What year did you start training?
I started training in 2016, but I wrestled when I was young and practiced a little Muay Thai in college.

How did you get started?
I had wanted to train Jiu Jitsu since I was a teenager and dabbled in Muay Thai somewhat in College. In 2016, I moved to Des Moines, Iowa and decided that if I was going to learn martial arts, that time was as good as it would get. I didn’t have any money after the move, so I went to the Des Moines Jiu Jitsu academy and asked if I could make some videos in exchange for a few months of training. I’ve never looked back.

What’s the biggest challenge you’ve encountered in your training, and how did you overcome it?
Injuries have been by far the biggest challenges in training. They don’t happen that often, but when they do happen it’s never at an opportune time. As someone who always wants to be training, having to take time away from the mats is the worst. Every time I have been injured I’ve taken a week or two completely away from training, then I start figuring out what I can do to keep learning and improving while continuing to heal. The most important thing is to avoid doing nothing while you’re injured!

What’s your favorite thing about training/teaching, and why?
My favorite part about training and teaching is the same: the relationships you build. The bond between training partners and coaches + students is one that is built and reinforced upon trust and reciprocity. Everytime I walk into the academy I am genuinely happy to see and speak with everyone I coach and train with.

What are your personal goals on and off the mat?
I want to compete more. Competition motivates and inspires me like almost nothing else. I would like to get as many Muay Thai fights as possible in the coming years and also work my way back into MMA. I’m also excited to start competing as a purple belt in Jiu Jitsu tournaments.

However, my biggest goal on and off the mat is to help and inspire as many people as possible. Hopefully, they will go forward and do the same for others. I want to help build relationships and communities that make others feel like they’re not alone, that they’re supported, and that they’re cared for.

What’s something people might be surprised to learn about you?
Most people who know me know that I played football and wrestled growing up. What surprises them is that I was a pretty big kid as well. My junior and senior years I wrestled heavyweight, and at the end of my senior year of wrestling I weighed 250lbs. Now my standard weight is closer to 190lbs.

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Current Rank
Purple

What year did you start training?
2015

How did you get started?
I did martial arts as kid and always wanted to get back into it as an adult. Around turning 30 I realized I wasn’t getting any younger, so I found Easton!

What’s the biggest challenge you’ve encountered in your training, and how did you overcome it?
My own ego. Still working on it!

What’s your favorite thing about training or teaching, and why?
Constant self-improvement and sharing the boon with others.

What are your personal goals on and off the mat?
I want to become a black belt, write a book and have a family.

What’s something people might be surprised to learn about you?
I was a theater major in college.

The post Jordan Shipman appeared first on Easton Training Center.

What year did you start training?
November 2018

How did you get started?
I’ve always been very emotionally and mentally strong and independent. Often too much so where it limited my vulnerability. When I trained Krav Maga in LA I started to discover my true warrior spirit in a whole new way. After moving I searched for the right martial arts gym for me to no avail. Feeling Krav gave a false sense of security, I wanted to try Brazilian Jiu Jitsu but knew I wanted to continue striking. I tried free first classes for over a decade not finding the right fit. When I happened to walk by Easton and decided to inquire about classes I knew I had found it before I even tried a Kickboxing and bjj class. And it’s only gotten better, the balance expands seemingly everyday.

What’s the biggest challenge you’ve encountered in your training, and how did you overcome it?
This is probably two fold. The easier one first- understanding, acknowledging and respecting when my body is telling me something. In other words slowing down when I need to rest or have an injury. Starting sooo late in life has it’s advantages and disadvantages as most things do This I work on all the time because I am in it for the long haul. Marathon mentality instead of being focused on improving (not sucking so much).
Secondly, trusting the process and where I am in it. Having been involved in athletics my whole life and working in children’s fitness where I was the expert I was more accustomed to very quickly being able to hold my own. This is not the case with jiu jitsu. Frustration, feeling lost, being smashed hadn’t been my experience physically. Now, I love it. The part of me that craves facing challenges gets to engage and work through both mental and physical puzzles. I recognized early on that I feel I am the best version of myself when I am on the mat. The more time I spend there the more it bleeds into my character when I’m off the mat. How could anyone not want more of that?

What’s your favorite thing about training/teaching, and why?
I work with the littles, so we could be here all day. It is the favorite part of my week. Every day before I step on to the mat I take a breath to intentionally acknowledge what is being entrusted to me. With every particle of my being I attempt to instill the gift jiu jitsu can be for these little ninjas. I get moved when I think of the advantage it gives them in life so early. Their accomplishments are their own so to watch them beam as they earn a new stripe is remarkable. Children show what they are feeling so when that look of pride and confidence in themselves and their ability to conquer challenges spreads across their face, as a coach, you know there is nothing more real and pure. In many specific children our community is just what they need. To witness that shift in who they are becoming is truly a gift.

What are your personal goals on and off the mat?
I would like to begin competing.

What’s something people might be surprised to learn about you?
I have been to the wreck site of the Titanic!

While in the military I was an armed member of a special intelligence and reconnaissance team.

The post Jenifer Mills appeared first on Easton Training Center.

What year did you start training?
2017

How did you get started?
My husband started 4 months before me!

What’s the biggest challenge you’ve encountered in your training, and how did you overcome it?
I started at 39 years old. It’s intimidating to start something new with people who are younger and more athletic. I kept coming because I liked the community so much and I’ve slowly gotten better.

What’s your favorite thing about training or teaching, and why?
The community and culture at Easton are the main reasons I come back. I wasn’t expecting this when I first started doing jiu jitsu, but found myself looking forward to connecting with the people and the training was secondary. When I started the orientations I was excited to be someone’s first point of contact at the gym and then checking in with them as they progressed. The women’s randori has given me a chance to connect with other ladies, especially lower belts, and ease them into live rolling.

What are your personal goals on and off the mat?
I’m currently getting a master’s at Naropa University in Mindfulness Based Transpersonal Counseling. I will finish in 3 years. I hope this and my jiu jitsu practice somehow connect in the future. My goal for jiu jitsu is to become a black belt and develop a women’s program at Easton.

What’s something people might be surprised to learn about you?
I was a zookeeper and vet tech before I had kids. I raised two baby orangutans, a fruit bat, a prehensile tail porcupine, 2 squirrels, 2 bunnies and a white cheek gibbon. I also kept the elephants and rhinos.

The post Ashley Rose Dunn appeared first on Easton Training Center.

What year did you start training?
2010

How did you get started?
Some teammates from my college rugby team had formed a Jiu-Jitsu club that met once a week. It was a lot of fun and there was a notable carryover of skill from rugby to Jiu Jitsu. I continued to play rugby full time and dabble in Jiu Jitsu throughout college. A few years later after training Jiu Jitsu more formally, I explained to my Jiu Jitsu coach that I needed to take time off for the whole spring season in order to focus on rugby. I’ll never forget what he told me: “Just don’t quit”.

After that season had finished, I went back to Jiu Jitsu and have been consistently training ever since.

What’s the biggest challenge you’ve encountered in your training, and how did you overcome it?
Going to physical therapy school was quite an obstacle to maintaining consistent training. I managed to squeeze in partial training sessions during weekday lunch breaks by doing the technique/drilling portion of class for 40 minutes and would head back to school afterwards. Then I would attend the full class on Saturday mornings. This structure enabled me to progress in skill and keep a level head on my shoulders during PT school.

What’s your favorite thing about training/teaching, and why?
Live training is so engaging that it removes the possibility of daydreaming and it calms my mind by cutting all out the internal mental chit-chat. To me, it’s also an art of self expression through movement.

What are your personal goals on and off the mat?
I want to be involved in Jiu Jitsu as a lifelong endeavor. That means cultivating a training method that is sustainable so the body doesn’t get worn out, and so the mind does not get bored either. Off the mat I have aspirations of entrepreneurship in my professional field.

What’s something people might be surprised to learn about you?
In my spare time I work as a Doctor of Physical Therapy, and I also enjoy the study the philosophy of mind and as a hobby.

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