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Fort Benning, Georgia. (April 28, 2025): In this photo by Staff Sergeant Cayce Watson, Soldiers compete to win the Lacerda Cup, an Army-wide Combatives tournament that tests soldiers hand-to-hand fighting skills. The competition is named in honor of Staff Sergeant Pedro Lacerda, the first Black Belt professor of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu with the 75^th Ranger Regiment. The Army’s Combatives Program builds mental and physical toughness by training Soldiers in close quarters fighting techniques while instilling the warrior ethos that prepares Soldiers to close with and destroy the enemy. As of this writing, the Army has trained more than three million soldiers in hand-to-hand combat.

Jiu-jitsu is a Japanese and Brazilian martial art focused on grappling and ground fighting techniques, emphasizing leverage and technique over strength. It is a classical martial art that teaches defenders to use their opponents’ size and strength against them. This is done through a series of grappling moves that control and manipulate an opponent’s body on the ground. The goal is to force an opponent to submit through techniques like chokes, arm bars, and leg locks.