Jiu-Jitsu Keeps Me Balanced-Jessica Webb

In this busy world we live in it is hard to find balance sometimes. Between work, family and the day to day humdrum of our lives we often find that we are “too busy” to take care of ourselves. We become off balance that that is when disaster can strike. We can be more prone to emotional, physical or physiological meltdowns. Finding a tool that gives us balance is key. For some it is running, for others it is reading and for many of us in the Jiu-Jitsu community it is beating up on each other.  

Jessica Webb is no stranger to the delicate game of balancing school, work and her personal life. She is currently working on her PhD in political science while doing research and working as a teaching assistant at Tulane. She says Jiu-Jitsu is one of the main things she does for fun and to relax during the week. Her other hobbies include running, hiking, scuba diving and mountaineering when times permits. She says she loves doing anything active and when she is not working she enjoys traveling.

Jessica is a purple belt at NOLA BJJ and knows the importance of Jiu-Jitsu therapy. She has been training for four and a half years. She says she initially started training in boxing just to keep in shape, and eventually realized that she loved martial arts and was interested in competing. She was training at an MMA gym, doing primarily boxing, when some friends convinced her to try Jiu-Jitsu. Low and behold she ended up loving it, stopped boxing and started focusing primarily on Jiu-Jitsu. She says she found Jiu-Jitsu to be more fun, and less damaging to her body in the long run.

Although she doesn’t box much anymore she started training judo in addition to Jiu-Jitsu a few years ago. Much like Jiu-Jitsu she loves training judo, because it has made her so much more confident in her take downs as well as defending against them. She says it is really fun learning a martial art that is both similar and very different from Jiu-Jitsu. According to Jessica training Judo has really made her Jiu-Jitsu much more explosive,

As Jessica works on her PhD training Jiu-Jitsu has become very important in keeping her life balanced. She says training Jiu-Jitsu has made her much stronger mentally and physically, more patient, and overall a more balanced person. According to Jessica after a long day, there isn’t anything more therapeutic than being able to forget about everything, roll and have fun with great people.

“Training always helps keep the stresses of school and life under control. I’ve found that when I neglect training for my work I end up getting less done than if I’d just gone and trained—so Jiu-Jitsu to me is one of those things I can’t live without!”