Via Community News Service, a University of Vermont journalism internship, in partnership with Vermont Public
BURLINGTON — Incense burns at the entrance to Grind BJJ, a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu gym on North Winooski Avenue in Burlington. The floor is covered in gray wrestling mats. A speaker plays Mobb Deep while members stretch before rolling — or sparring — with one another.
Jason Amerosa is the owner and instructor of Grind BJJ. He started the gym in 2018, and has since established a community of grapplers ranging from beginners to the highly-skilled. He started the gym to introduce others to Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu — a practice that has shaped his life.
Amerosa began training Jiu-Jitsu in 2002. He was in his early 20s, and he had just become a dad.
“My brother, at the time, was a blue belt in San Diego. And I was like, ‘I need to do something to, kind of, clean up my life,’” he said. “I was not a good student. I didn’t have the greatest self-esteem. I was needing a lifestyle change. And so I found a gym in Burlington and started training.”
Amerosa credits the combat sport with giving him the confidence to go to college, which eventually led him to a career in social work.
“Once I started to realize that I could do something hard, like Jiu-Jitsu, it gave me more confidence to try other things, like school, and also the responsibility of being a parent. I wanted to try to do better,” he said.
It’s not just the Jiu-Jitsu gym that Amerosa leads now. Last year, he opened Rocklake Counseling, his own private mental health therapy practice.
He got interested in the mental health field in a sociology course at the University of Vermont. He was required to have an internship, and he ended up working with kids at the Boys & Girls Club of Burlington.
“It really just felt right, and that was when I decided that I wanted to work in social work or mental health work,” Amerosa said.
And that’s what he did. Amerosa worked at the Howard Center as an interventionist and clinician for about 12 years before opening his own practice.
Back at the gym, members of Grind BJJ circle around Amerosa as he demonstrates a new technique on a partner. Then members pair up and try the new skills they’ve been taught.
Ali Jones, a clinical dietitian at the University of Vermont Oncology Center, has been training Jiu-Jitsu with Amerosa for 13 years. Jones said there is a social aspect to practicing at the gym.
“We all have to trust each other quite a bit in here to do this, to be able to train this hard and not hurt one another,” Jones said. “So you do build some bonds, and I’ve formed some really strong friendships from Jiu-Jitsu over the years.”
Jones also said Jiu-Jitsu is as much of a workout for the mind as it is for the body.
“If it weren’t for Jiu-Jitsu, I would probably not be exercising at all,” Jones said. “I get very easily bored, and Jiu-Jitsu is a puzzle for the mind. So as hard as we’re working and sweating, you’re thinking the whole time.”
KJ Albaum also trains with Amerosa at Grind BJJ. Albaum started their journey into combat sports a few years ago when Amerosa partnered with the Howard Center to offer free kickboxing lessons to employees of the nonprofit. Albaum began training Jiu-Jitsu once Amerosa started the beginner-level classes at his gym.
“The physical pressure you’re under [at the gym] really mirrors that mental pressure that I can be under,” they said. “I’ve struggled with depression [and] anxiety for most of my life. And so being able to train hard and show up for myself here really helps me show up for myself outside of here.”
Albaum said Amerosa has been a great mentor to them, and training Jiu-Jitsu has helped them trust themself more.
“You can ask my therapist, it’s had just an incredible impact on my mental health,” they said. “It’s just all around really been positive for me.”
Amerosa said he doesn’t coach Jiu-Jitsu with the expectation that his students will become star competitors. Instead, he focuses on building positive momentum in the gym — something he hopes carries over into their lives beyond Grind BJJ.
“My goal — or what I like to do at this stage of my life — is to take a person who is really uncomfortable and help them gain the same kind of traction I got,” he said. “I don’t care about, like, turning somebody into a pro.”
Instead, he said, he cares about impacting people “in a way where they can find their own road, beyond just Jiu-Jitsu.”