On duty I was attacked several times and Jiu Jitsu helped me a lot dealing with it. Most of the time from a „ready“ position, closing distance safely to clinch.
One time I got smacked heavily out of the blue with a wild kind of uppercut directly to my face, immediate blood spill from the nose but fortunately I wasn’t out and could fight back, fellow officers were standing nearby and helped.
In arrest and control tactics on the ground it helps immense to control the body and arms for cuffing.

Upper body clinch control and transitions also very good out of my experience on duty.

Boosts my self confidence to know some Jiu Jitsu

Last weekend, my nephew wanted to fly so I hit him with the ol' balloon sweep.

Once in a nightclub in Portugal and a few times at work. (Construction)

So far (knock on wood), in 23 years working as a Canadian Border Officer, I've not had to really use any. I created some distance with a frame once on a drunk guy, but that's it.

Every time I slip or fall...

Sometimes when I stand up.

And other odd circumstances.

While I was a brown belt, I became a bouncer at a night club. I used chokes twice. Hands up "it's ok buddy" gesture then plum with a swift knee to stomach while goin for simple guillotine choke. 2nd was arm dragged someone and RNC a guy .. nearly killed him because he fell head first and foam coming out of his mouth....

As a blue belt, I was at a friends fest in Germany and a scuffle broke out. I went over to make sure it didn't get out of hand and some a-hole walked right up to me and grabbed my shoulder. I tried to hip toss him but he moved so I switched to Osoto-Gari, got him down, went to Kesa, tied up one arm with my legs and the other with a one arm Americana and proceeded to ask him if he was done. A few seconds later, when he realized he couldn't do anything he was. I let him up and up everything died down.

Subsequently I had every 20 year old in the place asking me to show them an RNC for the rest of the weekend :)

🤔🤨🤫

Ok.. a little more context... He's the president of a motor cycle riding club there and they put on a fest every year as a fund raiser. :-)

Boring answer, and perhaps not what you were really seeking....

I'm never really in situations where I would need to fight, but I'm old enough now where I have had some funny need to use some of the fundamentals from martial arts, especially BJJ:

While recovering from surgeries, the mix of pain and meds made it very hard to even sit up, let alone stand up. Ended up "building up a structure" with the whole getting an elbow underneath me, propping up, and building up until I could sit, or "going to turtle" and doing other silliness until I could gradually get to my feet. But wait, there's more. Once on my feet, I was so unsteady (dizzy) that I could hardly walk and I was worried about falling, so I could only get around while basically in a standing, fighting posture, and shuffling my feet -- the whole lead foot step, slide-drag the back foot, etc. Step-slide to the bathroom. Step-slide to the kitchen. Step-slide back to bed. I'm sure I looked ridiculous.

I've had some slips/falls where breakfalls helped and probably reduced what could have been spine or head injury (or broken bones) to bruises.

I think that the pain/discomfort conditioning -- both physical and psychological -- that is built into BJJ has helped in many common situations with family, work, and life. Daily annoyances are not quite as provoking when you are used to training with people who are trying to strangle you unconscious. I was in an interview some years ago where a panel-interviewer asked if I had problems dealing with stressful situations or aggressive people. "No, not a problem."

Having a body that can lift and move many things is also nice.

BJJ has helped me stay humble and grounded about my abilities and limits. There is no illusion about some magic technique or other nonsense that can defeat anyone and everyone regardless of size, strength, etc.

A lot of men engage in subtle -- and sometimes not-so-subtle -- intimidation as part of social interaction and work. I am "self-unemployed" so don't have to deal with much of that anymore, but the few times that it comes up, it is pretty ineffective now. For example, I remember being in a local government employee committee meeting (where I was not the person of scrutiny). A city department manager was ripping apart a friend there, mostly just to humiliate him and throw his weight around, establish dominance with the group, etc. I had been quiet for most of the meeting, but then spoke up and calmly said "No, I'm stopping you right there. That is enough bullying." Apparently no one had ever stood up to the guy. I was in an advantaged position since he had no immediate authority over me (though he tried to retaliate indirectly later). It ended his dominance display... at least for the time. I think that just having (justified, prudent) confidence among men can help things go more smoothly. We probably all need a little "shoulder check" now and then.

I'm not an aggressive person by nature, but I think that BJJ has helped me to be more gentle with people and sensitive to their conditions, trying to interact with them in ways that are cooperative, seek their good, etc. I don't think that BJJ alone would necessarily lead one to that position, but perhaps combined with some philosophy, religion, and life experience.

When dealing with people who are being aggressive -- verbally, socially, politically -- BJJ has been part of what brings some confidence to handle it calmly and try to seek a solution rather than respond emotionally. I think it may also have helped me detect and avoid some of the psychological and social traps that people construct. I won't pretend to always succeed there.

I would credit my decades of general martial arts, philosophical, and religious training for some of the above, but the BJJ training has been a significant factor.

I've had to use judo 3 times in real life. It would have been the same as BJJ. In high school, a "friend" who was always bullying me tried to get physical at a field days event. I locked a choke hold on him and he never bullied me again. I should mention that I was the youngest in my class by 2 years (I began school a year early and then skipped a grade) so I was often the target of bullying (nicknamed Einstein). The second time, a couple of older boys tried to rob me walking home from a guitar lesson. I didn't actually use any judo moves, but my confidence in plowing one of them in the stomach with my guitar and taking off came directly as a result of martial arts training. The third time was an unwanted physical sexual advance (by a guy). I threw on a standing armbar and said "no" in no uncertain terms. The message got across.

I also had to use BJJ techniques in modified forms on more than one occasion during my service to restrain attackers or disruptors. I also always kept the basic principles of takedowns and sweeps in mind when I was on duty.

So many times. You see I am still in HS and this is a brutal environment for us that want to dominate. You have to be prepared to take control. Remain calm when the pressure is high. Making the correct decision when a decision is required. I rely on my training when I am facing the intimating duel credit or college classes. It has taught me to breath and calmly analyze what I need to do to get the desired outcome.
What was the result?
I'll be applying to Princeton next year.

Other than wrestling my friends. I work in youth and addiction care and had to intervene physically a couple of times. To de-escalate situations. Always grateful to be effective in BJJ, so I dont hurt myself or the other.

I wouldn't really say I was forced... but I have used it in real life combat situations.

If you work in professions where you have to have to go hands on regularly, like in law enforcement, corrections, etc…Grappling definitely helps!
BJJ / grappling helped me a lot on duty, but also after duty in relation to stress relief and to to decompress mentally!

I got attacked at a Muay Thai gym once, aggressively, by some dude who had some sort of mental issue. I did a takedown on him and pinned him until he calmed down, but I'm not sure where the line between BJJ and wrestling is drawn on that one.

Doesn’t matter, as long as it works…

Had that multiple times: distance management, closing distance safely to a clinch, maintaining the clinch to takedown. I never wrestled in my whole life and learned that in „old school“ Gracie Jiu Jitsu/ BJJ/ ISR Matrix (which is literally Jiu Jitsu and wrestling for physical management/ control tactics for LE).

I can tell you from long, sad, experience, that we do not cure crazy, nor improve crazy behavior, by beating up the crazies.

The first serious fight I was in after learning Jiu-Jitsu was when my schizophrenic neighbor went off his meds, had a psychotic break, and assaulted me. I was a white belt at the time, but I was thankfully able to avoid my opponent’s strikes, get the clinch, throw him with an osoto gari, move from kesa gatame to mount, take his back when he turned face down, and then secure a rear naked choke (also wrist locking him and finishing the choke one-handed when he tried to gouge my eyes). I pressed assault charges and got my attacker committed to a mental hospital so he could get the help he needed. Some of the standup techniques that I used came from Jeet Kune Do, but once we hit the clinch, it was mostly Jiu-Jitsu.

I used to live in a bad neighborhood and I worked at a bar for a couple of years, so I have been in other scuffles where I have used joint locks or chokes to restrain violent people. I haven’t had to lay hands on anybody for a very long time, largely because I have done a lot of de-escalation training (e.g., Verbal Judo and Gracie Medical Defense). I think one of the biggest advantages of studying Jiu-Jitsu and other martial arts is that it gives you the confidence to de-escalate fights from a position of calmness and strength.

I haven’t been in fights in my civilian life since I was a teenager, except one time on a night out when I was 40 with a good friend, where some scumbags wanted to be cocky in front of their girlfriend 🙄🤷🏼‍♂️… tried to deescalate, defuse and defend…. Worked so so…they were 3 vs 2 of us, so I got kicked and clipped, but in the end 2 of them got a hard landing on the ground and the girl pulled away the other guy. My friend who doesn’t train martial arts got a black eye and a sore hand and got some bruises…. That was it! I am almost 50 and don’t go out very often anymore.
On duty though I had several use of force incidents, hundreds of control tactics situations against aggressive and resistant people and various self defense situations , where I got attacked of course over the last 25 years….Jiu Jitsu isn’t a superpower, but definitely helps.

I have another +1 to the "falling correctly" stories. Last week at pickleball, I laid out on the hard court for a ball, then tucked and rolled through it, coming up in my wrestling stance facing back where I dove from. My brain took a moment to realize that there was no follow up takedown coming, and I walked back over to our court to play the next point. Ended up with the tiniest scrapes on my elbow and knee, along with the tiniest bruises on each hip. Just enough to know that I engaged at least four points of contact aside from my feet, and none of them in an injurous way. Woulda been kinda cool if I had gotten the ball back into play, too.