Jeremy Szczepanski: Why This Rabbi Rolls.
Jeremy, a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Blue belt and practicing rabbi shares his story about why he started training in martial arts and what it’s given him. Jeremy currently lives and trains in Southern NH.
I joined the high school wrestling team as a scrawny freshman . Bullying can be traumatic, but it also becomes a catalyst for some of us to take our lives into our own hands so that we don't have to live in fear anymore. I'm grateful to Joe Bergman, my old PE teacher, who recognized what I was going through as that under 110 lbs. freshman. Joe steered me towards his brother Coach George Bergman. Coach George happened to need some guys at the lower weight classes. He knew I was no athlete, but that didn't matter. Coach George and his coaching staff taught us that no matter what circles we ran around in outside of wrestling, we were always to remember that we were teammates, that we had to have each other's back.
Four years later, at the close of my senior year and final wrestling season, I received my varsity letter. I went from weighing 110 lbs (soaking wet” to competing at 135/140 during my sophomore and junior years and competing at 145 in my senior year, even placing third at the JV SBC tournament that year. Having ballooned up to nearly 220 during rabbinical school and the first year of my rabbinate, I'm now walking around between 180 and 185. It's been an immensely crucial part of my self-care routine, something I now schedule other things around to ensure I'm able to train.
Ever since then, my passion for martial arts and combat sports has burned within me. I spent ten years training in various styles of Chinese martial arts before eventually making my way back to my grappling roots via Judo and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. I've met and trained with some truly incredible people over the years and have been privileged to watch many others begin their own journeys. Martial arts and combat sports are not about violence, they are about discovering who you really are and what you're truly made of. As long as my body is willing - and probably long after it isn't - I will continue to train and reap the benefits.
