This guest sits in her head a lot and looks at her perspective on the world around her and how she interacts with it. In the headspace to work on herself and grow, she finds she can keep climbing and celebrate the wins and continue forward. She wouldn’t describe herself as extraverted, but she has learned that she loves good energy and surrounds herself with people who are fuse lighters. Meet Destiney Word. She went to college to be a high school Ag teacher, but she found that traditional path is not what she expected out of life. She wanted to connect with people and change their lifestyles, so she went into the fitness and the exercise community.When we talk about how she was introduced to martial arts —she showed up to get a make up credit in PE Class in college and it took off from there. She didn’t want to dabble in jujitsu and the more committed she’s become, the more she’s fallen in love with it. For Destiney it is a physical and mental challenge and a lifestyle.Teaching has made her a better student. When you teach she says, “you have to know it well enough to look at it backwards to know what they are doing right and wrong.”We talk about methods and techniques and the detail orientation of jujitsu and how one can notice the detail.Her move? She loves arm bars and reverse ranges…and biceps slicers. One move is more drawing because of style and size. She trusts her own abilities. You build your confidence because when you train with bigger guys, you are having to rely on technique. We talk about the level of respect that you see in the ranking. There is more knowledge and trying to understand how to connect the dots to make a big picture.You learn to struggle with yourself and your own abilities. As you keep coming back— then you end up learning. There is a mutual level of respect for all players but only you can make yourself better. How much you consistently train is a direct reflection.We talk about injuries of the sport and you see that you might not have the strength or dexterity to do something the typical or traditional ways. So find a way. That appears to be Destiney’s way—to look deep within and evaluate all of the pieces to create her pathway.It’s not if you get hurt in her sport, it’s when and how bad. We talk about the responsibility, limitations and ego. We talk about the amount of confidence that goes into this sport and the maturing process and being around the game long enough to be very sportsman. The table can shift and you will be forcefully humbled.Speaking about women in the sport and what it is like to train consistently is also a topic in this episode. Guys can train with you and make you better and there is a range of how the guys do interact. Destiney says “bring it on.” There can be a toxic vibe at times, but there are “mat enforcers” that will keep the environment in check. She tells her ladies not to avoid training with the big dude because from a self defense standpoint, that is what the reality will be in a defending situation. Destiney says there is a lot of self defense in the jujitsu. As an instructor she likes to see the ladies grow their confidence and opinions of themselves. Those who are grown women and are fearful and have had a traumatic incident and start training and then you see the light come back in their eyes is rewarding. Having the opportunity to see kids in her program is also rewarding as she is watching kids grow and transform within the sport and in their lives in general. There is an uplifting of female fighters. We talk about cage fighting and Destiney says there is nothing more intense and satisfying for her to know she did that and survived it.When asked what does she think of as unfair—her response is gender inequality. She works hard and wants to work in creating the dreams and goals for herself and others.Tune in!Song “STOMP” used by permission of artist Donica Knight Ho
Music "STOMP" used by permission of artist Donica Knight Holdman and Jim Huff
