What martial arts does Jocko Willink know?

Jocko Willink is a best-selling author, motivational speaker, ex-navy SEAL, and also a martial artist. It’s no secret that Willink is physically active and in great shape. He credits this to training martial arts and taking them pretty seriously. As a result, he has also preached the mental benefits of training as well.

In fact, if you listen to his podcast, you’ll realize that Willink is pretty big on martial arts. After his reputation as a former SEAL, it’s probably what he’s best known for and he takes training pretty seriously. Here’s a list of what styles Jocko Willink trains.

Jocko Willink is a BJJ black belt

Undeniably, Willink’s strongest martial art is Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. He is a black belt under Dean Lister who is a legend within the community and Willink has trained with him for years. They even opened a gym together named Victory MMA where they both teach and train. Willink and Lister even promoted his podcast co-host Echo Charles to black belt back in 2019.

Willink began training BJJ in 1992 after being introduced to it by a fellow navy SEAL. Apparently, Willink was physically dominated and took interest as he was learning about combat as a SEAL at the time. So, it made sense that he would take to BJJ. Over 30 years later, it seems that Willink is still as enthusiastic about BJJ as ever.

Not only this – but he is also over 100KG of pure muscle which also helps. Because of this, Willink has been known for his heavy pressure and crushing top game. During his younger years, he competed in BJJ quite a lot and even fought Jeff Monson which can be seen online.

Such is Willink’s love of BJJ that he even part owns a BJJ gi company called Origin Maine. These produce high-quality, US-made BJJ gi’s. In case you hadn’t figured by now, Jocko Willink absolutely loves BJJ and can’t speak about it highly enough.

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Jocko Willink has trained boxing and Muay Thai

Aside from BJJ, Willink is also complimentary towards boxing and Muay Thai. Arguably, these are the two best striking martial arts to learn – so it makes sense that he favors them. It’s not really known how much Willink has trained in these arts or how good he is.

However, we can assume that he doesn’t dedicate as much time to striking as he does to BJJ. Still, seeing as he owns an MMA gym and these are taught on the curriculum, it isn’t surprising. Over the years, you’d expect Willink to at least dabble in striking which is why he speaks highly of boxing and Muay Thai.

Jocko Willink has trained wrestling

Although he’s primarily a BJJ specialist, Jocko can also wrestle pretty well. If you’ve trained BJJ for over 30 years, then you’d expect this to be the case seeing as no gi BJJ incorporates a lot of wrestling as well.

Furthermore, if you’ve seen his BJJ matches then you’ll notice he likes to engage in takedowns from standing. Overall, Willink doesn’t exactly look like a guard puller either. Combined with his 105KG frame, the thought of wrestling Jocko Willink doesn’t sound too promising. In addition to this, you’d expect him to know some Judo as well seeing as he also trains in the gi. As many gi-based athletes also use Judo, it’s very likely that he knows quite a bit. Nonetheless, Willink hasn’t mentioned Judo but has often praised wrestling.

Jocko Willink knows tactical shooting

Over the years, Jocko Willink has also spoken about his thoughts on shooting. In his mind, he sees this as a martial art as it’s a skill that can be performed in combat. Many people share this opinion, although some believe that shooting isn’t a martial art.

Regardless of your opinion, it turns out that Willink happens to pretty good with firearms. This goes back to his SEAL days when he saw action in the Iraq war. Obviously, you’d expect a navy SEAL to have a good aim. Since then, Willink still practices shooting and is complimentary about the safety benefits of being good with guns.

Conclusion

Jocko Willink is certainly a skilled martial artist. Anyone that has put in over 30 years of training into one skill will definitely be proficient and that’s the case with Willink and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. If you dig deeper though, then you’ll also notice that he’s also pretty varied.

As well as BJJ, Willink also knows boxing, Muay Thai, and wrestling. In other words, fighting him would be a nightmare and he could easily beat most men on the planer. When you throw in his firearms skills, it means that Willink is well versed in many disciplines. To sum up, Jocko Willink is a true martial artist.