Embracing the Mat: Sa'idah Zeinab Durkee on the Transformative Power of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu

What happens when a world-class athlete shares her journey into the intricate domain of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu? We find out as we chat with the incredible Sa'idah Zeinab Durkee, also known as the Ginja Ninja. With a brown belt to her name, Sa'idah's deep dive into the sport is more than just about acquiring the belt or winning competitions. It's about the transformative effect Jiu-Jitsu had on her overall health, the resilience she built, and the community she found.  She reveals how training in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu can transform your mental and physical and shares her personal journey to the sport, how it helped manage her autoimmune disease, and the inclusive, tight-knit community it provides.

"Jiu-Jitsu saved my life. It really is like human chess - you're constantly trying to get to checkmate." - Sa'idah Zeinab Durkee

The beauty of Jiu-Jitsu lies not only in its potential as a self-defense technique for all sizes but also in its capacity to build mental stamina and foster a sense of belonging. It's about the power of repetition in habit formation, the nerve-wracking excitement of competition, and the invaluable lessons learned on the mat. As we navigate the world of this male-dominated sport, Sa'idah offers strategies for success, particularly for women, in carving their niche and rising up the ranks.

The conversation doesn't stop at the physical and mental benefits of Jiu-Jitsu. We delve into how it becomes a touchpoint for human connection and a platform for community building. We hear about Sa'idah's role as a mentor, helping students navigate through these challenging pandemic times with online classes. From fostering confidence to providing a sense of community and acting as a form of self-defense, Sa'idah illustrates how Jiu-Jitsu transcends conventions, welcoming everyone from all ages, races, and occupations. If you've ever wondered about finding a Jiu Jitsu Academy and getting started in the sport, this episode is an absolute must.

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Sa'idah Zeinab Durkee feels privileged to coach people of all ages and backgrounds in Jiu-Jitsu, bringing them together as a community focused on mutual growth, care, and empowerment - connect with her here: 

GinjaNinjaBJJ on Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/ginjaninjabjj/?hl=en

Chapters

• 0:07 Exploring Brazilian Jiu Jitsu
• 7:29 Jujutsu's Impact on Personal Stories
• 13:54 Jiu-Jitsu for Women in Male-Dominated Sport
• 23:42 Training Jujitsu With Women
• 31:34 Jiu-Jitsu Benefits for Mental and Community
• 40:47 Promoting Wellness Through Podcasting

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:07

Hi, I'm David Liss, a DC-based consultant and journalist, your host for this series of podcasts, wellness Musketeers, where we will discuss a wide range of topics in the field of health, wellness and fitness, with some current events thrown in as well. Your host for today's episode is Kettle Veeting, one of the Wellness Musketeers team. Kettle has worked at the International Monetary Fund as an economist for many years and is also a lifelong martial artist, a black belt in Taekwondo and, most recently, practicing Brazilian Jiu Jitsu.

Speaker 2: 0:43

Hi, this is Kettle Veeting. In this episode of Wellness Musketeers, we feature an Italian, saida Zena Durpe, also known as Jinja Ninja, a world-class athlete practicing Brazilian Jiu Jitsu is derivative of Jiu Jitsu and Judo, a legendary old martial arts with origins in China and Japan. She is a brown belt and a master Lloyd Irwin and Professor Isaac Duly Jr in Washington DC. We will discuss her coaching and competition style, as well as her focus on the growth of the community. She will touch on the challenges with Jiu Jitsu and why you might think about starting practicing it for hell. Fun or very competition.

Speaker 2: 1:34

The interview is quite personal to me. In fact. Saida is a truly exceptional human being and extraordinary talented instructor. I experienced her talents as the boldest students in the club, mostly more than twice the age of the other students, but I have also seen how she has been supportive of particularly women at the club, including students who are in prayers. In some way, she was particularly helpful to a group of students helping us pull through the pandemic with big online classes. Saida, first of all, why Jinja Ninja?

Speaker 3: 2:14

Thank you guys for shoving me today. So Jinja Ninja was a nickname that I got when I was practicing Taekwondo as a kid, because I have crazy wild red hair and it stuck and luckily I went back to martial arts later on in life, so it just continued on through there.

Speaker 2: 2:35

Let's be a little more curious, saida what is really Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, human jazz or something else?

Speaker 3: 2:43

So Brazilian Jiu Jitsu is a really interesting martial art. I usually describe it easily as if you combined Judo and all of the throwing mechanics that you see in Judo combined with some American wrestling and I'm not talking about WWE wrestling, more high school college American wrestling. If you combined those two and then added the submissions back in so arm locks and chokes and leg locks, that type of thing you'll have what Brazilian Jiu Jitsu is, and it is that it's the combination of those different types of martial arts. The interesting thing about it is it's a newer martial art as a whole, but it comes from centuries of different martial arts coming back together. I think that the oldest form of Judo was used on a battlefield where people would throw people off of their horses and then attack them from there, and there were a lot of submissions during that time. But over time they took things out to make it more of an acceptable quote, unquote martial arts that could be shown off and even in the Olympics. So it took a lot of submission aspect away from it and then when it was transferred to Brazilian Jiu Jitsu through Mitsuyo Maeda, who traveled from Japan to Brazil to teach it, he reincorporated those aspects into it and then it's grown since then.

Speaker 3: 4:20

So I think the coolest part about it is it's constantly evolving. It's not a martial art, it's not the rules aren't stuck. It's evolution on a yearly basis. We see rule changes, we see people coming up with new moves all the time. This is never ending rabbit hole and I think that you experience that as well. So a lot of people like to describe it as like a human chess game. You're constantly trying to get to the point where you can get somebody to submit, essentially, but it takes on the life of its own of playing a game and you move, they move, you move and you get to the point where you can say checkmate. Basically.

Speaker 2: 5:02

So the Brazilian thing really doesn't come. But many mention Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. Some people think it's a dance. People do feel like a dance, but the more the duo with the practice was developing, the type of Jiu Jitsu was developed in Brazil.

Speaker 3: 5:18

That's correct. Yeah, like I was mentioning, mitsuyo Maeda was a practitioner in Judo in Japan and he traveled to Brazil, I believe in 1970 and or something like that, so it's only about a century old. But he traveled and then he ended up teaching a couple of students who are the graces, which are probably the best known family in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu in the world, and evolved this. Sorry, let's cut that real quick, you good, okay, so I'm going to go right back into it. So Mitsuyo Maeda away from Japan, where he was practicing Judo, and he traveled to Brazil and ended up teaching a couple of students who were part of the Gracie family, which is probably the best known family in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, and they evolved it together and then continued on from there and there's offshoots and different evolutions in different ways, but the reason it's called Brazilian Jiu Jitsu is because the modern version of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu evolved in Brazil.

Speaker 2: 6:28

Keeping it simple, yeah, I think actually what you mentioned about the innovations in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu something that has really surprised me, compared to all of the other martial arts been doing is the emerald of innovation on YouTube, new moves being introduced. It's very physical but also, in that, very, very mental, so it's joining both of them. Can you tell me a little bit who you actually got introduced to Jiu Jitsu in the first place and what motivated you to start practicing?

Speaker 3: 6:59

Yeah, absolutely. As I mentioned, I actually grew up in Egypt. My parents were working there and I was practicing Taipan Do and I practiced it for a long time. But some martial arts, unfortunately in the US and other places, have gotten watered down. So the way I was practicing Taipan Do in Egypt was pretty hardcore in regards to how it's practiced in a lot of other parts of the world. So when we moved back to the US, I tried to find a school and it just seemed, yeah, like I said, watered down. There was a whole lot of tatting. Nobody wanted to get hit in the face. I understand the reasons behind it, especially as a kid, but it just didn't fulfill what I was looking for. So I ended up going to other sports, practicing other things, did some other martial arts along the way, but nothing really grabbed me the same way, and then I actually just goes into some other things.

Speaker 3: 8:02

But I ended up getting diagnosed in my early 20s with an autoimmune illness and was told that I couldn't practice any sports at all. I was crazy because, as I'm a very active person, I couldn't even do yoga, for instance, which was crazy. So this was a like like a many years journey for me of going through doctors and medications and crazy things like that. But I actually ended up finding Kebueira, which is also from Brazil and it's a no contact martial art, and I thought, oh, maybe I could try this out, maybe it won't hurt me quite as much. So I ended up taking that on and I had some friends who did Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, who would come and cross-train with us and they ended up really trying to convince me to do presenting Jujitsu, not knowing about my illness or anything like that. But what's crazy is I did end up taking it on, I tried it a couple of times and my illness subsided and actually is in remission, which, who knows. The doctors like to disagree with me on this, but I'm pretty sure Jujitsu saved my life.

Speaker 2: 9:21

It's pretty amazing, yeah. So in a way, in a much less dramatic way, I think I have a similar person story.

Speaker 3: 9:31

I want to know about your story, Kela.

Speaker 2: 9:33

I am not a spring chicken. I started five, six years ago something like that. Just two years ago, I started what we call it. Well, we practically call it orling.

Speaker 3: 9:45

And after rolling, yeah.

Speaker 2: 9:49

We started the International Finance Corporation at lunchtime and it picked up from there and now I've been not doing as much as Seida, but I would say that, together with other things I'm doing, it's also kept me really in good shape, and also all of the things, the ailments you get when you're old age not only old age but backaches and all that stuff.

Speaker 3: 10:16

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 10:16

It's really helping. I think so. So I can relate to your story in a not as a dramatic way, but I do think when you get submitted, sometimes it's actually your twin partner stretching your out. That's what it's like.

Speaker 3: 10:34

No, definitely you guys don't know Kettle personally, but maybe you do. You probably do actually. But if that's donating as a coach and also as a training partner and also as a fellow to Jujutsu, it's interesting to watch because a lot of people might look at him and be like, ok, he looks like a strong, bit older guy. I should be fine, I'm like 21. I could take him and then watching him just really use his skill and the precision of his movement is fascinating because a lot of people who know about Jujutsu think about a smaller woman being able to use it as a self-defense mechanism, because there's a lot of science involved in Jujutsu.

Speaker 3: 11:23

There's a lot of using the peddlix of motion and using somebody else's weight against them, which I think is a fascinating part of Jujutsu. If you have a 120-pound girl and you have a 170-pound attacker, yes, she probably can take him on if she's been training. But when you're actually training and there's a 120-pound girl and a 170-pound guy who also trains, it presents many of you not so much, but it is fascinating that as you go up in skill you actually start using your technique so much more efficiently. And same for you. Maybe your knees don't work perfectly, so you use other parts of your body. There's always something else that you can understand how to use more efficiently to make up for whatever is lacking, and I think that's a really interesting way that it can be used.

Speaker 2: 12:24

So what you mentioned then about I mean we mentioned the physical benefits I would actually add on yes, it's a mental benefit. Yeah absolutely, and especially when you're then talking about the weight differences. So I am now 170, but there are easy young guys that 250.

Speaker 3: 12:43

Oh yeah.

Speaker 2: 12:44

When they're on top of you. You need to endure that and you need to be able to control your breathing. So what are these things? Actually? The fact that even the best, the kids who practice now will be submitted.

Speaker 3: 12:58

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 12:59

And the experience of submission in itself. It's a kind of mental challenge and something to overcome.

Speaker 3: 13:08

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 13:08

One thing that I haven't done I know that the state is on my back and pushing most partitions to actually do is to compete and I haven't done that and I would be very curious about hearing about your experience with competition, and I think also the business would be interested, because this also goes in other sports.

Speaker 3: 13:32

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 13:33

How do you prepare and what have you learned from losing?

Speaker 3: 13:38

Interesting, great question. That's a great question. I'm actually going to walk you back for a second Because, for the listeners involved, I'd just like to say I described Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu as a combination of Judo and wrestling with submissions. But you just have to imagine that you're on the ground and there's a person either at least your side, that's not larger trying to attack your limbs or try to choke you from the band and you're struggling to get out and you're trying to, at the same time, attack them and you're going back and forth in this and it really is a mental aspect to just controlling your breathing, just controlling your headspace and unlike, I think, at least having practiced other martial arts unlike when you're getting kicked or punched in the head, you're feeling your entire body going through these motions, but you do have time to think about it. When you're getting kicked or punched in the head, you're just reacting. It's a very reactionary motion when you're halfway through being choked and you're like I need to pull this arm on, move me and turn and face them and get a knee in between their legs so that I can move past them and come back on top. There's this strategy, this constant rolling strategy, going through your line and it's a very interesting part of it.

Speaker 3: 15:06

So, going back to the competition part, as a coach, my feedback to students is that you train with a lot of the same people every day. They get to learn how you move. You get to learn how they move. You guys aren't trying to kill each other, you're trying to help each other get better and understand the sport better. And even when you go a little bit harder, you're still in this participatory sport together and you're learning from each other and helping each other. So what happens is that you get into a repetition and even if you go train at another school or you travel and you cross train somewhere else, you still get into using those motions. The same way, you understand how your breathing works, how everything works, but that's not the same as being put A in a real life situation where you would really need to use it.

Speaker 3: 16:05

That's the ultimate test is if you do get attacked or if you're trying to defend somebody who is being attacked when you actually are using these skills, which has come into play for me only once in the nine years that I've been practicing jiu-jitsu. But besides that, you don't know how you really will react and when you're doing, let's say, taekwondo or karate or boxing or even Muay Thai, something like that you can only spar once a week because your body can't take that. You can practice every day, but you can't spar. You can't go hard every day, but jiu-jitsu you can actually spar every single day because you're rest-blaning, you're going through these motions and unless you have some major injury, you can actually push the pace almost every single day. So you don't know how you're really going to react until you're in a situation where you have to and that's not trained.

Speaker 3: 17:06

So I like to encourage people to at least try competition for that reason, because your adrenaline spikes, you get a lot of people, get the jitters, a lot of people get super nervous. I've seen kids crying in the middle of their matches, and not because they're hurt, just because their emotions go haywire. It might be the most calm for some when they're training and then when they're competing, it's a completely different thing. Or vice versa, it might be somebody who every day in training is crazy and then suddenly is very calm when they're in this other situation. So I think, besides using it for a real world situation, competition is the closest you can get to understanding whether your jujitsu really does or doesn't work, and that's why I think it's really important to you.

Speaker 2: 18:02

Thank you, that's very interesting. Anything about your operation for the super heights?

Speaker 3: 18:07

Yeah, I think you're asking more, just about how I prepare Exactly what's the in general.

Speaker 3: 18:13

Yeah, and it definitely is something that has changed over time. You start understanding. It's similar to training how you understand how your breathing works, you start. Everybody has to have their own kind of ritual or routine when it comes to competing. Some people won't train at all the week before. Some people want to train the day of. It's weird that everybody works a little bit differently. For me, I usually train a lot harder until about a week before the tournament and then I ramp it down and just drill a lot the week before. I focus a lot with our students and myself on game plan. So to give one is like your perfect situation. What would happen right? It's not if this is going to happen. If this is going to happen, it's just in a perfect world we would shake hands and this is what would happen, right.

Speaker 2: 19:10

That's how you finish a match in 30 seconds.

Speaker 3: 19:14

Yeah, so if you can work through your game plan, even if it's just in your head just over and over. I focus a lot on routine, so rather than eating something special or different or anything like that, I try to keep eating the same thing every day leading up to a tournament, and then the day of is the same thing. In addition, I guess, if I know I'm going to compete at night, I train at night leading up to it. If I know I'm going to be competing in the morning, I train in the morning. Those kinds of things help.

Speaker 3: 19:50

Different playlists that you can listen to will help modulate how your body reacts, especially if you do it consistently. And then I have a couple of funny things that I do. I have wherever I go compete, if I'm traveling, I take my last gold medal Because I feel like it brings on the next gold medal. That's just the first of all things, but I also have a couple of little things from my dad, from my sister, from friends that I take with me and have this little collection that I set up the night before. Yeah.

Speaker 2: 20:25

It's a very interesting thing. I wonder if we can move to another area. This is most traditionally male dominated sport.

Speaker 3: 20:34

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 20:36

And the question comes really it's an important question about how is it to be a woman in this environment. But for the listeners who don't know, but see if they're swimming, at least in training we are training it's mixed. I don't know where, any places where they really separate. So in competition it's separated, generally at least, yeah, but in training it's mixed, Correct. But that dimension tells us a little bit about that.

Speaker 3: 21:01

Yeah, thank you for asking about that. It is overall. Combat sports in general are very much dominated, mostly by men. Overall, I think that Brazilian jiu-jitsu has expanded and it has opened a lot of doors for women to be more evolved, but it's a constant push from the women that are in the sport to be doing that. I don't really treat it any differently.

Speaker 3: 21:31

I coach men and women and I think what actually takes away from it is when you separate it too much. So I know that they're female only events that happen and I think that those are important just because there are a lot of gyms that only have one or two women that train there. So you're not used to it, you don't get that feeling, you don't get that camaraderie that happens when there are a lot of women. We have a lot of women that train with us now and it's not just because there is a female coach. I'm sure it helps that I'm there, but it's all about how the community grows. If a gym welcomes women and encourages them and pushes them and like for a woman to walk into a martial arts gym, and especially one where you're physically like on top of each other, sweating in each other's bases, is already. She already won A battle. Just walking in the door, you know what I mean.

Speaker 3: 22:33

For anybody that's hard, but for a small woman, a regular sized woman, for any woman to walk into that kind of environment is already hard, right. So it's not like it's women that are walking in there who don't want to be there. They want to be there, whether it's because they had an experience that made them think I need the self defense aspect of this, or if it's women who are just tough girls, who are tomboy or they did other martial arts and they want to. They want to do it, they want to really push themselves. Either way, if you walk into an environment where there are no other women, it's going to be hard, right.

Speaker 3: 23:15

So I think having women bring other women in and then having men who are not scared to train with women Because again that goes back to the ego part Like when you're submitted by a woman or a smaller woman even more, it changes how you think You're like whoa, if that can happen, either her skill is amazing or I am not doing anything right. But that's truly ego Like. Why is it that just because she's smaller, just because she's a woman, that would mean that she doesn't have the skill to do that. Sorry, sorry to go on to the tangent on that.

Speaker 2: 23:55

It's one of the things that the outside of it is considered to be very hard to maybe understand. Yeah, you can get a lot of sly comments about what's going on in the day gym, but I would say that for the benefit training in other places, there will nearly always be a one or two women. There are more in these clubs than most other places but there is nearly always someone and the people I think actually the guy that does the hardest time, the one that uses, but I personally find it very rewarding to train with women because also the women are generally a little more mental. Then the guys are using especially the young guys the enormous amount of force to try to run you down.

Speaker 3: 24:42

Well, they do manage.

Speaker 2: 24:43

But it's not necessarily helpful in the long run. And where then you see the women, then they very subtle and they do some inversions and they come on the back and they do stuff that you've seen in the class but you never seen anybody.

Speaker 3: 24:58

Yeah, I'll say these two things. I've taught some self-defense courses, right, and I always start my self-defense courses especially when there are a lot of women in there by saying that nothing, I can't teach anything in four hours that's going to make you be able to save your life. Necessarily, right, there's nothing I can tell you that's going to help you like that, and anybody who tells you otherwise is wrong. I'm sorry. The only way that you can really learn how to protect yourself is to train and to keep showing up and training, because, again, you don't know where it's going to happen. How it's going to happen. Of course you can have self-awareness. You can not have your headphones in when you're walking at night. You can cross the road when you feel anxious, all of those things are great. But at the end of the day, if you don't know how your own body is going to react when you go into that kind of fight or flight situation, then nothing's going to help you, and the only thing that can help you with that is to actually train it, and sparring is the closest that you're going to get to that kind of thing, and jujitsu is one of the few things where you can spar every day. So your body kind of starts reacting. You understand how your body reacts and that's really helpful for a lot of women. So I won't say that.

Speaker 3: 26:22

And secondly, yeah, I see this because I coach kids and adults right. So with kids they do compete. Boys and girls compete together until I think 12? It's 12 or 13. But basically, once the boys start putting on muscle, like male muscle, like that male adult muscle, that's when they separate. But at a young age everybody's just competing together, right, and I see it when I see little kids going and competing and the girls are all just having fun, which is there to have fun, and because the boys are all training with girls, they don't know any different. But I do think that if they're doing that now, by the time they become adults they will not have that same kind of reaction of oh it's a girl, she can't do anything to me. Because, yeah, have you been submitted 50 times by a girl when you're a little boy? You're not going to have that same disrespect when you get to be a man.

Speaker 2: 27:24

You know what I mean.

Speaker 3: 27:25

It really does make a difference. But I also really just think it's about the community. If you have a welcoming community anywhere in the world, you could go to a jujitsu gym and there are women training, there are men training, they're all training together. There's no weirdness about it and it's an interesting thing that we have that.

Speaker 2: 27:47

I have a personal theory a little bit. I find the nicest guys and the most guys are actually the purposeful.

Speaker 3: 27:54

Yeah, true.

Speaker 2: 27:57

And the one who's been like. I've even talked about the A5 girls. They've been through a door and they have a lot of. They're really calm and I think it's the practice of actually having been, because every five girls and every level is going to have to be losing.

Speaker 3: 28:13

Yeah, oh, and then with what you were just saying, the people who are the nicest usually the toughest. I did think. That's along the same lines as if you are a fighter, you're probably the least likely person to actually get in a fight. You know what I mean, Because why? But you're not. You don't have the same reactions to somebody yelling at you on the street or cursing you out or whatever the case may be. You're not going to react the same way because you're trained for it. You train, your body is trained and, honestly, you know that you really could hurt somebody. And when you actually know that you can hurt somebody, your reaction should I'm not saying always does, but should be to not go into that situation or to do everything you can to deescalate that situation, which is why it would be greater if more law enforcement practice to just do honestly. That's another story, though.

Speaker 2: 29:16

Yeah, but it takes you double thing about how long you actually keep a sufficient choke hold into a choke hold. Normally will work in a few seconds. You don't keep it for 50 minutes.

Speaker 3: 29:29

Yeah, true.

Speaker 2: 29:30

And then I just understand.

Speaker 3: 29:32

that makes me think so yeah, save a few people, it would save a few people and, honestly, a lot more than that is just, yeah, your body's reaction. If somebody is attacking you and you can just throw them onto the ground rather than just using more excessive force, shall we say, then it makes a difference. And there actually are a few martial artists or chujitsu coaches out there right now who are pushing this and encouraging it, and not in a negative way, not like a push people away way. It's an inclusive thing, like we want people to be better, we want our community to be better, we want the people related to our community to be better.

Speaker 3: 30:16

My dad has this thing that had nothing to do with martial arts, but he talked about has is a temporary autonomous zone, right.

Speaker 3: 30:26

So he had a theory that you could. If you have people in the world, then you could go anywhere in the world and find those same kind of like-minded people and it would be peaceful. It would be a peaceful gathering of people anywhere in the world and that's a taz, right. So when I started doing jujitsu and I was describing it to him and explaining it to him, he's oh, you're just, you have a taz, and it's true, because I've traveled to different places in the world, I know you've traveled to different places in the world and you've gone into a jujitsu gym and pretty much if you, even with language barriers, you're in a good place, you're in good company, you know you're safe as long as they're at a safe training place. And luckily with jujitsu is a small enough community that we try to weed out any of the bad seeds and we do talk to each other all over the world and social media has helped with that. It's an interesting sport to be able to go anywhere in the world and feel welcomed. I love that.

Speaker 2: 31:34

I just hope that the listeners are all convinced by it, but maybe they're not really. So I think maybe we should go back to kind of fundamental question. The jujitsu has become a VJJ. It's been like the chorus. It's become very popular and most lately we've had some quite famous people starting it. But it is no hiding that it involves very close contact. There's a risk of injury. Yeah, the top top is even serious. Why would anyone with their right mind especially my age hopeless more women maybe expose themselves to this?

Speaker 3: 32:12

Great, that's good I can handle this question.

Speaker 2: 32:15

I can't do that.

Speaker 3: 32:17

So I'll say this, from many different aspects I can recommend jujitsu. One of the biggest ones that I realized in the last couple of years obviously was the mental health aspect. There are a lot of people that say that jujitsu is their therapy, for I had a student the other day I'm quite jokingly say the gym is my psych ward, if you think about COVID and when people, a lot of people, did not have physical touch right, a lot of people and that affects your mental health. So, yeah, you're doing a martial art and you're wrestling with another person, but really that aspect of it, part of it, is just the human touch aspect, which is something that people need. You need that human touch and it doesn't have to be an affectionate way, it's a literal body need and it's a body-mind connection. So when you have that touch, your mental health is in a better place right off the bat. But the bigger part of that, especially with jujitsu, that I've noticed is there is such a community aspect that also really boosts your mental health. We hang out together, we become friends outside of the gym, we go eat together, we go to each other's birthday parties. You have this community that is built around you and you could move to a new city, you could move to a new country and you take that with you and you instantly have a community that really does surround you, protect you, take care of you.

Speaker 3: 34:00

Me personally recently went through some grief, some really enormous grief in my personal life and, honestly, the only thing that kept me going was training and being around the people that I knew. I didn't have to speak words to, I didn't have to talk about the grief I was going through. I could feel the love just surrounding me. And it's crazy to think about because you sure are simulating murder on each other, you're rambling each other, you're choking each other out, but never have I been more happy in my life than when you're surrounded by people that you love and care about, that are doing that together. I know it might seem crazy that you're going into a gym and doing these things and that you end up in a better space, but I really know that everybody I know that trains always is in a better headspace after they train than before. So, from that, mental health and obviously body health, like you're a little bit older, but man, you are strong and healthy as a bull.

Speaker 2: 35:12

No, I do think the core of the tactile element of the dietary is important and has a mental dimension. Clearly I always it was one thing, for instance. I would do other things as well, like the roar of my eyes sometimes, because it means that you're channeling in on a different channel and you also have in your gym at least one blind person and they're all perfectly well, and I think actually blind women have problems hearing.

Speaker 3: 35:43

Yes, she does yes.

Speaker 2: 35:44

And it's all the texts, and I have a colleague with her. Oh, I just need a touch.

Speaker 3: 35:48

She just needs to touch you once she touches you.

Speaker 2: 35:50

You should know if something's happening.

Speaker 3: 35:52

It's incredible.

Speaker 2: 35:53

It's another thing that I think, and she's also, let's not forget, she's a four-foot-ten.

Speaker 3: 35:58

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 36:00

Yeah, I mean, well, it's amazing. It's amazing. Then I also think we mentioned different countries. I would also mention that we are all young, from different parts of town, absolutely, but we all lose them meeting each other in the basic UN space.

Speaker 3: 36:17

Absolutely, we're all exact. Thank you for saying that. That really is what it boils down to. You have people of different ages, different races, definitely different occupations. Half of the time, I don't even know what people do, and especially in a place like Washington DC, where the second question people ask you is what you do or who you know, which is ridiculous. Oh, it doesn't interest you. You're like oh, what technique are we working on today?

Speaker 2: 36:47

It's refreshing.

Speaker 3: 36:48

It's refreshing to be just on base level with a lot of other human beings in the same space.

Speaker 2: 36:55

Sometimes you have to shake us up a little bit to get down to yeah, and that's where you are in a kid's situation.

Speaker 3: 37:03

Yeah, exactly.

Speaker 2: 37:04

We are just made up for bone inflection. Yep Sink.

Speaker 3: 37:09

We are all the same. That happened this past weekend. I was coaching a teenager and he was really nervous and scared and I said man, look at these other kids. They're just other kids training at another gym doing the same thing you're doing. They're just another body, there's nothing to be afraid of. It's just another human being and you just trust your training, trust what you know you can do, and just go in and do it. And I think that on a base level, that is important, but from a self-defense aspect, that's even more important. You have to know what your body can physically do, and if you don't, then you're walking around in this vessel that you don't know how it actually operates, and I think that you're just so can really change that for people.

Speaker 2: 37:56

So I think we are coming to an end. Is there any advice that you would like to give to listeners about how did you go about picking up Jiu-Jitsu?

Speaker 3: 38:09

My best advice is to look up with Jiu-Jitsu Academy in your area and usually if you're in a bigger metropolitan area, there should be enough Jiu-Jitsu jams that you can find one that you feel comfortable in. So don't just settle. Don't go into one place If you don't feel like that's your family. Those are your people. Try another one, because the worst thing that you have when you start and you don't enjoy it, then it's pointless. So find the place that you feel comfortable. There are places for everybody. I really believe that. But just try them yourself.

Speaker 3: 38:49

And if you're a woman, if you are somebody who does not necessarily fit into a certain category or somebody who feels uncomfortable in other situations, talk to the coaches, because they really have experience almost everything and they can help you. They can talk to you about what they want to do, what you should be doing, their recommendations for who you should train with. They want you to feel safe and they want you to feel protected and they want you to learn. So talk to them. Really, I really encourage people right off the bat to talk to their coaches.

Speaker 2: 39:27

Is there anybody who might think you choose too much for them, as they can try?

Speaker 3: 39:33

I do think that for some people, maybe full group classes might not be the way to go. If you have very specific things that you're struggling with that might not work in a group setting, talk to them about maybe doing private lessons or, honestly, just going and talking to the coaches. I can't answer for all the coaches out there, but I can say that I've had people come in and talk to me and usually we find a way that they can train. Whether they change who they're training with or how they're training, there's usually a way that they can train and that they can learn and they can get to the place that they want to be.

Speaker 2: 40:14

Is there anything else you would like to add? How can people reach you?

Speaker 3: 40:19

I just want to add that I'm glad that people are listening to this. I'm really glad that this is a growing. I love that I'm able to be a female coach, training kids, women, men, everything in between and encouraging people to just grow as human beings and grow as a community and help each other out. I love seeing how closely people take care of each other after doing this work. You can reach me on Instagram or social media. My handle is JinjaNinjaBjj.

Speaker 2: 40:56

Yeah.

Speaker 3: 40:57

I'm like G-I-N-J-A-N-I-N-J-A-B-J-J. Ah, why'd I write it?

Speaker 2: 41:05

Thanks for the great women in the world with the biggest heart. Oh, thank you Say. Your practice Cheers son.

Speaker 1: 41:13

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