Sitting cross-legged on a pile of mats inside a noisy Blomquist Recreation Center, Adam Orlov wears a white robe, a black belt and an easygoing grin.
It has been more than five years since Orlov, 35, has sported the stiff blue jacket of an Evanston police officer, but he talks about capturing a wanted criminal as if it happened last week.
“I chased him for a few blocks, and when I caught up to him he turned around and raised his hands (to fight),” Orlov said. “Before I even knew what I was doing, I did a Jujutsu technique that involved putting him on the ground on his stomach. He was on the ground, and even I was like, ‘Wow.'”
For Orlov, one of five instructors for the Northwestern University ParaCombatives Jujutsu Club, Jujutsu is both an art of self-defense and a source of self-esteem. Practicing the Japanese martial art gave him the confidence for a four-year career with the Evanston Police Department, he said.
Orlov joined EPD in 1995 — the same year he began instructing for the Jujutsu club.
Jujutsu, he said, teaches students the same traits an officer needs: how to be aware, alert and always ready to practice self-defense.
“A lot of Northwestern students don’t realize that the west side of Evanston and the south side of Evanston, they can be very dangerous areas,” he said. “(At club), we practice for real-life kind of situations. If you’re walking at Foster and Ridge and three or four guys come up to you, what do you do?”
Orlov, Weinberg ’91, joined NU’s club in 1989 before becoming one of the instructors. He said he teaches using everyday objects, like umbrellas, that students could use for defense.
But Jujutsu is as much mental as physical.
Orlov pointed to a patch on his robe that had a red circle superimposed by two Japanese characters. The characters translate to “bushido,” or “the way of the warrior.”
“It’s not called the way of fighting,” he said. “It’s the way of the warrior. When to fight, when not to fight.”
Orlov said he teaches his students that a little bit of self-confidence can go a long way in protecting themselves on the streets — without having to raise a hand.
While working at EPD, he said, criminals often would tell how they selected their victims.
“They said they looked for people who weren’t as aware of their surroundings, and who gave this type of look,” he said, casting his eyes toward the ground.
Orlov, who has three black belts in Jujutsu, travels from Chicago to teach. The Jujutsu club meets Tuesdays and Thursdays at 6 p.m.
During the week Orlov runs a start-up hedge fund from a downtown office.
He said he learned what he knows about martial arts and life from John Lewis, who founded the club in 1977 and instructed until he died in 1996.
“John was just an incredible martial artist and teacher and friend to the students,” he said.
Jujutsu club president John Heins said Orlov is “like an uncle.”
“I feel like what I’ve learned here is almost more important that anything I’ve learned at school,” said the Communication senior.
Reach Marissa Conrad at [email protected].
