Many of us wear several hats. Karen Peterson is one of those women who wears them well. Black belt Karen Peterson has been training since 2004. She began training because she was bored with running and although she liked to workout and be fit, she get bored quickly working out on her own. She found Jiu Jitsu and was so intrigued by how challenging it looked and that it was such a great self-defense art. Once she started she was hooked. She trains at her academy in Montclair, NJ, North South BJJ.
She says the biggest challenge for her was the same for many and most women in Bjj, which was creating the place for herself in Jiu Jitsu, wherever she trained and with the mostly men that she trained with.
As more and more women have found Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu on the East coast, Karen has played an active role in creating opportunities for women to train together through open mats. She says there are so many good reasons for women to train together, regardless of where they train. She says the obvious physical benefits in training with mostly men is that women are always on the defense. She says it’s not til you get to late blue and purple that you’re able to train offensively. However when you have a room of women to train with, you can get so much out of it.
Karen is a gym owner, a wife, a mother, instructor and practitioner. It can often get challenging to wear so many hats. However according to Karen, having your own own academy allows a little more flexibility in taking on all of these roles. She says since she can bring my daughter with her it makes training easier and it helps that her husband trains Jiu Jitsu too. This affords her the opportunity to not only get in some personal time, but family time as well. However, when her daughter was a baby she says they didn’t have their own place and it was definitely more challenging.
Author:
Shama Ko
Girls in Gis staff writer
Shama Ko is a brown belt with Gracie Humaita out of Austin, TX. She has been a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu practitioner since November of 2003. She is a photographer, writer, community organizer and activist. She heads the Girls in Gis organization or as she calls it the “movement”. She describes herself as both a lover and a fighter. She loves to laugh and not take life too seriously.
Karen is a great instructor! Her gym is having a free women’s only self defense seminar 10/16 12-1pm! 7 Park St, 07043 Montclair, United States
Oops 11:00-12:30
Great article about one of the greatest women I know!