When most us hear the word Karate or Martial Arts, we first think of Karate Kid, or even SpongeBob but we’ve never truly understood or know much about the sport. Martial Arts is a tradition of combat practices that originated as forms of self-defense or attack. There are tons of different types of Martial Arts that originated from all over the world.

Brazilian jiu-jitsu is one of the most common types of Martial Arts next to Taekwondo in the US. Brazilian jiu-jitsu, or BJJ, is a combat sport that involves a lot of self-defense techniques that focuses on ground fighting. BJJ promotes the concept that a smaller, weaker person can successfully defend against a bigger, stronger fighter.

WHB freshman Layne Johnson is a competitive Brazilian jiu-jitsu fighter and is currently a part of an all women’s fight team. Layne said, “I’ve been doing Brazilian jiu-jitsu for about seven years and I started because my dad and all his friends did it. It was becoming a known sport throughout surfers so my dad heard about.”

Layne currently practices at Kioto Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Academy in Hampton Bays. She said, “I compete in a lot of competitions and I train about  3-4 nights a week.”

Jiu-jitsu practice is extremely intense and requires consistent training to perform successfully. As a student continues, he or she will  be tested by their instructor to see if they’re able to be promoted to the next belt. In Brazilian jiu-jitsu, there is a specific belt system that shows how long you have trained and the amount of skill you know compared to other students.

The order of the belt ranking, starting at the beginner belt is white, red, yellow, orange, green, blue, purple, brown and lastly black. There are more specific belts after the black belt and other belts in the process depending on the academy. But there wasn’t always a variety of different colored belts. Back in the “old school” days each student received one white belt. They practiced outside on the dirt and grass, so as they kept training the white belt would get dirty. Over a good amount of time and practice the once white belt turned black. So, the dirtier your belt was the more skill one had.

Earning these belts is not easy. It requires full determination and a lot patience. Depending on the belt some take months, or even years to earn. Layne said, “I currently have an orange belt which took me seven years to get.”

With a good seven years of solid training so far and running a children’s class twice a week, Layne hopes to open up her own academy or become an instructor in the future.

BJJ is not only a demanding type of martial art but it is also great for physical and mental health. Martial Arts training can help build character and can improve your body inside and out. You learn to be more confident, more humble, more patient, happier and achieve a healthy life perspective. Physically, you will becoming stronger, more agile, more muscular, lose of body fat, gain more endurance and will be healthier overall.

Most people choose to exercise at a local gym or a little workout at home but Brazilian jiu-jitsu and other martial art training requires your body and your mind to be constantly working. You’re just about using everything in your body!

Congratulations to Layne on her accomplishments so far and good luck on many more to come!

“True strength is not always shown through victory. Stand up, try again and display strength of heart.” -Rickson Gracie, Professional Brazilian jiu-jitsu fighter.