Staying Fit to Fight Through Fighting

Photo By Staff Sgt. Kevin Long | U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. Adrian Cook, 52nd Security Forces Squadron military working dog handler (top), climbs on top of Airman First Class Joseph Miner, 52nd Security Forces Squadron member (bottom), during a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu match at the gym on Spangdahlem Air Base, Germany, Sept. 22, 2021. Cook is an instructor for Miner, and a handful of other members that are part of the Carlos Machado Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Academy on the base. (U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Kevin Long)  

SPANGDAHLEM AIR BASE, RHEINLAND-PFALZ, GERMANY

09.22.2021

Story by Senior Airman Kevin Long 

AFN Spangdahlem

SPANGDAHLEM AIR BASE, Germany –
Every Airman in the U.S. Air Force needs to stay fit to fight. For a few members of the 52nd Fighter Wing, they chose fighting as their way to stay fit.
Staff Sgt. Adrian Cook is a 52nd Security Forces Squadron military working dog handler here at Spangdahlem Air Base. When he isn’t training his K-9 at work, you can find him training members of the Carlos Machado Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Academy on base.
“I’m the head instructor here and my job is to no longer think about me, but instead think about everybody else,” said Cook, “that same mentality I have teaching here is the same mentality I have when I’m teaching my guys on the law enforcement side.”
Cook has been practicing Jiu-Jitsu for about 8 years after discovering the sport through another martial arts club that he was part of.
“When I got back to the states after my first assignment to Spangdahlem, I got into Muay Thai. That school was also offering Jiu-Jitsu, so I saw it as a way to challenge myself,” said Cook.
Cook was reassigned to Spangdahlem in 2019 and that’s when he joined the Carlos Machado Academy here, which happens to be the first official branch of the academy in mainland Europe.
“The Carlos Machado Academy was founded 1967 from Master Carlos Machado. The Machado brothers are cousins to the original founders of the sport of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu,” said Cook.
Airman First Class Joseph Miner, 52nd Security Forces Squadron member, is one of Cook’s students who was drawn to the sport because of his experience with wrestling in the past.
“I started wrestling when I was 13. I won my first conference championship my first year and I just kept wrestling from there,” said Miner.
Miner unfortunately reached a point in life where his day to day schedule was getting busier and he was forced to make a choice.
“It was hard maintaining three part-time jobs, school and wrestling, so wrestling had to go. After that I felt lost. So then I joined the military to try to find a sense of belonging and I got stationed to Spangdahlem,” said Miner.
Miner knew joining the military was the right choice for him, but he still felt something missing from his life and he knew exactly what it was; wrestling.
“I found out about Cook running this Jiu-Jitsu club and I thought I would try it out for a bit. Ever since then, I’ve been having a lot of fun,” said Miner, “Being part of a team and everything gives me a sense of belonging. It’s a good feeling.”
Miner isn’t the only person who is drawn to the sport for the comradery you receive from being part of a team.
“A lot of veterans end up looking towards this sport after military service. There are a lot of organizations within Jiu-Jitsu that work towards raising awareness for veteran suicide and things like that,” said Cook, “there’s a saying that goes around that’s “Jiu-Jitsu saved my life,” and a lot of people say that because it makes them feel like that finally have a purpose. I give these guys something to fight for.”
Cook strives to become master of the sport, but his overall ambitions have shifted to focus more on helping his team grow as well as guiding others to discover the benefits you receive from joining.
“Jiu-Jitsu is family. It’s a really close circle of like-minded people,” said Cook, “this is like a type of therapy, or meditation...and there is no better feeling than knowing that these people want you around.”
Members of the Carlos Machado Academy here walk away from each practice with more technical knowledge about the sport, but they also leave with important lessons to apply to their daily lives.
“The biggest lesson that Jiu-Jitsu teaches people is that sometimes you have to learn to be comfortable in bad situations because the pressure is temporary,” said Cook, “some situations you’re put in through life are going to be tough but you’ve got to breathe, relax, and focus on one thing at a time.”

• Date Taken: 09.22.2021
• Date Posted: 09.27.2021 07:55
• Story ID: 406070
• Location: SPANGDAHLEM AIR BASE, RHEINLAND-PFALZ, DE