When I first started getting into working out, I got a lot of pushback from the communities I was in . . . That doesn’t fit into the platonic ideal of the nerd. That was a struggle: How do I find athleticism, how do I find fitness without betraying who I am? And it turns out that those people can go fuck themselves.

Number one most important thing I want people to walk away with from my classes is to feel safer walking around the world. I want them feel that they’ve learned something so they can walk without fear. If somebody can be put in a situation in my class where they feel uncomfortable and they fight out of it, they come out of it with something extra, something that makes them stronger. That’s what I want to give to everyone at every level, to walk out of the classroom feeling like I control my body, I control my environment, I’m a little bit safer than I was before I walked in.

“I essentially had a crowd of people there for me when I was going through some of the toughest stuff of my life. It’s crazy the relationships you make in a fight community. There’s something about the connections you make when you fight with people every day.”

“We’re a very close-knit team. There’s a saying we have: One team, one family, one legacy. We call ourselves a family. We really are in the true sense of the word.”

“My coach has certain goals for me. I don’t know if we’re yet on the same page, but I am desperately trying to catch up with him. . . . He has more faith in me than I have faith in myself. . . . He thinks I can do anything. . . . I’ve learned now that if he thinks I can do it, I’m doing it.”

“The people who got their black belt at 60 or 70, they never gave up. To me, that’s what makes a really good martial artist, that determination not to give up, to love their craft so much that there is nothing that’s going to stop them.”