Iraq veteran and brown belt Pisey Tan sat down with host Alysa Couce on the Jits and Giggles Podcast and opened up about what jiu-jitsu has genuinely meant to his life. His words were direct, personal and at times surprising.
Tan was clear:
“Physically, doing jiu-jitsu basically saved my life and also if my daughter needs a liver, I can donate my liver to my daughter again, but also mentally too as well with jiu-jitsu. Jiu-jitsu’s done so much for me.”
He got into the sport partly to lose weight after his daughter was born with a liver tumor, pushing around 300 lbs (136 kg) at the time. He dropped 30 lbs (13.6 kg) in his first three months without making major changes to his diet. The physical shift was only part of the story.
What moved him most was what the community gave back:
“The community was healing, the camaraderie, just being a part of it. It was sort of like it brought me back to structure. The stuff that I needed. I needed structure. I needed rules again in my life.”
One of his most personal admissions concerned confidence. Before jiu-jitsu, as a double amputee, he avoided drawing attention to his legs:
“Prior to doing jiu-jitsu, I wore the most baggiest jeans in the world. I was always ashamed of these things. Literally, I was really really ashamed of them. But jiu-jitsu has given me that confidence where I just don’t care.”
He was direct in his belief that the sport can help almost anyone:
“I think jiu-jitsu will be like 90% for everybody.”
On difficult periods, he acknowledged they still come but spoke about how he pulls himself through:
“There are times that yes, I do find myself in a dark place. But I found myself in a way where I’m like, okay, you have to be there for your daughter. There’s something out there that can help you pull yourself out of that hole that you’re in. And for me, yes, it’s definitely jiu-jitsu.”
He also credited the community for his reintegration into civilian life:
“Everybody in the jiu-jitsu community has played an integral part”
” rior to jiu-jitsu, all I did was two foot cheese steaks, strombolis, pizzas. That was it. That was my comfort.”
When asked whether getting submitted bothered him, his response summed up his entire outlook on the sport:
“I love getting tapped out by everybody. It’s fun. Because at the end of the day, if I get tapped out by, say, a D1 white belt, so be it. Next time, it was my dumbass fault that I got tapped. So I got to correct my game.”
