A little backstory.
At 18 years of age, he is a junior at CCHS where he actively participates in both CCHS Theater and CCHS Choir. The interesting thing about him, however, is that he is a one stripe blue belt in Brazilian Jiu-jitsu and has competed in two tournaments. In his first tournament he got second place (silver medal) and in the second tournament he got third place (bronze medal).
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What is this hobby?
Brazilian jiu-jitsu is a self-defense martial art and combat sport based on grappling, ground fighting, and submission holds. Brazilian jiu-jitsu is primarily a ground-based fighting style and focuses on taking one’s opponent down to the ground, gaining a dominant position, and using a number of techniques to force them into submission via joint locks, choke-holds, or compression locks.
Brazilian jiu-jitsu was first developed around 1925 by Brazilian brothers Carlos, Oswaldo, Gastão Jr., and Hélio Gracie, after Carlos was taught a hybrid fighting style of traditional Jujutsu and Kodokan judo by a travelling Japanese judoka, Mitsuyo Maeda, in 1917. Later on the Gracie family developed their own self-defense system which they named Gracie Jiu-Jitsu. It eventually came to be its own defined combat sport through the innovations, practices, and adaptation of Gracie jiu-jitsu and judo, and has become one of the essential martial arts for modern MMA.
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Answers from the expert.
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How much work goes into the hobby?
“Jiu-jitsu definitely is something that requires a lot of hard work and dedication and working with others to improve your technique and skill… There are several belts in jiu-jitsu but if a kid and an adult both start as a white belt but then they get promoted the kid would get his/her grey and white belt while the adult would get his and or her blue belt. so separate belts for the kids and adult belt group. the adult system which is the actual solid color belt system which has the following belts White which is the first belt for both belt systems, then blue, purple, brown, and black. then when you get your black belt you go through i think 5 degrees of solid black the you get your coral belts which are red and black then red and black which makes you a master at both then after years and years of training you get your red belt or (8th degree red belt) which makes you a grand master then the highest achievable belt is the 9th degree red belt which also makes you a grand-master.”
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How long have they been doing the hobby?
“I have been doing Jiu-jitsu for about six years, ever since I was 13.”
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Why did they pick up this hobby?
“I have always been fascinated by martial arts movies like the karate kid, rush hour, and all the Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan movies. but I wanted to start doing martial arts because I wanted to have the knowledge of have to do the same moves in a practical sense.”
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Does this hobby help anywhere else in their life?
“Yes, because Jiu-jitsu does a really good job of help you to be more humble and less of an ego because what happens is when you bow on to the mat and you put on the gi of your school it is a testiment to your self and others that the ego comes off and when your ego comes off then you can train better because you don’t have to prove yourself to anyone.”
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How might others who are interested in this hobby get started?
“I go to a school called Gracie Barra and you can call or walk in and they normally let you do a intro to Jiu-jitsu class for first timers and highly recommend that people try it because everyone is really nice and uplifting on the mat and everyone smiles and has a good time while doing technique and rolling (sparring) and both men and women do it as well.”
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(Dustyn second place on the left)
(Brazilian Jiu-jitsu trainer left, Dustyn Doss right)
Final remarks.
“I can’t wait to see you all down there, thank you.”
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