Over the past year, Bryanna has become an incredible addition to the SBG Buford Tribe, both in and outside of the gym.
Bryanna first started training at Straight Blast Gym Buford in October of 2020. She was a high school cheerleader and was looking for a fun and exciting sport that she could sink her teeth into as her high school career came to a close. That new sport was Muay Thai.
Muay Thai Coach Jim Sheppard reflects on Bryanna’s first few weeks at SBG Buford:
“When Bryanna first started it was clear that she was an athlete and that she was totally game to learn a contact sport. She was also pretty giggly and most Muay Thai athletes aren’t giggly 😂. Over the upcoming weeks, I really grew to appreciate her light-hearted and fun attitude. In addition to her getting better at Muay Thai, she’s become an awesome supporter of the sport and her teammates. A couple of months ago a group of guys from our Muay Thai program competed at an event here in the Atlanta area, and Bryanna and her mom came out to support the team. “
In addition to her hard work and support in our Muay Thai program, Bryanna has also been participating in SBG’s Brazilian Jiu Jitsu classes. After graduating from our Foundations program earlier this year, Bryanna was soon attending Jiu Jitsu classes at 6am, noon, AND at night. It’s not uncommon at all for Bryanna to train at Straight Blast Gym multiple times a day.
Her dedication on the Jiu Jitsu mats has become very apparent, and recently she was promoted to blue & white belt, meaning that she is halfway to her BJJ blue belt!!
Bryanna’s friend and training partner Carmen Garcia had this to say about Bryanna and her training habits:
“Bry brings a ton of fun energy to the gym. She’s grown a lot since I first met her, both as a person and on the mats. She’s often the youngest person in our group of girls and you can tell that it’s shaped her personality some over the past year.”
At SBG Buford, we have an AMAZING group of women that participate in our Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, Muay Thai, Kickboxing, and Group Fitness classes. Martial Arts are traditionally dominated by men, and we love that Bryanna and the SBG women are willing to get in there and mix it up with anyone and everyone.
Because of the strong male presence in most Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and Muay Thai classes, the SBG girls share a special bond that they’ve developed on the mats, and that spreads outside of the gym to their personal lives. Since beginning her tenure at Straight Blast Gym Buford, Bryanna has become “one of the girls” and is a regular at all of the outside-of-the-gym SBG events.
In addition to coming out to support her teammates at martial arts competitions, Bryanna also meets up with the other SBG ladies for frequent events that they hold outside of the gym. Dinners, shooting at the gun range, Top Golf, wedding showers….Bryanna is there.
