FORT SILL, Okla. (Sept. 29, 2016) -- When Sgt. 1st Class Glenn Allen came to Fort Sill last year from Alaska, he was disappointed to find that the Combatives Academy, which offered jui-jitsu, would close shortly after his arrival.
"It's always been a plan of mine to open a jiu-jitsu academy," he said, but being an active-duty Soldier made it a little difficult.
However, an internet search of jiu-jitsu in the area brought him to the Facebook page of Dreadnought Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, started by Ben Nepveux using 700 square feet of space in the back of a friend's Crossfit gym. They hit it off, and decided to become partners, opening the studio at 1912 NE Lawton Ave. in January 2015.
In addition to spending his free time at the academy practicing his martial arts or teaching classes, Allen said the discipline and focus required helps his PTSD, acquired from firefights in four deployments, and "being blown up a few times."
"It's pretty severe," he said, "but when I'm on the mat it's gone. Whatever I'm mad about, it doesn't matter anymore, because if your head is clouded on the mats, you're gonna get yourself beat. You've got to work through certain problems to get out of bad situations. Just like PTSD, if you have a bad thought you've got to work through it. It's been proven over and over that martial arts helps Soldiers with PTSD cope and mellow out. I've seen the progression. My wife says 'You're doing a whole lot better now that you're doing jiu-jitsu all the time.'"
In June the studio hosted a Mission 22 seminar to address the problem of an estimated 22 veterans that commit suicide each day. "A lot of guys with PTSD want to be by themselves," said Allen, "but deep down they want to be part of a group. When you do jiu-jitsu it's more like a family. "
Nepveux said Brazilian jiu-jitsu is "an intimate sport with a lot of body contact and energy transfer between each other." He said that helps develop personal bonds and keeps participants "very present in the moment. That allows you to not have to deal with your problems for an hour, and that can be very therapeutic, very cathartic. "
Close contact combatives are critical Soldier skills, said Nepveux, and even though they are taught in basic combat training, it's more of an introduction.
"Your instincts more often than not are incorrect," he said. "When dealing with a problem, a person, an enemy, you try and create distance and get them away from you so you extend your arms. That's the exact opposite of what jiu-jitsu is all about, engaging and closing the distance. You're able to neutralize." It allows better control of an opponent keeps them from generating power to throw punches. It also allows a nonlethal way to control an attacker.
As senior mentor to the Basic Officer Leader Course here, Col. Tarpon Wiseman brought his last class in weekly for training. "Even though we're around things that go 'boom', very few Soldiers have been in a fight," he said. "So we have a controlled environment there to fight. It's part of the warrior ethos, teaching them about imposing one's will and preventing another's will from being imposed on you, literally and physically." He will be taking the Captains Career Course students there as well.
Allen, who is Joint Fires Observer instructor for B Battery, 1st Battalion, 30th Field Artillery here, ran the Combatives Program at Fort Richardson in Anchorage for two years. Brazilian jiu-jitsu has been part of the Modern Army Combatives Program, which is still offered at certain other Army posts.
Allen said jiu-jitsu isn't an easy sport. "You can be a PT stud, but once you start combatives, within the first three minutes you're done."
Nepveux agreed.
"You're basically exhausted. You don't know how to use your body correctly so you're trying a bunch of things at full exertion using strength and speed, whereas I'm going to approach it with strategy and technique, and supplement with strength and speed as I need. You start using techniques that allow you to conserve your energy."
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