Emily Kwok is a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu practitioner who was born in Aomori, Japan but emigrated to Vancouver, BC when she was just 1.5 yrs old, so grew up in the Canadian city. She began training BJJ aged 20 and says “I got into BJJ through boxing (which I was terrible at), then Sambo. I wasn’t allowed to have techniques executed on me or spar (because the instructor felt it wasn’t appropriate to fight with a woman) so I migrated to BJJ.” Since then, Kwok has come a long way, achieving her black belt in 2008 and is currently a third-degree black belt as of 2020. These days she trains at her own gym, PrincetonBJJ in NJ and has done since 2010. She is still part of the Marcelo Garcia Association which is Alliance gym lineage.
She credits Marcelo Garcia as her current teacher, but also claims that she learns a lot from her students stating “I learn from Marcelo Garcia, my peers and my students. 20 years in I have exceptionally talented friends who are world class competitors who I adore learning from. I also learn so much from my own students. They teach me to be more self reflective about what I know, what I do and what I can articulate. I also have some advanced students who are really excited about the sport and introduce me to the new things they are working on.”
Like many grapplers, she speaks very highly about Garcia, adding “Marcelo was the first elite fighter I trained under with a distinct style and repertoire. Up until then I learned BJJ without a clear focus. Marcelo’s game was extremely aggressive and under him I believe I learned how to exercise offensive vs. defensive strategy. No teacher till then had invested in teaching such a thing thematically. It was also under him that I began to respect and recognize how important individual expression was – that there was no cookie cutter jiu jitsu that would take me to the top.”
We asked her about her favorite positions and moves when training BJJ, this is what she said, “I prefer open guard for sure. I used to play a lot of slx and x, but have been experimenting and playing with different styles lately. I had the hook and sickle sweep drilled into me at a seminar back when I was a blue belt. To this day, it’s a high percentage sweep that I still use a lot and I’ve always been a huge fan of pressure passing. I tend to favor an inside knee cut, but I enjoy passes that go under, over or around the guard a lot.” In terms of submissions, her main attack is the straight armbar from mount.
Kwok is also known for her competitive side and usually competes at the middleweight bracket. We asked her about her toughest opponent, this was her reply “In 2008 I stepped up to face Hannette Staack. I looked up to her so much and had imagined that I might one day fight her, but didn’t expect it to be so soon! If I recall correctly I was a brown belt and in those days the women fought in a brown/black division. I lost the match 0-6. She was and still is such a formidable and skilled competitor. The fight signaled to me that no fight at this level would be an easy fight, and I’d have to work very hard not to be outclassed.”
Like many competitors, Kwok has had her fair share of injuries and says “In 2009 I was cross training in Judo for Pan Ams. I was working live throws with my instructor when I went for an inside leg trip and my leg stuck on the mat in a strange way. His body fell on top of the outside of my leg and I shredded my MCL. I had completely torn my left MCL whilst somehow not injuring any other part of my knee. It took me 8 months of rehab before I had full use of my leg.”
Q&A
In some of your videos you have a strange version of single leg X with the lapel, which is not quite wormaconda or single leg x. Is there any reason why you would do this? Is it for specifically fighting larger opponents in the gym?
“Haha. I like the wormaconda. Simply put, I’ve had 3 kids in the span of 7 years. While I have spent at least 3-4 or those years growing a belly and navigating through the difficulty training presents, all my students have been getting better. Coming back to the mats I’ve had to learn how to modify movements to keep my opponents entangled in my guard as they’ve learned to defend. I’ve also had to compensate with alternative leg positions so that I can exert pressure without putting too much stress on my inside hip. I came up with some of the adjustments so that I could continue to play some of these positions that I still enjoy playing.”
I’ve read that you were training whilst pregnant (not full sparring of course) and went back to training 3 weeks after giving birth. Firstly, is this something you’d just recommend to only higher belts? It seems kind of risky if you were a white belt doing this, as you probably could make some fatal mistakes. Also was this true for all of your kids? Or did it become increasingly tough to get back on the mats after each child was born and of course general body aging?
“Wow – you’ve done some research! With all my kids I returned to the mats fairly quickly but you are right to point out that I was fairly advanced in my practice. I don’t think it’s my place to say that all white belts or no one under black belt should exercise more caution because there is no single model behavior for each. What I would advise is that you know your body best and that I’m not a doctor, a therapist, or your teacher. The decisions I made were with the information and awareness I had in the company of a team of doctors and therapists who’ve known me and what I do for a long time. Every individual has different variables to consider so what worked for me might not work for you. Everyone has to mitigate their own risks and live with themselves. So the best thing you can do is to be sensitive to your needs, have awareness of what your body can safely handle and recognize that it’s vitally important to be in good health for that beautiful little baby that depends on you. Certain things have become harder for me after having multiple children. My hips aren’t quite as stable. I’m 10 months post pregnancy now and I have to do a lot of self care to make sure I can stay active. I work out 3 x a week and practice reformer pilates once a week with a physical therapist. The stress and load from training BJJ is very hard on my body, especially since I’m still breastfeeding – so my hormones haven’t fully regulated yet.”
Why did you quit MMA? I have seen quite a few BJJ competitors do this. They have a similar record to yours and then decide they don’t want to do it anymore.
“I think we have to look at what was happening in the MMA world at the time. I was fighting and training for MMA 2004-2008.This was pre women in the UFC and pre Gina Carano. The sentiment during that time was largely that men didn’t want to see women fight MMA. There were a handful of opponents around the world let alone in your own country or state. I gave up after 3 separate fights fell through. I had won the world championships in 2007 and every time a promoter would find a match for me, the opponent would back out after finding out that I was a specialist in BJJ. I’d been training BJJ for about 7 years and had 2 MMA fights under my belt. Most of the opponents available at the time were general practitioners of MMA with 1-2 years of practice. No one wanted to go up against a specialist. On the flip side, we were trying to build me into a fighter so it wasn’t smart to take a fight with an opponent with a record 10-1 in MMA and a black belt. The disparities between the levels of opponents in that era was so wide, it might have taken an act of god to actually get to the stage. I finally quit MMA in 2008 because I was training MMA 3-4 days a week with men in addition to my BJJ training. MMA training isn’t fun. It’s not fun to be punched in the head of the gut by fully grown men who have 40-60 lbs on you multiple days a week. I just decided it wasn’t fun anymore and I wasn’t getting anywhere with it. My goals were misaligned with the times.”
What is your best achievement to date?
“Hard to say. I’m so grateful for the position I am in today and every part of my career has helped me get to where I am. I’m most proud of the community we have built at my school. I’m really surrounded by thoughtful, independent minded, intelligent people.”
Lastly if you could let people know what you’re up to these days. Do you still compete? Are you working within BJJ?
“I’ve been spending the greater part of this year with my family. With the waves of shutdowns due to the pandemic, training and teaching has taken a backseat. I just had my third child and my hands are really full being a mother, a school owner and a professional consultant. I’m an inherently competitive person so I don’t doubt that I will continue to dabble in competition from time to time, but it isn’t my main focus right now. I still have my school, so I hope that we will be able to thrive post pandemic. I’m really eager to grow my consulting business and continue conducting seminars around the world.”
You can find more about her gym here www.princetonbjj.com as well as her personal website which is www.emilykwok.com
