Actor Freddie Prinze Jr. (husband of Sarah Michelle Gellar) is among the growing list of celebrities who practice Jiu Jitsu. He’s been a practitioner for several years.
At age 3 Prinze was introduced to the world of martial arts by his godfather Bob Wall – a regular fighter in Bruce Lee movies. Prinze says he was introduced to bjj for the first time at age 12, adding he believes bjj is the go to art for females in his shape interview:
“I’ve always found that jiujitsu is the best martial arts for women because the position of being on your back with an aggressor between your legs—as a jiujitsu practitioner, that guy’s in a lot of trouble,” says Prinze. And that’s exactly why he thinks it’s so important that his daughter learns it too. (Self-defense is just one of many benefits of martial arts training.) His 5-year-old son, Rocky James, is also learning to box, but for Charlotte, it’s all jiujitsu.
“They don’t even teach her how to punch,” he says. “But she will know how to take someone down (whether they’re bigger than her or not) with leverage. And if she’s the one on her back, she won’t have to worry, because she’ll know how to do a triangle choke, an arm lock—there are a million options. It’s very important to me that she’s able to do that.”
“If you weigh 100 pounds and a guy weighs 200 pounds, a punch is not going to do anything,” he says. “It’s going to make him mad. But if you just move your arm across their neck a little bit while he’s trying to grab you and it cuts off that vein—they go to sleep, and you can leave.”
