Before we get into this rant I am about to lay one you, I want everyone to understand that what I am about to say is in no way a slight on the LEOs and the defensive tactics instructors for the Phoenix PD. They were given a shit sandwich and told to turn it into Prime Rib and they were given about two days to do it. They did the best they could. This rant is on the sheer willful ignorance of the public, the mainstream media, and the police administration that is more concerned with public relations and appearances than on actual results.

So the Phoenix PD had banned the use of “choke holds” for officers during arrests. Now, I am writing a longer article to show how stupid this is, and the fact that as a recognized subject matter expert in this area, I am telling you that the choke hold is the single safest and most functional unarmed technique to use to stop an aggressive attacker and to do it with no harm to that attacker. PERIOD. I can – and will – back that up with documented and verifiable fact later this week, but today I am going to address the technique the Phoenix PD unveiled to replace the choke.

You can look at it here starting at the 13:39 mark:

I am not going to address this issue from the point of view of arresting someone or the specific context of that. I am not, nor have I ever been a police officer, so I cannot in good conscience talk about that contextual application. What I can talk about is the efficacy of the demonstrated position, and it’s strength and weaknesses. The position the DT instructor shows is a very typical jiujitsu hold called a seatbelt. It is designed for one thing – to hold a person in place long enough to transition to a finishing hold. Used in the correct manner, on the ground with the opponent seated on his butt or belly, it is a decent control. Unfortunately, in the way it is being used to replace the choke hold, it will prove to be utterly useless.

Moreover – and here is the problem – IT WILL LEAD TO MORE INJURIES TO THE ARRESTEE AND IT WILL LEAD TO MORE SHOOTINGS BY THE OFFICER!

Why do I say that it if I just said above that it is a good control? Multiple reasons, but the most important one is this. It works in the ideal manner because you are on the ground – I.e. not standing – and can get your legs over theirs and place them above their hips and just inside their thighs. That way, you have a great method of controlling their movement. Standing upright as demonstrated in the video, you have very little control, and you only have that for a moment of two. The problems are 1) you have ZERO control of his lower body. The strongest part of a person that is the seat of the most explosive generated force a person can perform, and you do nothing to deal with it and, 2) you leave the other guy with one underhook. For those who don’t know anything about grappling, the underhook is any time I can get an arm between the other person’s arm and torso, and it is the king of grappling moves, especially if there is the presence of weapons. Take a look at the demonstrated technique in the video, and imagine weapons on the officer’s waistline. Note who one of the “bad guy” arms has complete freedom to move and is CLOSER to the officer’s weapons on that side than the officer does. Now what is going to happen when that officer realizes the other guy is going for his gun, or taser, or etc.? Is that not a guaranteed way to ramp up the violence and the end result? You better believe it.

For those who are going to argue that somehow the bad guy will be unable to move and won’t be able to get to the LEOs gun, let me assure not only can he, but that he will. I have been doing that exact move for quite literally decades, and I can flat out promise you that I cannot control someone in that position for more than a moment. If I cannot reliably do it, with 31 years of active training and practice, a police officer with minimal time in during his academy days, and little follow up after, will have no chance to do so. And now let’s add to the situation and make it worse. What if the person being detained is substantially bigger or stronger than the cop? What if he is much younger? How about if he is in a state of excited delirium from alcohol or drugs? Any of those would make it tougher for me to make that position work properly, let alone the LEO with only minimal training using it.  And I am even more concerned because the instructor was not even doing the two most important things to try to control form this position. Both use leverage and he was using all muscle. If he does not understand the details, how will the officers who need to learn it?

I will state this publicly now, and people can hold me to this. Banning the choke hold and replacing it with this will substantially increase the injury and death rate to both parties in the future. 100% guarantee.

What in the world does Brazilain Jiu-jitsu black belts have to do with baseball? Well, I will tell you.

People often remark about how self-effacing I am about my performance as a fighter. They say”but Cecil, you are a 3^rd degree black belt in Brazilian Jiujitsu under a true legend of the art. You have to be uber successful when sparring!” Sure, I have some success, but I also have some crushing failures, and it is those failures that 1) keep me training, and 2) keep me humble.

When you do a fighting methodology that requires you to regularly get matched up against a resisting opponent with opposing will, malevolent intent, and freedom of action, some days you are going to lose. It is a fact of life. And even within what some people view as the highest level of fighting – i.e. black belt in Brazilian Jiu-jitsu, there is a hierarchy and sub-levels.

Fortunately belts still mean something in BJJ. Even with its popularity and a bit of watering down, the belts still are meaningful because you cannot hide from performance the way you can in almost all other martial arts or self-defense systems (“I can’t really spar because our art is too deadly” – yeah, sure it is fat man). You have to show you can go, cold and on demand.

Even still, I tell folks that there is a hierarchy with black belts, and the easiest way to understand it is like this. Think of jujitsu black belts as pro baseball players. They are all better than 98% of the population of the world in their ability to play the game, but they are not equal.

There are the minor leagues – A, AA, and AAA, then there are major leaguers, and then of the major leaguers, there are the All Stars. All are pros, but different.

Same as BJJ black belts. The equivalent of the single A and double A ball players are the black belts who are older, who have physical issues (whether from age or other causes), or who have not trained for years and years. For example, we had a student at my academy that got his black belt at 71. Jim was also a smaller and frailer person anyway. Can he roll at the same level as a 35 year old black belt? No way, but it does not take away from his knowledge and the time he has put in, and the fact that against his peer; he can roll at a high level. He is very much a legitimate black belt, but on a slightly separate plane.

Then you have the triple A belts. Guys who are not at the elite level, but can roll against the elite and at least make them work. Maybe, on a really, really great day, they may even catch the elite guy in something (probably not but we can dream!).

The major leaguers are obviously the black belts that are competing all the time, or the guys who are known throughout the community as tough guys to roll against. These are the current main high level players.

And the All Stars? Well, those are the legends and the truly greats and the current dominant competitors. The Roger Gracie’s, the Marcleo Garcias, the Gary Tonon’s , the Megaton Dias’ and the like are the ones that even people only slightly knowledgeable about BJJ tend to know. These are the ones, like a Babe Ruth or a Willie Mays, stand the test of time and leave a lasting mark on the art.

So where do I fit it? Well, I like to compare myself to Crash Davis, Kevin Costner’s character in the movie Bull Durham. He is an aging AAA player who almost made it in the big leagues but didn’t, and now he plays out his career in the minors. Bur while there, he is pretty decent and respected, and more importantly, he is a mentor to the up and coming young players who are destined to be far better than Crash ever was. He teaches them how to be better and more successful and even if he wishes he could have been more, he is fairly content to help the ones who come after. So the comparison for me is that I will contribute much more as a teacher, but when I roll with the major leaguers, I at least make them sweat a tiny bit before they thump me!

I hope this helps people to make sense of the levels of black belt. It is a great achievement (outside of being an okay husband and a better than mediocre Dad, it is my proudest one), and should be respected, but not all of us are walking death machines.