Jiu-Jitsu is for Everybody: The Story of Three Inspiring Texans (Part 3 of 3)

By Felix Rodriguez, Staff Writer

HOUSTON, TX, January 3, 2013 – Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu was modified from its Japanese roots to compensate for lack of explosiveness and power by emphasizing leverage and momentum. It was designed for the weaker person to neutralize the advantages of the stronger and bigger assailant with the idea that it was a martial art for everybody. This series of profiles highlights the point first emphasized by the successes of Jean Jacques Machado at the highest levels of competition: The only limitations in Jiu-Jitsu are the ones people set on themselves. Ivan Delgado, Wes Covington and Garrett Scott are three incredibly talented, courageous and remarkable guys who have not let their varying physical disabilities stop them from learning Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and further prove Machado’s point. Jiu-Jitsu is for everybody.

The Story of Wes Covington

Wes Covington is the third and final Texan profiled in this series. Wes was born in Floydada, TX. He’s been spending most of his life showing people that he can do anything others can just as well except for giving someone a thumbs-up or reaching for things above his head –but he’ll still try to figure out a way to do things on his own. The fiercely independent 27-year-old was born with LADD syndrome. The name of this disorder is an acronym that stands for the areas it affects, which are Lacrimal and salivary glands, Audio, Digits and Dental. Covington told TXMMA that aside from appendages LADD syndrome affects other parts of him. He said, “I don’t have one kidney, and my tear ducts only produce enough tears to keep my eyes moist. I’m not a crier,” he joked, [I have had this] “since day one.”

Covington has managed to live an ordinary life and excel at the things he loves by learning to adapt his limited reach and weaker grip in order to pursue activities that were once thought out of his grasp. Doctors told Covington’s parents he’d never be able to use his hands in any significant way to write or do other “normal things” and that he’d be “reduced to using” his “feet to write and to do most of the things that you do with your hands” because they had never seen anything like him. According to Wes, “there are only 15 other people in the world that have what I have and my case is the most severe case they’ve ever seen.” When asked what limitations his disability posed he deadpanned, “I guess I can’t hitchhike. I don’t have a thumb for that, but I guess I could show some leg.”

Covington experienced some of the cruelty that is bread from children’s ignorance during school but refused to be bullied and eventually started training in martial arts. He began with Tae Kwan Do, which he did for close to 10 years and competed in all the way up to the national level. When Covington stopped competing in TKD he ended up being ranked, in his weight class and belt division, second in the state and fourth in the nation.” Covington stopped training as life’s distractions and injuries kept piling up and getting in the way of Tae Kwon Do. Years later he decided to take up Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, looking to be more active after a friend suggested he give the art a shot. Never one to shy away from a challenge, Covington enrolled in the Rilion Gracie Academy of Houston about a year ago and has not looked back since.

Covington began training to lose weight at first, but has fallen in love with the sport and is beginning to prepare for his first competition as he works towards earning his blue belt. When discussing how learning jiu-jitsu is different or more difficult for him than someone with full use of their arms and hands he explained, “obviously a lot of jiu-jitsu training, especially training with gi, involves being able to grab onto the lapel, maybe able to reach around the backside of somebody, being able to reach places that I’m not going to be able to reach. I can grab onto the lapel, but to be able to hold it strong, I don’t have the strongest grip, so I mean, that would probably be the biggest disadvantage,” but “the only way to learn is to make the mistake. You make a mistake and you get chocked out, you get tapped out, what have you. You make the mistake and you learn from that mistake. You learn what you did wrong and you don’t do that again in that situation. If a higher belt is able to submit me, or if a higher belt is aware of a situation that would be beneficial to me, a lot of times they’ll say, you should try this and you could beat me. So it’s a level of pride that no one has [at his academy]. No one has a real pride in terms of I’m not too good to let this white belt beat me where I train because this is for their benefit and this is for my benefit.”

When discussing how jiu-jitsu has improved his life Covington quickly pointed out that he is in much better shape and that, “even in training for the last ten months, I’ve noticed a difference, I have to tighten my belt when I’m wearing street clothes, and just overall, some of the injuries I have acquired doing taekwondo – the pops and the cracks that my knees usually have, they don’t hurt as much.” Covington is an avid learner of the art and plays close attention to the nuances of each technique in order to modify them for his own style. He has “really come to enjoy ankle locks, especially when they’re least expected” and “omoplatas and triangles [because they] are key to anything he does in jiu-jitsu.” When asked if he thought jiu-jitsu could be adapted for anyone to try he answered, “I do think that jiu-jitsu is for everybody if you are open to it, if it’s something you want to do. I think it’s important for people to try different things, because if you don’t try something, you don’t know if it’s for you or not. I think that it’s important to keep an open mind when people make suggestions to you. People suggest different things to me all the time. That’s how I got here. But I would definitely agree that jiu-jitsu is for anyone who wants to try it. Once you start learning the fundamentals, that’s when you start developing your own style. That’s what it’s really all about is developing your own individual style of whatever you choose to do. In taekwondo I had my own style. It worked for me. It may not work for somebody else. I think that if there were any individuals out there who think they might be interested, don’t just sit around and think about it.”

Jackson Fortunato is one of his instructors at RGA and has had a close hand in Covington’s development on the mats. Fortunato agrees with Wes that people should not let small problems keep them from trying new things in life and described Covington as having “good abilities to work with his legs,” as “naturally good at takedowns and stand-up” and said that “on the ground he has a sick triangle, and he’s developed a very good guard, because he has strong legs, so he’s going to be a very good guard player.” Fortunato also told TXMMA that “Wes has become one of the favorites here [at RGA] for the fact that he has to put much more effort than anybody else to practice martial arts, and surprisingly, he’s getting really good” and that he is really proud to have Wes in the club.”

The things Wes Covington does that he writes off as ordinary are often accomplished only after an extra-ordinary amount of effort is put forth to see them through. It is hard not to respect his attitude and resolve. His most remarkable accomplishment is not letting anything get in the way of him enjoying the same things anyone else does. He is happily married, holds a degree in art, he is a talented musician and an accomplished martial artist who is not afraid to try to step out of his comfort zone and learn something new; he gets up like anyone else each day and drives to his job at Comcast and he uses a witty and self-deprecating sense of humor to break the ice and make people know that he is worth getting to know as a person. Wes shrugs off what he has accomplished as normal activities for him or anyone else despite defying all the odds and proving his naysayers wrong by managing to pursue hobbies that require the use of his hands. He notes, “I am a musician. I play guitar. I have been playing music seriously for about 6 or 7 seven years. That actually surprises quite a few people. I can really play any instrument, I just prefer guitar. Music runs in the family, so I’m not the only musician in the family.” Covington believes that the only real difference between him and others lies in how he adapts to the challenge of each new task. He told TXMMA, “doing certain things is going to be more difficult for me or different for me than most people, but generally there’s not a whole lot that I’m not able to do. If there is something I’m not able to do, I’ll ask for help.” While he appreciates the kindness of such gestures, Wes notes, “a lot of people want to help me before I’m ready for help” and misconceptions like people associating physical disabilities with mental disabilities “can be kind of irritating” because the two are entirely different things. He would like for people to treat him like they would anyone else and he does jiu-jitsu because it makes him truly happy. He believes BJJ is adaptable enough to be enjoyed by anyone who is willing to give the gentle art a try and, above all else, would like to be thought of as just another average guy.