Pamela Ann Moye. Social psychologist, English teacher, band manager/record label owner, Judo practitioner, coach, instructor, Jiu Jitsu practitioner.
"I had no idea what I was doing when I signed up for a college judo class in my mid-20s. I needed a credit and knew that I could not do ball sports, and dance class had never worked for me. Four and a half years later when I got my black belt, my first teacher told me that if he could have picked one person who would not have made it through the first semester, it would have been me. (The lovely thing is that I never knew he felt that way.) Judo gave me something I had never had before: confidence in myself as a physical being.
I left judo when grad school intervened. Seven years later, in a minor state of existential crisis and a major state of chubbiness, I returned to the mat. I found myself teaching more and sparring less due to safety concerns. And then, I was introduced to BJJ. My mat game had always been my strength in judo, and there was pure joy in being a white belt again. I currently train both sports as a life-long commitment.
For as long as I can remember, I have straddled realms and challenged stereotypes. Martial arts training is an extension of my intellectual self, my highly-educated self, my English and history teacher self, my old-school tattooed punk rock self, my female self, my art and puzzle-loving self, and my it doesn’t matter WTF happens in my life I will tackle it with kindness, humility, and all the bad-assery I can conjure self.
I TRAIN BECAUSE when I am on the mat, everything inconsequential ceases to exist. There is a hunger that is satiated and a revitalizing serenity that is found."
All photography in the People Who Train series is by photographer Mik Milman. See more of his work here.
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