By Sanjana Thimmidi

Can you guess what one TPA student does in her free time? Well, eighth grader Kailee Levitch learns jiu jitsu in her free time, and she is pretty good at it too!

She started learning jiu jitsu about two and a half years ago. Her grandma wanted her and her brother to know how to defend themselves. So, they each would learn jiu jitsu for a week and afterwards, if they liked it, they would continue. After one week, they both liked learning jiu jitsu so they decided to continue learning it.

Kailee is glad she continued learning jiu jitsu. She found it a great way to make new friends and meet more people. She also has lots of fun learning new things. She even found that she is quite good at it. Although there are some parts that she does not like as much, like some of the stretches, she does plan on continuing to learn it for some time.

In fact, she recently had her very first jiu jitsu tournament and she won first place!

She recommends that if anyone wants to try jiu jitsu they should try it for some time before they decide whether or not to stay.