Chris McCune wears an eighth-degree black belt. I often don’t wear a belt. McCune is a master of Kung Fu San Soo, a world champ in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and owner of McCune’s Martial Arts in Brooklyn Park. I am a freelance writer, a maker of serviceable sentences and wearer of sweatpants in my home office.
Those are our distinctions as I leave my office for a training session at his center. He welcomes me with a firm – yet not crushing – handshake. To the seemingly nice guy with more than 25 years experience in martial arts, I repeat what I told him on the phone: I’ve never done this before. “You’re going to be with a guy that has been training for a few months,” McCune says, putting me a little bit at ease. “We’ll get you choked out a few times,” he soon adds, taking away that ease.
Before one of his routine all-levels Jiu Jitsu classes, McCune gives me the rundown on his 8-year-old business on 3,600 square feet inside an office park near Interstate 169. He differentiates his center by offering classes in MMA (mixed martial arts), Kung Fu San Soo (self defense) and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu to a membership base of about 60 clients. An increased interest in MMA leagues such as UFC has McCune looking to expand to a vacant 1,800 square feet next door. “Guys gravitate to MMA, but I try to keep other classes available because sometimes they say, ‘I don’t have a desire to get punched in the face for the next hour and a half. I want to roll on the mat,’” McCune says.
For me on this day, it’s Jiu Jitsu for similar reasons. No. 1: I’ve been in one fight in my 28 years. No. 2: My glass nose couldn’t withstand even the lightest of jabs.
After I dress in my borrowed “gi” – or standard white uniform – and learn how to tie the matching white belt, I meet my training partner, 19-year-old Nabeel Osman of Fridley. We learn hip escapes, leg pins and shoulder rolls. He shares why he wants to learn martial arts. “It’s everything: confidence, losing weight, agility,” said Osman, who has shed 65 pounds in several months of working out and practicing jiu jitsu.
Between moves, I adjust my white belt and see on the wall how much it takes to reach the pinnacle. Belt ranks start at white and go yellow, orange, green, blue, purple, brown before reaching black. It’s a long process that takes perseverance.
McCune seconds that as we take a break. He says that in the U.S., our goal is short-term gratification; while in eastern cultures, it’s about cherishing the journey in long-term goals. McCune’s goal is to have a welcoming training center focusing on long-term wellness and helpful trainers.
McCune’s help for me comes with encouragement to practice moves on him. He reacts in slow motion, and quickly catches me in a compromised position. He slowly bends my elbow back and says, “I don’t want to crank on joints,” he says. “If I get you, I get you. If you get me, you get me. It’s all just another position.”
He emphasizes for me to “tap out” if a hold or position is too painful. We try some other moves. I move a bit faster – enjoying myself and displaying unfounded confidence. He waits and catches me again with my head and right arm in a leg lock called “the triangle.”
I try to stand up to get out of the lock. I feel my eyes slowly roll back in my head. As I’m drifting off, I faintly hear, “Don’t forget to tap ou---.”
He lets go, and I regain consciousness second later. McCune is lying there, giving me a soft smirk.
After changing back into street clothes, I remember McCune’s parting words, “Come back and roll with us!”
I’m seriously entertaining it – choke outs and all.
-McCune’s Martial Arts; 763.416.0333. Monthly memberships start at $99, with a beginning option for a free week of training.
