We’ve all seen the videos of our beloved art being used in real-life situations by police officers, right?
Well, someone at HBO must have seen a few, too. Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel has released a trailer for their next episode, showcasing interviews with Gracie University head instructor Rener Gracie and Major Jake King of the Marietta Police Department of Marietta, Georgia.
Rener Gracie
Rener’s passion in his interview is reflected in the real world by the widespread success of the Gracie Survival Tactics(GST) program.
“How does anyone expect an officer to take a violent, resisting person into custody if we don’t give them the tools to do so?” He answers his own question, “It’s common sense! If you’re asking me to do something, then teach me how to do it!”
Major Jake King
Under the leadership of Major Jake King, The Marietta Police Department has been conducting a jiu-jitsu training program for its officers for about two years.
Major Jake King of the Marrieta, GA Police Department, “The state here had a zero requirement for yearly training [in hand to hand combat].”
After implementing Jiu-Jitsu for his officers, Major King found a 48% reduction in officers being injured.
“So, then I started researching more, and we reduced injuries to suspects by 53% [based on the deployment of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu in patrol]… If you scuffled/resisted arrest, you were 200% more likely to be injured by a non-jiu-jitsu officer than someone who had been through the mandatory program or was a practitioner of jiu-jitsu. Then I went through the worker’s comp claims… And we saved almost $70,000 in the first year. Significantly less than what the program cost us, that’s for sure.”
How To Watch
The full episode of Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel airs on HBO tonight, August 24, 2021 at 11 p.m. ET, and streams on HBOMAX.
