Professor Steve Barnes is a jiu-jitsu black belt and a police officer of more than ten years who has worked as a use-of-force instructor and served on a SWAT team in California. He first tried jiu-jitsu in New Jersey after watching the UFC, got choked by a much smaller opponent and walked away, then trained in college at Arizona State before returning in earnest after the police academy. A white-belt hip toss on a 240-pound officer in a padded suit during a department training scenario changed how everyone saw the rookie, and he believes he owes much of his career to the art.

Steve tells of a 3 a.m. call where a much larger man punched him and his body went straight to an armbar before his mind caught up, proof that you "fall to the level of your training." He explains the mindset of making it home, telling the people he arrests "it's only business," and building a mental training file through realistic scenarios and visualization. He talks about jiu-jitsu as stress inoculation, the one-minute rounds he gives officers in his ground-fighting class, and why he has never seen a bad officer stick with jiu-jitsu. Professor Lucas Rubbo thanks him for the law enforcement open mats he organizes in Arizona.

In this episode

• 0:00 Welcome
• 1:03 Meet Professor Steve Barnes
• 3:12 How jiu-jitsu and policing intertwined
• 7:26 The hip toss that earned trust
• 10:34 Don't just hope you're good enough
• 13:46 The 3 a.m. armbar
• 16:57 Falling to the level of your training
• 20:10 The mindset behind real force
• 26:35 Realistic training and visualization
• 32:59 Stress inoculation and staying calm
• 40:24 A tense arrest at a traffic stop
• 44:44 Being the officer others count on
• 52:02 Never a bad cop on the mats
• 55:16 Open mats and closing thoughts

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