want them to learn discipline. We want them to learn hard work, that, you know, if you work hard, you can accomplish incremental goals that lead to a larger goal. And we want them to learn with self-defense. They are ultimately worth defending. It doesn’t need to be with kicks or punches, but they can use their words, their body language to know that they’re worth it."
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