Ever dreamt of rolling with the best in the world of Jiu-Jitsu? This episode, we sit down with Keeko, a black belt in Jiu-Jitsu and a true testament to the power of dedication and perseverance. The journey he started in a garage with his friend Big Ben has now metamorphosed into the birth of a commendable community, the Koffee Krew. Kiko also gives an insight into his boxing training under Clint Coronell and his black belt journey under Caio Terra.
We get gritty and grapple with the nuanced differences between no-gi and gi jiu-jitsu and how we've successfully meshed elements of both into our training. But don't worry, it's not all theory. Kiko shares his hands-on experience of setting up a new training spot and his resilience during the COVID-19 pandemic. He reveals secrets of the trade, from recognizing different positions in a fight and transitioning from defensive to offensive to avoiding moves that could potentially cause harm.
As the chat progresses, we delve into the competitive world of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. From his evolution from white belt to brown belt, Kiko shares the changing landscape of his competition perspectives. We underscore the significance of physical conditioning, coaching, and the need for occasional breaks from the competition circuit. From memorable Jiu-Jitsu moments to community building, this conversation serves as a treasure trove of knowledge for both seasoned martial artists and fans alike. So, tune in and let’s explore the fundamentals, the impact of age on play style, and the sheer beauty of Jiu-Jitsu together.
Ever dreamt of rolling with the best in the world of Jiu-Jitsu? This episode, we sit down with Keeko, a black belt in Jiu-Jitsu and a true testament to the power of dedication and perseverance. The journey he started in a garage with his friend Big Ben has now metamorphosed into the birth of a commendable community, the Koffee Krew. Kiko also gives an insight into his boxing training under Clint Coronell and his black belt journey under Caio Terra.
We get gritty and grapple with the nuanced differences between no-gi and gi jiu-jitsu and how we've successfully meshed elements of both into our training. But don't worry, it's not all theory. Kiko shares his hands-on experience of setting up a new training spot and his resilience during the COVID-19 pandemic. He reveals secrets of the trade, from recognizing different positions in a fight and transitioning from defensive to offensive to avoiding moves that could potentially cause harm.
As the chat progresses, we delve into the competitive world of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. From his evolution from white belt to brown belt, Kiko shares the changing landscape of his competition perspectives. We underscore the significance of physical conditioning, coaching, and the need for occasional breaks from the competition circuit. From memorable Jiu-Jitsu moments to community building, this conversation serves as a treasure trove of knowledge for both seasoned martial artists and fans alike. So, tune in and let’s explore the fundamentals, the impact of age on play style, and the sheer beauty of Jiu-Jitsu together.
Welcome back to the Old Grappler. Today I'm here with Geeko. The Old Grappler just awarded my blue belt. I've been coaching wrestling for about 14 years now. When I get in there, it is like everything just goes away, like you're in there coaching on the map for Jiu-Jitsu. It's a way of therapy. The Old Grappler, I'm a casualist for service. What am I saying? Check, gosh. I'd like to say thank you to our sponsor, castro's Pool Service and Repair, phone number 209-675-5418. I am Castro's Pool Service and Repair. Thanks, I'll let you introduce yourself.
Speaker 2:I've been training since 2010 roughly. Here we are 23, still going Strong.
Speaker 1:Black belt under.
Speaker 2:Black belt under Kaio Terra. I got my black belt actually under Cladio Franca in 2017. I trained over at Kaio and now I'm here at Solidarity.
Speaker 1:What brought you to Jiu-Jitsu?
Speaker 2:My boy Big Ben. I was training at Frank Shamrock's back a while back in 2009 or so. Then I went and trained with my boy Ben and his boys in a garage.
Speaker 1:He beat me up a little bit.
Speaker 2:I was training in the garage for like six months or maybe a year or so with Ben. Before all that, I went to go train with him and a couple of his friends that were doing Jiu-Jitsu. They just put it on me. It was time to start training. I was like, oh shit, I got beat up, got hooked. Got hooked, man, I got hooked. I'm not wanting to get beat up.
Speaker 1:Makes sense. So before you decided to do train Jiu-Jitsu any other martial arts- no, nothing at all.
Speaker 2:I've always wanted to do karate or anything. Really there's a kid growing up watching all the Kung Fu theater stuff and just kind of mimicking all that Bruce Lee. I watched boxing but I said never boxed. I did a little bit of wrestling in junior high but I didn't stick with it. I kind of just kind of lost my way in high school getting into high school but never did anything. No martial arts, no formal martial arts.
Speaker 1:So training, since you said 2008?
Speaker 2:2009, 2010.
Speaker 1:And here we are so, 13, 14 years in.
Speaker 2:Kiko, do me a favor, put the mic on your left side. Good, good, the aesthetics are off bro.
Speaker 1:He's not even paying attention. I am so start your training, and then you had this idea for coffee crew.
Speaker 2:No coffee crew kind of. Just really how it started was with Ben, when I was training in the garage. I didn't have a gym, right. So we basically what we did was we matted up my garage. I got really into training. I was actually doing a little bit of boxing with Clint Coronell. He used to train at Shamrock, so he's an AKA now coaching over there. But we would have him come in, I think, once a week and do like a boxing class. And then I was doing Jiu Jitsu. But I didn't have really I was watching YouTube.
Speaker 2:And then Ben, he was a blue belt, he was living in Riverside at that time, going to school, and so he would just come back on the weekends and so what we were doing was he would come on the weekends, show me some stuff on the weekend, and then there was like five of us that were in my garage and so we just basically recycle everything he taught us, or we watch some YouTube and do that. And it was all no-gi, right, I wasn't doing G at all, it was all no-gi. So I was doing boxing like once a week in the garage and I got super into it, right. Or we're doing kickboxing sometimes and then do Jiu Jitsu two or three times. And then, kenny, it was like five of us, four or five of us, my boy, chris, tony and a few other guys that were in there training together, and we were just recycling that, and so, since I didn't have a gym, I didn't have nobody to train with me.
Speaker 2:I mean, I did, I had my guys, but we didn't have a gym, right. So when Ben would come up, we'd go to different gyms, sometimes, like with his connects right, with Carlos over from Gilroy BJJ, we'd go to Salinas, just go to different gyms. And that's kind of, I think, how it started, right, it unofficially started that way, but we'd just go visit different gyms. I have somebody to train with right and just meeting people that way. So then you know, you can only be in your garage so long.
Speaker 1:So when you were doing it back then with Ben and like going and seeing other gyms, was it really open mat or was it just no, we were going to classes, oh, okay.
Speaker 2:We were going to a class. Okay, it was a. Most of the time it was always a class, it was rarely an open mat, but we'd go, like I said, they were his friends usually, so we'd go, no dropping fear or nothing, we'd just go over there and train with them, right. And then we'd just go and you see how you do whatever, and then you know I get beat up by this guy or that guy. He does something, go back to the garage, like oh, this is what this guy did to me, right, and so we'd kind of work it out. But that's kind of how that. I think the seed got planted right, just going, and by the time, like the garage thing was, we're still doing it, but it was like it's very inconsistent, and you got four or five guys there right.
Speaker 2:Sometimes it's only two people. So finally I decided just to go ahead and join a gym, and so I was kind of looking for a place to train at and I didn't want to do G. I wanted to do no G.
Speaker 2:So I wanted to do no G. I was like no, I don't want to do the G, dude, I want to do a no G, but I didn't. There was no, really not many gyms that were just doing no G. So I ended up joining Claudio's that's where Ben was at. Well, actually it was even before that it was. There was an affiliate of Claudio's that I joined and I was there, but we would cross train with the Claudio guys and stuff, right. So that's where I was at and so I just. They had MMA, they had a little bit of no G and then they had G.
Speaker 1:So slowly, slowly, just Slowly they pulled you into the.
Speaker 2:G. They got the lapel and just came here, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:But yeah, so. So I mean that's, I guess, the long, the long way around. But eventually we wanted to get another training day in, right? Eventually I was like, okay, you know, my kids already had kids. So I was like 33 or something, I don't know. My kids were like 10 or something, I don't know.
Speaker 2:So Sundays became that extra day where I was able to get into the gym and train and it was just me, ben Fernando, I think, armando the mommy, it was just a couple guys would show up, just a few of us, and just that was the. We were just doing that for a while, just getting at it, getting at it. You know what I mean. But it was open mat, it was open invitation.
Speaker 2:I think I was a blue belt, blue belt, purple belt, blue belt, but it just slowly built from there and then it was like officially, coffee crew later on, but it was never like a full intention of saying, oh, this is what we're going to do and this is what we're going to call it. It wasn't like that at all, but now it's. Now it's growing. I mean we went from three guys regularly to, I mean, what do you like? 30, 40 people almost every Sunday, right, sometimes a lot more, but 30 is pretty average than 30. Like I mean, there's been a couple of times like, oh, it's kind of light. Today it was like there's 30 heads on the mat, dude on a Sunday at 730 in the morning. That's not light, that's them. That's decent, it's good, it's like 30 to three yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:I mean, that's like what you're saying For you guys. That's exactly what it is for me Like before I got hurt, right. The kind of getting that extra day in and then being able to come and, wherever it was, go and train with people that are not in your gym, that don't know what your game is, to try to work the kinks out.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's how you find to in your game, right, because they're going to give you a different reaction, right? Like if I train with you all the time, I know what you're going to do. Right, you know what I'm going to do, so we're kind of trying to beat each other to the punch. But when you're training with somebody else who doesn't know what you're going to do, right, you start to do, you start to do your move. They're going to react a different way. Right, you get your move, I don't know. Right, but then they got to work it out at that point, right.
Speaker 1:But you guys that's where you work the kinks out. Sometimes it's good that you know like you get someone that has a different counter yeah, and then now you have to counter their counter yeah.
Speaker 2:Exactly yeah.
Speaker 1:So, and it's funny because we just started doing open mat on Friday nights at our gym, like it's kind of in house right now and we had five guys last night and I was just trying to explain to them, like this is the time that you try what you've been taught. See what works for you, see what doesn't, see what, like, see what, how you could implement it into your game. Like one of the guys, he does a lot of stuff, that's good, but then he's jumping, he's losing position for submission, yeah, yeah. And after him, like we, you know exactly what we do when I come here, right, we roll, and then that minute break, there's a little bit of coaching in between the two guys, right, yeah, like last night the guy was going for arm bar, he had mount and he went S mount and I'm like like you could finish it from there. You don't have to fall to your back.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:You know, coach showed us this like put your hands in position and I just let him walk through and finish the arm bar. But it's those situations that you're able to help someone else grow. Like I see what he's doing, so I'm able to defend, and I like I want him to be able to finish and I want him to be successful, but at the same time, like I let him get stuff where where in the past I wouldn't be so comfortable, now I'm a lot more comfortable, right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and it doesn't even matter, right, it's like at that point you're training, if you get caught, you get caught. Who cares? Right, you're going to get caught a million times, right, Hopefully, yeah, right, and you just got to work out those kinks or you got to do your attacks Right and start figuring that out. You're going to lose it a million times, right, until you fine tune it to the point where you're not going to be losing it as much. Hopefully, right, right.
Speaker 2:But I mean one of our guys the other night here I think it was Thursday night I was playing around. I'm grabbing his lapel and I've been working some more, I've been trying to do more takedowns. So I'm grabbing his lapel and I'm kind of being laxed. Next thing, I know he traps my arm, basically got a two on one, but he's almost wrist locking me, right, and I'm like, oh, I got to get out. I got to get out. Next thing, I know man, he's on my side and, poof, my leg comes out. Wow, I'm on my back. I'm like, damn Right. But and it's funny because that's the stuff I've been trying to work Now, that's the stuff I've been teaching and trying to work on myself and hit me with it, but it's like it was good. It was good. It's like, okay, I can't, I can't be so relaxed, right. Right, I gotta get my position and not let him get so so, deep to a point where I can't even get out.
Speaker 2:Right, right, right, but it was. I was happy. It was funny he took me out. All right, try to erase it from his memory, but it was.
Speaker 1:He's on cloud nine at that point. Right, I got the teacher down.
Speaker 2:Yeah, he got me, but it was good though. You need that, right. It was good for me, it's good for him, right.
Speaker 1:He got me, so it is what it is, you didn't have to plug his name.
Speaker 2:You do, but I know who it was. I'm the one I'm just saying. Fernando was watching and he was laughing. He was like oh man, it's good though man, I had fun doing it Can you pull up the film, I see all the cameras. It will be released soon. I already saw the video. Fernando's got it.
Speaker 1:For sure.
Speaker 2:Like I said, I tried to erase it from his memory.
Speaker 1:So you talked about how at the beginning, when you first started training, you were a lot of no-gi Preference.
Speaker 2:now, I like both. I like both. There's a difference. The gi I can slow it down, Usually Right.
Speaker 1:Oh, I'm learning, but when?
Speaker 2:you grab. You're just like nice and slow, right. Yeah, the gi is just a little bit faster, but I'm getting. I'm getting because there was a long break for me for the no-gi Right. I would do it once in a while because where I was at they didn't really have the no-gi. Then over at Kios I wasn't able to make the time for no-gi Right Because of work. I would drop in when I could, but for the most part I just even like once in a great while I'd be able to get there.
Speaker 2:Now I'm teaching no-gi Right. So it's like trying to balance it out and fit it in now more Right as far as my learning goes, because I'm teaching, you know, and most of my game. A few years back I made the decision to like I don't try to play the lapel game too much and then the gi try to save my fingers as I'm getting older Right and trying to play a game where I can do gi and no-gi Right. We'll compliment each other Right. So that actually made that decision a few years ago. So my game's kind of the same in both, so I'm able to kind of put them together. But now I'm just trying to add more like the foot locks, trying to get into that more take downs, obviously, instead of always pulling guard.
Speaker 1:But you know they're just trying to put everything together From the wrestlers, no problem pulling guard. There's nothing wrong with that anymore.
Speaker 2:No, but you've got to combine them though that's what I've been learning Right, you've got to be able to combine your guard pulls and your take downs together, right, so that the person doesn't automatically know he's going to pull guard, no matter what that was pulling guard. He don't got no take downs Like. I want to have an option.
Speaker 1:Last night one of the guys stood up. He's like I don't want to go down to the ground. I'm like, but you want to stand up with me?
Speaker 2:He's like oh, you're going to go down.
Speaker 1:He's like oh yeah, you're the wrestling coach.
Speaker 2:I'm going to go back down, but you can learn from that. That's the thing, right. You can learn from that Right. At some point you're going to be on the ground, so either you're going to pull guard or you're going to get a take down or get taken down.
Speaker 1:So you know it's funny that we've gone to two seminars in the last month. We went to one at San Jose Studios in Modesto and then we went to one in San Lorenzo a couple of weeks ago and like I'm just coming back from the injury Right, so me, like landing hard still kind of gives me a little bit of discomfort. So we're at these, both the seminars they started with take downs.
Speaker 2:And I'm like, are you fucking kidding me?
Speaker 1:Like I'm just coming back, I can't get fucking thrown to the ground, but I did them and they did the take downs on me and it was good to know that, even though I had that in the back of my head, once the training got going, it kind of went out yeah.
Speaker 2:Sometimes just a good warm up. Yeah, you know what I mean. The older you get, the more you got to warm up. So you know I like it. I like to do little flow rolls or something Every time I've gotten injured. Most of the times I've gotten injured is because I didn't warm up. So I like to do a little warm up for myself, even in open mat. The first couple of rolls I get, I try to just kind of flow a little bit. Or somebody like sometimes I'll get a white ball or blue ball and they don't know that we're flowing Right or they don't know how to flow. So I just let them do their thing Right and I just try to stay tight, move around a little bit with them until I start feeling a little bit of sweat moving or, you know, getting a body temperature coming up, it's like, okay, I can start moving now.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but I have to warm up. If I don't warm up, most likely I'm getting hurt. So sometimes I'll get beat up for two, three rounds. Cool, no problem. Get the sweat going, all right, I'm good, I can roll.
Speaker 1:Yeah, now I could expand it. I can put it in my legs. The Tin Man's got the oil in the joints now.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you got to lubricate the joints, man.
Speaker 1:So, solidarity, this is your gym here in San Jose.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, it's me and a couple guys Right Me, ben Fernando and Kirby. Yeah, we always opened up in February, so it's a lot We've been talking about it for years Almost six months now. Yeah, almost, six months around, pretty close, almost there. But now we've been talking about it for years, right, for a few years now, mm-hmm. But you know, with COVID, obviously you know that put a direction to everything, for sure, but it all worked out better.
Speaker 2:Right, we were actually going to get a spot right over here, like two doors down about half the size, and that was the original spot we're supposed to get. There was actually a Taekwondo school here, oh okay, and so then during COVID they bounced out, they left, and so then talked to the owner and he was like I'd take that spot instead. We had, you know, willing to deal a little bit, but we ended up with the spot. So it's twice the size, right?
Speaker 1:Yeah, bigger space it's nicer.
Speaker 2:Nice Got the storefront and everything. So we're still working on a few things here, but more than anything trying to trying to, because we have the curriculum right. We're affiliated with Kios, so we have the curriculum running. The curriculum here, fundamentals Right now is all fundamentals A and B. We had an advanced class in the beginning, but nobody's ready for advanced, right, it's a new school, so all white belts, yeah so, but it's been good though, because even teaching like I've taught before, but now I'm focused on teaching I'm studying, which I've never been known for right, not even in school, but I've been studying, studying the moves and stuff that I already know. But it's always nice because some of that stuff you'll do moves and or you'll learn moves and you'll never use them until it's time right Until like, oh, this move right here works perfect, right here, and then you start using it.
Speaker 2:It's like a perfect example for me where I learned the. It's like a basic side control. You block the hip and you get the cross body on top the arm. I learned that at white belt and to me it was just garbage at that moment. That was a blue belt maybe, but anyways I learned it. I was like this is garbage. Like, how are you going to hold somebody down like this? You know there's too, too many openings, right, fast forward about brown belt.
Speaker 2:One day I was like I was in side control I've always liked side control and I blocked the hip and I blocked the arm. Oh, this position is great, right? Oh, my God, this is a why did I never do this before? Right, and it was like and then I went and watched some videos and stuff trying to, trying to tighten it up a little bit, and then you got the arm bar, you got Kimoras, you got all kinds of stuff right there, right, right, but it's just at blue belt, I didn't see none of that. I just thought it was garbage. Like, I'm never going to do this. Now it's my go to Right, so it's always good to to you. Like I said, you learn these moves, you forget a bunch of them and then later on, when you're ready, you'll get those back Right, you'll remember oh, I can't remember this move right here. Well, and you start doing it and now it's time for you to use that move. So it's, it's something you just got to fine tune. You know, fine tune your game.
Speaker 1:It's crazy how much that you learn and don't use Right, like there's so many different sequences that you like I, I see stuff. Especially like go back to last night. One of the guys threw up arm bar and he didn't catch the arm bar, but he had a triangle, but he didn't see it. Yeah, and I'm like what are you waiting for? I'm kind of coaching him through, like what are you waiting for? It's there and he's looking at me like like we've been practicing triangles and, coach, just had you practice triangles like a week or two ago. How, how did you forget? I'm like throw the kick up the triangle.
Speaker 2:Tunnel vision, right, tunnel vision when you're in that moment? Yeah, you're, he saw an arm bar and that's all he saw. Right, right, but that's the difference between you, know, I guess some levels right. You get the levels of the game, because it's not always just about level. Sometimes that would some white belt see way more than something has been doing it for a long time, right, right, but you know, at the elite level those fools got options. Yeah, you know, they see them, they see all the options.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean he had the deer and the headlight.
Speaker 2:Look, when I told him I'm like you have a triangle there, and then you know I let him work on throwing it up and getting it pretty close and then working on defending it and that's one of the things, like I've been trying to tell the students here is like you got to put yourself in the positions whether it's defensive or offensive right, put yourself in positions that you want to work on. Right, I'll put myself in certain positions and I try to work on them, right, sometimes it doesn't work out too great for me. Sometimes it works out great because now I'm starting to see, okay, this is what I want to do, I'll just try some stupid shit sometimes. Yeah, just nothing crazy, nothing to hurt anybody, right? Not like a spaz move, or you're not going to see me like doing flying triangles.
Speaker 2:Flying, I don't leave the floor, not even if I'm playing basketball. You know what I'm saying. So I'm not, you know I'm not super athletic. I'm not doing the cartwheel passes and all that stuff. That's not my game. But sometimes I'll just put myself in certain positions. I'll try to do some moves, you know, whatever, just try something. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so, and it's always fun to do those moves right.
Speaker 1:Well, when you're doing those other things that you're more not comfortable with per se, it just helps you get comfortable. You know one of the guys last night, like I was on top and I Like I know he's new, I'm not putting a ton of pressure on him, right, but I'm working and you know I submit him and then, like usually, you know open mat, you submit, you sit back down, bump and and start over, and he's like no, no, no, it's down top.
Speaker 1:Stand top like you. Let the I tap, but keep the pressure. I need to learn how that pressure feels like I got to get comfortable with it. Yeah, you know, and we were talking about breathing. Last night that was, if anything, last night's open mat with the guys that were there were, like I Emphasized, breathing.
Speaker 2:Like to Way up here right, like that's one of the biggest things that people don't even think about, right, people was like you want to learn these moves, you want to do this, but it's like sometimes you just got to be able to breathe. Yeah, you just got to take your time getting a defensive position where you're, you know, safe, right, and just be able to breathe through it so you're not hyperventilating, you're not turning purple. You know what I mean? Right, you're sitting there, you're able to go through it and you're able to think. Right, nice, I think I told the guys of the night.
Speaker 2:Right, it's like you got to be able to not panic. Yes, when you panic is like, oh okay, there's a difference between hitting the old shit button, right, and be like knowing that you have to move, but you're making the decision you have to move. They're not just panicking in, you know, just doing whatever it is because you're panicking. That's completely different, right? Yeah, so you have to be able to know when you're in trouble or when you're gonna be in trouble is even better.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, so you can start defending ahead of time, right, but if you're waiting to the very last minute and then just panicking and trying to just just spaz out of it. That's not good, right, right, so that you know it's like I'm trying to get a breeze to be able to, like, say, just breathe, be able to Analyze the situation and try to go from there. Right, the worst thing is gonna happen. You're gonna tap, yeah, or or somebody's got good solid pressure on you, right, right so. But other than that, I mean You're gonna be fine, right, you just gotta be able to relax.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I didn't. And that goes with breathing right like yeah, I Roll them with those guys there. They're trying to. You know, all of them are white belts. They're they're all trying to go a hundred miles an hour. Well, you know, the guys that come in right there just like, oh yeah, there's like they don't want to move it's like gas out their arms yeah it's like you're just holding me and you're stiff, you're not moving.
Speaker 2:Or you're trying to do the move and you're super stiff, so you can't do the move. You got to relax, got to be loose. Yeah, tighten up when it's time to tighten up, right, you know what I mean. You got to be gonna be able to flow through the whole thing, but that takes time. It's like now you could say I'm sure I was the same way.
Speaker 1:Oh, I think we're all the same right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you're just like, you're grabbing, you don't know what the hell to do and you think that you have to be stiff. I gotta be loose and then once you, when it's time now, you stiffen up a little bit, right.
Speaker 1:I remember when I like the beginning, when they told me to wear the gi and I would, I was Wasn't very many times that I wore it, but when I wore it, like hanging on, like grabbing it and then overexertion right, like just thinking that you Hold on tight to it Shit. I've learned now that you don't need to hold on tight, no, no, just get a grip like curl the lapel or curl the sleeve and you, you don't have to say the grips right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you don't have to be clinched to hold that kind of even have to hold it if you don't want to these guys are like One that they're barely learning, yeah, how to Use the key as to their advantage. Right, yeah, I'm using the key to my advantage, yeah.
Speaker 2:That's the right? Yeah, right, but the same way that you're using it for the your advantage, somebody else can use it against you, right? Yeah, you gotta recognize that tune if you're too busy Just hanging on while they're probably feeding the grips and, yeah, cross choke on you or whatever, getting ready to take you out, mm-hmm. So yeah, it's all been able to assess your situation and see where you're at. Sometimes it's too late.
Speaker 1:What one of the guys last night, I don't, I had had a cross choke on him and he was trying to cross choke me at the same time, but he didn't have the position and he was stiff and and like I let him work. But I was just doing that slow, tighten, tighten, tighten, and then he went to adjust and I was just and it, all of a sudden he tapped and he rolled over and he's like I've seen the tunnel in that one, like it. Just, I said sometimes it happens fast, sometimes, you know, like it, it may be slow and creep on you just kind of close down.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:That's happened to me a couple of times when Fernando showing the move, right, it's just he's showing the move and I'm the ookey. I'm trying to hold on, like just so people can see the move, like you gotta, you gotta see the whole move. And I'm just trying to be like just relax, just chill, and I go hold up, like it's going dark, give me a second right. And I like, even with that, like something happens to me sometimes where, where He'll do it, and it's like my shoulder starts to twitch, I guess it gets so deep. I'm just like Like, hold up, let's go away right now. My shoulders just twitching, like, and then you know, I guess I get the brain or the blood black and back in my brain Mm-hmm. Then I'm okay, right, but it starts to go dark. I hear the little won't, won't, won't, put my ear. My shoulder starts to twitch like, oh shit, better, tap, now I call that, get somebody else for a second, yeah yeah, so Through the years have you competed.
Speaker 2:I Competed more, I think, at white belt, blue belt. I competed a lot more. I never did the IB JJF tournaments, mm-hmm, stayed more local, just didn't have the money or time to be traveling and spending time away from the family to go do those things. But I Did compete a little bit here and there. I competed at purple and then I only did a few at brown belt and then at black bells when I switched schools. So it's kind of like I Haven't competed at all at black. I Do plan to. I do plan to. There's one reasons I've been trying to work out and stuff to right, get back, you know, between work and Training and teaching, and it's like the full day, yeah, full day. So just like I haven't really gotten that, that groove that you want to be in when you want to compete, right, mm-hmm. So I feel like I'm getting there, though I've been working out with Matt over at victory yeah, victor had performance. So I've been feeling a little bit stronger.
Speaker 2:But but I've been feeling.
Speaker 2:I've been feeling better, right, because usually I'm a little bit of a knucklehead, right, so it's like we all it's like I started lifting weights by my you know and I, like I was telling earlier, right, it's like I get in the groove of things that I like to do and I'm comfortable doing them, and then I get to a point where I can, I can do the weight I, I can definitely lift it, but after I'm done my back hurts or like I'm doing something wrong, obviously right, but I'm hurt or I'm too sore to train or I'm too tired, right, right.
Speaker 1:But then you're still there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm still there, and then you know, then and then injuries happen on top of that, right. So, but actually working out over this because I'm not doing everything that I want to do, he's saying, okay, you need to do this, this, this and this. Right, this is your path. Boom, okay, cool. So you're giving me workouts, different things to do, things I would have never thought of doing, right, and I do feel I do feel better put together as far as healthier, right, I'm not, my back's not hurting as much, no more. So, right, Things like that, right. So think I'll be competing, hopefully pretty soon. I want to get down to middle weight, get back down to 175. So I can do that. 181, 181 and a half, or that is. But I'll be doing. What is it? Masters 4, maybe now.
Speaker 2:So you're up there with me, I'm there, I think it's Masters 4, yes, I'll be. I'm 46.
Speaker 1:So something local.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, I'm not too worried about. I mean, ib. Jjf is here now, right, so they come to San Jose, santa Cruz, you know they're in the area, so, but yeah, we are trying to just do maybe the US Open or do the Jiu Jitsu World Leagues or whatever.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we've done a few of the Jiu Jitsu World League and it just for the like, the organization of their tournament and getting you in and out. Yeah, so at Brown.
Speaker 2:Belt. I did one of their tournaments and I just I hadn't competed in a while, so I just signed up and I just took off over there by myself. I didn't tell nobody.
Speaker 1:Favorite kind of sign up. I was like you know what.
Speaker 2:I'm gonna sign up, I'm gonna go compete. I didn't tell no, I didn't tell Fernando, I didn't tell Ben, I didn't tell nobody. So I just got my gear, boom took off I think it was in Hayward and I competed and I did the Gia and the Nogi. It was small, I think it was a few years back, right, obviously it's like six. It's been like six, seven years, because so I've been a Black Belt, I think almost six years now. And so then I went and I competed, but I had the same guy for Nogi and Gia and it's around Robin. So I basically had four matches against the same guy. So we did three matches and by the fourth I won all the matches. And it wasn't like I mean, the guy was like I think he was from 10th Planet, but he threw the Gia on. So I beat him twice in the Gia and then the Nogi. You know I said I made it. I had made the decision years back to kind of try to have a game that, would you know, match with Gia and Nogi yeah.
Speaker 2:And so then I hit him with the same move in Nogi with a little arm bar from top side control, and I did it again to him in Nogi and so by the time we're gonna have our fourth match. He was like, oh, that's cool, I guess it's all good, dude. So it was cool, it was a good tournament, I enjoyed it. I didn't know it was around Robin, so I was getting ready to go. Like no, no, you got another match. Like what? Yeah, like it's just us two. It's like no, no, let's get the same guy again. All right, cool, then let's go.
Speaker 1:I think that's good, like the same thing that's happened to me, like I did Gia Nogi and fortunately enough I had a different guy in Nogi than I did in Gia, but I fought both of them twice, so yeah, no, I liked it, it was good.
Speaker 2:It was a good tournament, so I might just do that one.
Speaker 1:I think the the one, like we've gone to the ones in Stockton and just their timing of everything, oh, they're point on point, like they get it. Get there an hour before to weigh in and then your, so mine is usually four o'clock to weigh in, five o'clock to be on the mat, and it it's been boom, boom and by like six o'clock I'm already all right, let's go home.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Right, the time I did Gia and Nogi, I did five o'clock for Gia and then the time start time for Nogi was six. So yeah, but it was like 40 minutes. It was quick, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, because that basically, we had three. It was three matches, pretty much almost back to back Mm-hmm. So we did the, the Gia, and then we had a couple other guys go and then we're back on again. Boom, it had a couple guys go and then they're like, oh, you're doing the Nogi, let's go. So, yeah, cool, it just took. I don't even remember. I think I had just, I think I had just my Gia pants on Mm-hmm. I don't even have shorts, if I remember right. Yeah, but either way, though, it was a good tournament. It was good. So I do want to get back that. The one thing I said. I want to lose a couple, a couple pounds, mm-hmm. I'm not too far off. I'm about 185 right now.
Speaker 2:So I've actually lost about 10 pounds since I started working out over there too, so changed the way I eat a little bit. You know what I'm saying. I still got more work to do the tacos. I like getting out in tacos right, so it's a big sacrifice. Some sacrifices ain't worth making. We got out. So, talking to Matt, he's like I'll just do 194 because you'll be fine. I was like, damn I'm, I compete at 194 once. So, and the dude was big, he was a big 194. I'm a small 194. Yeah, I'm a tiny one anymore. But I saw, I saw. I saw video of that match. It was a blue, I was a blue belt and I saw those at one point in that video. And that match, whoever was recording was recording from the backside and you just see these dudes back and my little legs over here. You can see my little hands over there. Like you don't even see me. That's what the dude was. The dude was like he wasn't, he wasn't heavy, he was like jacked, you know, like man. I had to pull a strong.
Speaker 1:It's funny because there's a guy that I that I competed against, that's at Sensei Studios in Modesto and we went to the clinic or the seminar a few weeks back and like there's nothing but big guys over there. It's Modesto, like holy shit. He's like this is like we have a good big guy crew and then he, he had just competed at Worlds and or the Open down in LA and he's like dude and he, he's. He's a good sized guy. He's taller than me, he's a little bit heavier than me, but he's like I was the smallest guy and he's all and not like he's all these guys was like four or five inches taller than me and no one was like chunky, everybody's just tall and burly Taking the SAE huh.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the little something something. So I'm like, well, fuck, he's bigger than me, tall, wise, like. And I'm like, oh shit, I need to figure something out, because stand up and but there's something to be like.
Speaker 2:I don't know. I mean at that weight. I don't know if people are necessarily cutting weight right, because you're at the, at the, at the top. Basically you know the weight category, but I've always competed middle weight. I've usually walked around like 175. That's if I'm eating somewhat okay and working out consistently and stuff. I get to 175 pretty easy, right, so I can compete at 181. I'm not a big middleweight but I'm not small and like average right, right, middle of the road type dude right. But once I go up I'm the small guy, yeah Right. And if I go down I probably just still average right, because some of those, some of the feather weights were there and plus I don't want to lose that much weight Right, one cut.
Speaker 1:For one turn I was.
Speaker 2:I was, yeah, no, the thing is too like. At one point I was at 170. Like walking around, but I was working out doing CrossFit and this and that, right, I was at 170. I was having salads and all that right, and I would roll with Ben a roll. Big Ben. Ben was like and he was doing we're both doing CrossFit and everything together. He's pretty. He was pretty healthy at the time, right. So he was like 220, right, and that's small for him. Right now he's like 250, maybe 260, if you hear this Ben Just saying. But it was like 170 and you're rolling with somebody's 220 and in shape, you're just getting tossed around. It's hard, man. And, like I said, you know, I've never been the most technical guy, right. So I relied more on scrambles and trying to be fast and trying to, you know, or trying to move around. But when you're getting tossed around, I was like man, I need to gain some weight or something. So, yeah, I don't like being light, you know I want to be heavy, but you know.
Speaker 1:I got to be athletic too. He said he wants a loose weight but he wants to be big. No, but that's the dilemma, he wants to be the biggest at the lowest weight, comfortably.
Speaker 2:I don't want to struggle to make it.
Speaker 1:Hey, you need to have the single instead of the double double.
Speaker 2:I get the triple. I get the three by three. Well, I've been in and out and I'll get. I've got the four by four and the balance is off. When you get that right it's like it's just too much meat, but three by three is perfect. I get three by three, animal style, and, honestly, sometimes I eat two of those bad boys, you know, with some fries and a drink. You know what I'm saying. She's good, though.
Speaker 2:She's good, I'll have two of them but the four by four is too much. No, I can finish it. It's fine, but it's just too much meat. It doesn't taste the same, it doesn't taste as good. Right, the balance is off. So you get the three by three. The balance is perfect.
Speaker 1:And then you have two and then you have two and then you have 191. I go 194.
Speaker 2:I can make 194 right now. No problem, no problem, and I can still have in and out Two, three by three is we're good, I'll be heavy. That's medium, heavy, I think, light, heavy I think. But that's the dilemma, man. I want to be heavy. Stay on top right. If you're too light, you get tossed off, while they do all the big guys throw you around. So he's got to be in the middle of the road.
Speaker 1:So what's something in the Jiu-Jitsu world that people may not know about you?
Speaker 2:I'm a grandpa, but I think everybody knows that I don't know, I don't know, I don't think there's really nothing. I'm not the most interesting guy in the world at all.
Speaker 1:As you have your dozequis with your three by three.
Speaker 2:No, I think I'm a grandpa. The people that know me obviously they call me. Some of the guys be like grandpa, but I have a four-year-old granddaughter. So just letting people know, young guys, when you beat me up at Open man, how?
Speaker 1:do you feel about yourself? You?
Speaker 2:just beat up an old man, dude, beat up a grandpa, coming at me all sideways, all the time, full of energy.
Speaker 1:Not knowing that you need the three rounds to warm up.
Speaker 2:I'm trying to warm up before trying to kill me. But here's the thing when I beat them up, how do you feel now Got?
Speaker 1:beat up by a grandpa, so I need my cane out there right.
Speaker 2:Yeah there's not much to me man.
Speaker 1:Pretty straightforward yeah yeah, so what's your most memorable moment with Jiu-Jitsu?
Speaker 2:I think there's a lot of, I mean, I guess good memories. Right, I talked about it before, but it was a tournament for sure, where I was winning. I was doing good in my weight class and my bridesman blew a belt and I got called for a stalling. Actually, scott Savage was the referee. Scott was a ref Hit you for stalling.
Speaker 2:Me and the opponent were standing up, we're bowing it was our third or fourth match already and so you're locked up and you're just like, okay, I just need to sign you some time, right? So I'm just holding on to the deal. We're standing in, neither of us were doing nothing. And so he calls us for stalling and I never been called for stalling. So I panicked is basically what happened, right, I was talking about earlier. You got to understand the situation.
Speaker 2:Well, I panicked that day and I was like an anti guard puller, right. I was like, oh, I'm just going to shoot all the time, just going there and shooting my double and that's it. Whatever happens happened, why? Panicked, and I pulled guard, right, but my guard pool was garbage, that's good. And actually, mike Kirby, mike Kirby was coaching me too, right, so I'll pull guard, pull guard.
Speaker 2:So I, instead of putting my foot on the hip and pulling guard, like you're supposed to, right, and you know, securing all the, I like dropped to the floor and like, just like a fish Foul, and the guy goes straight to knee cut passes, doesn't need cut on me and I'm panicking and he shoots a darse on me. Well, like 20, there's like 20 seconds left or something, and I'm like shit. Now I was up 13 points. It was like 13 zero. Oh, okay, I'm trying to block the hip, boom Ends up getting super deep on the choke and taps me out with like 10 seconds left or something. But I learned a valuable lesson Don't panic and learn how to pull guard, you know. But. But I mean that that right, that's a memorable moment, like even though I wasn't on the winning end, it was a good it was a good lesson and, honestly, it's funny as hell.
Speaker 2:It's funny, dude. It's like I was doing good and I was like, oh shit, you know I was going to be on the podium. It was a big bracket, whatever. Boom, lose it the last second. But I just remember, like pulling guard. It was like that's why I didn't even pull guys, Like I just like fell to the floor and just right on the ground instead of, instead of, like you know, securing the position. Brothers, it's funny, though it's funny, it's fun Now it wasn't funny that day you look up and you look at your coach like damn what happened.
Speaker 1:I was up 30 points.
Speaker 2:But other than that, I mean there's tons of memorable moments, like just traveling around with all the guys you know, with you guys all coming through with the time we took by kind of to San Leandro, like everywhere, right, we go as a crew. Bam, and you know, got Mike and Val and all the guys from all the different gyms. That's fun, right, that's always fun to do those things.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the camaraderie yeah.
Speaker 2:So it's like you're meeting people from different gyms and everybody's you know everybody's cool with each other. Like one thing that's actually been seen more of lately has been when you see the, the team or the crew right from different gyms. Right, you got the guys from Cougars over in Salinas and Soledad. They all show up like sometimes eight, 10 deep you know what I'm saying. They're showing up and get the guys from Garret's up in Santa Cruz and they're showing up, and you get all these guys just showing up in squads, just boom, coming to train. Like I've been enjoying seeing that. Yeah, because everybody's cool with the show. It's not a bad thing, right?
Speaker 2:No, not at all, but it's just cool to see all these teams pulling together and coming to an open mat and training together and trying to everybody's building each other up. So that's something like it's happening now. Right, but I'm sure down the road you will look back and like that was that's cool, right there. Yeah, you know what I mean, because you know you never know how long, how long you do coffee crew for right. It's like hopefully it goes on for a long time, but you never know how long it lasts.
Speaker 1:It's a good thing, man yeah.
Speaker 2:I'm sure we've been doing it already for a long time, like 10 years man, 12 years Shit.
Speaker 1:So the last, the last, I think, the last five years.
Speaker 2:Five, six years is when it blew up, like when it started really picking up. Yeah, it started picking up before that, but then once we started traveling more, started focusing on traveling more, it really started picking up.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so what schools like? I see Coffee Crew South, which Ben runs right.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So Ben's got Coffee Crew South and they're at Fights Indicate, and then so they actually cause it's funny, right, cause down there they're mostly Nogi, yeah, so they're mostly all Nogi, but they go to the 10th planet schools down there. They got a few schools, I think it's 10th planet Redlands, and then they'll go to there's a Fightsports in Hemet, so they go to that school. So they go to a bunch of different schools too down there, but majority's all Nogi. And so then obviously up here it's almost for the most part it's it's G. Right, I'm the only one, you're the one you, and then there's a couple other oddballs.
Speaker 2:But it's good though, cause I like I'll be training G. If I see somebody that's doing Nogi doesn't have a partner, I'll jump in. I'll just take my, my G top off, yeah, and the hard part after that is putting it back on. It's like after that it's like it's Nogi from on out. But you know, and then we got the Coffee Crew ATX, yeah, texas, yeah. So actually we're going over there this coming weekend. So in one week we'll be over there. It's their one year anniversary.
Speaker 1:We're going to head up there and train with those guys, so it'll be fun.
Speaker 2:dude, like four or five of us are going over there and going to fly out and train with them. So, yep, he's out there too.
Speaker 1:Yep, he's he's a, he's just one work, that tournament that he went to right.
Speaker 2:I think it was the Austin Open. Yeah, yeah, he just he had won the ADCC trial, I think, and I think that was in Las Vegas or somewhere just a few weeks back. And then he was up in Armenia too.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's so, yeah, so he was up in Armenia. Yeah.
Speaker 2:So that was a great experience for him, right, he can talk about it, but, um, but yeah, no, he's doing his thing out there. So he'll be out there in Texas and in Austin so get to roll with him, get beat up a little bit, but but you know, it's just like it's all come together right? Alex Northam is the guy running the one in Texas and he's doing a great job. We got the community there going together.
Speaker 1:Where are they located? In Texas.
Speaker 2:So the school is Soul Fighters Leander, Texas, so I'm not like. I guess it's North, I don't know. But it's right there by Austin, I think it's north of Austin, it's right there, but so we're going out there, we're going to hit a few spots, they're everything right. What's that?
Speaker 1:They're not just BJJ, they're Soul Fighters. Is everything Right Like they're?
Speaker 2:here? No, no, they're at that school, they're just doing Jiu-Jitsu. Oh, okay, yeah, the the owner there is Bruno. I think he has Gimaraes, so he's a cool dude. You know got to meet him the last year we went.
Speaker 2:So it was cool how it all went down, because we went over there to visit Alex and go train, right, it was no intentions on like being a, you guys should do coffee crew ATX or nothing, right, we kind of already had talked about doing something like that, but we weren't sure where or what we'd be doing, right. But Alex, he'd been training with us for a while here in San Jose and then he got a job opportunity and stuff for the family over there to end up taking off. But he wanted to do something right. We just weren't sure, right. So like, well, you got it. So we saved the IG, handle coffee crew ATX. We got it and just basically, just like it's there, but we didn't do nothing with it for like a year or something.
Speaker 2:And then finally, when we went over there, we met Bruno. There happened to be a few guys from Kios that had moved out there and we're training at that gym. That we didn't even know about. So it was just like I was like, oh, that was like. He was like what's up, dude? It's like you're at Kios Like, yeah, boom, right, so a few people. And so then, talking to Bruno, he liked the idea a little bit that we didn't pitch it. He was just like, hey, what's this coffee crew thing? He already had actually had heard about it from some of the other guys that had moved. And so then he just talked to Alex and boom, it started. And they, I mean it's like everything right, it starts out small, but, dude, I've been watching them, they're blowing up. They're 20, 30 deep every.
Speaker 1:Sunday.
Speaker 2:Nice, mostly all no-gain dead leg lockers. But yeah, so we'll be out there. Anyways, this weekend I'm gonna go train with them. We have a Friday night we're gonna do Friday night. Saturday we'll travel to another gym somewhere and then Sunday we'll do an open mat at Soul Fighters and then barbecue a little grab.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I've seen them doing a little barbecue for the anniversary thing.
Speaker 2:Yeah yes, and then we'll be back here Sunday night, back at it again. Cool, yeah, we'll have all of them going. I'm trying to. We're pretty much booked up for the rest of the year here, but I'm trying to plan more. I wanna get back out to Vicelia with the elite team, the elite team of Vicelia cause.
Speaker 2:That was fun, so I wanna do more stuff like that. We just gotta find the time right. Find the time and honestly be able to get like sponsors or something, to be able to do stuff cause everything costs money, right yeah, for sure, so yeah, so we'll Hold on.
Speaker 2:I wanna you know what I wanna do next year. It's a pipe dream. So I wanna get an RV. I wanna get an RV, bro, and just drive down to Texas and stop, right, Stop. We know there are a few people that used to train a coffee crew there in Arizona Jolie and Kyle Pick that up, Marcio Andres. But if it'd be cool like, drive from pick up Ben in Temecula, maybe train there, Take off to Arizona, train there and I think it's New Mexico and then Texas, right, Get an RV and just take like seven or 10 heads and an RV and just train, That'd be cool to do next year.
Speaker 1:I got an idea for you. I'll tell you guys. You let me know about that trip.
Speaker 2:That should be dope. It'd be like a week, you know a one week trip at least I hadn't mapped it out to go across the United States to New York, training at every state. They were like but in route, right, right, yeah, yeah. But that was going to be like 30 days. Whew, right, and that'd be rough.
Speaker 1:But you could do it. I'm down for one week, Sorry you might interrupt me.
Speaker 2:What about the gym? What gym? This gym, oh it's here. You see it, we're not going nowhere. Man, Right, I mean you got people to do it, but that's it. Like 30 days is long, that's like a big commitment, yeah Right, but that would still be dope. But like the one week to Texas, that's doable. You know what I'm saying? That's more. The other one is like you know what I mean? You better have some income.
Speaker 1:Yeah, some good sponsors.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know. Anyways, that's what I would like to do, right, but we'll see.
Speaker 1:Good, that's a great idea. That'd be fun. That'd be hell of fun.
Speaker 2:You get to know each other for sure. Yeah, might have to put some mats in the RV.
Speaker 2:So if anybody wanted to get a hold of you, your school, anything, I mean, yeah, coffee crews on IG, right, coffee crew with the K the coffee crew I'm El Kiko G on there. And then Solidarity Jujitsu Come check out the gym. It's a fundamentals program right now, but we're definitely growing Right, and so I wanna make sure we're on there just taking the students up properly, not trying to just throw them in the fire. You know what I mean, right? So, yeah, solidarityjujitsucom Check it out on the website, check it out on Instagram. And then we've been having more open mats here, as far as coffee crew is close to my house too, so it's cool, it's not?
Speaker 1:closer. Tomorrow will be here.
Speaker 2:Tomorrow will be here, the 20,. What is it the?
Speaker 1:25th or something, I don't know what it is. This is gonna get released after, so it's not gonna happen?
Speaker 2:No, it's not gonna be here. Not gonna be here.
Speaker 1:We'll talk about that a couple weeks from now.
Speaker 2:I'll be here. You will be here, you will be here.
Speaker 1:You hear us talking about it, but you won't make it. So we'll end with any advice from you for any newcomers, any old timers like me that are newer to the sport of jujitsu.
Speaker 2:For the old timers to me. Like I said, I'm focusing on fundamentals again, just all over again getting back. Everybody says it and this and that, but I think there's a lot to the fundamentals. I'm not doing no bolos, like once in a while I'll play around and do it, but it's not my game at all.
Speaker 2:I think being able to focus on your fundamentals and playing the more traditional game keeps you somewhat healthy, right? Obviously, I'm talking personal perspective, right, I've been working construction most of my life, so, but I feel like it keeps me healthier, right For sure I'm not trying to like I said, I'm not grabbing the, I'm not playing spider garden, holding the sleeves and my fingers are hurting, and trying to focus on a fundamental game.
Speaker 2:And then also, just like even the youngsters right, when I was first started, I really loved the scrambles, like I would. It was so fun that and I was a little I never been fast, but I was a little bit faster, right. So and so I would get in those scrambles, get in those scrambles and then be able to beat people out just a little bit right and boom. So I, but I loved it, it was fun, and most guys that were more technical than me if I can create that scramble, then I'll get a position, I'll get in position.
Speaker 2:Well, as you get older you lose that right, and I was told this but I didn't listen, right. So now it's like oh okay, that makes sense. But now I'm focusing more on even if there's a little bit of a scramble solidifying certain blocks, certain frames, certain points of connection. Where I'm gonna be in position, I'll have to rely on being fast, right, I'll have to rely on certain attributes and that'll carry you through to your old right. So that's kind of like the things I've been focusing on just points of connection, framing, getting yourself into position right, avoiding all the scrambles and all that stuff. But it is fun, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:Shit. So this is something new that we're doing for the podcast. You'll be the first recipient right A lot of times. Everybody has a journey. I appreciate you giving our podcasts your journey and we'll get it out there for you Right on brother. Thank you, thank you.
Speaker 2:I'm gonna go sport it.