Ever wished you could peek into the mind of a martial arts expert ? Today, we invite you into the inspiring world of Alika Foster, a Brown belt in Jiu-Jitsu hailing from Tracy, California. Embark on a captivating journey as he shares his experiences, from his initial foray into boxing to his deep dive into Jiu-Jitsu and wrestling. His narrative of personal growth, honed by the raw mental environment he was raised in, could be the inspiration you need.
Transitioning from military to civilian life is no easy feat. But Alika Foster's discipline, inculcated during his time in the military, coupled with his experience and respect garnered through Jiu-Jitsu, helped him face the challenges head-on. His journey from being a regular at the gym to owning one and becoming a head instructor is nothing short of inspiring. Whether it's the fitness goals you're struggling to meet or that dream project you've been meaning to start, Alika's story is a testament to the fact that anything is possible with dedication and hard work.
Alika's perspective on competing and training in Jiu-Jitsu is refreshingly unique. With his goals shifting from competing to helping others compete, he offers invaluable insights into the significance of skill development, staying motivated, and ensuring injury-free training. As he shares about his family's journey in martial arts and his approach to parenting, the importance of maintaining mental health despite challenges becomes evident. So, if you're seeking a blend of motivation, discipline, and the essence of martial arts, this episode with Alika Foster is just the ticket!
Ever wished you could peek into the mind of a martial arts expert ? Today, we invite you into the inspiring world of Alika Foster, a Brown belt in Jiu-Jitsu hailing from Tracy, California. Embark on a captivating journey as he shares his experiences, from his initial foray into boxing to his deep dive into Jiu-Jitsu and wrestling. His narrative of personal growth, honed by the raw mental environment he was raised in, could be the inspiration you need.
Transitioning from military to civilian life is no easy feat. But Alika Foster's discipline, inculcated during his time in the military, coupled with his experience and respect garnered through Jiu-Jitsu, helped him face the challenges head-on. His journey from being a regular at the gym to owning one and becoming a head instructor is nothing short of inspiring. Whether it's the fitness goals you're struggling to meet or that dream project you've been meaning to start, Alika's story is a testament to the fact that anything is possible with dedication and hard work.
Alika's perspective on competing and training in Jiu-Jitsu is refreshingly unique. With his goals shifting from competing to helping others compete, he offers invaluable insights into the significance of skill development, staying motivated, and ensuring injury-free training. As he shares about his family's journey in martial arts and his approach to parenting, the importance of maintaining mental health despite challenges becomes evident. So, if you're seeking a blend of motivation, discipline, and the essence of martial arts, this episode with Alika Foster is just the ticket!
Welcome back to the old grappler. Today I'm here in Tracy, california, with Alika. Yes, sir, I'll let you introduce yourself where you train what belt level you are and we'll come from there For sure.
Speaker 2:My name is Alika Foster. I look at the camera and I look at you. Good, my name is Alika Foster, trained out in Tracy, california. Originally from Stockton. I'm a brown belt under Javier Gomez and Kalani Foster and have been training for upwards of 20 years now. It's a long, pretty long, long fucking journey.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I started when I was eight, nine, 2004. That's when I started.
Speaker 1:Just in the youth program.
Speaker 2:Not even when I started, like back in the early 2000s. It was so how do you call it? Like raw and pretty mental. I just started because my dad started training in the man. At the time I grew up doing boxing and the screamer. We were already in martial arts but he was just taking me to the gym. It's a place called the Ice House in downtown Stockton. We were just beating the shit out of each other all the time.
Speaker 2:The guy introduced to the ground game by one of his friends at the time, my uncle Alfred. He was like yeah, you have hands, but how can you do on the ground? After one of the Jetsi class, my dad was like hey, you got to come with me If anything. Just sit and watch. I was just a young kid off the side of the mat watching everybody roll. Then after a while they started bringing me on rolling with the lighter adults and stuff like that. I actually started taking pretty well. So I started from there and I was the only kid at the time. It was pretty fun, it was an honor, an honor experience.
Speaker 1:To be in the adult class is the kid right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it wasn't anything too different from what I've experienced before, because I was always the young kid with the older guys training. We were doing a screamer boxing in the backyard and I always be the younger one getting the moves tried on. So the environment or just being there wasn't necessarily awkward or new for me. It was just exciting. I was like I'm not sitting on the fucking couch anymore Just twiddling my thumbs. I could actually do something. So it was a good outlet for me. The next thing, you know, I started wrestling soon after and then just grappling for me kind of took off.
Speaker 1:So the wrestling, just like on the youth level.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I started wrestling a little bit sometime after I started GSU and then started my youth wrestling at Stockton Elite. We used to be at St Mary's High School and then went all the way up to high school, went to Lincoln all four years and then wrestled for Lincoln. Yeah, you said you coach at Los Banos. Yeah, I know a few guys from Los Banos, rico Quintana. Yes, I mean, we were on the national team together, national and regional teams together. So I know a group of those guys.
Speaker 1:So there was a group of those guys, then there's like seven of them and they still all hang out, like my son's one of them. That's what's up? Yeah, and the wrestling part that's taken me to coaching wise has taken me like outside of California quite a few times For sure, to get that in. That's crazy Small world.
Speaker 2:Small world, small world, yeah, like in Rico. I know there was another Rico, it was a taller one.
Speaker 1:That's my son.
Speaker 2:That's your son. Yeah, marcus, he's pretty, he's funny, he's a cool guy. If you asked me about we asked me about Idaho. We had a good time in Idaho. Yeah, yeah, it was fun, had Western Regionals out there, took trips to the hot springs. You know, training was crazy too. I remember being in that camp for two weeks just with the amount of talent in one room.
Speaker 1:So it was a nuts yeah.
Speaker 2:It was probably like the best training I've had as far as wrestling goes in a cool minute at that time.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's funny, it's cool. Small world, small apparel, small apparel. No, my kid.
Speaker 2:Shout out to your son.
Speaker 1:Cool. So getting into Jiu-Jitsu like how long were you training before you started competing?
Speaker 2:So I think I probably started competing pretty much right away. I said we could fight tournaments, not the time. It wasn't like how it is now. Cbbl was around still. You know, you walk into high school gym $20 registration fee for whatever division you want to sign up for. So we would just go to like NJC or fucking one of these junior colleges where they were holding them at, and they would be the same time they would do like Taekwondo in the back of the gym and then in the front have like three, four mass for Jiu-Jitsu and shit. So it was a. We did a lot of those when I was younger and then in high school.
Speaker 2:But in high school I tried to focus more on wrestling. So Jiu-Jitsu was mainly, like you know, on my off time or off season, you know, on the weekends, just to keep up with it. But I took a pretty long break after high school and then joined in the military and then did my, did my three, four years before I came back. What branch Army? Nice, yeah. So it was good, it was fun experience. Yeah, I still trained out there. Just the level of Jiu-Jitsu at the time. It was super basic from when I left here. But then you know, like training on post I was. I was lucky enough to get a spot to work at the fight house on post. So like my last year there, I was just teaching combattice classes through my house and for my company.
Speaker 1:So still training, but different application for the techniques obviously so how did that come about, like, how did you end up being an instructor for the combattice?
Speaker 2:So I got in and I didn't know that there was a fight house there. But after about a year, so they said they were holding a combattice tournament on post. So I, cool, like, signed me up, I want to put my name in there, did the tournament, ended up winning the tournament. And then the master sergeant that ran the ran the files at the time, master sergeant Moseley he walked up to me and was like hey, like seemed like you have experience, you're pretty good. Like, do you want to get fast track through level one, certain level two, so you start teaching? And I was like, yeah, yes, sir, let's do it, that's cool.
Speaker 2:Yes, master sergeant, but then got a rapport with him and then ended up meeting all the guys that were at the fight house. They all took me under their wing and then I was just able to really hone my skills there. As far as coaching and teaching goes, growing up I was always like helping my father out with whatever he was doing as far as martial arts does and coaches coaching, because he did like a lot of a screen with privacy and stuff. So I would always watch him teach and coach. But then by the time I got to New York and I was able to do the whole combatives thing, I was able to really find my style of teaching out there Then you went into the military.
Speaker 1:What level? What level were you? Blue?
Speaker 2:bow. Yeah, so I got my blue bow at 16th yeah, pretty young. I got it in high school and then at the time we were still competing pretty frequently, but I was still jumping between JG2 and wrestling and while I was in high school, I you know the goal was to get a scholarship, go to college and then wrestle somewhere. And then I'm happening that way, but you know, I took a different turn. I still ended up doing what I love at the end. Yeah, it was a blessing in disguise, honestly.
Speaker 1:Yeah, nice. So the combatives there kind of got your feet wet into teaching.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, teaching on my own. Teaching on my own Because normally, like when I would help, assist or run a class, I would always have, like you know, my dad there or a mentor to kind of watch over With me. I kind of had free reign to really do or teach how I wanted. Plus, they made it really easy. Everything was by the books. It was like, as long as I checked these off the list as far as what needs to be learned that day or taught, it was pretty easy, yeah.
Speaker 1:So some kind of curriculum that they had already. Yeah, like predetermined.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they had their own booklets and stuff to follow, so it was pretty easy. As far as teaching those, yeah, they gave me a step. I said I just had to. You know, practice speaking or being in a room full of people trying to control the room. For me that's pretty important as a coach being able to control the room. You know you run around rapid and start talking while you're trying to teach Like motherfucker shut the fuck up Like Jesus Christ, like you know what the fuck I'm teaching right now. No, listen up.
Speaker 1:I think my favorite thing to tell somebody is like when you're talking, can you hear me? It's like it is physically impossible for you to hear me. If you're talking, yes, and they just look at you like what? Yeah?
Speaker 2:They need to stop talking. Yeah, Dude, like don't be confused, man. I mean everyone here like they know pretty much how I teach and how I coach. And then the new people that come in, they take pretty quickly because everybody's trying to get them on track, but I'm not like a hard ass or anything, I'm pretty lenient as far as that goes. You know, like, hey, when we're coming in and I'm trying to show you guys something like listen up, because I'm probably going to show this once, maybe twice, Right, but no, it's teaching out when I was in New York at the fight house was a really good practice for me. A really good practice Also just being out there alone growing up, having to, you know, learn all these life skills without really having any supervision. There was a big challenge too.
Speaker 1:You went to military right out of high school Right out of high school.
Speaker 2:So I graduated and then I was like, all right, well, I had partial scholarships to go to a few colleges, but I didn't want to take those already. I was gonna kind of fuck off anyway. Like, oh, this is the honest mom and dad, I'm just gonna go over there, waste your money You're gonna send me, you know. So I might as well just start working, not just party. Started working party and got old after like three, four months. Once the recruiting office I was like, hey, do you just sign me up for whatever? End up taking a bit longer as far as the process goes.
Speaker 2:Because then my recruiter at the time, staff Sergeant sin. He was a family friend, so the jobs that I wanted to apply for in the beginning, he's like, yeah, no, pick something else. He's like you don't want that job. Well, you're gonna come out fucked up Like you don't want to be like that. I picked something safe. So my job going in was a 92 whiskey, which is the water purification specialist. I was basically a water boy. Yeah, I was basically a fucking water. There's a movie about it with Pauly short. It's called in the army now. But oh, that's the job, that's the fucking job, and I didn't know about that movie up until after I signed up.
Speaker 1:And then I watched the news and then all fucking do this shit.
Speaker 2:By the time you know already signed the paper where I couldn't change my job anymore. It was already in due process of like fucking it Whatever. Yeah, but it had been pretty cool. I learned a lot of shit. I didn't really have to do my job For drum in New York.
Speaker 2:No one really knows about it. It's like America's best kept secret. It's a light infantry unit, so they deploy rapidly all the time and we would always hear horror stories and basic and a it about hey, you don't want to go to New York, you don't want to go to for a jump, cuz they'll shit grass out Like a month. Well, fuck, all right. Well, I don't want to go to New York. And Basic, they give you a sheet and they say, hey, list three places that you want to end up at, list three places you don't want to go. Number one for me was New York. I don't want to go to New York, I'm all orders You're going to do. It was like you fucking Mother fuckers man, should have sent me to Korea. I Hear better shit about Korea but ended up in New York. And then you know, luckily Company I was in, I Got there. I had just missed the deployment. So I like missed it by a week.
Speaker 2:Everybody I'd already left, and then by the time they came back we were ready to go ahead and deploy like three, four other times. I even volunteered twice. They all fell through, so it just wasn't meant to be. Yeah, after my last one I volunteered, for I was supposed to go to Honduras on a humanitarian mission. It was gonna be a pretty sweet deal too. They're gonna give him my own squad. I was gonna go ahead and run my own missions and then that fell through. I was already Coming up on my last year and they asked me if I wanted to re-up. I was like, nah, you had your chance to use me. He's getting me the fuck out. Like I'm good, you know, trying to throw bonuses at my way and shit. I'm like no, I don't want a bonus, I Just want to get here. I'm gonna go back home.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I See a lot of the guys are like Do that term and that's it on the word.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, you know I'm not gonna say it was a bad experience, it wasn't, it's just it was really easy. You know, you just have to show up right place, right time, right uniform. You know fall direction. So as far as that goes, it's like it was really easy. It's just having to deal with people, and then there's always a new rotation of people every two, three years. You're never staying one spot for long, unless you want to stay there, you know.
Speaker 2:And that is kind of Going in. It wasn't what I expected it to be. You know, I thought it was gonna be pretty hard nose and they're gonna like push each other in there, this and that you know what you see in the movies and stuff Wasn't like that at all, so it kind of turned me off in the beginning, I think.
Speaker 1:So I kind of have the same kind of thought when I went to basic.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Nothing Compares to a two hour wrestling practice. I know right, yeah. So when I went and In mind you so wrestling season ended I went right out of high school to nice. Uh, wrestling season ended. I was 170 pounds working out every day.
Speaker 2:Yeah right.
Speaker 1:And then I Went to golf team nice, walking the you know the fairways and yeah, put on 40 pounds fun.
Speaker 1:When it was time to leave, the recruiter was like what the fuck happened? I was alone, not fucking, wrestling, no more, you know. Yeah, so I had private boom go. And I was like, fuck, this is gonna suck even more now. But I, boot camp was Easy. Yeah, boot camp was came like I couldn't Go, you see, like you said, you see the movies and the. They got in our face. They yelled, but Fuck, that was used to that. My dad was a mean too shit. I was like, okay, this, I Went through that. We're already getting down to the wire on finishing boot camp and they were like Trying to get me to change MOSes, like no, we need you to do this. I'm like, fuck that, I'm cool. Like I have a plan. Yeah, you're not gonna change me from my plan. And uh, yeah, but they, towards the end, like they would bring, bring me up, like they did the shortest, the tallest, the shortest, always in the back. They would bring me up to like combat with the other big guys.
Speaker 1:Yeah, probably because of the wrestling right like, but Towards the end, one of my drill structures was like I'm like heavily recreating me to do something else and I'm like, I'm cool. Yeah, I'm alright. Yeah, I don't need to change what my thought process is. Yeah no for sure. Like I have a plan and I'm gonna use the military for school and all.
Speaker 2:You guys and I'm trying to get you and like now you can switch this job. You're like 20,000 bonus, you be set like nah, nothing what I hear.
Speaker 1:Yeah we're straight and now it's like shit, I don't even know. Now I'm. Sometimes I see some of the guys that are coming in.
Speaker 2:Man, it's crazy, honestly. That's that's what surprised me the most, me going in the basin, you seeing like the kind of people coming in Versus the people that make it. It's surprising what it's like. It's a private. They even let you Sign up anyway, you know, because you would think that they have some some sort of you know Requirement, I guess. I guess you just able-bodied, right, you're volunteering, so Look at what else are you gonna do?
Speaker 2:I'm gonna try to whip you back in a shade. I'm trying to push you in a shade, I'm gonna try and mold you and then, hey, all you have to do is follow it. You good, yeah, it was, it was, it was fun, basic, it wasn't that hard at all, that we had our shark week and that wasn't even crazy. And, like you know, falling orders falling orders is pretty fucking easy, like growing up, my parents like super hard on me growing up, so I was always pretty respectful and disciplined. Anyway, right, coming in just like being quiet and saying, yes, real, sorry to know it was hard, it wasn't a thing. Some people really had a problem with that. I do it. Oh, yeah, you just shut the fuck up.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I do you guys. Yes or no, sir?
Speaker 2:and yeah, that's it. And then and then that experience Kind of turned me off. But the experience like, say, in the barracks and stuff, was pretty fucking fun. We would always have. We thought it was like five nights on Friday nights and Sundays, like basically all weekend, we run our own combative stuff. They're like all right, well, we're not throwing hands, but you know how to wrestle. You know our grapple and I'm I was more with a quiet guy, but everybody would always come up to me anyway because my ears I just like looking like not on the shit.
Speaker 2:See, that was so much trying to call me out. I'm fucking everybody up, taking their commissary making some money. Yeah, good people coming you become as a basic was fun in that regard and a lot of respect from people. And then that kind of helped carry over to a it about the time I got to poorly Virginia, like there was already people talking and I would like go around and see my name tape like, oh, your session such from Offal company 213, right, I'm like yeah, I do your bubble. I heard your badass dog. I know that ain't me wrong guy.
Speaker 1:Trying to keep it hush hush.
Speaker 2:Yeah, cuz no. That's the best thing is talking is like I. I never really like getting in fights anyway, and it was only if anyone really tried to press upon me, but no one ever did you know, I don't know, because I don't think I look intimidating. I always thought it probably cuz, whoever who my dad was, but then it was like no, you look like a fucking asshole. No one's a fucking fucking. I didn't leave me alone.
Speaker 1:I get that quite a bit.
Speaker 2:Like you're not approachable, like good I'm so sure right now.
Speaker 1:But yeah, good times, good times so so coming out of the military, getting back into, like training, jujitsu, how did that Transition go?
Speaker 2:man that. So, coming back, my family just opened again the year before in Stockton, got their own place established. I was getting a ball rolling, training right away and I was sparing well, but my technique wasn't there and I was forcing a lot of stuff super out of shape coming out coming back. When I was in I was trying to lift all the time so I was trying to get heavy and I was like, before I get, I'm gonna be like 205, just yoked, couldn't break 200 like. The biggest I got was 195 and I was trying, you know was trying. So I came back I was a little big and I lost hella weight like in a month I think I lost like fucking 15 pounds, probably a couple weeks, but I'll just get my ass kicked. At least is what it felt like.
Speaker 2:So the first year, transitioning, coming back To training hard and then having a transition back in civilian life, it was a fucking roller coaster. You know, trying to figure out what I wanted as far as a career, my life goes, you know. They coming back, having to do the whole family thing and Trying to see where I'm going from here was pretty stressful. Almost quit. Honestly, don't quit jujitsu, I'm a good training? Yeah, just just because, like, I don't see myself Doing this. You know, I don't see myself Getting to know where I am now. Honestly, just as at the time again, I was trying to transition Back in the civilian life. I was fucking going from job to job, seeing what I liked. I knew I didn't want to go to school yet.
Speaker 2:And then, you know, my daughter was just born, a couple years before that show. She was, you know, a baby right. So there was a lot of things on my plate and I didn't think I could really handle it at the time. But I kept training because my daughter, she was on the mats all the time. My family was already on the mats and my baby mama, she started liking it a lot. So she was like you wanna go train today? And I'm like, no, not really. She's like, come on, let's just go, cause she'd be itching and antsy. So I let's go.
Speaker 2:And the next thing, you know, I started started to fall in love with it a little bit more, because now it's like, okay, I can see the whole family aspect of it. It's a little bit different. It's a little different. It's not just about me anymore. Especially when I was younger, it was like just focusing on being a straight killer. You know like it was easy. I didn't have to worry about anybody else. Right Now it's like I don't know, I got to worry about other people. I have to take care of people, not just other people. I have to learn how to take care of myself, and that's a whole different ball game on its own. You know so I can. Self-care is important. I've learned that just recently. You know that I've been neglecting it this whole time.
Speaker 2:But better part of the year so far is it's been getting better. Yeah, Good.
Speaker 1:Yeah, good. So when did you decide this was gonna be, or how did you become the head instructor? You're the owner of this one.
Speaker 2:Heart owner.
Speaker 1:Heart owner.
Speaker 2:Heart owner, javier Gomez. He's a head owner, he's the head guy. I don't know as far as our affiliation goes, but so it was like. Growing up, I always had a dream of running my own gym and then living in it one day. It was like that was the thing. You know Especially how I grew up. This is all I wanted to do. And then I didn't see that for myself in high school or especially right after I came back. But I came back in 2017.
Speaker 2:The end of that year, part of the beginning of 2018, I remember I was bullshitting with my best friend, nico, and he trains out in Stockton at my dad's place. We were bullshitting in my apartment one day and I told him him and my baby mama I was like, in five years I'm giving myself five years I'm gonna run my own gym. I'm gonna run a gym, I'm gonna teach full time and my best friend, he's all hyping me up. And then my big mama she was like, all right, well, how are you gonna pay the bills? How are you gonna do this? I'm like I don't know, but I'm gonna figure it out, I'm gonna do it some way. But I was really just fucking blowing smoke up in the air.
Speaker 2:I was just talking shit at the time, you know I was like that's what I want, you know like that's what I'm gonna work towards, but I don't know if I'm gonna be able to fucking do it. And then next, you know, a couple of years passed by. I was competing a lot, I had a really good run and then I started, you know, competing a lot more and then started taking training full time seriously.
Speaker 2:You know, so I would like work part time jobs and just train two, three times a day, every fucking day. Oh sure, yeah, like all my free time was devoted to just getting better at my craft. And then, Javier, we had met when I was a teenager 14, 15 years old and we started training back then. We were actually both blue-boats together at the time.
Speaker 2:I was like this is pretty funny. He had already had a few gyms opened up and I was teaching for him in Brentwood. By the time I was thinking about doing this full time Teaching for him about a couple of days out of the week, and I was teaching in Stockton, I found out he was opening this place up. So I was kind of in the middle of deciding whether I was gonna keep doing this or get a started career. You know, before I came here I actually applied to Stockton PD and I was already well on my way to do the phone interview with the investigator or whatever. I missed the call twice because I was trying to hear back from Javi about here and at the time he was like hey, I'm about to be in Turkey for a week. Is it okay if I call you when I get back? I was like sure Week went by. If I can miss two calls from the investigator, I'm like fuck man. He'd leave me messages like hey, if you don't answer the next call, we're gonna pull your resume. So okay. So he called and I told him hey, I'm just kind of waiting on something to happen, like do you mind if you can give me a call back or whatnot, and then I'll let you know if I wanna keep going with this. He's like, yeah, no problem, so Javi comes back, I meet him over here. And it started off just, we agreed that I would just teach, you know, like the morning classes during the week and then help out, like cleaning in the front desk. I was like that's fine, that's cool, like anything to get me in here, you know. So as soon as I got that deal called the guy that was interviewing me. I was like, hey, you can pull my resume, just if you wanna hold on to it, just in case I decide to come back. You know, please do that. So, yeah, we'll hold it for the year. So, all right, cool, never calling them back.
Speaker 2:Then I started teaching here in the mornings and then there's a guy, al Alagura. He's the owner of WAMV versus Neap. He fucking, he had started training with Javi and Mantika and he would come every so often like take my classes. And then he was like convincing me well, hey, like, if this is what you wanna do, like tell Javi that you're available to teach all the classes, not just the morning ones, or not just substituting if someone is out, you know. So I cool. So I started doing that, talked to Javi, pitched him, basically sold him, pitched to him that, hey, I'm your guy, you know like I could be the guy here. And it ended up working out.
Speaker 2:And then for the first year I was here, I was just shadowing Javi and Al with whatever they were doing as far as the business side goes and learning how to make merch and still teaching classes. So I was just running around all the time. There would be nights, like two, three nights, where I wouldn't go home. I would just be here, seep on the mats, have extra training to close with me, start the next day, teach all day and then all night go to Al's house and work or go to Javi's house and work and just repeat the same process. So there was a fucking hustle in the beginning, right.
Speaker 2:And then I came here and I only had two students, only two students. Yeah, it was a one kid well, two, but he had a baby brother, not only to count him and then another one, kyle. He's still trained and he doesn't have hip flexors and he doesn't have feet, so he's in a wheelchair. So trying to get people to come in and train with just a kid and a guy with no feet is a hard sell. Hard sell and pitch to people to try to come over here. So it was a lot of hard work. But now I have a good core group of guys that came in and I sat them down, I talked to them. I was like, hey, dude, I'm gonna get you guys where you wanna be. You just have to trust me. You know this is small right now, but we're gonna grow and a year later we're still here, still thriving. My guys are doing great. Yeah, places built up. I think we have close to 80 students now, so I'm sorry to start with two now. We got 80.
Speaker 2:That's good congratulations, thank you. Thank you Pretty big pretty big people.
Speaker 1:There's a lot of hustle behind the scenes that people don't realize that you have to do right.
Speaker 2:A lot of groundwork. It's a lot of putting yourself out there. You know, and I'm not that kind of guy to really do that. I like to keep to myself most of the time. But man, you gotta do it. If you're the face, you gotta fucking. You have to sell.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I have my own business, I have a swimming pool service Sick, and that was like. One of the things at the beginning was like I don't like going to people. Yeah, Right, yeah. If they call a cool. If they don't cool, right yeah. But then you're like well, I need to answer the phone because I gotta meet people that hate the bills Exactly.
Speaker 2:So it was a fucking challenge, man, and plus I'm not one. I don't do small talk very well, especially with people that may wanna come in and train, you know like either you're gonna come in train or you're not.
Speaker 2:Right. Right Now it's to the point where people come in and like, all right, well, if you wanna come, try to class, come at this time, and we're good, you know, and the mats are full, they could just see. I don't really have to do much talking. I was like kind of the work speak for itself. Now, right so, but in the beginning, man, I hated it. All right, fuck it. I hated talking to people. It was such a chore.
Speaker 1:You get accustomed to it, I guess yeah yeah, accustomed, like now.
Speaker 2:When people come in to ask questions I have a whole script in my head that I just follow, like all right, if I, as long as I hit these three things like the conversation is good, then I could walk away, you know. But now I have a front desk guy. He does most of talking for me. My baby mother, she was helping out for a cool minute. She's working out the my desk. I'm talking to a man. She's doing a lot of the talking but she's not a real people person either.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so I was doing close to the time I met her, the day I came for the group the last time, yeah. I was like man. She seemed to kind of like made me a little mean.
Speaker 2:You can say it, bro. She seemed like a fucking bitch.
Speaker 1:I thought you would say that You're a fucking bitch.
Speaker 2:She has an RBF for sure, yeah, but once you get to talking to her, she's pretty cool.
Speaker 1:She's pretty cool. Yeah, that day I was rolling with, I think, his name's Adam the fireman. I was rolling with him and she was kind of coaching him through some of this stuff and I was like geez, she's like she's just like you haven't let them know. Like, do this, do this? I'm like yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:But I mean it was cool for him you know what I mean, no, for sure, to start coaching him through some of those situations, for sure. I mean I think then I was so white belt too, so it was like I was still learning to listen into. It's funny like all listen to whoever's coaching the other person, right?
Speaker 2:Yeah, and kind of try to fucking counteract whatever they're saying. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:Like I think I competed at the Jiu-Jitsu World League a while back and when I walk out onto the mat, my coach is like talking to me so that I could focus in on what he's saying. Yeah, you know, so I could hear him and drown out everything else. Yeah, and like somewhere midway through that match, it changed to their corners. Yeah, the guy, and it was just everything that they were saying. I was like like I want him to do that. Why would you tell him to do that? I mean, it played out the way I wanted it to. I won. But it's crazy how I focus on that. Yeah, to kind of. Okay, here's the path they're trying to go. They're trying to trap me here. They're trying to open this door. Like I know what you're going for.
Speaker 2:Plus, I'm sure you're like experienced coaching too, like being able to listen and then know exactly what they're talking about. Oh no, like I'm going to stop that. Like it's good. Yeah, I love that. That was cool.
Speaker 1:It was cool meeting her and she definitely like portrays the mean girl. Yeah, yeah for sure, For sure.
Speaker 2:When she gets to talk to her, she's pretty nice, yeah she. Just when she's sitting there, she just looks like a fucking cold piece of work. I'll be honest, it's like I'm not even gonna. I'm not even gonna stun on anything. She could be a fucking real great A B word, but at the same time, I could be a fucking asshole too. So there's a balance there. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's all right. You guys have a happy medium. We, yeah, we have a good understanding. We have a good understanding.
Speaker 1:So you talked about you competing. I've seen like some of the videos that you posted on your IG about you competing, but how has that gone in the recent?
Speaker 2:past, let's see. So let's say, this past year I haven't been competing much past year and a half two years now that I've been here, because I've been focused on trying to build up the gym and then after that once I got like a good group of people established focusing on them. So so a lot of time away from me, but I'm still training is just like I have a different goal now, you know, whereas before, where I was training, competing all the time, like I didn't have to really worry about too many people, you know. But it's cool to see all these younger guys or people coming in have that fire to want to compete, cause now I get more gratification with their wins how they do, you know. Yeah, competing for me now is different.
Speaker 2:A few years ago, when I was competing really heavy, it was like all right, like this is a grind, this is what I want to do, I'm just gonna do it. But then after I got here, I was like, okay, I'm taking kind of a different role now, you know, and as far as competition goes, for me it's just all about experience, like this past year, like I've dabbled in a couple of competitions here and there and haven't fared so great. But I already went in knowing like, look, I may not do too hot today, you know, but I'm gonna go out there have fun. I'm here with my students, we're just gonna have a good time, you know. So really, it's just, whenever I compete, it's just to show.
Speaker 2:You know everybody's like, hey man, it doesn't fucking matter if you win or lose, just go out there, do your thing. You know, you do your best and that's all you can really ask for, right? It's my fault if I didn't prepare anyway. But most of the time, especially this past year, I was like I was going into competitions knowing I'm not prepared at all, you know, but I just want to get out there. That's the thing. But I still love competing. That is still in the cards for me in the future. It's just. Again, I'm taking more joy in seeing everybody else Come up and then do well right, you know you guys have quite a few that compete out of here, right?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I have a good number. I have a.
Speaker 1:I've seen you guys like in the teen pictures, like there's quite a few ads.
Speaker 2:I'm like yeah, yeah yeah, we have a good number of color belts and a white belt stat. You know, have that fire lit under them that want to fucking get out there, which you know it is. But like young and guys are all gung-ho in the beginning, it's trying to keep keep them coming right. Right, because they'll do a tournament here there. They'll go hard for like a month, two months and then fall off like two weeks. I do girl. What do you do exactly Is either a girl or their pussy hurts.
Speaker 2:You know Someone after job pissing mom so they had to be at home and let off steam. They're sick. I've just come train, you know, just come train. Or my favorite one is my friend was oh, like hurt right now, so I'm not gonna come in and train. I was alright, well, if you're hurt, like you could sit on the wall and watch. Yeah, no, like watching the still training. I Encourage that a lot. Especially, it's like alright, well, if you're hurt and you're just gonna set out home and bullshit, right, like you could just be here and bullshit and fucking watch some shit and probably learn something, right.
Speaker 2:So at the same time, people think that it's all just physical preparation. For me it's all. This is probably the most important muscle to work on, especially for you. Just, you know, I feel like every time I've gotten hurt or I had to like take a little bit of a break because of injuries, I would show up, I would watch, drill what I can, and then, by the time I was able enough to Roll again or get back on the mats To start fucking, like going at it like I was way better, mm-hmm, you know, because now my mind is moving out of fast rate, my body could like really adjust to it Right, whereas if your body's fucking moving, your mind is too slow, it's like what the fuck am I doing? It's that my body connection.
Speaker 1:I'm really big on that, for sure.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I try to. People are hurt, people are sick. Like just sit on the fucking mat, sit on the wall, don't say shit watch. Yeah and then I have a few guys that do that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, just show up, like you guys fucking pay For this service. Like, why wouldn't you show up just to get this information? You know, I'm not probably not gonna teach it again, but I will, I will. Yeah, I do like this thing where I stay on a concept for Two months, like right now we're working on Kamora traps. We've only been working on Kamora traps for Six weeks now. We have about three, four weeks left until I go to another thing. Yeah, traditionally you go to a school and they'll teach you, like a move one night Technique for 20 minutes and a roll for about 40,. You know, I don't really have my guys role during the week. I save their rolling floor Friday nights and Sunday nights at open mats. Yeah, it's the skill development. Yeah, so we just do a lot of drilling drill, drill, drill, drill, drill and then safer too. I feel like like there's less injuries, yeah, and people aren't burnt out by the end of the week. You know A lot of benefits of that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think we do kind of. We do a lot of drilling and then, depending on In our coach, he Like maybe the last 15 minutes will do like whatever we drilled that day. Yeah, we'll start in that spot.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and go live. Do like some situational work.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah and it it's real simple, like, say, we're in half guard, I have to end up on top or sweep or something. Yeah, the top guy has to keep me there or submit me, yeah, and then you know it. If there's a sweep, then it's over, you move on. The next one comes in Yep, and we do it for 10 or 15 minutes and then you know, that's it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's good, but we started doing open mat on Friday night for our gym and I mean we don't have a whole bunch of practitioners yet. Yeah, our gyms to two years old now, or the program's two years old now.
Speaker 1:Yeah that's right. So we don't. We don't have a lot of what we have on a good day, like maybe like 15 students now a bad day is like Four or five maybe. Yeah happens. So yeah, like last night for open mat, it was just four of us, we just, and Then one left and then it became two long grounds and no rest and it happens, I mean.
Speaker 2:But sometimes, like last night, it was a pretty good group. I want to say Last week, on Sunday, last Sunday we had a pretty small group, but we still Rotating there around then trying to get new looks. I Enjoy when a lot of people come To train, but I enjoy it more when it's less, it's more concentrated. I could focus a lot more on, probably, a specific technique or sequence, or Maybe I'm like watching and studying one of my guys to Find holes, to figure out how to help them out. You know, yeah, I like doing that most of the time. Most of the time, well, I like doing that when there's a lot of people too, but mainly as I just like seeing people get thrown around and so I thought if there's like a big group, like, especially last night, man, yet it's pretty not if you were getting thrown and tossed, it was pretty funny.
Speaker 2:But I like I like watching and studying like everyone. Yeah, that's, that's joyful for me. You know, there's some days where, like, especially if I'm like sick or something and I absolutely can't roll, I just sit on the wall during an open man and watch everyone and just take mental notes. But hey, like, come over here, try this out really quick. Mmm, I don't know. Hey, it's all work. We're like, fuck, yeah, that's what's up. You do it. Yeah, you know.
Speaker 1:Yeah, there's that little gratification that you get from, like you seeing it and then letting them know that it's there and then them finally Seeing that path that you're, you've already envisioned for them.
Speaker 2:Yeah, like there's these steps or at least the start of it. Like I try to emphasize that. Then, like, look what I go for, what such and such go goes for, what you go for is gonna be completely different, you know. So I give everyone a lot of creative freedom. So it's like I'll show you the start to this and the pathway you could take. But we know another, other options, right? So maybe you don't want to take this option. Go to option B or C, then make up your own sequence. You know, be creative with it, just have fun.
Speaker 2:Find what works. Find what works for you, because my body type is different, your body type, his body type, her body type. How you think it's probably a lot faster, slower than some people here, right, it's not always the biggest, strongest guy in the fucking room. That's gonna beat everybody's ass, you know, yeah, whoever has the best mix of strength, technique, iq and probably, like, pace, right, pace is a big thing, yeah. And then everyone has different combinations of all four of those things you know, right? You know some guys are just super athletic and don't have a lot of technique and can keep a pace, whereas some guys aren't as athletic but they know a lot of shit, they're super technical and they can slow you down. Yeah, you know. So that's that's. That's what I like to see everyone's game start to come to life once they start Feeling more comfortable. Yeah, you know.
Speaker 2:So, I love watching the development of everybody.
Speaker 1:Hell yeah, it's good, they're fine. It's a gratifying yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Super, super gratifying.
Speaker 2:Gee, no gee. You know, gee, man, I like both. I like both For same reasons, but Obviously a little different. Like for the G, I like it because I'm able to Use different handles and stuff, play different guards, be a little bit more creative and artistic, whereas and no, gee, I can do the same stuff a Little more slippery, I just have to be a little like more slick, mm-hmm, right. So for me, I like no, gee, because I can confess a little bit more, whereas in G is like I could show my technical prowess, you know, I can just go for a whole bunch of crazy shit. I'm gonna do what the fuck was that? But I don't know. But we'll run the tape back and I'll stay. Try hit it again, you know. So I love both.
Speaker 2:As far as maybe competing those man, that's actually pretty hard question. I like. Well, there's 50, 50 for me. Yeah, you know, if there's 10 rounds, I'm rolling. If there's only 10 rounds and we could roll both and I'm rolling, five in the G and five in, no Gee, there's gonna be even split. Yeah, nice.
Speaker 2:Yeah that's actually how it was last night. I.
Speaker 1:I'd be like I lean a lot to the G now, do you? Yeah, before I was, I was the one guy in the fucking picture that was no gee and everybody else. I'm like All the coffee groups. At the beginning, fuck I, I didn't even take a geek naturally to.
Speaker 2:I've been coming from wrestling, oh yeah, yeah, love, no, geek, right. And everybody always assumes that I'm more of a no-geek guy too, because my wrestling background I know like I like both. But then I meet a lot of people I like no you more, like let's do more, no, you know, like why do you like, no you. And then it's always the same thing. I was like whoa, I don't know how to make grips. I'm like, well, fucking, learn how to make grips, yeah. And then next, you know you learn how to make a grip. I was like, fuck I love.
Speaker 1:No, I love you. I think the funniest moment I have with putting the G on. I was at coffee crew and one of the the black belts he Usually has his way with me right and for I don't know, I hooked his sleeve and and I pinned his arm on his belly. I was in his guard but I was Pending his arm against his belly and like he couldn't do anything. It was like that for like three minutes. He was just working on getting his arm back. Fuck, yeah, right, and I was like oh, I guess who learned how to grab the key.
Speaker 1:I guess who knows who's shooting now?
Speaker 2:Hell yeah, I like both of them. I like both. For me it's a Like I'm very big on. I'm like an artsy kind of guy. I grew up and like an art artistic family. My dad, he's a really good artist, draws and plays a lot of music. My mom, she actually runs her own dance group and my dad's a gym. So growing up we're always, you know, in the arts right. So for me now, especially now that I'm older, I kind of need you to more as like an art form rather than a martial art. Now, just because you know what I'm doing, it looks cool to certain people and they they're taking to it, you know.
Speaker 1:Mm-hmm.
Speaker 2:So I was like, okay, well, if I'm able to move like this and you enjoy it, then that's cool for me, at least you. You're entertained, you're right. And then now you're inspired to probably try it, yeah, or maybe do something similar. So I see, more now is a form of expression. Yeah, not too hard body anymore, I'm not too aggressive, so that's probably a good thing.
Speaker 1:So, outside of jujitsu, what's something about you that people that know you from jujitsu may not know about you?
Speaker 2:and outside of jujitsu. Well, nothing much. I don't really delve into many things. I'm actually trying to figure that out right now. Thing about maybe going to graphic design I had Designed our shirts and printed that, printed those out. It's a lot of things you could do with.
Speaker 2:You see, nowadays is super lucrative, you know. And this, like there's not. Just Before it was like oh, I just have to be a fucking competitor, right, that's, that's the, that's the way to go, you know. But now I was like no, you could be a business owner or you'd be a coach, or you don't have to do any of that, you could just make merch on the side and then fucking still be involved in community, like that, you know. So For me, I'm kind of just flowing around right now. I'm just enjoying it. Plus, I'm still younger than most, most people, so Just taking my time to really enjoy this journey you know what I'm saying? Yeah, plus, since I'm here, I don't know how long this In particular than the last, so we're just trying to ride and build it up and see how far I can take it.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so really nothing too much outside. You see that I'm doing all my.
Speaker 1:My whole life is focused on, everything's focused on this right everything is focused on this. So I mean it's a You're doing great. Thanks, man, I appreciate it like you know, coming that one time Seeing the gym, then I was like Jesus is pretty nice to like the whole vibe. Thanks, it's cool.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, thanks, you, thanks. Especially. You know, growing up training you that I was go to like these rinking dink-ass fucking when houses the train. You know training in the backyard Rats or go to the fucking park at like five in the morning and you know like, before I got here, seeing my, my parents, open up their spot was like a really fucking. It was like a milestone just for the family in general. Mm-hmm, you know, just because we were always hopping around from like gym to gym or like high school gym, they would like let us because you know the wrestling coaches were there maybe fuck with us or you know another jam they would let us fucking train there for free, because we be teaching to screamer.
Speaker 2:I want the weekends or something, or just at our house. So being able to see my family open up and establish a place that people can go to that's not our house or someone else's spot Mm-hmm, was amazing. So for me to be here and be able to do the same thing on my own is honestly a kind of mind-blowing. I'm mind-blowing really gives you a different perspective. Different perspective. Not only that, it's like, like I said Five, six years ago, I just threw it out in the air and I was just bulleted. And then now it's really. You know, yeah, but if anything, this is my childhood dream, and a lot of people could say that. So I'm just, I'm just grateful that I'm in this position.
Speaker 2:You know now what comes next after this? Not exactly sure, you know. Maybe I'll open my own spot, maybe I'll branch off, or this will end up being grow bigger than what it is and we'll have to move locations because of a Whatever reason. I Know that nothing in life is permanent, so I'm just enjoying the ride. Yeah, see where it takes me. Yeah, yeah, as long as I don't end up in the hospital or in jail, I'm good. Yeah, you know, that's it. I just gotta end up back in my bed. I'm pretty straight.
Speaker 1:How long has your dad been coaching?
Speaker 2:Man my dad's been long time, long time. He started with a screamer in boxing when he was growing up, mm-hmm. So he was a you know, when he was coming up as a teen and a young adult Before he had me he was already Instructing as far as martial arts goes, you know. But then you get to or grappling a while Wow, pauli says. I think he had really started diving into teaching grappling by the time I got into high school. So like 2009, 2010. And he would just like he would be combining the grappling techniques that we learned with the Eskrima. So we like developed our own street ready technique or street ready fucking like curriculum to help people like kids are getting bullied or some shit Right, because we would get a lot of like parents and like, hey, can you teach my son how to fucking defend myself, type of thing. So bring him in and I'd be their trained partner or Uki. And then next thing, you know, is like all right, now we're fucking, we're stick fighting at the park or fucking grappling on the grass, and it started just going more into just straight to get to straight grappling, catch, wrestling, all that stuff. So I would say 2008, 2009 when he started, when he started and 2016 is when he finally my parents finally opened up their own spot.
Speaker 2:Yeah, long ass time. He's a long time coming for them. I think for them it was a you know, when they have it, they're pretty young. I think my parents, like 17, 18 and they hadn't. So by the time like my brother and sister came around, they're already older, but you know, my dad had already he was working for the county at the time had really had a really good job. My mom is working for Kaiser, so they had already had careers established, right, right.
Speaker 2:I think what helped my dad kind of push him to do it full time or do it more. He had to get retired out because he had, like fucking gnarly ass knee surgeries. He was past injuries from, you know, training and that shit that he didn't take care of when he was younger. So after his like third knee surgery, I remember he'd be rolling around in the wheelchair in the backyard watering his plants, talking about all right. Now's the time Like I'm gonna start fucking, you know, thinking about opening up spot or really focus on building the group Buffalo Brack Brotherhood, which is the name of which is BBB. That's the name of the group or the family. I guess he wanted to really expand that and make that to what it is now. So I'm happy for them, happy to see that they came all this way, happy to see that all the hard work paid off. You know there was a early mornings and fucking late nights you know, grinding, growing up.
Speaker 2:he would work. He worked construction when I was a kid up until high school. So he would wake up three in the morning, lift weights for an hour, train. I'd be up with him. Then he would go to work, come back like five, six o'clock, work out for an hour and then go out and train for like two, three hours, come back, fall asleep, repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat.
Speaker 2:Yeah. And I mean you know he had his own problems coming up, his own vices and shit. I'm sure if you want, if you ask him, he'll be more than happy to tell you about it. I mean, yeah, just to see where he came from, to see the idea blow up to what it is now. I'm pretty proud of him for sure. That's cool, yeah, so it's nice to see, because I was saying to me it's like growing up like all this shit was normal, you know, training being involved in it all the time. I didn't know how much we were doing compared to everybody else. You know, because everybody we were around they're kind of doing the same thing. But now I see it as more like, oh no, it's like, and we were actually really doing something, and to see how far we've come and then to see how far the people that have you know all of our journey and been with us this whole time has been really gratifying. That's cool. Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 1:So a couple more questions. What's your most memorable moment in your Jiu-Jitsu journey so far?
Speaker 2:My most memorable moment? Man, I have a lot. I have a lot of memorable moments, I think. I think, like, as far as competing goes or just in general In general, my most, my most memorable moment was, I would say, for me probably man.
Speaker 1:there's so many, they're all memorable, let's say one in general and one competing.
Speaker 2:One in competing, one in general, one in general, I'd say. Seeing my daughter on events, yeah, her training and her deciding the training because she wants to do it. She's a little fatter, she is, she's fucking, she's pretty, pretty, fucking tough. I don't tell her, I don't try to blow her head up all the time. Don't let her watch this, yeah.
Speaker 1:I'm not going to let her watch this, no, she is fucking great.
Speaker 2:A lot of people ask me like oh, when are you going to start really like going hard on her, taking it seriously? How old is she? She's seven. How old was she when she started? So she was already like walking on the mat when she was like three, four years old. So she was already like around, basically. And then when she had started to really get into it, like doing the class and taking this here, she was like four or five.
Speaker 2:That was back in my parents' gym. And then now it's like okay, I push her during practice but I don't want to focus a lot on her. You know, because for me personally it's like it's kind of fucked up if the coach is only focusing on this kid. You know what I'm saying. So I focus on trying to just treat her like any of the other students, which I think helps out a lot because all the students tend to work together, you know, and I like that. They don't really isolate each other. One and two again, I don't really push her or go hard on her yet Because you know, like we see it all the time, especially in the wrestling community, we have all those fucking parents that push their fucking kids to the fucking brink. I was one of those kids and I was like man, I don't want that for you, like not right now, and if you want to take this seriously, I'm going to let you, let me know, you know, because who knows, like maybe she may want to start dancing more. You know what I'm?
Speaker 2:saying Because she does Tijian and Hula dancing with my mom during the week. So maybe along the line she'll probably just want to do that and not do Jiu Jitsu, as much you know, and I don't want to fucking put all this time into it. And then next thing you know I don't want to do this anymore.
Speaker 2:Like man, what the fuck Like. But I'm not going to say that, you know, I want to make her feel bad. So I just wanted to make that decision on her own and right now she's decided that she just wants to train more. So as long as she's making the decision that I'm all good for it, right, as long as she's happy, as long as she's happy, as long as she's happy she's enjoying it. And she's enjoying, like you know, because she has all of her little friends and stuff too.
Speaker 2:So being able to socialize and then them talking, you know, not just in the training room, but seeing each other, like on the weekends or during the week outside, just hanging out. I didn't really have that coming up as a kid because it was always just training, training, training, right, and I had to be able to have, you know, a childhood at the end of the day, right. So for, but for me, I love it when she's on the mat because it just it makes me feel like, you know, not necessarily the torch is getting passed down, but she's honing in on on what we're thriving in, you know. So I would say that's more memorable for me, and plus, having the whole family encompassed in this.
Speaker 2:You know my family. You know my daughter's mother. She's still in this and I'm happy she's still a part of it. Friends you know that are still training. I love that for them. So being my most memorable thing is just seeing everybody still thriving in this. You know especially for how long we've all been doing this for, like man, it's been a long fucking time Now. The thing about it is like I've been doing this shit basically my whole life and I'm still doing it.
Speaker 2:Man it's a great life to live, you know. Now, as far as competing goes, most memorable moments is probably winning and defending commission pros or title. Yeah, that's when I was competing pretty heavy and I remember just preparation and the months leading up to it was pretty intense, just because, you know, like training is one thing but we all have outside lives, so I was still trying to manage my outside life and it wasn't really like going too great. Honestly, it was like a pretty shitty situation. So for me to be able to still overcome some adversity and then end up on top and then be able to repeat it and do it again and still compete at a high level was pretty cool for me.
Speaker 2:Because in my head, all right, well, like I'm one of those guys you know for the longest time, like damn, I don't think I'm like that good, I don't think I'm that good at all compared to everyone I'm seeing or everyone I'm around. And then you know I mean it's just about, but it's just the fact that I proved it to myself that I could fucking do this, especially coming back from the military and trying to adjust. It was like a really I got really insecure, fucking. You know, like I said I wanted to quit, right, it was because I didn't think I had it anymore. I didn't think I was a, I just felt like a bitch, honestly.
Speaker 2:So for me to be able to kind of just rise up from that and then fight through my demons was a pretty big deal, pretty big deal, especially for how I grew up and then kind of how my family is. It was like I kind of see my place in my family now, someone to break a lot of the generational curses that we've had coming up not saying that, you know, my father hasn't, but he's still working on his stuff. Right, I have a chance to do it better. You know, that's all I'm trying to do. Yeah, I'm not trying to win, I'm just trying to be better.
Speaker 1:Yeah, be better every day, be better every day One percent. So what you gotta do is one percent as interest, right? It's crazy to hear you talk about like kind of like self doubt, right. Yeah, because like the day that I walked in for a coffee crew, that day that you guys hosted, you were like not intimidating, but you have that aura of you like you're hard right and like listening to you today is like kind of a total different perspective of what I thought that first day when I first walked into where we're at today or talking, you know, yeah.
Speaker 1:But to hear you talk about like wanting to give up because you weren't sure, but seeing you, like through IG, seeing your stories, seeing your post clips of you rolling, I'm like even the day that I watched you roll at coffee crew, I was like fuck, this guy's like on another level, hot man, you know. And to watch your clips like fucking fast, he does this, he does that, and I'm like God, it's inspiring to see how good you are. And then to hear that you have these other issues that you still work your way through every day and still be out there and do what you do for everybody else. That's coming into your school.
Speaker 2:And thank you, man. I appreciate that Now it's a big thing. I talk about it with all my guys, like I let them know, because we'll have spells where people like being kind of weird moods or they're going through stuff, and I'll talk to my students and I'll tell them like look, dude, like fucking unfortunate enough to where I'm able to do this. You know, every day, like this is my life, like everybody coming in here, like this is just a part of your day. You know, don't use this as a means to get away from anything, really just kind of work through yourself. At the end of the day, you still have a job to go back to a wife, to go back home to a husband or kids to look after, right, like there's still life outside of this. You know, like this isn't your life necessarily. Now, if you want it to be, you can right, like I'm living proof that that's possible.
Speaker 2:You know, but it's not easy. You're going to have to give up a lot and it's not what you think it is. You know it's not glamorous, it's not. You don't have free time. You know you don't have too much time to yourself, if at all. You know, and I would rather be doing this anyway, but I try to tell everybody look, just if anything like I don't push anyone here to compete, you know that that's, that is your goal. That's what you want to do Now. If you let me know you want to compete, perfect, Right, I'll have that in the back of my head. But at the same time, whether you're a hobbyist or you're trying to be a competitor or just someone that has specific goals in mind, everyone's at this. I have everyone at the same standard.
Speaker 2:You know what I'm saying. So we come in here, we train, we work on our shit and go back home. You know Again, for me, fortunate enough that I'm able to be here all the time, right, just live at the gym. You know, like this is my life, but I'm transparent enough. I'm more than how do I say it? I'm more than understanding that there's life outside of this and sometimes that's more important. Yeah, it's definitely more important. Especially, you know, like self-care, mental health. That's a big fucking thing. I didn't know how important that was up until you know a couple of years ago, fairly recently, that like you got to take care of your shit.
Speaker 2:You know what I'm saying but if not, you're going to start spiraling down, getting to the same habits you were before. You know, just doing the same bullshit that you know is going to lead you to a place you're going to have to build yourself back up from. You know like, for me, it's like all right, well, I made that mistake before. I'm big on not making the same mistake twice. You know what I'm saying. So, yeah, a lot of the times, whenever I can, and I was like okay, how did I deal with this in the past? What worked for me? What got me here? Okay, I need to take a different route. It's going to take some time, it's going to take some work, but you know, I'm the only one's going to be able to do this. That was going to do it for me, right? You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2:So, yeah, especially coming up, coming back from the military, and then having to go through that, as I was always looking, I wasn't looking for help and I was like damn, like, why is no one fucking helped me out with this shit? Like why isn't? Why isn't there a fucking you know a fucking. You know a fucking, you know a blue book to help me out with this shit. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1:It's hard because part of that like no one knows how you're feeling, and then sometimes I mean sometimes we're too macho to admit that you needed help, or yeah, you know, or ask for it and you're you have that concept in your head that why is it someone asking me? What help I need when I'm not asking for it.
Speaker 1:No one knows necessarily that, you're that you're hurting, or that you have these thoughts because you keep them to yourself. And then you have this persona that you're trying to upkeep. Yeah, and you're trying to because you're You're the instructor, so you shouldn't have feelings.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you shouldn't show that kind of weakness or something. You have to be hard all the time. I mean, in fact, growing up, that's kind of what the stigma was. You know what I'm saying? Like, even now, my dad does the same thing. I look at it and I was like man, that's not me. That's just too much energy for me. I'm wasting too much energy Just trying to emulate that. Yeah, I was like I don't have to be, like I don't have to do that.
Speaker 2:I could be pretty transparent with my feelings and be able to control them, just as long as I'm handling it the right way when no one's watching. You know what I'm saying, Because that's pretty important too, being able to do the right things when no one is around. That's that difficult in its own right, because that's where the discipline comes in no one's watching. But you have this time to kind of fuck around and fuck up if you really want to. But I mean, if it doesn't align with the goals or what I'm trying to do as far as long term, or what I'm doing now, then it's out of the picture. You know I got to. There's too much riding on, too much riding on this rather than me focusing on, like you know, trying to do some bullshit to numb the pain Right. I'm a lot more open now. You know Therapy has helped a lot, being able to trust people, you know, with information, to kind of like work through these things right Just to get advice right. It has helped a lot. So it's been a roller coaster, for sure, but again, I'm very big on trying to keep the mental, keep the chicken shape. You know, really big on that, especially from where I came from and how growing up, I've seen people work through certain things. You know, if I can, like my dad was a drug addict for a good part of my childhood and then, after he got clean, turned to alcohol fucking alcohol than anti-still on the shit.
Speaker 2:Right now. You know what I'm saying Fucking friends all doped up Like fuck you. I can't even help you out. You know what I'm saying, but I wish you the best. Yeah, that's pretty sad, honestly, but at the same time it's like all right, well, fucking.
Speaker 2:I see that at least some people are trying to do better. You know best I could do is do better for myself at the end of the day, and it's not even just me. I'll do better so that she sees, my daughter sees somebody to you know she has some little look up to her, her mom or grandparents. It's not just my life riding on it now, it's you know, it's, it's my I don't want to say legacy, but it's definitely people I care about most. Yeah, you know, because if I'm, if I'm doing a whole bunch of bullshit and making it seem like it's okay, and they're going to do a whole bunch of bullshit and think it's okay, yeah, like I can't have that happen. Too much society today. Too much. Too much people think that, fucking, you know. People think they can talk shit and not get slapped. And guess what? I'm over you.
Speaker 1:You should.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know what I'm saying, no, but no, it's. Mental health is important, man. Yes, you know I'm having to deal with. You know, not using substances or resort to alcohol or fucking partying to try to get away from that reality, right, it does it for a little bit, but you end up getting right back in that whole as it starts to subside, you know, right. So for me it's been a lot of personal growth and development.
Speaker 1:Yeah, cool, hell, yeah, all right. So one last question Sick, what advice do you have for the newer guys, the guys that are just getting started in their journey, people like me that are a little bit older?
Speaker 2:Right, right, yeah, probably Sorry. I just turned 50. Congratulations, hell, yeah, 50. What's up? I'm a senior. He's 54. Now I have a student here, gary, he's like 63.
Speaker 2:And I just signed up a whole bunch of older ladies who are like and they're like 40s, almost 50s now, starting to train, and they asked me the same thing. I was like what do I focus on Morning baby. She woke up and I was like look, just show up, just showing up. Same advice I give all the young guys, all the kids just show up. Whether you're hurt, sick, tired, you don't want to be here, just show up. And it's not just showing up just to be here, it's obviously showing up. That's like half the work, right. You just show up, the rest will do its job, right. So show up and have an open mind, right. Be open to learning new things, be open to being wrong, which is honestly probably what I would say is really important, especially if you're new coming in. You're like, if you're one of those guys that go down to go to U2 University and just look up a whole bunch of kids in for a class saying I want to try this out.
Speaker 2:I was like, all right, you can try it out, but if it don't work, don't be mad. You know what I'm saying? Like you can't be mad at yourself if you're trying these things and don't work. My favorite thing is like when I get people that come in and they're natural athletes, or they come in they're already pretty in shape and they just get in their ass beat and they're getting winded.
Speaker 2:I do it. I don't know what the fuck I'm doing wrong. Da, da, da. I'm like I need to go to the gym more. I need to work out, do this that. I know you don't need to do that. You just need to slow it down. Come down, just get your ass beat, figure out what's going on and then work from there. Because if you start thinking too much, then you start losing track of what the fuck you're trying to do. Then you start going to this path, this rattle hole, and you start thinking some other shit. Next, you're not even talking about what you were originally trying to do. Anyway, just show up, keep an open mind, accept the fact that you're going to be wrong a lot of the time, even myself.
Speaker 1:I never heard that before, but I like that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, man, it goes with the ego too. A lot of people don't like to be wrong because they're going oh fuck it. This is that hardness.
Speaker 1:I guess I was like nah, man, it's fucking like if you're wrong.
Speaker 2:you're wrong, it doesn't matter. That's why we're here. We're trying to fix it.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:If you're not doing something, it's probably because a small detail, maybe your angle is wrong, maybe you need a different grip, Maybe you just need to start it from a different position or have a different perspective, because if you accept that you're wrong, then your perspective is going to change. If not, then you're going to be adamant about no, I'm not. It happens like this. I was like all right, well, eventually you'll get it, but it's going to take a lot longer for you to be able to hone that skill. All right, so just show up and accept that you're going to be wrong most of the time. Try to apply that in life too. Honestly, If I knew that, if I was telling myself that three, four fucking years ago, it would have saved me a lot of trouble. But yeah, that's the advice I would give Show up and accept that you're going to be wrong most of the time. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Anything that we didn't cover, that you want to get out there.
Speaker 2:Man? No, not really. I talked a lot honestly. It's probably the most I've talked all week, to be honest with you.
Speaker 2:But since we're plugging right now, come out to Tracy 404 West Grandline Road. Every Friday night and Sunday night we have open mats at 6 pm, open to everybody. It doesn't matter gym affiliation, red color sex If you like the opposite sex, we don't give a fuck. Just come through, we have a good time. Shout out to Aspire2Aspire. Shout out to the Old Grapper podcast. You know what I'm saying. Shout out to Wombers' Need Level Black. Shout out to the crew in Stockton. We want to go to Stockton and show up Sunday mornings 8 am. Sunday service. That's always lit. What's the?
Speaker 1:Do you have a dad gym?
Speaker 2:Yeah, my dad gym Aries, BGJ, stockton. Yeah, so go out there. Every Sunday morning we call Sunday service, 8 am. We go out there and we just fucking. We all have a good time. Pretty naughty fucking rules too. It's pretty fun. Yeah, yeah, that's it. Shout out to all the guys, shout out to the Blackbacks and it'll be straight. Take one day off, can we?
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, I got one more thing for you. What size rash guard are you? I'm a medium, okay, so this is a gift from us, from us, the podcast. Everybody has a journey.
Speaker 2:Everybody has a journey. You're right, flex, that I like that. Thank you, we're going to get yours out there, thank you. Appreciate you, man, thank you.
Speaker 1:Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 2:Thank you, thank you, thank you.