Video: UAE astronaut Sultan Al Neyadi becomes first person to practise jiu-jitsu on International Space Station

Video: UAE astronaut Sultan Al Neyadi becomes first person to practise jiu-jitsu on International Space Station

Dubai: UAE astronaut Sultan Al Neyadi, on Thursday scripted yet another chapter in history by becoming the first person to practise jiu-jitsu in space.

The intrepid explorer, who is on the longest Arab space mission on the International Space Station (ISS), shared a six-minute video that showed how the martial art helped him thrive in the microgravity laboratory and perform his historic spacewalk.

“Discipline, focus, & adaptability I gained from #JiuJitsu have been invaluable to me on the ISS,” he said in the description for the video.

“Even in microgravity, the moves & postures I learned on Earth serve me well up here,” Al Neyadi pointed out.

“Oss! What Jiu-Jitsu moves would you be interested in doing in space?” he asked his followers using the hashtags #UAEJJF and #FromMatsToStars

A jiu-jitsu fighter for several years, Al Neyadi appeared in his jiu-jitsu kimono in the video from the orbiting laboratory 420km above Earth. The kimono is one of the personal belongings that he had taken along with him for the six-month-long space odyssey.

Proclaiming his love for the martial art, he says: “I’ve been doing jiu-jitsu for so many years. And I think jiu-jitsu helped me a lot during my preparation with this mission and getting adapted