Kendall Reusing

Kendall Marie Reusing was born on October 29, 1997, in Dana Point, California, and grew up in a jiu-jitsu family. Her father, Tom Reusing, had moved from Georgia to Southern California years earlier to train, and Kendall started Brazilian jiu-jitsu around age five before also adding judo and wrestling. By age seven she was training under both Tom Reusing and Ricardo Guimaraes. At 13 she stepped away from regular BJJ competition to focus on freestyle wrestling, a decision that gave her the hand-fighting, base, and top-pressure tools that later became central to her grappling style.

Her wrestling run was serious rather than recreational. Reusing won a California state high school championship and four U.S. national high school titles, trained at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, and represented Team USA internationally at cadet and junior levels. She also wrestled for Simon Fraser University in British Columbia during the 2015-2016 season. In 2016 she returned to California and committed to jiu-jitsu full time, quickly reappearing on the major colored-belt podiums.

As a colored belt Reusing became one of the dominant women in the heavier divisions. She won IBJJF No-Gi Worlds at blue belt in 2016, IBJJF Worlds in the gi as a purple belt in 2017, Abu Dhabi Pro as a purple belt in 2018, and double gold at IBJJF No-Gi Worlds as a brown belt in 2018. Those results led to her black belt promotion by her father in July 2019. Within months she had won the IBJJF World No-Gi Championship at black belt, earned SJJIF World gold, and taken silver at the UAEJJF Grand Slam in Los Angeles.

Reusing's black-belt career has been built around elite no-gi, openweight, and super-heavyweight matches. In 2021 she won the IBJJF Pan No-Gi super-heavyweight title, reached the WNO Heavyweight Championship final after wins over Erin Harpe and Ana Vieira, captured the ADCC East Coast Trials +60 kg bracket, and became the inaugural Polaris women's openweight champion by submitting Venla Luukkonen with an armbar. She defended that Polaris belt against Amanda Leve in 2022, Leticia Cardozo in 2023, and Anabel Lopez in 2026, the last defense ending by first-round armbar after a pressure pass to mount.

Major championship results continued through injuries and layoffs. At ADCC 2022 she beat Giovanna Jara before a semifinal knee injury against Rafaela Guedes ended her tournament. She returned in late 2023 to retain the Polaris title and then won her second IBJJF No-Gi World Championship at black belt in the super-heavyweight division. In 2024 she won USA Grappling World Team Trials, took bronze at ADCC Worlds +65 kg by defeating Amy Campo after an opening-round rear naked choke over Maria Ruffato, and later won the UWW No-Gi Grappling World Championship at under 90 kg. Officially branded online as a coach, commentator, podcast host, and founder of Jiu Jitsu Accelerator, she remains known technically for wrestling entries, guard passing, front-headlock pressure, arm-triangle attacks, and armbars from dominant top positions.