One of my new girl students said to me tonight, “I’m really stressed out.” I replied with, “well, you came to the right place!” She looked at me puzzled and I said, “BJJ is an escape from all your problems and troubles, because you literally cannot think of anything else when you are rolling. Furthermore, it solves problems with kids before they start. When you love BJJ, you don’t want to get into trouble, you don’t want to get into drugs or alcohol. BJJ becomes a positive and healthy addiction, because you avoid bad things keeping you away from the mats and do your best to take care of the good things that you must do to earn your mat-time. Make sense?” She smiled, said “yup” and started shrimpin’. I know BJJ isn’t for everyone, but I think everyone kid could use a healthy dose of what I get from it!

In a way, I’m proud that Quincy BJJ is inadvertently supporting the Quincy CTC mission by helping youth stay way from drugs and alcohol.