In Schenectady County, Glenville police officers are taking Brazilian jiu-jitsu classes as part of a wellness program that’s designed to help them approach interactions more peacefully.
On any given day in Scotia, residents may notice Glenville Police Department officers grappling, rolling and learning martial arts at Team Jucão – a Brazilian jiu-jitsu academy.
Brazilian jiu-jitsu is a ground-based martial arts practice that focuses on using leverage and technique to incapacitate opponents.
Think wrestling as opposed to boxing.
Officer Chris Dunn takes classes at the academy on Mohawk Ave. and says they help him prepare for real-world scenarios in a way that can resolve incidents with the least amount of violence possible.
“This day in age, if you have resistive or combative subjects, nine times out of ten the fight is going to the ground, and so the main focus in jiu-jitsu is essentially ground fighting and doing it in a way where you don’t need to go straight on with strikes,” Dunn said.
Dunn says that although he learned some self-defense techniques while training to be a police officer, those skills can atrophy.
He says Team Jucão is a great resource for fellow officers to brush up on their skills and learn new ones.
“It’s huge for officers, in the academy, sure it’s a six-month academy, you learn defensive tactics in a way, but it is absolutely a perishable skill, if you don’t continue practice, continue training,” Dunn said.
Glenville’s police department offers its officers a Team Jucão membership as part of a health and wellness program.
Deputy Chief Casey Greene, says the martial art’s emphasis on control rather than striking is what makes it a valuable skill for police to learn.
“That’s kind of the good thing about it, at least as policing is considered, we are not looking to go out there and just start punching people or hurting them right, this is a way to control people without hurting them, to do it in a way that looks good and hopefully keeps everybody safe,” Greene said.
Greene adds that the department does not have the time to train officers while they are on duty.
“What we are trying to do is give officers the resources to do some of these things on their own time,” Greene said.
The program comes at a time when police departments across the country have faced greater scrutiny following the 2020 death of George Floyd in Minneapolis and as police departments have implemented a range of reforms to the way they respond to emergency calls.
Nels Larson, an instructor at Team Jucão, says he teaches officers variations of his lessons when they involve a technique that police are prohibited from doing.
“They can’t choke people, they can’t put certain pressures, we can, in our sport so it’s like we have to make different variations for them too, so they don’t get in trouble, to make sure that they are doing it safely for them and the people that are being arrested,” Larson said.
Officer Nick Brino takes classes at the jiu-jitsu academy and says they offer practical help in terms of how to approach physical altercations on the job. But he also says the experience has been a confidence booster.
“Fighting was not a part of me growing up, so it was definitely a foreign concept for me at first, just being able to go here and everyone is so nice about it and that you can learn every time and there is no hitting, you are not going to leave here all bruised and everything, well maybe a little bit, but you learn how to control people and not have to hit people to control them or inflict any pain that you need to be in that compliance,” Brino said.
