Professor Heidi Garwood is a clinical social worker and a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt who built her gym around women and kids. In this conversation, she and Pete dig into the mental side of the mats: your three-part brain — thinking, emotional, and survival — and how jiu-jitsu trains you to find your way back to your thinking brain when the pressure hits.

Heidi shares the breath and grounding tools she borrows from her trauma work, why competition keeps you from getting too comfortable, and the doctor's wake-up call that started it all ("it's not enough"). She also tells the story of a match she'll never forget — a quiet, controlled loss to Roxanne Modafferi at Master's Worlds — and the transformation she watched jiu-jitsu bring to her oldest daughter, now her gym's head instructor.

Heidi started jiu-jitsu in rural Montana, trained a full year in women's-only classes, earned her black belt, and now owns and runs Carlson Gracie Green Valley in Henderson, Nevada.

— Links —

The Jiu Jitsu Mindset — https://thejiujitsumindset.com

My Jiu Jitsu Journey app — available on iOS and Android

Submission Coffee — https://submissioncoffee.com

Chapters

00:00 Intro — the app, the coffee, and today's guest

01:43 How Heidi started: the doctor who said "it's not enough"

03:20 "Mom, it's not that easy" — training as a busy mom

05:29 The blue belt that made quitting impossible

06:44 Your three brains: thinking, emotional, survival

07:57 The spazzy white belt and a panic in Denver

10:16 Survival brain vs. thinking brain

11:06 Breath and grounding: tools from the trauma world

12:28 Educated instincts — social work meets the mats

13:55 Interoception and exteroception

15:50 The teacher who connected it all

16:22 Women's classes and "anybody can do anything for 10 seconds"

19:45 The role of competition

23:36 Boise: having to beat her own sister

26:15 Master's Worlds and Roxanne Modafferi

29:02 Elegant vs. frantic jiu-jitsu

31:33 Watching jiu-jitsu transform her daughter

36:00 Stones in the pond (and a word from Pedro Sauer)

37:33 Superhero names from the ladies' chat

39:01 Wrapping up