Jiu-jitsu students build
self confidence through self defense
By Jackson Day
Published in the Douglas Budget Aug. 9, 2023
At the end of last year Chris Dutcher was independently training his daughter in Jiu-jitsu when he knew he needed to share it within the community.
Now, he runs a martial arts school in Douglas where he’s teaching kids and adults alike the value of self confidence, hard work and self defense.
“My wife and I got to talking about some of the different programs in Douglas for boys and girls. We were talking about different sports programs and we noticed there were a lot as far as school sports went, which is great – and a lot of other activities, but there were no martial arts,” Dutcher said.
“I had been training with my daughter at home since she was the age of three. She was about to be about five. She asked me, ‘Daddy, when am I gonna get to train with other little kids?’ I said, ‘Well, I don’t know. I guess we can start a class.’ The inception of this whole thing was just to give the community – especially kids – somewhere to come train, learn some good values and have it be a part of their life.”
For kids in Dutcher’s classes, martial arts are an opportunity to develop themselves both physically and mentally.
“I had some people pick on me in school before,” student Holly Hayes said. “This makes me more confident, so I can stand up to bullies. Plus, it helps me get stronger, for like swimming and P.E. I’m going to do softball next year and this will probably help.”
Dutcher says watching the confidence and health of his students grow is a great achievement. For him, teaching morals and positive philosophies, so that students can develop their own self confidence, is an important aspect of his job as a professor of jiu-jitsu.
“In Gracie Jiu-jitsu, we have a philosophy that’s embodied in the martial arts: Honor, integrity, courage, self lessness, self respect. . . . with the kids program, it’s really important for us to hone in on those values – that are taught usually in the family system at home – and reinforce those,” Dutcher said.
“Self confidence is one of the biggest things. I’ve had a lot of students come in since I’ve started that either had been bullied, maybe they’ve been overweight, maybe they didn’t have any friends, there’s a different variety of reasons; adults as well. They come and they train for a while and they’re able to get that self confidence from training.
“Self confidence is something that they earn themselves. It’s nothing that I teach them. They develop that from training on the mats. Everybody gets that confidence from within and it carries over into the rest of their lives.”
Instructor Tanner Canada explained that while you may never need to use the skills learned in classes, having them can give you confidence to stand up for yourself.
“Not every kid is going to be the victim of bullying. Not every kid is going to get into a fight (when they) have a conflict with a bully. But it gives them the confidence to say something and stand up for themselves as well, because they have something to back up,” Canada said.
“A lot of times, bullies, whenever you tell them no or stand up to them, they don’t want to mess with it. They’re going for the easy target. That’s just as important as the stuff they’re training. We teach them that you have to tell them to stop. It is important (for them) to vocalize and stand their ground.”
Hays seemed to understand this. While she’s never been in an actual fight, she explained how she could use the skills she’s learned if needed.
“Our professor says that we should only use this if they try to hit us. We should never use it for attacking,” Hays said. “It’s an everyday life sort of thing. If you do get in a fight, it helps. What we learned today, if somebody threw a punch at you, you could use that on them to get them down, then, with the choke we used today, when you get them down, you could use the choke on them.”
According to Dutcher the benefits from martial arts are enormous and he hopes to help as many people as possible realize their potential.
“My hope going forward is just to spread martial arts, to spread jiu-jitsu. I believe that it is great for a community. It’s great for kids and teens as far as an activity to keep them out of trouble and teach them values and disciplines,” Dutcher stated.
“Everyone here has experienced some kind of positive benefit from it. I’ve had people lose so much weight they (were able to reduce) cholesterol and blood pressure medicine. I’ve had people gain confidence and stand up to bullies. (I’ve had people) be able to be more assertive in relationships and in their career paths.
“It’s not necessarily how good you are at doing the arts. It’s how good they are for you.”