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Foreword by

Steve Hiscoe

Daily law enforcement officers are called in to intervene and manage situations that the general public are unable to solve. These situations can range from trivial in nature to affecting the arrest of violent individuals. These arrests can sometimes lead to physical confrontations resulting in all-out-knock-down-drag-‘em-out fights.

That being said, it is inevitable that officers will find themselves, at some point in their career, fighting on the ground. Over the past 20 years, the law enforcement community has seen the introduction of new and innovative intervention options, such as pepper spray, defensive batons, and conducted energy weapons (tasers) added to their duty belts. Moreover, the physical description of police officers has changed dramatically, from mostly physically large males, to a diverse workforce, which includes men and women of all shapes, sizes, and ages.

As such police training has seen the emphasis move away from physical hands on combative style training to more of a reliance on the use of intermediate intervention options. The result is that during any arrest situations police officers bring weapons with them. Therefore during a ground fight, these weapons are difficult to access for the officer and could also be available for the subject to grab. Therefore, when you’re rolling around in the mud, the blood and the beer, the goal is not to submit but rather to control your suspect and get them handcuffed. Bad guys are learning to ground fight from watching television and would take extreme pleasure from making a cop “tap out.” Unfortunately, tapping out is not an option for a cop.

As a martial artist of 35 years and 20+ year veteran police officer, I have found myself in many arrest situations where a suspect has wanted to hurt me or take me to the ground. My ability to recognize pre-attack threat cues and take action immediately has kept me safe. As a police officer the last place I want to be is on the ground. I am also a national level Public and Police Safety Instructor with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (R.C.M.P). As such, I have had the opportunity to participate and evaluate several ground fighting programs advertised as being for law enforcement. Many of these programs have simply taken the sport application and attempted to apply it to law enforcement, which is not that easy.

I first met Lori O’Connell Sensei about 10 years ago when she moved to the Vancouver area of British Columbia, Canada. After meeting at several training seminars and camps that I had hosted, it was not difficult to recognize her enthusiasm and passion for jiu-jitsu and the martial arts. During these past 10 years she has become the highest ranking woman in Can-Ryu in all of Western Canada. To challenge herself and take her learning to the next level, she began to explore BJJ and MMA concepts related to ground fighting. Lori was also seeking how to incorporate this knowledge into the Can-Ryu system. Recognizing her talent and extreme energy for the topic, I personally asked her to review our curriculum’s existing ground defense techniques and see where improvements could be made. I did place one condition on her research; that the techniques had to be consistent with the existing principles of our style. Lori accepted the challenge and put her analytical to mind to work. Lori spent many hours trying out new techniques and counter tactics while taking her own physical attributes into consideration. You see, Lori is about 5’3” and weighs around 124 pounds, which means she cannot rely on her size to control someone, she has to rely on her technique.

Lori conducted a seminar to demonstrate the techniques to our black belt instructors, the techniques were so well received that I decided to include them in our main curriculum.

In my professional opinion, I believe the information you will find in this book to be extremely valuable to your safety and personal well-being. Any instructor who teaches self-defense should have this book in their resource library.

—Steven Hiscoe Shihan

8^th Degree Black Belt Can-Ryu Jiu-Jitsu Owner/Chief Instructor Hiscoe Jiu-Jitsu Vice –President Canadian Jiu-Jitsu Union Chilliwack, British Columbia