#15 Josh, Mark and Derek Triune

Send us a text

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Today I have three jiu jitsuBrothers from Truine.
Mark Josh and Derek Triune is anon-profit located in Santa
Clara off De La Cruz Boulevard.
The school's main instructor isJosh, which is a third degree
black belt.
Mark also helps teach a few daysout of the week whom is a black
belt.

(00:20):
Derek is a four stripe purplebelt who's in and out of our
dojo.
Due to his high demand career asa marketing manager, he travels
all over the US.
But still gets his mat time,wherever he travels.
Mark, let's start with you.
So can you tell me about yourupbringing where you grew up?
yeah.
I was born at Stanford.

(00:41):
and I lived in East Palo Altowhere, my grandpa's house was.
So it was like any other, familywe were just trying to like, get
things together.
There was like three differentfamilies living in one house.
I just remember during that timeit was pretty dangerous during
the nineties of living in EastPalo Alto.
I wasn't really allowed to gooutside or make friends mm-hmm.

(01:02):
and my mom, made sure that shekept me and my brother outta
trouble.
So she brought us to the westside of, Palo Alto, which is
like University.
And it was really interesting,like I remember.
having friends that had maidsand stuff.
Then I remember like gettingpicked up by my mom and then
coming back home where it waslike super dangerous, you know?

(01:26):
It gave me two perspectives oflife.
Right.
And, being around my grandfatherat the time.
he worked at a, greenhouse.
He was a veteran, a World War IIveteran.
He was a really good man.
He was a POW and a Purple Heartso I really feel like, I get a
lot of grit from him.
Did you have any, brothers orsisters growing up?

(01:46):
Yeah, I have an older brother,he's a little different than I
am.
He's very bright.
I remember trying to get himtoys to play with me and stuff,
but he was like into music.
He was playing classical pianoand were just like, so opposite.
I remember we finally sharedsomething in common and it was
wrestling.
Josh, tell me about yourupbringing.

(02:07):
Yeah, so I was born in,Philippines and I came here when
I was, four years old to theUnited States.
I was born in 1981.
We lived in Sunnyvale with, myaunt.
Then my parents were able tosave up money and got a place in
Santa Clara.
Okay.
Your parents, what did they do?
My dad was a construction workerin the Philippines from what I

(02:27):
remember.
Then when, he came to the UnitedStates, he did assembly jobs.
Okay.
Yeah.
Did you have any siblings?
Yes, I have, three sisters, onebrother.
My sister that was born before Iwas, passed away.
I never got to meet her.
How old was she when she passedaway?
I believe she was two.
Oh, wow.
That's really hard on thefamily.

(02:47):
Yeah.
Yeah.
That's tough.
I'm sorry to hear that.
How was the discipline, in thehouse?
My mom was more of thedisciplinary, she did more of
the discipline.
My dad was more of the loving,caring, type.
Okay.
How was your upbringing?
Derek?
Yeah.
So I was, born up here in SanJose and my family after I was

(03:10):
born, we stayed here for abouteight months or so, and then, we
moved down to San Diego.
I lived there until I was 18.
Then I came back up here forcollege, back up to San Jose.
So I've been here, ever since.
Pretty typical upbringingthough.
My dad, had different jobsgrowing up, but I mostly
remember him, doing real estate.
Loans, mortgages and things likethat.

(03:32):
My mom worked mostly, withdifferent school districts and,
universities, and juniorcolleges.
Just doing like executive adminwork.
Did you have any, siblings?
I have an older sister.
It was just us two.
Very normal.
I mean, you know, stuff that,that other families deal with
too, but not like anythingthat's too unusual.
Yeah.
Mark, Tell me about yourparents.

(03:54):
I'll start with my dad.
He was more of the old schoolwhere he was the provider,
paying for the bills, having ahouse and a roof for bare heads
and food.
He was pretty hard at times.
But I think, since he's gottenolder and we've gotten older,
he's gotten a lot better.
We actually talk a lot now, he'sa good dude.
My mom is a really sweet lady.

(04:15):
She's super nice.
She's always been supportive,always made sure that I had
everything that I needed.
She was the wrestling mom.
She bought all the snacks andstuff and she would set up
during our meets.
She is just super sweet.
Like, you ask Josh, her mom andmy mom are good friends.
Okay.
And so is my dad and his dad.
Okay, cool.

(04:36):
Yeah, that's good.
You guys have that all incommon.
your family bonds.
Yeah.
Let's move on.
So what kind of values ordiscipline did they instill in
you?
Your family?
They really instilled, likebeing honest, being a standup
person, doing the right thingsand like working hard.

(04:57):
Like I watched my mom work veryhard.
She's, always been a very bigfigure in my life.
And, my dad, at times, he can beone too.
How about you, Josh?
What kind of values did yourfamily give you?
I wanna say that my parents,they taught me to just be
strong, whatever I wanted to dothey were, very supportive and I

(05:22):
think they just want me to like,just be happy and to live my
life.
That's how I look at it.
How about you, Derek?
Yeah.
Just to add onto that, it's,definitely a hard work ethic
that they put into myself and mysister.
They're, different than thetypical Filipino parents growing
up because, they're firstgeneration Filipino Americans.

(05:42):
They had a similar upbringing toa lot of our friends um, you
know, their parents immigratehere.
I'm actually a second gen.
So, being raised by them, therewere, a lot of different things
that, are normal in Filipinoculture where, there's these
expectations of you, thestereotype, like they want you
to be a nurse or a doctorengineer or something like that.
They gave my sister and I thefreedom to, see where we wanted
to take our careers, like whatwe wanted to do for fun, and

(06:04):
activities.
They just wanted to break someof those norms, raising us.
But they did want us to workhard towards whatever we're
doing and apply ourselves.
So if we messed up in school orwe're lazy about something like
yeah, we definitely hear aboutit, so, yeah, I bet.
Let's move on.
Mark, you talked about yourcommunity.
The neighborhood that you, grewup in.

(06:26):
Can you explain in detail?
Oh, like in Palo Alto?
Yeah.
EPA.
During that time it was, prettymuch murder capital at that time
during the nineties, so thecrack epidemic was really high.
People were dying pretty muchevery day.
I think there was a point where,a lot of people wouldn't wanna
stop at certain places'causethey know that, either you'll
get shot or people will try tosell you drugs.

(06:49):
And I remember we, we used to goto this, Kind of cul-de-sac, we
called it the dice.
And until this day people knowit as the dice.
And it's very interestingbecause, back then you would
find like junkies like justdead.
Wow.
So pretty dangerous.
Pretty much.
Yeah.
Any drive-bys or anything likethat?
Growing up, I remember someonerunning over my dad in front of

(07:12):
me.
No way.
Yeah.
Wow.
I remember my mom taking me tothe flower shop.
So back then in the nineties,they had a flower shop right
across the street from like astore.
And my dad ran in and he wasjust bleeding uhhuh, And then I,
it's crazy'cause I brought it upto my dad and he didn't even
think I would remember somethinglike that.
But you know, it was some traumastuff.
So of course you'll remember.

(07:32):
Yeah.
That was the first time I everlike experienced like violence.
Violence.
So was he just crossing thestreet?
What happened?
I honestly, I was too young andI didn't really understand it.
My dad had nine brothers.
Oh.
So they were out there gooning,and like during that time if you
do something wrong, or look atsomebody wrong.

(07:53):
It was in the nineties.
Like gang affiliation was likethere, it was like the birth,
you know?
Yeah.
You hear a lot of, stories aboutEPA.
You said that your mom prettymuch sheltered you from that.
Yeah.
So she didn't want you to goplay outside?
No.
Did you have very many friendsgrowing up in that community?
I had one friend across thestreet from me, his name was
Tim, and we would go watch CMCtogether.

(08:15):
And I remember watching, I thinkit was like Keith Sweat it first
came on and I was like, what theheck is this?
Yeah, it was a bunch of songs.
I was like, oh, this is cool.
Because it was like the hip hopstation at that time.
Cool.
Josh, how about you?
What was it like growing up inyour neighborhood?
What were you like as a kid?

(08:35):
Growing up in Santa Clara?
The neighborhood, it's like,there was really nothing to do
around, that area, it was, I waspretty much just the wild child,
I would always be getting intofights.
We'd have backyard fights.
You remember those backyardfights?
Yeah.
I remember going to a party.
I've done a lot of crazy stuffwhen I was a kid.

(08:56):
yeah.
And who'd you hang out withduring that time?
I hanged around with, a buddy ofmine named Walter, Neil and,
Matt DeGuzman.
Yeah.
That's, uh, actually Derek's,cousin.
You've hung out with hisbrother, right?
Yeah.
We went to high school together.
With his cousin also?
Yeah.
Yeah.
His brother and his cousin knowslike a bunch of stories, when my

(09:17):
high school days.
So how was that neighborhoodthat you lived in?
in Santa Clara?
Yeah.
I would say it's pretty safe.
But it was just boring.
It was just like really nothingmuch to do.
As kids, we would go out andride our bikes, meet up with
other kids, and then maybe getinto fist fights with other
kids.
Or if we had a problem, we wouldalways go to this one guy's

(09:38):
house.
my, friend's house, MichaelAnsyge, and he would always have
like backyard, garage fightsbecause, uh, he would have the
house to himself.
We would just go into thebackyard and if we had a problem
with somebody, we'd just duke itout in the garage.
So like boxing?
Yeah, just like straight up likea street fight, you know what I
mean?
Sometimes would go with friendsand just go all the way down to

(09:59):
the east side San Jose and begoons over there.
Yeah.
Derek, where'd you grow up?
Grew up in San Diego.
Part of the reason that we wentdown there is'cause my parents,
they're pretty much born andraised up here in the Bay Area.
And shortly after I was born,they were, concerned with the
area.
Like they were worried that Imight, be influenced by like
gangs.

(10:19):
And things like that because wehave a lot of like family
friends and like cousins andstuff that, got involved with
that kind of stuff.
And then there was also, justthe growing population.
It was getting very crowded.
And to be specific, the areathat I grew up around mostly is
the North County area so it'slike Carlsbad, Oceanside.
And before I could say that andpeople wouldn't know where it
is, but now that, Legolandsthere and then pros skating got

(10:41):
popular and stuff, right?
Like more people are familiarwith it.
At the time I moved down there,It was like a typical suburban,
neighborhood.
But, we were also, one of theonly, ethnic families in the
neighborhood that we moved into.
I remember a story that my dadsaid when we moved in, like
after my sister and I grew up alittle bit.
I think they had someone thatcame to the house and they were

(11:02):
asking my dad oh, do the people.
that live here, are they home orsomething?
Because I guess they thought hewas like, like a worker or
something That was, and not theowner working on the house.
Exactly.
Yeah.
but yeah, for the most part,like just growing up in a
suburban area it has its own setof problems.
You don't deal with the stufflike the gangs and all that
around there, but there'sdefinitely, as a minority in
those areas, it definitely hasits own things that you deal

(11:26):
with growing up.
As a kid, like that wasn'treally much of an issue.
We play in the neighborhood withthe other kids.
Yeah.
Just like normal play games,ride bikes, things like that.
But, as you get older there's,people grow into cliques and, it
becomes more apparent if you'rea different ethnic background,
you don't necessarily fit in.
I know it's not like that foreverybody, but from my
experience and a lot of otherpeople I know that grew up in an

(11:48):
area where they're a minority itwas a very similar, upbringing.
I mean, uh, We got through it,but it's just a different
experience.
Being that area that's likewhere Tony Hawk and like Bucky
Lasek and some of those guys arefrom, all those pro skaters from
back in the day.
Everyone's like intoskateboarding and like surfing.
If you weren't doing any ofthose, like you were an
outsider, you are a, poser.
Or whatever it is.
So yeah, so if you didn't dothat, you weren't cool.

(12:11):
So there's always those types ofthings, as people got older, you
get made fun of.
It be, it definitely became moreapparent as I got older.
Mm-hmm.
Okay.
You surfed over there?
yeah, I did surf, growing upthere and then I did quit.
Once I started driving andstuff, I got more into cars.
I recently picked it up a coupleyears ago again.
Yeah.
But it's a lot harder learningnow than it was back then.
So true.
Yeah.
It's still a lot of fun though.

(12:32):
Heck yeah.
Mark, what hobbies or sportswere you into as a kid?
I always wanted to be like, Ialways wanted to do karate.
Did you do karate?
No, I didn't.
I was into swimming.
Okay.
Yeah.
my mom used to take me to thePalo Alto rec center.
They had a swimming pool andthey had a diving board.

(12:52):
I used to jump on that thing allthe time.
It was pretty fun.
So that's the only sport you didas a kid?
Yeah, pretty much.
Yeah.
How did you stay outta trouble?
My mom.
My mom.
She's a super saint.
If it wasn't for her, I think Iwould be in a lot more trouble.
So she pretty much shelteredyou?
Pretty much.
She tried to protect me, yeah.

(13:13):
Yeah.
Josh, what type of hobbies orsports were you into as a kid?
As a kid I was playingbasketball, and then I was also
doing, boxing, judo, freestylewrestling.
Oh wow.
So how did you get turned ontoall those sports?
It's just something that Iwanted to do.
I had my cousin Jason andJustin, they were doing judo as

(13:35):
well.
So I think it all started outwith that, I was always fighting
anyway, right?
So I figured, to get some skillsbehind what I was doing.
It kept me out of trouble, eventhough I was the troublemaker.
Did your parents try to keep yououtta trouble or did you just
they tried, but it was me thatwas pretty much the
troublemaker.
I was the little kid that likeevery parent did not want their

(13:56):
kids to hang around with.
I was like that kid if an adulttold me something I'd be like,
fuck you old man and then runaway and then all the other kids
would run and shit.
Oh, man's funny.
Yeah.
Oh man.
That is funny.
How about you Derek?
Yeah, I tried to do a little bitof everything growing up.
I was a video game nerd for mostof my younger years.

(14:19):
And we had the best games in thenineties, so I obvious, but
yeah.
yeah.
But my, parents wanted me to,try different sports and
activities just because youcan't just stay home and play
video games all day.
And then, two to try to makemore friends and stuff.
So I tried at least every ballsport, at least like baseball,
soccer, football, things likethat.
And, I didn't, I never reallystuck with him.
Maybe I played him like one yearand then that was it.

(14:40):
But, I did do, TaeKwonDo when Iwas younger.
I did bowling, I was like in abowling league as a kid.
That one was fun for a coupleyears.
And then, I did football likePop Warner football for three
years, which was fun at the timetoo.
And then, I started playingbasketball between elementary,
middle school.
And, that probably stuck with methe longest.
Like I, I still play to thisday.
Not nearly as much as when I wasyounger, but I still love

(15:03):
basketball to this day.
Right on.
Let's go into your teenage yearsand some of your adulthood.
Any high school experiences,sports, fights or finding
yourself?
Mark.
Yeah.
I followed my brother around alot and so I didn't really know
where I fit in'cause a lot of myfriends were all like football

(15:23):
players and basketball and allthe other sports.
And I tried.
But I wasn't good, you know, Iwas totally honest with people
too.
I remember I tried basketballand they gave me the ball.
I was like, I don't know what todo with this dude.
I'm gonna run as far hard as Ican with it, and I'm just gonna
pass it, even though I could'vejust shot it.
But I wasn't good.
But I remember asking mybrother, I was like, what can I

(15:45):
do?
And he was just like, just joinwrestling with me.
And I think that's where itreally started.
I never really had anything incommon with my brother.
but this was actually somethingI really enjoyed doing with
them.
Then, come to find out like alot of, Josh's, in-law like Gabe
and Pat ended up being one of mycaptains and they were like in

(16:05):
the varsity scene.
So like I couldn't really do toomuch besides wrestling at that
point.
How many years older was yourbrother than you?
He was two years older than me.
Okay.
Yeah.
So he was already in high schoolwrestling.
Yeah.
And then he brought you in.
That's really cool.
Wrestling's pretty tough.
Yeah.
Tell me about the conditioning.
It was tough.

(16:25):
We did Olympic running, like wedid the circuit running where
we're in a line.
And one person in the back wouldsprint to the front.
Yeah.
We would do four miles.
Then we would go into the,weight room and they would do
our circuit training.
And after circuit training,that's when wrestling really
starts.
Oh, wow.
And I remember my coach and hisassistants coach, they're very,

(16:48):
good at what they're doing,pushing the kids I think having
the wrestling background,especially'cause my coach was a
alternate he was an Olympicalternate.
It gave us a lot of pride and,just knowing that like the guy
that we're being taught is likehigh caliber.
It gave us that feeling that ifwe're out there, wrestling we'll

(17:09):
be capable to hold our own.
What high school was it at?
I went to Wilcox.
Cool.
Santa Clara.
All right.
How about you, Josh?
Any experiences in sports?
Were you in sports in highschool or did you do any I did a
bunch of, like the PE sportsthat they would do.
They had a PE course one time ofwrestling, and I did that, but
it was mainly after schoolprograms that I would actually

(17:32):
focus on.
The PAL programs that I used togo to, they had wrestling judo
and boxing, and those were theones that I would do after
school.
Like high school stuff, I wasjust getting into a lot of
fights.
I remember my freshman year, oneof these kids, in the classroom
was like behind me messing withthe back of my head and I got so

(17:53):
annoyed.
I remember picking up my binderand turned around and just
smacked them over the mouth.
That was like my first fightever in high school.
But I used, even before highschool and middle school, I got
into a lot of fights too.
Why do you think you got into alot of fights?
'Cause it was boring, in SantaClara.
So, like I said, we would dobackyard fights, get into a

(18:14):
bunch of crazy stuff, and thenit just like a snowball effect.
Carried over the years.
Do you think because you were asmaller guy that they tried
picking on you?
Oh, definitely.
Yeah, definitely.
I knew because I was small, Iwas probably gonna get picked
on, but in my head I was like,okay, if you wanna pick on me,
I'm gonna fight you and I'm notgonna be a victim.

(18:35):
You know what I mean?
I'm gonna keep fighting you,even if I lose.
Until I am satisfied.
That's how I was when I wasgrowing up.
Like it's not over until Idecide it's over.
Yeah.
Did you get kicked outta highschool because of your fighting?
Yeah, I got kicked outta my,junior year.
Okay.
Yeah, freshman, sophomore, andthen junior year, they said
we're not having it anymore.

(18:57):
Yeah.
So they sent you to anotherschool?
They sent me to, Wilson.
It was like, where all the badkids used to go.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I remember a teacher one timewas telling me, before I left,
she was like, oh, you're notgonna come back.
You know what I mean?
So I was like, okay.
I remember finishing in Wilson.
And then my senior year when Icame back, first thing I ever

(19:19):
did when I came back was go tothat same teacher and I was
like, I'm back.
You know, like all crazy.
And then she was like, get out.
And then the first day comingback I got sent back to the,
principal's office, Uhhuh.
And he was like.
What are you doing?
It's your first day.
And I played it off like a goodkid, all I said is that I'm
back.
He like, but really I was justlike, I'm back motherfucker.

(19:40):
He like.
Man.
Oh, that's crazy.
That's funny.
Yeah.
How about you, Derek?
What high school did you go to?
When I was down there, first offI started at, Carlsbad High
School.
And then I transferred to, ElCamino across the town.
So El Camino in San Diego?
Yeah, so Carlsbad High School,Carlsbad obviously.
And then, El Camino's inOceanside, just the next town

(20:01):
over.
Did you play any sports there?
So I was still playingbasketball back then.
It's like the sport I reallystuck with.
But I always felt I was at adisadvantage.
I did try out all four years andI never made the team for
different reasons.
Some reasons I agree with some Idon't.
But regardless I was stillalways playing like at the park
just playing pickup.

(20:22):
But that was really it.
Was there any major turningpoints in your teenage years?
Yeah.
I think when, I stopped doingwrestling, I remember getting
kicked out of school.
I got in a fight.
And I remember not knowing whatto do with'Cause I competed a
lot and just being with my team,it hindered me.

(20:43):
I just didn't know what I wasgonna do, with my aggression.
I took a lot of pride, being ina wrestling team with like my
brother and his friends.
And I remember when I got kickedoutta school, this dude, broke
into my house.
Oh, dang.
And, he tried to puck my uncleand my uncle's blind.
I remember, me and my friendswent to Lick Mill.

(21:06):
I remember Lick Mill.
It's like where everythinghappens, bro.
We all met up.
It was the whole basketballteam.
Yeah.
Yeah.
You know what we would do?
We would hide like weapons.
We would hide weapons and bushesin case we got into some fights
in the basketball courts, uhhuh,and so we would always hide like
these little, weapons, knives,whatever, in the bushes that we
knew it was there in casesomething went down.
'Cause a lot of times thingswent down.

(21:29):
Yeah.
So what happened?
so we all met up at the parkUhhuh, and we had this big
rumble and the cops came.
And then, I remember it happenedagain in front of my friend Jr's
house.
The next couple of weeks, it wasjust chaos.
It was just like consistent.
Like we just kept fighting thesekids, same kids over and over
again.
I know that sounds lame, butlike it was over a girl.
Its either over a girl, money.

(21:51):
Yeah.
I was young, you know what I'msaying?
I didn't know any better.
This dude had a girlfriend.
We had the same class, Andthat's how it all started.
And then I got called in and mymom was there.
Oh, dang.
You know what I'm saying?
It was my mom, dude.
It was so like, oh man.
It was so embarrassing.
And all the teachers were allthere and they sat me down.
They were like, Hey, like Iheard that these kids broke into

(22:13):
your house.
Do you want me to expel them?
And I was like.
They're all seniors.
I don't want to take that awayfrom them, so I'll leave Uhhuh.
So I left.
So what year was that?
That was my junior year.
Oh wow.
Like, when wrestling season wasdone.
But the cool thing was that, mycoaches found out.
And they still let me train withthem.
So it was all season for me.

(22:34):
So yeah, that was one of theturning point for me.
How about you Josh?
Yeah, like I said, I was neverlike a bully, but I was always
down to fight,.
I think, one of the majorturning points, in my teen days
that made me focus, more into mymartial arts was there was a
time that I was at the Guadalupeoff of the creek in Santa Clara.

(22:57):
And I got into it with somerandom dude and I'm not proud of
it, but I took my knife out andalmost stabbed him.
Yeah, like I got into somepretty heated, moment with that
guy.
And I just took it out and swungas hard as I could.
After that happened, what'd youthink?
I missed, he, he dodged and thenhe just took off and then, yeah,

(23:20):
I just, I started getting tothinking when I got home, what
if.
What if I actually did what if,you know what I mean?
And I started getting like badanxiety because of my actions.
And then I really thought aboutit.
And then I just said, you knowwhat, I'm, I need to change.
And I just focused on keeping myass in the gym.

(23:41):
Yeah.
Yeah.
And outta trouble.
Yeah, of course.
Yeah.
It could have changed your lifeforever?
Even till this day, I thinkabout it, what if I hit them
game over.
Yep.
Yeah, absolutely.
Yeah.
That's good that it didn'thappen.
What's ironic is that I'm intoknives, I collect knives.
Yeah.
We know that.
But I'm like, yeah.
So definitely, I think that wasa big turning point that I was

(24:03):
like, you know what?
I gotta control my anger.
Yeah.
Derek, any, uh, major turningpoints in your teenage years?
Yeah, I actually have quite abit, and I didn't, sorry for not
elaborating in the previous,sections, but yeah, my teenage
years were probably some of mybiggest turning points, in life.

(24:25):
like I mentioned earlier,growing up down there, I had a
lot of trouble fitting in,cliques.
That's every high school, but itis, like I said, as a minority,
it is a bit different too.
I think my first turning pointwas, in middle school.
coming from elementary,everyone's just hanging out with
their own people.
People started going into theircliques and stuff, I was cool
with most of the skaters.

(24:46):
And then being that I playedfootball, I was also cool with
all the jocks.
This is like what I wanted.
I fit in with these guys.
And then, people get into theircliques and then there's into
girls.
People care about being popular.
You know, at the time I thoughtthat's like what I wanted, just
like a lot of us dude growingup.
And, I was like, okay, ifsomeone, more popular than me

(25:06):
wanted to do something or ifthey wanted me to help them do
something, yeah, do that just toget accepted type of deal.
In that phase is being that I'mfrom up here, I had a turning
point'cause my family wouldvisit here all the time.
Hanging out with my cousins andmy friends up here.
It was just very different andmore stuff that I related to.
I came back and I was like, I'mwearing like skate shoes and
like all these like differentthings.

(25:27):
What we did have in common is weall listen to like hip hop.
I'm hanging out with them andall their friends and it's like
they're, wearing at the time.
It's like FUBU Echo and Polo,all those brands like K Swisses,
shoes.
I stood out and I was wow, Ifeel out of place here.
The frost tip hair and stufflike that.
I think what happened is, I gotreally in touch with the culture
up here.
'Cause I'm born up here.
I visit all the time, like whyam I doing all this?

(25:48):
To try to fit in with all theseguys down south?
So when I came back, my wholething changed.
Like I, I was doing everything,like how they were up here.
And I brought that down with me.
And being down there, I stoodout even more than, I originally
did.
I already was, a minority, butthen now that I had a different
style and everything, somepeople didn't like that.
So I lost a lot of friends thatway.
That was like most of my middleschool years going into high

(26:10):
school.
I went in as an outcast a bitbecause of that.
So yeah, all I did is I reallyjust played basketball and then
I was like starting to becomefriends with people that I
wouldn't think I'd be friendswith.
Because I just have more incommon with them.
Those first couple years of highschool and middle school were
this is who I am, and if peopledidn't like me for what it was,
then, that is what it is.
I'm not trying to impressanybody or fit in anymore.

(26:31):
Like I was over all the cliques.
And all that stuff too.
But it did get to a point toowhere, just long story short, I
did transfer high schools fordifferent reasons.
That's probably like the mostrebellious phase I had with my
parents.
'cause most of the time I didget along with them growing up.
They were pushing me so hard tobe involved in clubs and sports
and stuff and, I told them howit is, this is what I'm dealing
with at school on a day-to-daybasis.
They had a great high schoolexperience and they still go

(26:53):
back to their reunions like, 50something years later right up
here.
And I'm like, I want that formyself too.
so I did get what I wanted.
I did, I was able to transferschools and spend my last few
years, like in a more enjoyableexperience.
Those last few years where I hadanother group of friends going
into this school.
Which is part of what made mewant to go there too.

(27:13):
I was like, they were all there.
I was like, okay, I get to bewith them for my last couple
years.
And I had another falling outwith them too.
It was over different stuff,like not the stuff that I was
dealing with in my earlieryears.
It was like different kinds ofpetty issues that, high school
drama.
I was, really concernedadjusting to getting into
college.
And I was like, I don't havetime to deal with, whatever it

(27:33):
is that you have against me.
But I was just so focused on,getting into college and getting
good grades.
So yeah, those were some majorturning points.
It's just I just never reallyfit in, but I was like, I had to
eventually find out like where Idid belong, what I wanted to do
and go from there.
So I don't regret any of it.
Like a lot of those lessonstaught me, things that I do
nowadays, and it's if I didn'tgo through that, then it

(27:55):
could've been a differentoutcome for me.
Yeah, absolutely.
What were you into around theage of 18 and 20?
Oh man, 18 to 20.
I was kinda lost at that time.
Okay.
Like right after high school.
'cause I got kicked out.
Just unhappy with everything andhow things played out for me in
high school, I missed out onprom and graduating with my
friends.

(28:15):
So I carried that on until likeI was in my twenties.
Did you have a job during thattime?
No.
I didn't and then if I did, itwas like some, like part-time
job or contract.
I remember I was like at Netflixfor a little bit and all my best
friends were all there too.
So it was like cool, kind oflike a hangout spot plus a job.
Okay.
How about you, Josh?
Yeah, I'd had like, justpart-time jobs.

(28:36):
Yeah.
Okay.
How about you, Derek?
yeah, 18 and 20.
I moved back up here to the BayArea for college and, it was a
lot of fun, those first coupleyears.
'Cause I missed all my friendsand family up here, so it's oh,
I get to come back and, go toschool here and, see everyone
again.
At the time I was really intotuning cars.
So like I used to have a Celicaback in the day and there's a
big scene, big car scene uphere, so it felt right at home.

(28:59):
This was also like the peak ofthe Hifi movement.
So the parties were pretty crazyand you just hear the music
everywhere you go.
So to be here and experiencethat culture, while it's in the
peak was awesome.
But also the whole collegeexperience too.
Like I, I joined a fraternity myfirst year.
I tried to be involved in asmany clubs as I could just
because of the lack ofinvolvement I had in high
school.
And, yeah, just just soak it allin but yeah, those are some fun

(29:22):
years for me.
Awesome.
So let's talk about the firstexposure to martial arts or
combat sports.
So you had wrestling, correct?
Correct.
And did you have any other typeof martial arts that you did?
No, just wrestling.
Okay.
Yeah, just wrestled.
Wrestled hard.
Josh, you talked about martialarts.
Yeah.
So let's go into that.

(29:43):
Tell me about your experience.
So I started, at 10 I startedboxing through, pal boxing.
And then, from there I also did,pal wrestling and pal judo.
It was not like consistent.
It was like off and on, right?
since 10.
Then I did it off and on againin middle school and then off

(30:04):
and on again in high school.
But in like 1999 is where I gotinto the MMA scene and I was
really focused on that.
Who were you under in the MMAscene and tell us about that
experience.
And I know, you told me aboutsome cage fighting that you did.
Yeah.
so in 1999, I, was in the schoolcalled, NorCal Fight Factory.

(30:27):
At the time it was calledExtreme Training Center, but it
was before that, it was calledNorCal Fight Factory.
And it was under, DaveVelasquez.
He's the owner of Dark Horseright now.
How was the, training?
It was.
Brutal.
Tough.
So there'd be days where, wewould, do our circuit, training
and then rolling and have cagefighting in the gym.

(30:49):
And there would be days where hewould bring out a bucket.
And he'd be like, okay, ifeveryone needs to throw up, you
throw up in here and continue.
Wow.
Yeah.
So he'd make you, work out harduntil you, lost everything.
Pretty much.
I remember that time someknucklehead came in the gym,
say, oh, I want to be an MMAfighter, blah, blah, blah.

(31:11):
I remember, Dave telling me,okay, roll with him.
And so he was talking to me, sohe was like, Josh, I want you to
roll with him and then I wantyou to, put a rear naked choke
on him.
So we're over there, we'rerolling.
And I got him in a rear nakedchoke and this guy was already
tapping.
And I remember, Dave was lookingat me like.
You better not let go or I'mgonna choke you out.

(31:32):
He even said that to me toobecause the guy kept tapping and
I was like, about to let it go.
And then Dave was like, no, holdit.
You put him out or I'm gonna putyou out.
And then I remember justwhispering in his ear like, I'm
sorry dude.
And shit you not the taps wherelike, it was taps and then it

(31:54):
became like punching my face toget that choke off of him.
And then I was just, I justlike, I'm so sorry, dude.
And he went out.
yeah.
And so what was that supposed toprove to this guy?
I guess'cause he was talking toomuch crap.
He's a big dude.
So he took like the smallestone, which is me.
Yeah.
see what, how well you doagainst him.

(32:15):
Yeah.
And shut him up.
Yeah.
Because a lot of people talkuntil it gets real.
And then, for me it's okay,let's put you through hell and
then if you come back maybe I'llteach you.
We'll put you through hell againand again.
Oh, okay.
He hasn't left yet.
Okay.
We'll teach you now.
So there was this, entry thatyou would have to do and prove

(32:36):
yourself before they would evenstart to teach you.
Yeah.
I think it was crazy back then.
It's not as, it is now.
Yeah.
Like for me, when I wanted to doit, it was like, okay, you
really wanna do it well.
Get in the cage.
Yeah.
See what you got.
Yeah.
And it was like that, theydidn't even really gimme any
instructions.
They just threw me in the cageand okay, we'll fight.

(32:56):
You wanna do this?
Then fight, and then we'll seeif you come back tomorrow.
So I came back the next day andthe next day just to get my ass
beat.
And then finally, eventually.
This guy hasn't left yet.
Let's teach him.
All right, cool.
That's awesome.
Yeah.
Derek, how about you?
Any type of martial arts?
Growing up, yeah.

(33:16):
I did TaeKwonDo earlier.
That's probably the one I stuckwith the longest.
I remember I had like a briefthing with Kendo.
I liked the swords.
I didn't end up sticking withit.
I did a little bit of boxingtoo, but it's mainly, my dad had
a bag in the garage.
He used to do boxing when he wasa teenager, I practiced like
combos and stuff, but it wasn'tlike any formal boxing training.
The TaeKwonDo I stuck with, upuntil like blue Belt.

(33:38):
And I remember, I think thereason I quit was because it
felt repetitive to me.
I guess it maybe just feltboring to me, but looking back,
I kinda wish I stuck with it.
'cause I was like, I have acouple more belts to go.
And it's if I already know thestuff that the upper belts are
doing, then what's keeping mefrom just getting it?
But, and then it's like jiujitsu is like very repetitive
too.
So it's just like a differentdiscipline now that I'm older.

(34:01):
Correct.
Okay.
During your martial arts orwrestling, any early mentors?
My brother, first of all, he wasactually.
He's always been pushing me, wewould always wrestle, after
practice or when we're in theliving room, just like doing
stuff that we just learned.
And we would just like scramble.

(34:21):
Then there was like Pat andGabe, there were big mentors to
me.
They would never let me skip,practice.
And who were they?
Just, Fellow, wrestlers.
Yeah.
They were my brother's bestfriends.
And they actually lived in thisneighborhood too, so if I ever
did try to skip practice, theywould be at my house.
So like me coming home, youknow, yeah.
I pulling you in.

(34:42):
Yeah.
Pretty much no choice.
Yeah.
Pretty much.
All right, cool.
How about you, Josh?
In your martial arts or allthose things you did judo, any
mentors that stood out to youduring that time?
Yeah, for me, I felt all mycoaches were my mentors.
Yeah.
I didn't really have a favorite.
I think each coach had their,views in certain things, and I

(35:05):
just, even till this day, Ialways have that saying, even
when I do a post on Instagram, Ialways have that saying, always
learning.
So for me, I took in, I'm like asponge.
Whoever my coaches were, I justlearn from them.
Okay.
It is like that too.
Even now at Triune, like when Ihave even lower belts help and
teach, I'm learning from themtoo.

(35:27):
Yeah.
So I think that's what's goodabout our gym in Triune is that
we have that bond where likeeveryone, is learning from each
other.
Yeah.
Did you have any mentors?
With your, sports or martialarts?
I had a few, for the sports Ididn't, it was like I just
looked up to someone that wasmaybe pro.

(35:48):
I remember, when I was doingTaeKwonDo, like my dad was an
influence for that too.
'Cause, when he was a teenager,he actually trained here, with
the Ernie Reyes family.
At that time, like Ernie ReyesJr.
Was just a little kid when hewas there.
But like, when I was like doingTaeKwonDo and, playing football,
like my dad was like a footballstar in high school, him and my
uncle, here at Wilcox.

(36:08):
And I remember when I playedfootball, he was like very into
it too, since it was his sport.
He was like a mentor for thattoo.
He got me interested in footballwhen I was younger which is what
initially got me to do it.
When I, started playingbasketball, I didn't really have
a mentor.
I looked up to certain athletesthat I would watch on TV and of
course Jordan.
There was a time where a bunchof my cousins all played

(36:30):
basketball, like all the boysand the girls played for a few
years.
So I saw them as mentors too.
Cool.
Let's get into the jiu jitsujourney.
Mark, tell me about when youstarted training BJJ and how you
heard about it.
Oh, so, uh, it happened to me.
It what?
I got BJJed.
I was at my friend's, house.

(36:50):
we were like messing around.
his name is Jeffrey, Sauna, andhe wrestled with me too.
So a lot of my friends, we allwrestled together.
I remember Joffrey.
He first got into Jiu Jitsu andI was like super wrestler down,
nah, dude, not gonna be able toget me.
You know?
So I clinched with him.
I got him in the throw and thenwe started scrambling on the

(37:12):
floor and he got me in the armtriangle and I was like, dude, I
can't get out of this.
Yeah.
He choked me out, dude, and outof that I was like, this is it.
And then, I went to go find likea gym.
I ended up at Smash Gyms in 2012.
And I got striped up there withmy white belt and then I wanted

(37:32):
something else.
And nothing against them they'regreat people.
That's where I like met Ian.
Shout, shout outs to Ian.
He's one of my really goodfriends from jiu jitsu.
Kind of start up together.
So I ended up at Triune where Iknew Josh was there and a lot of
the people from ourneighborhood, ended up here.
And I just felt like this waswhere I wanted to be.
'Cause it had a lot of presenceof, Santa Clara people.

(37:55):
when did you come here toTriune?
I think, when was it?
Like 2018 maybe.
Yeah, something like that.
Maybe something.
It was a long time ago.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I remember, I met Coach Stan andthen I walked in and Amador was
there.
And he's all oh, you like jiujitsu?
I'm like, yeah, I was outtashape too.

(38:15):
Like I didn't roll for a while'cause like I was still doing
college I think it was 20 14, 2015?
Yeah.
Yeah.
I remember walking in I see AlexBlank and Amador I tell him
like, yeah, I've rolled before.
And then Stan's oh, roll withhim.
And it was Amador.
And he like, destroyed me, dude.
I like ran out of the room and Ijust threw up outside.

(38:36):
And I was like, okay, this iswhat's up.
And then I met Wayne and, Derekand everybody else.
So I just really felt a reallybig connection with this school.
Right on.
Yeah.
Derek, how about you?
We'll skip Josh right now.
Tell me how you started jiujitsu?
Yeah, so I, I started jiu jitsu,in 2014.
And a lot of it is just frombeing peer pressured because, I

(38:59):
take this, for granted, but I'veknown Josh like maybe 10 years
prior to me joining, andsometimes for people like, oh, I
wish I met Josh earlier, blah,blah, blah.
But like being friends with Joshand then that group of friends,
like he mentioned, his friendWalter, my cousin Matt, Wayne
and Neil, like they're allmartial artists and they've all
been doing jiu jitsu as well asother martial arts, for many

(39:21):
years.
We'd always watch the UFC fightsand I liked watching UFC MMA and
all that and they were alwayslike, oh, when are you gonna
come, try a class?
All that stuff.
And I just like, oh, I don'tknow, like whatever.
And then, 2014 is when Iactually made the jump.
And, being that, Josh wasalready coaching here at Triune,
it was like an easy choice, totry it out.
Also, I was like getting boredwith what I was doing already

(39:42):
like I would just go to the gymand, lift and do cardio and then
I'd still be playing basketball.
But, I just needed somethingdifferent.
And I was like, well, I'm alwayswatching the fights with these
guys.
Why don't I finally give it atry?
I hit'em up and at the time,they were still down the street
with the CrossFit gym and, Ijust remember my first class.
I didn't have a uniform yet,obviously, but at the time

(40:03):
there's a lot of OGs there.
There was like Stan and Jimmy.
And a lot of those guys have,You know, Jimmy's running the
gym in Texas.
Everyone's in different placesnow'cause it was such a long
time ago.
But I remember not having auniform and I borrowed one from
Wayne and then the only, loanerbelt they had was a force drive
white belt.
So I wore that and there aresome other students there that
thought I had previous training.

(40:23):
But it was my first day and Ijust remember, one getting my
ass beat by teenagers and likesome of the other higher up like
white belts.
They did not take it easy on me.
But, there are also times wherelike Josh would have me do a
drill and I'd just get sweptreally easily.
Like anything that I thought Iknew from watching the fights.
Just went out the window.
But, um, in your mind, in yourmind, you thought I could do

(40:45):
that.
Exactly.
But yeah, I was just so baffled.
How is the smaller guy able tosweep me, how's this guy able to
take my back so easily or justmake me look like a fish outta
water?
And the mental part got me morehooked than the physical part,
because the physical part wasgreat.
Like getting in shape with thestuff your body's not used to
but just thinking about how,this happened and why that is

(41:06):
how I got hooked.
That's cool.
All right, Josh, so tell meabout your experience, when you
started, how you got hooked.
I started, I was never really astranger in grappling'cause
'cause of my background withjudo and wrestling.
I think after doing MMA, it waslike the end of 2007, I wanted
to do something similar to whatI was already doing and I felt

(41:30):
like jiu jitsu the closestthing.
'Cause it's, you know, theclosest thing to what I was
doing without having to getpunched in the face again.
You know what I mean?
Yeah.
I, started looking through theinternet and then I found a
Triune, jiu jitsu.
it was at ASD, it was calledAcademy of Self-Defense.
And that's where I met, Stan forthe first time and that's where

(41:53):
it all began.
How was your first experiencethere on the mats?
I was, like I said, I wasn'tlike a stranger to it, so it
felt like for me it was natural.
But just, some of the differentmoves that I would learn from
like OJ or Earnest was differentto me.
So it was a little bitchallenging, like learning, like
De La Riva learning, lasso.

(42:17):
Yeah.
But other than that, I think,everything else was pretty,
easy.
Which belt was the hardest andwhy?
Oh, for me, I think it was mypurple belt.
I made it to my fourth, and thenCOVID happened.
And you remember luckee me andyou Josh, we would go to

(42:40):
Salinas.
But at that time I wasn'ttraining, I was going through a
lot with my family.
So, being able to like trainagain, really changed a lot.
Being a purple belt, I was goingthrough what is that word?
Imposter syndrome.
Where I just didn't feel like Iwas up to par.
I would roll with the guys thatwere purple belts and they would

(43:02):
just completely destroy me.
I would get lucky, I would catch'em here and there, but I could
feel like the technical in them,you know, like when their four
strikes or three strikes.
I just felt it, And I was likefresh, when I first got it.
And then.
When I got on my fourth, when Iwent out to Salinas, I was just
like, man, what am I doing,dude?
I don't feel like thatconfident, at it.
And I remember rolling with awhite belt,'cause you know, it's

(43:25):
been like years, like two yearsor something like that.
And then, I just couldn't keepup, And then I remember Josh
just threw me the brown belt.
Do you remember that?
And I was like, whoa, dude, thisis it.
Like I had points in my timewhere like I just didn't want to
do it.
And for you guys to be there,like that kind of, sparked it
all over again for me, broughtme back to life.

(43:46):
That was some fun timestraveling to Salinas just to do
jiu jitsu.
Yeah, that was fun.
The four of us, right?
Plus, Wayne.
Yeah, we'd go down there.
So sometimes Terrance, right?
Oh yeah.
Sometimes you guys rememberTerrance, right?
Yeah.
That was cool.
Yeah.
It was the only dojo that we hadavailable to us that was open.
So let's give a shout out toAdrian for keeping, his dojo

(44:09):
open.
Oh, Tom's garage too.
Oh, and Tom too.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
That was cool.
That was really cool.
All right, Derek, how about you?
What has been your hardest beltso far?
You're a four stripe purple beltand, what do you think?
Definitely blue belt was mytoughest time.
I spent blue belt almost sixyears at Blue Belt.
And, I definitely believe I knowsome people disagree but I

(44:31):
definitely believe in the BlueBelt blues and everyone's
definition's a bit different.
When I had blue, yeah, therewere fun times, but then I also
felt like I was plateauing asfar as what I'm learning and
technique wise.
And it was like no matter howmuch I kept training, I'm like,
what else do I need to learn atBlue Belt?
Or what's the next step?
Like what else do I have to do?
I was always asking the coaches,like Josh and everyone, like

(44:52):
what I can do to improve.
And I was just confused becauseI just felt like I wasn't
getting better.
No matter how much I trained.
And I was like, do I need to dothis or do I need to have a
different approach?
And I was, you know, spend a lotof time reading, articles on
that, like what other peoplewere doing, like when they were
struggling and, try to find likerelatable situations.

(45:14):
Especially during COVID, becauseI was also kind of worried about
training for a couple months.
And then after a while I waslike, I can't just sit and not
do anything.
Like I was really itching to dostuff.
So like Mike was saying, we'regoing all the way to Salinas and
Tom's garage to go train, dounderground things.
And even getting in touch withKiko was like, oh, let's find,
when there's underground openmats and stuff like that too.

(45:37):
And I was like, I'll just takewhatever I can.
And just see what else I can do.
And, these were the times I feltwere really, eye-opening as far
as what I needed to work on.
What I was already good at doingand just to capitalize that.
And like eventually, when thingsstarted slowly opening up, I
remember I had the itch tocompete and, I didn't get to

(46:00):
compete at White Belt.
I never, stepped up for that.
But at Blue Belt, I'd done allmy competitions at Blue.
So far I have yet to do purple,but I just remember once COVID
restrictions started lifting, Istarted, going outta state
because California didn't havecompetitions open yet.
And I was just doing randomcompetitions like in Nevada and
like SoCal opened up beforeNorCal.

(46:20):
But, I was in Vegas and Reno alot to compete and being that it
was still restricted here inCalifornia, like not many people
came out with me to compete.
So I was just out there alonejust to kind of like test myself
and put myself out there anddefinitely spent a lot of time,
losing and learning.
I did get bronze out, a few of'em, but I think that, that's
where.
I was fighting my game a littlebit and what I was struggling

(46:43):
with, and I remember Josh toldme at one point, he's man, you
always ask so many questionsafter training.
He is like, just do this.
Or oh, I know you're doing okay.
You just have to do this.
You know, just the littledetails that, that he gives.
But like over, over time,eventually things started to
make more sense, but I just feltthat six years I should have
been more confident in where Iwas.

(47:03):
Yeah, there were a lot of timeswhere it's yeah, I couldn't
train'cause of work or, moneyissues or like whatever.
There's a time where I wasworking two jobs and I couldn't
train.
So it was like very, it was veryup and down time for me.
So that's why I feel blue beltwas the most challenging for me.
How about you Josh?
You're a third degree black beltnow, so what was your hardest,
belt do you think?

(47:23):
That's a hard question becauseI'm good at everything I do.
No kidding.
I'm just kidding.
No, dang.
all jokes aside, the hardestbelt for me is, purple belt.
I think because, as a purplebelt, I already have my own
style and I'm just refining itover and over sharpening my
sword, But the most challenging,I think being a purple belt was,

(47:44):
teaching I remember Stan wasjust like, you gotta start
learning how to teach people, inthis belt color.
So I was oh man, how do I dothat?
And, it was really like, itreally got into my head, but I
was like, okay, I'll take thatchallenge, So I remember one
time I was at the liquor storeno, I was at a gas station and I

(48:06):
ran into, Wayne.
I remember asking him like, hey,where you train at?
Or something like that.
And then he had told me he wastraining at Zulu.
So I took that opportunityright.
To be like, I'm gonna go there.
'Cause there's only a few peoplethere and I'm gonna go ahead and
practice, my teaching.
So Wayne was like my first,student.

(48:27):
What belt was he?
Then?
A white belt.
Oh, nice.
Yeah.
Yeah.
That's cool.
I felt Stan had a point right.
like if just the best way toreally understand your style is
if you can teach it.
Yeah.
That way you know that youreally understand the things
that you've been doing on themats.
Yeah.
What has been your biggestpersonal struggle or lesson

(48:50):
through jiu jitsu?
I think as a black belt now.
I feel like I'm a white belt andnow I have to swim with the very
high ranker guys.
Some of these guys have beenblack belts for 10 plus years.
And I'm fresh, so it's everytrick I ever learned and I was
able to pull on like lower rankguys.
It doesn't work with the blackbelts.

(49:10):
Yeah.
It gets even harder if they're alot bigger too.
Because they know how todistribute their weight and they
know how people move.
It is just the of it.
But, it keeps me going, I wannamake sure they know who I am,
you know?
And I know that rolling withthem, it will get me better.
Like what Josh says, ironsharpens iron.
So I really believe black beltis like, where I'm like

(49:34):
struggling at.
Yeah.
yeah.
Yeah.
You'll get there.
Yeah.
Just keep on forging forward.
Yeah.
The more you roll with them, thebetter you're gonna get.
Yeah.
Cool.
How about you, Derek?
Any lessons that, jiu jitsu hastaught you during these years?
There's quite a few, but onethat comes to mind is basically,
jiu jitsu will teach you that'syou're more capable of things

(49:54):
that even you don't think youare, you might not believe in
yourself, but the stuff that youlearn in jiu jitsu challenges
you to go beyond that.
And a lot of people that comethrough here and train, they
realize like they're able to dostuff they never thought they
could.
And once you realize that andunderstand how that works and
like how you can apply it, likeyou can use it in things outside

(50:16):
of the gym too.
So it's like even something assmall as like, oh, I was able to
escape from an arm bar.
It's like, oh, I can go talk tomy boss about a raise or
something.
You can do more than what youthink you're capable of.
Yeah.
It gives you courage, right?
Yeah.
How about you, Josh?
Anything that you've learnedfrom jiu jitsu?

(50:37):
I learned that I can kick ass.
No kidding.
No.
Definitely.
Yeah.
getting my black belt just likeMark.
Yeah.
Definitely felt like a whitebelt again.
Yeah, especially my first blackbelt tournament.
I had to go against this guythat's been doing it way longer
than I have, and man, he put mein the tightest bow and arrow

(50:59):
choke in that comp for the firsttime.
When that happened, I felt wow,there's levels to this game.
There's levels to being a blackbelt for sure.
So I agree with Mark.
when I was a black belt, ittaught me, I'm a white belt
again.
Yeah.
You know what I mean?
Absolutely.
So it actually taught me to,train more and just keep getting

(51:21):
better.
Yeah.
That's it.
No other choices.
Yep.
We already talked about how youguys were introduced to Triune
and some first impressions.
What makes the Triune communitydifferent?
For me, I think it's, the factthat everybody I've known that's
come from here.

(51:42):
We have some people from SanJose, but a lot of'em are rooted
from Santa Clara.
Mark Herman came from SantaClara.
Um, Tom.
But yeah, just like thecommunity, that's tied into this
gym.
I remember see Josh all the timeat church and then I would see
him at a tournament.
So that's what really lured meinto this place is just, the
people are really nice.

(52:03):
They're great people, veryhelpful, supportive.
If it wasn't for this gym, likeI wouldn't know what I would be
doing.
I actually grew in this gym alot as a person too.
So I really feel like this gymis very special.
A wonderful community for sure.
How about you, Derek?
Yeah, I'm a little bit biasedbecause this is where I started.

(52:23):
Jiu jitsu was at Triune and I'vebeen here ever since, and I've
been here for a while too.
Definitely what's kept me herethe longest is the community,
like Mark was saying, it doesn'tmatter how much time you need to
take off or if you move away orwhatever, like you still have
that connection here and you'realways welcome back.
People have their issues or theygot work or whatever.
You always have a spot backhere.

(52:44):
When I travel to other gyms andstuff, I use the community here
as like a basis to kind of judgeand review another place like
Yeah, a lot.
And you know, thankfully a lotof places I visit have that, but
then it's like a differentlevel.
Sometimes I go to these reallybig gyms and it's there's just
so many numbers.
Not everyone knows each other'cause there's so many people.
And then I come across smallerones that are similar to ours.

(53:07):
And then some that are like bigaffiliations.
So sometimes you don't alwaysget that same feel, that you get
here.
But I think that's somethingthat, comes over time once
you've been coming for a while.
Yeah.
you could see like deeper intolike how the, the community is
in a school.
so I think that's where I kindof base visiting other gyms.
I'm looking for that same vibewhen I go places.

(53:28):
Very cool.
Okay, Josh.
Do you still remember thequestion?
Yeah.
Repeat the question please.
Because you're the only one thattell me.
can you repeat that question?
What makes the Triune communitydifferent?
I think what makes, the Triunecommunity different from the

(53:50):
other jiu jitsu communities iswe have a family vibe.
Like a lot of us, like friends,even like the newer people that
come in, we kind of tease, youknow what I mean?
Definitely a family vibe wherewe can just be ourselves, Yeah.
I think other gyms, they're likejust focused of the time, right?
They want you to like, okay,clock in, get to work.

(54:13):
Okay, get out.
But over here it is like we comein, we do our thing, and then we
even hang out.
We will hang out.
We'll have fun.
We even make like funny videossometimes.
Right.
So for me, I think that's what'sdifferent from other jiu jitsu
schools.
Yeah.
Yeah.
True.
Let's talk about teaching.
What does teaching give back toyou, mark?

(54:36):
I taught kids for a while, forStan and it brought joy, like I
remember having rough days atwork and stuff, and then I
always felt like it when Itaught the kids.
'cause they're great, kids aregreat to work with.
I just remember being superstressed out.
And once I see them come in witha fresh smile and ready to roll
and learn something cool, andthen the expressions they get

(54:58):
when they actually do somethingthat, you taught them, they get
excited.
Yeah.
that changes my mood completely.
And it's a special thing.
Like it is a special feelingand, I truly appreciate that.
How about you, Josh?
I agree with Mark.
It, brings for me when I teachand it brings joy, right?
Yeah.
It brings joy to me when I seethe kids learn to move and then

(55:21):
they get excited because oh, Imade it work.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And then also just to see theconfidence grow in the kids or
even the adults.
Yeah.
really, oh, wow.
Really gets me like, oh, I wannateach for more.
You know what I mean?
Yeah.
So definitely.
yeah, definitely that.
Have you taught?
Not really.

(55:41):
I know Josh has had me like leadwarmups or something before, but
I haven't really taught like aclass now.
Do you think you would do so inthe future?
That's up to Josh, honestly,because,'cause I was like, I
wanna make a good impression ifI am gonna do that, but I know
I've gone to like different gymsand maybe an open mat and, a
lower belt might ask me like howI did something and if they're

(56:04):
able to learn from me, great.
I don't think I'm a greatteacher or anything, but I'll
help out if they, that's theconfidence part we're gonna try
to get to.
Yeah, for sure.
I'm gonna teach that in youright now.
There you go.
See, you're gonna start teachingsoon.
yeah.
oh.
oh.
Yep.
Now this is heavy.
Derek, what does jiu jitsu meanto you now?

(56:27):
Um, jiu jitsu is basically, tome now is it's part of my
lifestyle.
I know some people take it realserious, oh, jiu jitsu's life
and stuff.
But it's I think it's more of a,something that, is like an
accomplice to my life, becauseit helps me in more ways than
one.
And, I just can't think of mylife not doing it anymore
because it's taught me so muchand, brought some type of

(56:48):
balance to it.
It's a good form of like stressrelief therapy.
There's so many benefits in lifethat you get from it.
And it sounds cliche, buthonestly, it's, it helps you in
other ways of life.
Even like subconsciously, likeyou're doing stuff that you
learn in jiu jitsu without evenreally knowing it.
If you really sit down and thinkabout it, oh, I'm using

(57:09):
something I learned.
But, with the mental part of it,for example so I mean, it's.
It is definitely become a bigpart of my life that way.
Okay.
Josh, what does, jiu jitsu meanto you?
Jiu jitsu now, what it means tome is similar to, what Derek was
saying.
Definitely it's a humbling,sport.

(57:31):
Jiu jitsu to me means, the worldto me.
It means the world to me.
So for me, I feel like.
I might not be like the verybest at jiu jitsu, but I for
sure love jiu jitsu more thananybody in this world.
So that's what it means to me.
That's pretty cool.
Nice.
Yeah.
How about you, mark?

(57:52):
I've always used it as a tool,just to be able to use it in
certain times where I have toface certain situations.
Being confident about what theoutcome could be and knowing
that you could handle certainthings.
I really like that about jiujitsu.
Yeah.
How has jiu jitsu changed yououtside of the gym?

(58:15):
It is actually turned me into abetter person, for sure.
When you're a fresh white beltand you feel like you're not
capable of doing certain things,and I see people talk about, oh,
I'm not able to do this.
It could be anything, not justjiu jitsu.
And I've always be like, nah,man, you can do it, dude.
Because a lot of people thatcome in here have zero skill,
right?
And we have a lot of people thatcame in here with zero skills,
but they end up being killers,you know what I'm saying?

(58:36):
Right.
Like a startup assassin And Ican name a couple people like
Rith and like a couple of newguys, Yeah, they're really good
and like technical, like I tryto hold them down and I'm just
like, whoa, dude.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So what has it taught yououtside the gym.
Humility, you know?
All right.
Being kind to people knowingthat Hey, man, I know you're not

(58:57):
capable of this, But you'll begood at this.
Correct.
Or just practice, it'sobtainable.
Anything's obtainable now thatyou've done jiu jitsu.
Pretty much.
Nice.
Yeah.
True.
Okay.
How about you Derek?
Sorry, what was the questionagain?

(59:17):
There you go.
You played to Josh now.
I know.
My bad.
How has it changed you outsidethe gym?
jiu jitsu?
I think.
Outside of the gym.
it's helped me, in differentsituations, but mainly
involving, high pressure.
So if it's something like atwork when I have like multiple

(59:39):
deadlines or something likethat, or I have to get a lot of
things done or there's anemergency or, even if I'm just
playing ball and the fight'sabout to break out.
Jiu jitsu has really taught meto, keep calm.
Like I'm a pretty chill guy ingeneral, but in high pressure
situations, just remaining calm,remembering like the steps that
you need to, resolve thesituation or diffuse it,

(01:00:01):
whatever it is that you'recoming across.
But, definitely not panicking,'cause here you're so focused
on, you're under pressure allthe time.
Yes.
And, you're focused on survivingand just like escaping whatever
it is, that you might be upagainst.
And that same thing appliesoutside of the gym.
Okay.
Josh, how about you?
What was the question?

(01:00:23):
You did that on purpose?
No, I'm like really serious.
Oh shit.
I thought you were just joking.
How has it changed you outsidethe gym?
Jiu jitsu's, given me likeconfidence and, the calmness,
'cause like I said, growing up Iwas wild.
No one could tell me anything,So for me, I think jiu jitsu

(01:00:44):
gave me that, confidence andcalmness, to control myself,
right?
Yeah, jiu jitsu teaches you tocontrol people and submit them,
but then sometimes you've gottacontrol yourself and submit
yourself too, right?
When I got heated, I didn'tthink, I just, I did and I
thought about it after.
So now I think that's what jiujitsu has given me.

(01:01:05):
Self-control.
Yeah.
Cool.
All right.
Let's see.
I like that.
Submit yourself.
Submit yourself foul himself,calm down, can give yourself a
choke.
Okay, so do you have any advicefor beginners or someone

(01:01:28):
thinking about joining the gym?
Yeah, just come in, you're hereas a student, you're here to
learn and you're here to makefriends and build a community.
And there isn't anything to shyaway from.
'Cause it's a group of peoplewho genuinely want to see,
whoever comes in to succeed,and, I feel like if you're gonna
come in and be a part of a team,just come in and enjoy, Yeah.

(01:01:52):
There's a lot to gain from doingjiu jitsu.
You're gaining long timefriendships like what Derek
said, you'll see people comingand up, but you'll always
remember the names in this gym.
Yeah.
I definitely agree with Mark.
I think with, otherpractitioners?
The thing I hear the most, withpeople like regrets or whatever
is that they wish they startedearlier.

(01:02:12):
Yeah, true.
And I'm definitely one of thosepeople.
And my advice would be if you'vebeen considering it or wanted to
try it to just do it becauselike I said, many others is that
we all wish we started earlier.
And it's a lot of it's oh, Iwant to get in shape first.
I want to do some other martialarts training, so I'm, I could
just jump into it.

(01:02:33):
Or you know, money or whateverit is like just do it because
like we all said is we all wishwe did it earlier.
Josh, a new white belt?
Give them advice.
My advice is, just, yeah, itcould be scary because it feels
like your first day of school,and it's something new, So I
understand where they're comingfrom, The nervousness and what
do I do?
You know what I mean?

(01:02:53):
But for me, it's my advice isjust to, not just a beginner,
but also some people that havealready been doing it, say,
they're a blue belt or whatever.
I feel like, be coachable.
It's my advice, Yeah, sure.
Yeah.
Because a lot of times they comein, and then they think they
know a lot.
Yeah.
And it's even if you do know alot, it's just you have to learn
to be humble and just becoachable.

(01:03:15):
Yeah, you're here to be astudent.
Yeah.
not to be a substitute teacher,you know what I mean?
Yeah.
So that's my advice.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I think we should, um, givethose people, the opportunity to
teach.
Right?
Yeah, that'd be cool.

(01:03:36):
Alright, let's see.
Okay, let's go into some funnystuff.
So any odd or weird experiences,funny things that happened to
you on the mat?
Oh yeah.
You remember when, Hendersonbroke his toe and then you call
him toe jam.
Yeah, dude.
Oh man.
That got me dying.

(01:03:56):
My girlfriend was on the side.
She was laughing too, dude.
You came into the save the daythough.
that was awesome.
That was cool.
Yeah.
Popped it right back in and itjust went, nobody wanted to do
it.
Yeah.
I was so Luckee.
You could do it.
There you go.
Do it.
Oh yeah.
that was fun.
But the nickname was funny toejam.

(01:04:16):
Yeah.
Toe jam He took it like a champdude.
Like it didn't Oh, he's awesome.
Yeah.
It didn't even look like it wasbroken.
But it was broken.
Yeah.
That was funny.
Yeah.
All right.
Anything else Josh?
Anything funny to happen to youon the mat?
I guess it's fun.
Yeah.
There was one time I was rollingUhhuh and then I got stacked to
where my legs was, like over myhead.
Yeah.

(01:04:36):
And then I farted.
It was funny because there waslike these new girls that were
there just trying to check itout.
And I just laid a fat one, Ilaid a fat one and then I just,
I still had a serious face like.
You know what I mean?
Nothing happened.
Like what?
You know what I'm saying?
It happens though.
You know what I mean?
That, that, that top pressureshit.

(01:04:57):
Yeah.
Knees bellies.
Get me going.
Yeah.
All right.
How would you, Derek, anythingfunny happened to you?
Any crazy?
I can't think of a personalthing that happened to me right
off the top, but I do rememberslightly being involved where, I
had, my friend Jeremy come try,a couple trial classes and you

(01:05:17):
guys all know Big J?
Yeah.
he's a big dude, right?
Yeah.
big jolly guy.
he's a lot of fun to be aroundand he came to try jiu jitsu for
a couple months actually.
And I remember, Josh likes tohave us do the situational
drills and stuff like that.
And I remember, at the oldlocation, I think we were doing
like some type of guard passdrill.
And I remember, it was like, ohyeah, you guys start on the
bottom and then, the person ontop try to pass or, try to get

(01:05:39):
out of that.
I think it was like half card orsomething like that.
And Jeremy's a newer guy, beingthat he has a big size, he
definitely had that weightadvantage.
So I remember.
One time I think I was paired upwith him and, he was trying to
stack me like he was puttinglike his shoulder.
And he's a big dude, so he isreally heavy.
So I remember he's putting hisshoulder in my face, to do like
a stack pass, right?
And, he still had his hips alittle too high, so I know when

(01:06:01):
he tried to step over instead ofdoing a knee cut.
And I remember, when he liftedhis foot up, I kicked.
I hooked his like ankle andswept him over that way.
And, he has this, wardrobemalfunction quite a bit.
So like when he falls over,sometimes his pants come down.
So you just see like this big,like bare ass, come out when
he's being swept.

(01:06:21):
So I think I see that.
Yeah, I think I see that.
Yeah.
So it was, it was, yeah, so itwas, it just what we called the,
Filipino when you pants em somebrown out or something.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So shout out, shout Jeremy forcoming to try, but yeah, I
remember that happening and acouple times in like judo class.
I think that happens.

(01:06:43):
Yeah.
Plumbers cracks.
Exactly.
Anything else?
Okay.
let's see what else we can talkabout.
So did those girls ever comeback?
The ones that checked out theclass?
I know, right?
Probably not.
Yeah.

(01:07:04):
You go these guys far too much.
What is jiu jitsu?
Yeah.
All you guys are, all FilipinoYeah.
Come from the same, area whereyou guys all grew up together.
Yeah.
That's pretty tight.
So do you wanna do animpression, the Filipino Yeah.
That this is an easy one.

(01:07:25):
I'm pretty sure all theFilipinos know this one, they
do, they point with their lips,you know what I mean?
That's true.
Yeah, that's true.
You know what I mean?
It is or they'll say stuff like,Was it turn off?
like, how do you, did they saythat turn on the light or
something?
I forgot it was close.
The close the light.
The lights close.
The light.
Oh, they say close the lights.
Yeah.

(01:07:46):
Yeah.
I like the momsir one.
Yeah.
Yeah.
The what?
Momsir Momsir, and then everyFilipino has an uncle boy.
You know what I'm saying?
Like every family Filipino partyyou go to, there's always an
uncle boy somewhere.
Man, good food, uncle boy.
Really good food.
Oh, we all got gout.
You all got Gout.not me, Goodjob, bro.

(01:08:10):
I got gout.
All right.
Let's see what else.
Yeah, you're not Filipino if youdon't point with your lips or
pick things up at your feet.
Oh, man.
If you had an opportunity totalk to your younger self, what
would you tell him?

(01:08:31):
I would've been like.
Don't date that girl, bro.
I would've done that.
My life would've been waydifferent.
Oh man.
Go ahead Derek.
Definitely apply yourself more.
'cause there's a lot of thingsthat, when I got into college
that I didn't know about comingfrom high school and I'm like,

(01:08:52):
if you would've prepared betterand done this, you could have
saved yourself a lot of trouble.
Yeah.
When that, so I know noteveryone takes the college
route, but when I did andthere's, there were definitely
things I could have donedifferently.
Yeah.
How about you Josh?
I think I would've told myselfto like really?
Focus on the school more.
Because, with all the fightingand stuff, like I think that it

(01:09:15):
took away from a lot of mystudies, Yeah.
Yeah.
So definitely, I would've saidthat after I like slapped
myself.
Yeah.
Yeah.
That's funny.
Okay.
Is there anything else you wannasay about Triune?
Yeah, I wanna shout out Dan orJudo Dan.
Yeah.
he comes in every Friday.
I learned a lot from him.
He's always said, you only needone move and just practice one

(01:09:38):
move and you can do a lot.
And I'm like, oh yeah, I tookthat very closely.
And, I just wanna shout out tothe whole Triune team as well.
Josh Wayne.
coach.
Stan.
Phil.
And of course you're Luckee,thank you for having us here.
We truly appreciate you givingus this, time and giving us a
voice to tell our story.

(01:09:58):
Awesome.
That's cool.
Yeah.
How about you, Josh?
Thank you to everyone that comesto Triune that is, willing to
learn from me and, and thank youfor being coachable.
Cool.
Yeah, for sure.
Yeah, I echo what they said.
thanks for being a, where I gotmy start and being like a home

(01:10:19):
ever since and just so you guysknow, it's I always take Triune
with me.
All the gyms I visit, around thecountry.
And people always ask oh, whereare you from?
It is oh, I train at Triune.
And of course we're such a smallschool, a lot of people haven't
heard of us.
But then, I have to put them ongame because they're like, oh,
where's that?
It's like San Jose.
And it's they always assume it'sCaio's or AKA or one of the
bigger gyms, but it's no, we'rea small, independent, nonprofit

(01:10:41):
gym and I hold it down, so Yeah.
Yeah.
How to represent.
Yeah.
Yep.
I hear you.
Is there anything else that youguys would like to talk about?
Um, anything that we didn'tcover or that you'd like to say?
Wasn't there a question aboutlike, um, I know in the email
there said something aboutquotes.

(01:11:02):
Oh yeah.
I have a quote.
I got a quote that I want tosay.
Mine's sink or swim, right?
Sink or swim.
Yeah.
What does that mean to you?
It means that, of course, you'renot gonna want to sink, right?
You're gonna want swim.
I remember my cousin telling methis'cause she was in the
military and she's not that typeof girl.
Like where she's like a girlygirl.
You know what I'm saying?

(01:11:22):
Yeah.
And she joined the military.
To go to college.
And she just told me straightup, like before she got, sent
out, to bootcamp and everything,and I didn't see her for a long
time.
I just asked her like, aren'tyou scared?
And she was like, no, do yousink or swim?
And I just carried thateverywhere.
Good example.
Yeah, that's a good quote.
Now Derek's looking up hisquote.

(01:11:43):
I didn't have one apparently, soI'm like, what do I say?
I'm still trying to think what'sthe question though?
If you have a motivational quotethat you live by or message.
So if I have a motivationalquote, you wanna go first?
I don't Oh, okay.
He doesn't have one.
Yeah, It's something that, Iheard a long time ago, that,

(01:12:05):
stuck with me till this day andit's, get better every day for
the rest of my life.
Nice.
I have another one.
Go ahead.
I have, I like this one a lot,every way.
Every day.
We are getting better.
That's the kids quote.

(01:12:25):
The kids quote.
But you didn't even do it right.
I know, right?
My bad.
That one getting better.
We're gonna get, Adrian in hereto say it.
Little Adrian.
Little Adrian.
Yeah.
How about you?
Nah, I don't really got any.
No.
Yeah, you're like, nah, I needto be more inspirational.
The reason why I like that, I'mvery inspired, like for me, that

(01:12:47):
saying that I heard it goes likeif people are going to comp,
like for me, you'll take an L inlife or in sport, but you got
two options.
You can quit or you can getbetter.
True.
So that's that quote when Iheard that, like that stuck with
me.
Yeah.
Get better every day for therest of my life.
Cool.
There you go.
All right guys.

(01:13:09):
I want to thank you guys forbeing on the podcast.
I really appreciate it.
It's been fun getting to knowyou guys on a deeper level and
you guys are great friends andgreat practitioners and
excellent role models, so keepit up and thank you for being on
the podcast and thank you.
Yeah, thanks for having us.