“I put in the work” - Danielle Kelly shares how she treads the line between cockiness and confidence

Brazilian jiu-jitsu phenom Danielle Kelly recently shared how she carefully treads the line between cockiness and confidence.

At this high level of competition, it’s easy for athletes to let success get to their heads. In Kelly’s case, the thing that keeps her ego in check is a constant reminder of her own shortcomings.

In other words, suffering losses and experiencing failures in her grappling career helped Kelly stay grounded. But at the same time, she’s confident in her skills and abilities to do better because of the work she puts into training every day.

Speaking to ONE Championship, the Philadelphia-born athlete explained how she balances being cocky and confident:

“I put in the work. So I know, I'm pretty confident that I can win or do better. But I also need to stay humble. Like, right now, I'll put myself in bad positions and work from it because I used to not do that.”

The American added:

“When I was competing in a tournament a year ago or two, I would just freeze up and I would be in a bad position or getting locked into a submission. So I feel like I kind of humbled myself knowing that something bad could happen in a fight or grappling match. [But] I'm confident enough to know that I can get out of it and either break them.”

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Danielle Kelly is humbled to learn she inspires kids to follow in her footsteps

Danielle Kelly is nothing short of sensational. Her incredible success story in jiu-jitsu has motivated many kids across the US to take up the sport offered in their school districts.

Kelly shared with ONE Championship how humbled she felt when she learned from parents that she was their kids’ source of motivation:

‘The old school I went to actually, the parents told me that their sons and daughters, I inspired them to try the sport out. A lot of them stuck with it, and they saw me doing it. So, you know, I felt really good to see kids were watching me or they were willing to try something because of me.”

Millions of grappling fans tuned in to watch Danielle Kelly’s ONE debut against Japanese veteran Mei Yamaguchi at ONE X last March. Her eclectic performance made a big impression on the grappling community. She even won herself a cool US$50,000 performance bonus that no doubt enticed more aspiring athletes to do better in the sport.

Watch Kelly's ONE Championship debut below: