What Jiu Jitsu Means to Me

33. This Part Counts Too

My final episode of the podcast. Thank you for listening!

32. Burning Bright: A Conversation with Dorothy Dao

Dorothy Dao is a Ralph Gracie Berkeley black belt currently training at AOJ. In this episode, we talk about her time living and training abroad, how she’s learned to address burn out, and what she hopes to get out of her last year competing in the adult division.

31. What Jiu Jitsu Means to Me

6 months post-surgery, I reflect on what my life has been like in the absence of jiu jitsu.

30. The Superhero Within: A Conversation with Andrea Hixson

Andrea Hixson is a filmmaker who recently released a full length documentary on women in jiu jitsu. American Jiujiteira follows Andrea’s journey traveling the country with her husband as she embarks on her first year and a half of training jiu jitsu. The documentary is a mix of her own triumphs, struggles, and reflections, along with interviews of jiujiteiras of all levels. In this conversation, we talk about what it was like to create this project, what she learned training at so many gyms, and why it's great to suck at jiu jitsu.

29. Learning to Lose: A Conversation with Rose Miller

When Rose Miller picked up and moved across the country to San Diego, she didn’t have a clear idea of the path ahead of her. Eventually, her long standing interest in martial arts was met with a series of fortuitous events that led her to jiu jitsu. Drawn by the opportunities for discipline, growth, and accountability, Rose quickly found a home in the gentle art. She appreciated both the intense physicality of it as well as the intellect and came to view it as an expression of her life philosophy. In this conversation, Rose and I talk about fear, vulnerability, and recovering from injury. She shares her experiences competing and how learning how to lose better helped her learn how to win.