"Hello, my merciless mat masochists! Good to see you here."
"Bad news. The jiu jitsu alphas and their stinky menthol soaps have failed you. These cheap essential oil soaps act like a bomb on skin that's already compromised from training. They damage the skin barrier and throw the skin microbiome into chaos. The result? Red, itchy, rashy skin that's more vulnerable to infection. Since the jitsu bros couldn’t come up with anything better, I did it myself. Behold! Award-winning skincare so bjj athletes can finally fix their angry mat skin. Osss!” -Becky, Founder
Becky started her bjj journey in 2014. She is a beta guard player who currently holds the rank of eternal purple belt. She beats up the grey belts when she can't win against grown adults.
Before I started jiu jitsu, I was a dancer. Martial arts were nowhere on my radar.
At 26-years-old, I was living in the mountains of rural Peru with a physically abusive ex-boyfriend. He was Peruvian, and I was the foreigner. As the violence became more common and more extreme, I realized I might not survive it. I had no place to run. I had no access to a Peruvian bank account. I had no family, no resources. The area was so rural that there wasn't even a local police force.
I carefully planned my escape, and when I finally made it back stateside, I vowed never to allow myself to be so vulnerable again. I knew I needed to train. I found an old Gracie challenge video on Youtube, and after seeing the superiority of jiu jitsu against other forms of martial arts, I decided to give it a try. The year was 2014.
Training jiu jitsu wasn't a straight line for me. It wasn't love at first roll. I've struggled with injury, and I've trained under insanely dysfunctional professors in super weird cultish schools. I've wanted to give up many times. I've cried on my way home from class more times than I can count. I am not talented at fighting, but I am hella talented at grit. That grit (and unresolved trauma!) kept me going for most of my jiu jitsu life.
Now, things have shifted a bit. Overall, jiu jitsu has become more welcoming and easier to exist in. Not everyone needs to train like a professional MMA fighter. Some of us are just trying to put ourselves back together and figure out how to exist in this messy world. And I think that is a perfectly legitimate reason to train. There is room for all of us in this sport.