Jaysen Richards
Photo courtesy of Esteban Corrales
Jaysen Richards is a 17 year old who does Brazilian jiu-jitsu and wrestling and attends Plant City High School.
How long have you been doing jiu-jitsu?
I’ve been training jiu-jitsu at Carlson Gracie in downtown Plant City for about three years now.
What’s your favorite thing about jiu-jitsu?
The community is my favorite thing about jiu-jitsu! I love meeting people from all different backgrounds.
What’s a life lesson that the sport has taught you?
“Every setback is a chance to learn.” You’re not going to win everything, so don’t take every loss to heart. It teaches you what you need to improve on, and what your weaknesses are.
Is there an area of jiu-jitsu that you want to improve in and why?
I want to improve in what’s called “back defense.” This is when you make sure you don’t get your back dominated by your opponent. Having someone’s back is a dominant position in jiu-jitsu, so I would love to know how to escape it, as well as prevent it.
What advice would you give someone who wants to get into the sport?
Answer: Jiu-jitsu isn’t that intimidating, but it can look like a lot from an outside point of view. You just have to be willing to learn and work hard!
When you’re not doing jiu-jitsu, what are you doing in your free time?
Right now in the summer, I fill up most of my time with jiu-jitsu and wrestling. I have 8:00 a.m. wrestling camp for four hours, and then I go to jiujitsu classes at night, sometimes until 8:00 p.m. I always want to keep training and pushing myself!
Is there a sport that you haven’t tried, that you’d want to try? If so, what and why?
I would maybe want to try track and field because I think it would be challenging and fun. But many of my friends said I should try football because of my size.
What’s been the highlight of your summer so far?
I had an adult No-Gi Jiu-jitsu match at a tournament in Tampa, and we went into DOUBLE over time! I was so tired, but I pushed myself to the end and won the match by submission!
