Have you ever wondered how law enforcement officers can handle themselves in close-quarters situations, without the aid of their weapons? Drawing from my personal experiences, this episode exposes the necessity for combat sports training, such as Jiu-Jitsu, kickboxing, wrestling, and boxing, within the ranks of the law enforcement. My journey to earning a black belt in Jiu-Jitsu, with all its challenges and triumphs, has given me unique insights into how crucial this skill set is for officers, keeping them safe and prepared for every challenge that rises in the line of duty.
From the gritty streets of crime-ridden cities to intense encounters with armed suspects, a lack of close-quarters combat training puts officers at more risk than one might imagine. As we delve into my experiences and training sessions under the tutelage of boogie, the head instructor at 10th Planet Jiu-Jitsu in San Diego, you'll get a glimpse into the demanding world of law enforcement training and how it can be improved to ensure their safety. Embracing techniques from different combat sports, and mastering them, forms a crucial part of this training, including learning to use one's strengths and flexibility to gain an advantage.
We conclude the episode by discussing the importance of setting achievable goals, and aiming to get better every day. For those of you who are grappling with the idea of starting your journey in combat sports, or are already on the path, remember that the journey is the reward. It's not just about Jiu-Jitsu or reaching a particular belt, but about the human connection of strength and power in effectively protecting and serving our communities. Tune in and join us as we explore and advocate for the importance, and the beauty, of close-quarters combat training for law enforcement officers.
Have you ever wondered how law enforcement officers can handle themselves in close-quarters situations, without the aid of their weapons? Drawing from my personal experiences, this episode exposes the necessity for combat sports training, such as Jiu-Jitsu, kickboxing, wrestling, and boxing, within the ranks of the law enforcement. My journey to earning a black belt in Jiu-Jitsu, with all its challenges and triumphs, has given me unique insights into how crucial this skill set is for officers, keeping them safe and prepared for every challenge that rises in the line of duty.
From the gritty streets of crime-ridden cities to intense encounters with armed suspects, a lack of close-quarters combat training puts officers at more risk than one might imagine. As we delve into my experiences and training sessions under the tutelage of boogie, the head instructor at 10th Planet Jiu-Jitsu in San Diego, you'll get a glimpse into the demanding world of law enforcement training and how it can be improved to ensure their safety. Embracing techniques from different combat sports, and mastering them, forms a crucial part of this training, including learning to use one's strengths and flexibility to gain an advantage.
We conclude the episode by discussing the importance of setting achievable goals, and aiming to get better every day. For those of you who are grappling with the idea of starting your journey in combat sports, or are already on the path, remember that the journey is the reward. It's not just about Jiu-Jitsu or reaching a particular belt, but about the human connection of strength and power in effectively protecting and serving our communities. Tune in and join us as we explore and advocate for the importance, and the beauty, of close-quarters combat training for law enforcement officers.
That's a good way of looking at it, and so I started doing something. I call it Leo lessons, and Leo stands for law enforcement officer, and then from there I just you know just little things. We get into bad positions where people belly down with guns or weapons. It's not really like a weapon type of thing, but it's the control that you need to handcuff somebody and to make sure they don't hurt you or your partner when out there, yeah. So, yeah, I'm still trying to. I know it sounds weird because I it's gotten a lot bigger than I thought it was ever going to be, but I still feel like I'm finding my niche and I'm leaning towards the law enforcement side, like I just love Jiu Jitsu and all, but I see that there's such a big like hole in law enforcement right and it's and it's very scary and I show videos and I see videos all the time, yeah like I didn't realize how untrained right Some of it you know, like I get that law enforcement has other means to subdue people, Right.
Speaker 2:But if, if someone bum rushes you, right Right, You're not worried about trying to grab your gun or trying to grab your taser.
Speaker 1:We have time.
Speaker 2:Exactly right. So you're going to have to grapple your way out or something, right, right, and, and like, just seeing you know, I talked about it with Ed, another law enforcement guy that was on our podcast. I talked about it with him. We had a couple of guys that are law enforcement in our gym, right, and like I think it's such a good thing for them to be in there because I see, like I'm a wrestler, right, right, but that's what I've done. Right, I did it in school. I'm a coach. You know the the pipe dream was to wrestle on the Marine Corps, because I went straight to Marine Corps and I went to high school. Oh, okay, right, it didn't happen. But you know, that was the dream, you know. And then, you know, I went back to the school trying to coach, didn't happen.
Speaker 2:Then, fast forward 20 years, my kids in school, high school. He's a freshman and I'm like dude, no matter what you guys got to do, a sport, I don't care what sport, right, right, for me, that's great, please be, please be, please be picked. Wrestling, right. But he chose basketball. He didn't make the basketball team. I said, well, you got two other choices you go out for soccer, you can be outside in the cold all day. You know, wrestling is a winter sport, or you could be.
Speaker 2:You could choose wrestling and he chose wrestling and you know that that year there was three coaches and probably 70 kids and they they took a JV team, which that was where my kid was Right. So they took them to a tournament and we're I don't know, I think he had probably 30 kids with them to coach and I'm like shit, he's a little overwhelmed. So I walked down there and I'm like hey, like I don't know if the terminology is all the same, but I wrestled and I could sit in a corner and help you if you're good with that. He's like fuck, yeah, but I, yeah. So you know, back in 2008, because my kid walked into the, walked in the wrestling room after he failed at something else, right, right, that got me into the door, but that was 20 years, right, and since 08, I've been coaching, you know, but it's wrestling was a better choice for me.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, he ended up being a coach too and you know we coached together, but it's definitely I look at what people that don't have any grappling experience. You know and you see the videos on social media. Now, right, I'm Casual's business Check. I'd like to say thank you. Thank you to our sponsor, Casual's Pool Service and Repair, phone number 209-675-5118. I am Casual's Pool Service and Repair. Thanks. 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.
Speaker 1:Right, and I post them sometimes. Just I don't want to show the bad things that happen in law enforcement. It's more of like dude, we need to train right, and one of the things that I hashtag like all the time is go train. And I tell the people even that I work with, like dude, I don't care if you don't train with me. Like go train, like lifting weights is not the same. No, you need to do some sort of combat sport Boxing, jiu-jitsu, kickboxing, wrestling right.
Speaker 1:And you know, I listened to a bunch of you know other people that inspire me Joe Rogan and John going things like that and they talked about. You know, if somebody wants to fight you and we're 10 feet away from each other, I can walk away. Right, somebody starts swinging at me, I can like block and walk away. Like dude, I don't want any of this. Like get away from me, right. But if somebody gets their hands on you and they take you down, now you don't have a choice, right, and that's like the worst position of being with somebody, especially with some training on top of you. Yeah, right. And so that's how I kind of try to push it to my guys and girls that I work with, like dude, we just we need to train, and as embarrassing as this is. So I'm one of our lead defensive tactics instructor.
Speaker 1:I would say the lead because I kind of run it, but give the other guys some credit, but they we have things called post guidelines. Right, and these guidelines are you need to do a certain amount of time of handcuffing and this and that, which are perishable skills. I get it Right, but we handcuff people every day. Right, we do things, we search people every day. We need to do more of the stuff that's going to actually save us and I've done in arguments with admin all the time you make us qualify every quarter with our firearms. Like, there's a handful of us at the PD that have actually used it Right, and we've been in that situation to do it, but we get in fights every night. One person at the PD gets in a fight, right, really, yeah, it's Salinas is pretty crazy.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:It's. You know what I mean? It's. It's pretty crazy out here. It's equivalent to stock, right? You're from Fresno, yeah, fresno, stockton, oakland, like those types of places, and so like we're not doing more training, and so I kind of took it into my own hands, where I'm like okay, we're going to do this in the morning and I'm going to slowly start teaching things. And even as long as I've been in the academy you know, 16 and a half years ago or whatever they're like dude, take them down, cuff them, take them down, cuff them Till this day, not one train that I've been to. I mean now because I run them. It's different. Was I ever taught a takedown, right? So it's like take them down, take them down, take them down. I'm like dude, how, how do you do?
Speaker 2:that.
Speaker 1:Yeah Right, and especially coming from like a striking martial art back in the day, still more trained than most. But if I never did Jiu Jitsu, you know, or Judo wrestling or like that, like how do you do that? Like it's very hard to take somebody down in a situation where, like they don't want to be taken down or they're just trying to flee Right. And now not only am I trying to take you down, you're trying to run away. So now I'm trying to like grab onto something as I'm getting for the takedown, and then all your hidden fences, and it just turns into like a bigger battle than just. If you would have taught me how to take somebody down, I wouldn't have been in those other situations later on. Yeah Right, and so this we have something called AOT, which is advanced officer training through post. Believe it or not, every two years we have to do eight hours of training and that's the only training, I get to train, so that is a department policy, that is a state policy so most places in California
Speaker 1:every two years, you have to do a minimum of eight hours of training. You can do more, yes, but if only required, eight, yes. So when we get our eight hours every two years, people's eyes are like, oh my gosh, like what are you doing to me? Right, and it's. There's so many things to go over. Right, we have red man, where it's like a fight with somebody, essentially in a red man suit, where you can hit him with an ass.
Speaker 1:Nobody even used batons or asked anymore. Really, you know it's like pepper spray. Right, it's kind of obsolete. I'm not the pepper spray, you, because now I'm fighting with pepper spray too. Like it sucks, right, yeah, so no one hands on is the only option. Right, be no, protect yourself. And then it's even easier if you can do it with a partner. Hey, I'm going high, you're going low. Right, and you know I take care of the legs. And now you get in these control positions where I'm controlling the legs or controlling the upper body. We cuff them up, we go home safe, bad guys in custody, hurrah, right, but most of the time, that doesn't happen because people aren't trained.
Speaker 2:Oh, it's crazy Because I don't know who posted it. I saw it on social media just a few days ago four officers, one guy they couldn't take them down, right, and it's in, you know, and like there's no one's putting it out there as in a bad reflection of the police officers or departments or whatever. They're putting it out there like go train, like what you saying, right, like they're. I don't. Like I follow the BJJ cops, right, I follow Ed, yeah, I follow Tom DeBlois that all these people are saying the same thing.
Speaker 2:You know, I see these videos here and there and it's like most of those just those four people that I follow have a pretty big following Right, between all of them. Like, why, why wouldn't that motivate more people to go train, right, right, like, at the end of the day, like I look at it as, yes, I'm a citizen and if I ever needed someone to come and help art, you don't know anymore if they're trained enough to subdue somebody, right, right. And I think that video for cops, they're all like just trying to grab his arms, right, you know you talked about high, low, right, no, we're in that video was their high, low. Yeah, I'm like you're never, you're not, you're never going to take anybody down just by grabbing the arms.
Speaker 1:Right On top of that, if we grab somebody's arms and I'm pulling this way, you're pulling that way and you're getting stronger than you were going that way Right.
Speaker 1:And people don't realize that, and I think so. The way I explained to you sometimes is it's an alive thing, right, that saying that things constantly change or constantly evolving, whether it's a fight, mma fight, a jujitsu, you know, grappling, match, whatever it is Like. It's not the old kung fu stuff where if I do this, you do that, and I do this, you do that, and we're done Right, I grab your hand, you hand fight, oh man. I got to grab your head. Oh man, you get out of that. Now I got to go after your leg because it's constantly it's evolving, the fight's evolving, and so it's alive. It's like an organism, you know, like people talk about. It's this beautiful dance, but I don't like using that Right. But for the most part it's just something that you have to constantly train at to be ready for those situations when they don't go as you think they're going to, right, and getting that human connection of strength and power and athleticism you're not going to get unless you train Right.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:You don't know what it's like to have somebody on top of you trying to submit you. In my case, even worse, right, they submit me or they knock me out. I always have a firearm with me. Right, like now, that's an in play. I might not make it home now, right, right, but that's that's number one reason why you should train Right. And now I use this a long time ago SWAT wise, but it goes for Jitsu as well. If I told you, tomorrow night at 7pm, wherever you go, someone's going to pick a fight with you and you cannot get out of it and I would use in SWAT terms you knew you're going to be in a shootout. Right, you're going to be in a bad situation you can't get out of and someone's going to be shooting and you have to do something. Right, how hard would you train right now? Right, how hard. What would you think about? What about avenues of escape? How would you get the angle to make sure you go after the bad guy? That's every day with Jiu Jitsu.
Speaker 2:Right yeah.
Speaker 1:And so that's now just again. I'm like just combining like all my SWAT stuff with Jiu Jitsu and, you know, kind of like a. You know people talk about SWAT Jitsu. I don't know where that came from. It's kind of cool, but it's kind of the second same thing. We're all in the same road to make sure we stay alive, we protect people. And what are you really doing out there with a gun and a badge if you don't train? Yeah Right, it's just. It's just and I'm not saying you got to go out there and train every day. You know, we see a lot of like overweight cops and I was like I'll taze them or I'll do this and I'm like, dude, like you can't depend on those things. I've had tasers malfunction, right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, like I'm an overweight guy, right, but I believe it or not, I'm athletic.
Speaker 1:I believe it. Well, there's a wrestling thing right, and you can be big and be athletic, you can be strong and you know how to use it Right, and a lot of guys have never lived in a way in their life, right.
Speaker 2:Those types of guys. So, like you see some of those guys, oh, like I could run away, right? Just bad guy scenario. There's an overweight cop that comes out of the car and I'm the bad guy. Is he really going to catch me? Right? That's one, right, right, and I think it's true if he got in that personal space. You know, like Chale Sonnen and Van der Linden in Ultimate.
Speaker 2:Fighter right, he's like my dad taught me you get in my space, I better do something. Right, Don't get too close. Right, don't get too close. You know, and in some of those situations if, like, I want to sound bad about it, but in some of those situations, those cops that are untrained, if I was to be a bad guy, right, with the wrestling background and the couple years almost of Jiu-Jitsu that I have, right, are they really going to be able to handle? Right, they're not. I'm telling you, right now I couldn't say yeah, I mean you could you see it more than I do? Right, I see videos. Right, I'm not firsthand like you are and Ed, you know, and it's sad because you guys are firsthand and you guys are, you guys see what needs there needs to be change right, right, for the betterment of their safety, not the bad guy, because fuck about the bad guy.
Speaker 1:Yeah, If he gets away gets away or whatever.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, everybody should have their day in court. But a bad guy is a bad guy, you know. Maybe he's the wrong place, wrong time, whatever, and shit happen, whatever. But we're talking about the bad guys that are going to resist. Right, Like I'm the bad guy, like I did something wrong. Cops show up. I don't want no drama, right, but it is what it is. I fucked up, go ahead, do your job, right, but here in your city that ain't happening, right, you walk up to somebody that's a bad guy and there's a fight or there's resistance or there's running and you're chasing.
Speaker 1:And that also goes along with the people. That people don't realize. There's the like I'm not going back to prison type of mentality. What would you do to not go back to prison? Anything right? People don't understand that those guys not only are they bad guys, like people in prison train like what else you got to do? You work out, and we've had videos from like different prisons that they send to us and they're like dude, they're training to get your guns out of your holster. They're training to snap your head down in this wrestling group. They're training to do this and they're working out all the time. Like that should be very scary for people, especially if you don't train. That's scary for me, right, and I train right, especially living in California. Nowadays the criminals protected more than the civilian right and I don't think people understand that.
Speaker 2:Right, like the criminal gets 30 million chances for stuff and you know, look in San Francisco now, right, right, you can go in and freaking steal whatever you want out of the store and they can't do anything. Yeah, it was so. I seen a video just a couple of weeks back. Those guys in there still in from a convenience store, right, and the two guys that were working at the convenience store decided to take matters in their own hand, right?
Speaker 1:Which they should have.
Speaker 2:They stopped them and one of them had a stick and was just beating them on his ass, wasn't that like it stopped him? Yeah, that's what I'm like, and so I seen the video, first, right, and then, like a couple of days later, this is it came up again, stalked in California. I'm like good for those guys, right, like I have friends in Stockton, like from the wrestling aspect coaches, right, and one of my buddies is just like it's fucking bad. They're shootings every day, like when we would go to tournaments over there. He's like you're not from here, you stay away from these areas, right.
Speaker 1:Like well, I hear the state, Don't go walking around by yourself. They want to prosecute those guys for that. They're defending their store.
Speaker 1:Right, it's just like come on, man, like I work my butt off in every aspect that I can to make the city safe, like I understand people are afraid of bad guys. I'm not Right. I thank God. Maybe it's because of Jitsu, maybe because a lot of other stuff, maybe the train that I have now has gotten me in there like, yeah, I'm willing to take these guys on because a lot of people aren't Right. Right, but the people that do step up to protect their store, to protect their kids, to do things like that, and like now you're going to press charges on those guys, right, and I get out of here. Like you know what I mean.
Speaker 1:I don't know how far California is going to take it, but it I think you need to stop. And obviously it's the minority that's really loud that gets you know. They say the squeaky wheel gets the grease type of thing, and that's all it's going on. People in California do not think that way and there is this opinion that everybody in California is these liberal people that just want bad guys to I don't know go, rape and plunder and do the you know, the old raider Viking thing. It's not like that. It's the government, right, and it's Gavin Newsom and it's all these other people getting involved that are led and happened. Because they live in a nice house in a gated area with 50 security guards, they don't have to worry about it, right, right. But us normal people, right, we do have to worry about stuff like that, and that's why there's the importance to train.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I touched on BJJ cops. Yes, you're part of that right, I am.
Speaker 1:I'm one of the instructors for BJJ cops. Brennan he is. He's a police officer in Florida. He said that he started BJJ cops as like a joke.
Speaker 2:Like a YouTube channel. Yeah, like a YouTube channel.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we're. We're definitely blessed, both of us and he's. He's from Brazil, he's also Brazilian to black belt and he saw the need as well and he man, he's got the most perfect job. I'm so jealous of him and thank God.
Speaker 1:That's the dream, that's the dream. Uh, he, he's a police officer. During the week, his PD works with them, so he has weekends off because he lives in big city in Florida. He's able to fly anywhere in the United States and be there within three to four hours. Right, he does a seminar Saturday, sometimes Sunday. He flies back, goes back to work Monday, tuesday and he's, he's doing a great job in the law enforcement and Brazilian just to community teaching people, and sometimes those seminars have upwards of 80 to 100 people.
Speaker 1:And, uh, you know, he, what I respect about him is he never says that he knows everything, right, um, he's very good black belt, but he does it like out of the goodness of his heart, like, like, really, the the bound of money that he charges to go to these seminars is nothing. Right, my YouTube channel, it's kind of the same way, like, I'm not doing this to make money, right, not that I would make money off you know that little amount of people anyway have to have like a hundred million followers or whatever. But, um, he has expenses through the business, right, um, but he's he's charging people 50 to $100 per seminar, right, right, and if and if there's other people who are not in the law enforcement game, never been a police officer and they're charging $2,000 for a week of training and it's like dude, like you don't even know what it's like, right, and and and. So I always tell people go train, go train with whoever, um, but to do law enforcement stuff? If you can train with a law enforcement officer who actually knows, I think that's the big difference, right, um, you know some of these.
Speaker 1:You know, like Gracie, survival classes and stuff like that. They're good, Right, go train, right. But when people who had never been law enforcement officers are teaching you to mount somebody and then go to an arm bar wearing your back, like what are you doing? Stay on top of the guy, control his hands. I need to handcuff this guy.
Speaker 1:I'm not in a tournament, right, and there's even videos of you know guys that have been trained like that and the bad guy takes out a knife and starts stabbing them and doing bad things. Right, like I need to keep control, right, right, and until I would say that, um, so in this area there's a few black belts, um, that are in law enforcement. There's one of my good buddies Uh, he's a, he's a commander, and then the local agency out here, santa San Jose area. Right, we got some, but for the most part we're still. There's not a whole lot, but at least now we have enough that our in law enforcement to teach um things correctly so we don't get hurt. Um, and then, more and more, you know, you hear about all these Brazilian black belts, obviously all over the world, but now we're getting them brought up in law enforcement. Right, they can be a two year cop, it doesn't matter, but now they know a little bit more and now we can teach the things that are going to keep us alive a little bit longer.
Speaker 2:Yeah, like going back to Ed he said. One of the things he said was wouldn't it, wouldn't it be nice that every cop had to at least earn a blue belt?
Speaker 1:100% minimum.
Speaker 2:Two days a week training yeah Two days a week is what I'm thinking, would it be nice to have that kind of knowledge.
Speaker 2:I mean for you guys right that you you go in, you go into a bad situation. There's two of you when you. Wouldn't it make you feel a little more relieved that he was trained? The guy that's going in there with you, then someone that you know isn't right, that might be all you that has to subdue somebody Right. Like it's crazy. I've seen a video not that long ago I don't know if you've seen this. So there was, uh, they pulled somebody over. It was a female cop and a male cop and the male cop engaged with the suspect or whatever. The female stood there and watched.
Speaker 1:I didn't see that.
Speaker 2:Didn't do anything. Yeah, and I'm like holy cow Right, like didn't even pull out the taser, didn't pull like nothing, just watched. How do you do that? That's. I mean, everybody wants to go home at the end of the night, right, that was rough.
Speaker 1:I, um, I feel that this, this game, has mainly been a male dominated, like career Right, yeah, and Hmm, I've worked with some females that they're tough right, but they've also trained, or you know at least have a certain mindset.
Speaker 1:A lot of agencies, because of the way that things have been in California, they're afraid of getting sued and their job is to hire people, not just females, but with like degrees right. And that doesn't always mean you have common sense right. You can be book smart, oh yeah, common sense smart is totally different. And so we just started going on a like hiring spree where even we used to have a female chief here. We don't. She left us a few years back. We got a good chief now, but he, she went on this hiring spree where she was saying no to a lot of applicants that went to other places and her thing was females and degrees, I don't care, just hire people right. Especially, we need people. But that shouldn't be the reason why you hire somebody, just because they're female or just because they have a degree Like. You have other reasons, right.
Speaker 2:And most of the times, a degree isn't gonna make you. What's it gonna do? Make you smarter than the bad guy?
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:They're gonna yeah.
Speaker 1:Show me what you learned in your bachelor's class. Since he wants to fight me, maybe yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, let's slap him with your degree.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and it's just it's. It's gotten to the point where a lot of people in that instance it was female they just they've never been in an altercation, they've never been in a fight and they don't really know what to do. And it's very scary thinking that there's people out there like that that aren't gonna have your back. She realistically she, should be fired. Any officer in that situation should be fired.
Speaker 1:I'm a field training officer at my police department as well and I tell people if I'm in a fight and you don't do anything, you're gone. Do something, grab his toe, grab his hair, like I don't care, I'll do something, but if you do nothing, I will make sure that you don't work here anymore. Yeah, right, and I don't. I don't know if I have the power to do that, but I will do everything. I won't take him out or her again with me Like you're not. Essentially, it's hard for me to do my job as it is, but now that I'm watching to make sure that you know what you're doing, to do your job, I'm essentially not even a full officer because I'm making sure that you stay safe and you're not violating anybody's rights or doing like that. So now, in that situation. Now I'm finding myself. Yeah, I'm not gonna put up with that. Yeah, better off being on your own.
Speaker 1:Yeah exactly 100% and I luckily I have some really good beat partners, people that I can trust. The bad thing is, I would say maybe 5% of my police department trains. When I've shown up on calls where you know one of my buddies is fighting, who does train lap on a Camora or do something and the fight's over before it even starts. Like these people don't have any chance. When you got a couple guys that are trained and I don't think that we're at to the point yet in law enforcement, that administration sees that and I think that's the scary part. We're still in that old school like PCP days where everybody gets baton and things like that, and then you can't I mean it's hard to do that right, and you lose. Now there's a weapon in it, right, and if you're trained and I'm not and you are stronger and I'm than me or whatever, and you take that baton from me, now it turns into like a lethal force situation where it didn't have to be. If I can just control you, take you down and then go from there.
Speaker 2:That's crazy, crazy. Yeah, hang on, we're good on the camera. Like you, don't have to do the I have it from my phone. Oh, okay, so I just click it from my phone. Okay, so you have to pause it and restart it because the camera before, because it's a camera, it's not a camcorder. It only allows to record 30 minutes.
Speaker 1:Oh, wow, okay.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so Protect purpose, Protect purpose. So for what is it called when?
Speaker 1:you trade overseas. Is it a tariff, not a tariff, what's it called? It could be a tariff. Is it a tariff? Yeah, something that you have to pay to get something back from.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, so because they don't want to pay the tax for the camcorder, they may get the camcorder. Oh, that's really cool, that's cool, that's cool. So, with your time in Jiu-Jitsu, what's your most memorable moment for Jiu-Jitsu?
Speaker 1:Man by far receiving my black belt. Obviously, with my work it's hard to be consistent. I would say that I'm pretty disciplined. Even when I don't want to work out or I'm tired or something like that, I try to get in the gym. And when I got my black belt from Master Marrera first of all he makes you earn it Like I don't know how, like a lot of other places go, but I got my purple belt, I got my blue belt under Master Marrera and then there was nobody in this area, kind of trained, so I went to Claudio Franza.
Speaker 1:I trained under Daniel Thomas, who's one of his black belts legit guy, excuse me, I got my purple belt through them and then brown and black with Master Marrera, would you know, the consistency of going places and just being on top of things was hard. But with Claudio, you train for a year. At the end of the year you have a party and he gives you a stripe. He sees that you've improved and so you get your stripe. That way, with Master Marrera it's like old school, like battle test, right? So I think I had to show 150 techniques from the bottom and top 10 bat no, 15 back escapes, 15 back attacks, like all stuff all in the game which is difficult because I don't do you right. So I'm like I'm like I think I remember doing this, but if you do something incorrectly, he's like no, do it again Right. Luckily, my technique's always been pretty good. He didn't have to stop during my test or whatever. All the different snake moves and everything like that. How about pressure? Oh, dude.
Speaker 1:And I mean he's man he's the man right.
Speaker 1:Like there's people that are very intimidating just because of who they are Right, hicks and Gracie, joe Marrera, pedro Sauer, like guys like that. Right, john Jacques? For me it would be Eddie Bravo, I love the whole 10th Planet guys. So all those guys are just just their aura is very intimidating.
Speaker 1:But now they're watching you, right, and so after that then it's like okay, it's like essentially a positional sparring thing, and so for 30 minutes he's like all right, go in Mario's guard. Mario, you got five minutes. If you tap him, a new guy comes in. If you don't tap him, you're fighting for five minutes. So you're trying to tap everybody, right? So you do that with three or four people. All right, now take us back. But he's keeping me in bad positions the entire time. I mean, I'm mounted, I'm side mounted. I think the guard was probably the best position. I don't get to be side control, top. I don't get to be any of those positions unless I sweep into those positions. So that's like a 30 minute to whatever. Yeah, grind. So then after that he's like hey, we'll get some water. Like okay, boom, oh no, come back, come back, all right, cool. So we start doing that. And now it's like matches. So we're doing an hour of matches on top of that, and so you're I mean, you're tired, you're getting beat up, right, and he's essentially doing like the shark tank where all whoever shows up gets to fight you. Now we're probably going on like two hours of sparring, if you can even like remember your name at that time he gave me.
Speaker 1:He says he gives me 10 minutes. I take a drink of water. He says you ready? Yes, sir, right, I'm not, but you know you don't Right, you're not gonna say no, yeah, exactly. And so and it's always burned in my head so obviously he's Brazilian and so he speaks Portuguese. My view, my view, you ready, yes, sir, correct. So it's just burning in my head. So I get in there and then maybe some more sparring or more positional, depending on what he wants, and then again, after another 30 minutes or whatever, go get a drink of water. I don't even know where I'm at at this time. And now it's MMA. So guys have boxing gloves on or like MMA gloves, and it's about 20 minutes ish. All I can use is jiu-jitsu no punching, no kicking, nothing.
Speaker 2:And so but they're allowed to punch kick whatever.
Speaker 1:Hey you, you go knock a majo out. I'm like, bro, like really I can't even breathe right now, Like no, don't.
Speaker 2:Two hours? Yeah, don't, yeah, now go knock him out.
Speaker 1:Don't knock out majo. I like that guy, that's me right. I don't want any of this. So I don't know if I've ever been as tired in my life like my brown belt or my black belt test. But after that start some positions start from the guard. I'm in your guard, you're in my guard and you're punching and I have to submit you. If it takes 10 seconds or 10 minutes, like, we don't stop until I submit you, so I'm already dead, but I'm pushing it as hard as I can because I'm not trying to be in there.
Speaker 2:10 seconds longer than.
Speaker 1:I have to Right, right, and so start from the back position, front and back, whatever side control mount north, south, like every position you could be in, and people are like they're hitting you. And so I'm not. I don't like getting hit in the face, obviously not that people do but some people like, oh yeah, hit me, like no dude, leave me alone, you gotta go to work soon. Like this is a hobby, this isn't. Like you know, I'm not a fighter. And so once we do that and you think you're okay, then he stands you up. And now you gotta do it from stand up, but you're already tired, you can't even stand right. And now I gotta get the fight to the ground, just like I would in real life, and no matter how good your takedowns are when you're that tired and you got fresh sharks coming in.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's pretty difficult. Yeah, and one of the guys that I went with he's an actual boxer and he coaches boxing here in the back, and so, like I told him, I was like, dude, all you want, but if you hurt me, like I'm not letting go if I get a whole new type of thing. And he went at me pretty hard, I remember. And so once I got him down to the ground, I got him an arm bar and he was tapping and I held it a little bit longer than I probably should have. And like I told you, dude, right, like this was gonna happen. I understand I'm sure you're more afraid of him than you are of me, but at the same time, like I have to go to work. This is a hobby. I love Jiu Jitsu, but if I can't work, like now, like what?
Speaker 2:am.
Speaker 1:I gonna do. I'm not gonna get hurt here, right? And so my black belt test was a little over four hours long.
Speaker 2:Holy shit yeah.
Speaker 1:And so when I got my black belt, it was very man I can't even explain the words Exhilarating like I was so tired. I didn't even think I had any more sweat left in my body. Especially, everything's in ghee right, it's not no ghee. And once I get up there it was like I actually earned it Right. And it's not that I didn't earn it any other way. You earn things by going to the mat and then grinding Right, like with Claudio. But it's a little bit different feeling when you get beat up for a while and you know that you earned it. Yeah, that's a grind Right and you wanna quit. Like I don't quit ever anything. Like I'll fight as long as I can, right, but like I, twice during my black belt test I was on the brink of wanting to quit.
Speaker 1:And, like I said, that doesn't happen to me, but it makes you stronger for the next time in life, right, and I think that's why, with those tests where I like about it, it's almost like wrestling, you know from your background like you're grinding every day, right, and it's hard, like you don't see many failures in life from wrestlers, or like Brazilian black belts or fighters that go through that Right, because you have to fight through it right, and if some you have a bad day, it's like I'm not getting punched in the face, right, you know I'm not getting my arm locked out, my, you know I didn't get heel hooked where my knee exploded, right, and so you can get past that, and so I think that's. My black belt was probably my most favorite, or the thing that I remember the most, only because of what I went through before.
Speaker 2:Right, you go through it. That's crazy. Yeah, that sounded pretty damn grueling. Oh, it sucked.
Speaker 1:It sucked, oh my gosh. And when I test my guys now I do something similar. I don't need to kill them, I want to make sure they know the technique and if they get in a bad position they could get out of it. But just like giving them about because they've been here long enough. I know some schools would do that. I'm not like against that, but that's not how I feel it's fit for me, based off of everybody that I train with, is mainly first responder, right. If there wasn't all first responder, I would do it a little bit different because it's a little bit more hobby-ish. But it's life and death for us, right.
Speaker 2:And so.
Speaker 1:I want people to get to that point of that brink of quitting and knowing that they got through it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's almost like with wrestling, like we break them down to build them up, right, right, and that sounds a lot like what happened with you right, right, they broke you down.
Speaker 1:I got broke, I got broken, I got broken. Thinking about it, I'm like oh, I defeated still. I got broken, I got broken.
Speaker 2:But in the end it was that feeling that no one could ever take away from you. Right, no way. Right, there's your blood. Sweat and tears were earned that day with that testing, and I mean I'm sure you put in plenty of hours and that time to get to that point, but the grind of that sounds well-earned.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, it definitely was and, like I said, it's something I'll never forget. Receiving my black belt was amazing, but you remember, you know people talk about like enjoy the journey, like that was a journey I didn't enjoy much during, but after I understand why he does that.
Speaker 2:So you did the test on the S? Yeah, you did the test. That after he's done testing you is he's like, okay, you earned your black belt.
Speaker 1:He came up to me, gave me a hug and said great job. So I figured Right.
Speaker 2:Did he do some kind of ceremony for you?
Speaker 1:Yeah, the people that were here, we lined up and then we, you know, he pulled me up in front of the class, gave me my black belt, takes my brown belt off of me, puts my black belt off on, gives me big hugs and some congratulations, gives me a certificate Glad I passed, because I would have been better Seeing the certificate with your name on it and like now, you kind of suck today, man, you're not getting this.
Speaker 2:We'll save this, we're gonna have to change the date, maybe two years from now, dude, can you imagine like going through all of that and then being told that you didn't get it Right, and then having to do all that again?
Speaker 1:Right, that would have been really bad. I, oh shit, yeah, he's. The crazy thing is obviously he looks way better than how old he is. I'm assuming he's, you know, in late 50s, early 60s. He's still so strong and but he's the most humble guy, right. I think most Jiu Jitsu places like when you meet the black belt, there's very few that you're like oh, that guy's a dick or or whatever Cause everybody's very inviting, right, but he's very. He's so humble like you wouldn't think that he fought in UFC, you wouldn't think that he's a chorobelt, like he's just. He's just oh, maju, how's it going? Oh, yeah, and he just talks very, very soft-spoken, but man, I guess a killer.
Speaker 2:You know what I mean. It's crazy that you said that a minute ago. Like I would say 98, 5, 98% of who I've met through Jiu Jitsu has been just so inviting. Oh, yeah, right Humble, glad to meet you, even willing to help you in any way they can. Right, man, I remember I went to open mat one time and like I'm new, right, I don't know, you're not supposed to ask a black belt to roll, right, right, I'm a white belt, right, but it's open mat, I'm there to get better.
Speaker 2:Who am I gonna most benefit from? Right, right, somebody that knows way more than me. Man, that guy looked at me and then just walked away, didn't even give me an answer and I was like okay, well, I guess I see how it is. And I told my instructor after, like a couple days later, when I seen him, it's like this is what happened to me. I went to open mat. He's like, yeah, some people are still a little old school with that like. That's like kind of disrespecting him. I didn't mean to do that, I didn't know any better. Right, like I'm fairly I'm still fairly new to the Jiu Jitsu world, right, but after the fact I was like all right, well, it's funny you say that there's like this facade right, and it's also the same thing when I first got on the SWAT team.
Speaker 1:There was a sergeant who I got along with. He came up to me after I made SWAT team. He's all congratulations. He's like I guess you're not gonna talk to me anymore, dude, what are you talking about? He's like that's what SWAT guys are. It's like bullshit.
Speaker 1:I'm not like that dude. Like I and maybe because of my martial arts background like dude, I'm not better than anybody in anything. I worked harder or longer than you to get where I'm at, but like we're the same. You can be a construction worker or a police officer. Like dude, that's just a career path. Like when he shows up, I'm not better than you and that's. I've always had that attitude and I was like dude, it's not like that. He's like you'll see. And a few years later he's like dude. He's like you kept your word and in some of the old school Jiu Jitsu stuff like that still right when it's like you don't talk to. You know, don't talk to a black belt, you don't ask. Dude, I want to help everybody out. Like I want to talk to everybody. I'm excited about the sport. I still am surprised that I'm a black belt sometimes, right, like I'm like all the black belts sign up and I'm like, oh crap, that's me.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:And I'm in that situation, but I don't like that. I don't agree with that. You, you're, you're brought up a certain way and I get it, but we're here to make everybody better, everybody you need to be inviting. Yeah right, just in life, like I, and I think that comes from just because you're a black belt doesn't make you better than me. Right, and maybe technique wise or like, but not not as a person to be able to submit me, right, that's about it right.
Speaker 1:As a person in life, like if, if I'm like, hey, what's up, dude, and and you're just like Like I'm not gonna talk to you, I'm not gonna, that's not somebody I want to be around, yeah, right, and I think, because of jitsu, the constant grind, the constant getting choked out, trying to choke somebody out like my life is easy. As it gets, like I'm just happy to be here, man.
Speaker 1:I love people, I love life. I just I love everything about what God has given me. I've been so blessed in so many ways that, like, why wouldn't I want to show that to the world, right? Yeah, it's like dude, hey, I would something. You need help with that. Yeah, let me show you this. This all works for me.
Speaker 2:Maybe it works for you, um, and, and I would say, a lot of people are inviting it's funny because, like, not every version works, like Not every one technique works for everybody, right and over the over the Time on the mat rolling, you, you find little tweaks and torques that you add into your bag of tools. I'm not working Tweaks, no, no, we're not. No twerking man. No, no, no, no, don't shake your ass. So you, you find little tweaks that Benefit you right, and you put it in your bag and then maybe down the road, someone is having the same Little issue that you were having and you Pay it forward, right, right, like this is what helped me. See if it helps you. And you know all, at the end of the day, all we're trying to do is get better and I mean, everybody seems to be more than Happy to help. There's those few, but for the most part, like Everybody's just so inviting. And you know me starting this podcast.
Speaker 2:You know, tam and I were in the car Like what we would talked about podcasting. I had brought it up to him because he had his own right. I brought it up to him. He was like, well, what the fuck would we do? I'm like, oh, we could talk about fighting. I don't know, it was just a bullshit thing, right. And then one night we're in the car and he's like what about the old grappler you could talk about jiu-jitsu? You fucking going into open mat, you're going. I was like fuck it, let's do it right on, and it's just like.
Speaker 2:So here we are, you know it's, we've had our hiccups with a couple of episodes and but we're still learning, you know, but without People being inviting. Right like, I reach out to a lot of people trying to Get people on here. It's not about me. You know, like we, when we started earlier with the technique, right, it ain't about me. I'm here for you. Right, whatever you wanted to show, like, I want you to understand, like I want people to understand that. Right like I'm a Pathway to people to get to know you.
Speaker 1:Right like, I appreciate that too.
Speaker 2:It's and it's like this. This is all me figuring it out as we go, right, but like, the less I could talk on the podcast, the more you could talk, the more they understand you. Right, if I'm doing all the talking, like I try to ask questions that lead you to conversation, right, right, and if, if I ask yes or no questions, where are we gonna get with it? Right, so what, what kind? I'm gonna Go back and you Answer if you can, if you can't, okay. So I ask you what's your memorable moment with jujitsu? Your law enforcement. What's most memorable for you in law enforcement?
Speaker 1:man, they're usually bad, like situations yeah, those are usually the most memorable. I getting so, um, getting getting chosen for swat. Um, I was, I was fairly young most the time. It's one of those things that when I put in for swat, people like you haven't been here five years, like what the effort you're doing? Um, I just knew it's like god was telling me, like I, that's why I want to become a police officer. And I was like here's the thing if I put in and I don't get it, I'm gonna keep putting in 150 times until I get it. And if you don't pick me until I'm on, you know, on on at the pd for five years or 10 years, and that's what it is. But I want to go show these guys like this is, this is what I want to do, this your path. Yeah, this is, this is the way, right, um, and so I put in for the team at two and a half years and it was at the time there are gang unit and swat.
Speaker 1:There was an enforcement team which only did gang stuff um, violence, oppression unit and they just went out on the streets and enforced all gang stuff. And then there was they. They called the group five side because it was like our days off and the group five side was swat and the gang unit. So we hit all the houses, we did everything your swat, but there's only seven people as a PD at the time of 180 something that are swat and gang unit, and so I put in for the spot and went out there and I did fairly well. Um, luckily for me, I was always getting a chase, is always getting the fights and doing stuff like that. Um, and so that people knew my name pretty early on and with two and a half years on, I made the team Wow. And so everybody's like dude, I can't believe you made it and some people, you know, talk crap and other people said, congratulations, it's always gonna be haters.
Speaker 1:Yeah but honestly, I didn't care. I was so happy, yeah, like you couldn't bring me down. Yeah, like if, if I was on for 10 years or the two and a half that I had, like I was just, that was that's, that was my goal, that's what I wanted to do. So, so that was one of my most memorable moments. And then a couple others.
Speaker 1:Um, I'm not sure how much I can get into it, but I 16, um two years ago, uh went to a call Guy pointed a gun at his, uh, his neighbor, um Quick, come to shove. Later on he pointed the gun to me and it didn't work out for him, um and so, uh, being in that situation and I've been in a lot of really bad situations Chasing people with guns and stuff like that but actually seeing the barrel pointed at you, um, it was very uh, intense. Honestly, my training kicked in and I don't remember I remember anything other than him pointing the gun at me and then me doing what I had to do and then and then laying them out, um, and then after it was like holy cow, like I can't believe this guy just did this Like we all he had to do, like we were gonna arrest him, even with the jail, right, like it's not a big deal, like it wasn't I mean pointing the gun at somebody's a big deal, but compared to what happened to him right, it could have gone a lot different Right. And and then, a couple weeks ago, maybe a couple months ago, um one of um, our monterey county sheriffs here, um, he got shot.
Speaker 1:Um, swat is called swat call out, we get out there or whatever. And then this guy, um, essentially Between the monterey county swat team, our swat team, um, the regional has a team. They're out there to relieve us in case we needed something. But when an officer goes downward, like you're not relieving me, right, like yeah, that's, yeah, it's on me. It all ends on that. There was, uh, there was a fire exchange. I mean there was probably close to 200 rounds exchange between the bad guy and us.
Speaker 2:So yeah.
Speaker 1:So those are, those are two of, like, the most memorable. The guy took out like eight drones, like it was bad. He had rifles, he had shotguns, he had handguns hunkered down, hunkered down in his apartment, um, elevated Right, and so it was difficult for us to even get a good angle based off of um, so we, we have, we don't have bear cats, we have an m-wrap, which is old military vehicles, which they're. They stand a little bit higher, but even then you're even at two stories. If somebody crouches down it's really hard to get a shot and stuff like that. And the guy had been trained so he wasn't making himself very um, he was a hard target essentially. But um, yeah, those, those are two of the other Like, probably things that I don't think I'll ever forget. Um, our training. We got a good team, um, really good team. We train a lot. Um, we have good instructors. That's kind of all.
Speaker 1:I realistically you're probably closer to like 800, but I could say guaranteed 100, at least 600, and in my 13 and a half years, yeah.
Speaker 2:That's crazy. So We'll, we'll end with this. Uh, okay, what? What kind of advice do you have for the new guys, the older guys just getting in?
Speaker 1:to If I I needed to be out of here, probably by one. So we still have an hour and a half, oh. So if you want to talk a little more, if you want to do whatever, like I'm cool, uh, so it's up to you, and I understand you guys have stuff for the day I'm taking. Uh, there's a place in san jose called kings. It's a fish house, um, they have one down south but oh my god, it's like the best seafood um Ever and like I'm not. Like I mean, whatever you want, it's the best oysters, lobster rolls, freaking everything. Yeah, I'm a foodie, so like that's my thing.
Speaker 2:So you have, you have like a spot save for you to go down there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's so it's. It's in san jose and, taking my daughter and my wife, we're going out there, um, um, just for love. We even wanted to go. I've been so busy with everything and so we have um reservations at like 215 so I was like, if I'm out of here at one, we're good, or a little bit before one. Cheryl, quick head out there would be good, cool. So yeah, we saw that. I mean At least an hour, yeah whatever I want, well, let's uh, we'll.
Speaker 2:we'll keep talking to jitsu.
Speaker 1:Okay, let's talk to jitsu. I love it.
Speaker 2:So you said I, your preference is no gi. Right, you do train in gi. But you said something that was interesting to me, to the 10th planet thing. Right, I've actually reached out to richie and, okay, he said yes to come on the podcast, just At the time when I it was when we first started. So I was like eager beaver, right, like I'm gonna reach out to everybody and see him back, right, and he, he said yes, and then Like just my schedule and his schedule haven't Made it happen yet, right, but Like I'm looking forward to sitting down with him.
Speaker 1:So, so, richie, I I'd gone to san diego last year for a team leader school for our swat team, right? Uh, so, because I'm an assistant team leader on the team and While I was down there, I San Diego man, right, jaco Mm-hmm, gal vow, yeah, boogie right richie martinez.
Speaker 1:Man like oh, there's so many good places right to go train down there, and so I hit a bunch of these places up, and when I called 10th planet, san Diego boogie actually answered and I don't know it was fate, right as soon as he answered, I was like, oh, thank god, like, and I was like just explaining myself hey, uh, I'm a police officer from north, I'd love to go train with you and Uh, I'm there for school, like what time your class is, or whatever. And he was the most inviting Like person in the world and like when I went down there I shook his hand, he gave me a hug and Like I felt like I had been training there for years. The way he made me feel was just so welcoming. And obviously he's a big school right, there's a bunch of pro fighters, um, awesome, jujitsu competition people, people, winners of abu-dabi, mm-hmm, and and so like he doesn't have to give me the time of day right, he really doesn't yeah, but he did.
Speaker 1:Um, he introduced me to his class as a black belt from out of the area everybody come introduce yourself. And so In my class here, if I have a lot of people in my class I have like 12 people, right, just scheduled stuff like that he's like oh, it's a normal size class, it's like 80 something, yeah, and I was like, man, this is a dream Right to hold, to have a school that big, to be able to host that many people. And then, obviously, if I'd be able to get into like the law enforcement side of teaching as well. But that guy was one of the most coolest man just badass guys I'd ever met in my life. Um, and right off the bat he threw me in like with his guys, and so he's like, when we're gonna train, I was like all right, and then he jumped in with us and it was essentially like a shark tank type of scenario.
Speaker 2:Always end up in a shark.
Speaker 1:With like six of his guys, right, yeah, and it was like a guard passing drill, but it was uh, the drill was pretty bad. So I think it was three to four minutes Mm-hmm, and every 30 seconds you switch if you don't pass the guard. But if say, you pass my guard, next guy jumps in. He passed my guard, next guy jumps us. So you can go infinity until your four or five minutes is up, right, and so right off the bat, there's six of us deep in that and as soon as he jumped in with us, I was like, oh crap, like here we go, all right and and we went at it. And All those guys are so good and they train so hard that coming in as a black belt, you're not sure like how hard to go. You're not like trying to disrespect anybody, um, and it was like it's go time and so when you know it's go time, they get a hold of you're like, holy shit, this guy's so strong like I need to like not get caught right. So then it's go time and an after great job, big hugs, did it again, and we did it again, and we did it again and everybody got their turn, mm-hmm, so it was non-stop, but we weren't done yet. We did the whole another round of that.
Speaker 1:But the four class started and so, like it was, it was bad and I remember being not as tired as my black belt test, but being tired and he was like man, he's like good job, like most people can't like keep up, and I wasn't keeping up, like he said I wasn't. Those guys were like running circles around me, I was doing good, I wasn't really getting submitted, um, but like they, you could tell there was a different level between competition, right, training and then like what I do for a hobby and then trying to teach you know, for law enforcement wise, I wish I could do that, um, but right now I can't Now. But, man, that that place was so good, uh, every person there was so awesome and inviting and, like, um, I was gonna go train with him one day and I was gonna try to go to autos for another, and then I was gonna try to go to geo spot, which is his brother's spot in Oceanside, right, um, the way that he made me feel, the way that other fighters there made me feel like I was one of them. I didn't train anywhere else, I stayed there all week with them.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's dope and uh. So it was four nights and I, man, if there was a place that I can train I've gotten to train at a lot of different places Um, but like man, that 100, that'd be a place I'd call home for sure Um, it was amazing. Oh, the boogie is next level jujitsu flexibility.
Speaker 2:I was going to ask about his dexterity oh my gosh.
Speaker 1:So, um, during this drill I had to pass his guard and he's like not let anybody pass and I and I'm like this is why you came, like you want to train with him. Like let's go right. So I get him and like an over under and he's so flexible and I'm like, damn, say this is like the wrong thing to do. I start passing. Um, I think he's letting me because I see guys are way better, right. Um, I'm going hard, like I also understand, like I mean, he's a tall guy, like he's like six, three minimum, really, and he's that lean and that, yes, like I mean I have pictures of him and I'm like like, right here, like, he's, yeah he's, he's a big dude.
Speaker 1:So I started getting past them and out of nowhere this leg comes and gets right in between, like my head is on his shoulder, like I'm I'm doing everything I can to try to pass, and he drives his leg right in between us. I'm like, how did you? Who does that? Like you're an alien, like no, you can't get to that position, right, and it's just. And after he was like, oh good job, man. And like it made me feel good because this guy's going to get some best in the world, yeah, and I was able to like Not do something to him, but I felt like I did something to him, right, so I kept up, right, he didn't just destroy me Too fast.
Speaker 2:It's funny you say that scenario where he brings his leg over uh-huh because he has some videos posted.
Speaker 1:He just did the tournament and DJ right, well, he won Abu Dhabi and he just won the Abu Dhabi in like Arizona. Yeah, we got her.
Speaker 2:The same thing, right? Yeah, like, isn't it go go plotter some?
Speaker 1:one of them, yeah, one's a go go plotter when, if it comes under, yeah, and then if you know there's just you know rubber guard stuff or whatever, but yeah, he's, he's amazing, he's Just to be able to train with him. Honestly, made my day, my week, my year Maybe, maybe my life, jiu-jitsu wise, to get to go train with them. And and I've always been Obsessed with 10th planet, even when I did G as a blue belt, I remember a blue belt seen any Bravo and I was like dude, I know the whole conspiracy theory stuff, you know.
Speaker 1:I think, you know what, like I'm a bit of conspiracy theorist myself, I think he's right on with a lot of stuff and a lot of stuff that he came out with before and people are making fun of them. It's come out to be real right. So the whole smoking weed thing, whatever you know, it's neither here for there for me. I like I really don't care. I've had more problems with people drinking alcohol and then weed. So smoke all the weed you want, like I'm cool with it, yeah. But like I was always like.
Speaker 2:It's funny because yeah, I've heard this a few times you don't see a belligerent fucking guy. That's high, right, you don't right? There's a fucking mellow like yeah, all right oh. Here you go, yeah right, and you know the alcoholic could be right Like you, way more right. And then they think they're tougher that liquid courage gets in is just like yeah, liquid.
Speaker 1:But I um, I became obsessed and I was always a little more flexible than most people and so I bought all the Indian Bravo's books. I did everything, and even at the gym that I trained at, they were mad that I was doing 10th Planet stuff, like I'd start working rubber guard stuff, and they're just like what are you doing? That will never work, you know. And so I just kept doing it, I kept doing it and and and 90% of my game now is all 10th Planet stuff. And boogie's the only 10th Planet guy I've ever gotten to train with, having gotten to go train with Eddie or any of those guys, which is a dream some day but I Do his lockdown, half guard stuff out here, develop my own kind of style to it and rubber guard stuff. I don't only do rubber guard like. I go to it when I need to, but I can go to like other things.
Speaker 1:But when I fight people that are traditional, especially G guys, they're lost and I love that feeling like they can be better than me. They can't. But as soon as I get them in a position like that and they don't know what to do, I'm like you're in my world now, right, and, and I've gone with guys who have, you know, been world champions Jiu Jitsu, wise, g wise Guys that go and just tear up tournaments or whatever. And, yeah, g wise. They start grabbing. Here and there they can keep good position. But as soon as I get them in one of the positions that I know I'm good at, they have trouble and I'm sweeping them. They're like how'd you do that, what did you do? And I'm like, dude, it's Jiu Jitsu, bro, but I took. I took the simple as that. Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1:But I took this as like I went, I delved in more into the 10th planet style, because even back then I knew that it was more realistic For the street and and for for my job. That I eventually wanted was to be a police officer. Right, and you know, it's just, if you get a world champion Gijitsu guy and a world champion no G guy and they happen to get in a fight out on the street, right, no punches thrown like who's who's gonna win, right, same weight, same everything. The no G guy has an advantage. Right, he's grabbing wrists, he's grabbing the back of the neck, he's grabbing biceps and ankles. Where the G guy? I mean, as soon as I go with anybody, g Collar handcuffs, I'm like dude, get off me like this. Yeah, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1:And as soon as I get out, of that they're like, oh, and they go back to the grip. They're, they're, they're too accustomed to grip and they focus too much on it. And that's what I love about the new G stuff, because you have you hand fight like it's a hand fight, yeah right, and I need to control your posture and need to break you down and I need to do stuff. And that's what I became obsessed with the 10th planet kind of realm of stuff and so, yeah, it's, it's made a big difference in my Gijitsu game. I love it. And then just seeing those guys now dominate, you know, you know boogie and geo and eddie and All of us guys all over the world you know, doing the Abu Dhabi stuff and and I mean Maybe not as good as like the Gordon Rions, craig Jones, but I mean who who is right, but their, their teams, are going out there and smashing and doing better than a lot of these other you know G teams.
Speaker 2:So I think it's just evolving right, like those, those guys were great geo Richie, great in their time. Like Time catches up with everybody right, apparently not not boogie man, but that motherfucker yeah still out there competing, but like you have that next younger Right group that's coming through like rions and tappi. It's. Yeah, did you watch the who's number one?
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, I'm going through it right now. I saw some highlights, but I'm actually like I started last night Watching it like when I, when I say watch it like I'm studying what they're doing, I'm about halfway through.
Speaker 2:But yeah, so do you pay any attention to the press conference stuff?
Speaker 1:Uh, usually after if I'm like bored, I usually kind of just because there's always a new one coming out. Yeah, I know, there was a little bit of uh Jaw-jacking with Rocha's daughter, yeah, with backers and Fiona, which uh was good yeah, but uh, yeah, I mean so.
Speaker 2:Before you watch have you watched that fight yet? No, not yet. So before you watch the fight, just listen to. It's a five minute clip on the press conference, okay, and then watch the fight, okay, like. So, I heard that there was the little back and forth, right, I didn't pay. Hey, um, for me, the press conference is, yeah, it's a press conference, I just want to watch the fights, right, right. So I'm watching the fight and they're talking about what was said. They didn't say specific what was said in the press conference, right, but they're like oh, she said this about in the press conference and then Just watch, okay.
Speaker 2:It's like whole, like Some, sometimes you need to be humble.
Speaker 1:Well, I think the problem is that, um, being humble, people need to be right, but when you're going in with the night, that mindset of it's a fight, like that's when that comes out. But Like there's, there's different levels and people don't understand that. Like, if people come in here and like, roll with me, I'm kind of a big fish in a small pond, right, like I've Not trying to be cocky, like I haven't been tapped and like, forever, right, if I do get tapped, I give you something. I'm like, hey, let's work this, and it's like you know stuff. Like that.
Speaker 1:Um, when I went to train at 10th planet, san Diego, like I got tapped and I was surprised and I knew those guys were world class, but I was like, okay, like my defense is pretty good, like no, there's levels, there's levels to this. And if you're in a small pond, don't be talking crap to a shark, right, and there's always somebody better, right, always, yeah. But yeah, dude, I, I I've never gone the route of like that, that crap talking stuff. Yeah, unless it's somebody that just won't get on the mat with me and I'm like just get on the mat then, dude.
Speaker 2:Why run your mouth? Yeah, exactly like exactly like if you're good, I, I'm like you. I I care less about the the Shit talking outside right on the mat and like fuck my coach. When he's rolling it, he'll be like is that all you got? He'll be whispering in the ear you know it just yeah. How do you say like uh, bantur right, like cool antagonizing yeah but not in a bad way.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but and shit my instructors. Probably my height may be a smidge shorter and he's like 150 pounds, right, 160 pounds, right, right, I don't, I don't ever get to submit them. Right, like, obviously I have the size on him right and I have the wrestling, so I'm Like he just plays turtle and fucking stops me from doing anything. Right, like he'll Roll but I'll net. He'll never Let me get to side control. Like he never lets me get to mount. And there's effort in me Trying to get to those positions right, but he's just savvy. You know he's been doing it a long time and right, I'm like all right, that's me. You know, like the levels, things that I'm like I Should be, like I look at it as like I'm bigger, stronger. You know I should be able to if not with technique, with muscle, right, right, cool him to side control.
Speaker 1:Fuck no well, that's, that's the whole. Like Neanderthal brain thinking Right, yeah, and we all get stuck in it. Sometimes it's like where are you thinking you muscle up or bench press somebody? You know some of the guys that come in here. Um, there's a correctional officer that comes in and he's been training for a while, um, probably at least like 10 years, mm-hmm. But his mindset. He's so big, he weighs probably like 300 pounds minimum, maybe it's like six, two, but he just wants to bench press everybody. He just wants to do.
Speaker 1:And I'm like all right, dude, and he's like how'd you do that to me? How'd you do that to me? I was like you've been training for 10 years. You should be asking that you need to stop and slow down, getting a bad position every once in a while. Right, because when you go with somebody better Like me or somebody bigger and stronger, and they ragged all you, that's your only answer. It's not like you know what? I didn't keep my hand in. I should have got to my knees. I should have shrimped out a little bit more. Maybe I should have thought about bringing my leg over. Right, I should have got to that scissor sweep position. It's like, and that's all you're thinking like you can't do that, why'd you get to?
Speaker 2:know. Yeah, I want to first started exactly how it was right right.
Speaker 1:Wrestling's. Different too, though. Wrestling's this, this, this, this, this.
Speaker 2:This is not stop, go, go, go, yeah, and now, like the wrestler part, never be on your back Right right now I'm like Come on.
Speaker 1:I'll work my way out. People make fun of me because, uh, I'll, uh, I'll do. They call it the kestanza pose, like I guess sign filled a while back, kestanza, like the fatter dude, he they took a picture of him like in his underwear and and so he's just. And so when people start with me sometimes and I'm just like, and they're like well, if you're starting like that, you're in trouble, dude, you know, and that's the thing. Would you get sue, right, if I'm hand fighting, we start our knees are standing up. I grab your wrist, you break out of it. Grab your wrist, get a break out of it. I'm doing this and I'm trying to snap you down. Like I'm not gonna do that for 10 minutes. I'm doing jiu-jitsu. Yeah, like I'm. I'm not doing wrestling, so I'm gonna pull guard right. And people talk about, like pulling guard is is, is for wussies or or whatever, right, and they're just like, oh, you're little bitch if. If you pull guard, like, well, dude, if you want to wrestle, go wrestle. Yeah, you came to jitsu class. Like, don't complain, right, I'm not going to be a navy seal and complain that I got to go swim, right, like, just just do it right, so and so there's a bunch of cry babies In jiu-jitsu or whatever in wrestling, because what happens is they're getting some, they're getting exposed to something they're not good at right and it's just train who cares.
Speaker 1:Dude, I've been beat up. I've been tapped Billions of times right and, and it sucked when I did, but you learn from it right now. Now, in those positions I feel comfortable. You're probably not going to tap me and, yes, not that it doesn't suck to get Somebody your size side control me, right, but I'm going to survive right and people talk crap because they got exposed. Essentially is, and that's, that's all it is. Yeah, right, and just be humble like it comes from the beginning, right, we're here to learn, we're here to get better and you might be better at me side control or back position, so my job is not get there from with you.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:Yeah, right, so I got to be better in the other positions. Make sure I don't end up there right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's funny like that, when I think back now, like when I first started, it was Get the top and don't let them go nowhere. Right, I'm bigger, I could put pressure, but now, like, I'm perfectly fine, starting on my butt and right, you know, like, all right, come in so that I could start doing something. Right, and Realistically, I I still don't care to be there, right, but if I'm not there then I can't work my way out of it, right. So for me it's learning still, yeah, and you know, some days I'm successful and some days I'm laying on my back, yeah, right, like I do my best to get to my side and work, but some days is just not that day, right, right. So as long as I can continue to learn from the situations, why not still? I mean, can I Get on top? Yeah, that's what I did at the beginning because the rest were in me, right, right, but that me staying on top Isn't making me better well rounded at jujitsu.
Speaker 1:Well, it might too to a point, depending who you go with. Yeah, right, if you stay on top of me, if I get you in a half guard position like you're mine, right, especially my guard's pretty good. But if I get you in half guard like you're mine, so you need to work out of those positions too. So it just kind of depends on who you're going with. Right, you know, purple bow below. Yeah, you're probably gonna be better with not staying on top so you can continue to learn. But you start going with a black belt or really good brown belt and and they're good. And to put you know a different position, well, you need to be Putting those positions to know what it feels like for that next level. Yes, right.
Speaker 2:So yeah, so like I'm just trying to continue to advance, you know, and Like I said, it's where I was absolutely not comfortable with being down there. Now I look at it as okay. Now I look at it as okay. I'm not going to stay on top, I've not been there, done that, but I've been there right. So can I still get better on top? Absolutely, I can get better at everything Right.
Speaker 2:All of us right, right. But to, because I don't like to be on my back, say I'm not going to train there, doesn't make any sense, right? So I'll start and I'll concede that position so that I can train there right. And, like I said, some days it's successful mission and some days it's like fuck.
Speaker 1:I still got a lot of work to do Well, like a lot of people understand too, just because you end up in a worse position, right, ultimately, as long as you're not flat, you're fine, right. So I always teach angles right, 45 degree angle, just in law enforcement, and we're going to contact you like I'm not sitting in front, I'm off to the side, my partner's off the side, so you're going to try to attack. You have to pick who you're going to attack and then we're going to take it down. Yeah, yeah, just do the same thing. Yeah, there's perpendicular, right, but the body's always super strong front to back.
Speaker 1:If you push me, I can like kind of go into it, right, yeah, and if you try to pull my arm this way, I can brace. But these angles behind us and in front of us, that 45, it just, it works right. Flower sweeps, arm bars, that bicep slice, tricep slice that I was doing to you, right, that's where those angles live, right? So, essentially, even if you start in a bad position, as long as I'm not completely flat, with my arms killed or mounted, you're going to be all right. Right, and that's the confidence that you learn as you go.
Speaker 2:Yeah, like I got mounted yesterday and I'm like, ooh, this hasn't. I mean it happens every so often, but it happens after I've tried to continuous wrestle right when my partner is just in a scramble, moving, moving, moving, trying to get me off the top right, and then it's like I got to my nephew he trains with us. I took his back and I'm listening to coach, like, hey, jose, take his back. And I'm not comfortable doing that. Right, like I got short legs. I'm like I'm got a nice bonza. Like that's not the ideal position for me. Right, in that situation, should it be the ideal position? Yes, like put your hooks in, take the back, get a submission.
Speaker 1:But in that situation, because I haven't been there that much, unlike I was like, actually, what you just explained to me explains the reason why you need to take someone's back right. Your stomach, you have a bigger stomach and you're going into them. It's going to flex their back right forward. So now they're giving you their chin right. Smaller hooks means that people can't triangle, you can't do whatever. I can, just keep these right on your hips. So now you're extending me without even wanting to extend me, so my neck's coming up and even if I'm defending, I'm in a bad position, right.
Speaker 2:So like, see, I'm looking at like a tack or position, like you need to, but it's like I hear him, I understand, right, but it's it's like me not being comfortable on my back at the beginning, right Now, I did it, but then I got too high, I ended up in bad position, right Like, and I know I'm like fuck, I just need to underhook, keep myself backpacked on him right, ended up in bad position, ended up on top. He ended up going to mount like right before the round was over. I'm like fuck. But I tried to wrestle. And it's crazy because I'll tell all the guys like I try to stay as calm as possible and these guys are like, like, calm down.
Speaker 1:That's also a learned thing, though, through Jiu-Jitsu and wrestling, that you have to learn how to do. Yeah Right, like we in life, when you panic shallow, now think about doing that when you're chasing somebody with a gun, or somebody has their neck, their armor on your neck, like you're not, you know, and so people get tired a lot quick, quicker because of it. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:So I'm like guys, you guys just.
Speaker 1:So one thing that I do with my guys here is when we start getting into a position of like they don't want to start moving around and doing other things, that I think because they they're good from the guard or they're good from the top, that's all they want to do, and it's good that they can get there. With certain people is I try to do a lot of positional sparring because it gets you comfortable in that for both. Right, if I don't like getting my back taken and you don't like taking people's back, well, now you take my back, because now I got to defend it and then you got to learn how to attack and as soon as I get out of that position guess what? We're back in that position, and then so you get to try, knowing that you're going to go back to that position without you like to start kicking my butt everywhere. I'm able to try things that I normally wouldn't. If we're in a regular role, right, and so now I can be more creative, and I think the in life we stop being imaginative and creative pretty early on and Jiu Jitsu brings that like happiness back to us.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, where it's like all right, this is fun, right, yeah, and so in those positions and when you know you're not going to get hurt, know you're not going to get tapped, you can start doing and that creativeness comes back. Yeah, and that's what I love doing. I'm a little bit more flexible than most not 10th planet flexible but for the most part I can do things right. But that other people can't, other people can't. But that just means somebody else's strength or their body type can do stuff that I can't Right. And if you, we do that positional sparring a lot, you're going to get really comfortable really quickly, just like Jiu Jitsu in general. Right A long time ago when all those challenge matches came out, you had somebody training Jiu Jitsu less than six months, like beating the crap out of, like these Kung Fu Taekwondo masters have been training their entire life. Why? Because it's an actual, like human contact as opposed to like kicking a bag or like doing this like air.
Speaker 1:You know stuff that doesn't work, right, I can make stuff up too. All right, it doesn't mean it's going to work.
Speaker 2:It crazy story, Right? Yeah, so I used to train Ken Pokerati, right, many moons ago. I was, I don't know, I was like four belts in. I don't remember so long ago, I don't even remember what the belt scheme was, but I was right on the level before Brown, okay and I. There was another guy in there that was always in their training, always in their training, putting in the work on a bar fight. He came back like the next. He didn't even come back the next week. It was like two weeks later canceled his membership, right, it was none of that shit fucking worked. I'm why I mean, I don't know how drunk he was, I don't know what the situation was, but like it's like what you're saying, you're taught all this. No one's actually hitting you, right. And then when you do sparse more like point kickboxing, right, like right, I've gone to tournaments for that, right, I'm sorry you're not sitting there.
Speaker 1:And yeah, well, it isn't taught. Even going back to like my Taekwondo background is like mine struck a little. He used to box, so I was a little bit different, and luckily for me, because I used to like be able to outbox people in Taekwondo with it. But like you can't teach parries or blocks without head movement, right, right.
Speaker 1:And if you're teaching all these Kempo Taekwondo things like that's why boxing is so good, like they start moving their shoulder, checking and stuff, like that's why you can hit them, their defense, right, and that's why the whole combat sport Muay Thai, kickboxing, wrestling, jiu-jitsu that's what we have to train in, because it's realistic and people don't understand that and that's why everything else is the mcdojo, right, mcdojo, yeah, you come here long enough you're going to get a black belt. It doesn't mean you can do anything Right. And same thing with like these parents from like these rich places are like, oh, my seven year olds are black belt. Like dude, I'm really your seven year old. That black belt means nothing, right. But if you tell me you know there's a seven year old that trains jiu-jitsu, like my money's on them.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's crazy. Like I have a grandson he's going to, he's about to be three, and the last podcast, the gentleman he has a son. That's his first son, my first grandson. They're two days apart, okay, and I'm like he's big, he's big wrestling. I'm big wrestling too, right, but now that I trained jiu-jitsu I'm like my grandson is going to do jiu-jitsu first.
Speaker 2:Right, like I see I see kids come into the gym because I still coach wrestling. Right, I see kids that have trained jiu-jitsu be successful faster in wrestling because of whatever training they've had before. Right, you know, and there's, I think, most jiu-jitsu well, maybe not most, but a lot of jiu-jitsu people. The biggest problem I think most of them have is being able to take somebody down Right, right, like it's. Jiu-jitsu is mostly taught down on the mat, right, you know. So, like for our adult, for our adult wrestling class, I'll tell them okay, today we're going to wear a gi top, or we're going to work takedowns, right and or, like last class, we did defend a single leg with a Kimura roll, right, right. So I try to implement it into our wrestling class too, because most of those guys that are in our wrestling class are doing jiu-jitsu. There'll be a step ahead if we can get the wrestling background part of it in. You know, I think that is a big key.
Speaker 1:But I'm not saying everybody doesn't know how to take people down, but they're you know the majority, it's, it's, it's, it's difficult and a part of it is space, like I mean I wish I had a bigger place to train and you get eight people on the mat. That's full, it's full Right. On top of that, a lot of wrestlers. You're usually younger, like you, don't? You're not wrestling in the Olympics, right? So the Olympics is obviously the upper echelon of air, but college, so everybody's a little bit younger, right, right. And when you get taken down, like it doesn't feel good, hell, no, and so I'm.
Speaker 1:I would like to say that most people that come to jiu-jitsu they're hobbyists. Yeah, right, they're. They're trying to learn, getting shaved, do different things, right, and then they get into it. Once they show up, they're like man, this is the best thing ever. But realistically, they're, they're hobbyists. So if I take you down and you don't fall correctly or you run into somebody by accident or the wall, and I mean it's jiu-jitsu, right, we, my head's hit that thing so many times, but there's a lot of accidents that do occur. But now you can't go home and do your. You know your job as a, as a techie at Silicon Valley or whatever makes you money unable to train, right, right, now you can't do that. And if I got hurt, breaking my arm or do something like that because of something stupid that I did, I couldn't be doing. I couldn't go out there and do my job as a police officer. So I think that's where the difference is you get. Nobody starts wrestling at 50. People start right jiu-jitsu at 50 all the time.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Right. So, and I think they're two different sports, but that's the one thing I think that people really do have to realize In college if you're not going to be in the Olympics, right, then you're kind of done.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:Right, and jiu-jitsu is a forever thing. I saw this thing where some like 87 year old guy recently got like his brown belt or something Like. That's amazing Right, like some 60 year old lady got her black belt Like dude, that is man like.
Speaker 2:I follow. I think her Instagram is like ground maji jitsu or something like that. She's. She's an older lady, she's a purple belt, she's still compete. That's awesome. I'm like hell yeah, that's dope.
Speaker 1:I saw a video like maybe a week ago and it showed these guys probably late fifties, early sixties, I think they had blue referral belts on and they're a tournament and they're getting after it and I was like so excited and just like, dude, that's what it's about, right, there, right. And then after they gave each other hugs, whoever won one, and it's, it's very awesome to see like two people like get after it and then become friends after. Yes, right, be like, hey, dude, good job.
Speaker 1:You know, it's a cool. It's a cool thing. Most people out maybe, maybe because I, just I live in Salinas and everybody like wants to kick your ass all the time. It's like for me it's like being back in high school, right, people have to st mag, dog you and and, and you know they're very immature in that realm of life, right, they're stuck in high school. That high school mentality, that grown up, yeah.
Speaker 2:Exactly.
Speaker 1:You know, and that's part of my job, I gotta go tell 50 year olds, hey, you're not supposed to hit your wife. Yeah, it's bad, right, but because of that, being able to go to war with somebody, go to battle and like see who's better and then still be okay with it after, be like do a good job, like great Karmora, like great Guillotine, give him a hug, and now your friends or you see each other in a tournament or in a restaurant and like, hey, what's up, buddy Right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Like that's that's.
Speaker 1:That's the way life's supposed to be.
Speaker 2:Right, yeah, it's changed quite a bit since my younger days. But yeah, that's cool. We're a little ways in you, good.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you have to be 15, 20 more minutes max and then you know, finish, whatever you do.
Speaker 2:We're good, cool. So, going back to 10th planet, you said when you were blue belt, you seen it thought okay, this is what I want to do. What? What was it that? I mean, eddie Bravo is Eddie Bravo, right, right, and he's done amazing things. But at such a early point in your journey, what was it that you seen with him that was like this is how I'm going to do it.
Speaker 1:So watching his Jiu-Jitsu. It wasn't like traditional Jiu-Jitsu. I saw that he used his strengths right, like flexibility, but he wasn't like the biggest, strongest guy right, and he was able to control people and how he was holding on to people right. And he learned that from John Jock as well, because John Jock, obviously he's missing some fingers, so that's why he was like he had to get good overhooks and good underhooks and not control the gi Like a lot of people were able to do, and so getting those hooks were really important. And then just, I liked the way that he carried himself as well.
Speaker 1:I know a lot of people didn't like him, especially early on, because of the whole you know him smoking weed and he was like a conspiracy theorist type of guy. But and he was no gi yeah, he was no gi right, and I looked at that back then I knew that was a future. I said in my head and I tell people this now and a lot of traditional people don't like when I talk about this but be like okay. So if, if, gi is the way to go yeah, I'm not saying you shouldn't train gi, okay, because I train it as well sometimes. If, if, if traditional gi is the way to go. Then why did Hixing go fight Huo Duarte on the beach in Speedos, right? When there's these challenge matches and you come in and you add that they're both wearing gi's, it's a karate guy, it's not going to matter. But when you go and get to another like Jujitsu guy or back then, it was a Lute Livre, right out in.
Speaker 1:Brazil. Why do they always take their gi tops off? Because they know those guys know some stuff too right. They don't want to use it against them, right, right. So why just stop it from the beginning? Right, wrestlers, you're not grabbing each other singlet and wrapping around their head, right it's? Oh, I might now Right.
Speaker 2:Pull that strap around and throw it.
Speaker 1:That's what turned into me, into that like dude. That's the next level. I don't know much about Jiu Jitsu I'm learning but I knew that was the future back then. I just did and I continued with it and people hated me for it. Everywhere that I went, oh man, everywhere that I would go train, like what's that rubber guard shit you're trying to do? I just got you an old plata, so you're welcome, right, yeah, and they did not like well, if you didn't have that flexibility, I was like dude, you're twice my size, like how can you say not for me not to use my flexibility when you're trying to bench, press me through a freaking mat, like you can't do that, like it's not the same, right, right. And I saw, like I said it was just like okay, that's it.
Speaker 1:Master Marara too, he, even though he's obviously more traditional, he's never really had a problem with me like doing my style of stuff and even getting into like foot logs and stuff like that a little more. Because you have to, right, I'm not going to fall behind Right Times, he's just letting me be me right, he's never told me not to do anything. He's never, like been upset with me about doing anything when I've gotten into really bad positions and even during, like my black belt test, I started busting out my leg locks and I started doing some of the other stuff to kind of give me a little bit of a rest. And then I was catching people and he was just like did you get to right? He's always been open to it with me anyway, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, that was, that was pretty much it. And obviously his persona him being the first like person to tap out of Gracie and Abu Dhabi when he took on Hoyler and then just continue to go, you know. And when he fought Hoyler again and Meta Morris yeah, we all know who won that fight right, hoyler, like, oh, I didn't tap, yeah, but you can't walk good now because of it. Still Right, right, like, just because you didn't tap, like you lost in life, yeah. So yeah, eddie won right and he's just done so much for the sport.
Speaker 1:Him saying that the rubber guard started because of the UFC. If you get somebody locked in to that rubber guard position, they can't strike you and they really can't, right, and if you try to strike with the other arm now I got triangles and a bunch of other cool stuff. I can go from there. So, yeah, I just thought it was next level, I thought it was different. And even now today's, you know, I've had a couple guys come train with me that a little more traditional. We just had a guy that he recently quit from the PD, came up from LA super cool dude, and when I would roll with them we're doing no-gee, but I knew what he was going to do. He was a brown belt legit dude before he was going to do it and there really was no like it wasn't hard.
Speaker 2:He was a G-train guy.
Speaker 1:Yeah, a G-train guy. But I knew what he was going to do because he was like there's the way traditional fighters fight, like 80% of them fight the same right. You put your hand here. Well, I'm going to block your hip because your hip's next right, your knee, has to come through this way, okay, well, I'm going to block my you know your hip on this side so I can slide through.
Speaker 1:Like there's always something that they all do, but it's almost like they're telegraphing it because they're so used to grabbing G and in no-gee, it's like I'm going this way, nope, okay, I'm going this way. Okay, I'm doing this, I'm doing that. I'm kind of low of the place, a little more athleticism-wise, right? So yeah, but yeah, man, it would be a dream to go down there and train with them. See, my schedule is crazy, but, god willing, you know, maybe some of my crypto stuff jumps up and I can retire, or I can open my own gym and go down there and then go train with Eddie Bravo and GO and back with Boogie for a while and just get that part of it, you know, a little more down.
Speaker 2:That's cool. That's cool, cool, cool, cool. So the oh, I should have lost my train of thought. Oh damn, I might have to pause a second, like I was Well, you edited it you're good. I was going to something that he was saying, I was going to piggyback on it with a question and I forgot it.
Speaker 1:Why Eddie Bravo?
Speaker 2:Oh, so you're Big Nogi. Yeah, how do you feel, like, with all these, like who's number one now ADCC is? There's all these opportunities that maybe weren't there and maybe they've come along, but it seems like for more today there's the opportunities for those practitioners to go out and compete at a grand stage, like ADCC is huge in Vegas, right? Right, like someone told me they had extra tickets and that they couldn't use them, and you know, but it was just too short notice, right, and I was like I'm going to get off, but I watched everything on flow, right, yeah?
Speaker 1:I'm like yeah, I paid $17,000. They want you to pay for that, just so I can watch ADCC. I did the same thing.
Speaker 2:I'm like holy shit, I'm going to go the next time right, Like that's just a who's there right, Just be around the greatness man.
Speaker 1:I'm just asking that.
Speaker 2:You're getting to see all these people like I follow so many Jiu-Jitsu content people, right, right, well, is there anything else? I follow a lot of wrestling, but it just is being able to see those people Like I've met a lot of people through life through wrestling. You know it's crazy. Now it's where I'm at in life. Now I'm not so starstruck, right. You know before, like I met Jordan Burroughs Olympic wrestling champion, right yeah.
Speaker 2:I'm big wrestling. When I met that guy, oh that was so cool, right. And I met numerous people in the wrestling world and now, like in the fighting world, like the MMA world, you know, I've met a few people. I sat and talked with Herb Dean in Sacramento you know 10 minutes of his time, like, but I wasn't like I don't have to like run up to someone, like in the past.
Speaker 1:It was a majority thing too. You're a little bit older.
Speaker 2:It's not kind of the same, but like just getting to be in the same building, like right. Like yeah, I'll have to pay for it, maybe they don't, but it's like just the opportunities that the no-gey world is like affording people now. And you know, there's always geek tournaments, right? There's been geek tournaments forever, right? And I know, like ADCC's has been around a while. You know, like I said, I'm still new. I don't know when it started, but it was a long time ago.
Speaker 1:Marcelo days and HENZO, like they, those guys were training.
Speaker 2:But that was the only one right.
Speaker 1:Right, it was just one in Dubai, yeah, where it started. Yeah, all these rich sultan.
Speaker 2:All the dog and combat, I don't know. Championship, yeah, Combat championship. So it's like now that you know, like Flo is doing that, who's number one. They did the damn the reality show like the ultimate fighter.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that was cool.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Like I'm hooked on it.
Speaker 1:I was like yeah, yeah, chambers was in that, one of those guys, oh man so good.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but that guy that beat him, isaac Michelle, like that. Yeah, b team right, that was like a two hour match or some shit like that it just dropped the match and then they threw it in the back. I was so disappointed. Well, gordon Ryan's like your show man, you got to do that right.
Speaker 1:So, like I would understand, I'm not bigger than Gordon Ryan Right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, I'm trying to make a name for myself, but I guess I'm going to do it in the back room, yeah. And then, like they got to the back and it was like five, six minutes later he ended up getting it's like shit. But then you see, like chambers, isaac, michelle, you see, tackett, right, like there wasn't those 16 guys and those three guys are making a name for themselves out on the circuit now, right, right, and they just watched Tackett on who's number one the other night. Yeah, and he's a black belt now. He was brown belt then when that show came out, yeah, but that guy, man, he's got level.
Speaker 2:When you say levels that guy's, he's a couple of levels.
Speaker 1:A belt's just good sometimes to hold your gear. You're a geek sometimes man, we all know like I'm gone with people that have been black belts that were younger than me, more athletic. I'm like this guy's not a black belt yet. Like in my head, like.
Speaker 1:I'm not trying to talk crap, right, and who gave them their black belts or whatever? And I got with some blue belts like dude, this guy should be a black belt, like this guy's good, like you have me working out of stuff, and I'm like, and then there's, like you know, after 10 minutes, like I can't submit you, and you're only a blue ball or a purple ball Like there's. You're not, that's not where you're at, there's levels. You know what.
Speaker 2:I mean, yeah, I guess it's easier for you to say that because you've trained for so long. Right, but like, I've rolled with some people and like higher belts and I'm like like you didn't really do anything, right, right, like, and I've tapped some higher belts where I'm like I don't think that should have happened. Right, and multiple times with the same move. Right, like, why would that even? Okay, maybe the first time I caught it. But right, I'm using this. This is back when I was first. You know, maybe eight, nine months in I'm using the same setup for the same technique and you're not stopping it. Why?
Speaker 1:Like then levels right, like just like we talked about.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but then okay. So when you're doing that, at some point you're like, well, this is not making me better, so you have to go to something else, right, and I'm like that particular time, tap a guy like arm bar, like three or four times All set up with a Kamara Right, step over posture Right, you're in a purple belt, guys brown belt now Like maybe shouldn't have happened, but levels.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:But, like you said, sometimes you roll with people that you feel you you could feel in their rolling right how technical or how flowing they are Right, Like some people are pretty technical and you have to work really hard to get certain things You're not working or flow rollers right, Like yeah, I'd consider myself personally more a flow roller.
Speaker 1:Like I get in and out of a lot of positions. I'm not one of those tournament guys. That's like I won three to zero or four or zero. I had these points. Like, for me it's a submission game, right, if you and I roll for 10 minutes and we both go hard and we don't tap each other, it was a tie. I don't care if I had Neil Bayley on you for 10 minutes, right, like that's the way I look at it, like a submission only, right, we're shooting for. And if that's not what happens and whatever, like, yeah, you know, if you got demolished a little bit positionally, but like the ultimate goal is you couldn't tap me and that's the way I look at it, and so that's because of that, I don't care if I get in bad positions and I'm kind of believe it or not.
Speaker 1:I'm kind of flashy, I like doing stuff, I like being inside control and I jump into a triangle, right, well, you know, push your head down and get into a triangle. I like you. You know, you think you have good control of me. I'm able to get into a nice strong, like arm bar position. I roll you over, right, I like doing stuff that that looks cool, and I know I have to be in bad position sometimes to do that, but very rarely will I go with somebody. Well, somebody will be like do that guy is so strong because I really don't use strength, my strength comes from my position and not from me Like like muscling.
Speaker 1:Yeah Right, and right now I'm probably a little bit bigger than I usually am. I'm buckety five. Usually I'm hovering between 175 and 180 when I'm like really like trying to, you know, eat right and do my thing. But I'm foodie.
Speaker 1:So the ice cream, yeah, I was like I'll say you know, I don't drink I've never done a drug in my life but oh man, sweets, especially ice cream. I'll eat ice cream every day if I can. I just don't want to get too big. So yeah, if it wasn't for Jiu Jitsu, 100%, I'd be 250 pounds and just enjoying my food. So I work out so I can eat. Essentially that's my thing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, cool. Well, let's end with advice. So end with advice and then whatever after your advice. If you have any ways that people can get a hold of you, if they want to reach out to you, let them know what it is. And so advice for, like the newcomer, the older guy. You said a little while ago how you see a 50-year-old always coming into start Jiu Jitsu, I started at 48. So I'm on that journey close to that 50-year-old.
Speaker 1:Ok, Just a normal, like everyday Jiu Jitsu person male, female, young, old. What I would say is just be consistent, make sure you come in. If you can make a goal twice a week, more would be great, obviously, in all our lives. But even if you're tired, being disciplined will always beat motivation. You can be motivated for a month or two or three. You know there's a tournament coming up. I want to look good for the summer, get all ripped up and do my thing right. But like after that what happens right. And if you're disciplined, even if you don't want to work out, even if you're tired, even if stuff's going on in your life, you get in the gym. You're always going to feel better. The other thing that I would say for maybe the older person is don't be afraid to not roll with somebody if you don't want to roll with them, and that's for maybe the females as well too.
Speaker 1:You always know the guy that goes too hard right, and he always puts weight into you. He's always doing something. He's always trying to snap on your arms. That's what my job as a black belt and maybe my mat enforcers job is to put them in place. But we put people in place after they do something right. It's not like during, I'm not just going to jump off the top ropes and try to do a clientele, but when I see him doing going too hard on somebody, right. So if you know somebody's going to go too hard, longevity is the key and staying healthy is the key to that, and so or just tell them if I'm going to go with you, I only want to work the guard position, I'm only going to work from the top, and most of the time they'll be like, yeah, okay, because they need to work that too.
Speaker 1:But then it turns into like a work role as opposed to, like me, just trying to smash all the time. And maybe that helps the other guys mindset as well. Yeah, just be consistent, come in. I know it's hard to stay enthusiastic, especially at first, when you're the nail most of the time and not the hammer. But if you have goals for yourself, it just makes things a lot easier. The first six months, if you're surviving like dude, you're killing it like good job, right. Blue belt you learn a little bit more defensive stuff. Purple belt you can start being a little more offensive. Brown belt you're bringing everything together. Black belt you realize you don't know shit, and then you got to like start over.
Speaker 2:It's crazy, right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, because as a black belt, like I have my game and I'm pretty good at my game, but now I get somebody your age that comes in like I have to change my game. So I have to know way more than my game to make you good, and so I think a good coach will do that Be able to do that as well. But, yeah, consistency, just come in. It's okay to suck, right, and I think a lot of people don't come to Jisoo because their ego's hurt, right, and you kind of in SWAT we say embrace the suck, because like you don't know a lot of stuff, what you don't know, you don't know right, and so you have to come in and really train and to get to that point where things are getting comfortable, and so that journey, as much as it does suck, makes you better when you're going through stuff. So that's one thing that I would say.
Speaker 1:Also, don't have a goal of a belt. I think that's probably the most important thing. I think the stats have come out that like 80% of blue belts quit. Like dude, like you don't even know anything yet, like right, that sucks. So if your goal is to be a blue belt, like you're gonna quit. If your goal is to be a pearl belt, you're gonna quit. So let's like, make our goal just to be good, to get better every day, to be a good training partner, to be in better shape, to be able to be amazing at my top and bottom game right. So make different goals that aren't belts, cause that's like a saying like my goal is to train till it's 2025.
Speaker 1:Because now you're gonna have no goals after that, right, and so I would say that that's another thing that I think would be important for somebody training to think about that as a goal is to get better, to be healthy, if you wanna get muscles or lose weight, but that's a lifetime thing, it's not a belt thing. And essentially my I don't know if I ever really even wanted a black belt, cause it's a lot of pressure. People come after you, but you realize what you don't know. When you're a black belt, you get kind of cocky as like a brown belt Sometimes, I think, and then when you come a black belt, you're just like holy cow dude. This is like you're not even breaking the surface, like this is crazy.
Speaker 2:It's like you you went all these levels to get to black belt and then to find out that there's all those levels again.
Speaker 1:Right, right, no, 100%, and I'm still learning every day, and that's the other thing. I love Jiu-Jitsu. It's one of the greatest things that has ever happened in my life and because there's still excitement there, there's still I know I can get better. I've always been competitive anyway, right, I don't like people beating me at anything and if you beat me, like I'll give you a high five, but next time I'm gonna get you type of thing, whatever it is like, I just I'm, that's how I am, and so Jiu-Jitsu gave that to me consistently Right, and no matter how good you are, like, even like when I go with some of my blue belts, like they're good, right, so if I take it easy on them, like I might get caught. So it keeps me honest as well. Nice, but yeah, let's keep training, keep training keep training Go train go, train, go train, especially in law enforcement.
Speaker 1:And like I can't push that enough, Like my ultimate goal would be some day to have a huge gym and just like have a law enforcement class with like 40, 50 people in there. That would be man, so great.
Speaker 2:Are you doing the seminar in Napa with Jiu-Jitsu?
Speaker 1:Yeah, so the seminar with BJJ cops I'll be there September 24th for everybody in law enforcement. Go sign up, it'll be awesome. Ashley Cummins they call her Smashley she's the 10th planet product as well. She's a law enforcement officer and MMA fighter and then Brandon and I will be there. I believe it'll be there as well. And then I believe there's gonna be another BJJ seminar, bjj cops seminar in San Francisco at Ed's spot. Oh, at Peninsula. Yeah, in the Peninsula in November I don't know which date it is yet.
Speaker 1:I haven't talked to Ed or Brandon about that one Just kind of focus on Napa. But, yeah, anything I could do to help, like this world, be rid of bad guys and make sure that we're safer. So I love it. It's a great opportunity to be with BJJ cops and the ultimate goal is the future of law enforcement that we all stay safe and can train and have a realistic sense of what law enforcement is. It's not what you see in the movies, it's not what you see on live PD, it's not like any of that stuff. Like, when you're in that situation, things are different. You can be on the sidelines and you have me mounted like get up, get up. Like, unless somebody has you mounted. You don't know what that feels like.
Speaker 2:Like shut your mouth Right, yes, yeah, yeah Is that it Plug your YouTube and anyway, anybody could get a hold of you.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and so, if anybody's interested, my YouTube channel is chosen few BJJ. I post stuff. People leave me messages on there or something they want to like, see or whatever, and I usually do that. I also have Instagram, chosen few BJJ. You can message me on that if you guys want to see something. Obviously, this, my YouTube channel and my Instagram channel is it's kind of about me, but not really. It's about getting people to train, and that's one of the things that is I want people to do. I want you guys to go out there, go train. I want everybody to be safe, and so there's anything that I can do to help you guys out in your journey. If you're stuck in a position, if there's something law enforcement wise, you know, swat wise, police officer wise, anything like that, just let me know Again, chosen few BJJ, both on YouTube and Instagram, and I'll get back to you as soon as I can Be safe. Cool.
Speaker 2:Awesome. Hell yeah, thanks bro, I appreciate it.
Speaker 1:No, I felt at home after I just happened, toelt home as I was said that there was another published sport on YouTube.