Ever wondered what it’s like to train in the vibrant heart of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu? Pull up a chair and join me, Joey Garcia , as we take you on a rollicking journey from humble beginnings in a garage, fondly known as "drunk jitsu". Joey share tales from the mats, the thrill of tournaments and the camaraderie of the jiu-jitsu community. Not to mention his escape in Brazil, training amidst the energy of the Contagalo favela, soaking up sun on the beaches and living to tell the tale of a near robbery at Copacabana beach!
But life’s not all about Jiu Jitsu - follow along as we discuss the balance between passion and daily life. I’ll share how I juggled owning a brewery, running a BBQ catering business, and managing a barbershop with my wife - all while becoming a black belt! Together, we’ll explore the importance of patience, celebrate the joy in small wins, and appreciate the unique bonds formed on the jiu-jitsu mats.
As we wrap up, let’s delve into the nitty-gritty of consistency in training, the satisfaction of small wins, and the unique relationships built. Hear how I encouraged my wife and children to step onto the mats, and the importance of understanding that jiu-jitsu is my passion, and not something I can force on them. Join us as we also discuss the need for training regimens in law enforcement, with a special focus on the role of BJJ Cops in providing seminars to first responders. So, whether you’re a jiu-jitsu enthusiast, an entrepreneur, or simply someone who loves a good yarn, this episode promises something for everyone!
Ever wondered what it’s like to train in the vibrant heart of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu? Pull up a chair and join me, Joey Garcia , as we take you on a rollicking journey from humble beginnings in a garage, fondly known as "drunk jitsu". Joey share tales from the mats, the thrill of tournaments and the camaraderie of the jiu-jitsu community. Not to mention his escape in Brazil, training amidst the energy of the Contagalo favela, soaking up sun on the beaches and living to tell the tale of a near robbery at Copacabana beach!
But life’s not all about Jiu Jitsu - follow along as we discuss the balance between passion and daily life. I’ll share how I juggled owning a brewery, running a BBQ catering business, and managing a barbershop with my wife - all while becoming a black belt! Together, we’ll explore the importance of patience, celebrate the joy in small wins, and appreciate the unique bonds formed on the jiu-jitsu mats.
As we wrap up, let’s delve into the nitty-gritty of consistency in training, the satisfaction of small wins, and the unique relationships built. Hear how I encouraged my wife and children to step onto the mats, and the importance of understanding that jiu-jitsu is my passion, and not something I can force on them. Join us as we also discuss the need for training regimens in law enforcement, with a special focus on the role of BJJ Cops in providing seminars to first responders. So, whether you’re a jiu-jitsu enthusiast, an entrepreneur, or simply someone who loves a good yarn, this episode promises something for everyone!
My name is Joey Garcia. I'm a first degree black belt under Scott Savage, trained here in Los Banos and been here ever since, from beginning to end, white belt to black belt with the Professor Savage. So we have our academy. It's called Scott Savage Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Academy. It's located here in Los Banos. I'm a Castro's Pulsovers.
Speaker 2:What am I saying? Check? I'd like to say thank you to our sponsor, castro's Pulsovers and Repair, phone number 209-675-5418. I am Castro's Pulsovers 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. So when did you take the start, this journey?
Speaker 1:You know, everybody has a funny story Everybody's talking about. They started off with UFC and all that stuff and honestly, mine's no different. I mean, I think we all have an interest in grappling and something drew us to it. For me it was a little bit of looking for some kind of like a fitness and a health aspect of it, and I was partying a lot when I was in my younger, early 20s, mid 20s and it just took its toll on me. I started to. I also actually was commuting a lot at this time, driving back and forth from here to like Nantico or late-thrub or something, every day. Man and I was just snacking on food in the car just trying to keep myself busy, and it just started to gain a little weight and I just wasn't feeling myself anymore and so I was going to my buddy's house actually Mitchell Torres.
Speaker 1:We just talked about him a little bit ago. He really like introduced me to grappling and he really introduced me into just the art of what it is and the fundamentals. And we would go to his house, we'd watch UFC and we'd have some beers and we'd hang out and in his garage and his mats he had mats and like focus mitts and gloves and punching bag and all that. So we'd go out there and he would show us some things, like he'd show us this is how you do some striking. This is how you do some kicks. This is how you do some basic wrestling, some basic grappling. And one thing led to another. We would go to his house. It was like a pattern. We'd go there, have some beers, go in the garage and mess around it's like a rattle right, and it actually became a thing.
Speaker 1:We started calling it drunk jitsu because it was the funniest thing, man, funniest thing. And looking back on that, and it was just like probably one of the dumbest things but also one of the best things, because when you get, you know you've been aniburated, you're having too many drinks and you don't know what the hell's going on, you're just messing around. So many times we probably could have been injured but, man, luckily they got nobody's hurt, right, right, right. So here I am a little overweight and I'm very interested in, like you know, ufc and all that stuff. And then you know, comes along, mitchell, we start doing that repetitiously and sure enough he's has more experience, because he was kind of like he was an amateur fighter, you know, he knew the ropes right, he had been training a little bit and he would just mop us up. Man, he was, just take care of us, just I'll wrestle us, I'll grapple us and everything. And so I started to like grow that little hunger, like damn, like I really want to get better at this. Yeah. So I said, man, mitchell, do you think we could maybe do this outside of? You know, drunk jitsu, Can we kind of come over and learn a little bit.
Speaker 1:And he was commuting, I was commuting and he had a couple of other guys, but once or twice a week I'd get to go to his house and he would show us some stuff. And he would show us some basics, like this is side control, this is now, this is back control, like the basics you know. And it kind of went from there. I probably spent maybe off and on, you know six months with him, depending on our schedules, and we would come in and do that. And around the same time I stopped commuting, I didn't work, and then around that time I got a job here locally with the city of Los Banos.
Speaker 1:So here I am, I'm local, I'm in Los Banos. Now I'm kind of like starting to feel like I'm getting in shape because I'm doing this thing with Mitchell, the hunger of like grappling and trying to learn more. And I'm not even kidding you, I didn't go seek jiu-jitsu. I like it kind of just fell in my lap because I saw come across my file on my computer with some emails going by, and I saw a recreational flyer said Scott Savage presenting jiu-jitsu, and I was like wow, like this is exactly what I've been looking for. You know it was more routine, it was. You know it was taught by a higher bell and there was no looking back. I went there, went to the class, there was really nobody there. You know, it was like me, scott and, I think, his kids you know, and it was a very very family feel and just started training with him and, yeah, I loved it.
Speaker 2:So this is like year, like what around.
Speaker 1:I want to say like 2008, something like that. I would say like late 2007 is when I started to kind of like work with Mitchell, and then around 2008 is probably when I started going with Scott.
Speaker 2:So you're like 15 years into this yeah yeah, exactly, yeah about that. So when you started, when you first walked into Scott's is this when he was still in the little community center by the junior high.
Speaker 1:Yes, yeah. So when I first met Professor Savage you know very like unassuming person, super chill demeanor, just you know the glasses and we always joke around that he doesn't really look like he could just like rip your arms off, but he can't, you know. And like you ask him with his background and he's like well, I'm, I do HR and I do like safety and all that stuff, so he's super standup guy. I really enjoyed learning from him, but he just doesn't look like, you know, a fighter. It doesn't look like a grappler, so much. He doesn't even have cauliflower here. You know he avoided that for so long and he also did wrestling in high school football. So he was always an athlete and when I met him I believe he was a second or third degree Brownbell In fact, so he wasn't really even Blackbell yet. So but to me I mean I was a beginner Whitebell, I had no clue what I'm doing Learning from him was a privilege, because to me it was just like and maybe I didn't realize it at the time, because me as a Whitebell coming into a brand new thing I really didn't fully understand like the levels of like, with the levels to Jiu-Jitsu and the hierarchy of it, like meaning, like, like wow, he's like a really high level.
Speaker 1:You know, brownbell, or it just didn't dawn on me, I just figured I'm just learning from this guy named Scott. You know, it was like that and over the years we just started developing a super good relationship and I mean I was just hooked immediately. I started training with him, literally getting my ass beat like all the time, you know, all the time he did it out of love, like he did it. He was like very good at it. He was a little heavier than me, always a lot heavier than me, actually, and real strong, you know, and but he didn't like Deceptively strong, yes, yes, and then do. He was never, you know, arrogant about it, right, he was always very like, always a teaching moment, you know, and it just, I mean, we're talking like multiple years, multiple years before I can get something on him. You know, multiple. And what a humbling experience that is, you know. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, yeah, that's good to have someone like that to work with, right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely, absolutely.
Speaker 2:So before Jitsu, any other type of martial arts.
Speaker 1:No man.
Speaker 2:Sports Drunk.
Speaker 1:Jitsu.
Speaker 2:So what's the rules of drunk Jitsu?
Speaker 1:You know what You're going to laugh, you're going to laugh, but we we legit had rules, we had rules. It was like a three beer minimum dude, because it wasn't fair if you had more beers than the other guy didn't. I mean, come on, you got to be, you got to make it fair.
Speaker 2:So yeah, we had a lot of fun with that it was.
Speaker 1:It was crazy times. You talk to anybody from that era of my life at that time and I had the most fun with that. I learned the most. I'd come home all beat up Like what happened? Well, I didn't try home, I said, but you know come home at some point in like you know, oh, we did.
Speaker 1:I was like sweaty. You know, like what happened? I got to a fight. No, you didn't, we were doing drunk Jitsu and it was fun, man, it was crazy. But, like I said, everybody has that funny story and that's kind of how mine was Like to summarize it. It was like health fitness just got into it because of MMA and Mitchell really kind of built that ground floor and then the drunk Jitsu was just like a funny part of it. But then I got really serious with it, you know, soon after that, really serious with it. And I have a very addictive personality, I think, and I talk to a lot of different, like martial artists and people in class and whatever, Even people who, like I know, I recently spoke to somebody who I know is a blue belt in Jitsu and I jokingly told them I said, dude, you're one of the most inconsistent, consistent guys I know and he's like, he's like you know, and I'm like, I'm like, I'm totally just messing with you.
Speaker 1:But I'm trying to like encourage him to come back and then we start talking about it and he's like, he's like man, I'm kind of like a perfectionist, you know, like I want to be like all in on it and I don't want to like half-ass it. And I did. I feel you, dude, I'm 100% there, I get it. And I said I'm the same way, like I get into things and I do things all in, like I don't half-ass anything. I put all my passion and my energy into that thing I do. And for many, many years that was me and Jiu-Jitsu. And it still is. Like I still go to class, like it's a brand new class, like it's fun, it's exciting and who's going to be there and who do you get to roll with and what challenges are you going to be there for that person in that day. But man, I got into it so bad that, like you know, I joke to myself now, like in retrospect, that I was like a Bible thumper.
Speaker 2:You know, I go around telling people like you got to do Jiu-Jitsu in the best thing you could ever do in your life Knock on the door. No, you go door to door.
Speaker 1:Hi, have you thought about doing Jiu-Jitsu?
Speaker 2:today.
Speaker 1:Because I just saw how beneficial it was, like mentally and, like you know, physically and man, it was like, it was, like you know, not to be cliche, but it was a change in my life that I, it was a positive change. I wanted to share that with everybody and you know, and and then there's just all the cool people you meet, you know the camaraderie you build with everybody, and I I've yet to meet, like you know, a douche, maybe like one or two, like we talked about one time. Yeah, Maybe one or two. Honestly, though, everybody's pretty chill. Yeah, it's really nice.
Speaker 2:I think that's one of the biggest attributes of Jiu-Jitsu is the community. Yeah, like I don't know how many different gems I've gone to now you know, I'm still new, I've but I've gone to more than a couple of handfuls of gems and everyone's been just yeah, come on in, sign the waiver. Yeah, let's roll, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:And I luckily I've had an opportunity to train in like a lot of different places and I've trained in like all around you know, not all around America, but like mostly around California and like Western states and everything. I have some goals. You know, I want to train with some people and one of them is Dracolino out of Texas, and one of them you know there's I've always wanted to train with, like Marcella Garcia. I mean, I know he's, I know he's right now he's going through some you know, cancer bouts. But that was one of my dreams was to go out to New York and train with him. Now he's in Hawaii. So I'm like, yeah, go to Hawaii and go to New York. You know, it's one of those things and I've always, always been with open arms. You know everybody is very willing to just accept you in and train with you and learn from you and you learn from them, and I haven't really run into anybody that's given me any problems.
Speaker 1:Actually was really lucky. My wife said that I could go to Brazil and train and I was like, wow, this is awesome. So I took a trip out to Brazil. I met a friend of mine who was staying there for like six months and he was staying with another, with, like one of the coaches from a school. That school was Fernando Terreira School, so it was located in the Contagalo favela. Legit, like in the, in the, in it, like in it.
Speaker 1:You know, you think of Brazil and you think of all the beautiful, like parades and like all the cool beaches and everything, but I was just like in the ghetto you know, and it was probably one of my favorite experiences because, like, I really came across a lot of people that came away from that experience being really grateful for what I have, because over there is just like it's just poverty. You know, you experience like the lowest forms of poverty, which was I've never experienced that before in my life. You know, I didn't realize how well off I was, how many things I had, and going there and training with these like young, hungry athletes. These guys are like white belts and blue belts and you know, all the way up to black belts and the class was amazing. You know they all welcomed me in like a, like a family member. What belt were you wearing? I was a brown belt. Okay, yeah, I was a brown belt. So this was recent, maybe like within, I would say, within six years or so. So I feel like it's recent for me and in terms of like life, you know that wasn't too long ago, yeah, and it was. It was awesome and like you, just, you just realize like what you have and what they don't have.
Speaker 1:The biggest takeaway I got from that was these guys. They treated Jiu Jitsu not like a hobby, leisure sport, like we did. Right, they're, they're very serious about it and you know it's almost like their national sport, like other than soccer. It's like that's what they do. You can take this skill and you can learn it and perfect it and get very good at it and maybe go win some big competitions. You could take your name and your experience on the road. You can get yourself out of the favela, out of the ghetto, out of Brazil and take yourself to another part of the world Right, maybe it's Europe, maybe it's America who knows? And then you can really turn yourself into a business. You can actually really produce from that.
Speaker 2:So it's crazy that you say that, because I watched the documentary on China not that long ago.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, oh yeah, the sacrifices that his family made. Yeah, I know. It's crazy because, like he was like in Brazil doing all that he's legitimately like the talent that I ran into over there and I kid you not, I'm sorry blue belts and purple belts, and I have no ego, because I loved you just so much. I love the art of it. I was getting robbed and tapped out by purple belts and blue belts, young 16, 17 year olds. Just I don't want to say that we're juiced, because they're not juiced, they're not what I mean is that their energy flowing through them was so good.
Speaker 1:They were on fire, dude, and, of course, maybe when I see an outsider, I wasn't the only. There was almost an international little spot, like I met somebody from Finland, somebody from Germany, somebody from like the Netherlands. You meet a lot of different people, right, and it was a big language barrier. Not everybody could speak Portuguese, but we all got along. We made it all work. But you go there and you see so many different things and you see these young guys just like super hungry and I just threw people out and it was cool. It was super cool. It was very humbling and I was adjusting to the weather. So I'm making excuses because I got my ass beat out there, but it was so fun, man.
Speaker 2:It was so fun.
Speaker 1:But then I matched up with a brown belt he's about my size, about my age and him and I went at it and that was to me. That was my real measure of like okay, I can do this, I'm good, because it's too hard. You can't measure yourself against those young guys At my age and like what's the point? Like you're not supposed to compare yourself, you have a good role. You have a good role. Like give them their props. They beat you. They beat you. If you beat them, good, just move on. You have to be all like it's not a big deal. I'm, like the most easygoing person ever.
Speaker 2:So how long were you there in Brazil?
Speaker 1:for 10 days. Yeah, about 10 days. It was fun. The routine is like much calmer than out here. I mean, obviously I wasn't working, I didn't go to my job or anything, but I would wake up. The routine was this We'd wake up, eat some breakfast and go train, come home, shower, go to the beach, have some beers, come back, shower, go train, come home, eat and then shower and go back and repeat. It was like basically the life of like somebody who just lived for Jiu Jitsu, like that was the only thing they had to do.
Speaker 1:And the guy that I stayed with, julio Nogueira, was our host. He was like super cool. He would make us like super good, like home cooked meals that I don't think you could get anywhere else in Brazil, the traditional like fujon, or like the different little like foods that they make that you see on TV, like getting that experience. And it was cool man. His house was the only house in the whole area that had like a washing machine, so he'd get a bunch of visitors from around his neighborhood. They'd pay him a little cash and then he would like they would walk in, they'd do the laundry and then everything was on top to dry it with like clothesline and everything, so I really felt like I was like put back in time and like it's just a whole another experience. That was dope, it was dope. I don't think I'd go there again, though, because I almost got robbed, I almost got mugged on the beach and I'm like what, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:Legit dude Legit. It was funny, man, what the hell I was on. You were with people, I was with my, my Jiu Jitsu friends all together. We're on the beach and maybe you'll know the names of the beaches Like there's Copacabana and then there's a, there's the Ipanema beach. They kind of like connect, like this and there's a center and there's that one. There's all right. Well, we were on Copacabana beach and I was like all I have with me is my phone and my shorts, my board shorts, and I just like walking on the well before I left. They're like I said I'm going to go, I'm going to go take a little walk, and they're like they told me like be careful, bro, just be careful.
Speaker 2:But in.
Speaker 1:Portuguese. You know, they're like. It kind of sounds like Spanish, right, we do mucho voado, right, we do mucho voado or whatever. And I'm starting to walk and midday, like three o'clock or something, and I have my phone. So I have my phone, like this, I open it and I started like recording the beach and like the water and just like that's nice dude, I can't believe I'm here.
Speaker 1:And so I have my my phone here, my hand right, I close it and before I know it there's like a group of people coming towards me, like five or six young guys probably anywhere from, say, 16 to 20 or something, and they're all coming towards me like a barricade and I can't get through them. So I get real close to them and right away somebody from like this side comes to me and starts yelling in my ear in Portuguese, like very aggressively, like saying something, and I'm like, well, I don't speak Portuguese, I don't know, I can't help you, but he was distracting me over here and somebody from the group came over here and tried to snatch my phone out of my hand. So it was just like a tactic, you know, like they distract you, so you look and then they snatch your phone and I was like dude, very organized, you know, like they know what they're doing, but I don't think they realize that like that was my life, dude, my phone was my itinerary for, like, my airfare, like my flight. I needed it. There was always like I can't be stuck in Brazil, like what the hell am I going to do? So when they went to go grab it, I just had the death grip of like on that phone and he couldn't, he couldn't get out of my hand and he tried a couple of times. And I remember two.
Speaker 1:Two things I learned was from my uncle. He said if you're ever going to fight and you know you can't beat him he goes. All you got to do is act a little more crazy than them. Oh man, props to Uncle Bob for that advice. And what happened at that point was I legitimately challenged all of them and I started to yell back and I'm like and I think in Brazilian Portuguese there's a word you can say it's like poja, it's not paro, like in stop, like in jujitsu. I think poja if I'm not, I hope I'm saying it right means kind of like, means like f off you know or like what the hell right, and if you say it loud enough and you say it with enough, you know conviction, sure enough.
Speaker 1:They were like. They were like oh shit, this dude is not going to get off his phone and he's down to like scrap. And so I just pushed through and then they went, my adrenaline's going through my body because I felt like I was about to get into a fight with like five guys. I turn around and I walk back to my, my, my little group, and they're like and I'm like man, I almost got mugged. They're like no way I told them stories. They're like you want to go find them?
Speaker 2:I'm like no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no no no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
Speaker 1:And they just, they just went to jail. You're not going to jail in Brazil. So yeah, that was a crazy story, you know. And so Brazil is wild. If you go, I recommend us stay in the hotels that are like kind of more for the tourists.
Speaker 2:You know like that's what I would do, but I don't know crazy. It was crazy because, like I touching on that, like I look at places that I want to go and then you hear all the bad shit and you're like, yeah, maybe I don't want to go there, and then you saying that I'm like fuck it, I ain't going to Brazil.
Speaker 1:Like I said they have areas that are sort of like hotels and then they kind of cordon off like a beach for the tourists, and they do this because the country needs tours and money and if you go outside of that scope of that touristy area you're going to run into problems. But luckily though, with us I did have, I had an in with somebody. There was another moment, kind of funny story. We went after we trained and we ate dinner. We went to a place called I think it's called La Paz, like a big, it's a huge outdoor party, like legit, like two streets full people just walk, party hanging out, music, food, all that stuff.
Speaker 1:And it was like past midnight. We're coming back, we're walking back. And the favelas, the way they're designed, is that it starts off with the ground and then they build up this like crevice of a hill right You've probably seen on TV, everybody's seen on TV they build up, and I kid you not, towards the top, yeah, towards the top, there's levels to it, and towards the very top, apparently, is where and I could be embellishing because I don't know for a fact, I didn't go find out.
Speaker 1:But they usually say that the top is like where you have the controllers of the favelas, like maybe there's like some people who run drugs or they run different schemes right Throughout the community. Well, I didn't really believe that until, like when we came back. There's an elevator, you go to the bottom and an elevator goes up and then there's this catwalk that takes you to like the center of the favela and from there where I was staying was a couple levels up, right. So we would go up the elevator, go across the catwalk, walk a few layers up and, boom, you're at the house. Well, the elevator shuts down at midnight, because they just shut it down, like you know, and this is all controlled by the people in the favelas. It's not like a city thing, it's just they run it.
Speaker 1:And, sure enough, we're coming home after hanging out and me and my buddy are cruising up and come up to the staircase, because we had to go up the stairs. Now, and starting at the bottom, it's like a video game, you know, you got to go through the bosses and shit, you know, to the two where you're staying, and we go and, man, sure enough, there's two guys just posted and they have guns out. They're like they're flashing their guns because they want you to know, like, this is our territory and who are you and why are you coming this way. And so we go up and they start yelling at us, telling us like but again, the Portuguese sounds a lot like Spanish. So they were saying something in Portuguese like lift up your shirt. Lift up your shirt, because I heard the word camisa, like whatever. I heard that a few times and I said, oh, they want to know if we have weapons on us.
Speaker 1:So here I am in Rio de Janeiro getting swatted down by you know, fucking favela cops I don't know who they are, you know and there, so I lift my shirt and they're like with their guns and I'm like I got no weapons and my buddy on the weapons. So then we start talking to like, well, we're, we're staying up there. We're staying up there, like who we staying with? And we said we're staying with Julio Noguera and we're training Jiu Jitsu for Fernando Terres. And then, as soon as we said that, they were like oh, you're our buddies, now let's go. You're fine, come on up. You guys want some weed? I'm like no, I don't want to weed you.
Speaker 1:So it was like I had an end because of that man. But if you imagine you're a tourist and imagine experiencing that like I don't know how, that would end it. I don't know how that would end it, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:You know I mean probably got killed, but you know, you just keep moving.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, it was wild times, but again, like I said, I wouldn't do it again and that way I would go again if I could stay in Hlda, you know, and it's just there, so like the touristy area in relation to the favelas where you were, like how far apart was that?
Speaker 1:Not very far, like if you could look at it like, look at it from like a map. Right, you have your ocean, you have the beach, you have a street, you have hotels on the ocean or on the beach, and then you have streets that go up. And the streets that go up the little, maybe like a half mile up, you have the favela.
Speaker 1:So it's not that far, but it's separate enough where you could. Once you start at the bottom or in the elevator of the favela, then you're in it. You're in it, in it, like it's. They have their own, like their own little ecosystem in there. They have, like, all the services you need. Maybe you does like little restaurants. People turned their little houses into restaurants and like another place I ate at was like oh, they're like, let's go have dinner, let's go have lunch, all right, cool. Well, where are we going? I figure we're going to leave the favela, we're going to go into the town closer to the beach and we're going to find a restaurant. But no, we stayed in the favela. We walk a few layers up or down and you go to somebody's house and you go in the house and they have their house set up like a restaurant. It's like their living room or their dining room. And, young, you eat, they make bombast food really inexpensive because the conversion rate was pretty good.
Speaker 1:And you know I mean anybody who's watching this podcast been a Brazil. They know that, like, if you go with, like you know, a thousand bucks, you're probably living pretty damn good because the conversion rate is so good. So a lot of times I was buying lunch for like everybody because they thought I was rich, I wasn't. They thought I was like rich and I wasn't and I just, you know it was nice to like it was, it was good. I felt good about just maybe giving them a little something they didn't have before.
Speaker 2:You know either lunches, who knows?
Speaker 1:I just typically like that, you know, but it was good times. It was good times.
Speaker 2:That's cool. That's a cool story.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, it's fun.
Speaker 2:So going back to your Jiu-Jitsu, like the coming up through the ranks, did you ever compete?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I did. I competed at white belt, competed at blue belt and I competed at purple belt. I skipped my brown belt altogether and then I competed once at black belt and my my experience with competition is like I would say it's a very, very good story. If you are the person who needs to know about perseverance, because I've always been a better instructor than I was a competitor and I can explain things very well I can coach people from the sideline through tough positions. I'm a lot of, a lot of my Jiu-Jitsu is like very like I thinker, you know, I'm like I'm not just like the zero to 100 guy, like there's, there's different types. You're going to run into all sorts of different types of people who grapple. Some people are the thinkers and I think that the thing about the thinkers is that they tend to be a little bit late sometimes. So if you go with somebody who's zero to 100, you got that 100 guy going against the thinker, then sometimes the 100 guy is going to just demolish the thinker because the thinker's like like okay, like I see the lapel I should grab teach my own class on, as at purple, and I had to study more, because not only was I teaching it. I had to know it right. I had to know you know, just like you or your coaching wrestling. You have to know what you're talking about and then you have to explain it different ways to different people. So you're you're thinking about it from like okay, I'm going to show Jose this move, but how will it benefit him and the way he thinks about it from his perspective? And now I'm going to go teach you know so, and so how do? How how can I explain it to them so they can understand it? I know I understand it, but how could I explain it in from their points of views? So I think, because of that, like it really increased my, my knowledge. Like I felt like it made me a lot better than than you know I learned quicker.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, sure enough, man, I get out there. I'm, I'm at US Open and I remember my only goal in US Open. I said, look, I had kind of low. I had like low expectations for myself because I'm like I don't think I'm going to win. Man, like I didn't think I was going to win. So I said, let me just, let me just be the first guy to like jump guard or pull guard and put him in my guard. I was like let me just put him in my card, like let me start there, cause I had a lot of bad starts before. But I was hesitant. You know the thinker. I didn't come from a wrestling background, so I was like, you know, getting taken down or getting double A and I was like shit, I'm just getting smashed. So I said let me just jump guard, let me pull guard.
Speaker 1:Well, I grabbed some collar, grabbed sleeve, been working on this move and been thinking about it and I went out there and because I trained it so much, I did it so quick and I hit that mark and I was like, dude, I got it. Like I felt like something turned. I hit that. I hit that one single thing. I was happy to get. It's like that goal was met and I'm like, okay, now I feel like I can go more. And, you know, went through the, went through the nut business and got him into a triangle and the guy was pretty tough. And then I kind of came out and was able to arm bar from the triangle like a triangle on bar, got up, opened my sweater, my, my, my gear a little bit. Ah, fucking breathe.
Speaker 2:And he's like ah, dude, like all this people.
Speaker 1:I'm like coaching and all these, you know, these students that I'm telling them you could do this, you could do this, you could do this. And finally I did it. And I remember that also too. I remember, you know, professor and and also professor art, just there were everybody's elated, you know, just excited. Then I went on and I'd be my second guy and they're like, wow, dude, like Joe, he's coming out of his shell now. You know, that was fun. And then um, and then I went and trained and competed at master worlds and, um, I'd be in my first guy with a triangle. So I had all those fights. I knew I could do it. I was subbing him. And then the second guy, I went against. I had him in a triangle but I just blew out my legs, got too tired and he passed my guard, beat me. So that was it. And then I just took a long as a break. I'm like I'm one, I'm good, I'm good, I don't need to compete anymore. Now it was, it's good.
Speaker 2:And.
Speaker 1:I don't think competition is for everybody. You know it's. It's not for every person and I encourage it because it's a good way to test yourself.
Speaker 2:But yeah, that's, that's how I look at it.
Speaker 2:Like, if I'm not able to test what we're doing and I think I talk about this in the last podcast um, if I'm not able to test what I'm doing, how do I know it's going to work Right? Right Like we're in the dojo training and we're kind of at a drilling pace, right Like, making sure that we get all the angles to get where we're supposed to be right, and then you go into a live situation in your dojo. Well, everybody's just finished training this. Everybody knows what we're doing, right, so it's not the easiest place to get those submissions per se.
Speaker 1:Yeah, everybody's aware.
Speaker 2:So when you like open mats, a good opportunity to try stuff, right. But in competition, those open mat, if you go enough, those guys kind of see what your game is right and you and it goes both ways right, like. But in a competition if you never competed against that person, you need to play your game and see if it works.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Right, and if it doesn't, then okay, go back to the drawing board and see why or what you can do different. Right, but like one one guy I knew this is many moons ago when I trained karate. The guy was like a belt above me and at the bar I'd gotten a bar fight came back to the gym and he's like none of that shit worked.
Speaker 2:I got my ass beat Tai Chi, isn't it and after that, like I don't even think he lasted another month after, like he, he got in the fight, it was. He was gone for like a week. He came back and he still had bruising on his face and then he, him and I talked about it and he's like, yeah, that shit didn't work, man. So if, at the end of the day, like, most of what we're doing is self-defense right, yeah, some sort of self-defense to protect yourself, right. And if, if you can't test it in a competition or even an open mat, like open mats, fairly good to try your stuff, to try your game. But if you, if you can't test it, then how do you know, in the time that you need it is, is it, are you gonna be able to perform that?
Speaker 2:yeah yeah, I say perform, but are you gonna be able to execute?
Speaker 1:yeah, yeah the one thing, too, that it's interesting. You brought that up because I I love to cross train and I do like open mats and a lot of times you know your, your holes are exploited in terms of like what you, you know what you know and you don't know as well as the other people, right, because it's two different people. And like, if you go often enough, you know they begin to learn your game and you learned our game and kind of know what they're about. But sometimes you don't know at all and they're like me. Maybe you run to that guy who's just like his thing is ankle locks and you're just a little weak in that area and you know you put your foot in the right spot and he gets you boom, okay, cool, like that's his game and you, you know you learn from that point and you go forward.
Speaker 1:You know what I always, I always likened you just to a little bit of like a, like a choreographed, like chaotic but controlled situation, okay. So a lot of times when we're trained, you know, white, blue, purple, brown, black, there's always like, there's the, there's like the initial attack, the initial grip, the initial whatever it is, and then the other person has a set of responses you know, and some of the if you look at it like a graph say, response one to five one is, let's say, three. In the middle is like probably your go-to response, like, okay, so I grab your sleeve, you grab my sleeve, that's probably like a three, and then you got like the two and a four and five and a one and it's it fans out, and these ones are a little more risky, but you have a set of responses and they're almost always gonna be like a certain set okay. So if I grab your collar, you're most likely gonna posture, you're gonna grab two hands, you're gonna break a grip or whatever. Those are your own, like your most common things.
Speaker 1:If I grab you in a, you know I get your back. Okay, what your first things you're gonna do? Protect your neck, try to peel off a hook, scoot your butt down. There's certain things. We know these things because we're trained right, we're trained. My favorite thing in the world is when a when you start running to like a six month white belt, because a six month white belt doesn't know any of those things. They know some right, but they don't have that full breadth of like responses and so I feel like I learn a lot from white belts, because you grab a grip and what do they do?
Speaker 2:they try to run away you know they do, they do like they don't do a response one, two, three, four, five.
Speaker 1:They're doing like something so different. Or you grab an arm and they're not doing like little shrimp moves to escape their hip. They're not doing, they're not holding the defenses that you're used to. They give you something completely out of the playbook, right, and so it's like they're not indoctrinated into that choreography of. What you just do is and it's like I do this, you do that. Okay, you got that, now I'm gonna do this. And then now it's like this, boom, boom, it's like this dance, boom, boom, boom. And whoever can do that dance the best and whoever can win is gonna win.
Speaker 1:But a white belt just gives you something so different every single time. And I run into you know really, really athletic white belts and young blue belts who they, they have a whole another like set of like responses and I feel like I'm just it's fun to roll them because they're wild. You know that little spazzy and stuff like that, and I don't know some people, some people, like some black boats, will shy away from it and say I don't want to roll that guy, just I'm like this. Why not like give a guide opportunity, like I feel like I'm still that white belt. You know, rolling with the black was always a privilege. Yeah, and if you're a white belt out there and where the map you asked me to roll, I'm definitely a role. I'm not gonna be offended. Oh, you can't ask me. You know, like, nah, man, like that's happened to me.
Speaker 1:I'm not. I'm not truly about that. Like I get it, you know, and I'm not about that, like I'm too good for you and like dude, we're all the same, you know.
Speaker 2:We just have a different belt at the moment yeah, the way I look at it, like it over math out, I want to. Whatever belt I am, I want to roll like I don't, like I'm blue belt, right, I'm not. I'll roll with all the white belts, I don't care, right. But I want to roll with the purple's, the brown, yeah, the black yeah, you want to give yourself a.
Speaker 1:You know, you really want to test it. You want to know what's up it.
Speaker 2:It just gives me more perspective of where I am right.
Speaker 2:Right, but you can't go in and smash everybody and think you're at this level if you never tested against those other guys that smash you right yeah like that humbling experience, just like when, when I go open Matt and I roll with those upper belts, if I could survive without getting subbed, you know I'm doing fine. Right, like I count that as a win. Right, you know, versus it, you know you could roll with the white belts and maybe you sub them, maybe you don't, maybe you hold position it, but you should be able to write your the upper belt right, like that's, that's kind of how I look, like I I want to roll with those guys to make sure that I'm still doing stuff correctly, but I still want to roll with the upper belts because that's where my test is right, like if I could, we want to open that. Last last weekend in conquered and I rolled with the brown belt and it like it's hard to get guys my size right.
Speaker 2:Like the heavier right, super heavy weight, right, right. Well, there was a brown belt there first round and it was open, matt, and it was 10 minute rounds, wow, nice. Yeah. But I was able to pass his guard and like I isolated his arm and I like then I got to the thinking right, I've slowed down and kind of froze right, like I got to this position and then I didn't use it and afterwards he's like that was like you had really good pressure, you did really like your positioning was pretty good, he's all.
Speaker 1:I was really concerned when you isolated my arm and I was like, great, like I was really concerned that you were gonna sweep me but to be able to do little things like that, like I, I passed his guard, I mean yeah it's just a little wins, yeah, a little wins that really add up, and kind of saw part of that journey, you know like, like hey, I pastured, I passed his guard up a upper belt.
Speaker 1:That's pretty amazing, you know. And so I just build those little blocks and kind of keep creating that fundamentals and and eventually, before I know it, you're like your goal is not that, your win is not, oh, I passed his guard. Your, your win is that you top-mounted them and you come word them or you poke them or you arm bar them. So it's just, with time it all comes and I just tell everybody like man, be patient, you know, don't, don't stress about what you're, what you're not doing, because your body will just begin to learn it and then that thinker party is gonna go, is gonna kind of go away, and your body will just move. You know the muscle memory, you'll just go up and just always stick with training, like I I don't know, I wouldn't change it for anything yeah, like rolling with that guy that day, like I had that in my mind it was a little win right.
Speaker 2:And then he competed this past weekend at master world, yeah, and he made the podium nice, and I was like, oh I know that guy.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's nice man so it was good.
Speaker 2:Yeah, like seeing other people successful. And you like, did I hang with that guy? Not necessarily. You know, I had one good moment in a 10 minute round, yeah, you know. Yeah, let's not talk about the other nine minutes and 30 seconds. Right, like he smashed on me. Yeah, I got back and for like a week my ribs were sore from the pressure, yeah, you know. So it you know like, but testing yourself, I think, is one of the things that, for me, like I need to to be able to do that so that I know that it's functional.
Speaker 2:Right, you know right so yeah, so, uh, outside of jiu-jitsu, what what kind of hobbies do you have? I don't do anything. Yeah, I said my garage bullshit.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I tend to attend it like I told you earlier, man, I really just get into things, I just dive into things and I don't just put everything into it. And I've, I've done a lot of things, like I guess you know I I one point owned a brewery here in town, so I thought that was pretty cool, was like a restaurant never owned a restaurant or a brewery in my life, got into a partnership, worked it out and here I am now the owner of that that brewery and you know it didn't last. We went through a really tough time with the economy. We went with the COVID. It was a struggle to make that work and I think that just this town alone is just it's tough to be in the restaurant business period right, and I think that anybody will say that. So totally no regrets out of that. And the only thing is that you know, I learned a lot about myself and my limitations. I learned a lot about, like, if you put your mind to something, you could do it. And I said to myself that you know, I'd like to be a part of this business and I just made it happen and, you know, just took that momentum and I applied it to other parts of my life.
Speaker 1:So right now my wife and I she she's a primary owner but she has a barbershop so we run that. It's nice. It feels good to say that. You know we're small business owners. I have a strong entrepreneur spirit inside of me that I got want to do more things. I do barbecue catering on the side, so we have done, you know, big events, festivals, weddings, so forth, that I don't push too much anymore. It's just something I do for fun. I think more or less. But you know there's a lot of, a lot of things that I'm now being more, I guess, more selective and when I or how I put my time towards things, so right now it's not so much on like trying to get into another business, it's not that it's right now. My boys are tweaking our teens. So you know, 17 and 13, I like just give them all the attention and all the love and all the time I can, and most of times they have their phone, their faces in their phones.
Speaker 1:But I'm like, hey, phones off the table or whatever you know, and we try to do things. At one point my oldest son and I were in a in a dart league and we went all the way to Reno and he, he got so good he's, he can legitimately just hit like bull's-eye, like one after the other, and you'll see we have a dart board right here. We play a lot and he's so good at it, you know, and he just he has a little bit of like that me in him, where he, once he gets into something, he just goes for it and just wants to be the best at it right not that I'm ever the best you know.
Speaker 1:Like. What is that saying? Like Jack of all trades, master of none right yeah, and that's, that's the thing you know just like I know a lot of things, but I don't.
Speaker 1:I'm not the best at it, you know, and I just have a good time with it. But yeah, we went to Reno and do a little like a league and it was like a West, the kind of like a West regional, west Coast thing, and he took he, he took first place in his division and him, he and I did really well as a team and it was fun. It was just it was fun to just be and like be a part of that little journey with him and yeah, I think we're gonna get back into that. But yeah, and that, you know, just I'm right after that play that for everybody. It's so funny. I love it, dude. But we got him a nice camera.
Speaker 2:He won't use it Until until the wheels really fall off that other one up. We're good that things hanging. Oh, you're gonna. That's on the stretcher, okay.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I forgot what I'm talking about. No, so we were. You know, we're talking about competition, I think. And so when I I got my black belt and I feel like it's very it's still a lot to do with it. There's still a lot to do with it and I want to, I really want to continue to contribute back to the students and and bring up. You know, we have a ton of, like, young competitors that are so hungry. We recently had a kid who was visiting Mexico and he competed in Guadalajara, and this kid is so good man, he just hip tosses everybody, puts him on the ground, top mount arm bar. He's just got a rhythm, you know, and we have a.
Speaker 1:We have a small group of young competitors and that's where I really want to focus. My attention is just bring them up and, and you know, give them the best experience that they can have in terms of, like, what you know, what we can, what we can do for them. And you know, and it's, it's nice man, and we just recently promoted, you know, tony to black belt, which is just amazing and I'm so excited for him. And so now at our school, we have four black belts knocking on the door for a couple more and Any any time of the week you come to our class, you're gonna range to black belt, which is which is huge for this town. You know, this town is so little and it's still growing, but it's just nice, you know. It's nice to know that we got a lot of experience there.
Speaker 1:That's cool, yeah, so we have still a lot to do you know, still lots to do, and that's where I'm gonna Turn my my attention and focus back to that Just hang out the family and, just, you know, take a step back from trying to own a business, I guess. But at the same time, I still have a desire for something like that. I still want to, I still want to do something, but not right now.
Speaker 2:I right now. So the barbecue. I'm just gonna ask about the Barbie because you you're pretty like the Time at the brewery you had. You have a pretty good setup.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, my brother and I have a trailer smoker. Like it's huge, you know, yeah, and it's yeah, it's fun, like it's a science. You know, I think a big part of my personality is like I try to like learn how to do things and like I want to like reverse engineer it and see how it was like made or how was done or whatever. Like in Owning the brewery, I learned how to make beer. So I'm interested in, like now, the brewing process, and that's a science too. It's there's like water, chemicals, there's. There's so much to it, you know there's there's so much to the process that I love. You know, like you have to ferment the yeast at the right temperature and you have to like get the rat, add all the right flavors and things like the hops Everything you need to know how to make beer. Like I'm interested in that process. So I'm such a nerd when it comes to things like that's.
Speaker 1:Why would you get to it? It was like the endless possibility of like things that can happen. Right, you're sparring with somebody who's a different level than you. You're sparring with somebody who's a different body type than you and on top of that, too, you're sparring with somebody who may have been even a different mentality Than you, and that day maybe they just had a bad day, you know. Maybe they had a good day, maybe they're feeling good. So it's an infinite amount of possibilities of jujitsu and grappling, but and there's there's so many. So a big part of me wants to know like, I want to figure those things out. So with barbecue it's the same thing. You know there's so much to it. You can apply so many different techniques to different things and you know I just love to cook a good brisket. Honestly, you know, brisket I just that's my thing, that's my best, my vibe. Yeah, takes a long time. I enjoy a process. So 10, 12, 14 hours, whatever it takes, just let the brisket talk to you.
Speaker 2:Brisket whisper.
Speaker 1:One of the week, let the brisket talk to you. Yeah, there you go. But yeah, man, you know I I need to, I need to get, maybe make a big, big barbecue. I'll hang out and just do a little little thing. That'd be cool.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that'd be dope. So what's? What's your most memorable moment? What's you just did?
Speaker 1:I think Probably two things that stand out would be Winning my first match by submission and just kind of validating that I knew I could do it and I really had to just persevere through losing so many times, like Not a single win at Whitebell, not a single win at Bluebell, and that's pretty hardcore, like a lot of times I think people would have just decided to quit.
Speaker 1:You know, there might have been like Like bro, I suck, like I need to stop doing this, you know, and there was always that little voice in your head. But I'm quite stubborn, I feel like you know I was, I felt I knew I was learning a life skill and I was like I'm just gonna keep going for it. So winning my first match at Purple and and submitting the guy was like a big moment for me, mm-hmm. And then my second big moment was getting my black belt, because I was the first black belt awarded from Professor Savage and I went from White belt to black belt with him. So I didn't go anywhere else. I did cross train, you know but, I never.
Speaker 1:I never took any, like you know, consistent classes from anybody else. It was just from him, and and I was really like proud of myself to achieve that moment where I got so far in my journey that you know he felt that I was ready for a black belt and so it's just, it was good, it was a good moment. I mean, I can go as far as saying that I think I was like the first black belt in Los Vanos other than him. He moved here, but he, in terms of who started from white to black. I think I can claim that and it's kind of cool. I don't know anybody else in town. That's like a white belt to black belt.
Speaker 2:You know Jiu-Jitsu, so it's a big accomplishment in town.
Speaker 1:Yeah, exactly, yeah, exactly. You know, I think it's a big deal. I totally home ground, totally from here. You know, small town Jiu-Jitsu is always our little hashtag, our little motto, and you know anybody who comes to visit our school, they Anytime. We compete out on the circuit.
Speaker 2:We've had some people, some adults compete and you did okay, so what kind of advice would you have for the Older new athlete, or even in any new athlete, towards Jiu-Jitsu I?
Speaker 1:Think that you know, just, consistency is probably Probably the biggest thing. Man, just show up to the mats Train. Don't ask too many questions about when you're gonna get your next promotion, nobody cares about that, just Come in and enjoy your journey. You know, hey, make, make good friends, make, make, make build good relationships with, with those people you're gonna have, because you never know when you building that relationship with another Training partner doesn't matter their age. You know younger, middle, you know older, mm-hmm, you don't know, like what you're contributing to that other person too. So, right, you know you being on the mat is Is one thing, but you being on the mat and then talking to the other person, maybe they're going through a hard time, maybe they're going through a struggle that you don't know about, but you know you building that relationship with them, that's a that's important too. So contributing to it, so being consistency, you know, just, be a good human. You know, if you're a big strong guy, I don't try to go rip off heads. Everybody's got to go to work on Monday. Yeah, you know most people, nobody wants to hurt anybody. So persevere through that, you know. And and stay consistent.
Speaker 1:If you, if you get a little injury, I mean I, I could tell you that One time I dislocated my thumb in class it was Scott and I. Just to go back really quick on, when I started I Probably weighed like about 165, 170 ish, and Scott was always about 195. He's always about 195 and he's pretty strong, right and. And then he had his kids in there, kyle and Kimmy and Cameron, like the little kids right there, little. And so my biggest challenge was just training with Scott, because I knew he was stronger, bigger, had more technique and I just, and I would literally, you know, he would just hand it to me every time in the most polite way he could and and I would come back for more, come back for more, come back for more.
Speaker 1:Well, then another day, not too long after I started, another gentleman started. His name is Mike and Love Mike man he's. He's been there almost since the beginning of my journey as well, mm-hmm, and he's come once a week on Monday's, religiously, once a week, once a week every day. That guy's probably like six, three, roughly, and he weighs probably around to 220, 230, but he's muscular, he's a, he's a bodybuilder, strong, little old enemy. But here we go, another big, strong guy coming in just wrecking me and you know, but I still came back for more, came back for more and I would get little injuries I get no next strain and whatever you know, but I just kept going, I never stopped, I never stopped Right.
Speaker 1:And then the classes grew and they, they, they swelled and they shrunk and I swelled and they shrunk and people come and go and Me and Mike were just like those two consistent characters to the store. He kept coming, kept coming, kept coming. And then, you know, then other people showed up, like we have, tony showed up and Rita and other people, and Jesse, you know, other people showed up and Him and I still consistent, consistent, consistent. And we both aged, you know, and we both went through different things, like I actually, you know, had a child and we bought a house and, you know, gone through cars, like I got through a couple jobs, I've gone through things, but all those things it's like it's all in the rear view mirror. You know it's all happened already. So Jiu-Jitsu was always there, it was always a constant, it was, it was a consistent, structured routine for me. It was nice and it was very nice, like you still built the relationships with people, you know, of course. Now I know, like Mike and his family, and we know Tony and his family, and you know you get to meet people's families and then you contribute to the kids that are coming up and learning and so yeah, it's.
Speaker 1:If it's somebody come in new to do Jiu-Jitsu, and it doesn't matter your age, I think, just stick with it. If you really want to do it, just stick with it. And I there was a point I told my wife. I said I'm going to class on my days. Don't ask me to do anything else. That's my day, that's my day. And and she agreed with that she's like that's cool, you know like I get it, you know, want your time and and and you know we did it. So, yeah, she trained as well. My wife became a blue belt too and she trained for a long time. She had an injury that took her out of it, but for the most part she's strong, feisty, tough and she just like she loved it, man, and she talks about getting back into it and I hope she does. So we'll see what happens. That'd be cool. Yeah, I mean, that'd be nice.
Speaker 2:It's cool to do it with your, to have that support. Yeah, support each other, yeah.
Speaker 1:I tried to get the kids with my boys to do it. Um, they weren't into it. Like they tried it, but they weren't into it and I just wasn't gonna force on them, you know they, you can't it's, it's my passion.
Speaker 1:I can't force my onto somebody else. So you know, it's like we love it, we talk about it, but it's not something you could force on anybody. So I really don't talk about you, do it to you that much, unless somebody asked me about it, that's it. I really don't like I go to work and maybe some people there like a lot of people there Don't know I even do it, you know, and if it comes up in conversation I might like kind of allude to it and then if it spawns additional conversation then I'll talk about it, but usually I don't.
Speaker 2:Has she just you touched your life today?
Speaker 1:No, Now I'm just kind of in the shadows. If it comes to me, it comes to me, you know. If not, and I, if I do get into a conversation, then I really, really want that person to do it like I want to.
Speaker 2:I think I think it'd be.
Speaker 1:I think it'd be really good. I think of law enforcement, I think they need to do it. I think all law enforcement should be like minimum, blue belt, minimum, you know what I mean. Like just train a little bit, you will understand. I've been on that kick for a little while.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you'll see, I interviewed two police officers, like with within the last few episodes, yeah, and the one we're talking about, the purple belt at master worlds. Yeah, he's a police officer, okay so yeah, he won as a blue belt and right world yeah.
Speaker 1:And see, and I trust a person in a person of power, in a position of power like he is, I trust that person a little more with, with you know, his weapons and stuff like that, because I feel like it just the confidence in the Jiu-Jitsu gives you it's like I don't.
Speaker 1:I don't necessarily have to like pull out my weapons and, you know, shoot this dude or tasers dude or whatever I mean, don't get me wrong, like I'm, I'm I've never done law enforcement, I'm not a law enforcement, but just from an outsider perspective and what I know about Jiu-Jitsu, like I feel like it could be applied in A way that can help the situation, not hurt. You know, you and I, we know how to Look at somebody and kind of size them up. You and I know how and if we can close the distance effectively enough to Win a situation like that. Why do we know that? Because we've done grappling for so long. We know right away. You know, like, when I go out to environments, I Want to know who's in my environment. I like to know, like what's around me, you know. I like to know, like, if somebody comes at me, can I, can I like trip them over that chair and then you know like.
Speaker 1:I'm gonna do like random scenarios. I don't know if it's just me, but I think we all do that right.
Speaker 2:We all do that.
Speaker 1:We like walking with my boys and my wife and I'm like, okay, am I gonna have to protect my family right now? Right, who here is probably gonna be? Who's gonna be that one person? Oh, that guy, he looks pretty strong, you know, but then nothing happens. Because I'm just like the total, like I'm such a, I'm just so chill, right. So I know confrontations is the goal, but yeah, but long-forged man, they need to know that, they need to know it. There's, there's a big push out there for them to do it, somebody's. I Wish it would just become a wall. Like you gotta go training for a couple years beforehand, like in boot camp, like they do the post academy. They do some close combat. They do like like a little, like a little spin-off, some like combatives, I guess, like from military. But the post academy should include like an entire like grappling curriculum in it, you know what's crazy is, talking to both those guys, the the mandated Time to train right a?
Speaker 2:I'm not. I'm not quite sure if it's a year or two years, because one of them said a year, one of them said two years Eight hours, oh yeah, no, I believe it. That's it. Yeah, I know and I'm like holy shit.
Speaker 1:It comes down to. It comes down to funding and it comes down to like time. Because I remember Talking to somebody when I worked here at the city. I was, I knew all the lot of the officers and investigators and they would do defensive tactics and they have mats out and they would be doing like scenarios, right, and I went in there and I just observed and I was watching them. They're doing, they're doing grappling right, but they're not doing anything that I could see that was worth anything. It was like you know, I would have that gun already, like I would have the gun and it would be a bad day for you, you know.
Speaker 1:And the point is like it's like the untrained or teaching the untrained, and I think that's, I think that's actually very bad, I think it's really bad, but it comes down to funding. So the reason I asked them, I said, well, how often do you guys do this? And they're like oh well, you know, when the economy is good, we're doing this once a month. I said, okay, I mean, you know, that's not terrible, right? Once a month you get some, you get a couple hours in, you get, you know, all these people together. And then he said but when the economy, you know, tanked or we don't have funding, we do it like once every six months. I'm like that's not useful at all, like you know we're gonna learn anything.
Speaker 2:What are you gonna?
Speaker 1:learn and and it's because, outside of certain contracts they had, it was an overtime situation, so they had to pay people over time to show up. They were not taking it upon themselves to learn it, like on their shift it couldn't say anyway. So, long story short, they need to find a way to mandate, you know, some kind of training regimen in law enforcement, so like they can just, so they can just piggyback on what we know and use that in their everyday life and and scope it around the safety of the officer. Make sure that they're doing things the right way, not right. You know how to like, manage your distance if you need to, and how to retain your gun if you're attacked, and how to get up when somebody's Amounted you are on top of you and striking you or whatever. Those are the things that they should learn. I mean, anybody should learn those things right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, the photos officers that I interviewed, both of them work for BJJ cops. It's a affiliate like a. They go around and do seminars for law enforcement okay law enforcement officers, emts, like anybody. First responders.
Speaker 1:Yeah, anybody who's in the public safety.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so Mario is doing one with the owner of BJJ cops. They're coming to Napa, here In like three weeks. Oh, that's cool. So there's a seminar coming up for BJJ cops, for all first responders there, and one of the guys, mario, who I recently interviewed, is Law enforcement in Salinas. Okay, so he's one of the instructors for that pretty good class, and then they're gonna have another one. I think he was telling me it's in November and it's gonna be at a peninsula. Oh, and friends now, and you, you, you, you, you, you.