"You Get Smashed, You Get Up" An All-Women's Gym Built on Pure Grit

Sarah opened Girls Gym as a co-ed school in 2005. A staph infection that put her in the hospital changed that within a year. Since then, G.I.R.L.S. (Grappling in Real Life Situations) has run women-only, seven days a week, out of Portland, Oregon, training students in jiu-jitsu, MMA, Muay Thai, and kickboxing.Sarah talks about starting in Jeet Kune Do as a 15-year-old in 1996, getting knocked out by future UFC star Miesha Tate in 2009, and why she walked away from fighting to focus on coaching. Twenty-one years later, G.I.R.L.S. Gym trains over 150 students with five homegrown black belts on staff, and Sarah is still the one checking class cameras on her anniversary dinner.