Q&A with Kevin Linderman of We Defy Foundation
In 2024, Kicksite was proud to announce a new partnership with We Defy Foundation. A registered 501(c)3, We Defy Foundation’s mission is to provide combat veterans coping with military connected disabilities a long term means to overcome their challenges through Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and fitness training. We’re strong advocates of the work they do and the positive impact they have on veterans and the world of martial arts alike. We took some time to pick the brain of Executive Director Kevin Linderman to learn more about their history, accomplishments, and what’s in store for the future!
Tell us a little bit about the history of We Defy Foundation – how the organization came to fruition and the inspiration behind it.
The We Defy Foundation is celebrating 10 years of fulfilling our mission of providing therapeutic relief for disabled combat veterans through Jiu Jitsu. Starting in 2015, Professor Alan Shebaro and disabled combat veteran Joey Bozik recognized the impact Jiu Jitsu had on building quality of life, connecting to a positive community, inspiring and encouraging healthier living, and reminding oneself that regardless of your situation, you’re still in the fight.
The recognition of this powerful impact sparked the movement that is now the We Defy Foundation. Since the organization’s inception, We Defy has grown from funding one veteran at a time through individual seminars, to onboarding 35-40 veterans per month into the year-long scholarship program. The organization has provided over 1600 scholarships, has grown its approved gym network to over 1000 gyms nationwide, and supports nearly 600 veteran athletes training at any given time thanks to our dedicated force of volunteer ambassadors.
Why do you think Jiu-Jitsu has proven to be such an effective outlet and activity for disabled combat veterans?
There are many unique components to Jiu Jitsu that we believe impact disabled combat veterans in such a profound way. Starting with the scholarship itself. The scholarship is really an opportunity for the veteran to heal themselves. There’s some wonderful organizations out there doing great work for the veteran community. But many times it’s something that they are doing for the veteran, not what the veteran is doing for themselves. Our scholarship recipients get in the car, take themselves to the gym, walk onto the mats and engage in voluntary suffering at least 2 times per week. Through this process, the magic happens.
Next we have the gym environment. The gym is a familiar place to our veterans. The comradery, the smells, the sounds, it’s all reminiscent of a place they are familiar with. There’s a ranking system that is comforting to veterans. To strap on a white belt and be a newbie again is both humbling and freeing of expectations. On the mat, you know your place in the universe.
Next you have the professor and the system. There is a person that has the knowledge and a system that you need to learn that has been honed for years. It works if you do it correctly and at the right time. You learn that there are ways to get yourself out of dire predicaments. And you learn that you have more resilience than maybe you thought you did. And if it all fails, you know you can tap and start again. These lessons translate off the mat. The tap builds trust with your fellow training partners. And all the things that are bothering you off the mat stop when someone is trying to choke you out. You necessarily have to focus on the task at hand. For many, this pause in the rumination cycle is really where the mental health resiliency starts to take place. You get a break from what haunts you and then can slowly start to process things again until the next time you train, and then you can get another break.
All this to say that the We Defy program uniquely provides an opportunity for the veteran to heal themselves through the practice of Jiu Jitsu.
If you had to estimate (or even if you have an exact number!): since its inception, how many veterans has We Defy Foundation helped through scholarships and connecting them with Jiu-Jitsu academies?
To date We Defy has completed over 1600 scholarships. It’s really in the last 3 years or so that the organization has been able to ramp up significantly to onboarding 35-40 veterans per month. At any given time we have over 600 athletes training at approved gyms across the country.
What would you consider to be the biggest accomplishments or proudest moments for We Defy Foundation over the years?
Probably the biggest accomplishment is making it 10 years as a veteran non-profit organization. And not only making it 10 years, but excelling and growing year over year with an all volunteer workforce. Second to that would have been receiving the VA Adaptive Sports grant for the first time in 2022. This was really an acknowledgement for us that the VA was recognizing the value of the We Defy program. It meant a lot to Alan Shebaro and the rest of the team that we had achieved this goal. One other extremely proud moment was when we crossed the 1000 completed athlete scholarships milestone. This was a huge moment for the organization to recognize the ever growing impact on the lives of our veteran community.
You were recently named the Executive Director for We Defy Foundation. What does this mean for you and for the future of the organization?
This role means everything to me. It’s strangely what I’ve been unknowingly headed towards my entire professional career. I served on the board for almost 5 years prior to accepting this position, so I am intimately familiar with how it works. All my skills that I’ve gathered in various jobs and pursuits come to bear with this position. This was really a win/win for myself and for the organization. I’m familiar with everyone, I have established a solid rapport through my efforts over the years, and I was ready to take the position as Executive Director in order to shepherd in this new era of We Defy. To be honest, we just have grown too much to be run purely by part time volunteers. Many could not believe we had reached the scale we did without a single employee. My charter is enable the three pillars of our strategic plan, growth, sustainability and impact. Grow so we can handle 75-100 or more veterans per month. Ensure we have recurring donor revenue streams to sustain our program as well as the people, process and technology that is required to execute the program. And lastly, prove that what we do works by scientifically demonstrating our impact.
June is PTSD Awareness Month, and We Defy Foundation has a lot of anecdotal stories showing that training Jiu-Jitsu has helped veterans with their PTSD. But you all are now doing the work to establish evidence-based research that supports this as well. Tell us more about the study you are working on.
We are excited to say that UT Southwestern here in Dallas is running the largest study to date focused on the impact of BJJ on disabled combat veterans and their ability combat military connected disabilities.
The study will be ongoing for the next 2 years and will be a mixed-method design leveraging assessments of depression, anxiety, and trauma symptoms, as well as civilian transition and functional status. Veteran athletes will also be interviewed qualitatively with the intent of learning about unique contexts for the results, truing-up We Defy’s understanding of what’s occurring along the timeline of the program and identifying future areas to evolve in other subsequent phases of the study.
All of this is in support of our effort to demonstrate the impact of the We Defy program on the veteran community and grow it’s capability to fulfill a vision where ALL disabled combat veterans are empowered to heal, thrive, and engage through the practice of Jiu Jitsu, fostering their physical and mental well-being, community connection, and self-reliance. The study will also foster engagement and awareness of the We Defy program within academic medicine, as well as spark new opportunities to engage with the scientific community and the Department of Veterans Affairs.
A key component of your scholarship program is the network of schools that host and train We Defy Foundation athletes. How many academies are part of that network and what criteria does a gym need to meet to participate?
The approved academies are the core of the We Defy program. The academies provide the venues for healing through Jiu Jitsu. They also support our grassroots fund raising efforts by holding open mats and seminars that raise funds for our scholarship program. Currently we are right around 1000 approved training facilities in all 50 states, 2 US provinces, Guam and I think Belgium now if I’m not mistaken. We can’t thank these gyms owners and professors enough for what they do for our veteran community. We could not do what we do without the gym network.
Along with your network of training facilities, you also have an Ambassador Program. What does that program entail and how have Ambassadors helped advance the mission of We Defy Foundation?
Other than myself, we are an all volunteer led organization. The ambassador program for We Defy is, for many individuals, a second or third full-time job. I’m personally humbled by the amount of time, hard work and dedication that our ambassador corps dedicates to the mission of We Defy. They do it because they know it’s good. Our mission is good and we know it works, as many ambassadors have trained BJJ and or even gone through the We Defy program and are motivated to help the next veteran in line. Ambassadors play many key roles in the organization. From oversight of our athlete scholarship program, to offering mentorship roles to shepherd our veteran athletes through the one-year program, to fund-raising to logistics to, you name it…everything is done by the hearts and hands of volunteers. Our 400+ ambassadors are why we are so successful at what we do. It’s all about these group of dedicated men and women. Just an unbelievable group of people that I’m honored to be associated with.
Is there anything else new and exciting that We Defy Foundation is working on that you can tell us about (or even hint at)?
There’s lots going on for sure. I’m not ready to go public with one of the most exciting partnerships We Defy has had to date. But that will come out soon enough. Other than that, we have our gala coming up in Dallas on September 20. Be on the lookout for tickets and sponsorship opportunities for this fantastic event. This year is shaping up to be one heck of good time. I’m already getting excited about it.
