Meet Coach Nyjah Rollins was born on July 27, 1987 in Washington, DC – USA where she was raised.

As a child Nyjah suffered from bullying at school which led her parents to enroll her with local recreational taekwondo program, she was 7 years old. Rollins (then named Easton) started TKD under the Simba Dojang association, training with Grand Master Furman Marshall and the late James Wyatt for over 10 years from whom she earned her black belt in the Korean combat style.

At 17 years of age Nyjah and her older brother Mike Easton (who would later become a UFC fighter) had a discussion over which would be the best self defence martial art method. Nyjah was embedded in the TKD world, a real die hard fan who had no faith in other styles. To illustrate the point that grappling had plenty of advantages Mike pinned Nyjah down and proved the inefficiency of taekwondo on the ground against a larger opponent.

Shortly after her ‘talk’ with Mike Easton Nyjah signed on to Lloyd Irvin’s Martial Arts, an academy with a strong focus on Brazilian jiu jitsu where she developed her skills under the tutelage of Lloyd Irvin and Donald Achnick. It was coach Achnick who first instigated Nyjah to compete, a process she started and embraced as a white belt.

Naturally talented and highly committed to the sport from early on, Nyjah started making waves as a blue belt by winning a bronze medal at the IBJJF World Championships (2006). She would continue conquering repeated podium placements at BJJ’s biggest tournament throughout all belts – including a gold at purple, deeds which deemed her worthy of her black belt, a promotion ceremony held by her long time instructor Lloyd Irvin (june 26, 2013).