Late to the party. By a decade or more.

@1 - I, for one, didn't realize it was a race. I've been studying various martial arts for over 30 years. It never occurred to me that there was an expiration date for writing about one's experiences with same.

Great to see a martial artist on The Stranger writing team!

I started with martial arts in college. The underlying message is one of self-strengthening, individualism, and being purposeful. Much as a I love The Stranger, the editorial voice could do with a bit more of that at times.

I got stuck in traffic out side of Seatown Grappling a few weeks ago and though it looked different and neat. It's nice to hear about some of its back story.

Nice to see the passion in this article, and yes jujitsu is addictive, powerful, and fun.... but lets be realistic, you can get plenty hurt training jujitsu, and you can also train kickboxing/boxing in such a way as to minimized head contact and injuries in general. BJJ is a full contact, combat sport and shit happens. A good gym, good training partners, and your training style can only minimize injuries not prevent them. Then again, you get hurt plenty playing soccer too. Its totally worth the risk - I am 130 lbs, 45 years old and its still fun to immobilize and tap out much younger, much bigger athletes.

@1 DYET?