What martial art does the CIA use?

For years, the CIA has had a secretive and infamous reputation. This is for good measure too, as it guards the secrets of the US government and its name central intelligence agency should act as a bit of a giveaway.

As a result, CIA agents and their goings-on are often shrouded in mystery. One of those mysteries is what martial arts CIA agents train if any at all. Here, we shall assess what training the average CIA agent does – and how good they are when it comes to combat.

Remember, the average role of a CIA agent is typically a lot less dramatic compared to their profession as portrayed in the movies. Hopefully, you won’t be too underwhelmed but it’s fair to say that CIA agents aren’t super-fighting machines like you’ll see with Jason Bourne.

Most CIA agents barely know martial arts

As we previously said, you may be underwhelmed to find out that most CIA agents don’t know much in the way of martial arts. This is because their job isn’t as action-packed as it may first seem. In fact, the average CIA agent may be trained to read people and acquire information about people without causing physical harm. After all, this makes sense from a logical standpoint.

You wouldn’t want to cause a scene if you could extract information by manipulation and using your brain. In other words, most CIA agents aren’t required to train martial arts. Having said this, some bodies of the CIA will involve martial arts.

Remember, the CIA is a huge governmental body with lots of arms and influence. So, it makes sense that a CIA assassin would learn more about martial arts and violence compared to someone with a far less dangerous job. Here are a few things that CIA agents can learn

CIA agents may learn weapons training

As sad as it may sound, the best MMA fighter in the world would lose in a gun fight against an overweight, out of shape person. So long as the non-MMA fighter had a good aim and awareness, they would win.

With this philosophy in mind, weapons training is probably the most commonly taught martial art in the CIA. Whether using weapons is a martial art is up to personal debate. Nonetheless, you will find that some CIA agents have basic training when it comes to weapons.

For the most part, this involves guns and the art of tactical shooting. This can include pistols and bigger firearms and basically teaches people how to shoot and avoid getting hit.

Weapons training can also encompass other weapons such as knives and street weapons that could also be used in a possible scenario. Here, CIA practitioners may go through some Krav Maga-type ways of disarming blades from close-up. Generally though, most of the CIA training isn’t based on martial arts or weapons – so these activities may only make up a small part of the curriculum.

CIA agents are modern-day Ninjutsu practitioners

Aside from basic weapons training, the closest martial art as a CIA agent is Ninjutsu. Whilst the art of being a Japanese feudal ninja may have died out long ago, its spying principles still remain hugely relevant today. Arguably, Ninjutsu will never truly die out, as long as the world has a need for spies and espionage.

As stated earlier, being a CIA agent often involves bringing as little attention to yourself as possible and avoiding conflict. This is where Ninjutsu comes into play and philosophies such as verbal Judo can be used to extract information, or keep the heat off yourself.

One aspect of Ninjutsu is also the art of surveillance detection. This is also pretty important if you’re in the CIA and the ability to go unseen or shake off attention can be crucial. In the early days of your training, you may be taught how to lose cars if they’re following you, or act without leaving any evidence. In other words, Ninjutsu may sound fancy but it basically explains the role of an old-school spy. As a result, it’s very obvious that Ninjutsu is used by the CIA.

CIA agents can learn martial arts, in their own time

Much like those in the military, martial arts may be encouraged – but as an extracurricular activity. As previously stated, a lot of time in the CIA is spent on gathering intelligence – rather than fighting. So, it may be surprising but a tiny fraction of time and energy is spent on combat, with the bulk of resources instead being put into intelligence and information gathering.

At the same time, if you’re a CIA agent who feels that their job puts them in danger, then you may want to learn a martial art such as boxing or Judo. These disciplines will have positives such as increasing fitness but may also come in handy if you do ever get attacked whilst on the job.

Summary

When most people think of CIA agents, they often think of Jason Bourne or James Bond. However, this stereotype is mostly based on movie tropes instead of reality. For the most part, being a CIA agent involves little combat. Furthermore, the bulk of combat may revolve around firearms rather than hand-to-hand combat.

Therefore, it doesn’t make much sense for CIA agents to learn much in the way of martial arts. To conclude, your average CIA agent will certainly be more clued up on fighting compared to the average member of the public. However, if you’re expecting them to be skilled black belts and expert fighters then you’d be very wrong.

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