Your past doesn’t define your future. Your next choice does.
The turning point
Twenty-five years ago, Evan was convicted of robbery and sentenced to decades in a state prison. He served fifteen years, four months, and three days. Before that night in 1997, he had already been introduced to Brazilian jiu-jitsu alongside his best friend, Joe Van Brackle.
While Evan was inside, Joe kept training — and kept writing. Letters about technique, about travel, about the philosophy taking shape on the mats. Prison offered every bad choice a person can make. Evan made a different one. He studied martial arts in his cell, practiced the movements he could, and prepared for the life he wanted when they could train together again.
Jiu-jitsu became more than a physical practice. It was a mental discipline: patience, problem-solving, the power of getting one percent better than yesterday. His body was in a cell. His head was already on the outside.
Building something better
Released in 2013, he got certified in personal training and wellness coaching, opened his own studio, and returned to the art under 4th-degree black belt Rich Latta at Renzo Gracie Pennsylvania. He had heard the same complaints at every big-box gym: long contracts, extra fees, no one paying attention. 36E was the answer — a high-end studio where the hour is actually yours.
In 2022 the gym left Main Street Commons for a renovated 3,500-square-foot building on Stefko Boulevard, a block north of Just Born. The extra room made Exalt Jiu-Jitsu possible: self-defense and fundamentals, taught cooperatively, for people who want to feel capable in their own body.
Together with his wife and business partner, Jeanette Rilling, Evan runs both rooms the same way he rebuilt his life — small, consistent actions, no hype, no pretending the hard part isn’t the point.
Honoring a friend
Joe Van Brackle passed away in 2017 at forty-three. Evan put the grief to work. He created the Robinson & Van Brackle Jiu-Jitsu Scholarship Fund, a 501(c)(3) that puts martial arts training in front of at-risk youth who would otherwise never see a mat. The same lessons that got him through: patience, persistence, the right person in the room.
He also coaches local law enforcement. He competes. He still shows up as a student under Rich Latta. The rank is not the achievement. The life is.
Why this matters on your hour
If you think transformation isn’t possible, Evan is the counterexample. Whether the goal is a stronger body, a calmer mind, or the ability to defend yourself, you are working with someone who has already walked the longest version of that road. He will meet you where you are. He will not sell you a shortcut.
- He has lived real adversity. Growth is not a slogan here.
- Small, consistent actions. That is the whole method.
- Professionally trained as a coach and as a martial arts instructor.
- Gives back through scholarships for youth who need the mat most.
“A person changes when they want to change. Period.”
Evan Robinson