Renee. High school student, cosplayer, assistant kids coach.
"I had an interest in this sport after seeing UFC fights and hearing about different fighters and their backgrounds. Unfortunately It took about 4 years for my mom to finally let me try kickboxing my freshman year. When I did it turned into a release from the pressure of school work and frustrations I had. It was just so much fun to learn something that many people my age don't realize is so amazing. My dad was really supportive of what I wanted to do and convinced me to do grappling and jiu jitsu. Before then I never realized how much concentration went into rolling. With kickboxing if you throw a left hook the person will dodge or block. While in jiu jitsu a person can do anything with multiple escapes and submissions. I wanted to learn as much as I possibly could. After a year of training with many talented people every day I decided to start competing. I didn't win the first but after wining two divisions in my second competition my parents thought I needed a name. I wanted one that related to me and I found it one night when renegade by eminem started playing and I didn't know what the word meant. After looking it up i knew that it was the right name and it stuck. Since then I've competed multiple times some were wins and some were loses. Some days I would have to remind myself that losing was another way of learning. Earlier in my training I had told one of my coaches I aimed to be a coach one day and he let me become an assistant coach. Seeing the kids I teach grow and learn more everyday I just know they're going to be so talented in whatever they choose to do when they get older. Fast forward a few months to my meeting with Travis newaza who found me at CSW and has been sponsoring me ever since as well as Zion soaps. It's been a great experience so far and I'm so happy that I'll be going to many more competitions from now on. Especially with two more years of high school left then off to college. I'm still not entirely sure what I want to do in life there are just so many possibilities. I guess I'll just have to see where the road takes me. Overall I'm very grateful for every opportunity that jiu jitsu, grappling, and wrestling has brought me. I know there is still so much more for me to learn but I know I'll make it through with help from the many great people I have come to know."
All photography in the People Who Train series is by photographer Mik Milman. See more of his work here.
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