December 13, 2024 • 50 mins
This is a conversation with John Ethier, a black belt out of Ontario, Canada. John is a train conductor for the Canadian railroad. He runs a small fitness business and has a passion for Gothic architecture. We also had a great conversation about ADHD, dyslexia, and how to overcome learning disabilities in jiujitsu and in life.
Episode Links:
- John's Personal Instagram: https://instagram.com/@ethier2095
- Ethier Fitness Instagram: https://instagram.com/@ethierfitness
- Mamute Martial Arts (Oshwa, Ontario, Canada): https://instagram.com/@mamutemaa
- Platinum BJJ (London, Ontario, Canada): https://instagram.com/@platinum_bjj
- Infinite Jiujitsu (Brantford, Canada): https://instagram.com/@infinumbjj
- Rumble Academy (Brandford, Canada): https://www.facebook.com/p/The-Rumble-Academy-100057419059340/
Contact:
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Outline:
00:00 Intro
00:24 The Journey to Black Belt
02:37 From Obesity to MMA Fighter
04:48 What Motivates You to Keep Training?
07:07 How Did Eric Get Into Martial Arts
09:01 Eric Training at Marcelo Garcia
13:29 ADHD, Dyslexia, and Learning Jiujitsu
17:56 BJJ and Confidence
19:20 Life as a Train Driver
22:52 Most Interesting Train Conductor Moment
25:18 Railways and Economic Impact
28:53 Ethier Fitness
32:46 Navigating Injuries and Time Off the Mats
36:08 Finding Purpose Beyond Jiu-Jitsu
38:54 The Importance of Mentorship
40:32 A Love for Gothic Architecture
41:48 The Joy of Building with Legos
43:24 The Value of Patience in Life and Jiu-Jitsu
46:09 Sharing the Gift of Jiu-Jitsu with Others
49:37 Outro
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:24):
Welcome, John.
Tell me, what was it like for you to get your black belt?
It was probably the best day of my life.
It was something that I never thought I'd achieve, like most black belts obviously, but itwas just, I wasn't really expecting it.
I was only a two-stripe brown belt at the time and my professor just surprised me with myblack belt that day.
I thought I was probably gonna get a couple more stripes, but it made me tear up.
(00:46):
I actually had a couple tears, cried a little bit.
Got a big old hug from my professor and my...
My buddy who also got his black belt that day, we all shared some tears.
Being my professor's first black belt, one of the first two obviously, he was a littleemotional as well, so it was a great day all around.
yeah, getting the black belt is probably the hardest thing I've ever done.
(01:08):
obviously everybody will tell you that, but it is the most rewarding thing I've ever doneas well.
It's real.
you feel any different when you got the, when it was put around your waist?
it happen after the first roll?
What was your like, uh-oh moment?
Or did you even have an uh-oh moment?
The oh-oh moment was like, are gonna start asking me questions now I'm have to answer themhonestly like I can't get by as a a spunky purple belt or a broken brown belt I gotta I
(01:35):
gotta have some knowledge so it kind of it was kind of more of like a wave of is what itwas but then then as soon as that wave went it was like all right I'm here I've achieved
what I wanted to achieve let's get started on the next journey which is
Continuing to get degrees and continue with the jiu-jitsu journey No, not really I stillplayed the exact same game that still rolled the same way the intensity got a little bit
(02:10):
more
White belts were trying to kill me even more now, which was hilarious.
But no, just, after the first roll, it really set in like, hey, you're here kid.
Like you started off at a gym in the middle of Ontario after doing no athletic sports.
And now you are at one of the top levels that you can be in your martial art.
(02:30):
So it was, it changed a lot of things that first roll.
it changed a lot of things for me.
It continues changing things for me.
How did you get into it?
So that's actually one of my favorite stories I tell people so I was a very obese teenagerat 16 I weighed 300 pounds Not a single like ounce of muscle on me whatsoever The only
sport I played was badminton because you barely like you just had hit the the birdie andlike you barely moved But then I remember going to a buddy's house and watching UFC 100
(02:58):
And I know everybody who watched that remembers the Michael Bisping Dan Henderson fightwhere Dan Henderson knocked out Michael Bisping It was a moment.
I'm like I want to do that
overhand, right?
That H-bomb is legendary.
Anybody that wants to see something great, and I love Michael Bisping, don't get me wrong,but that is the greatest knockout I've ever seen.
I'll die on the hill with that one.
(03:21):
But being 300 pounds, thought Brock Lesnar fought too, I'm like, I can't fight that guy,he's huge.
So I started running.
running, I'm like, all right, I'm gonna become a fighter.
I got myself some UFC gloves, I got myself a heavy bag.
And then...
My family moved to London, Ontario where I am right now in 2010 and I found my first gymthere and so I become an MMA fighter like and after a couple kickboxing sessions, I didn't
(03:47):
like getting punched in the face and but grappling just And ever since then grappling hasbeen the number one sport in my life Jiu-jitsu wrestling all all grappling sports.
I still don't like being punched in the face that much but it's it's because of UFC 100
Dan Henderson that I started jujitsu.
So thank you to those two.
(04:24):
it's the same like I got the occasional elbow, the occasional smack.
I do do some MMA still here and there but like mostly just because I I want to actually doa fight just to say I did a fight so But being punched in face still sucks.
It's my least favorite thing about the martial arts But you know exactly what I'm talkingabout.
(04:46):
So I don't really have to explain It's
So with jiu-jitsu I find it helps calm me.
I'm pretty sure everybody can tell you that.
(05:06):
It's the fact that I can have the worst day of my life and I'll go to training.
I'll even have the worst training session of my life but for the 15 minutes or 20 minutesin the car ride home everything just makes sense.
Like yeah it was a crappy day but I'm gonna do I'm much better now because like I got mysweat on.
Yeah I tapped to that arm bar that I shouldn't have tapped to but you know what likethat's okay because
(05:27):
I got to get out and train.
the thing that keeps me driving is just trying to find my own happiness and therapythrough jiu-jitsu.
It's a really surreal feeling, especially for the people that do jiu-jitsu.
You could probably attest to this, that you just feel better.
And yeah, the fight obviously, I still compete.
(05:49):
I'm just getting over a wrist injury, but I'm probably going to sign up for local ADCCjust because I want to continue testing myself.
But at the end of the day, it's all about making myself a better person and happier.
And so that's my driving force.
When did that kind of realization happen for you?
Because you said you got on the mat to lose weight, maybe to have a fight, and you justkind of enjoyed the journey, it sounds like.
(06:16):
if you're leaning on jujitsu for mental health, therapy, happiness, that switch must haveflipped or that self-awareness happened at some point.
What was that moment for you?
It actually happened right away.
So my family moved down south.
I started a construction job and I was working 12 hour days and I couldn't get to JiuJitsu.
(06:37):
I was doing Jiu Jitsu like every day for the first month and a half I was here.
Then I stopped and I could only train once a week.
But I noticed my mood and everything started going down.
And then when I got my Saturday training session in, right back up.
You know yourself, you said you did some striking, you started the same way, I don't knowif you started the same way that I did, but it's just, you get that realization either
(07:00):
right away or very fast, I found.
So yeah, how'd you find your jitsu?
I started out, I've been doing martial arts literally my entire life.
My parents stuck me into taekwondo when I was a kid.
And I just did it because I kind of had to.
And then I stopped taekwondo and I was getting bullied really badly when I got into highschool.
(07:25):
Like this guy was, like I was a little overweight and this guy in the locker next to mejust used to like.
push me around, push me into the locker, dump me in the trash can, and then told me, Iwill stop bullying you if you would join the wrestling team, because he was on the
wrestling team.
And I was like, that sounds like a good trade.
(07:48):
But I didn't realize that that just meant he was going to be like allowed to bully mebecause it was going to be on the mat and he could just kick my ass and everybody would be
like, yes, good job.
And I just wasn't smart enough at that time to figure it out.
And I wrestled for four years of high school, lost a bunch of weight, got some confidence,was decent, and then became an All-American when I got to college.
(08:10):
And then when I got out of college, I was like, I need to keep doing some physicalactivity, because the Army is not really a fun physical activity kind of thing.
after I got out of the Army, were, my friend was like, you should try MMA.
I did MMA for a while.
found that the MMA school that I was in was great, but didn't teach much jujitsu.
(08:31):
And somebody was like, I was living in New York City at the time.
And somebody was like, hey, there's this like a school called Marcelo Garcia, like rightaround the corner from from here.
Like, we should go check it out.
And I'm like, I don't need another school.
And he was like, No, no, no.
But this guy is like really good.
This is like Michael Jordan of jujitsu.
And I was like,
(08:52):
Well, I'm not that good.
So what does it matter?
And then I went and I was like, no, I get it.
This is this is now my thing.
And I left the MMA school and I've been doing Jiu Jitsu ever since.
So you got to train with a GOAT.
Like I tell everybody
That starts now that starts all the first person is the goat see like how was that?
Because I've always wanted to train with him, but I know he moved recently so New York'sno longer his place That's always been a dream of mine is to train with Marcelo
(09:30):
that came through like Marcelo Garcia Academy and even the some of the like people who arelike quote unquote no names there are like absolutely incredible like the the Matiusz
Diniz and Marcus Tinoco and.
I don't even remember everybody's name, Scott and Joel and Jimmy.
like, I just remember thinking these guys, there's so much incredible talent.
(09:51):
And then Damien Maia would come through and then all of these other UFC fighters wouldcome through.
And it was like, I didn't understand how lucky I was at the time until I left and waslike, I'm not getting to train with the best in the world all the time.
And it's humbling.
In a way that I don't think most people understand, because you're like, my coach is goingto kick my butt because he's my coach.
(10:15):
And then you're like, yes.
And then you roll with Marcelo Garcia and you're like, this is a different level of I haveno ability to win here.
Actually, I have a really funny story about this was like I rolled with Marcelo one timeand I just had a really, really bad day.
And it was just, you know, I was like a fresh blue belt and it just didn't.
(10:36):
go well, of course it didn't go well because he's Marcelo.
And then the next day in the class, I was like, Hey, can we roll again?
Yesterday, I just had a really bad day and I think I could do better.
And he just like looked at me and smiled.
goes, how much better do you really think you can do?
And not like in a mean way, just kind of like, really, really?
And he just just a big, big goofy smile.
(10:59):
He got on and he's like, Yeah, of course, let's do it.
And I was like, man, this is this guy is such another level of
skill and humility and he still has a sense of humor.
And then we rolled and he still gave me a, like, you know, I didn't of course do well.
And he just gave me a bunch of feedback.
And he was like, here, do this, use your legs more, like rely on this a little bit more.
(11:20):
And it was like such a beautiful experience to be, you know, given advice by somebodywho's like, I will not have to break a sweat, but yeah, let's, let's do this because it's
important to you.
And I try to bring that to the jujitsu that I, I have, and I show people.
Yeah, like we when I was living in I used to live in Halifax Nova Scotia and there was oneof the very first submission cards there like submission only Fight cards and a bunch of
(11:48):
Marcelo guys came up like there was Munch Jonathan I can't remember his last name but likethey just like and there was really good grapplers out in Nova Scotia like but it was just
as soon as I saw that I'm like, my god Like that's just a whole other level.
So like you get in a train with those guys I can understand why as soon as you left it waskind of like
Really?
but no, it's said this like You can you can find good training everywhere everywhere.
(12:14):
There's always a stud at a gym Like there's always somebody that's really really good Butfinding good instruction is the hardest thing to find and like it sounds like when you're
training with Marcelo giving you feedback on your roles Like that's that's just worth itworth its weight in gold, right?
To be honest, Paul Shriner, one of the black belts that I don't know if he still teachesthere, I think he does.
He's one of the best instructors I've ever been to classes from.
(12:37):
And I've been to like 100, 150 gyms, been to jujitsu camps.
I've taken classes from three, 400 instructors at least.
And Paul is still probably, he's in the top three.
And that I think is where I got really lucky with my instruction when I was at Marcelo's.
(12:57):
Like everyone else was great roles, like lots of very technical stuff, but Paul to me wasone of the most valuable things for my jujitsu journey.
And I feel very lucky that I got to witness instruction like that.
And I try to model some of my instruction after that, although it's not a contest.
That's absolutely amazing, like at least you understand like you can go that way, right?
(13:22):
It's really cool to hear people talk about like how their instructors throughout theircareer change like
helped them get to where they are and how they teach and how they roll and how they learn.
It's very interesting, I find.
You're saying Paul was one of the top three instructors you ever had, and I know a coupleof Globetrotter instructors, they're amazing.
(13:43):
every instructor that I've ever had, I consider amazing.
it's just really cool to hear other people's perspectives on it.
Yeah, there's there's levels to to jiu-jitsu to instruction.
You know, one of the things I really want to ask you about is like we talked, you know,before this about you having ADHD.
And I think that like a good instructor can sometimes recognize, you know, when somebody'slearning style is different, when they have challenges like what what kind of role did ADD
(14:15):
ADHD?
And you also, I believe, said dyslexia.
What kind of role did that have on like your ability to learn, retain information and getto the level you're at in jujitsu?
So I was very lucky like when I was out in Halifax one of the instructors Steve is also aADD and so he kind of understood how to teach that way.
When it comes to retaining technique in like situations and whatnot I always found thatthe day of like if it wasn't like quick short easy I couldn't do it and then I could be
(14:46):
drilling it or I'd be trying it I'd be trying to like test out the technique I wouldn'tget it.
I'd go home and have to sleep on it and then the next day it made sense.
So for me, was just like, if it was too much talking, if it was just too much back andforth, like, hey, I'm just like, I'm staring directly at you.
I'm watching.
And all of sudden my mind goes like this.
It's like, I lost it.
Drilling is the same way.
(15:07):
I could drill it perfectly the first time, second time, 80%, all that.
But I always found when it came to me learning my techniques and like learning the waythat I know how to roll now, it all comes from sleeping on it.
So I just need like a day.
And then my mind processes everything.
So what adjustments have you made as a result of that?
Like, I understand you need to sleep on it, but I mean, you probably have some likein-class adjustments that you're like, I know I need to keep this in mind.
(15:34):
I'll actually I'll get my partner to drill it on me first try it on me first so I can feelhow it's supposed to feel I'll try and break it down into little pieces like for example
going for like a deep half sweep
I'll just get to deep half.
Okay, that's enough for me.
You try it.
Okay, they do the entire thing.
I get the deep half again.
I get the second part of the sweep.
Okay, cool.
(15:55):
Done that.
And on the third time, because I just break it down in little pieces just so I can haveenough that I'm not overstimulated with it.
And with being with dyslexia, like it's hard for me to even read and understand sometimes.
So when I actually have someone do it on me or someone show me, I'll be like, okay, canyou just do it first?
Like it's easier this way.
And then I'll pick up on it.
(16:16):
like long complex sequences like knee cut pass to knee on belly to back take to arm bar.
I need to sleep on that.
But if it's just like knee cut pass, do it a couple of times with me I'll understand it.
No, never everybody like jujitsu is the humbling sport, right?
(16:37):
Everybody's there to help each other learn.
There have been a few people that have been like
I don't understand why you need to do this, but that's okay.
Because I'm like, that's all right, man.
You just keep on doing it and then I'll ask somebody at the end of class.
It's hard to accommodate people because we have people from all walks of life.
Yeah, I think that's really important.
And I feel like one of the things that I notice some of the newer students or youngerdevelopmentally kind of students get into is that they're worried about asking for their
(17:08):
Mm.
like, hey, I need to do this differently.
Or can you roll a little lighter with me or whatever, because they're like, I don't wantto, I don't want to be that person.
So I was sort of flagging it because I was curious if you ever ran into issues or if youjust always are like, hey, I need this thing.
Can we, you know, work within my needs here?
so there there has been times where I've been personally, I've been too like nervous toask.
(17:33):
But it's at the end of the day, like it's your training as well.
So you have to like if you're going to talk to your younger students that are afraid ofasking these questions like, hey, it's your training session to like you need to make sure
that you understand it.
And that's kind of what I told myself is like, I'm also here to learn.
It's great that everybody else is learning, but you need to learn.
So that's when I started getting a little bit more confidence in myself.
(17:56):
So it was a big confidence issue at first then after I understood what I needed to do thenit was it was easier Confidence is a big one.
I feel like I still to this day have lacked confidence, but
(18:19):
Confidence is one.
Being relaxed in public is one.
I used to get pretty bad social anxiety.
I never realized it until I was an adult.
I hated being in Walmart stuff as a kid or in big crowds.
But now it's like, okay, can get through this.
This is easy.
I've had a 300 pound person try and smother me with their chest.
(18:39):
If that's not claustrophobic or compressing it anyway, then you can handle a crowd ofWalmart.
So confidence, being relaxed and public is one and helping me actually learn.
But back to the ADD and dyslexia, like I have a new way of learning now.
In school, growing up in a very small town in Northern Ontario, we unfortunately didn'thave the resources for like independent learning studies.
(19:05):
But now with Jiujitsu, I've taught my way and taught myself how to learn.
So like if I can't understand something, I'll sleep on it or I'll do a small sentencehere, two sentences here.
sentence here just so I understand what I'm
Yeah, I mean, that kind of takes me to like the next topic that I wanted to discuss withyou is that you drive trains professionally, which is not a thing I hear people talk about
(19:30):
a lot.
Like, what was the education for that?
And then I want to swing back around to the, you know, dyslexia and learning thing.
But what was the education like for driving trains?
Funny enough, it's actually an apprenticeship.
It's a trade.
So it's like being a welder, mechanic, plumber.
So you go to one of the companies in Canada, there's many.
We have two big ones, Canadian National, Canadian Pacific.
(19:55):
They train you to be a conductor, which is essentially like the apprentice.
You learn how to put the train together, take it apart, fix it, do stuff for customers.
And then after a certain amount of probation period, you become a locomotive engineer,which is what I am now.
And that's the person that operates the train And once you're out there you're in chargeof like all the air gauges the fuel How to make sure the train doesn't break apart?
(20:20):
stuff like that Then there's also really truly it was an on-the-job learning experience.
There was a six-week class That was kind of hard for me at first and then I actuallyfailed my first test To become certified and then I went back studied my butt off
and I missed it the second time.
And then during my trainee apprentice phase, I almost got kicked out of the programbecause I wasn't learning.
(20:46):
And then I finally realized like, hey, you need to slow down, ask questions, and thenyou'll figure it out.
And there was a guy that worked with us, unfortunately he's no longer with us, his namewas Dave, and he even told me I got the Most Improved Player Award.
So just by slowing things down and really learning how to...
(21:08):
myself that I hope that comes back to the other question but it was just like exactlyright it was if I did during my trainee phase I didn't have jujitsu so I didn't have that
outlet I couldn't I couldn't go to the gym just because like I was on all different typesof shifts wasn't a lot of morning classes one of a lot of afternoon classes at the time so
(21:33):
I had to essentially teach myself again
What jujitsu taught me at the time so it was it was hard to do without jujitsu and But Ieventually got through and now it's been my career for the past It's a 20 past 13 years so
I mean something worked So right now I'm on a certain schedule where Because I live anhour and a half away from my job site.
(22:04):
I'll wake up at 2 2 30 in the morning
I'll drive to Toronto for 430, 450 in the morning.
Then I will take a train from Toronto to Windsor, Ontario, which is right near Detroit.
That takes about eight hours.
I'll spend the day in Windsor, stay overnight.
And then like again, I was up at two this morning, took the train back to Toronto, droveback home.
(22:27):
So it's usually about 36 hours away from my home.
So it's not really a day, it's like a two day thing.
It's a yeah, and anything can go wrong like I've had trains break down on me We had a verybad winter storm couple years ago that halted all trains.
(22:47):
So people were stuck.
It was just Anything can happen at any time Craziest or most interesting thing like
I've actually gotten a train stuck in snowbank before.
(23:08):
It was back in my time in Halifax.
And this was a big train.
We used ton engine feet.
I think it was 6,000 feet, like five to 6,000 tons.
It was considered a small train at the time, but we just got hit with a giant blizzard.
Then there was a blizzard every Wednesday that winter, swear.
And we actually got stuck in the snowbank.
(23:29):
And we just, we had to leave our train there.
It was in something called the siding.
a sidetrack where you
let other trains go by and we got stuck in the snow.
I've never seen anything like it in my life.
The snow went from being about, I don't know, this deep to up to my up to my neck in amatter of six hours.
The most insane snowfall I've ever seen.
So we couldn't move it so we had to leave it there.
(23:51):
That was the most insane thing that's ever happened to me is just getting stuck in snow.
there like a punishment for having to leave a train or are they like, no, we understandyou did the right thing.
will tell us to leave the train or not.
It's if we can't like There's no punishment if you have to leave the train though.
You tell them like hey, we can't move it the big Okay, just make sure you got all yourbrakes on make sure that you put some like other brakes on called handbrakes Kind of like
(24:15):
when you're driving a manual you put your handbrake on so you got to a couple handbrakeson so doesn't wall away It wasn't going anywhere in the snowbank, but you always got to be
safe There's no there's no punishment because most of the time like you're getting toldwhat to do by
your superiors and most of time they're right.
Yeah.
(24:38):
It can be.
So right now I work in passenger service and our number one concern always besides safetyis our passengers.
So, you know, when you end up being an hour late, you feel bad for the customers.
Like they're like, yeah, I missed my connection.
I'm to miss my flight or something like that.
So there's stress with that.
There's other stresses out there like Like possibilities of breaking down possibilities oflike trees being down.
(25:04):
We've been blocked by trees before Just regular stresses that not a lot of people actuallythink about that will actually happen But the end of the day like if you if you get it
done your shift within the amount of time that you're allowed The stress just goes awayinstantly
Nice.
One of the things you had mentioned to me, like while we were talking beforehand was thatyou have this opinion that, and it might be factual, I don't know, that railways hold
(25:31):
economies hostage.
And I did a bunch of reading on this and I'm really curious to hear your take on this.
Well, I'm just gonna use the American example right now like I know the Americanlocomotive engineers like myself they they put in their strike notice
There was a big contract issue.
were trying to get stuff taken away.
They're being put on certain point systems that if you take, I said, if you have to callin sick, like you get 20 points, you have to work two months to get those 20 points back.
(25:58):
I don't know, it's American, but it got so bad that Congress actually stepped in and said,guys aren't allowed to strike.
you know, they can hold the economy hostage.
Like trains do run the economy.
An investor told me one time, if you look at the railway stocks, if they're doing good,you know the economy is doing good.
So everything travels by rail, unless you're on the coast.
(26:19):
So it's kind of a hard thing to talk about because again, we need all our goods.
I know you live in Germany, you need your passenger services because trains are amazing.
But if you say, we're not going to work anymore, that kind of just cripples everything.
So it's kind of a, it's a Ocams razor, right?
(26:41):
Like you're on that fine edge where if you step one way, it's catastrophic.
If you step the other, it's catastrophic.
So I hope it's not the same in Europe, but yeah.
Yes, so North America mostly relies on freight traffic.
(27:04):
So cargo,
customers and stuff like that, where passenger service is kind of second class.
I don't want to say that.
I don't know how else to say it, but it's like they rent the track from the freightcompanies.
In the States, they have a couple of laws, at least on the East Coast, where it's likethey get priority or they have their own tracks.
But I know in Europe and Asia, like passenger service has their own tracks.
(27:25):
They're always on time.
Everybody relies on it.
Where here it's like, we're kind of at the mercy, right?
If a freight train says, we got to go first, they get to go first, it's their tracks.
completely understandable.
They own it, we just rent it.
So it's really cool.
Like I haven't been to Europe yet, but I know as soon as I get there and I'm by no means atrain buff, I just want to take the train to see the difference.
(27:48):
So
it's all it's all electric and magnets and like within North America anyway, at least someareas still like it's a lot of diesel generators that power the train.
So that's why it's really loud.
It's just a big diesel.
It's just a big diesel generator.
Whereas in Europe and Asia, they have maglev trains, electric trains.
So everything is powered different.
(28:10):
Do you see any of that stuff coming to North America like more, in a larger way?
Well, they just announced in Canada actually I believe it was this week or last week thatthey're putting in a high-speed train between Toronto and Montreal plus a couple other
cities Those are two biggest cities besides Vancouver.
(28:31):
So that's gonna be really huge for us Yeah, I don't know I think the States has a couplelike that but I don't really it's it's a giant infrastructure project and you need to
their own area and stuff like that It's way out of my realm of expertise, but I know
they just announced it so that's really exciting for us.
We're gonna be up to the European standard soon, which is amazing.
So we'll see what happens.
(28:53):
Hey,
Yeah, that's cool.
So one of the other things I actually still wanted to get to is you also somehow have thetime to run a fitness business.
Can you tell me a little bit about that?
it's just a little side project so I went to school for health wellness and fitnessbecause being the obese kid I was I thought becoming a personal trainer was gonna help me
(29:14):
and so it was something when I joined the railway I put on the back burner and it wasn'tuntil recently when a co-worker of mine asked me to make him a program and the light came
on it's like hey okay let's try it so I made him a program and I found how I rekindled mylove
because I used to make programs all the time for myself.
So now I just have a little side business.
mean, online, I'm an online coach, make programs for people predominantly for jujitsuathletes or MMA athletes.
(29:40):
So that way they're like, it's an expertise I know.
And like the gym has been the second of my life after jujitsu.
Like they go hand in hand, like I'm telling everybody I have two wives, jujitsu and thegym.
So.
But yeah, no, it's it's something that I've been really enjoying lately especially becauseit was my my passion before I joined the railway was my career so I Don't know it's a yeah
(30:16):
It's so my aim right now is actually becoming more functional
I used to be like a big power, like be a big into power lifting.
I also wanted to be a bodybuilder.
I also want to be a CrossFit athlete.
Like this is back when I was younger, right?
But you gotta focus on one thing.
And right now, like, because Jiu-Jitsu is still number one in my life and I want to be anathlete in Jiu-Jitsu, I have to train like an athlete in Jiu-Jitsu.
(30:37):
So strength and conditioning, both of them are really good.
The other thing about the gym is it also is like another way of meditating.
You go in there, you put your headphones in.
It's just you and the iron.
There might be...
Classical on that you can hear over your headphones.
That's okay You just it's just focusing and it's it's humbling as well.
It's like jujitsu.
It's I don't know if you're a weightlifter at all or if you ever did any strengthconditioning But you know like they're the God feeling At the no, you never did it.
(31:04):
No, so after after like a hard sparring session Like you're sitting there on the groundbreathing heavy.
It's you get that feeling and that's something that I've always I've always loved
(31:33):
Actually, no.
So with me, I've only had a couple of minor injuries.
Like this wrist is most recent.
I think it's just a little bit of golfer's elbow.
I don't know how I'd get golfer's elbow.
not a golfer.
But
With weight training, I found I've never been really injured.
Like I had a little bit of a shoulder.
Yeah, exactly.
It's like it's right through here.
I'm like, okay.
I thought it was a fracture.
I went and got an x-ray.
(31:54):
The first doctor thought it was a fracture.
Turns out it wasn't.
It was just a previous chip.
But sorry, there was a fire across the street.
They got the firefighters over there.
ADD.
Yeah, yeah.
It's interesting.
Okay.
yeah, like I said, I've never actually really been injured I had a small shoulder injurybecause I got thrown on my shoulder during a wrestling practice It was a fireman's throw
(32:21):
gone bad as you know, fireman's throws are either amazing or terrible depends on who doesit So that was one I can remember The other one I can remember is I popped my knee trying
to calf slice somebody I Popped my own knee I sliced somebody else Thanks
Not how that's supposed to work, but yep.
Not at all.
(32:42):
Those are the only two besides my wrist that I can remember and I attribute that tolifting weights.
Okay, well, part of the reason I ask is because I like to talk to people about differentways that they've dealt with having to be off the mats.
And so in your case, it wasn't due to injury, but you had to be off the mats for training,like school, for the apprenticeship.
(33:04):
Like, how did you deal with that?
And how did you deal with that forced time off?
So my journey in jiu-jitsu has actually been in stages.
So I started off as a white belt, went to school, took three, four months off, came backand went like balls to the wall hard for another six, seven months.
I competed, sorry, competed a lot.
(33:27):
And then I moved out to Halifax where I had to my apprenticeship.
So I took another six months, a year off.
started back training with my buddy's gym he owns it now Maritime Jiu Jitsu it was BushidoKai at the time got to Purple Belt there so after the training all that I finally got back
in the gym made it all the way up to Purple Belt I got the new job with the passenger railtransferred back to Toronto didn't have a gym there until I found my professor's gym and
(33:57):
so it was another year off and so in that in that time frame though
Each time I took time off there.
I knew there was something missing And so try to deal with it like the weight gym was oneof them But it was just trying to keep myself busy and then as soon as I've refound my
love for jujitsu and whenever I restarted Like it was just like it was there.
(34:21):
It was something that was Those that's meant to be with me like even during the thepandemic.
I had one training partner We had some mats.
We tried to follow all the
the social guidelines that they had at the time, because nobody knew any different.
So we just trained together one-on-one, right?
But it was something that we were both not willing to give up, was jujitsu.
We didn't want another hiatus.
(34:42):
So dealing with that is probably one of the harder things I've had to deal with.
You get, like, get, I don't want to say anxious, but you get antsy, you get like, I don'tknow how to describe it.
You just know there's something missing.
Like, have you ever had any major injuries where you've had to take time off?
Yeah, had, I've had a couple of them.
I broke my leg skydiving in 2009.
(35:04):
I had to have spinal surgery from a sparring session that went bad in 2013 or 2014.
And I had to take about a year off from that.
And it was really difficult.
I really, I really kind of desperately struggled for something that would be a similaroutlet.
(35:25):
not just a physical one, but also a mental one.
And for me, that time off the mats was like where I kind of learned to center myself likeoutside of jiu-jitsu.
I found that that is martial arts in general more than just jiu-jitsu, but now it's justjiu-jitsu.
(35:45):
And it's like, it was a purpose for me.
It was like being able to be centered.
giving me a purpose of exercise and rooting me in reality.
And I really had a hard time with those layoffs until I learned to be more at peace withmyself and give myself a little grace, I think is probably the best word I could come up
(36:08):
with for that.
It's about a couple of them that are very difficult.
That sounds difficult like break your leg skydiving.
Well, congratulations skydiving is scary as hell.
So like good on you for that The spiraling that's that's wild but I went I'm gonna saylike if I ever get injured again I'm gonna try and take your approach and get centered and
find the grace in it because Whenever I'm like out for a bit I can't do that and it'ssomething that I like now that you've talked about I should finally figure it out but No,
(36:38):
that's a Yes
hard.
was like I needed, I needed a little bit of, like I needed to give myself grace to likeadmit that it was hard because I felt like I was so, at the time, I felt like I was so in
control and comfortable when I was training regularly.
And then when I couldn't train, I kind of felt that, that antsy, like anxious, what am Idoing with myself?
(37:04):
What am I doing with my time feeling?
I, and I had to,
first admit to myself like this is really hard to get through.
And then I gave myself a little bit of grace and I was like, okay, this is, I can do this.
I can deal with this.
Not that it was easy, but I just had to find other occupations, like other things to keepmy mind, my body busy while I was injured, while I was off the mat.
(37:27):
Did you have any other hobbies that you like kind of jumped onto because like I had thegym but like what about yourself?
I did, I threw myself into work, which for my career paid off really well.
Like I got myself it, the first injury where I broke my leg was where I really was decidedI need to start building businesses myself.
(37:48):
And so that was shortly after I came off that, that broken leg, I started my firstcompany.
And well, as sort of co-founded my first tech company, I had done some stuff.
before.
And then that second injury, I just threw myself into work because I had no other thingthat I could do.
(38:09):
And so I was just taking more meetings, doing more networking, doing more learning of newtechnologies.
And it was incredibly helpful professionally, but a little bit sad that I struggled somuch and had no other outlet.
I'm just very fortunate that tech is such a, you
(38:31):
financially valuable thing to know and it ended up really working out in my benefit.
Yeah, honestly, like it's something that I wish I knew more about was like being in techbusiness.
Like I'm just, like said, I'm trying to be an online trainer and I'm trying to figure allthis stuff out at 32.
I wish I would have thrown myself into it when I was 18, like some of my coworkers, I meanmy friends at the time, but how many businesses do you have?
(38:52):
Like you just said, you started a couple or?
I've started a few businesses over the years.
The one that I started at that point was a company called Simple Reach.
built social media and content analytics.
Since then, I've helped start two med tech companies in the US.
One is called Mymee and other one's called Health Hive.
And I've just helped people build, helped CEOs build companies.
(39:14):
And I still do executive coaching at this point for
sort of younger executives that have, I didn't have any mentors growing up for technologyand I just made so many mistakes and I really wish that more people had mentorship
accessible to them.
So I just try to put myself out there and I do mentor a couple of executives to be like,hey, here's a bunch of things that I can be helpful with so you don't make four figure,
(39:40):
five figure, six figure mistakes like I did.
And hopefully this helps you in your life.
that's your rig on the money where there's like there's not a lot of mentors Anymore,right?
I was pretty lucky growing up that I had mentors for hard work like my father My unclesand stuff like that.
But yeah, you're right.
There's no tech mentors out there Like they said like we had I one computer teacherAbsolute genius of a man, but like all he did was teach us how to code to play video games
(40:09):
I don't know what he's doing nowadays.
Fantastic guy.
But like I wish we would learn how to...
This is before Raps.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And that was ours.
learned how to network.
We learned how to network to play StarCraft.
That was the best thing about it.
And he'd kick our butts at it.
He'd beat us up.
(40:29):
He'd beat us every day, but like we tried.
You had also mentioned to me that you were like interested in Gothic architecture.
Where did that come from?
I don't know.
I honestly don't know but ever since I was a kid like I've loved old cathedrals oldbuildings like one of my favorite things to do is I travel to Montreal quite often for
work and I'll actually just tour Montreal and go see like the old Catholic cathedrals allthe old churches all old Montreal like that I don't know where it came from I don't know
(40:56):
why
But love the masonry, I love the stained glass, I love everything about it.
I don't like being in churches, because I'm terrified of ghosts, ghosts are real to me, Idon't care what everybody says.
But I love just looking at them.
That's one of my biggest bucket list things, is going to Europe and seeing the cathedralsof Germany, the cathedrals of France,
(41:16):
Have you ever considered studying architecture a little more formally or it's more just ahobby and a side passion for you?
Side passion strictly because math is terrible.
I do I don't have the math for it unfortunately numbers numbers and me we don't get alonglike I Wish I wish we could I would love to be an architect or civil engineer when I was I
(41:39):
actually tried to become a civil engineer and like The one college I applied to looked atme and said yeah numbers aren't for you.
So This is it is.
I I've learned to live with it So it's a good
right?
were nice about it like the rejection letter was really nice, but it was still a rejectionletter Yeah, that's it's something that I really wish they could have like Yeah, I got I
(42:00):
was big into Lego when I was a kid and I think that's where it all started and I justloved building things with Lego and yeah Just couldn't couldn't get the math for it.
So Depends like yes
But I'll tell everybody no, like I'll go out and buy one of the Star Wars Lego sets justto build it.
(42:23):
But if you ask me, if you ask me in public, no, no, no Lego.
I just, it's a quote.
the mountains in Germany with a couple of friends and we were hiking during the day and inthe evenings they were like they had brought a bunch of Legos and they were like building
Legos in the evenings and I thought that was like very wholesome and cool that I was like,that's that's kind of a sweet way to for everyone to spend time together is just playing
(42:49):
with Legos.
See like that's the thing I just wish I could have like a big bucket of Lego again Butit's now now like it was like super expensive.
I don't tell everybody no, but it's like it's one of my it's one of my hidden hobbies I Itry to I try to keep like just keep some things for myself.
I don't want people playing with my Lego You blame that on my you blame that on my you canblame that on my cousins
(43:10):
doing it.
That was it.
Hey, you know what you're absolutely right.
I won't hide it no more.
That's me Yeah, there you go.
My name is John and I like them.
Yeah, there you go In what context within jujitsu or just life
(43:38):
Anything.
Anything that you just wish everyone knew.
You know patience is one thing I wish a lot of people knew And again, like jujitsu is themost patient sport I found But growing up like I had some teachers and some parents that
weren't patient just because I learned a little bit differently and I was I Acted a littlebit differently.
That's just because like now we know it was learning disability But yeah, like when itcomes to life jujitsu just be patient like don't overdo it.
(44:06):
Don't try and like rush it understand other people
Somebody might be having the worst day of their life and if you just show them a littlebit of kindness and patience, like they'll be...
Okay, we got cops in my driveway.
Sorry, fire thing still going on is great.
It's crazy.
patience is one thing that I wish everybody would have a little bit more of.
Like there's a lot of patient people, but like just have a little bit more.
(44:28):
And I'm also, I should also listen to my own advice because like I'm the world's angriestdriver.
Driving to and from Toronto every day is not fun.
But I'm starting to get the hang of it.
I'm starting to get a little more patient.
of my rock music, I'll listen to a podcast or an audio book, so that'll slow things downfor me.
(44:49):
Yeah, that's one thing I can give advice for, is everybody should have more patience.
Does that kind of does is that the role that jujitsu plays in your life these days is likereminding you of patience, giving you that kind of focus and giving you that outlet?
Or does it play some other role for you these days?
It really does.
It plays all those roles.
It plays more, like I said before, it's about getting my mind clear.
(45:12):
I can the stress from work, stress from life, the stress of driving from Toronto and inToronto.
I'm to use Toronto as the bane of my existence right now just because it is the worstplace to drive.
If you've ever driven anywhere with the worst traffic, times that by like five.
That's Toronto traffic.
It's the worst.
that's the bane of my existence is Toronto.
(45:32):
that was always Atlanta.
Atlanta and LA were the two worst traffics I'd ever been in.
But the thing I liked so much about Toronto is that it has a burrito district.
Somebody told me like, I need to go to the burrito district in Toronto.
I was like, that's, it's amazing that a town has a burrito district.
And I went there and I ate at like five different burrito places.
(45:53):
And hard for me to dislike any place that has a burrito district.
See I didn't even know about the burrito district now I gotta look it up.
You might have just saved Toronto for me because love like Mexican food is my favorite andany sort of burrito is a good burrito so thank you for that.
Yeah Go ahead.
(46:14):
So in the future I'm excited to continue
like continue with my learning, continue with my jujitsu, hopefully build my business.
I plan on continuing my education.
I want to open up my own school eventually.
Like right now we have, I kind of have one that is in my buddy's basement.
He teaches the wrestling, I teach the jujitsu, but I kind of want to have my own place.
(46:38):
want to share my knowledge and share the gift with like the gift of jujitsu witheverybody.
So that's what I want to do in the future.
But yeah, like I just want to.
continue on the journey I'm going on because it hasn't been bad yet.
That's really nice.
like that people, Jujitsu seems to create, not in everybody, but in a lot of people, likea very giving mindset.
hey, I profited so much from this emotionally, physically, situations, community, and nowI want to give back.
(47:05):
And I love that that's like a common theme amongst so many people who have trained.
Yeah, like so the our basement we train in it's free.
We just want people that are good people to come train with us my buddy started it duringcovet Same idea.
He had one training partner two training partners then allowed that he brought into hishouse we kept it going like I met him the end of Covid and we became really fast like fast
(47:28):
friends through it like even Even was it?
tuesday.
We just got together for just me and him to get some rounds in but it like
He shows his gifts of wrestling and judo.
I show my gifts of jiu-jitsu and we share with people who we want to have around us,right?
It's free.
All we ask is that you're good person and that you train hard with us.
And that's something that like I can't do enough.
(47:50):
Like I wish I could just teach for free, right?
I just want to share jiu-jitsu with everybody because it changed my life so dramaticallyand drastically in the best ways possible that I never imagined when I was younger.
I love that.
That's really beautiful that you get the opportunity to do it even on a small scale.
Yeah, like we got we got about seven or eight of us that are regulars there and a couplemore here and there and everybody knows like Just message us doors always open.
(48:16):
Come on train Yeah, like I
I'd like to promote like our gym if you want to train with us in the London area give me amessage we'll have you out.
I'd like to promote my business at J Fitness on Instagram at J Fitness.
(48:39):
Yes that's right not London UK not London anywhere else London Ontario Canada.
I also like to promote the gyms I go to so I consider myself a nomad but my main gym whereI got my black belt is Mamouch Martial Arts in Oshawa Ontario.
Platinum BJJ here in London under Aaron.
Fantastic place.
(48:59):
What you call it the pigeons.
The pigeons are amazing.
And the other gym I go to is Infinite Jiu Jitsu in Brantford.
Run by my buddy Eric.
Fantastic, fantastic place if you're in the Brantford area.
There's also the Rumble Academy in Brantford.
Fantastic place as well.
I think you already talked to Mr.
Rumble, but very, very, very, very intelligent.
conversation, interesting fella.
(49:22):
He's like as like we talked about he's the smartest person I've ever met I cannot wait towatch that one So I'm just I'm excited for that one.
Yeah, that's it Thank you so much Eric, I love being here
Welcome, John.
Tell me, what was it like for you to get your black belt?
It was probably the best day of my life.
It was something that I never thought I'd achieve, like most black belts obviously, but itwas just, I wasn't really expecting it.
I was only a two-stripe brown belt at the time and my professor just surprised me with myblack belt that day.
I thought I was probably gonna get a couple more stripes, but it made me tear up.
(00:46):
I actually had a couple tears, cried a little bit.
Got a big old hug from my professor and my...
My buddy who also got his black belt that day, we all shared some tears.
Being my professor's first black belt, one of the first two obviously, he was a littleemotional as well, so it was a great day all around.
yeah, getting the black belt is probably the hardest thing I've ever done.
(01:08):
obviously everybody will tell you that, but it is the most rewarding thing I've ever doneas well.
It's real.
you feel any different when you got the, when it was put around your waist?
it happen after the first roll?
What was your like, uh-oh moment?
Or did you even have an uh-oh moment?
The oh-oh moment was like, are gonna start asking me questions now I'm have to answer themhonestly like I can't get by as a a spunky purple belt or a broken brown belt I gotta I
(01:35):
gotta have some knowledge so it kind of it was kind of more of like a wave of is what itwas but then then as soon as that wave went it was like all right I'm here I've achieved
what I wanted to achieve let's get started on the next journey which is
Continuing to get degrees and continue with the jiu-jitsu journey No, not really I stillplayed the exact same game that still rolled the same way the intensity got a little bit
(02:10):
more
White belts were trying to kill me even more now, which was hilarious.
But no, just, after the first roll, it really set in like, hey, you're here kid.
Like you started off at a gym in the middle of Ontario after doing no athletic sports.
And now you are at one of the top levels that you can be in your martial art.
(02:30):
So it was, it changed a lot of things that first roll.
it changed a lot of things for me.
It continues changing things for me.
How did you get into it?
So that's actually one of my favorite stories I tell people so I was a very obese teenagerat 16 I weighed 300 pounds Not a single like ounce of muscle on me whatsoever The only
sport I played was badminton because you barely like you just had hit the the birdie andlike you barely moved But then I remember going to a buddy's house and watching UFC 100
(02:58):
And I know everybody who watched that remembers the Michael Bisping Dan Henderson fightwhere Dan Henderson knocked out Michael Bisping It was a moment.
I'm like I want to do that
overhand, right?
That H-bomb is legendary.
Anybody that wants to see something great, and I love Michael Bisping, don't get me wrong,but that is the greatest knockout I've ever seen.
I'll die on the hill with that one.
(03:21):
But being 300 pounds, thought Brock Lesnar fought too, I'm like, I can't fight that guy,he's huge.
So I started running.
running, I'm like, all right, I'm gonna become a fighter.
I got myself some UFC gloves, I got myself a heavy bag.
And then...
My family moved to London, Ontario where I am right now in 2010 and I found my first gymthere and so I become an MMA fighter like and after a couple kickboxing sessions, I didn't
(03:47):
like getting punched in the face and but grappling just And ever since then grappling hasbeen the number one sport in my life Jiu-jitsu wrestling all all grappling sports.
I still don't like being punched in the face that much but it's it's because of UFC 100
Dan Henderson that I started jujitsu.
So thank you to those two.
(04:24):
it's the same like I got the occasional elbow, the occasional smack.
I do do some MMA still here and there but like mostly just because I I want to actually doa fight just to say I did a fight so But being punched in face still sucks.
It's my least favorite thing about the martial arts But you know exactly what I'm talkingabout.
(04:46):
So I don't really have to explain It's
So with jiu-jitsu I find it helps calm me.
I'm pretty sure everybody can tell you that.
(05:06):
It's the fact that I can have the worst day of my life and I'll go to training.
I'll even have the worst training session of my life but for the 15 minutes or 20 minutesin the car ride home everything just makes sense.
Like yeah it was a crappy day but I'm gonna do I'm much better now because like I got mysweat on.
Yeah I tapped to that arm bar that I shouldn't have tapped to but you know what likethat's okay because
(05:27):
I got to get out and train.
the thing that keeps me driving is just trying to find my own happiness and therapythrough jiu-jitsu.
It's a really surreal feeling, especially for the people that do jiu-jitsu.
You could probably attest to this, that you just feel better.
And yeah, the fight obviously, I still compete.
(05:49):
I'm just getting over a wrist injury, but I'm probably going to sign up for local ADCCjust because I want to continue testing myself.
But at the end of the day, it's all about making myself a better person and happier.
And so that's my driving force.
When did that kind of realization happen for you?
Because you said you got on the mat to lose weight, maybe to have a fight, and you justkind of enjoyed the journey, it sounds like.
(06:16):
if you're leaning on jujitsu for mental health, therapy, happiness, that switch must haveflipped or that self-awareness happened at some point.
What was that moment for you?
It actually happened right away.
So my family moved down south.
I started a construction job and I was working 12 hour days and I couldn't get to JiuJitsu.
(06:37):
I was doing Jiu Jitsu like every day for the first month and a half I was here.
Then I stopped and I could only train once a week.
But I noticed my mood and everything started going down.
And then when I got my Saturday training session in, right back up.
You know yourself, you said you did some striking, you started the same way, I don't knowif you started the same way that I did, but it's just, you get that realization either
(07:00):
right away or very fast, I found.
So yeah, how'd you find your jitsu?
I started out, I've been doing martial arts literally my entire life.
My parents stuck me into taekwondo when I was a kid.
And I just did it because I kind of had to.
And then I stopped taekwondo and I was getting bullied really badly when I got into highschool.
(07:25):
Like this guy was, like I was a little overweight and this guy in the locker next to mejust used to like.
push me around, push me into the locker, dump me in the trash can, and then told me, Iwill stop bullying you if you would join the wrestling team, because he was on the
wrestling team.
And I was like, that sounds like a good trade.
(07:48):
But I didn't realize that that just meant he was going to be like allowed to bully mebecause it was going to be on the mat and he could just kick my ass and everybody would be
like, yes, good job.
And I just wasn't smart enough at that time to figure it out.
And I wrestled for four years of high school, lost a bunch of weight, got some confidence,was decent, and then became an All-American when I got to college.
(08:10):
And then when I got out of college, I was like, I need to keep doing some physicalactivity, because the Army is not really a fun physical activity kind of thing.
after I got out of the Army, were, my friend was like, you should try MMA.
I did MMA for a while.
found that the MMA school that I was in was great, but didn't teach much jujitsu.
(08:31):
And somebody was like, I was living in New York City at the time.
And somebody was like, hey, there's this like a school called Marcelo Garcia, like rightaround the corner from from here.
Like, we should go check it out.
And I'm like, I don't need another school.
And he was like, No, no, no.
But this guy is like really good.
This is like Michael Jordan of jujitsu.
And I was like,
(08:52):
Well, I'm not that good.
So what does it matter?
And then I went and I was like, no, I get it.
This is this is now my thing.
And I left the MMA school and I've been doing Jiu Jitsu ever since.
So you got to train with a GOAT.
Like I tell everybody
That starts now that starts all the first person is the goat see like how was that?
Because I've always wanted to train with him, but I know he moved recently so New York'sno longer his place That's always been a dream of mine is to train with Marcelo
(09:30):
that came through like Marcelo Garcia Academy and even the some of the like people who arelike quote unquote no names there are like absolutely incredible like the the Matiusz
Diniz and Marcus Tinoco and.
I don't even remember everybody's name, Scott and Joel and Jimmy.
like, I just remember thinking these guys, there's so much incredible talent.
(09:51):
And then Damien Maia would come through and then all of these other UFC fighters wouldcome through.
And it was like, I didn't understand how lucky I was at the time until I left and waslike, I'm not getting to train with the best in the world all the time.
And it's humbling.
In a way that I don't think most people understand, because you're like, my coach is goingto kick my butt because he's my coach.
(10:15):
And then you're like, yes.
And then you roll with Marcelo Garcia and you're like, this is a different level of I haveno ability to win here.
Actually, I have a really funny story about this was like I rolled with Marcelo one timeand I just had a really, really bad day.
And it was just, you know, I was like a fresh blue belt and it just didn't.
(10:36):
go well, of course it didn't go well because he's Marcelo.
And then the next day in the class, I was like, Hey, can we roll again?
Yesterday, I just had a really bad day and I think I could do better.
And he just like looked at me and smiled.
goes, how much better do you really think you can do?
And not like in a mean way, just kind of like, really, really?
And he just just a big, big goofy smile.
(10:59):
He got on and he's like, Yeah, of course, let's do it.
And I was like, man, this is this guy is such another level of
skill and humility and he still has a sense of humor.
And then we rolled and he still gave me a, like, you know, I didn't of course do well.
And he just gave me a bunch of feedback.
And he was like, here, do this, use your legs more, like rely on this a little bit more.
(11:20):
And it was like such a beautiful experience to be, you know, given advice by somebodywho's like, I will not have to break a sweat, but yeah, let's, let's do this because it's
important to you.
And I try to bring that to the jujitsu that I, I have, and I show people.
Yeah, like we when I was living in I used to live in Halifax Nova Scotia and there was oneof the very first submission cards there like submission only Fight cards and a bunch of
(11:48):
Marcelo guys came up like there was Munch Jonathan I can't remember his last name but likethey just like and there was really good grapplers out in Nova Scotia like but it was just
as soon as I saw that I'm like, my god Like that's just a whole other level.
So like you get in a train with those guys I can understand why as soon as you left it waskind of like
Really?
but no, it's said this like You can you can find good training everywhere everywhere.
(12:14):
There's always a stud at a gym Like there's always somebody that's really really good Butfinding good instruction is the hardest thing to find and like it sounds like when you're
training with Marcelo giving you feedback on your roles Like that's that's just worth itworth its weight in gold, right?
To be honest, Paul Shriner, one of the black belts that I don't know if he still teachesthere, I think he does.
He's one of the best instructors I've ever been to classes from.
(12:37):
And I've been to like 100, 150 gyms, been to jujitsu camps.
I've taken classes from three, 400 instructors at least.
And Paul is still probably, he's in the top three.
And that I think is where I got really lucky with my instruction when I was at Marcelo's.
(12:57):
Like everyone else was great roles, like lots of very technical stuff, but Paul to me wasone of the most valuable things for my jujitsu journey.
And I feel very lucky that I got to witness instruction like that.
And I try to model some of my instruction after that, although it's not a contest.
That's absolutely amazing, like at least you understand like you can go that way, right?
(13:22):
It's really cool to hear people talk about like how their instructors throughout theircareer change like
helped them get to where they are and how they teach and how they roll and how they learn.
It's very interesting, I find.
You're saying Paul was one of the top three instructors you ever had, and I know a coupleof Globetrotter instructors, they're amazing.
(13:43):
every instructor that I've ever had, I consider amazing.
it's just really cool to hear other people's perspectives on it.
Yeah, there's there's levels to to jiu-jitsu to instruction.
You know, one of the things I really want to ask you about is like we talked, you know,before this about you having ADHD.
And I think that like a good instructor can sometimes recognize, you know, when somebody'slearning style is different, when they have challenges like what what kind of role did ADD
(14:15):
ADHD?
And you also, I believe, said dyslexia.
What kind of role did that have on like your ability to learn, retain information and getto the level you're at in jujitsu?
So I was very lucky like when I was out in Halifax one of the instructors Steve is also aADD and so he kind of understood how to teach that way.
When it comes to retaining technique in like situations and whatnot I always found thatthe day of like if it wasn't like quick short easy I couldn't do it and then I could be
(14:46):
drilling it or I'd be trying it I'd be trying to like test out the technique I wouldn'tget it.
I'd go home and have to sleep on it and then the next day it made sense.
So for me, was just like, if it was too much talking, if it was just too much back andforth, like, hey, I'm just like, I'm staring directly at you.
I'm watching.
And all of sudden my mind goes like this.
It's like, I lost it.
Drilling is the same way.
(15:07):
I could drill it perfectly the first time, second time, 80%, all that.
But I always found when it came to me learning my techniques and like learning the waythat I know how to roll now, it all comes from sleeping on it.
So I just need like a day.
And then my mind processes everything.
So what adjustments have you made as a result of that?
Like, I understand you need to sleep on it, but I mean, you probably have some likein-class adjustments that you're like, I know I need to keep this in mind.
(15:34):
I'll actually I'll get my partner to drill it on me first try it on me first so I can feelhow it's supposed to feel I'll try and break it down into little pieces like for example
going for like a deep half sweep
I'll just get to deep half.
Okay, that's enough for me.
You try it.
Okay, they do the entire thing.
I get the deep half again.
I get the second part of the sweep.
Okay, cool.
(15:55):
Done that.
And on the third time, because I just break it down in little pieces just so I can haveenough that I'm not overstimulated with it.
And with being with dyslexia, like it's hard for me to even read and understand sometimes.
So when I actually have someone do it on me or someone show me, I'll be like, okay, canyou just do it first?
Like it's easier this way.
And then I'll pick up on it.
(16:16):
like long complex sequences like knee cut pass to knee on belly to back take to arm bar.
I need to sleep on that.
But if it's just like knee cut pass, do it a couple of times with me I'll understand it.
No, never everybody like jujitsu is the humbling sport, right?
(16:37):
Everybody's there to help each other learn.
There have been a few people that have been like
I don't understand why you need to do this, but that's okay.
Because I'm like, that's all right, man.
You just keep on doing it and then I'll ask somebody at the end of class.
It's hard to accommodate people because we have people from all walks of life.
Yeah, I think that's really important.
And I feel like one of the things that I notice some of the newer students or youngerdevelopmentally kind of students get into is that they're worried about asking for their
(17:08):
Mm.
like, hey, I need to do this differently.
Or can you roll a little lighter with me or whatever, because they're like, I don't wantto, I don't want to be that person.
So I was sort of flagging it because I was curious if you ever ran into issues or if youjust always are like, hey, I need this thing.
Can we, you know, work within my needs here?
so there there has been times where I've been personally, I've been too like nervous toask.
(17:33):
But it's at the end of the day, like it's your training as well.
So you have to like if you're going to talk to your younger students that are afraid ofasking these questions like, hey, it's your training session to like you need to make sure
that you understand it.
And that's kind of what I told myself is like, I'm also here to learn.
It's great that everybody else is learning, but you need to learn.
So that's when I started getting a little bit more confidence in myself.
(17:56):
So it was a big confidence issue at first then after I understood what I needed to do thenit was it was easier Confidence is a big one.
I feel like I still to this day have lacked confidence, but
(18:19):
Confidence is one.
Being relaxed in public is one.
I used to get pretty bad social anxiety.
I never realized it until I was an adult.
I hated being in Walmart stuff as a kid or in big crowds.
But now it's like, okay, can get through this.
This is easy.
I've had a 300 pound person try and smother me with their chest.
(18:39):
If that's not claustrophobic or compressing it anyway, then you can handle a crowd ofWalmart.
So confidence, being relaxed and public is one and helping me actually learn.
But back to the ADD and dyslexia, like I have a new way of learning now.
In school, growing up in a very small town in Northern Ontario, we unfortunately didn'thave the resources for like independent learning studies.
(19:05):
But now with Jiujitsu, I've taught my way and taught myself how to learn.
So like if I can't understand something, I'll sleep on it or I'll do a small sentencehere, two sentences here.
sentence here just so I understand what I'm
Yeah, I mean, that kind of takes me to like the next topic that I wanted to discuss withyou is that you drive trains professionally, which is not a thing I hear people talk about
(19:30):
a lot.
Like, what was the education for that?
And then I want to swing back around to the, you know, dyslexia and learning thing.
But what was the education like for driving trains?
Funny enough, it's actually an apprenticeship.
It's a trade.
So it's like being a welder, mechanic, plumber.
So you go to one of the companies in Canada, there's many.
We have two big ones, Canadian National, Canadian Pacific.
(19:55):
They train you to be a conductor, which is essentially like the apprentice.
You learn how to put the train together, take it apart, fix it, do stuff for customers.
And then after a certain amount of probation period, you become a locomotive engineer,which is what I am now.
And that's the person that operates the train And once you're out there you're in chargeof like all the air gauges the fuel How to make sure the train doesn't break apart?
(20:20):
stuff like that Then there's also really truly it was an on-the-job learning experience.
There was a six-week class That was kind of hard for me at first and then I actuallyfailed my first test To become certified and then I went back studied my butt off
and I missed it the second time.
And then during my trainee apprentice phase, I almost got kicked out of the programbecause I wasn't learning.
(20:46):
And then I finally realized like, hey, you need to slow down, ask questions, and thenyou'll figure it out.
And there was a guy that worked with us, unfortunately he's no longer with us, his namewas Dave, and he even told me I got the Most Improved Player Award.
So just by slowing things down and really learning how to...
(21:08):
myself that I hope that comes back to the other question but it was just like exactlyright it was if I did during my trainee phase I didn't have jujitsu so I didn't have that
outlet I couldn't I couldn't go to the gym just because like I was on all different typesof shifts wasn't a lot of morning classes one of a lot of afternoon classes at the time so
(21:33):
I had to essentially teach myself again
What jujitsu taught me at the time so it was it was hard to do without jujitsu and But Ieventually got through and now it's been my career for the past It's a 20 past 13 years so
I mean something worked So right now I'm on a certain schedule where Because I live anhour and a half away from my job site.
(22:04):
I'll wake up at 2 2 30 in the morning
I'll drive to Toronto for 430, 450 in the morning.
Then I will take a train from Toronto to Windsor, Ontario, which is right near Detroit.
That takes about eight hours.
I'll spend the day in Windsor, stay overnight.
And then like again, I was up at two this morning, took the train back to Toronto, droveback home.
(22:27):
So it's usually about 36 hours away from my home.
So it's not really a day, it's like a two day thing.
It's a yeah, and anything can go wrong like I've had trains break down on me We had a verybad winter storm couple years ago that halted all trains.
(22:47):
So people were stuck.
It was just Anything can happen at any time Craziest or most interesting thing like
I've actually gotten a train stuck in snowbank before.
(23:08):
It was back in my time in Halifax.
And this was a big train.
We used ton engine feet.
I think it was 6,000 feet, like five to 6,000 tons.
It was considered a small train at the time, but we just got hit with a giant blizzard.
Then there was a blizzard every Wednesday that winter, swear.
And we actually got stuck in the snowbank.
(23:29):
And we just, we had to leave our train there.
It was in something called the siding.
a sidetrack where you
let other trains go by and we got stuck in the snow.
I've never seen anything like it in my life.
The snow went from being about, I don't know, this deep to up to my up to my neck in amatter of six hours.
The most insane snowfall I've ever seen.
So we couldn't move it so we had to leave it there.
(23:51):
That was the most insane thing that's ever happened to me is just getting stuck in snow.
there like a punishment for having to leave a train or are they like, no, we understandyou did the right thing.
will tell us to leave the train or not.
It's if we can't like There's no punishment if you have to leave the train though.
You tell them like hey, we can't move it the big Okay, just make sure you got all yourbrakes on make sure that you put some like other brakes on called handbrakes Kind of like
(24:15):
when you're driving a manual you put your handbrake on so you got to a couple handbrakeson so doesn't wall away It wasn't going anywhere in the snowbank, but you always got to be
safe There's no there's no punishment because most of the time like you're getting toldwhat to do by
your superiors and most of time they're right.
Yeah.
(24:38):
It can be.
So right now I work in passenger service and our number one concern always besides safetyis our passengers.
So, you know, when you end up being an hour late, you feel bad for the customers.
Like they're like, yeah, I missed my connection.
I'm to miss my flight or something like that.
So there's stress with that.
There's other stresses out there like Like possibilities of breaking down possibilities oflike trees being down.
(25:04):
We've been blocked by trees before Just regular stresses that not a lot of people actuallythink about that will actually happen But the end of the day like if you if you get it
done your shift within the amount of time that you're allowed The stress just goes awayinstantly
Nice.
One of the things you had mentioned to me, like while we were talking beforehand was thatyou have this opinion that, and it might be factual, I don't know, that railways hold
(25:31):
economies hostage.
And I did a bunch of reading on this and I'm really curious to hear your take on this.
Well, I'm just gonna use the American example right now like I know the Americanlocomotive engineers like myself they they put in their strike notice
There was a big contract issue.
were trying to get stuff taken away.
They're being put on certain point systems that if you take, I said, if you have to callin sick, like you get 20 points, you have to work two months to get those 20 points back.
(25:58):
I don't know, it's American, but it got so bad that Congress actually stepped in and said,guys aren't allowed to strike.
you know, they can hold the economy hostage.
Like trains do run the economy.
An investor told me one time, if you look at the railway stocks, if they're doing good,you know the economy is doing good.
So everything travels by rail, unless you're on the coast.
(26:19):
So it's kind of a hard thing to talk about because again, we need all our goods.
I know you live in Germany, you need your passenger services because trains are amazing.
But if you say, we're not going to work anymore, that kind of just cripples everything.
So it's kind of a, it's a Ocams razor, right?
(26:41):
Like you're on that fine edge where if you step one way, it's catastrophic.
If you step the other, it's catastrophic.
So I hope it's not the same in Europe, but yeah.
Yes, so North America mostly relies on freight traffic.
(27:04):
So cargo,
customers and stuff like that, where passenger service is kind of second class.
I don't want to say that.
I don't know how else to say it, but it's like they rent the track from the freightcompanies.
In the States, they have a couple of laws, at least on the East Coast, where it's likethey get priority or they have their own tracks.
But I know in Europe and Asia, like passenger service has their own tracks.
(27:25):
They're always on time.
Everybody relies on it.
Where here it's like, we're kind of at the mercy, right?
If a freight train says, we got to go first, they get to go first, it's their tracks.
completely understandable.
They own it, we just rent it.
So it's really cool.
Like I haven't been to Europe yet, but I know as soon as I get there and I'm by no means atrain buff, I just want to take the train to see the difference.
(27:48):
So
it's all it's all electric and magnets and like within North America anyway, at least someareas still like it's a lot of diesel generators that power the train.
So that's why it's really loud.
It's just a big diesel.
It's just a big diesel generator.
Whereas in Europe and Asia, they have maglev trains, electric trains.
So everything is powered different.
(28:10):
Do you see any of that stuff coming to North America like more, in a larger way?
Well, they just announced in Canada actually I believe it was this week or last week thatthey're putting in a high-speed train between Toronto and Montreal plus a couple other
cities Those are two biggest cities besides Vancouver.
(28:31):
So that's gonna be really huge for us Yeah, I don't know I think the States has a couplelike that but I don't really it's it's a giant infrastructure project and you need to
their own area and stuff like that It's way out of my realm of expertise, but I know
they just announced it so that's really exciting for us.
We're gonna be up to the European standard soon, which is amazing.
So we'll see what happens.
(28:53):
Hey,
Yeah, that's cool.
So one of the other things I actually still wanted to get to is you also somehow have thetime to run a fitness business.
Can you tell me a little bit about that?
it's just a little side project so I went to school for health wellness and fitnessbecause being the obese kid I was I thought becoming a personal trainer was gonna help me
(29:14):
and so it was something when I joined the railway I put on the back burner and it wasn'tuntil recently when a co-worker of mine asked me to make him a program and the light came
on it's like hey okay let's try it so I made him a program and I found how I rekindled mylove
because I used to make programs all the time for myself.
So now I just have a little side business.
mean, online, I'm an online coach, make programs for people predominantly for jujitsuathletes or MMA athletes.
(29:40):
So that way they're like, it's an expertise I know.
And like the gym has been the second of my life after jujitsu.
Like they go hand in hand, like I'm telling everybody I have two wives, jujitsu and thegym.
So.
But yeah, no, it's it's something that I've been really enjoying lately especially becauseit was my my passion before I joined the railway was my career so I Don't know it's a yeah
(30:16):
It's so my aim right now is actually becoming more functional
I used to be like a big power, like be a big into power lifting.
I also wanted to be a bodybuilder.
I also want to be a CrossFit athlete.
Like this is back when I was younger, right?
But you gotta focus on one thing.
And right now, like, because Jiu-Jitsu is still number one in my life and I want to be anathlete in Jiu-Jitsu, I have to train like an athlete in Jiu-Jitsu.
(30:37):
So strength and conditioning, both of them are really good.
The other thing about the gym is it also is like another way of meditating.
You go in there, you put your headphones in.
It's just you and the iron.
There might be...
Classical on that you can hear over your headphones.
That's okay You just it's just focusing and it's it's humbling as well.
It's like jujitsu.
It's I don't know if you're a weightlifter at all or if you ever did any strengthconditioning But you know like they're the God feeling At the no, you never did it.
(31:04):
No, so after after like a hard sparring session Like you're sitting there on the groundbreathing heavy.
It's you get that feeling and that's something that I've always I've always loved
(31:33):
Actually, no.
So with me, I've only had a couple of minor injuries.
Like this wrist is most recent.
I think it's just a little bit of golfer's elbow.
I don't know how I'd get golfer's elbow.
not a golfer.
But
With weight training, I found I've never been really injured.
Like I had a little bit of a shoulder.
Yeah, exactly.
It's like it's right through here.
I'm like, okay.
I thought it was a fracture.
I went and got an x-ray.
(31:54):
The first doctor thought it was a fracture.
Turns out it wasn't.
It was just a previous chip.
But sorry, there was a fire across the street.
They got the firefighters over there.
ADD.
Yeah, yeah.
It's interesting.
Okay.
yeah, like I said, I've never actually really been injured I had a small shoulder injurybecause I got thrown on my shoulder during a wrestling practice It was a fireman's throw
(32:21):
gone bad as you know, fireman's throws are either amazing or terrible depends on who doesit So that was one I can remember The other one I can remember is I popped my knee trying
to calf slice somebody I Popped my own knee I sliced somebody else Thanks
Not how that's supposed to work, but yep.
Not at all.
(32:42):
Those are the only two besides my wrist that I can remember and I attribute that tolifting weights.
Okay, well, part of the reason I ask is because I like to talk to people about differentways that they've dealt with having to be off the mats.
And so in your case, it wasn't due to injury, but you had to be off the mats for training,like school, for the apprenticeship.
(33:04):
Like, how did you deal with that?
And how did you deal with that forced time off?
So my journey in jiu-jitsu has actually been in stages.
So I started off as a white belt, went to school, took three, four months off, came backand went like balls to the wall hard for another six, seven months.
I competed, sorry, competed a lot.
(33:27):
And then I moved out to Halifax where I had to my apprenticeship.
So I took another six months, a year off.
started back training with my buddy's gym he owns it now Maritime Jiu Jitsu it was BushidoKai at the time got to Purple Belt there so after the training all that I finally got back
in the gym made it all the way up to Purple Belt I got the new job with the passenger railtransferred back to Toronto didn't have a gym there until I found my professor's gym and
(33:57):
so it was another year off and so in that in that time frame though
Each time I took time off there.
I knew there was something missing And so try to deal with it like the weight gym was oneof them But it was just trying to keep myself busy and then as soon as I've refound my
love for jujitsu and whenever I restarted Like it was just like it was there.
(34:21):
It was something that was Those that's meant to be with me like even during the thepandemic.
I had one training partner We had some mats.
We tried to follow all the
the social guidelines that they had at the time, because nobody knew any different.
So we just trained together one-on-one, right?
But it was something that we were both not willing to give up, was jujitsu.
We didn't want another hiatus.
(34:42):
So dealing with that is probably one of the harder things I've had to deal with.
You get, like, get, I don't want to say anxious, but you get antsy, you get like, I don'tknow how to describe it.
You just know there's something missing.
Like, have you ever had any major injuries where you've had to take time off?
Yeah, had, I've had a couple of them.
I broke my leg skydiving in 2009.
(35:04):
I had to have spinal surgery from a sparring session that went bad in 2013 or 2014.
And I had to take about a year off from that.
And it was really difficult.
I really, I really kind of desperately struggled for something that would be a similaroutlet.
(35:25):
not just a physical one, but also a mental one.
And for me, that time off the mats was like where I kind of learned to center myself likeoutside of jiu-jitsu.
I found that that is martial arts in general more than just jiu-jitsu, but now it's justjiu-jitsu.
(35:45):
And it's like, it was a purpose for me.
It was like being able to be centered.
giving me a purpose of exercise and rooting me in reality.
And I really had a hard time with those layoffs until I learned to be more at peace withmyself and give myself a little grace, I think is probably the best word I could come up
(36:08):
with for that.
It's about a couple of them that are very difficult.
That sounds difficult like break your leg skydiving.
Well, congratulations skydiving is scary as hell.
So like good on you for that The spiraling that's that's wild but I went I'm gonna saylike if I ever get injured again I'm gonna try and take your approach and get centered and
find the grace in it because Whenever I'm like out for a bit I can't do that and it'ssomething that I like now that you've talked about I should finally figure it out but No,
(36:38):
that's a Yes
hard.
was like I needed, I needed a little bit of, like I needed to give myself grace to likeadmit that it was hard because I felt like I was so, at the time, I felt like I was so in
control and comfortable when I was training regularly.
And then when I couldn't train, I kind of felt that, that antsy, like anxious, what am Idoing with myself?
(37:04):
What am I doing with my time feeling?
I, and I had to,
first admit to myself like this is really hard to get through.
And then I gave myself a little bit of grace and I was like, okay, this is, I can do this.
I can deal with this.
Not that it was easy, but I just had to find other occupations, like other things to keepmy mind, my body busy while I was injured, while I was off the mat.
(37:27):
Did you have any other hobbies that you like kind of jumped onto because like I had thegym but like what about yourself?
I did, I threw myself into work, which for my career paid off really well.
Like I got myself it, the first injury where I broke my leg was where I really was decidedI need to start building businesses myself.
(37:48):
And so that was shortly after I came off that, that broken leg, I started my firstcompany.
And well, as sort of co-founded my first tech company, I had done some stuff.
before.
And then that second injury, I just threw myself into work because I had no other thingthat I could do.
(38:09):
And so I was just taking more meetings, doing more networking, doing more learning of newtechnologies.
And it was incredibly helpful professionally, but a little bit sad that I struggled somuch and had no other outlet.
I'm just very fortunate that tech is such a, you
(38:31):
financially valuable thing to know and it ended up really working out in my benefit.
Yeah, honestly, like it's something that I wish I knew more about was like being in techbusiness.
Like I'm just, like said, I'm trying to be an online trainer and I'm trying to figure allthis stuff out at 32.
I wish I would have thrown myself into it when I was 18, like some of my coworkers, I meanmy friends at the time, but how many businesses do you have?
(38:52):
Like you just said, you started a couple or?
I've started a few businesses over the years.
The one that I started at that point was a company called Simple Reach.
built social media and content analytics.
Since then, I've helped start two med tech companies in the US.
One is called Mymee and other one's called Health Hive.
And I've just helped people build, helped CEOs build companies.
(39:14):
And I still do executive coaching at this point for
sort of younger executives that have, I didn't have any mentors growing up for technologyand I just made so many mistakes and I really wish that more people had mentorship
accessible to them.
So I just try to put myself out there and I do mentor a couple of executives to be like,hey, here's a bunch of things that I can be helpful with so you don't make four figure,
(39:40):
five figure, six figure mistakes like I did.
And hopefully this helps you in your life.
that's your rig on the money where there's like there's not a lot of mentors Anymore,right?
I was pretty lucky growing up that I had mentors for hard work like my father My unclesand stuff like that.
But yeah, you're right.
There's no tech mentors out there Like they said like we had I one computer teacherAbsolute genius of a man, but like all he did was teach us how to code to play video games
(40:09):
I don't know what he's doing nowadays.
Fantastic guy.
But like I wish we would learn how to...
This is before Raps.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And that was ours.
learned how to network.
We learned how to network to play StarCraft.
That was the best thing about it.
And he'd kick our butts at it.
He'd beat us up.
(40:29):
He'd beat us every day, but like we tried.
You had also mentioned to me that you were like interested in Gothic architecture.
Where did that come from?
I don't know.
I honestly don't know but ever since I was a kid like I've loved old cathedrals oldbuildings like one of my favorite things to do is I travel to Montreal quite often for
work and I'll actually just tour Montreal and go see like the old Catholic cathedrals allthe old churches all old Montreal like that I don't know where it came from I don't know
(40:56):
why
But love the masonry, I love the stained glass, I love everything about it.
I don't like being in churches, because I'm terrified of ghosts, ghosts are real to me, Idon't care what everybody says.
But I love just looking at them.
That's one of my biggest bucket list things, is going to Europe and seeing the cathedralsof Germany, the cathedrals of France,
(41:16):
Have you ever considered studying architecture a little more formally or it's more just ahobby and a side passion for you?
Side passion strictly because math is terrible.
I do I don't have the math for it unfortunately numbers numbers and me we don't get alonglike I Wish I wish we could I would love to be an architect or civil engineer when I was I
(41:39):
actually tried to become a civil engineer and like The one college I applied to looked atme and said yeah numbers aren't for you.
So This is it is.
I I've learned to live with it So it's a good
right?
were nice about it like the rejection letter was really nice, but it was still a rejectionletter Yeah, that's it's something that I really wish they could have like Yeah, I got I
(42:00):
was big into Lego when I was a kid and I think that's where it all started and I justloved building things with Lego and yeah Just couldn't couldn't get the math for it.
So Depends like yes
But I'll tell everybody no, like I'll go out and buy one of the Star Wars Lego sets justto build it.
(42:23):
But if you ask me, if you ask me in public, no, no, no Lego.
I just, it's a quote.
the mountains in Germany with a couple of friends and we were hiking during the day and inthe evenings they were like they had brought a bunch of Legos and they were like building
Legos in the evenings and I thought that was like very wholesome and cool that I was like,that's that's kind of a sweet way to for everyone to spend time together is just playing
(42:49):
with Legos.
See like that's the thing I just wish I could have like a big bucket of Lego again Butit's now now like it was like super expensive.
I don't tell everybody no, but it's like it's one of my it's one of my hidden hobbies I Itry to I try to keep like just keep some things for myself.
I don't want people playing with my Lego You blame that on my you blame that on my you canblame that on my cousins
(43:10):
doing it.
That was it.
Hey, you know what you're absolutely right.
I won't hide it no more.
That's me Yeah, there you go.
My name is John and I like them.
Yeah, there you go In what context within jujitsu or just life
(43:38):
Anything.
Anything that you just wish everyone knew.
You know patience is one thing I wish a lot of people knew And again, like jujitsu is themost patient sport I found But growing up like I had some teachers and some parents that
weren't patient just because I learned a little bit differently and I was I Acted a littlebit differently.
That's just because like now we know it was learning disability But yeah, like when itcomes to life jujitsu just be patient like don't overdo it.
(44:06):
Don't try and like rush it understand other people
Somebody might be having the worst day of their life and if you just show them a littlebit of kindness and patience, like they'll be...
Okay, we got cops in my driveway.
Sorry, fire thing still going on is great.
It's crazy.
patience is one thing that I wish everybody would have a little bit more of.
Like there's a lot of patient people, but like just have a little bit more.
(44:28):
And I'm also, I should also listen to my own advice because like I'm the world's angriestdriver.
Driving to and from Toronto every day is not fun.
But I'm starting to get the hang of it.
I'm starting to get a little more patient.
of my rock music, I'll listen to a podcast or an audio book, so that'll slow things downfor me.
(44:49):
Yeah, that's one thing I can give advice for, is everybody should have more patience.
Does that kind of does is that the role that jujitsu plays in your life these days is likereminding you of patience, giving you that kind of focus and giving you that outlet?
Or does it play some other role for you these days?
It really does.
It plays all those roles.
It plays more, like I said before, it's about getting my mind clear.
(45:12):
I can the stress from work, stress from life, the stress of driving from Toronto and inToronto.
I'm to use Toronto as the bane of my existence right now just because it is the worstplace to drive.
If you've ever driven anywhere with the worst traffic, times that by like five.
That's Toronto traffic.
It's the worst.
that's the bane of my existence is Toronto.
(45:32):
that was always Atlanta.
Atlanta and LA were the two worst traffics I'd ever been in.
But the thing I liked so much about Toronto is that it has a burrito district.
Somebody told me like, I need to go to the burrito district in Toronto.
I was like, that's, it's amazing that a town has a burrito district.
And I went there and I ate at like five different burrito places.
(45:53):
And hard for me to dislike any place that has a burrito district.
See I didn't even know about the burrito district now I gotta look it up.
You might have just saved Toronto for me because love like Mexican food is my favorite andany sort of burrito is a good burrito so thank you for that.
Yeah Go ahead.
(46:14):
So in the future I'm excited to continue
like continue with my learning, continue with my jujitsu, hopefully build my business.
I plan on continuing my education.
I want to open up my own school eventually.
Like right now we have, I kind of have one that is in my buddy's basement.
He teaches the wrestling, I teach the jujitsu, but I kind of want to have my own place.
(46:38):
want to share my knowledge and share the gift with like the gift of jujitsu witheverybody.
So that's what I want to do in the future.
But yeah, like I just want to.
continue on the journey I'm going on because it hasn't been bad yet.
That's really nice.
like that people, Jujitsu seems to create, not in everybody, but in a lot of people, likea very giving mindset.
hey, I profited so much from this emotionally, physically, situations, community, and nowI want to give back.
(47:05):
And I love that that's like a common theme amongst so many people who have trained.
Yeah, like so the our basement we train in it's free.
We just want people that are good people to come train with us my buddy started it duringcovet Same idea.
He had one training partner two training partners then allowed that he brought into hishouse we kept it going like I met him the end of Covid and we became really fast like fast
(47:28):
friends through it like even Even was it?
tuesday.
We just got together for just me and him to get some rounds in but it like
He shows his gifts of wrestling and judo.
I show my gifts of jiu-jitsu and we share with people who we want to have around us,right?
It's free.
All we ask is that you're good person and that you train hard with us.
And that's something that like I can't do enough.
(47:50):
Like I wish I could just teach for free, right?
I just want to share jiu-jitsu with everybody because it changed my life so dramaticallyand drastically in the best ways possible that I never imagined when I was younger.
I love that.
That's really beautiful that you get the opportunity to do it even on a small scale.
Yeah, like we got we got about seven or eight of us that are regulars there and a couplemore here and there and everybody knows like Just message us doors always open.
(48:16):
Come on train Yeah, like I
I'd like to promote like our gym if you want to train with us in the London area give me amessage we'll have you out.
I'd like to promote my business at J Fitness on Instagram at J Fitness.
(48:39):
Yes that's right not London UK not London anywhere else London Ontario Canada.
I also like to promote the gyms I go to so I consider myself a nomad but my main gym whereI got my black belt is Mamouch Martial Arts in Oshawa Ontario.
Platinum BJJ here in London under Aaron.
Fantastic place.
(48:59):
What you call it the pigeons.
The pigeons are amazing.
And the other gym I go to is Infinite Jiu Jitsu in Brantford.
Run by my buddy Eric.
Fantastic, fantastic place if you're in the Brantford area.
There's also the Rumble Academy in Brantford.
Fantastic place as well.
I think you already talked to Mr.
Rumble, but very, very, very, very intelligent.
conversation, interesting fella.
(49:22):
He's like as like we talked about he's the smartest person I've ever met I cannot wait towatch that one So I'm just I'm excited for that one.
Yeah, that's it Thank you so much Eric, I love being here
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