I decided to start training BJJ again after a four-year-long hiatus, at ten weeks postpartum. I was seven months pregnant when I started teaching yoga at the gym where I used to train, so staying after class for BJJ wasn’t really an option. However, I found myself longing for […]
As soon as I got off my call with Mary Aldana, the only thing I wanted to do was put on my gi and get on the mat. If it had not been 6:00 am, I just might have! Mary’s enthusiasm about Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and her resilient spirit echoed in […]
As we’ve all tried to adjust to what the Brazilian Jiu Jitsu ‘scene’ looks like during a global pandemic, I had the great pleasure of interviewing April Parks. She is a BJJ Black Belt out of Syracuse, New York and founder of Grappling Getaways: grappling camps with world-class Jiu Jitsu […]
For most of us just getting the motivation to go hit the gym is a struggle, but then there is Crys Davis. Crys trains in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, Luta Livre, Muay Thai and Krav Maga, but with one main difference—she trains in a wheelchair. Crys has Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, a rare […]
On March 22nd, 2019, Sandi Duquette and Susan Gordon faced off in a monumental match. They were at the IBJJF Pans at UC-Irvine, and faced off in a Women’s Master 7 blue belt bout. Sandi and Susan began the match sizing each other up, each trying to take the other […]
Recently, my daughter and I had an unpleasant confrontation with a man at a restaurant. He was clearly agitated before we ever got there. But when he made aggressive movement toward my daughter, here’s what happened and why jiu jitsu is so important for women to train: My daughter is […]
If you go through life with a plan, you will learn that not always does the path we follow lead to where we thought it would go. Kay Stephenson’s life journey has led her to places she never expected and to places where she found unimaginable happiness and fulfillment. Having […]
