HUNTSVILLE, Ala. -- For many service members, especially those serving in the Army, "grappling" is taught as a defensive technique used to gain physical control of an opponent.
As part of the Modern Army Combative Program, Soldiers learn body holds known as grappling that help them escape punches or kicks, dominate an opponent with superior body position or control an opponent during stand-up fighting. Grappling is a main technique used for protection, as a non-lethal response on the battlefield and to instill the "warrior instinct" aggression needed to meet the enemy without flinching.
While in the Army grappling is a defensive technique taught to Soldiers going into combat, in civilian life grappling takes on a whole new dimension as part of a martial art, combat sport and self-defense system known as Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. It is based on the idea that a smaller, weaker person can successfully defend against a bigger, stronger, heavier assailant by using proper technique and leverage, and by taking the fight to the ground where joint-locks and chokeholds are used to defeat the assailant.
Free classes in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu are now being offered to veterans and active duty military on Saturdays from 9:30 to 10:30 a.m. at the Maverick Training Center located on South Memorial Parkway.
"Grappling is mostly like wrestling and rolling around on the ground against your opponent," said wounded warrior Sean Moore. "In the Army, it's taught as part of your combat regimen."
For many Soldiers like Moore, who has been wounded and is no longer part of an Army combat unit, grappling represents an opportunity to regain the strength they once had despite new physical limitations and it returns them to an unofficial fighting unit brought together through memories of the camaraderie and brotherhood that builds up within an Army unit.
"Training Brazilian Jiu Jitsu is one of those activities where you have the fellowship, brotherhood and camaraderie that is found in a traditional, operational unit," said retired Lt. Col. Keith Brown, who works with the Program Executive Office for Aviation.
"Training with other people in the close quarters of Jiu Jitsu creates some significant, strong relationships that you don't typically see in other training programs."
Brown, with more than 20 years of military service, once flew Cobras, Kiowas, Chinooks and C-12s, and is a veteran of Operation Just Cause, Panama with the 4/17 Infantry, and Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Grappling is part of the Army's defensive training program and "a big part of Jiu Jitsu," he said. "But it's not about strength, it's about leverage. I train Brazilian Jiu Jitsu with my two sons, who are 8 and 11. It's a martial art that anyone can enjoy at any age or physical level."
Brown was not injured like Moore and others who are benefitting from the class, but he does benefit from the comraderie of the group.
Moore served in the Army for seven years. In 2008, while serving on dismounted patrol in Mosul, Iraq, he was hit by a small improvised explosive device. The attack broke his pelvis, damaged his spine, left shrapnel buried in his knee, and caused a traumatic brain injury and post- traumatic stress disorder.
"I underwent a three-year recovery process. I was in a wheelchair for 11 months," Moore said. "Today, I'm still having surgeries on my knee."
He is also regaining his physical strength using the grappling techniques he learned so long ago as a young Soldier. Moore is taking advantage of the free Brazilian Jiu Jitsu classes for veterans and active duty.
"Brazilian Jiu Jitsu has a definite physical aspect to it that is helping me regain flexibility and strength in my joints. It's helping me keep going. Anything I can do to improve my mobility is important in my recovery," Moore said.
"But the biggest thing for me is mental. There is a large community of veterans who find the same kind of camaraderie in Jiu Jitsu that we had in the military. That connection is still there for us, it's still valuable to us."
One of the most significant defenses against post-traumatic stress disorder and the depression that often goes with it is to be among other people, and especially other veterans, Moore said. Isolation is the worst enemy of a veteran struggling with PTSD, he said.
"This class with other veterans takes me away from that need to isolate myself," he said. "I am healthier, I am better, if I can connect with similar people. If I'm here in the gym doing Jiu Jitsu then I'm not at home focusing on what happened in Iraq."
That emotional release is also a main perk of Jiu Jitsu for veteran James Lovett, who is a technician/diesel mechanic for the Army in Gadsden.
"I have a bad day, and I come in here and it relieves all the stress," Lovett said.
That's the kind of thing trainer Suzanne Ramsden wants to hear from her students.
"This class is being offered as an outreach for veterans and active service military," she said. "There are a lot of benefits to learning Jiu Jitsu. It takes the outside hardships of life and makes them go away while also teaching the practical applications for self-defense."
Ramsden is the only female Brazilian Jiu Jitsu black belt in Huntsville.
"Jiu Jitsu is both physical and mental. You learn how to fight, but you are a calmer person because of it," she said. "It makes me really happy to see veterans like Sean and James and Keith benefit from the things I can teach them. Because Army combatives are a skeleton of Jiu Jitsu and because they also teach self-defense, I thought this class would be a good way to reach out to veterans and active military who enjoy the grappling techniques they learned in the military."
Wounded warrior Moore hopes the class will attract other veterans and active military so that the camaraderie of the class grows. While Jiu Jitsu students can participate in national competitions, Moore said the relationships that build up among those taking the class are the more important aspect of the training.
"We want to get folks here and connect to each other. This class is about reaching out and having someone to call if you need to. It can be used to strengthen the local veteran community," Moore said.
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