Old School Martial Arts in San Anselmo

Woot! Woot! It’s already a long weekend!

Labor Day is one of those sneaky ones, don’t you think? We’re all mentally prepared for BTS, and then it’s like summer all over again… but just for the weekend.

Plenty going on, including a bday party for Mill Valley, who’s turning 125 this year and looking majestic as ever. 🌲

But first: this week’s feature story contains not one but TWO gems you’ll want to experience for yourself. One is a Hawaiian-inspired ice cream flavor, the other is learning how to toss someone to the ground using a Judo technique known as a hip throw.

Both will leave you feeling breathless, in the best way possible.

Also: the winners from last weekend’s sand sculpture contest at Drakes Beach (my would-be masterpiece, Barb at the Beach, never made it past the planning stage…) 🧜‍♀️

Have fun,

Kim Neumann

FEATURE STORY

The Sweet Taste of Perseverance

❝

Training in jiu jitsu as an adult has made all of the difficult things that I have to face in my life feel relatively less threatening and problematic.

Student at Old School Martial Arts

I’m a yoga person—hot yoga, hot HIIT (they call it hot pilates, but that’s misleading, what with all the burpees, jump squats, and plank jacks). Either way, I like my little spot in the studio with my own mat and my own sweat.

My husband and almost-teenage son, on the other hand, have been doing Brazilian Jiu Jitsu for more than seven years. Which means I’ve been doing the drop-offs and pick-ups and yelling one thousand ninety-two times from our front door, “Get your gi on! We need to leave NOWWW!”

Curious to learn more, I reached out to Isaac Lappert—yes, that Lappert—of Old School Martial Arts in San Anselmo.

As we’re sitting on the bench outside the school, a car has just pulled in, and out pops one of the smaller-sized students. He’s late for class, and now completely absorbed by a doe and her fawn grazing on the steep hillside. Isaac and I already wondered aloud whether the deer were eating poison oak. We concluded that they most definitely were.

“Are you going to class?” Isaac says, attempting to break his adorable little trance. “There’s deer!” the boy says back. Isaac, with a grin: “I know, I know—go on in there.”

And so, even before they step inside the gym, kids are learning how to improve their focus and attention.

A brand-new school

When the martial arts school in this building abruptly shut down, Isaac—who had trained there for years—faced two options: find a new place, or start something new.

He went with option B, and partnered up with Brazilian Jiu Jitsu black belt Andrew LeCount. Together, they opened Old School Martial Arts in March 2025: same building, different philosophy. (Also, new everything – mats, paint, and what’s the word everyone’s using these days? Oh yes, VIBE. Definitely a new vibe.)

“Everyone should know how to swim, and everyone should know how to defend themselves,” he says, describing his philosophy.

I suddenly feel a pang of… embarrassment? I don’t know. It’s that feeling you get when you realize you haven’t mastered two basic survival skills someone just tells you about. That feeling.

I nod, thinking at least he can’t read my mind.

“You’re never too old or too young to learn,” he continues.

Whilst Isaac is, indeed, reading my mind, I make a mental note to snap a photo of that Women’s Self-Defense workshop flyer I saw inside before I leave.

Not Cobra Kai

I mention to Isaac that my kid and I watched The Karate Kid the previous night. He totally lights up. “Did he like it? Did he love the ending?”

Not to be a film snob, but I was already REALLY proud of my 12-year old for sitting through all the eighties drama and fashion and awkward flirting at the beach (and did you know that was Elisabeth Shue?? Daniel’s girlfriend? Of Leaving Las Vegas?)

Turns out Isaac watches The Karate Kid at least once a year, and is more evolved than I am to see past the thick layer of Aqua Net to appreciate the movie’s enduring lessons about patience, respect and humility.

“We’re not Cobra Kai,” he laughs, getting back to my question about what kind of gym he and Andrew are running.

“We’re not a gym that’s all about the sport of jiu jitsu,” he says. “It’s not macho men, and it’s not a machine for churning out champion fighters—although we do have a pro fighter here and can get you to the next level.”

What they are, he says, is eclectic.

“We’ve got a Muslim woman who wears a hijab to class, we’ve got teenage kids, a lawyer, tech dads, and we’ve got six year-olds learning Muay Thai.”

As with all these third places outside of home, work/school, it’s the people that make the community. Turns out, this community came together fast. Isaac shares, to his own surprise—and cover your ears, business owners—the studio was already in the black within its first few months operations.

He’s not in it for the financial success though. “Opening the school felt necessary and worthy. I’m here to be in it for the greater cause.”

The most humbling accessory you’ll own

Everyone starts with a white belt. And from what I can gather, it’s the most humbling piece of apparel you’ll ever own.

❝

A black belt is a white belt who never quit.

The quote above, attributed to one of the Gracie’s who brought Brazilian Jiu Jitsu to the world, refers to the Everest of human lessons: perseverance.

People walk in the door with a pretty good idea of why they’re there, Isaac says.

“They’ve always wanted to try martial arts. They want to lose weight. Or they want their kid to have better focus.”

Whatever the motivation, there seems to be a whole slew of reasons people keep coming back—the camaraderie, the workout, learning how to defend yourself, the endless supply of Kauai Pies you get to throw in your opponent’s face (not a thing, unfortunately—but it is one of Lappert’s ice cream flavors we’ll circle back to).

But the real, real curriculum, you could say, is perseverance: learning hard things, in a group setting.

The training

Jiu jitsu is equal parts mental and physical training. Isaac explains:

“You’re problem-solving in real time,” he says. “Your body’s reacting, your brain’s already a few moves ahead. It’s like playing chess… with someone trying to choke you.”

He talks about the need to feel alive and challenged and like we have a fight left in us.

“When you’re being pinned down by some guy’s arm on your throat—that’s a real moment of survival,” he says. “You’re in a contained, safe environment,” he explains, adding that you’re just a tap away from the next breath, “but that will to survive—the one that’s always in us, isn’t tested nearly enough.”

If you’re reading this and saying to yourself “but I don’t want some guy’s knee on my trachea,” I personally couldn’t agree with you more.

I can also appreciate (from my comfy spot here on the couch) that this kind of training seems to strike something deep in our DNA.

The ROI of jiu jitsu

Alright, so let’s get to the chewy center of this thing: what’s the ROI? What are the mental and physical benefits?

❝

Walking into a training session feeling mentally drained, exhausted, and lacking motivation—then walking out feeling energized and renewed is very common. It's an ideal way to learn about how counterintuitive life can be. Sometimes the thing that we really need is to get out and get moving even when our minds/bodies are telling us to be stagnant.

Student at Old School Martial Arts

Like any endeavor that’s physically and mentally demanding—climbing Half Dome, freezing and bleeding your way through a Tough Mudder, Finland’s classic Wife Carrying Championship—it’s not easy to sum up the benefits. But here’s the big one that really stands out in jiu jitsu:

Living a life with greater ease

The reward for doing something this challenging might just be the ability to handle whatever life throws at you.

A few real-life examples, for your consideration:

Raccoons partying in your trash bins to the Beastie Boys until 2:45am.

Getting hustled by two different appliance repair guys in the same week over a dryer that nearly burned the house down.

Getting run off the road by the driver of a certain Prius who apparently HATES ALL CYCLISTS.

Other than that last one—where you’d definitely whip out your phone in a rage and report this curmudgeonly human grenade to the cops—most stressful situations don’t actually call for fight or flight.

In jiu jitsu they call it rolling, and in life it seems not much different—handling raccoon raves, busted dryers, and the occasional Mad Max driver.

Feeling pride

One more note about the kiddos.

While you can find any old study on the benefits of martial arts in both kids and adults, parents who train with their kids bring some refreshingly empirical data to the table.

They see a sense of pride in “sticking with it” and a healthy brand of confidence. As one parent shares, “Confidence like this is unusual to get at this point outside of jiu jitsu, but perfectly common within jiu jitsu.”

❝

I can overcome challenges.

As long as my kid is getting that healthy message encoded into his mind and muscle, even if the road is long and unending and he resists (because who wouldn’t!) I will happily holler from the door another four thousand eighty-three’s “It’s time! Let’s GOOOO!”

Try the Kauai Pie

As I keep hinting at, there is a flavor of ice cream you must try.

A third generation Lappert, Isaac still puts in a full day of work before heading over to Old School Martial Arts (his is the unmistakable yellow Corvette).

So, next time you’re wandering down Bridgeway in Sausalito, get in line at Lappert’s and try one of Isaac’s many genius flavors—thanks to a degree from The Culinary Institute and a creative mind that just won’t quit. Princess Cake Ice Cream? Kauai Pie? Hawaiian Sea Salt Caramel? Better bring a friend or two.

But first! Grab yourself a FREE first week at Old School Martial Arts.

Because, as Isaac promises, “It’s a place where you walk off the mat happy and healthy.”

And able to defend yourself. 👊