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Emily Kwok

Emily Kwok won a world title as a brown belt in 2007, thought about quitting before her black belt, then built Princeton BJJ and ran camps for women.

Biography

Emily Kwok, a Canadian black belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu, became a world champion in 2007 while she was still a brown belt. She went on to found Princeton Brazilian Jiu Jitsu in New Jersey, to run training camps for women, and to make an instructional series with Stephan Kesting called How to Defeat the Bigger Stronger Opponent. Bigger, stronger opponents were something she had faced from her first years in the sport, when most of her training partners were men who outweighed her by anywhere from 15 to 100 pounds. Her first path was art. As a teenager, she has written, she expressed herself through art, theater, sport and leadership roles, and she earned a BFA at Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design, since renamed Emily Carr University. She has said she originally came to the US East Coast to become an artist; her academy profile dates that first move to 1999. In a 2015 interview she said she hoped to return to painting one day. She reached jiu-jitsu by a roundabout route. Boxing came first, and she gave it up after a month or two, saying she was bad at it and kept getting hurt. Her best friend, Roy Duquette, pointed her toward ground grappling. In the sambo class she tried next, she later wrote, she could practice techniques on classmates but was not allowed to have them done to her or to spar, limits she puts down to her being a woman. A classmate suggested Brazilian jiu-jitsu, and she switched soon afterward. After her first competition as a white belt, about six months in, Duquette, who had introduced her to the sport and helped coach her, told her she would be a world champion one day. She has recalled waving the idea away. Some of her early classes had only two or three people, so she could not pick her partners, and some of them were close to twice her size. Nobody told her, she has said, that being flattened by bigger, better men was not helping her game. She trained daily and competed whenever she could, and in the first years she often turned up at tournaments simply hoping there would be another woman to face, because women's divisions were rare. Women were not taken seriously in the wider grappling world at the time, she wrote, and to win the respect of male peers she watched how she dressed and socialized and tried to train more than the men on her team. In 2010 she said she owed nearly everything she knew to her male instructors and training partners and had come up with no female role models. She competed in Canada, Japan and the United States, and for a year she lived in Tokyo. After she had won a lot of jiu-jitsu tournaments there, she has said, she was offered an amateur mixed martial arts bout with Smackgirl, an all-female promotion. She won, was turned professional and was sent to Korea for her first pro fight. The Awakening Fighters database lists both bouts as wins in 2005: a majority decision over Yumiko Nagayama at Smackgirl F12 in March and a split decision over Mika Harigai at Smackgirl Korea in May. After moving to the US Northeast in 2006 she took up MMA training again, but by her account opponents kept withdrawing once they learned about her grappling experience and the world title she won in 2007. When she was finally matched with Michele Tavares, a jiu-jitsu black belt with a 10-1 record, she decided to leave MMA. The world title Duquette had predicted came at the 2007 IBJJF World Championship. Listed in the results with Renzo Gracie, she won the combined brown and black belt middleweight division for women, and Breaking Muscle later noted that she beat black belts to do it. In the same year she placed second to Hannette Staack at the IBJJF World No-Gi Championship, which is contested without the traditional jacket; there the results list her with Ricardo Almeida JJ. At the 2007 ADCC grappling event she lost her opening match, a quarter-final against the 2005 runner-up Stacey Cartwright, and she counts it among her proudest moments. She had suffered a compound fracture of her middle finger and took the cast off only two weeks before the event, then overtrained and ran a high fever for three days in the week she was due to fight. She told Breaking Muscle she had nothing left five minutes into the match and kept going on will alone, with a teammate helping in her corner, until she lost in overtime. The year after the world title went badly, by her own account. In a 2018 essay she wrote that she lost every match she fought that year, and that by the winter of 2008, close to being promoted to black belt, she had thought about quitting. Friends who were already black belts talked her into accepting the belt, arguing that it would give her standing and the freedom to move independently in the sport. According to BJJ Heroes, her blue belt came from Renzo Gracie, her purple from Takashi Ouchi, and her brown and black from Ricardo Almeida, who made her a black belt in December 2008. BJJ Heroes, Breaking Muscle and Jiu-Jitsu Times have each described her as the first Canadian woman to earn a black belt in the sport, and Kris Shaw, writing for BJJ Legends, has called her the first Canadian to win the World Championship. In the years after the promotion, she wrote, she was trying to find herself again, and for a period she had no mentor until she arrived at the Marcelo Garcia Academy. Tatiana Garcia had invited her several times after seeing her compete, and Kwok accepted in late 2009; training at the new academy on Manhattan's 36th Street made jiu-jitsu fun for her again. BJJ Heroes says she was living in New Jersey then, roughly two hours from the gym each way, and that she was a formal student there by spring 2010. Marcelo Garcia taught her the idiot sweep early on, she has said, and one of the most valuable things she took from him was simplicity and efficiency: movement stripped of everything it does not need, that simply works. At 29 she went back to tournaments, with mixed results over the next two years by her own description. Registered with Alliance, she took a bronze medal in the brown and black belt middleweight division at the 2010 World Championship and won the same division at the 2010 World No-Gi Championship. She was second to Rachel Demara at the 2011 No-Gi Worlds and third in the black belt middleweight division at the 2012 Pan American Championship. In 2012 she stepped away from competing, and she has written that she was reluctant to let anyone know she had retired. All the while she kept a full-time career outside jiu-jitsu. Her website lists sales and support work for GracieMag and a post as project manager for MGinAction, and in September 2010 BJJ Legends described her as holding that project-manager role while setting up her own jiu-jitsu program and running grappling camps for women with other well-known female practitioners. In 2018 she wrote that five years of close work with Josh Waitzkin on learning and peak performance had reshaped her thinking about learning and sports psychology; her website describes that work as part of his peak-performance consulting business. She has named Marcelo Garcia, Tatiana Garcia and Waitzkin as her coaches and teachers. Princeton BJJ opened in the fall of 2010, according to BJJ Heroes, which traces her coaching back to a class for women only that she led as a purple belt and to teaching at several academies after that. She built the school with Art Keintz, a friend and business partner. In 2018 she wrote that seeing students' small daily victories, and a culture in which staff and students could rely on their teachers and on the people they trained with, had given her the team and grounding she had been without. What she enjoys most about teaching, she has said, is watching other people succeed: teaching students movements that feel entirely alien to them, and helping them learn to trust themselves and their partners. Her own training years left a mark. She has said she did not train smart as she came up and later felt the toll on her body, and that she began looking for a gentler way so her students would not go through the same. Old chronic injuries from pushing through hard training still affect her daily life, she says, and those lessons shaped the environment she wants to keep at Princeton BJJ. Her advice in 2010 on bringing more women into the sport pointed the same way: a gentler start, with a support network, background and detail when learning new movements, and partners who are technical and helpful rather than the heaviest people in the room. Camps for women ran alongside the academy. Breaking Muscle reported on the women's training camps she ran with Valerie Worthington, a friend and fellow competitor, and Kwok said the greatest reward was meeting women who had felt alone or close to quitting and who returned to camp after camp and flourished. She describes Groundswell Grappling Concepts as a small business she runs with two other well-known figures in jiu-jitsu: it started out marketing mainly to women, now also works with mixed groups, and leads one-day and multi-day camps around the United States that pair technical training with personal development. In a December 2017 post on the academy's blog, Worthington wrote that Princeton BJJ had two female black belt instructors, herself and Kwok. In a 2019 essay Kwok wrote that female black belts are often assumed to be best suited to teaching women and children, and that her answer has been not to wait for an invitation to the table but to sit down and introduce herself. Breaking Muscle credits the Kesting series with making her widely known. She said she and Kesting both regarded an instructional led by a woman as a gamble and were grateful for the reception it got; a later set covered no-gi grappling. The first clip from the series that the interviewer saw, before its release, showed the idiot sweep, the technique Marcelo Garcia had taught her. In the spring of 2020, as COVID-19 shutdowns moved classes online, she noticed that many newer white belts had not been joining Princeton BJJ's virtual classes as much and offered donation-based online workshops for beginners. She planned to cover fundamentals such as the technical stand-up, bridging and posture, with drills students could do alone, added a second session when demand was strong, and urged other black belts to teach the basics too. She came back to competition in the masters divisions, which group competitors by age. Her friend Hannette Staack had told her long before that the Masters, once held only in Brazil, was her favorite tournament because of its celebratory atmosphere, and Kwok first went to the Masters in Las Vegas as a coach, about five years before she wrote about it in 2019. Her own return came in 2018, during a community push led by Karen Peters to open every age division to women. It gave her, she wrote, her first chance in her career to face women of her own level, age and weight, after years of mostly hoping to find any woman at all to fight. She prepared for three months, ice baths included. An ankle injury two weeks out made her rework her strategy to avoid risky positions; her first opponent did not report, and she won the final. IBJJF results list her as winner of the female Master 2 black belt middleweight division at the 2018 World Master Championship. She wrote that, for the first time, she had fought with a clear and present mind. She went on competing as a masters athlete. IBJJF results show her winning the female Master 3 black belt middleweight division at the 2022 Pan Championship, listed with Alliance, and at the 2023 European Championship, where she was registered with Princeton Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. Her website adds a Masters 3 world title in 2022 and a Masters 3 Pan American title in 2023, and lists an episode of the BJJ Mental Models podcast, from shortly after her 2022 Pans win, on competing after 40. Princeton Brazilian Jiu Jitsu now lists Kwok as its founder and professor emeritus, with the rank of third-degree black belt. Mike Leach and Joe Hannan are listed as its owners and head coaches.

Sources for this profile

  • BJJ Heroes, fighter profile 'Emily Kwok' (published 31 August 2015 per page metadata).(opens in a new tab)

    • BJJ Heroes gives 1980 as her year of birth.

      Where in the source: Biography section, opening sentence — '1980'

      Accessed:

    • According to BJJ Heroes, Kwok received her blue belt from Renzo Gracie, her purple belt from Takashi Ouchi, and her brown and black belts from Ricardo Almeida, the black belt in December 2008; the site gives her lineage as Renzo Gracie to Ricardo Almeida to Kwok.

      Where in the source: Profile header 'Lineage' line, and the biography paragraph on her travels — 'December 2008'

      Accessed:

    • BJJ Heroes says Kwok first met Tatiana and Marcelo Garcia in 2007 while boarding a flight to California, after Tatiana had seen her compete in an ADCC trials final in New Jersey; Tatiana invited her to train with them, but at the time Kwok's team did not let students train at outside schools.

      Where in the source: Biography, paragraph on meeting the Garcias — 'New Jersey trials'

      Accessed:

    • According to BJJ Heroes, Kwok began coaching as a purple belt with a class for women only, taught at several academies, and opened Princeton BJJ in autumn 2010.

      Where in the source: Biography, paragraph on her coaching — 'fall of 2010'

      Accessed:

    • According to BJJ Heroes, Kwok was living in New Jersey when she began training with the Garcias, a trip of about two hours each way, and by spring 2010 she was formally a student there.

      Where in the source: Biography, paragraph after the meeting on the flight — '2 hour journeys'

      Accessed:

  • Mochi Magazine, 'Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Helped Me Realize I Am Enough', essay by Emily Kwok, 29 July 2019.(opens in a new tab)

    • Kwok wrote that as a teenager she expressed herself through art, theatre, sport and leadership roles.

      Where in the source: Essay, end of third paragraph — 'art, theater, sports'

      Accessed:

    • Kwok wrote that in the sambo programme she tried first, she was allowed to practise techniques on classmates but not to have them done to her or to spar, restrictions she attributes to her gender; on a classmate's advice she switched to Brazilian jiu-jitsu.

      Where in the source: Essay, fourth paragraph (how she found BJJ) — 'allowed to spar'

      Accessed:

    • Kwok wrote that her training partners in the early years were mostly men who outweighed her by 15 to 100 pounds, that she trained daily and competed whenever she could, and that at first she often turned up to tournaments hoping there would be another woman to face, because women's divisions were rare.

      Where in the source: Essay, first subheaded section, first and fourth paragraphs — '15 to 100 pounds'

      Accessed:

    • Kwok wrote that women were not taken seriously in the wider grappling scene when she started, and that to earn male peers' respect she was careful about how she dressed and socialised and tried to train more than her male teammates.

      Where in the source: Essay, first subheaded section, second and third paragraphs

      Accessed:

    • Kwok wrote that she competed in Canada, Japan and the United States.

      Where in the source: Essay, section 'A place where I belonged', middle of the second paragraph

      Accessed:

    • Kwok wrote that female black belts are often assumed to be best suited to teaching women and children, and that her answer has been not to wait to be invited to the table but to sit down and introduce herself.

      Where in the source: Essay, last paragraph before the closing section — 'an invite'

      Accessed:

  • Emily Kwok official website, 'About' page (bio and notable accomplishments, undated).(opens in a new tab)

    • Her own website says she holds a BFA from the Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design, now Emily Carr University.

      Where in the source: About page, last paragraph of the bio section — 'BFA'

      Accessed:

    • Conflicting accounts

      Her own website bio says she has trained and competed in Brazilian jiu-jitsu since 2000.

      Where in the source: About page, bio section, second paragraph — 'since 2000'

      Accessed:

    • Her website describes her as an early women's MMA veteran who fought as an amateur and a professional in the all-female promotion Smackgirl, and lists a Smackgirl Korea MMA victory in 2005.

      Where in the source: About page, bio second paragraph and the accomplishments list — 'SMACKGIRL KOREA MMA Victory'

      Accessed:

    • Her website says she previously worked in sales and support for GracieMag and as a project manager for MGinAction, and that she works closely with Josh Waitzkin in his peak-performance consulting business while also coaching and consulting independently.

      Where in the source: About page, bio second and third paragraphs — 'Project Manager for MGinAction'

      Accessed:

    • Her website lists among her titles the IBJJF Masters 3 world championship in 2022 and the Masters 3 Pan American title in 2023, alongside the 2018 Masters 2 world title and the 2007 adult world title.

      Where in the source: About page, accomplishments list — 'Masters 3 World Champion (2022)'

      Accessed:

  • BJJ Legends Magazine, 'Emily Kwok: A Legend Ahead of Her Time', interview by Deneatra Terry, 4 November 2015.(opens in a new tab)

    • Kwok told BJJ Legends that she trained in the arts and first came to the US East Coast intending to become an artist, and that she hoped eventually to return to painting.

      Where in the source: Q&A, answer on long-term goals, first paragraph — 'back to painting'

      Accessed:

    • Kwok recalled that after her first competition as a white belt, about six months into training, her friend Roy Duquette, who had introduced her to the sport and helped coach her, told her she would be a world champion one day, and that she brushed the prediction off.

      Where in the source: Q&A, answer on the impact of becoming a first in Canada — 'Yeah right, whatever'

      Accessed:

    • Asked how she learned to rely on technique against much larger opponents, Kwok credited being beaten by them and having good instructors; she said she had not trained smart, later felt the toll on her body, and began looking for a gentler way so her students would not suffer the same.

      Where in the source: Q&A, answer on skill over brute force (two paragraphs) — 'a better way'

      Accessed:

    • BJJ Legends' interviewer describes Kwok as the first female black belt in Canada.

      Where in the source: Interviewer's third question, repeated in the closing paragraph

      Accessed:

    • Kwok named her first-round overtime loss at ADCC 2007 as one of her proudest moments: she had a compound fracture of her middle finger, took the cast off two weeks before the event, overtrained and ran a high fever for three days that week, and still fought the 2005 runner-up on will alone.

      Where in the source: Q&A, answer on her proudest moment, first paragraph — 'in overtime'

      Accessed:

    • Kwok said Marcelo Garcia taught her the 'idiot sweep' early on, and that one of the most valuable things she learned from him was simplicity and efficiency: movement stripped of anything unnecessary that simply works.

      Where in the source: Q&A, answer on the idiot sweep — 'simplicity and efficiency'

      Accessed:

    • Kwok said that while living in Tokyo for a year, after winning many BJJ competitions there, she was offered an amateur women's MMA bout with Smackgirl; she won it and was then turned professional and sent to Korea for her first pro fight.

      Where in the source: Q&A, answer on Smackgirl, first paragraph — 'sent me to Korea'

      Accessed:

    • Kwok said that after moving to the US Northeast in 2006 she trained MMA again, but opponents kept withdrawing once they learned of her grappling experience and world title; when she was finally matched with Michele Tavares, a BJJ black belt with a 10-1 record, she decided to leave MMA.

      Where in the source: Q&A, answer on Smackgirl, second paragraph — 'said goodbye to MMA'

      Accessed:

    • In 2015 Kwok named Art Keintz, Val Worthington and Hannette Staack as her business partners, and Marcelo Garcia, Tatiana Garcia and Josh Waitzkin as her coaches and teachers.

      Where in the source: Q&A, final answer (people she wants to thank)

      Accessed:

  • Princeton Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, instructor profile 'Emily Kwok' (Q&A, undated).(opens in a new tab)

    • Her Princeton BJJ instructor profile says she first moved to the US East Coast in 1999.

      Where in the source: Instructor Q&A, answer on whom she would like to meet — 'East Coast in 1999'

      Accessed:

    • Kwok says she first took up boxing but gave it up after one or two months because she was bad at it and kept getting hurt; her best friend Roy Duquette then pointed her to ground grappling, and she tried sambo before moving to Brazilian jiu-jitsu soon afterwards.

      Where in the source: Instructor Q&A, first answer (why she started) — 'Groundwrestling'

      Accessed:

    • Conflicting accounts

      Her Princeton BJJ instructor profile gives 2001 as the year she started Brazilian jiu-jitsu.

      Where in the source: Instructor Q&A, answer on how long ago she started — 'I started BJJ in 2001'

      Accessed:

    • Kwok says what she enjoys most about teaching is seeing others succeed: teaching students movements that feel completely foreign to them, and teaching them to trust themselves and to build trust with a training partner.

      Where in the source: Instructor Q&A, answer on what she enjoys about teaching — 'trust with a partner'

      Accessed:

    • Kwok says that if she could start again she would treat herself better, since old chronic injuries from pushing through hard training still affect her daily life, and that these lessons shaped the kind of environment she wants to keep at Princeton BJJ.

      Where in the source: Instructor Q&A, answer to the sentence-completion prompt about hindsight — 'kinder to myself'

      Accessed:

    • Kwok describes Groundswell Grappling Concepts as a small BJJ business she runs with two other well-known BJJ figures; it began by marketing mainly to women, now also serves mixed groups, and leads one- and multi-day camps around the US that combine technical training with personal development.

      Where in the source: Instructor Q&A, answer on her outside profession, second paragraph — 'now offer co-ed services'

      Accessed:

  • Breaking Muscle, 'Interview with Emily Kwok: Leading the Way for Women in BJJ', by Sally Arsenault (page shows last update 22 November 2021).(opens in a new tab)

    • Kwok told Breaking Muscle that in her early classes of two or three people she could not choose partners, who were sometimes nearly twice her size, and that no one told her that being flattened by bigger, better men was not helping her game.

      Where in the source: Quoted answer after the DVD section, on learning against big partners — 'double my size'

      Accessed:

    • Breaking Muscle's interviewer describes Kwok as the first woman in Canada to receive a Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt and the first to win a world championship.

      Where in the source: Second paragraph of the article — 'first woman in Canada'

      Accessed:

    • Breaking Muscle reports that Kwok won gold at the 2007 Mundials while still a brown belt, defeating black belts to do so.

      Where in the source: Second paragraph of the article — 'still a brown belt'

      Accessed:

    • Breaking Muscle reports that Kwok considers her ADCC 2007 quarter-final against Stacey Cartwright her favourite match; she said she was out of gas five minutes in, fought on into overtime and lost, with a teammate helping to corner her.

      Where in the source: Third paragraph and her quoted answer — 'into overtime'

      Accessed:

    • Breaking Muscle reports that Kwok ran women's training camps with her friend and fellow competitor Valerie Worthington; she said the greatest reward was meeting women who had felt alone or close to quitting and who came back camp after camp and thrived.

      Where in the source: Paragraph after her quote on big partners — 'camp after camp'

      Accessed:

    • Breaking Muscle credits the instructional series 'How to Defeat the Bigger Stronger Opponent', made with Stephan Kesting, with making Kwok widely known; she said they both saw a female-led instructional as a gamble and were grateful for its reception, and a later set covered no-gi grappling. The first video from it that the interviewer saw, before the set's release, showed the 'idiot sweep'.

      Where in the source: Paragraphs on the DVD set and her two quotes about it — 'shot in the dark'

      Accessed:

  • BJJ Heroes, 'Women's BJJ Dirty Dozen' (no visible date; reader comments from October 2015).(opens in a new tab)

    • In its list of early female black belts outside Brazil, BJJ Heroes names Kwok as the first female black belt in Canada, promoted by Ricardo Almeida in December 2008.

      Where in the source: Closing list 'Other Pioneering Female Black Belts' — 'first female black belt in Canada'; 'December 2008'

      Accessed:

  • Jiu-Jitsu Times, 'BJJ: Women Who Paved the Way Top 8', by Aya Harris, 6 April 2016 (Wayback Machine capture of 15 February 2022).(opens in a new tab)

    • A 2016 Jiu-Jitsu Times list of women who paved the way in the sport includes Kwok as the first Canadian woman to receive a black belt and win a world championship, and notes her instructional set with Stephan Kesting.

      Where in the source: List entry 'Emily Kwok' (last entry) — '1st female Canadian'

      Accessed:

  • IBJJF, results page 'World Jiu-Jitsu IBJJF Championship 2007'.(opens in a new tab)

    • Kwok won the adult female brown/black middleweight division at the 2007 IBJJF World Championship, listed with Renzo Gracie; the results page lists Luciana Dis (Gracie Humaitá) second and Kris Shaw (Leka Vieira) third.

      Where in the source: Results list, division 'Adult / Brown Black / Female / Middle', places 1 to 3

      Accessed:

  • IBJJF, results page 'World Jiu-Jitsu No-Gi IBJJF Championship 2007'.(opens in a new tab)

    • At the 2007 IBJJF World No-Gi Championship Kwok placed second in the adult female brown/black middleweight division, listed with Ricardo Almeida JJ, behind Hannette Staack.

      Where in the source: Results list, division 'Adult / Brown Black / Female / Middle', places 1 and 2

      Accessed:

  • IBJJF, results page 'Pan Jiu-Jitsu IBJJF Championship 2008'.(opens in a new tab)

    • At the 2008 IBJJF Pan American Championship Kwok took third place in the adult female brown/black middleweight division, listed with Ricardo Almeida JJ, behind Ana Laura Cordeiro and Hannette Staack.

      Where in the source: Results list, division 'Adult / Brown Black / Female / Middle', places 1 to 3

      Accessed:

  • Princeton Brazilian Jiu Jitsu blog, 'Becoming the Conscious Competitor: Master's Seniors Worlds 2018', by Emily Kwok, 7 September 2018.(opens in a new tab)

    • Kwok wrote that in the year after her 2007 world title she lost every match she fought; by the winter of 2008, about to be promoted to black belt, she had considered quitting, and friends who were already black belts persuaded her to accept the belt, arguing it would give her standing and freedom to move independently in the sport.

      Where in the source: First subheading, first paragraph after the quotation — 'winter of 2008'

      Accessed:

    • Kwok wrote that after receiving her black belt she spent the next few years trying to find herself again, and that she had no mentor or true teacher for a period until she reached the Marcelo Garcia Academy; Tatiana Garcia had invited her several times after seeing her compete, she accepted in late 2009, and training at the new academy on 36th Street in Manhattan made the sport fun again. At 29 she returned to tournaments, with mixed results over the next two years.

      Where in the source: First subheading, second and third paragraphs after the quotation — '36th Street'

      Accessed:

    • Kwok wrote that she stopped competing in 2012 after 12 years of physical and mental grind, and that she was reluctant to tell anyone she had retired.

      Where in the source: First subheading, last paragraph — 'step back'

      Accessed:

    • Kwok wrote that she and her friend and business partner Art Keintz built Princeton BJJ together; watching students' small daily wins, and a culture in which staff and students could trust their teachers and partners, gave her a team and foundation of her own that she had been missing.

      Where in the source: Second subheading, paragraphs after the quotation — 'a team and foundation'

      Accessed:

    • Kwok wrote in 2018 that she had always kept a full-time career outside BJJ, and that five years of close work with Josh Waitzkin on learning and peak performance had reshaped how she thought about learning and sports psychology.

      Where in the source: Third paragraph of the essay — 'working career'

      Accessed:

    • Kwok wrote that she returned to competition at the 2018 IBJJF Masters Worlds after six years away, following three months of preparation that included ice baths; an ankle injury two weeks out made her rework her strategy to avoid risky positions, her first opponent did not report, and she won the final, fighting for the first time, she wrote, with clarity and presence of mind.

      Where in the source: Opening paragraphs, and the third and fourth subheadings — 'ankle injury'; 'did not report'

      Accessed:

  • IBJJF, results page 'World Jiu-Jitsu IBJJF Championship 2010'.(opens in a new tab)

    • At the 2010 IBJJF World Championship she took one of the two third places in the adult female brown/black middleweight division, listed as Emily Kwok-Hurtado of Alliance.

      Where in the source: Results list, division 'Adult / Brown Black / Female / Middle', places 1 to 3

      Accessed:

  • IBJJF, results page 'World Jiu-Jitsu No-Gi IBJJF Championship 2010'.(opens in a new tab)

    • Kwok won the adult female brown/black middleweight division at the 2010 IBJJF World No-Gi Championship, listed with Alliance, ahead of Ana Michelle Tavares.

      Where in the source: Results list, division 'Adult / Brown Black / Female / Middle', places 1 and 2

      Accessed:

  • IBJJF, results page 'World Jiu-Jitsu No-Gi IBJJF Championship 2011'.(opens in a new tab)

    • At the 2011 IBJJF World No-Gi Championship she placed second in the adult female brown/black middleweight division, listed as Emily R Kwok of Alliance, behind Rachel Demara.

      Where in the source: Results list, division 'Adult / Brown Black / Female / Middle', places 1 to 3

      Accessed:

  • IBJJF results database, 'Pan IBJJF Jiu-Jitsu Championship 2012'.(opens in a new tab)

    • At the 2012 IBJJF Pan American Championship she took a third place in the adult female black belt middleweight division, listed as Emily R. Kwok of Alliance.

      Where in the source: Results list, division 'Adult / Black / Middle (147.00lb)', place 3

      Accessed:

  • Awakening Fighters, athlete database page 'Emily Kwok' (Wayback Machine capture of 25 May 2022).(opens in a new tab)

    • Awakening Fighters lists two MMA bouts for Kwok, both wins: an amateur bout at Smackgirl F12 on 21 March 2005 against Yumiko Nagayama by majority decision, and a professional bout at Smackgirl Korea 2005 on 21 May 2005 against Mika Harigai by split decision.

      Where in the source: 'Fight history' table, MMA rows — 'Smackgirl: Korea 2005'

      Accessed:

    • Awakening Fighters gives her nationality as Canadian and her residence as New Jersey, United States.

      Where in the source: 'Personal details' table — 'NATIONALITY Canadian'

      Accessed:

  • Princeton Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, home page, 'Our Team' section (undated).(opens in a new tab)

    • Princeton Brazilian Jiu Jitsu lists Kwok as a third-degree black belt and as its founder and professor emeritus; Mike Leach and Joe Hannan are listed as owners and head coaches.

      Where in the source: Home page, 'Our Team' section, Kwok's card — '3rd Degree Black Belt'; 'Founder, Professor Emeritus'

      Accessed:

    • Princeton Brazilian Jiu Jitsu gives Kwok's rank as third-degree black belt.

      Where in the source: Home page, 'Our Team' section, heading of Kwok's card — '3rd Degree Black Belt'

      Accessed:

    • Princeton Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, which the academy says Kwok founded, is based in Princeton, New Jersey.

      Where in the source: Home page, contact header and 'Our Team' introduction — 'Princeton, NJ'

      Accessed:

  • Princeton Brazilian Jiu Jitsu blog, 'Women as Instructors', by Val Worthington, 14 December 2017.(opens in a new tab)

    • In a December 2017 post on the Princeton BJJ blog, Val Worthington wrote that the academy had two female black belt instructors, herself and Kwok, whom she called the co-owner of the business.

      Where in the source: Last paragraph of the post — 'two female black belt instructors'

      Accessed:

  • BJJ Legends Magazine, 'First American Female Black Belt to Win the Worlds?', by Kris Shaw, 30 May 2013.(opens in a new tab)

    • In a 2013 BJJ Legends article, Kris Shaw calls Kwok the first Canadian to win the World Championship and one of the first non-Brazilians to do so, citing her 2007 middleweight title.

      Where in the source: Second paragraph — 'one of the first non-Brazilians'

      Accessed:

  • Jiu-Jitsu Times, 'World Champion Emily Kwok To Host Donation-Based Online Workshops For BJJ Beginners', by Averi Clements, 30 April 2020 (Wayback Machine capture of 15 February 2022).(opens in a new tab)

    • In spring 2020, during the COVID-19 shutdowns, Kwok offered donation-based online workshops for beginners after noticing that many newer white belts had not been joining Princeton BJJ's virtual classes as much; she planned to cover fundamentals such as the technical stand-up, bridging and posture with solo drills, added a second session after strong demand, and urged other black belts to teach basics too.

      Where in the source: Article body, her quoted explanation (paragraphs 3 to 9) — 'newer white belts'

      Accessed:

  • IBJJF results database, 'World Master IBJJF Jiu-Jitsu Championship 2018'.(opens in a new tab)

    • Kwok won the female Master 2 black belt middleweight division at the 2018 IBJJF World Master Championship, listed as Emily R. Kwok of Alliance.

      Where in the source: Results list, division 'Master 2 / Black / Middle (152.60lb)', places 1 to 3

      Accessed:

  • IBJJF results database, 'Pan IBJJF Jiu-Jitsu Championship 2022'.(opens in a new tab)

    • Kwok won the female Master 3 black belt middleweight division at the 2022 IBJJF Pan Championship, listed as Emily R. Kwok of Alliance.

      Where in the source: Results list, division 'Master 3 / Black / Middle (152.60lb)', places 1 to 3

      Accessed:

  • IBJJF results database, 'European IBJJF Jiu-Jitsu Championship 2023'.(opens in a new tab)

    • Kwok won the female Master 3 black belt middleweight division at the 2023 IBJJF European Championship, registered with the team Princeton Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.

      Where in the source: Results list, division 'Master 3 / Black / Middle (69.00kg)', places 1 to 3

      Accessed:

  • Emily Kwok official website, 'Media' page (undated).(opens in a new tab)

    • Her website's media page includes a BJJ Mental Models episode in which, fresh from winning the 2022 Pans, she discussed competing after 40.

      Where in the source: Media page, entry 'BJJ Mental Models Episode 190' — 'Competing After 40'

      Accessed:

    • Her website's media page reproduces a podcast description calling her Canada's first female BJJ black belt and world champion.

      Where in the source: Media page, entry 'The Raspberry Ape Podcast' — 'first female BJJ blackbelt'

      Accessed:

  • BJJ Legends Magazine, 'Emily Kwok – World Champion, Women's Black Belt', by Cassidee Moser, 13 September 2010.(opens in a new tab)

    • A September 2010 BJJ Legends piece describes Kwok as a black belt and world champion who was then a project manager for MGInAction.com, was setting up her own BJJ programme, and ran grappling camps for women with other well-known female practitioners.

      Where in the source: Introductory paragraph — 'project manager'

      Accessed:

    • In 2010 Kwok said she owed almost everything she knew to her male instructors and training partners, that she had no female role models on the way up, and that only recently had she been able to share successes and hardships with female peers.

      Where in the source: Answer to the question on male sentiment toward women — 'female role models'

      Accessed:

    • Kwok's 2010 advice for bringing more women into the sport was a gentler introduction: a support network, background and detail when learning new movements, and pairing newcomers with technical, helpful partners rather than the heaviest people in the room.

      Where in the source: Answer to 'How do we get more women involved in BJJ?' — 'Shrek'

      Accessed:

  • Princeton Brazilian Jiu Jitsu blog, 'Ode To Masters: What It Has Meant To Me', by Emily Kwok, 14 August 2019.(opens in a new tab)

    • Kwok wrote that her 2018 return came during a community push, led by Karen Peters, to open every age division to female competitors, and that it gave her the first chance in her career to face women of her own level, age and weight, after years of mostly hoping to find any woman to fight.

      Where in the source: Third paragraph, second half — 'level, age, and weight'

      Accessed:

    • Kwok wrote that her friend Hannette Staack had long ago told her the Masters, once held only in Brazil, was her favourite tournament because of its celebratory atmosphere, and that Kwok first went to the Las Vegas Masters as a coach about five years before 2019.

      Where in the source: Second paragraph — 'favorite tournament'

      Accessed:

Competition results

Recorded tournament results, newest first
YearEventResultDivision
2007IBJJF World ChampionshipSource: en.wikipedia.org-69 kgGiVerified1st place-69 kgGiVerified

Lineage

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