Were gonna start right now, in this half guard.

I'm going to move towards him, he puts up his frame.

I rotate my hand through and hold his jaw and drop to my hip.

And I walk behind him.

Does that make sense?

All right.

One, two, three.

My name is James Weed.

I'm a third degree black belt under the legendary Walter Cascão.

I was born and raised in Las Vegas and now live here in Spokane, Washington.

I am the head instructor and co-owner of Newborn Cascão Jiu Jitsu.

So, Jiu Jitsu is a leverage based, martial arts.

It's a lot like wrestling, but with chokes and submissions.

The old UFC, first UFC number one, made it popular back in ‘93, when you saw Royce Gracie.

He uses his whole body as the weapon.

He's going to snap his arm.

Jiu jitsu is very challenging.

I think it's a really good sport to grow in.

You know, James is awesome and I think he is as good as he is as a person, that there's other people that follow in the same footsteps.

It starts with James.

He's built this community.

He's built this house.

And everybody here is fully invested, not only in their Jiu Jitsu aspirations, but invested in their team and building each other up and just making everybody better around you.

I grew up super poor in government housing in Vegas.

My parents were super religious, which was good.

It kept me out a lot of trouble.

The religion was a little, a little extreme... At any moment, if you decide you don't want to be part of the religion, they would cut you off.

The older I got, probably mid-teens.

I started seeing some issues and decided that it was best to pull myself away.

I was going to lose everything.

There was a coffee shop in Vegas.

Where there always be somebody there, you know, to talk to, someone there to hang out with.

And so I had, you know, a bunch of friends that took me under their wing and whether it was giving me somewhere to stay, something to eat, or even just somewhere to be; it meant the world to me.

The name Newborn was actually one of my friends, in that, in that group that kind of took me in.

And he was a well-spoken, charismatic, you know, individual.

People wanting to spit in your face and kick you down and...

He was an activist, who was strong against racial prejudice.

It was always amazing.

The passion he had for that!

Because of the stance he had and because of being such a charismatic guy.

One day, Nazis decided to actually murder him in the deserts of Las Vegas.

Him and my friend Dan.

So it was Len Newborn and Dan Shersty.

I remember I lost my mind for a bit.

I wanted to fight all the time.

I just needed, an outlet, and I found all the wrong outlets.

I say it was anger that brought me to Jiu Jitsu, but it was actually love that made me stay.

I went into Cascão Jiu Jitsu in Las Vegas.

I met my coach and Walter Cascão.

And to have somebody who was, like, a mentor who was an unbelievably amazing competitor, one of the toughest people I've ever met in my life, but have so much heart.

And to care.

I couldn't think about anything outside those doors.

I couldn't think about family life.

I couldn't think about work.

I couldn't think about anything besides the fact that somebody was trying to choke me.

You know, I had to be in the element.

And I had something that I wanted to master.

If I wanted to be good at this, I had to let whatever was outside those doors go and focus on what I was doing.

My name is Molly Burke.

I'm 28 and I've been in Jiu-Jitsu for a little over a year now, and I'm a white belt with two stripes.

The thing I love about Jiu Jitsu is it doesn't matter your size, gender, weight, there's not really a requirement, just your skill level and what you put into it.

I've rolled with guys that are 220 pounds and I've got them to tap.

So, and I'm not that big.

Back in August of 2022, I almost died.

There was a guy who attacked me on my morning walk.

I felt like something was taken from me.

When I came to Jiu Jitsu, they helped build back a lot of confidence that I thought I lost from that attack.

Because of Newborn and James specifically, like, they create such a safe environment.

James, I feel like has a really good judge of character.

You know, he brings in more people that are like him and love Jiu Jitsu, they're good at Jiu Jitsu and they just want to share that with other people.

I'm Michael Chiesa, I'm a two stripe brown belt under James Weed here at Newborn Cascão in Spokane.

I fight professionally in the UFC, and I'm also a broadcaster for ESPN.

The thing I love about jiu jitsu is it's the soft art where there's so much fluidity to be being good at Jiu Jitsu.

It's something that you can't force.

It's something you have to train proper techniques, successes isnt determined by, like winning and losing or your belt rank.

Success is determined by your commitment coming in and showing up every day.

James, as the leader of this gym and this team, it's kind of forced me to grow up a little bit in all the right ways; and it's made me a better man.

I can tell a difference, not only in how I compete as a fighter, but how I walk through life as a human being.

And that's the thing I love about it.

It's it's more than a team.

It's a community.

We're really here to take care of each other and at the same time push each other.

And that's that's what helps us all grow.

It's really cool to sit there and see the community that jiu jitsu has brought in Spokane.

Where you have people that normally never get to know each other.

You know, you have Republicans, you have Democrats, you have rich, poor, black, white.

I always say we have cops, and I have people with grow ops.

You know, you have all these different walks of life and this kind of forces you to put a face to that other side.

And especially we'll do that in the name of Newborn, you know, in the name of my friend who, that was his passion!

And that was something that meant so much to him.

The fact that people, you know, aren't that different.

And so to be able to do that, keep his name alive, while having everybody come on the mats and trust each other with their limbs, as we, you know, armbar each other and choke each other, and then again, have that love and that care and that respect for each other is pretty amazing.