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Brianna Battles  00:01

Welcome to the practice brave podcast. I am the host Brianna battles, founder of pregnancy and postpartum athleticism, and CEO of everyday battles. I’m a career strength and conditioning coach, entrepreneur, mom of two wild little boys and a lifelong athlete. I believe that athleticism does not end when motherhood begins, and this podcast is dedicated to coaching you by providing meaningful conversations, insights and interview topics related to fitness, mindset, parenting and of course, all the nuances of pregnancy and postpartum, from expert interviews to engaging conversations and reflections. This podcast is your trustworthy, relatable resource for learning how to practice brave through every season in your life. Hey, everyone, welcome back to the practice brave podcast. I am back with Jared bottles, who is obviously my husband, and this episode is geared more towards battle Jiu Jitsu, the next entrepreneurial business venture that we are starting together, and we’ve had, we recorded a podcast a few months ago, I think, just introducing the fact that we’re pursuing this and we’ve had a lot of great engagement and a lot of questions, a lot of support from our community. And we went from announcing the idea and being mid build of a building to officially owning the building and or to officially owning the commercial unit, and we are almost done with the internal build out. We’ll be starting classes January 5.

Jared Battles  01:45

Yeah, we’re excited. Ready to go. Already have a solid, solid group of people ready to roll.

Brianna Battles  01:51

Yeah, we did a playing, a founders. I don’t know, what are we trying to say? It’s like, 6pm we kicked our kids in front of the TV to watch football, because we’re like, we’ve been meaning to record this podcast. We’re record this podcast for a while, but we just keep getting so busy, as you can imagine. But we did, like, a pre sale, and we were able to get close to 60 people between adults and kids that signed up. And I think that’s just such an amazing expression of faith and confidence in what we are trying to create here in our local community. And, yeah,

Jared Battles  02:23

absolutely blown away with the dumpers that showed up, came to the open houses and signed up without ever having seen a class or taking the class. Yeah, because

Brianna Battles  02:32

I feel like jiu jitsu is a sport where you know you want to, like, dip your toe in the water, whether, like, you like, whether you’ve done it or not, you kind of want to get a feel for the people, the environment, the sport, like there’s so many different elements, and we feel really grateful for those who took the leap of faith to join us and see what we are trying to build and recognize that it’s different, and it’s it’s different for a reason. Yeah, it’s great.

Jared Battles  02:55

I bri told me what her goals were. I was like, I don’t know. I don’t know about signing up before we’re open, and we just are blessed for sure.

Brianna Battles  03:04

Yeah, it’s, it is interesting. Coming from a My business is all online, so it’s more like online marketing and sales and coaching versus brick and mortar. So it’s been, it’s been a big adjustment, but at the same time, so many similar themes. I’ve worked in plenty of gym environments, not owning a gym, but just again, working with so many coaches, me being contracted at different gyms, and so it’s been cool to connect a lot of dots, but it’s also been a really good learning opportunity, and I certainly know that the first few months of being operational will present a lot of new learning opportunities for us both, definitely. So what I want to do is go over some of the like comment questions and things that we’ve been asked, and again, we’ve gone over some of these in the first episode we recorded a while back. But just for those of you who are just listening now and you’re like, I’m gonna go listen to that other episode, let’s just do a little bit of a recap here. So starting with, like, origin story and why? What was the moment that we knew we wanted to open battle Jiu Jitsu?

Jared Battles  04:19

It’s been there as a idea for a little bit more of, like a far reaching, well, what if, when I got out of law enforcement, it was kind of like, All right, what’s, what’s the thing that we’re going to do for this next phase of life that still fulfills that sense of purpose that law enforcement had For me, and still has that sense of community that was so important during that time in law enforcement, but we got to a point where we weren’t training together anymore. We were trying to figure out what’s next in our jiu jitsu journeys, and although we like competing and doing all that stuff, I’ve. Really enjoy watching other people learn something new for the first time, or get that aha moment, and just gave it more thought. And it came to a point where it became hard to not open up a jiu jitsu gym. There were so many signs, so much divine intervention that seemed to be in place when we were just even having like, a what if kind of talk.

Brianna Battles  05:26

It seemed like the second we said to each other, like, well, what if we did think about this, and then we started putting these stipulations in place, like it would have to be on, like, the corner of state and 16, which means nothing to you if you’re not from here, but you know, it’s like an intersection that’s relatively close to where we live, and we know it’s a developing area like it would just be perfect if there’s something

Jared Battles  05:47

right, or the bubble in between all the gyms where there’s nothing, but it’s probably not gonna happen, because there’s nothing there, right?

Brianna Battles  05:55

There’s nothing happening. And then we got sent and another stipulation, which you guys know, I’m kind of like, again, been in business for a very long time, and you, you just see things go a lot of different ways. And I knew that I I just really did not want to have a landlord, especially opening a brick and mortar I like, I like being in charge of, like, our own future and destiny, and sometimes your future insecurity lies in the hands of a landlord. And that was a huge thing, like, a huge point of, like, resistance for us, wanting to pursue this is, like, not wanting to get tied up in leases. And then we had an opportunity where we were sent a flyer from somebody totally random, like, out of nowhere that was like, Hey, this is close to you guys, right? And we like looking at, we didn’t think much of this commercial real estate thing. And then it was like, a week later that I was like, wait a minute, we could buy a unit. This isn’t just like another commercial development. And that’s when there was like, I felt that significant, just aha

Jared Battles  06:55

moment, yeah. And it was also like, oh, wait, this isn’t as much as we thought it was going to be to buy a commercial unit also, right?

Brianna Battles  07:02

Because California, we’re like, oh, that’s gonna be, like, millions of dollars. We cannot buy a building. And this felt more like a scary but reasonable investment, yeah,

Jared Battles  07:11

for sure, but it was exactly where we said, yeah, exactly at the price point that was manageable. And, like, said it came from somebody who wasn’t part of the conversation of us having this talk. And so it was literally within hours of having the conversation that we had that this got sent to us.

Brianna Battles  07:33

And then we would have, we were like, at school pickup, and I had a mom say, Gosh, I’m thinking about putting my kid in jujitsu. Have you guys ever thought about opening a gym? And we’re like, okay, like, what is happening right now? I’m like, Why did you just say that to me? So again, there was, there were just a series of pretty obvious signs, whether you have faith or not, for us, it just felt very clear that, like, this is the direction and the redirect that our life was taking us on and that we needed to follow, you know, God’s will and our life and just lean into that side of some things are bigger than like we’re just always in control, but it is up to us to trust those redirects and follow the path that we feel like we’re being guided towards. And it was huge leap of faith, huge something that we did not really see coming until it became, I don’t know, like, just hard to deny, yeah, hard to deny. And like, it would feel almost out of alignment if we didn’t act on it, um. And so, as we do with most things, we went full send into trying to finagle everything, and kept waiting for a roadblock. We kept waiting for, like, a door to close where it was like, Okay, this isn’t it. And thank Thankfully, it was, it was almost too easy.

Jared Battles  08:50

Yeah, things fell in place, even things that we didn’t know we needed to do. It was like, Hey, by the way, you guys should do this. Like, yeah, we, we should, yeah, we do need to do that.

Brianna Battles  09:01

Thank you. Yeah, and like, where we are. I mean, I feel very grateful we have, like, a great network, and we have great supportive friends. We’re very tied in with our community, between school, all of our kids sports, like they’re in every sport you can do, through my business, through law enforcement, through church, like, we’re just very tapped into this community, and, of course, jiu jitsu community, like Jared and I tried to train in a lot of different places and have a good relationship with everybody. That’s been a huge part of, I think both of our development in this sport the last couple years is just like, really, like having a learn from everybody train everywhere, type of mentality, both locally and and outside of Idaho, and that’s been really cool, too. So it just felt like everything came together. And over the last, you know, year, we watched this gym go from dirt to like we’ve laid mats down like we have. Of the internal part of it, 80%

Jared Battles  10:03

there, would you say, just waiting on a few things. You know, this is our first time doing brick and mortar, so figuring out the permits and everything we need to do with the city. But it’s mid December now. We got in on this building in October of 24 so it was a long waiting process.

Brianna Battles  10:23

Yeah, again, like, huge leap of faith. Like, just, like, is this crazy? It feels crazy. It feels a little scary, but also, again, like it also felt in alignment with this greater calling to do something here and do something that our whole family is like we love this for we genuinely do and this for isn’t like our whole our whole life and our whole existence, like we live a very full life outside of Jiu Jitsu, which I feel is a needed part of leading a gym and leading a jiu jitsu community is having that balance of like, just yeah, like, There’s more to life than Jiu Jitsu. It can be so consuming sometimes, and to just have that balance where we encourage our kids like they’re playing a lot of different sports. Jared and I have really diverse fitness backgrounds. We understand that the different realities of family dynamics and training. We just want to create an environment that that complements everything else that you and your family has going on in your life.

Jared Battles  11:24

Yep, get it and we can Yeah,

Brianna Battles  11:27

someone asked, like, battles, jujitsu and like, yes, that’s that is actually our last name.

Jared Battles  11:33

Thank you. Thank you to my dad for that.

Brianna Battles  11:36

Jared’s Dad is awesome and so supportive. He adopted Jared at health 1111 and Jared just like, got the coolest last name, and I’m so thankful that I’ve been able to benefit. And it works really well from like, a branding and marketing standpoint for jiu jitsu gym. So that also, yeah, thanks, Paul, yeah, Zoe, that is actually our last name, and it worked well for the gym. So when someone walks into battle jiu jitsu for the first time, what do you want them to feel immediately?

Jared Battles  12:11

The first thing I want somebody to feel when they walk in, especially if they’ve been at other places, this is something I would take from Greg Anderson, just how clean the environment is that it is a safe, clean space to train. You’re not going to walk away with the ick, yeah. But also just with that, it’s a very welcoming environment that there are lots of like minded people here that are for. They’re there for their own growth, whether it’s in Jiu Jitsu or just in life in general, and that we all have each other’s backs and we’re supportive of each other, supportive of each other’s journeys through jiu jitsu and outside of the gym as well.

Brianna Battles  12:49

Yeah, I think for me, it’s like feeling acknowledged like and this, I think, comes from a few different angles of coached women for so long, outside of jiu jitsu and understanding what people need to feel in the training environments, what they need from their coaches, and it’s to feel seen and heard and acknowledged. And whether that’s like leaning into the extroverts, to be like, hey, like, let’s make sure that everybody walks in this gym feels really welcome. If like Jared is tied up coaching or something like that, we all take initiative to make somebody feel welcome. And I knew a huge barrier for me when I started jiu jitsu was like, I didn’t want to inconvenience other people by being like, stuck with the new annoying girl, you know, who was like, Oh, I don’t know what I’m doing. And I was like, so I hated that, like I needed an emotional support blue belt to go with me, actually, because I just, I did not want to inconvenience other members in the classroom, like they’re going, like they’re there to get in their workout or their training, and I don’t want them to be stuck with me when I’ve trained like zero days I know nothing. I don’t want to be an inconvenience. And I just want to say I’m six years in to this sport. It’s a very real feeling, I think, especially for women, but honestly, like everybody, like you don’t want to feel like you’re a buzz kill or an inconvenience. And Jerry will speak on this more, but like that’s, that’s not how this works. Like jiu jitsu is this full circle experience where you go from day one person to like as your journey continues. It’s that full circle of like you, and then you gradually do become a leader and a teacher. And that happens at all different points throughout the engineering.

Jared Battles  14:23

I think one of my old professors at Vass is it’s a big culture of I train, you train, we’re both in it to get the same thing out of it, whether it’s competition or just fitness or something to do. Some of my best training partners now are people that when I came in, they were white belts, and now they’re blue and purple belts. And I have so much fun training. I mean, I’ve seen the progression, and I enjoy that side of it, but it’s also just watching them, them come up, and letting them know they’re not an inconvenience. And I’m trying to get you better, because in turn, you. Going to make me better?

Brianna Battles  15:00

Yeah, and I think at all points in your game, you start to realize, like, you can learn something from everybody, and you can develop your game with everybody. And that’s like your own growth and maturity in the sport is putting yourself in positions that either help others, but will also help an element of your game. So there’s always something that will benefit you, and you’re not an inconvenience. We have all been a day, one a week, one a month, one a year, one etc. Like we’ve we’ve all walked that journey, um, and there’s something really special to be said about those who withstand that vulnerability, because I think jiu jitsu is one of the most vulnerable sports, especially as an adult kids too, of course, but I feel like they’re a little bit more resilient sometimes, like adults, like we have egos, we have like, we have lots of other responsibilities in life, and it’s easy to get deterred. But I think it says a lot to stick out the discomfort and vulnerability that is required to to be humbled, regardless of, like, how fit you are, how experienced you are in other things, like, jiu jitsu is a, like, a true equalizer in a lot of ways. And I think there’s just a huge opportunity.

Jared Battles  16:04

Yeah, all the credit to everybody who steps in, whether they’re professional at something outside of Jiu Jitsu, they step into something and take the challenge of being a beginner again, yeah.

Brianna Battles  16:16

And that is one thing I love, is like the true melting pot of so many different jiu jitsu environments, like you have people that span all different backgrounds, all different careers, ages, like Life Dynamics. And it’s that is truly one of my favorite parts. It’s like an unmatched network. Yeah, absolutely. Next question, how so are we going to be like, competition focused, hobbyist focused, a little bit of both. What’s your opinion?

Jared Battles  16:45

Jer, I think everybody gets to kind of make their own decision on that. Like, no autonomy. There’s autonomy. It’s it’s not a you have to compete. I strongly encourage it, because you learn a lot through competitions. The way I kind of present it to people who are on the bubble of whether they want to compete or not, is, Hey, what did you get in this for? And most times, the answer is a I want to be able to know that I can defend myself, protect my family, protect my kids. And my response is, how are you going to know that if you’re just doing the training environment where you’re in here with your friends, and everybody is focused on keeping each other safe, as opposed to going to a competition where everybody’s goal is to win and do their best to come at you and take your head off and come out with that victory. It gives you that real test, and regardless win or lose, I know that the big thing just is win or learn. But it’s true, even when you win, you learn, but going to competitions, you see something new. And with that competition culture, I think that also brings a big piece of the community. Part of it into it is whether you’re competing or not, you’re there to support your team, the people that you train with, people help you get to that competition. And it’s just, it’s just fun, and putting those goals out before you, too, is also super helpful. Makes leaps and bounds in your jiu jitsu game.

Brianna Battles  18:11

Yeah, I said I would never compete, which I know, like, everyone laughs at because they’re like, obviously you were going to, like, for a very brief background, like, I have a pretty extensive athletic and, like, coaching history. But I was like, I don’t want, I don’t want to compete like I I’ve done that. I’ve played at really high levels.

Jared Battles  18:30

I have it from the beginning, competed at really helped you.

Brianna Battles  18:33

I just was like, I was adamant that I was, I just don’t want to do that. I don’t like, I don’t want to, like, tap into that side of me, been there, done that, like, I don’t need to do that anymore. And then you just get a weird, I don’t know, I don’t even know what it was. It was like, the everyone in my family is competing, Jared was going to compete. The both of my boys were competing. And then I had a little bit of FOMO, and I was like, Fine, I’ll do it. It’s like a local competition. That was the end. Then I was and then I won, and then it was horrible, because then that made me, that gave me, like, the itch to, like, do more. And so then I went straight from, like, local competition to like, why not go to, like, Masters International. And then I got my butt kicked, but it’s fine, um, which then again, had that same like reaction of, yeah, I

Jared Battles  19:18

need, I need to do this again. I never do myself.

Brianna Battles  19:22

I need to figure this out. Now, this is way different, but like competing might ebb and flow. It might be something you never want to do, and that’s literally fine. You can go from white belt to Black Belt and not compete. And if you want to compete at all different points in your journey, or maybe just sporadically throughout it, that’s cool. We support it, and it doesn’t have to be like this, like almost a very strong competition culture that can be dosed appropriately and as needed at an individual basis.

Jared Battles  19:52

The question with competitions, if we have competition specific classes, and my thought, by. Find that also is everybody’s going to train. If somebody is going to do a competition, we’re all going to help prepare and do that. So if you’re doing all that work, why not maybe compete too? You’re already doing it.

Brianna Battles  20:12

Yeah, I get that. What does a family based training environment actually look like in practice? And that’s kind of like the sentiment we’ve leaned into in when we describe like, what we’re what we’re trying to facilitate, what we’re trying to create. I think, I guess I’ll start this part. But like for me, it’s a place where anybody in any family, collective unit can train together, whether it’s a mother, daughter, Father, Son, siblings, couples, grandparent and grandson, which is what I’m trying to get my mom to do. Like that, it really can be a sport that families can enjoy together, because coming from, like a sports performance background and coming from just like an athletic background. There are very few sports that people in a family can pursue together, you know, like, there’s pickleball and there’s tennis and, like, maybe you can do those things, like as a family and but for most people, like, we’re not all playing baseball, we’re not all playing like volleyball, like we’re a whole family shares that. It would be pretty rare to have that, and so to be able to learn a new sport and be a beginner and have your kids witness that, I think that’s really powerful. It’s walking the talk, because again, Judith is very vulnerable, like you are learning a skill set in a challenging environment. Technically, this is a combat sport, like we can’t lose sight. Sport. Like we can’t lose sight of that, like you are learning to be physical with another person. And I think that’s a really powerful thing for families to pursue together for. I mean, personally, like, I love that my boys see me do this for I think that’s been a huge part of shaping their upbringing as young boys, seeing their mom do that equally important to see their father pursuing this for at a high level and saw it all the way through. I think that’s incredibly valuable for instilling the kind of value systems we want. We think that being a woman who’s coached so many women, I think jiu jitsu is probably the best sport you could put your daughter in. And I say that coming from from a sports performance perspective, it is one of the best sports you can put your daughter in particular in, because it is not attached to perfection. It is not attached to what she looks like. It is not attached to being a certain size. It is, I mean, it’s gritty, it’s skill based, and it could be something that could truly save her life. At some point, I had a, like, a post that kind of went viral, that said, like, one of the best used gifts you can give your daughter is sending her off to college or whatever. Like, life journey she takes. But as a blue belt, I honestly it really could, and I think most women who train can attest to the empowerment that would give and so again, if this is something that’s cultivated for families, where they can pursue it together, or at least have that understanding, where you have a supportive family, even if just one person is doing it, but the family is supportive. And supportive and involved in the community. I think that’s really powerful. It’s one of the best gifts that we can all receive at different points in our life.

Jared Battles  23:29

Yeah, I think the other part with the family environment too, we’ve both been the people that are training with our kids on the side, and we’re just so self conscious and aware that our kids are over there making, oh yeah, they’re so annoying, that’s okay. We want them in the environment. It turned into our youngest one starting training and already having some familiarity with it. And I don’t know how many times I’ve seen kids that are training and their parents are not, and them being a part of it, being there, seeing it, going to competitions with their kid turns into them training themselves. I think that really gears towards how we’re combining the family aspect and then with our events or community events. We want the whole family to come. We don’t want you to leave your family for Jiu Jitsu. We want everybody to be involved. And you do involve your family, whether they’re training or not, in your jiu jitsu journey,

Brianna Battles  24:21

yeah, absolutely. The questions that we have here, are we affiliated? Who are we affiliated with?

Jared Battles  24:29

We are not affiliated.

Brianna Battles  24:32

Three agents, baby.

Jared Battles  24:35

We both have had pretty diverse upbringings with Jiu Jitsu, just from different moves, different training environments. It didn’t feel right to to just pick one kind of thing and with the type of culture we wanted and the autonomy that we wanted, we didn’t feel like I. Affiliating with anybody would be, like, true to ourselves, really, yeah, or

Brianna Battles  25:05

just like, yeah, just like, kind of like, jiu jitsu mutts in a lot of ways. And, you know,

Jared Battles  25:09

Jared was the term free agent, yeah, Jiu Jitsu, free Jiu

Brianna Battles  25:13

Jitsu, free agent, yeah? Because, I mean, we moved here, um, we moved from California, Idaho, and Jared had just gotten his brown belt, and I had just gotten my blue belt. We’ve just we’ve trained under different professors and different schools and lineages, and all of them have been exceptionally valuable and shaped our Jiu Jitsu. And then outside of Jiu Jitsu, we have significant coaching, training and teaching perspectives that were shaped with Jared and law enforcement and defensive tactics, and me and my coaching business working with a variety of, you know, high level athletes, it’s that is. It’s just a huge part of our background and education anyway, and so we wanted to be able to act fully in alignment with like, who we are, and create that again, with like, an incredible amount of like, respect and like, what’s that word? Like, oh no, homage, yes. Like, I was gonna, like, butcher it. Thanks for saying it with me. So yeah, like, which with a lot of respect for those who have invested into us. And I always joke that, like, whenever I get my black belt, I’m just gonna have, I have, like, I have so many professors and black belts that have inspired my journey and been so incredibly supportive. And I feel very, very grateful, very grateful for that. And Jared will make fun of me. We’ll have

Jared Battles  26:32

to make some phone calls, get some phones

Brianna Battles  26:35

like, we’re coming out. It’s a party, okay, let’s see. Let’s talk a little bit about getting women on the mat and having that kind of gym. I don’t show why don’t you? You can start with

Jared Battles  26:50

that part three. Bree was just talking about is we think it’s jiu jitsu is a powerful sport, and the confidence that it can build and the skills that you learn could could save your life one day, especially for young girls, but girls of any age, just taking some of that power into your own hands, and we’re facilitating that through that clean, comforting training environment, also Doing women’s class and encouraging anybody that’s training moms dads to jump on the mats with their kids, to help out. I learned a lot in the kids classes, but it’s been great to see women take that role, also, because they provide something for the training that I’m not the most nurturing, or you’re pretty nice, pretty nice, but it helps to train the whole training environment. And there’s a whole, I mean, there’s no reason you shouldn’t, and we want to make sure that it feels good and right for everybody.

Brianna Battles  27:57

Yeah, and like, we acknowledge, like, there’s every woman joins jiu jitsu for a different reason. Sometimes I don’t even know what that reason is until much later into the process, I was asked very recently, like, do you feel tougher since starting Jiu Jitsu? And I mean, it’s a great question, but I’m like, No. Like, I’ve always been tough. I like, am i Where’s the lie, dear? Like, I’ve always been very tough, and it’s been, I feel like that was just because strong, independent woman was like, you know, beaten into me from a very young age. I feel like what jiu jitsu has given me is, like, it’s instilled an energy and a level of confidence and almost like, you know, the kids say, like, aura, like, where you just you, like, can hold yourself, like, with just more confidence in a lot of different environments. I feel like it’s very been very transferable to business and knowing like that there is this skill set that you have and this pursuit of growth and improvement that is very hard to find sometimes, I think, for women, we we often attach a lot of our physical success to like, well, what am I doing in the gym? Or what am like? What does my body look like, and things like that. But to feel capable is an unmatched feeling. It’s unmatched. Nothing has given me the that dopamine and that I just feel like capable, I think is one of the best skill sets a woman of any age could have. So if it’s not our kids interrupting us, it’s going to be the dog. So that’s, I think that’s the word. It’s just that capability. And that’s a really powerful thing. It’s so powerful. So if you’re listening to this as a parent, you have a daughter, that’s what we’re aiming for. If you are a mother and you’re listening to this, that’s what we’re aiming for, is that like inner knowing and like capability to respond if and when you need. Do. And knowing how to read a room, I like, lose track of my questions here. Oh, this is a good one. What are kids classes going to be like?

Jared Battles  30:10

We’re gonna have two different kids classes. Because when we did our signups, we got a great a couple boys, but a bunch of four year old old girls. And right away we knew, like, hey, maybe not the same training environment as with our boys, especially our oldest one. So the kids, the little kids, classes, is it’s gonna be like, game based that’s getting you the skills, but we’ll make them feel like they’re playing a game definitely is, and it’ll be fun and light, shorter classes for them. Keep with that attention span, get them, get them moving and getting in the right movement patterns to take them into the bigger kids class when it’s time and the bigger kids class, some of those, not the four year olds, but some of the older kids there, will move up just based on skill or their own intensity or competition goals or whatever it may be. The kids classes definitely focus on the fundamentals, but also just a fun environment. I mean, jiu jitsu should be fun. It shouldn’t be something that they dread going to got a lot of lot of games that are very specific to jiu jitsu that keep you, keep you moving, keep you having fun, and maybe not realizing that they’re learning something right away. And then when it’s time to do the actual movement, they’re like, Oh, this is the same as that game we just, we just did,

Brianna Battles  31:39

yeah, and sneak it all in there and, like, that’s like, the whole part of like, motor development with kids is, like, making it play based, but then it’s very transferable to their athletic development and into, you know, the sport specificity. But what’s even cooler is when you start to see what they’ve learned in jiu jitsu transfer over into other sports that they play and other activities, and just on how they carry themselves at school and in different situations like you just start to see the elements that are being taught from, like, a mental and emotional regulation standpoint, but also that physical skill set. And so that’s like, it’s a big part of certainly where, like, my coaching interest has shifted through having my boys and being like, going from athlete to coach to now, like mom on the sidelines, but having this like, experience and education. I’m like, Man, jiu jitsu is such an incredible vessel to instill so much of what we want our kids to have as they navigate youth sport and as they just navigate their own development. Just, I mean, it’s, we’re in the trenches right now of 12 and eight, and just seeing, I feel like we’re starting to see like, the like, reaping the benefits of them starting to do so at four, and how it’s transferred over into their performance, but also just again, that how they carry themselves, yeah,

Jared Battles  33:00

and in performance, it’s not just the sports you think. Obviously, wrestling is close and similar. Our oldest just did that. But in football, how they take a fall, or seeing it on the when they’re skiing, how they fall and even how they get up, just it all transfers.

Brianna Battles  33:16

Yeah, yeah, I think again, as if I weren’t doing you just, I’m gonna tell you from the my coaching perspective, like it’s one of the best sports you can do for overall athletic development, like and it will be a life skill that they will not forget. So even if they like just kind of dose jiu jitsu throughout their life, throughout their childhood, it is a skill set that stays with them, and they can always come back to it. But like being able to plant the seed, whether it’s for a season or multiple seasons, or for years and years on end, which obviously we advocate for, it’s a skill set they will have for their lifetime, absolutely, and that’s such a such a gift, when you can invest in your kids like that. There’s a lot of questions here. I didn’t realize it gave me this me, let’s do I

Jared Battles  34:05

know one of the big ones. We get a lot, oh yeah. People ask if we’re gonna do no gi training. Oh yeah. Or if we know gi focused, or GI focused, or leg locks and all the the hotness in jiu jitsu right now, so hot the we’re gonna be a balanced gym. The plan is to do half and half, half g half, no GI and kind of seeing how those games work together, and how you can learn a skill set that will work regardless of what situation you might find it in real life, whether there’s something to grab onto or not, and how you can defend yourself, and how your games can kind of match each other with the gear or no Gi. I don’t feel like specializing in one or the other is particularly beneficial, and obviously the geese got the traditional elements to it, but there’s a lot you can do there, and you got to figure out. How you can transfer that to your NoGi game, and how they work together.

Brianna Battles  35:03

Yeah, and I think it’s fun to have that exposure to both earlier. I don’t think I started doing anything NoGi until blue belt, and then I was like, What the heck. Like, what do I grab on to? And even still, there’s elements where, like, I’ve done more ghee than I have no Gi. I really enjoy NoGi, though it’s faster and I get to be more and more explosive self, but like, there’s still things where I’m like, wait, what do I do here? And so I know that, you know, the intention is, what is taught on one day in ghee will be taught the variation of that with no Gi, the following, yep.

Jared Battles  35:33

And on that the To be honest, the first time I ever did no gi was at a competition where I was traveling to go compete anyway. And it was like, Well, if you sign up for, gee, you can do no gi for free anyway. So might as well try it. And that was first time I did it. And I was like, wow, this is so much different, but it’s so awesome. I want to do both.

Brianna Battles  35:53

Yeah, absolutely. Do you need to be in shape to start Jiu Jitsu? This is like, every like, fitness, fitness e question, you know, it’s like, I’ll get get in shape before I start CrossFit or Jiu Jitsu.

Jared Battles  36:04

Or a lot of people’s hesitation when they’re signing up, they’re like, oh, I want to drop a few pounds first. I want to get my cardio back before it’s two. Part one, jiu jitsu will get you into shape, and it will get your car you going. It’s not something you need to prepare for. It is the preparation. And on the other side of it too is you can do all the running you want. It’s totally different. When you’re there and you have a 200 pound person on your chest and you’re trying to breathe and you’re trying to find air, it’s not the same. Yeah, I don’t think you need to do anything except start, yeah.

Brianna Battles  36:42

I mean, you learn to it’s like, elements of your fitness that are very hard to develop anyway, outside of the sport, because it’s so much about, like, learning to control your breathing, learning, like tension management. It’s so normal to see, like, white belts, like, where that’s just like they’re forcing everything’s like this major, like, isometric contraction. You know, there’s, like, so much tension and, like, it’s like being able to learn how to, like, leverage your body through space in some of these movements when you’re uncomfortable, and it’s getting your brain to cooperate. So again, it’s like you having a baseline of fitness. I’m always going to be like an advocate of and jiu jitsu just gives you a different element of that fitness expression where you learn how to, you know, move dynamically. How do you how to use your strength? But then, like, still learning this, the skill set that will be, like, really transferable, but it is, it is a learning curve. And, you know, there’s talk of this high tension and and spazzy white belts. Those things are there for a reason. It’s they’re true for a reason. And is gonna, like, lead to the next question, like, an environment can help manage that in terms of, like, safety and feeling good and learning, like, essentially, how to act appropriately on the mat?

Jared Battles  37:53

Yeah, absolutely. I think we got, we’re very fortunate with the people that we already have coming, where we have a wide range of skill levels and belt levels, and definitely encourage both sides new people to train with upper belts and upper belts to grab a new person and say, work them through like, Hey, this is something you can change, or you feel this. This is something we could change here, change your position a little bit, but also having that exchange of energy where a brown belt is rolling with a white belt and is like, hey, look, you’re doing all this work and nothing’s going anywhere. Let’s try to relax and breathe a little bit and figure out where you are in space. And I think the environment and the culture surrounding that is just gonna benefit everybody.

Brianna Battles  38:46

Yeah, and I think what the question was like, how do you prioritize safety, especially for brand new students? But it’s not just brand new students, it’s it’s prioritizing safety full stop for all people and knowing, and I think a lot of that comes down to training environment, training intention, and just like consistent communication, both with the people that you’re partnered with, and the overall like class, like what, what are we doing, and what are you comfortable with? What are you not comfortable with? And I know for some days, at least for me. And this could be, like, hormonal. It could be like, just my brain that day. Or I’m like, I have nothing to give. And you know, the days like, where you’re like, the nail and like, getting there is enough, like getting there and showing up and going through the motions is enough. And then other days, you’re like, I’m feeling good. This is great. I think maybe I understand what’s happening now finally, you know, and then you’re having a good energy day, and it’s like, it’s being able to be an environment like, where you have that, like self awareness and self control, but you’re also in an environment that will support you kind of regardless of what you need that day.

Jared Battles  39:57

Yeah, I don’t have the expectation that in. But he’s going to our gym to become a professional jujitsu and doing that on the world stage kind of thing. And it’s the realization that everybody’s there to train and get better, and most all of us have to go to work straight from class or shortly after, and we don’t want to be and shouldn’t be injured for that. Yeah, we want to train hard, but we also want to protect each other. Yep, and like,

Brianna Battles  40:25

good jujitsu is about having longevity in this sport, not just like a flash in the pan success. It’s about keeping your body and your mind as healthy, and like, having that be as sustainable as possible. Like, that’s true health and fitness, and that’s what why we see people that have been black belts for so long, is like they’ve learned how to stay in the game and, like, adjust their game, adjust their participation, and what that looks like as they age, or with injuries that they may have, or just like whatever, like physical body changes and challenges that come up. It’s like, it’s being willing to have a growth mindset, so that your jiu jitsu participation and intensity and whatever, like, all of that grows with you, because that’s the real point when we peel back all the layers of all of our goals and how we like to train, or what we like to do. Like the goal is, like just being in it, staying in it.

Jared Battles  41:15

That growth mindset also comes with the growth of those around you too. So that’s how you ensure that you’re taking care of each other, nobody’s getting seriously hurt or injured.

Brianna Battles  41:28

Why was serving first responders and like the law enforcement community, specifically important to you?

Jared Battles  41:38

Well, of course, I was part of it for a long time, but being part of it, both in California and in Idaho, I have seen how minimal the training that the department provides for first responders doesn’t matter what agency you’re at. There a few agencies throughout the country sprinkled that are doing a little bit more, but overall they’re not getting enough. They’re not getting what they need for the real life situations that they’re going to be in at some point, whether they’re ready for it or not. And through my time at the agencies that I’ve worked at, I had a big focus on training, especially in the defensive tactics and the arrest and control section trying to stress the importance of jiu jitsu training and other hand to hand combat training. Because basically, I’d say is, don’t just train as if your life depended on it, like I’m will really want you to train because my life depends on it, and her life depends on it, and your neighbor’s life, and your wife or your neighbor somebody’s life may depend on it, and I just need to be ready. And the part what department’s doing by themselves is not enough. I encourage all law enforcement and other first fighters too, because the same thing can happen in the back of an ambulance or happen with fire on scene. We need to be able to be responsible for your own safety.

Brianna Battles  43:07

Yeah, I think it’s so well said. We’ve just, we obviously have a huge network of friends and family that are first responders military backgrounds, and it’s just, it’s an incredible skill set to have, and a huge part of your career development, too. I said something on social media a few weeks ago that it’s like, of course, like law enforcement, but like, jiu jitsu is also so beneficial for entrepreneurs. There’s so many parallels there for anybody with like neurodivergence, like autism ADHD, like, we see so much benefit to individuals with with neurodivergence, like, there’s just, there’s so many elements of different almost, like niches of people that, like, really benefit from this sport. And it’s been cool. You know, just some of the elements that we’ve personally navigated, whether career or business. Grade issue that we’ve seen like a lot of benefit too. Okay, we’re gonna, we are gonna wrap soon our prize. Um, what does success look like one year from now? Who I know, unless some big one?

Jared Battles  44:16

Um, obviously, we’d love to have a bunch, bunch more new members, but we’d really like to have all the people that we have signed up still be in it and loving it and telling all their friends about it. That’s a good answer. It’s not, yeah, it’s not just about getting all the new ones, but it’s keeping them, keeping them the retention and jujitsu historically, everywhere, retention is real hard. There’s, you know, that stigma with blue belts quitting and all that we want people to feel supported and feel like they can say and they should stay and they want to stay. What else? I think it would be nice to have some people competing and maybe start bringing home some some team. Medals, just because, not even necessarily, because we’re the best or doing anything like that, but just because we have the numbers in the community that wants to get involved and and do those things together.

Brianna Battles  45:11

Yeah, yeah. I just want, like, a, I want a solid women’s program, like, I want, I want there to be women on the mat. I want there to be women in classes. And I know that takes, it takes time to build, but I feel, I do feel like we can, we can cultivate that kind of environment for them, just by the energy I put out there, the energy that Jared brings as a professor, and that’s something big, and then just a really, like a booming Kids program I want. I want kids to leave class having fun. I want them excited to go there, and I want them outside of, like, outside of the gym, to be complimented for how awesome they move and how awesome they behave. And I get that as parents like that’s not always the case, right? We have some naughty little boys sometimes, but when we have had compliments on our boys for like those two different things, there’s so much of that that I attribute to the sport that they have been that they’ve been brought up in since they were for even if their participation has sort of like ebbed and flowed throughout different sport seasons, that’s like, always really affirming. And I want that for other kids in our local community, and I want it to be like a result of what they’ve experienced under our roof, absolutely 100% How do you hope members describe battle street agency to their friends? Like, probably pretty similar answer,

Jared Battles  46:41

but yeah, so that they have fun, that they should come try it out, because they’re gonna love it, and they’re gonna be met right where they’re at.

Brianna Battles  46:51

Yeah, they’re, like, cared about, like, such an element that, I think gets, gets lost sometimes, in in just different, different different environments and in business and whatever. But it’s like, if you’re a coach, then you care, like there’s a level of care and being able to make people feel invested in because, again, the sport is vulnerable. You are investing in being a beginner. It’s a financial investment. It’s a time investment. There’s so much that, like you give to this sport, it you should feel like that love and support like reciprocated. Jiu Jitsu loves you back. Yeah, jiu jitsu should love you back. It’s one of my favorite sentiments, and I find myself keep saying that, like it should love you back. It shouldn’t be hard. Like it shouldn’t be hard. This should be one of the best parts of your day. Okay, what are you most excited about for opening in

Jared Battles  47:50

January, meeting lots of new people that have similar mindsets, that are there to train and want to get after it, but also want to have a good time and have fun. There were a ton of the signups that are people that we didn’t know yet, and so I’m excited to get to know a bunch more people, and they’re all scattered throughout our community. So yeah, basically having having that home base of new friends,

Brianna Battles  48:17

yeah, I love that. What legacy do you hope battles you did to leaves for our kids? I, like, couldn’t really finish reading that sentence without, like, my nose tingling a little.

Jared Battles  48:32

Well, first, I want them to see that we put a goal out there. We went after it, and hopefully we’re successful at it. It’s something lasting that they could step into if the time is right and what is going on in their life is right, and that they have a good community of people that support them and support us and love their family, that we’ve done things right, that where just our name is is recognized both as a Jiu Jitsu, strong jiu jitsu gym, but also as, like, solid, solid community of people, yeah, solid.

Brianna Battles  49:17

Like, I just want, I just want our family to do something special and do something special together. I think we’ve been put in a position to lead, and we have followed the redirect so many times, and have had to learn to trust that, and that’s like a scary thing to do when you’re in your, like, late 30s, to be like, am I? I’m starting my love for now. Like, this is insane. Like this doesn’t make sense. Like, but where you can step out of fear and step into faith and and practice brave, like, that’s a that’s a sentiment that is very strong. In our household is to practice brave. And it’s not about it’s not about always having answers right away, but it is about trusting that you’re going to get the reps to figure it out, and like they’re seeing us do that in real time. They are at the ages where they are seeing it be built, literally and figuratively and coming to life. And I think there’s a lot of power and entrepreneurship. It’s something that I that was never on the plate for me as like in college at any point, and I fell into it truly kind of on accident after having paid and seeing what having like, being in pursuit of something that gives you life and then helps give to others like that’s one of the most empowering. It’s such a gift to be able to work in a capacity where, like, you are using your own gifts to help others and and I think that’s something that we have an opportunity to do. And when it started to become really clear with like this, next step, you know, in particular, with for Jared is like, or is your God given gift, and how can it be used to help other people and like, how can it be used in a way that like positions our family to to have the autonomy and the support and the the community, and still being able to use sport and movement something it’s always been a big part of our Life to give back in a lot of ways. And I think when I think about our boys and our family and legacy, that I want it to extend beyond just like my business, I want it to be something that is collective, that we’re all pursuing and building together, that’s great fun. Almost made me cry just reading that. Let’s shift the energy and a wrap of this up. Okay, rapid fire, G or Nogi. Oh, rapid chair. Rapid both. No lame Nogi. I’m gonna say Gi, because I know it better. I do like no Gi, though most humbling jiu jitsu lesson,

Jared Battles  52:08

there’s always, always gonna be somebody that can beat you. I feel like

Brianna Battles  52:13

I’ve been humbled so many times, yet I can’t remember what’s my most humbling jiu jitsu moment. Oh, I know that, like the competitive little girl or little boy, that like lives in you, that it never dies, it never goes away. You think that you’re like, too mature to feel like upset and competitive and whatever you’re not, you’re not that little, that person still exists and like, it’s okay, it’s okay to like, be humbled that way and recognize that like we’re all still just growing up and figuring out how we want to show up in this fort. Why would you describe your gym culture, family? Yeah, supportive. Best part about building this together,

Jared Battles  52:58

being able to just share about bouncing ideas off each other and come into together to make something great and beautiful.

Brianna Battles  53:08

I have shared like purpose, that’s my thought is like thought, I have have my stuff, but being able to do this with you and, like with the boys, feels like that’s a that’s bigger than that’s just the big opportunity. Yeah, okay, what does jiu jitsu teach that nothing else does?

Jared Battles  53:32

Back to the humility again, there’s always somebody that can beat you, and there’s always different ways to do things, and you just need to stay humble and take the advice from other people, like also said earlier this podcast, you can learn something from everybody. Learn things from white belts that have walked in the door. Telling being humble is probably one of the biggest successes, or keys to success, in Jiu Jitsu.

Brianna Battles  53:59

Yeah, I think it’s like the the it’s an expression of, like, what it means to have, like, a growth oriented mindset, like it’s your it’s a physical expression of that. And similarly, I know supposed to be rapid fire. I’m just, like, not a rapid fire person ever to see it through. And for an adult in particular, like, We know that kids love stripes and loves promotions and like that feels like really good for kids, you know, they get that validation often. It’s rare as an adult to get validation for the like, quiet work that you do, like your spouse might not always be like, oh, you know, it’s all good, you know. Or like your boss, you know, like, maybe sometimes, but there’s a lot of times that you’re putting in effort and you do not feel seen and recognized for that effort. And jiu jitsu is one of those things where you can physically start to tell that you’ve made progress, and then, like, mentally, emotionally, you become a different person through this work you do. Like, it’s, it is something that. It naturally forces development, physical, mental, emotional, and that transfers to your family and to feel validated, for that, to feel seen, to have a process in place that like you get a belt, like there is recognition, there is a hierarchy that you are working up to. And it’s not like because now you’re better than others. It’s like you are better than you were, and that is a freaking beautiful thing to experience as an adult amidst all of our other life, like responsibilities and things we have to dedicate time and energy and intensity to to have that for yourself. Is that’s just really special. I haven’t experienced anything like it. Yeah, okay, that is it. I don’t know when this is gonna come out off the talk of my team, but if you’re listening to this, before January 3, I wouldn’t try to push it before then we’re gonna have an open mat. That’ll be our first one, and that’s going to be from 10am to 12. We’d love for you to come try it out New Year, right? Yeah, just move around, and then official class schedule starts, January 5, and we ask for grace. We ask for support, patience. Yeah, we are learning. We are learning to and we’re excited to you know, if you’re listening, you remember or you’re thinking about it, we’re excited to build this with you, and grateful for that opportunity to to do this. Yes, thank you very much. All right, guys, Merry Christmas. Merry Christmas. Happy New Year. Thank you. Thank you so much for listening to this episode of the practice brave podcast. If you enjoyed the show, please leave a review and help us spread the work we are doing to improve the overall information and messaging in the fitness industry and beyond. Now, if you are pregnant and you are looking for a trustworthy exercise program to follow, I have you covered. The pregnant athlete training program is a well rounded program for pregnancy with workouts for each week that are appropriate for your changing body. That’s 36 weeks of workouts, three to four workouts each week, and tons of guidance on exercise strategy. We also have an at home version of that program if you are postpartum and you’re looking for an exercise program to follow. The eight week postpartum athlete training program would be a really great way to help bridge the gap between rehab and the fitness you actually want to do. From there, we have the practice brave fitness program, which is an ongoing strength conditioning program where you get new workouts each week and have a lot of guidance for myself and my co coach, Heather Osby, this is the only way that I’m really offering ongoing coaching at this point in time. If you have ever considered becoming a certified pregnancy and postpartum athleticism coach, I would love to have you join us. Pregnancy and postpartum athleticism is a self paced online certification course that will up level your coaching skills and help connect the dots between pelvic health and long term athletic performance, especially during pregnancy and postpartum, become who you needed and become who your online and local community needs by becoming a certified pregnancy and postpartum athleticism Coach, Thank you again for listening to the practice brave podcast. I appreciate you, and please help me continue spreading this messaging, this information and this work.