By TIM GRISWOLD
As a student, practitioner, and instructor in the trade of firefighting, I have been involved in fire service training for the past 20 years. Over that time, I have found most fire service training to be skill-based, focusing on specific techniques to conduct searches, advance hose, force doors, and so on. Often missed are the intangibles such as stress inoculation and tactical decision making. These skills are just as important as the tangible skills needed to operate on the fireground.
The most ideal way to train in these areas is live fire training in acquired structures. With these opportunities becoming more and more limited, it is important to find alternative ways to train the mind to operate in the high-intensity, dynamic environment present on the fireground. For me, this alternative is Jiu Jitsu.
I started Jiu Jitsu because of my desire to follow the sources of those from whom I have learned. I had always done this with books, creating my reading list from the bibliographies of books I have read. I turned to Jiu Jitsu after taking Aaron Fields’ “Nozzle Forward” class. I’ve taken it multiple times, and I was intrigued by Fields’ strong background in grappling sports and how he incorporated body mechanics and leverage into moving hose. I knew I needed to dig deeper into this and learn more for myself.
I first stepped into Heavy Mettle Jiu Jitsu in North Hampton, New Hampshire, in December 2017. There were a few academies in the area, but I picked that one because I was intrigued by the name. In Webster’s Dictionary, “mettle” is defined as “a person’s ability to cope well with difficulties or to face a demanding situation in a spirited and resilient way.” Despite this reference to mental strength, I intended to learn Jiu Jitsu for one reason: to improve my body mechanics to move more efficiently and effectively while performing firefighting tasks. What I found was an untapped gold mine of opportunity when it comes to fire service training and preparedness.
(1) In Jiu Jitsu, it pays getting comfortable with being uncomfortable. (Photos courtesy of author.)
When it came to the body mechanics, movement, and physical abilities I was looking for, Jiu Jitsu was very pertinent. Many Jiu Jitsu techniques rely on leverage rather than pure strength, which is a much more efficient way of working, whether you are grappling with an opponent or advancing a hoseline. However, I found the other benefits from training in Jiu Jitsu to be just as or even more helpful toward prepping for the job of firefighting than just body mechanics. The two biggest benefits have been tactical decision making and stress inoculation.
Stress Inoculation
In addition to the Jiu Jitsu skills I have learned over the past three years, the biggest thing I’ve learned on the mat is the ability to get comfortable being uncomfortable. Prior to the current COVID-19 related restrictions, students would show up to class and train with whomever else was there. For me, this usually meant training with someone bigger; stronger; and, most often, better at Jiu Jitsu. In turn, this meant that I spent a lot of time pinned on my back while my bigger, stronger training partner attempted to submit me by choke or joint lock. As you might imagine, this can be a very uncomfortable situation. Mentally, it brought me to the same space as when I was first put into a high-heat, zero-visibility environment with a limited air supply.
Much like firefighting, the only way to win in this uncomfortable situation is to stay calm and work through it. You must learn to control your breathing and stay calm. As in firefighting, where you need to control your breathing because of a limited air supply, in Jiu Jitsu you must stay calm and control your breathing to avoid getting fatigued. And, just as in a fire, staying calm is not enough; you still must execute skills requiring both technical precision and physical ability.
Stress inoculation is not perfect; to get a useful degree of protection, it must be applied precisely. Although our field’s purest form of stress inoculation is live fire training that uses acquired structures with realistic fire conditions, these opportunities are becoming increasingly rare. In some cases, stress is artificially introduced into training scenarios with loud music, banging tools, or screaming instructors. In my experiences as a student and an instructor, these artificial stressors are more of an annoyance or a distraction. Because they are easily recognized as unnatural, they do not produce the same heart-rate- increasing anxiety as a true stressor. And although these artificial stressors provide barriers to communication and add some difficulty to training, they do very little to provide true discomfort.
Jiu Jitsu can provide a safe way to place yourself in a truly uncomfortable situation while you work through stress and solve problems. Although this does not replace the need for realistic live fire training, it fills a void of stress inoculation training and can be practiced with much greater frequency.
Tactical Decision Making
I first learned of the OODA (Observe, Orient, Decide, Act) loop in Christopher Brennan’s book The Combat Position and dug deeper into this concept in Robert Coram’s Boyd: The Fighter Pilot Who Changed the Art of War. United States Air Force Pilot Colonel John Boyd first developed the OODA loop as a method of tactical decision making. This method of observing a situation, orienting your mindset based on past experiences, making a decision, and then acting on it was later made relevant to the fireground by Brennan. This method of thinking allows us to make decisions quickly in a high-stress environment based on training and experience.
Boyd used this to gain the nickname “Forty-Second Boyd” for his standing bet as an instructor pilot that, beginning from a position of disadvantage, he could defeat any opposing pilot in air combat maneuvering in less than 40 seconds. This method of decision making is very valuable on the fireground because of the need for quick, tactically sound decisions in a dynamic environment. I quickly realized that, just as in Boyd’s airspace and Brennan’s fireground, the OODA loop was being practiced on the Jiu Jitsu mat.
(2) Jiu Jitsu “problem solving.”
When I first started Jiu Jitsu, I thought it was all about the skills, but I quickly realized it was all about decision making. To be good at Jiu Jitsu, you need to recognize what your opponent is doing, figure out quickly what skills you know to counter it, decide which skill to use, and then properly execute that skill. Although you are moving through this process quickly, your opponent is doing the same, forcing you to constantly adjust and readjust. You may find yourself moving through this OODA loop many times each minute. Although the fireground environment is very different than the Jiu Jitsu mat, the rapidly dynamic high-stress decision making and tactical execution of learned skills processes through which you put your mind and body are much the same. Through Jiu Jitsu, you will run your brain through this tactical decision-making process many more times than you will when on the fireground. You are conditioning your brain to think in this way in a state of deep practice, much like Daniel Coyle describes in his book The Talent Code.
Besides body mechanics, stress inoculation, and tactical decision making, Jiu Jitsu has many other benefits. Some of these are cardiovascular endurance, confidence building, self-defense, and building a community outside of work. I highly recommend Jiu Jitsu to any firefighter looking to improve professionally and personally. Although I am just at the beginning of my Jiu Jitsu journey, it has become an important part of my physical and mental conditioning. Over the past three years, it has had a positive impact on all other aspects of my life. I hope to see you on the mat!
References
1. Brennan C. The Combat Position. Tulsa, PennWell Corporation, 2011.
2. Coram R. Boyd: The Fighter Pilot Who Changed the Art of War. New York, Back Bay Books, 2002.
3. Coyle D. The Talent Code. New York, Bantam Books, 2009.
4. Grossman D. On Combat. Mascoutah, Killology Research Group, 2012.
TIM GRISWOLD began his fire service career in 2000 as a fire explorer. He attended the University of New Haven (CT), where he earned bachelors’ degrees in fire administration and fire and arson investigation. He joined the Portsmouth (NH) Fire Department in 2012 and has been assigned primarily to an ambulance. Griswold is also a staff instructor with the New Hampshire Fire Academy.
