TEMPLE, Texas — December will be a very special month for Central Texan Emma Hanusch. The 11-year-old Academy Middle School student is heading to Ireland for a Jiu-Jitsu tournament to compete on the international stage.
Hanusch trains at Legends Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu in Temple, Texas. Her father said she is a natural at the sport.
"I said 'Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu is made for you,'" said Matthew Hanusch, Emma's father. "You are never going to be the biggest, you are never going to be the strongest, I said this is for you, that would be my recommendation for you. So I looked around the area and came across Legends.”
Legends is run by Central Texas' own Travis Moore. Moore trains everyone from kids to retirees and said he immediately liked what he saw in Emma Hanusch.
"Emma walking into the gym was already a pretty determined student, I'd say from the start," said Moore. "People vary when they come in. You have some that are just testing the ground and I think that she knew she wanted to do this. I felt pretty confident in her ability coming in, and I’ve just seen her get better and better and better."
"For her first class Travis was just fantastic with her," said Matthew Hanusch. "(He) walked her through a lot of things. After the class, he came up to us and he was like, 'What do you think?'' and she said, 'I loved it and I can't wait to come back tomorrow!' And I was like well, I guess we are signing her up. It just worked out and I mean she has loved it since. That was March of 2021, so, going on three years now."
"I immediately fell in love with the sport," said Emma Hanusch. "First I was a little bit shy and I was like soft and scared about it. Over time I did get better and I did get more aggressive, I’m still working on that."
After committing to the sport this spring, daughter and dad are off to Ireland the first week of December for Emma’s first international meet.
"I'm looking forward to not only the competition itself but going to Ireland, that's crazy for me," Emma Hanusch said. "I still can't believe it, it's still setting in."
"Let's go over there, if you win, you win," said Matthew Hanusch. "If not, this is going to be an amazing experience. We're going to learn a lot while we're over there."
"The thing will all get done, it will be a big deal and we will all celebrate it, no matter how she does, her family will celebrate it with her," said Moore. "But the next Monday, or whenever they get back due to the international flights, it's right back to work. So the cycle never stops. Doing martial arts, like really focusing in, should always be the continuous improvement of yourself. So if you have your eyes set on one medal or something and you kind of put too much value on that one thing, your goal is just self-improvement and it's just another big test for her to go test herself and she'll have this amazing experience, but then at the end of the day it's like 'how has that experience made you better?'"
Win or lose, Emma sees the discipline of Jiu-Jitsu in her future no matter what.
"I've been here for so long already and I’ve built bonds with not only the sport but all of the people here," Hanusch said. "I don't think it's going to be very easy to let it go!”
If you'd be interested in trying Legends Jiu-Jitsu, the first class is 100 percent free, and Moore would love to have you in to find out if it's something that you'd like to try!
More from 6 News: