May 31, 2024 • 42 mins
Welcome to another exciting episode of the Inside the Wave podcast! In this episode, I had the pleasure of sitting down with two of my favorite students at Utopia Martial Arts, Steve and Audrey. Steve, a dedicated member of the community for 13 years, and Audrey, who started training at the young age of 7, shared their journey in the world of grappling.
We delved into their motivations for starting jiu-jitsu, wrestling, and judo, with Steve highlighting his initial interest in getting in shape and Audrey expressing her love for the sport from a young age. The conversation touched on their proudest moments in martial arts, with Steve emphasizing his pride in watching Audrey develop her skills and excel in wrestling, while Audrey reflected on her achievements in grappling competitions.
The podcast also explored the challenges they faced in their journey, from injuries to self-doubt, and how they overcame them with perseverance and a love for the sport. Steve and Audrey shared valuable advice for families looking to get started in grappling, emphasizing the importance of having fun and not taking the sport too seriously.
Audrey revealed her big goals in wrestling and freestyle wrestling, aiming to win state championships and compete at the national level. Steve, on the other hand, expressed his desire to achieve his black belt in jiu-jitsu and focus on coaching and giving back to the community.
The episode concluded with a message of encouragement for parents to join their kids on the mats, as Audrey shared how having her dad train with her has been a significant factor in her continued involvement in the sport.
Overall, the episode highlighted the power of family bonding through martial arts, the importance of perseverance in the face of challenges, and the joy of pursuing one's passion in the world of grappling. Tune in to the next episode for more inspiring stories and insights from the world of martial arts!
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Episode Transcript
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(00:12):
Welcome to the inside the wave podcast with your host Perry worth sponsored by
utopia martial arts. And you guys have some beautiful utopia martial arts,
jiu-jitsu shirts on today. Maroon's a great color on
the Hanson family. I'm joined with, uh, Steve
and Audrey, both longtime community members with
(00:35):
Awesome. So I've known you both.
(00:57):
Yeah. So who started, I
was, I was preparing for this podcast. I was like, I don't
Okay. Yeah. So what was that getting started like?
Um, not long after me, like, um, just
(01:19):
a few years, I think, because she joined the kids
program that Paul and I started. Yeah. Coached,
Right. Okay, so you started when you're seven, you started when you're
like 35. You've been doing for 10 years now? No,
13. I'm 48. 1348. You don't look a
(01:41):
day older than me. Why isn't
my hair doing what your hair does? It's not fair. Very
cool. So what what made you want to get started in
Uh, it's kind of a classic story, right? Like I was
out of shape. So I was 35 out of shape. We had just moved back.
(02:05):
It's crumbling in some areas, duct tape
and glue. And then a lot of ibuprofen falls
apart at home. No, I, um, I
was a lot heavier, a lot of shape at 35. We,
uh, we had just moved back to Milwaukee and. I was looking
to get in shape, but didn't like running didn't like I was never a
(02:28):
gym dude. And literally went down downtown
Grafton saw the sign neutral ground. Sweet. I was like, I
got to check that out. And I'll never forget because I walked in the first day
and I really thought there was gonna be like, you know, the UFC MMA
dudes are gonna be like, people like me. No, I
Luke was the first guy who I met. Yeah. And he had this big smile
(02:54):
Very cool. But you, so you wrestled before you have. I
Yeah. And that's kind of why I liked, or it
made sense to get into Jiu Jitsu because I love wrestling. It's always been
my first love love, you know, made sense
And so, you know, I didn't want to tell your wife that wrestling was I
(03:14):
wrestled before I met her, but like Jiu Jitsu just,
or grappling just, did you know what Jiu Jitsu was when you walked in?
Yeah. Kind of. How did you know what you're getting yourself into? You just really
didn't. You're like, Oh, martial arts. Maybe these dudes are breaking boards. Maybe they're pajama
No, because of the early days of the UFC, I had a
basic, basic understanding, like submission grappling, but
(03:38):
Cool. And when Audrey got started, How
did she get involved? Was it your idea? Was it your dad's idea? Did he make
He didn't make you do it? I don't
remember. Did you just want to do it? I remember being interested in
(04:04):
Interesting. Yeah, and it was your like you just want to be like, yeah, what are you doing?
I think so, right? I don't I don't really remember I was seven
Yeah. Yeah What did you like about
it when you're seven like look back then Why
(04:27):
That was definitely part of it. Oh, that's cool. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I was a really
shy kid. So it was nice having someone that I knew. Um, and then
I also didn't like my other sports. I did gymnastics and ballet
when I was younger. Okay. Um, I just didn't like
them. And so I guess, I mean, I don't, I don't really
Was it cause they were just too serious? Not
(04:49):
fun. Were they not up your alley, not
Yeah, I guess. You had success early too. You had double gold your
(05:10):
Yeah. For sure. How long did it take her
Yeah. Nice. Cool.
Uh, looking back at it, Steve, what's
(05:32):
Oh man, it's just been watching her develop. Like
honestly, to see her like blossom
and get those techniques and she's so smooth and like she's everything
I'm not which I kind of love like she's got technique flow
she flows Yeah. And just to see her as
(05:52):
she goes from submission grappling to wrestling. That's
been my problem. Yes. Like to see her just kick
ass at wrestling. And in one year, like she never did folk style.
Yeah, she goes the state in folk style, like, oh my god, that was that's
(06:18):
Well, It was I mean, yeah, it was probably
that sectional tournament when I made
it to state. I mean, because I got to be with my friend Ellie. Yeah,
you obviously know. And it was just really cool to
have like all the team around us and get to go to
a tournament I'd never been with my friend. And you know, I have my
(06:42):
Very cool. So let's talk a little bit more about Your
journey, because it's not super, well, either of
you is like super straightforward, right? You have a lot of different. Grappling
experiences, not just jiu-jitsu that you've been doing
for 10 years and for 13 years, but you
both have been dedicated to Judo. You both
(07:05):
have wrestling experience. Talk more
Oh, sure. Well, I started in jiu-jitsu and
then a year later, I remember I was at a tournament and...
A jiu-jitsu tournament. Yeah, a jiu-jitsu tournament. And my dad told
me that, I think it was Coach Greg, who
(07:26):
was the judo coach, said that I would be better
if I learned more. Like, um, I guess judo
technique. Yeah. And so then I joined my first judo class, loved
it. And then I just, I kept going. I remember I took a
break for a while, like, I don't know, a month
(07:47):
No, just of judo. I think it, well, I was younger so
I think it was like a lot at once for me. But then
I got back in and then, I
I don't know. Never? Um, maybe, yeah.
(08:09):
So, and you took judo to, she competed at a national
level in judo and then you've taken judo and
applied it to wrestling. Like one of her go-tos is an
So you started wrestling as a, you did jiu-jitsu since you were seven. You
did judo since you were essentially eight. And then going into
high school, you're like, ah, you know, It's enough grappling.
(08:31):
I want to, I want to wrestle too. Yeah. Right.
Did you find yourself with all the other martial arts experience,
grappling experience that you had, do you think you came in with like a different perspective and
Yeah, definitely. Well, when I started wrestling, I
had grappling experience, which was very helpful. But also, like,
(08:52):
I remember I would be trying to do a judo technique to get a takedown. My
coach would be, at first, he would get mad. He'd be like, what are you doing?
But eventually, I started getting success with my
judo and my jiu-jitsu techniques. And so I
guess, well, that kind of changed my coach's mind too, like from a
traditional wrestling perspective to like now including Judo
(09:14):
and Jiu-Jitsu and wrestling. I feel like that made me a much better wrestler.
Yeah. What do you think is the
biggest difference between Jiu-Jitsu, Gianogi,
Judo, and wrestling? Because they're like, I've
(09:34):
done all of them myself. And to
Right. What is, what do you see as like the major difference?
Well, um, is there like a, uh, I
mean, obviously there's a rule difference and a outcome difference, but
(09:56):
is there like a, a mindset difference, a intensity difference,
a overall outlook on things difference
I mean, from my experience. Yeah. I feel like for me,
jiu-jitsu has always been. I don't think calmer is
the right word, but more like, you know, flowing from one position
(10:17):
to the next one position isn't necessarily bad. Well,
yeah, then, you know, then we're basically wrestling there,
but then it's just me trying to pass Steve's half for five
minutes straight. Yeah. Um, and then I
feel like judo is a bit more strength,
a bit more aggressiveness, at least for me. I don't know about other people, but,
(10:39):
um, I feel like it's different because you're standing, you're both,
you kind of have, you know, you can't use the legs. So it's limited
like places that you can attack. So I feel like it's centered at
one place. It's a little more aggressive for me. And
then wrestling is like in the middle from an aggression standpoint
is it um, I Think I'm still
(11:02):
figuring that out actually because I feel like I'm still working on
my aggression in wrestling Okay, I think right now I I use
a lot of technique and I need to use more aggression so
I Mean you've always been a very technical grappler,
I mean you're wildly intelligent and Thank you. You're very smart, at
(11:23):
least from what I know, you could just be fooling me. But like, I
remember, I just remember one day, like, it was a
Friday night. And I was like, I'm gonna see if
Audrey can learn reverse de la jiva to kiss the dragon to
a backtake. And I was like, I'm gonna see if her and Ellie can learn
it. And like, the adults couldn't learn it sure shit in like
(11:45):
10 minutes. There's still there's there's ace in
it. You probably don't remember like what to do, but I'm sure if I showed you to be
able to pick it up right away. Right. And I think that's, I
think one thing you, you've taken away from
all of your years is the meta learning. Like you've learned how to learn
grappling. That if some new like sport emerges, you
(12:08):
Yeah. And it probably started with dancing
gymnastics. You just didn't realize it. Right?
Because dancing gymnastics is like body control. But
yeah, but it's not even just it's body control. And like, a very
interesting space where growing up playing
other sports, everything else is like most other things are linear. It's
(12:29):
run forward, run backwards, run left, run left, turn, jump, down.
We're like dance, like everything's independently moving
in gymnastics. You're spinning around somersaults, cartwheels.
I wasn't yeah, I said maybe not maybe not doing like flips or
bars yet, but like it's really you know, we have some Students
at the gym like Dominic right one of our students. Yeah gymnast
(12:52):
Yeah picked it up super fast because he knows how his body moves in space Oh, but
he just doesn't know how it moves going against another person quite yet
Interesting, but he'll get there for sure. Yeah So
now your main focus because you're in high school is wrestling Yeah,
right. Was it challenging to be like hey, I want
to put jiu-jitsu and judo on the backseat and I want to
(13:15):
Um Yeah, it was challenging but less so than
I thought Um, just because I kind of
had that break from the wrestling season I didn't like that
was all I did this year was because last year I did All
Like wrestling practice then come to judo jiu-jitsu practice then stick
(13:37):
Yeah Um, but yeah that this year I just focused on
wrestling. Um, and so I think that kind of Helped
me take a the break that I was planning on
because I feel like since there's only four years of high
I I tell people all the time As long as
you're willing to come back jiu-jitsu is always there for you. Mm-hmm wrestling.
(14:00):
It like it doesn't have a lifespan, but it does have
a lifespan. Yeah, same with judo. Like judo can take a toll on your body. And at
some point in time, you might be young and you
might not be able to do anymore because it might have just taken it's their hard sports. It's
just it's different on your body. You
know, I'm sure how much has your wrestling changed from being young
(14:20):
to being older? Huge. Yeah. Like you can't even approach it
the same way. Yeah. Which is cool. Steve,
what about your journey? So 13 years grappling, you
have had some huge personal milestones. What
(14:45):
Personally? Yeah. I mean, just showing
Showing up when it's even you don't want to. Yeah. Yeah.
(15:08):
And you're still competing today in that, right? Like you still go to competitions. Yeah.
Very cool. Yeah. Uh, and
Hopefully, I know the the person that does the test. So I've got
He's all right. What
(15:29):
has been your personal? Like
coolest wow moment for yourself in martial
What's like you're not like your personal biggest win and say it's pretty
much Audrey. It's hard when you
have such a successful Yeah, and just I mean, just
(15:50):
to share this with her is amazing. Like, that's a love
that we can do that. But spend this many
years and from jiu jitsu to wrestling, like, that's my favorite.
Well, I mean, the judo black belt was huge. I
was a big didn't really see that coming. Yeah.
(16:18):
Was it weird to, like, what
did you think about black belts when you started martial arts? Were you
No, God, no. I still don't think that I
Yeah. So do you have, um, I
hate throwing this term out there. Cause I don't want to put it on anyone, but like imposter
(16:40):
syndrome, like, Oh, I, I am one, but I don't feel
like one yet. Or have you like truly like, yeah, I stepped into it.
No, no, definitely not. Yeah. Complete imposter syndrome.
Like even like I feel so
I teach teens and adults Mondays. Yeah. And like, even
then I'm like, what am I doing? Like, why am
(17:10):
But I mean, honestly, that's you've been teaching for for me for a long time. When'd you
And you're probably helping out with adult classes here and there too.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I said, well, think about how much better you are
as a coach. Oh my God. From a Bluebell. Yeah. Where like, but
you probably also felt, do you, do you think you felt more confident now
(17:36):
Cause like, I, I don't even feel like I, I mean,
I know, I know a lot more than when I started coaching, but you're
still just like, You know, you still, there's
Yeah. There's so much. And honestly, that's one
of the reasons I still compete. Well, one, because I think it makes
you better. Yeah. And I love like getting out of the comfort
(17:59):
zone and stuff like that. Like, I think everybody should compete, but, um,
it also makes me like, I can bring that back as
direct experience to the people I coach. I can be like, this
Like, And now you're coaching not just jiu-jitsu at
my school, but you're coaching high school wrestling. Yeah,
this past season. Yeah. Coach Steve. It was awesome.
(18:26):
Has you have you seen your wrestling game go up just being a coach and being in
Oh my god. Yeah, I brought all that from the because we were in the room every
day with her, which was amazing. Yeah. And I brought all that
back to what I teach on Monday because it was takedown
focused. Yeah. And like I went from, you know,
single leg double leg basic dude to like ducks
(18:48):
and shucks and like it was awesome. Yeah. It changed my
Uh, not a lot of people, not a lot of like kid
parent relationships, child parent relationships. Do
the kids get to do the
activity at the same level as the parents? And then like the parents
(19:09):
actually even do it. Um, Audrey,
do you have like a lot of friends in school where like their dads are on
the mat, they're grappling with them. Or even if jiu-jitsu is
not their sport, maybe like their sports football, like your
parents out there playing football with you, like tackle. Um,
tell me about that. Like, has it been good? Has it been cool? Is
(19:31):
it interesting? Is it empowering? Like what does that matter? Because
not a lot of people, like very rarely does someone actually
Yeah, I guess I haven't really thought about that. Like,
in terms of like, whether people around me have the same experience, but
I think it's been really awesome. I mean, For
(19:52):
jiu-jitsu, it brought me into the sport for one, which
is great. Um, but then also just like when,
you know, the sports hard when times would get stressful or like before tournaments,
it was really, really helpful to have my dad there. Um, and
I'm sure that a coach who I wasn't related to, um,
would also help me, but it's nice to have someone that, you know, and
(20:14):
then for wrestling, it's just been. amazing to have him as a
coach because you know, we can grapple at home and
It's also just nice again to just have someone you know, and I
know that whatever I do He'll always be proud of me, which is
Oh my god amazing Has it
(20:37):
do you think it's given you a stronger relationship? Yeah,
Absolutely. Yeah. To share that, to talk about it, like even
like this weekend watching the Olympic trials and stuff like that. Like we get
to just, just even talking about it, like in passing, as
opposed to like not having anything, you
(21:12):
Probably your dude, there's going to be a day. Oh my God. Yeah.
I can't wait for it. She just like legit catches you.
She disappears better than like than wrestling or I can't wait
till she just catches you in jiu-jitsu. And she just like, yeah, has
you in full armbar extension or just like super deep choke
that you didn't just let her get in position and like finish it. Oh, she catches
(21:39):
Do you grapple your dad harder than
Well, I don't know. I
don't feel like I get more competitive with him. I just like, it
(22:00):
Or do you think he's tougher on you? I think compared to other adults, he's
definitely easier on me. But I think that he's
really good at giving me the amount of challenge that I need to get
better while also not, you know, some adults just kind
of power through like, not really helpful, but he gives
me the right amount of challenge. So I get a little mad, I want to
(22:21):
It's like, it's legit scary grappling with her now because I can't just
like, let her do stuff. Yeah.
Like I actually need to fight back because if I don't fight back, like I
will, I will die. And do
those small forearms, like those chokes get in.
It's like piano wire does not, does not feel good. It's
(22:42):
like me. Like I have the most dainty wrists and forearms ever. Like if
these suckers get in on a choke, it hurts. It's having the
choking part. It's just that it's just a small surface area. Right.
It's going to get scary with how good you are. Oh, yeah, for
sure. So we talked about peaks. What about pits? Are you
talking pits and pits? What have what have been some of the most challenging moments
(23:10):
Um, well, for me, I think it's been when I
don't think I'm getting better. I feel like that is
makes it hard for me to stay motivated. Because there have definitely been
Um, but do you feel like you're not improving? comparing
yourself to yourself? Or are you comparing yourself to other people at
(23:32):
that point in time to myself? Okay, so you're like, I'm not getting
Yeah. Okay, which I know isn't true. But sometimes it's
hard for me to recognize that I am improving. Yeah. And so I
So Steve, does that go away? No.
Never. What's been one of your biggest challenges? I
(23:57):
feel like as we get older, it's like just nagging injuries and
stuff like that. Like, you know, little little pains and stuff.
It's funny. I was just talking to my wife about that. Yeah. Like
this week, like knowing, like the body's like,
Are you like me? We're like, in general, you feel fine. And then one
of your buddies who doesn't grab was like, yeah, my elbow hurts. And you're like, shit,
(24:23):
Like you don't really, it's so like normalized. You don't really notice it
until someone else is like, ah, man, my knee hurts. You're like, ah, I
Oh, dude, like podcast, we
(24:47):
are gonna I would put a photo in this clip. Maybe
we will. But Instagram is gonna blur it out. And then you have to click on like, accept. Yeah,
but you were you sprawling? Like you
Yeah, I was with Joe Benson.
Yeah, man. It was like a cartoon. Yeah, you're I was I wish I was there. I
(25:08):
wish I was there. I definitely would have thrown up. But your toe
dislocated and apparently it's common when you have your big toe dislocate it
breaks through the skin yeah, yep, and it looked like I like
someone sent me a picture like Steve dislocated his toes like he's fine and
then like two seconds later the picture came through and I was like
(25:29):
Because it was like for one I didn't know bone was that white I
didn't know I didn't know blood was that red and I didn't know when skin tears
Yeah. But, you know, two hours later, you're fine.
They just pop that sucker back in stitch it up and literally Yep.
Oh, man, they called the surgeon in from his daughter's like softball
(25:51):
game. And he's like, we could put you into surgery. I could do
Man injuries happen. Yeah, a
lot of people they would have something like that happen and just back. Yeah, I'm
done How'd you push through that? Are
(26:13):
Okay. Yeah, I just, I don't know. I never, I
never thought to like, not keep going. Yeah, I
I mean, to me, that's like the black belt attitude. Like, hey, nothing's
gonna stop me from, from doing what I love. Yeah, we'll
It's a whole thing of like, um, Ed had that great speech
(26:33):
when he got promoted recently, like you and
I've, you know, other people have said you got to love the process. You
don't love the process. You're not going to do it like it's not about outcomes. It's not
about awards or tournaments. It's like you just got to love
what you're doing. And if you love what you're doing, you just keep showing up and doing it.
And that's yeah, through injury through
(26:58):
How do you guys speaking of process? How do you guys have you balance
this all over the years? Right? Like, you have
your job, you're coaching at my gym, you're coaching high
school wrestling in the winter, you're doing your own training at a
very high level, like you're training multiple nights a week yourself. Multiple
classes in a night. Audrey, you've have
(27:20):
like grappled through whatever, like you've been on
National Honor Society, right? You're just like
Yeah. Yeah. Stop that. Just
brag. We're just talking before you have to AP classes coming
(27:46):
That's insane. Like do you have to even go to college? You just have enough credits
to graduate high school. But I
mean, you're not Both just
like average people, right? You have a lot of stuff going
on and you're what I would consider high performers, always striving
for more, always pushing to challenge yourself in a lot of different areas. How
(28:08):
have you guys balanced that all? Not
just being able to do everything, but also being able to prioritize yourselves
as a family. Cause you have a brother too. You also have a mom that
have their own things. Um, how,
what's your trick? What do you do? Um,
well, what's your trick for other teenagers out there that like,
(28:37):
Well, I would say as a teenager, one
of my main focuses is school. And so I feel like if
you're able to, you know, I, I
feel like school isn't so bad if you're
paying attention, if you're focused on it, if you're really trying. Because
I feel like understanding what's going on has
(28:58):
helped me because then that gives me, like, my homework's easier,
I'm spending less time that I need to study, then I can have more time
to train. So I feel like, honestly, paying attention
in school and time management, doing your homework right away
How do you like to manage your time? Do you like prioritize
(29:18):
it? Do you have like a little like diary, calendary thing, assignment notebook?
Yeah. Yeah. I just have, um, like,
yeah, a little notebook of everything I need to do for the day. Um,
and yeah, once I get home from school, I just try to get it done as
much as I can, but. I feel like I also am able to
(29:38):
recognize if something's too much, like if I need to
Like doing jiu-jitsu and judo during wrestling season and try to
make it to not just all of your wrestling practice, but four or
five additional grappling classes a week. You're just like, I need to
Very cool. Steve, what about like balancing the
(30:00):
family and family demands? You know, I know your son, Eli has
his own stuff. Shannon has her stuff going on.
How do you guys with all this going on, how do you guys still find the family time?
Well, it's interesting, like, it
comes down to a schedule, kind of, you know what I mean? Like, so like, Wednesday
is family night, like, that is sacred, like, that's my date night, too.
(30:23):
Every Wednesday. Yeah, nothing touches Wednesday, you can't touch Wednesday,
nobody gets Wednesday, but the family. Like, so that's something like
Do you guys have something like, like you like doing every Wednesday? Is
Family dinner is, uh, is the bare minimum. And you guys, uh,
(30:46):
Steve's always on it. I get beat up. Okay.
Yeah, so that's sacred. No one touches that. And then it's nice having like,
so like you said, like we do grapple quite a majority
of the week we're at the gym. Yeah. So it's nice
having like, that set. So I'm going to
(31:07):
go like these days, but also knowing that there's flexibility, like
something that actually, I think you said a long time ago. And
I think you learned it from your mentor. It's like, if you say to yourself, I
have to do this every day. Right, then you if
you skip a day, then you're like, Oh my god, and then you go all the way back. So
if you say to yourself, like more often than not, yeah, I'm
(31:31):
I've taken that to heart. So like more often than not, I'm at the gym. But
Things happen. Yeah, yeah. Very cool. Um,
Every once in a while I say something good. More often than you think. Oh
man. All right. Uh, I got some rapid fire
(31:53):
questions, but anything else you want to share about your
journey? The exciting stuff. You
want to guys grapple right there? Yeah, let's go. I
need to go. First takedown wins. All right,
here we go. I'm going to ask you both
of these. And no looking at each other because
(32:14):
I don't want you to influence each other's answers. I'm just kidding. All right. Remember,
I always do have someone who's my favorite. I'm
not going to tell you who my favorite is, though. So first
question. Jiu jitsu, judo or wrestling? Wrestling.
(32:35):
Steve, you're my favorite. I'm
just kidding. I wrestled for a
very long time. I appreciate that answer. There's no wrong answer here. For
me? I can't pick. No, you can pick whatever you want. Which
one's your favorite right now? What season are you in enjoying
(32:58):
No gi jiu-jitsu. Yeah. Cool. That was my next question
Yeah. No gi. No gi? Cool. Why? Why
do you like it right now? I like cause. Cause you just got out
of wrestling season. Yeah. Try to see how you're wrestling. Yeah. It's the
closest to wrestling. Very cool. Uh, if you
(33:21):
could train with any athlete ever dead or alive, would
Well, I mean, I've been influenced by watching the
Olympic trials. So that's cool. So
one woman I've looked up to not just because she has my name, but Audrey Jimenez.
She's a four time state champ one time that
(33:45):
was well, one of the times that she won was boy state champ. She's
in the Olympic trials finals right now, and she's only 18 and yeah,
I know I think she's pretty cool We saw her earlier this year
at a tournament called Called who's number one? She
is she is Yeah, but it's like the two Number
(34:07):
one and number two ranked athletes. They wrestle each other. She won so
fast that she started doing sprints after she won. Yeah. In
She's just, she's insane because the match wasn't enough to like warm her up
Steve, who out of everyone, who would your number one person to
train with be in anything? It'd be jiu-jitsu, judo wrestling,
(34:30):
no geeky. Uh, so when that you want to play ice
No, I mean, Cale Sanderson, I think Cale Sanders. Yeah.
Yeah, what he did in his own right. And then like what he's doing for
wrestling now and at Penn State and I really admire we
(34:51):
I actually talked to Greg coach Greg about this roll off quite a
bit. Yeah, because he has a similar mindset to what Cale
is doing. I think at Penn State in terms of like, kind of
changing the game in terms of like, focus on mentality focus
on being calm being present. Yeah, you see his wrestlers like
they are they are never in a bad position because they they
(35:13):
act like everything is like I meant to be here. Yeah, and I'll get out
of it. Yeah, they wrestle position position position. And it's
a beautiful thing. Like I love how he's kind of turning wrestling on
Uh, next question, advice, best advice for
families looking to get started in jiu-jitsu. Like
(35:38):
Okay. Don't make it a big deal. Like don't force
it. Don't like, we were just talking
about this actually, because we go to a lot of tournament. Audrey's
got so many tournaments and you see some of those parents on the sidelines
Just have fun. I've only seen Steve ever go dad mode like once. It
(36:01):
wasn't screaming at a tournament, but I've seen Steve go dad mode like once. It's
For families? Um, I mean, yeah,
I might, I might have to say the same thing. I feel like You
know, at the end of the day, jiu-jitsu is a game. Like, you
(36:23):
know, dad always says that to me. It's not, it's never that
deep. It shouldn't, you know, make any fights happen. Like,
you know, I feel like sometimes training partners can get
mad at each other for one winning or the other, but it's just not
I feel like, yeah. Audrey, what advice would you give teens
(36:45):
Well, the first I would say is that you
shouldn't care too much about losing. I feel like you
know, as a teenager, like if you're coming into a new sport, there's going to
be people that are better than you. I mean, there will always be people that are
better than you. I feel like when I used to be in the
Monday teens classes, a lot of the new teens would, they'd be
(37:06):
mad if they'd get beaten. You know, I've seen adults do the same thing.
So not my dad, but other people. And
so I feel like if you can just accept that you're never going to be the best, then
I jump in to the deep end. Just do it. Like, give
(37:27):
it a shot. Yeah. I've heard like I've talked to even
the last few weeks I've talked to people who are interested in like,
Oh, you know, I got to get in shape or like, Oh, I got to do this or that. Like,
Love it. Um, what is your Audrey?
What is your current big goal in grappling? Like, what do you have your eyes set
(37:56):
Sure. You know, whatever I
Mean cool. I feel I feel like Yeah,
and then also for freestyle. I'm getting much more into freestyle now which
is just The style of wrestling that women usually
do when they're in college Yeah, and so I'm trying
(38:16):
to compete at Fargo this summer, which is a big national tournament And
so I'm hoping that at some point in my high school career that all
Steve, what's your what's your big goal right now in grappling? Get
the black belt. Get the black belt. Yeah. What's after black belt?
Like you get it. Great. Because that's
(38:38):
a for sure. Like unless you get hit by a bus, like
or a train or whatever, like you will get your black belt.
Then be like passing it on like
just coaching more and like giving back like
I've gotten so much out of jiu-jitsu and judo and wrestling, like
(39:01):
anything I can give back. I don't think I could, I could spend the rest of my life and
I don't think I'd give it back enough. I
Um, Oh, next one. Last one. Uh,
I want to know like, you know, what a 16, 17 year olds
(39:32):
Well, it's so cliche, but I just want to be happy with where I am,
I guess. And I feel like I know myself, I always have
to stay busy. So if I can be busy doing something I'm passionate about,
Oh, man. Um, I don't know, it's, we
(39:52):
were talking about this on the ride down, like, it's going to be navigating the
next couple of years as you know, the kids wrap up high school and
go to college, like trying to maintain the real
Have house parties again without worrying about travel.
No, just maintaining the relationships we've built and like
(40:13):
maintaining that, you know, the strength of communication as, as the
kids move on and see what happens. It's
a weird. It's a weird thing. It's like I
know many people have gone through it, obviously, but it's new to us
and we're gonna have to navigate those waters. There's always
Yeah. That you
(40:34):
wish you've been through it before, so you know how to handle
Yeah, it's just, yeah. Like growing up, you just, people
can tell you what to do and give you advice, but you kind of
Well, it was great having both of you. Two of my favorite
(40:55):
students. I do like one of you more than the other. I'm just
Yeah, you can. Anyways, any
last tits bits you like to share with the
Go grapple. Words of wisdom. Just do it.
(41:17):
Yeah, dive in and honestly, like just keep
showing up and you got to love the process words for parents
looking to enroll their kids. Oh my god. Greatest
gift ever. Yeah. Do you have the kids do it? And
then if you can do it with them? Oh my god, it's something you have for forever
for life. It will like you said, like you're not out
(41:38):
there on the gridiron playing football. You know what I mean? Basketball? Yeah,
maybe. But not at this level. Yeah, it's pretty cool to
Audrey, we have a lot of kids in martial arts that
started when they're your age, all the way up to your age. We have
a lot of their parents that haven't decided to step on the mats yet. What
(42:06):
I would say that Being able to have
my dad on the mats with me has probably made
me stay in the sport and probably has made me join wrestling.
Like it's been a big part of it because, I don't know,
just being able to do sports with your families, like
you said, it's super unique and it's really fun. So if a
(42:27):
parent is on the fence about it, I think you might as well just do
it. I mean, It won't be bad. Like
Give it a shot for yourself or your kid or your
family. Cool. Well, I appreciate both
of you. Thank you for tuning in. If
(42:48):
you guys would like to ever meet Steve and Audrey stop by
utopia. They're always there. I couldn't get rid of them
if I wanted to. If you are listening, give
me five stars. Otherwise, we will not be friends anymore. And
Welcome to the inside the wave podcast with your host Perry worth sponsored by
utopia martial arts. And you guys have some beautiful utopia martial arts,
jiu-jitsu shirts on today. Maroon's a great color on
the Hanson family. I'm joined with, uh, Steve
and Audrey, both longtime community members with
(00:35):
Awesome. So I've known you both.
(00:57):
Yeah. So who started, I
was, I was preparing for this podcast. I was like, I don't
Okay. Yeah. So what was that getting started like?
Um, not long after me, like, um, just
(01:19):
a few years, I think, because she joined the kids
program that Paul and I started. Yeah. Coached,
Right. Okay, so you started when you're seven, you started when you're
like 35. You've been doing for 10 years now? No,
13. I'm 48. 1348. You don't look a
(01:41):
day older than me. Why isn't
my hair doing what your hair does? It's not fair. Very
cool. So what what made you want to get started in
Uh, it's kind of a classic story, right? Like I was
out of shape. So I was 35 out of shape. We had just moved back.
(02:05):
It's crumbling in some areas, duct tape
and glue. And then a lot of ibuprofen falls
apart at home. No, I, um, I
was a lot heavier, a lot of shape at 35. We,
uh, we had just moved back to Milwaukee and. I was looking
to get in shape, but didn't like running didn't like I was never a
(02:28):
gym dude. And literally went down downtown
Grafton saw the sign neutral ground. Sweet. I was like, I
got to check that out. And I'll never forget because I walked in the first day
and I really thought there was gonna be like, you know, the UFC MMA
dudes are gonna be like, people like me. No, I
Luke was the first guy who I met. Yeah. And he had this big smile
(02:54):
Very cool. But you, so you wrestled before you have. I
Yeah. And that's kind of why I liked, or it
made sense to get into Jiu Jitsu because I love wrestling. It's always been
my first love love, you know, made sense
And so, you know, I didn't want to tell your wife that wrestling was I
(03:14):
wrestled before I met her, but like Jiu Jitsu just,
or grappling just, did you know what Jiu Jitsu was when you walked in?
Yeah. Kind of. How did you know what you're getting yourself into? You just really
didn't. You're like, Oh, martial arts. Maybe these dudes are breaking boards. Maybe they're pajama
No, because of the early days of the UFC, I had a
basic, basic understanding, like submission grappling, but
(03:38):
Cool. And when Audrey got started, How
did she get involved? Was it your idea? Was it your dad's idea? Did he make
He didn't make you do it? I don't
remember. Did you just want to do it? I remember being interested in
(04:04):
Interesting. Yeah, and it was your like you just want to be like, yeah, what are you doing?
I think so, right? I don't I don't really remember I was seven
Yeah. Yeah What did you like about
it when you're seven like look back then Why
(04:27):
That was definitely part of it. Oh, that's cool. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I was a really
shy kid. So it was nice having someone that I knew. Um, and then
I also didn't like my other sports. I did gymnastics and ballet
when I was younger. Okay. Um, I just didn't like
them. And so I guess, I mean, I don't, I don't really
Was it cause they were just too serious? Not
(04:49):
fun. Were they not up your alley, not
Yeah, I guess. You had success early too. You had double gold your
(05:10):
Yeah. For sure. How long did it take her
Yeah. Nice. Cool.
Uh, looking back at it, Steve, what's
(05:32):
Oh man, it's just been watching her develop. Like
honestly, to see her like blossom
and get those techniques and she's so smooth and like she's everything
I'm not which I kind of love like she's got technique flow
she flows Yeah. And just to see her as
(05:52):
she goes from submission grappling to wrestling. That's
been my problem. Yes. Like to see her just kick
ass at wrestling. And in one year, like she never did folk style.
Yeah, she goes the state in folk style, like, oh my god, that was that's
(06:18):
Well, It was I mean, yeah, it was probably
that sectional tournament when I made
it to state. I mean, because I got to be with my friend Ellie. Yeah,
you obviously know. And it was just really cool to
have like all the team around us and get to go to
a tournament I'd never been with my friend. And you know, I have my
(06:42):
Very cool. So let's talk a little bit more about Your
journey, because it's not super, well, either of
you is like super straightforward, right? You have a lot of different. Grappling
experiences, not just jiu-jitsu that you've been doing
for 10 years and for 13 years, but you
both have been dedicated to Judo. You both
(07:05):
have wrestling experience. Talk more
Oh, sure. Well, I started in jiu-jitsu and
then a year later, I remember I was at a tournament and...
A jiu-jitsu tournament. Yeah, a jiu-jitsu tournament. And my dad told
me that, I think it was Coach Greg, who
(07:26):
was the judo coach, said that I would be better
if I learned more. Like, um, I guess judo
technique. Yeah. And so then I joined my first judo class, loved
it. And then I just, I kept going. I remember I took a
break for a while, like, I don't know, a month
(07:47):
No, just of judo. I think it, well, I was younger so
I think it was like a lot at once for me. But then
I got back in and then, I
I don't know. Never? Um, maybe, yeah.
(08:09):
So, and you took judo to, she competed at a national
level in judo and then you've taken judo and
applied it to wrestling. Like one of her go-tos is an
So you started wrestling as a, you did jiu-jitsu since you were seven. You
did judo since you were essentially eight. And then going into
high school, you're like, ah, you know, It's enough grappling.
(08:31):
I want to, I want to wrestle too. Yeah. Right.
Did you find yourself with all the other martial arts experience,
grappling experience that you had, do you think you came in with like a different perspective and
Yeah, definitely. Well, when I started wrestling, I
had grappling experience, which was very helpful. But also, like,
(08:52):
I remember I would be trying to do a judo technique to get a takedown. My
coach would be, at first, he would get mad. He'd be like, what are you doing?
But eventually, I started getting success with my
judo and my jiu-jitsu techniques. And so I
guess, well, that kind of changed my coach's mind too, like from a
traditional wrestling perspective to like now including Judo
(09:14):
and Jiu-Jitsu and wrestling. I feel like that made me a much better wrestler.
Yeah. What do you think is the
biggest difference between Jiu-Jitsu, Gianogi,
Judo, and wrestling? Because they're like, I've
(09:34):
done all of them myself. And to
Right. What is, what do you see as like the major difference?
Well, um, is there like a, uh, I
mean, obviously there's a rule difference and a outcome difference, but
(09:56):
is there like a, a mindset difference, a intensity difference,
a overall outlook on things difference
I mean, from my experience. Yeah. I feel like for me,
jiu-jitsu has always been. I don't think calmer is
the right word, but more like, you know, flowing from one position
(10:17):
to the next one position isn't necessarily bad. Well,
yeah, then, you know, then we're basically wrestling there,
but then it's just me trying to pass Steve's half for five
minutes straight. Yeah. Um, and then I
feel like judo is a bit more strength,
a bit more aggressiveness, at least for me. I don't know about other people, but,
(10:39):
um, I feel like it's different because you're standing, you're both,
you kind of have, you know, you can't use the legs. So it's limited
like places that you can attack. So I feel like it's centered at
one place. It's a little more aggressive for me. And
then wrestling is like in the middle from an aggression standpoint
is it um, I Think I'm still
(11:02):
figuring that out actually because I feel like I'm still working on
my aggression in wrestling Okay, I think right now I I use
a lot of technique and I need to use more aggression so
I Mean you've always been a very technical grappler,
I mean you're wildly intelligent and Thank you. You're very smart, at
(11:23):
least from what I know, you could just be fooling me. But like, I
remember, I just remember one day, like, it was a
Friday night. And I was like, I'm gonna see if
Audrey can learn reverse de la jiva to kiss the dragon to
a backtake. And I was like, I'm gonna see if her and Ellie can learn
it. And like, the adults couldn't learn it sure shit in like
(11:45):
10 minutes. There's still there's there's ace in
it. You probably don't remember like what to do, but I'm sure if I showed you to be
able to pick it up right away. Right. And I think that's, I
think one thing you, you've taken away from
all of your years is the meta learning. Like you've learned how to learn
grappling. That if some new like sport emerges, you
(12:08):
Yeah. And it probably started with dancing
gymnastics. You just didn't realize it. Right?
Because dancing gymnastics is like body control. But
yeah, but it's not even just it's body control. And like, a very
interesting space where growing up playing
other sports, everything else is like most other things are linear. It's
(12:29):
run forward, run backwards, run left, run left, turn, jump, down.
We're like dance, like everything's independently moving
in gymnastics. You're spinning around somersaults, cartwheels.
I wasn't yeah, I said maybe not maybe not doing like flips or
bars yet, but like it's really you know, we have some Students
at the gym like Dominic right one of our students. Yeah gymnast
(12:52):
Yeah picked it up super fast because he knows how his body moves in space Oh, but
he just doesn't know how it moves going against another person quite yet
Interesting, but he'll get there for sure. Yeah So
now your main focus because you're in high school is wrestling Yeah,
right. Was it challenging to be like hey, I want
to put jiu-jitsu and judo on the backseat and I want to
(13:15):
Um Yeah, it was challenging but less so than
I thought Um, just because I kind of
had that break from the wrestling season I didn't like that
was all I did this year was because last year I did All
Like wrestling practice then come to judo jiu-jitsu practice then stick
(13:37):
Yeah Um, but yeah that this year I just focused on
wrestling. Um, and so I think that kind of Helped
me take a the break that I was planning on
because I feel like since there's only four years of high
I I tell people all the time As long as
you're willing to come back jiu-jitsu is always there for you. Mm-hmm wrestling.
(14:00):
It like it doesn't have a lifespan, but it does have
a lifespan. Yeah, same with judo. Like judo can take a toll on your body. And at
some point in time, you might be young and you
might not be able to do anymore because it might have just taken it's their hard sports. It's
just it's different on your body. You
know, I'm sure how much has your wrestling changed from being young
(14:20):
to being older? Huge. Yeah. Like you can't even approach it
the same way. Yeah. Which is cool. Steve,
what about your journey? So 13 years grappling, you
have had some huge personal milestones. What
(14:45):
Personally? Yeah. I mean, just showing
Showing up when it's even you don't want to. Yeah. Yeah.
(15:08):
And you're still competing today in that, right? Like you still go to competitions. Yeah.
Very cool. Yeah. Uh, and
Hopefully, I know the the person that does the test. So I've got
He's all right. What
(15:29):
has been your personal? Like
coolest wow moment for yourself in martial
What's like you're not like your personal biggest win and say it's pretty
much Audrey. It's hard when you
have such a successful Yeah, and just I mean, just
(15:50):
to share this with her is amazing. Like, that's a love
that we can do that. But spend this many
years and from jiu jitsu to wrestling, like, that's my favorite.
Well, I mean, the judo black belt was huge. I
was a big didn't really see that coming. Yeah.
(16:18):
Was it weird to, like, what
did you think about black belts when you started martial arts? Were you
No, God, no. I still don't think that I
Yeah. So do you have, um, I
hate throwing this term out there. Cause I don't want to put it on anyone, but like imposter
(16:40):
syndrome, like, Oh, I, I am one, but I don't feel
like one yet. Or have you like truly like, yeah, I stepped into it.
No, no, definitely not. Yeah. Complete imposter syndrome.
Like even like I feel so
I teach teens and adults Mondays. Yeah. And like, even
then I'm like, what am I doing? Like, why am
(17:10):
But I mean, honestly, that's you've been teaching for for me for a long time. When'd you
And you're probably helping out with adult classes here and there too.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I said, well, think about how much better you are
as a coach. Oh my God. From a Bluebell. Yeah. Where like, but
you probably also felt, do you, do you think you felt more confident now
(17:36):
Cause like, I, I don't even feel like I, I mean,
I know, I know a lot more than when I started coaching, but you're
still just like, You know, you still, there's
Yeah. There's so much. And honestly, that's one
of the reasons I still compete. Well, one, because I think it makes
you better. Yeah. And I love like getting out of the comfort
(17:59):
zone and stuff like that. Like, I think everybody should compete, but, um,
it also makes me like, I can bring that back as
direct experience to the people I coach. I can be like, this
Like, And now you're coaching not just jiu-jitsu at
my school, but you're coaching high school wrestling. Yeah,
this past season. Yeah. Coach Steve. It was awesome.
(18:26):
Has you have you seen your wrestling game go up just being a coach and being in
Oh my god. Yeah, I brought all that from the because we were in the room every
day with her, which was amazing. Yeah. And I brought all that
back to what I teach on Monday because it was takedown
focused. Yeah. And like I went from, you know,
single leg double leg basic dude to like ducks
(18:48):
and shucks and like it was awesome. Yeah. It changed my
Uh, not a lot of people, not a lot of like kid
parent relationships, child parent relationships. Do
the kids get to do the
activity at the same level as the parents? And then like the parents
(19:09):
actually even do it. Um, Audrey,
do you have like a lot of friends in school where like their dads are on
the mat, they're grappling with them. Or even if jiu-jitsu is
not their sport, maybe like their sports football, like your
parents out there playing football with you, like tackle. Um,
tell me about that. Like, has it been good? Has it been cool? Is
(19:31):
it interesting? Is it empowering? Like what does that matter? Because
not a lot of people, like very rarely does someone actually
Yeah, I guess I haven't really thought about that. Like,
in terms of like, whether people around me have the same experience, but
I think it's been really awesome. I mean, For
(19:52):
jiu-jitsu, it brought me into the sport for one, which
is great. Um, but then also just like when,
you know, the sports hard when times would get stressful or like before tournaments,
it was really, really helpful to have my dad there. Um, and
I'm sure that a coach who I wasn't related to, um,
would also help me, but it's nice to have someone that, you know, and
(20:14):
then for wrestling, it's just been. amazing to have him as a
coach because you know, we can grapple at home and
It's also just nice again to just have someone you know, and I
know that whatever I do He'll always be proud of me, which is
Oh my god amazing Has it
(20:37):
do you think it's given you a stronger relationship? Yeah,
Absolutely. Yeah. To share that, to talk about it, like even
like this weekend watching the Olympic trials and stuff like that. Like we get
to just, just even talking about it, like in passing, as
opposed to like not having anything, you
(21:12):
Probably your dude, there's going to be a day. Oh my God. Yeah.
I can't wait for it. She just like legit catches you.
She disappears better than like than wrestling or I can't wait
till she just catches you in jiu-jitsu. And she just like, yeah, has
you in full armbar extension or just like super deep choke
that you didn't just let her get in position and like finish it. Oh, she catches
(21:39):
Do you grapple your dad harder than
Well, I don't know. I
don't feel like I get more competitive with him. I just like, it
(22:00):
Or do you think he's tougher on you? I think compared to other adults, he's
definitely easier on me. But I think that he's
really good at giving me the amount of challenge that I need to get
better while also not, you know, some adults just kind
of power through like, not really helpful, but he gives
me the right amount of challenge. So I get a little mad, I want to
(22:21):
It's like, it's legit scary grappling with her now because I can't just
like, let her do stuff. Yeah.
Like I actually need to fight back because if I don't fight back, like I
will, I will die. And do
those small forearms, like those chokes get in.
It's like piano wire does not, does not feel good. It's
(22:42):
like me. Like I have the most dainty wrists and forearms ever. Like if
these suckers get in on a choke, it hurts. It's having the
choking part. It's just that it's just a small surface area. Right.
It's going to get scary with how good you are. Oh, yeah, for
sure. So we talked about peaks. What about pits? Are you
talking pits and pits? What have what have been some of the most challenging moments
(23:10):
Um, well, for me, I think it's been when I
don't think I'm getting better. I feel like that is
makes it hard for me to stay motivated. Because there have definitely been
Um, but do you feel like you're not improving? comparing
yourself to yourself? Or are you comparing yourself to other people at
(23:32):
that point in time to myself? Okay, so you're like, I'm not getting
Yeah. Okay, which I know isn't true. But sometimes it's
hard for me to recognize that I am improving. Yeah. And so I
So Steve, does that go away? No.
Never. What's been one of your biggest challenges? I
(23:57):
feel like as we get older, it's like just nagging injuries and
stuff like that. Like, you know, little little pains and stuff.
It's funny. I was just talking to my wife about that. Yeah. Like
this week, like knowing, like the body's like,
Are you like me? We're like, in general, you feel fine. And then one
of your buddies who doesn't grab was like, yeah, my elbow hurts. And you're like, shit,
(24:23):
Like you don't really, it's so like normalized. You don't really notice it
until someone else is like, ah, man, my knee hurts. You're like, ah, I
Oh, dude, like podcast, we
(24:47):
are gonna I would put a photo in this clip. Maybe
we will. But Instagram is gonna blur it out. And then you have to click on like, accept. Yeah,
but you were you sprawling? Like you
Yeah, I was with Joe Benson.
Yeah, man. It was like a cartoon. Yeah, you're I was I wish I was there. I
(25:08):
wish I was there. I definitely would have thrown up. But your toe
dislocated and apparently it's common when you have your big toe dislocate it
breaks through the skin yeah, yep, and it looked like I like
someone sent me a picture like Steve dislocated his toes like he's fine and
then like two seconds later the picture came through and I was like
(25:29):
Because it was like for one I didn't know bone was that white I
didn't know I didn't know blood was that red and I didn't know when skin tears
Yeah. But, you know, two hours later, you're fine.
They just pop that sucker back in stitch it up and literally Yep.
Oh, man, they called the surgeon in from his daughter's like softball
(25:51):
game. And he's like, we could put you into surgery. I could do
Man injuries happen. Yeah, a
lot of people they would have something like that happen and just back. Yeah, I'm
done How'd you push through that? Are
(26:13):
Okay. Yeah, I just, I don't know. I never, I
never thought to like, not keep going. Yeah, I
I mean, to me, that's like the black belt attitude. Like, hey, nothing's
gonna stop me from, from doing what I love. Yeah, we'll
It's a whole thing of like, um, Ed had that great speech
(26:33):
when he got promoted recently, like you and
I've, you know, other people have said you got to love the process. You
don't love the process. You're not going to do it like it's not about outcomes. It's not
about awards or tournaments. It's like you just got to love
what you're doing. And if you love what you're doing, you just keep showing up and doing it.
And that's yeah, through injury through
(26:58):
How do you guys speaking of process? How do you guys have you balance
this all over the years? Right? Like, you have
your job, you're coaching at my gym, you're coaching high
school wrestling in the winter, you're doing your own training at a
very high level, like you're training multiple nights a week yourself. Multiple
classes in a night. Audrey, you've have
(27:20):
like grappled through whatever, like you've been on
National Honor Society, right? You're just like
Yeah. Yeah. Stop that. Just
brag. We're just talking before you have to AP classes coming
(27:46):
That's insane. Like do you have to even go to college? You just have enough credits
to graduate high school. But I
mean, you're not Both just
like average people, right? You have a lot of stuff going
on and you're what I would consider high performers, always striving
for more, always pushing to challenge yourself in a lot of different areas. How
(28:08):
have you guys balanced that all? Not
just being able to do everything, but also being able to prioritize yourselves
as a family. Cause you have a brother too. You also have a mom that
have their own things. Um, how,
what's your trick? What do you do? Um,
well, what's your trick for other teenagers out there that like,
(28:37):
Well, I would say as a teenager, one
of my main focuses is school. And so I feel like if
you're able to, you know, I, I
feel like school isn't so bad if you're
paying attention, if you're focused on it, if you're really trying. Because
I feel like understanding what's going on has
(28:58):
helped me because then that gives me, like, my homework's easier,
I'm spending less time that I need to study, then I can have more time
to train. So I feel like, honestly, paying attention
in school and time management, doing your homework right away
How do you like to manage your time? Do you like prioritize
(29:18):
it? Do you have like a little like diary, calendary thing, assignment notebook?
Yeah. Yeah. I just have, um, like,
yeah, a little notebook of everything I need to do for the day. Um,
and yeah, once I get home from school, I just try to get it done as
much as I can, but. I feel like I also am able to
(29:38):
recognize if something's too much, like if I need to
Like doing jiu-jitsu and judo during wrestling season and try to
make it to not just all of your wrestling practice, but four or
five additional grappling classes a week. You're just like, I need to
Very cool. Steve, what about like balancing the
(30:00):
family and family demands? You know, I know your son, Eli has
his own stuff. Shannon has her stuff going on.
How do you guys with all this going on, how do you guys still find the family time?
Well, it's interesting, like, it
comes down to a schedule, kind of, you know what I mean? Like, so like, Wednesday
is family night, like, that is sacred, like, that's my date night, too.
(30:23):
Every Wednesday. Yeah, nothing touches Wednesday, you can't touch Wednesday,
nobody gets Wednesday, but the family. Like, so that's something like
Do you guys have something like, like you like doing every Wednesday? Is
Family dinner is, uh, is the bare minimum. And you guys, uh,
(30:46):
Steve's always on it. I get beat up. Okay.
Yeah, so that's sacred. No one touches that. And then it's nice having like,
so like you said, like we do grapple quite a majority
of the week we're at the gym. Yeah. So it's nice
having like, that set. So I'm going to
(31:07):
go like these days, but also knowing that there's flexibility, like
something that actually, I think you said a long time ago. And
I think you learned it from your mentor. It's like, if you say to yourself, I
have to do this every day. Right, then you if
you skip a day, then you're like, Oh my god, and then you go all the way back. So
if you say to yourself, like more often than not, yeah, I'm
(31:31):
I've taken that to heart. So like more often than not, I'm at the gym. But
Things happen. Yeah, yeah. Very cool. Um,
Every once in a while I say something good. More often than you think. Oh
man. All right. Uh, I got some rapid fire
(31:53):
questions, but anything else you want to share about your
journey? The exciting stuff. You
want to guys grapple right there? Yeah, let's go. I
need to go. First takedown wins. All right,
here we go. I'm going to ask you both
of these. And no looking at each other because
(32:14):
I don't want you to influence each other's answers. I'm just kidding. All right. Remember,
I always do have someone who's my favorite. I'm
not going to tell you who my favorite is, though. So first
question. Jiu jitsu, judo or wrestling? Wrestling.
(32:35):
Steve, you're my favorite. I'm
just kidding. I wrestled for a
very long time. I appreciate that answer. There's no wrong answer here. For
me? I can't pick. No, you can pick whatever you want. Which
one's your favorite right now? What season are you in enjoying
(32:58):
No gi jiu-jitsu. Yeah. Cool. That was my next question
Yeah. No gi. No gi? Cool. Why? Why
do you like it right now? I like cause. Cause you just got out
of wrestling season. Yeah. Try to see how you're wrestling. Yeah. It's the
closest to wrestling. Very cool. Uh, if you
(33:21):
could train with any athlete ever dead or alive, would
Well, I mean, I've been influenced by watching the
Olympic trials. So that's cool. So
one woman I've looked up to not just because she has my name, but Audrey Jimenez.
She's a four time state champ one time that
(33:45):
was well, one of the times that she won was boy state champ. She's
in the Olympic trials finals right now, and she's only 18 and yeah,
I know I think she's pretty cool We saw her earlier this year
at a tournament called Called who's number one? She
is she is Yeah, but it's like the two Number
(34:07):
one and number two ranked athletes. They wrestle each other. She won so
fast that she started doing sprints after she won. Yeah. In
She's just, she's insane because the match wasn't enough to like warm her up
Steve, who out of everyone, who would your number one person to
train with be in anything? It'd be jiu-jitsu, judo wrestling,
(34:30):
no geeky. Uh, so when that you want to play ice
No, I mean, Cale Sanderson, I think Cale Sanders. Yeah.
Yeah, what he did in his own right. And then like what he's doing for
wrestling now and at Penn State and I really admire we
(34:51):
I actually talked to Greg coach Greg about this roll off quite a
bit. Yeah, because he has a similar mindset to what Cale
is doing. I think at Penn State in terms of like, kind of
changing the game in terms of like, focus on mentality focus
on being calm being present. Yeah, you see his wrestlers like
they are they are never in a bad position because they they
(35:13):
act like everything is like I meant to be here. Yeah, and I'll get out
of it. Yeah, they wrestle position position position. And it's
a beautiful thing. Like I love how he's kind of turning wrestling on
Uh, next question, advice, best advice for
families looking to get started in jiu-jitsu. Like
(35:38):
Okay. Don't make it a big deal. Like don't force
it. Don't like, we were just talking
about this actually, because we go to a lot of tournament. Audrey's
got so many tournaments and you see some of those parents on the sidelines
Just have fun. I've only seen Steve ever go dad mode like once. It
(36:01):
wasn't screaming at a tournament, but I've seen Steve go dad mode like once. It's
For families? Um, I mean, yeah,
I might, I might have to say the same thing. I feel like You
know, at the end of the day, jiu-jitsu is a game. Like, you
(36:23):
know, dad always says that to me. It's not, it's never that
deep. It shouldn't, you know, make any fights happen. Like,
you know, I feel like sometimes training partners can get
mad at each other for one winning or the other, but it's just not
I feel like, yeah. Audrey, what advice would you give teens
(36:45):
Well, the first I would say is that you
shouldn't care too much about losing. I feel like you
know, as a teenager, like if you're coming into a new sport, there's going to
be people that are better than you. I mean, there will always be people that are
better than you. I feel like when I used to be in the
Monday teens classes, a lot of the new teens would, they'd be
(37:06):
mad if they'd get beaten. You know, I've seen adults do the same thing.
So not my dad, but other people. And
so I feel like if you can just accept that you're never going to be the best, then
I jump in to the deep end. Just do it. Like, give
(37:27):
it a shot. Yeah. I've heard like I've talked to even
the last few weeks I've talked to people who are interested in like,
Oh, you know, I got to get in shape or like, Oh, I got to do this or that. Like,
Love it. Um, what is your Audrey?
What is your current big goal in grappling? Like, what do you have your eyes set
(37:56):
Sure. You know, whatever I
Mean cool. I feel I feel like Yeah,
and then also for freestyle. I'm getting much more into freestyle now which
is just The style of wrestling that women usually
do when they're in college Yeah, and so I'm trying
(38:16):
to compete at Fargo this summer, which is a big national tournament And
so I'm hoping that at some point in my high school career that all
Steve, what's your what's your big goal right now in grappling? Get
the black belt. Get the black belt. Yeah. What's after black belt?
Like you get it. Great. Because that's
(38:38):
a for sure. Like unless you get hit by a bus, like
or a train or whatever, like you will get your black belt.
Then be like passing it on like
just coaching more and like giving back like
I've gotten so much out of jiu-jitsu and judo and wrestling, like
(39:01):
anything I can give back. I don't think I could, I could spend the rest of my life and
I don't think I'd give it back enough. I
Um, Oh, next one. Last one. Uh,
I want to know like, you know, what a 16, 17 year olds
(39:32):
Well, it's so cliche, but I just want to be happy with where I am,
I guess. And I feel like I know myself, I always have
to stay busy. So if I can be busy doing something I'm passionate about,
Oh, man. Um, I don't know, it's, we
(39:52):
were talking about this on the ride down, like, it's going to be navigating the
next couple of years as you know, the kids wrap up high school and
go to college, like trying to maintain the real
Have house parties again without worrying about travel.
No, just maintaining the relationships we've built and like
(40:13):
maintaining that, you know, the strength of communication as, as the
kids move on and see what happens. It's
a weird. It's a weird thing. It's like I
know many people have gone through it, obviously, but it's new to us
and we're gonna have to navigate those waters. There's always
Yeah. That you
(40:34):
wish you've been through it before, so you know how to handle
Yeah, it's just, yeah. Like growing up, you just, people
can tell you what to do and give you advice, but you kind of
Well, it was great having both of you. Two of my favorite
(40:55):
students. I do like one of you more than the other. I'm just
Yeah, you can. Anyways, any
last tits bits you like to share with the
Go grapple. Words of wisdom. Just do it.
(41:17):
Yeah, dive in and honestly, like just keep
showing up and you got to love the process words for parents
looking to enroll their kids. Oh my god. Greatest
gift ever. Yeah. Do you have the kids do it? And
then if you can do it with them? Oh my god, it's something you have for forever
for life. It will like you said, like you're not out
(41:38):
there on the gridiron playing football. You know what I mean? Basketball? Yeah,
maybe. But not at this level. Yeah, it's pretty cool to
Audrey, we have a lot of kids in martial arts that
started when they're your age, all the way up to your age. We have
a lot of their parents that haven't decided to step on the mats yet. What
(42:06):
I would say that Being able to have
my dad on the mats with me has probably made
me stay in the sport and probably has made me join wrestling.
Like it's been a big part of it because, I don't know,
just being able to do sports with your families, like
you said, it's super unique and it's really fun. So if a
(42:27):
parent is on the fence about it, I think you might as well just do
it. I mean, It won't be bad. Like
Give it a shot for yourself or your kid or your
family. Cool. Well, I appreciate both
of you. Thank you for tuning in. If
(42:48):
you guys would like to ever meet Steve and Audrey stop by
utopia. They're always there. I couldn't get rid of them
if I wanted to. If you are listening, give
me five stars. Otherwise, we will not be friends anymore. And
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