SPARTAN PERFORMANCE                                 CROSSFIT SUFFOLK

CrossFit Games Open 11.5

Complete as many rounds and reps in 20 minutes of:
145 pound Power clean, 5 reps
10 Toes to bar
15 Wall ball shots, 20 pound ball

Rebecca Voigt on today's WOD – video [wmv] [mov](Courtesy of CrossFit.com)

Reawaken Your Rhomboids   "Developing this muscle in the middle of your upper back will balance your workout and help you stand taller. Moreover, most guys struggling to gain lean body mass also seem to have posture issues that lead to soft issue issues that lead to long-term issues."-—Dan John, for TNation.com

 Jiujitsu Instructor Saves San Francisco Police Officer From Attack  "Hero jiu-jitsu instructor Pedro Arrigoni came to the cop’s rescue, putting the suspect into a choke hold and forcing him into submission at around 1 p.m., police said."—Mike Aldax, San Francisco Examiner

Outstanding job by Pedro Arrigoni!

Here's the ironic thing:  Most cops in this country (not sure about San Francisco) are NOT allowed to do the very technique that Arrigoni used to subdue the cop-attacking violent offender.

Some departments allow it, like Kansas City (MO) PD, some allow it when deadly physical force is being used against the police and many like the NYPD don't allow it under any circumstances.

The choke Arrigoni used was most likely the Rear Naked Choke as it is known in Brazilian Jiujitsu circles.  For the unitiated, the term "Rear Naked Choke" simply means the hold is applied from behind the person and the user's arms apply pressure to the sides of the neck as opposed to "Gi" chokes where the jacket or "kimono" is used to apply pressure.  The RNC is one of the most effective techniques in professional mixed martial arts and sport grappling.

The "choke" has a bad reputation in the law enforcement community because there have been cases of a choke being applied improperly by untrained personnel with poor results, namely serious injury or death.  Instead of addressing the problems as a training issue most departments have opted to throw out the baby with the bath water.

Meanwhile Kansas City PD has been using the Lateral Vascular Neck Restraint (LVNR), which is applied slightly differently with the same concept: pressure is applied to the carotid arteries causing the recipient to submit or lose consciousness.  The technique has been used for several decades without serious injury inflicted.  The KCPD has well over a thousand documented cases of the LVNR being used effectively without a single death.  Jimmy Lindell, a judo practitioner, joined the KCPD in 1970, as a trainer a developed the LVNR training program.  The system has legitimate medical cred, court cred and street cred!

Call it what you'd like, but the law enforcement community should have the option of using a control hold where pressure is applied to the carotid arteries in order to subdue violent offenders.  A sound, realistic, detailed training program must be developed to accompany the technique.  This is to say that the technique SHOULD NOT be taught with a video and 5 minute demonstration.  It has to be hours of hands on training culminating with the technique being applied under simulated violent incident stress.

I find it bizarre that as a police officer I was allowed to strike people with a metal baton when their violent behavior justified it, but I was not authorized to apply a hold that would subdue them with minimal effort and zero blunt trauma. 

It was reported that Pedo Arrigoni "believes all San Francisco cops should be trained in jiu-jitsu."  Cops everywhere should have training that includes elements of Brazilian Jiujitsu, especially the control holds that are relatively easy to learn and apply.  We say bring the technique back to law enforcement training.  Implement it with quality training and get rid of the "C" word–choke, since the hold has nothing to do with preventing a person from breathing.  We've heard it referrred to as an Upper Body Control Hold.  That's fine by us.  Perhaps agencies can be unoriginal and implement the Lateral Vascular Neck Restraint program since it's a proven method.

Not allowing the law enforcement community to use a technique that is safely used everyday in Brazilian Jiujitsu and Judo schools everywhere is foolish at best.

—George Demetriou—