Few have a passion for a sport that exceeds WHS Junior, Anika Kale’s craze for Jiu-Jitsu. From her initial intimidation, “All I could see from the sport was old men fighting and sitting on top of each other,” to becoming fierce in the face of competition, “That’s what it is, we just have to go all out, or what’s the point?” Kale’s maturation with her Jiu-Jitsu skills and confidence contribute to her undying love for the sport.
Kale picked up the sport in the Summer of 2022 when her brother joined the Hiago Gama Academy. Reluctant to follow at first, Kale eventually began to go with her brother and even stayed after he trained to take the self-defense class after some convincing from her Sensei.
Soon after, Kale began to add more Jiu-Jitsu experience to her repertoire, “Eventually, the only other girl at the gym, Leticia, convinced me to start training more once the self-defense class got boring.” Soon after, what originally was a hobby to accompany her brother became an infatuation with the culture and intensity of Jiu-Jitsu.
Throughout her training, Kale has reached blue belt status and won 3 gold medals for her work in Jiu-Jitsu tournaments. Despite this, she maintains that her most significant achievement has been staying consistent with the sport, which she attributes much to her enjoyment of Jiu-Jitsu, “If you love something enough, you wanna do it a lot, or else you get sad.”
Kale’s most recent gold-medal fight almost ended in disaster when her opponent trapped her in a Kimura, a shoulder submission tactic in Jiu-Jitsu, leading to her shoulder bending the wrong way. Despite this setback, Kale prevailed in the 2nd and 3rd rounds, winning 20-0 and avenging her shoulder by sticking her opponent into a submission.
Outside the gym, Kale uses her training to motivate her to finish school-related work, “I think it gives me an incentive to finish my schoolwork early on in the day, so I have time to go to Jiu-Jitsu at night and not have to worry about scrambling to finish work after.”
For this reason, Kale’s mother loves what Jiu-Jitsu has done for her daughter: “It’s given her a lot of confidence, which she deserves more than anything. I also like how it forces her to finish her homework, although she still needs to work on how late she finishes her reading assignments.”
Going forward, Kale plans to go to Jiu-Jitsu training at the same gym if she attends a local college; however, if she goes out of state, she admits she’d have to find a new gym.
As for her future with Jiu-Jitsu, Kale states, “This sounds lame, but goals and belts aren’t my purpose or my goal; it’s more of just continuing to get better.” Kale also added that she’s working on beating a man from her gym who is the same size and belt as her.
