#167 | Kyle Mccutchen and Alfred Murillo - How Jiu-Jitsu helps Law Enforcement and the Community

Guns and Gis event

Kyle is a martial arts instructor and law enforcement professional. He is a black belt in Jiu-Jitsu and he’s been training in a wide array of martial arts disciplines for decades. He specializes in training and defensive tactics for his department. Kyle is the owner and head-instructor of Kindred Jiu-Jitsu.

Kyle has been teaching people martial arts from disparate backgrounds such as counselors, law enforcement, artists, businessmen, and more. Learning a recreation in gross motor coordination or in a sport can provide vitality, character development, and bonding with yourself and your community. 

The Jiu-Jitsu mats or any sport can provide the opportunity to confront yourself, your opponent, and the world. During a time when conflict resolution tactics, self-care, and self-worth are directly in our culture’s attention what better form of play is there than Jiu-Jitsu: a martial art of leverage, pure effort, and human contact? 

Our current cultural landscape is straining with gender roles, sexual identity, violence, homeless, policing, and responsibility. The Jiu-Jitsu scene in western Washington is wild- brimming with martial artists from all walks of life biting at the bit to win their next tournament, Kumite, or just put it all down at the weekend open mat.

 I see Kyle and other martial artists as practitioners of violence and responsibility through their chosen martial arts. They express love through their practice with their training partners that build very deep bonds. Jiu-Jitsu requires a high level of trust amongst training partners. It also demands appropriate reactions so your partner is ready for a real competition or self-defense scenario. This creates an environment where honesty, trust, and respect for the other person are integral. Without that level of comradery, the environment loses its community. 

All of us accommodate people to help them through a scenario like holding a door for someone, going easy on them in a basketball game, inflating their ego with nice-isms like you don’t look fat, or you’re just having an off day, etc… When does this kindness go unbalanced with… reality? In games, the truth is much easier to come by. Jiu-Jitsu is a game where the skillset is very applicable to everyday human life and interaction. Jiu-Jitsu is a game where you take care of each other so you can practice bringing them an inch away from injury or unconsciousness. 

The fact that Kyle is in a cultural hotspot for progressive ideology, he specializes in training and defensive tactics for a police department, and teaches/trains Jiu-Jitsu is a beautiful coming together of conflicts and resolutions.

Research study on Predicting law enforcement confidence in going ‘hands-on’: the impact of martial arts training,use-of-force self-efficacy, motivation, and apprehensiveness

“ Results indicate that MAT(Martial Arts Training) and high perceived UOF(Use Of Force) self-efficacy safely predict confidence in going hands-on, even after accounting for perceived motivation and apprehensiveness. Nonetheless, apprehensiveness, but not motivation, remains a strong predictor of not being confident in going hands-on. ” Link To Study

You can learn more about Alfy at his youtube channel, pooh.Jitsu. You can learn more about Kyle and Kindred Jiu-Jitsu at Kindredjj.com