Photo By Petty Officer 1st Class William Phillips | The Warrior Brigade aboard Naval Support Activity Bethesda held an adaptive combative...... read more read more
An instructor at a recent adaptive combatives workshop aboard Naval Support Activity Bethesda (NSAB) told a story of how he was in pain recently and didn’t want to keep training that day.
“Do you know what it’s like to teach with just one arm?” Rob Kahn asked Richard Cicero, his co-instructor.
“Yeah, I do.” Cicero responded, motioning to where his right arm used to be.
Kahn said that was the first time he put his foot in his mouth that badly since meeting Cicero four years ago. The two met after Cicero, a military contractor, was injured in a blast in 2010 where he lost his right arm and right leg and received major damage to his left leg.
“As part of my rehab, I got involved with Brazilian jiu jitsu to get stronger and more self-confident,” he said.
Cicero, a former Army paratrooper, had never done jiu jitsu before, but he had taught defensive tactics as a police officer and had done other mixed martial arts.
“So when it came time to roll into this, it became a new way of learning to understand my body,” he said. “The great thing Rob said when he looked at me, he said, ‘We’re not going to worry about how we’re going to do the techniques, we’re going to figure out the techniques you can do and then we’re going to figure out how to get you into those positions later.’”
When Kahn first started working with Cicero, he said that Cicero wanted help standing up.
“He couldn’t stand up without getting hold of something and walking up,” Kahn said. “We just kind of studied it for a few minutes and I came up with a way for him to stand up. Once he nailed down the technique he was standing up on his own within 10 seconds.”
Now, Cicero is teaching others and along with Kahn has developed a training program to teach adaptive combative workshops. They’ve been to other bases teaching their techniques, but the Aug. 17-18 workshop was the first time the two came to NSAB where they taught techniques such as how to balance, how to stand, how to move, how to maintain that balance, and how to fall.
“We work with people with varying degrees of injuries from amputations all up,” said Kahn who teaches jiu jitsu in Tampa, Fla. “We focus more on what they can do, and not necessarily on what they can’t do.”
Kahn, a 20-year jiu jitsu veteran, has been successful at modifying the techniques to make them work for the various injuries people have like he did with Cicero. They are looking to take the adaptive combative program to as many service members as possible. At last week’s workshop, the two worked individually with each person, showing them how to move one foot at an angle to provide better balance and not aggravate an injury, or how to move with their lead foot or how to get someone in a clinch.
“When I first started going to the combatives, I’d hear the young soldiers (saying) ‘What’s that old guy doing here, he’s all busted up and old enough to be my dad,’ and then 20 minutes later, they’re going ‘Aggh! Stop, what are you doing?’” Cicero said. “Now they learned a new level of respect because I’m not just the cripple that came to visit, I came to teach you something.”
The purpose of the workshop is to provide wounded, injured and ill service members another outlet for recovery, and the rehabilitative program is open to anyone at any level.
“The thing to remember is that individuals who come here to Walter Reed [National Military Medical Center], they’re Warriors, so you maintain that Warrior mentality,” said Warrior Transition Unit Staff Sgt. George Freeman. “People join the military because they want to fight – not necessarily that’s what they want to do all the time, but that idea of involving themselves in some type of camaraderie with other individuals, and showing their confidence and their willing, undying spritis to be capable and confident.”
The adaptive combative program is designed to be a unique program to help individuals whether they are amputees, have a traumatic brain injury or are dealing with post-traumatic stress disorder, etc.
“We want to get the guys to living and doing things and feeling more self-confident, not just about their lives but how they live their lives,” Cicero said.
He said a lot of service members are used to being the one that everyone depended on, but after their injury they turn into someone who feels they lost all their power.
“I lost all my mojo, I’ve lost everything that made me a strong man or woman,” he said. “And we’re here to tell them that that’s still there. We’re here to give you all the tools to still feel strong about that and when guys understand what is available to them they generally get empowered by themselves and not someone else. You can’t put a price tag on that.”
Those interested in learning more about the adaptive combative program can reach out to Cicero by calling him at 434-294-5833.
| Date Taken: | 08.25.2016 |
| Date Posted: | 08.26.2016 08:53 |
| Story ID: | 208278 |
| Location: | BETHESDA, MD, US |
| Web Views: | 158 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Adaptive Combative Work Shop Teaches Balance, Strength, by Andrew Damstedt, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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