Riley Hawk is a professional skateboarder just like his father, Tony Hawk, but he also happens to be a blue belt in BJJ as well. Although the two sports might not seem remotely connected at first glance, skateboarding is actually one of a handful of activities that has a huge amount of transferable skills when it comes to grappling. Skaters need a great sense of balance and the ability to fall without being hurt, two things that become very useful in Judo or when standing in BJJ. Despite those transferable skills, there still isn’t a whole lot of professional skateboarders taking up grappling sports.
Riley Hawk actually gave some insight into the reason why, when he explained his first thoughts about BJJ before he actually started training:
“I didn’t really know much about it but I just figured you need to be kind of tough and like a certain type of person to do it, or maybe get good at it. He just always said it was just fun and that was like a concept I never really thought about. I just figured it was just intense, which it is, but at the same time it is kinda what you make it and it can be fun too.”
Those first impressions of BJJ are actually pretty common and they can often turn people off grappling before they ever try it out. That’s why celebrities like Hawk getting involved in the sport and talking about it in public are so important. Obviously it brings more attention to the sport in general but it also leads to more people taking the leap and having their first class, which is huge for the growth of BJJ around the world. Since taking that first step Hawk has reached the rank of blue belt and he explained that BJJ has even helped his skateboarding career too, rather than just the other way around:
“Starting Jiu-Jitsu kinda made skating fun again in a weird way, it just made it feel like I didn’t need to put so much pressure on myself with the way I handled skating.”
The full interview with Riley Hawk where he talks about finding BJJ and how it has helped his life was uploaded to the official YouTube channel of Thrasher Magazine:
