Each day is an opportunity to better yourself, learn and grow. We learn though experiences, people and through using tools that guide us. Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu is a powerful tool. One that can teach you how to be more confident, self reliant and have body awareness. The benefits are endless. It is all a matter of how you use this tool that determines the outcome.
She says that throughout her Jiu Jitsu journey ups and downs she wouldn’t change a thing. Along the way if she mad mistakes she learned from them and moved on. She says the biggest challenge she has faced was when she started to doubt her abilities and felt like she wasn’t getting better because she was doing the same thing every time she trained. So instead of getting mad and stuck Mel said she had to change the way she thought.
“Jiu Jitsu is an art, some styles might not work for certain people and might work for someone else.”
For the most part Mel trains with men, but she says that it is important to roll with women too. According to Mel, women tend to not give each other as much of a chance and are more competitive with each other. Which she says is a good thing.
Jiu Jitsu has tremendously changed Mel’s life and she knows it can do the same for others. She says that not only is Jiu Jitsu a good self defense and a good workout, it’s deeper than that. For Mel Jiu Jistu has taught her to be confident, to have body awareness and the most important thing is that she learned how to deal with her everyday life.
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.