#7 Koffee Krew Ben, Kiko, Fernando

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Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Today we're sitting down withthe founders of the Koffee Krew.
An open mat that's become astaple in the Brazilian Jiu
Jitsu community here in the BayArea.
Koffee Krew isn't just aboutrolling.
It's a space where practitionersfrom all levels come together to
train, share knowledge, andbuild a tight knit community.

(00:20):
I'm joined today by Ben, Kikoand Fernando, Three individuals
who put their passion intocreating an environment that
highlights the true essence ofJiu Jitsu.
Hi guys.
Welcome to the podcast.
How's it going?
Luckee You know what?
I didn't like that.
You used our government name,but you didn't use Kiko's
government name.

(00:40):
That's not his real name.
Some people are still on therun.
I'm just saying.
Okay.
You said inclusive but youforgot to say sanctuary gym too
as well.
So i'm just saying I don't wantto throw it out there.
I don't know i'm not sayingtheir names i'm just saying.
Okay, go ahead.
Francisco.

(01:01):
Francisco Gonzales.
Thank you very much.
There you go.
Let's get started.
Each one of you can tell me inyour own way, what does Jiu
Jitsu mean to you Jiu Jitsu tome really is, something where I
can deal with stress and getsome exercise.
That's what it is to me.
I've been teaching kids classesand I found that I really enjoy
it.
And so I look forward to doingthat, planning games and things

(01:23):
like that.
So it's something that I can getaway from work and everyday
life, basically.
And I want to do a quick plugfor Kiko.
If you saw him Saturday,handling all those kids, we're
going to start a side hustle.
It's going to be Kiko's kiddosdaycare.
So we're going to give you guysthe information at the end.
If you need your kids watched.

(01:44):
He knows what he's doing.
Fernando.
How about you?
What does Jiu Jitsu mean to you?
I guess just my life, man.
That's all I think about,honestly.
Yeah, I deal with stress andeverything and, everything in
between.
We all have, different thingsgoing on.
But even through those moments,I'm just like, I'm thinking
about jiu jitsu all the time.
I can't wait to get to the gymand do my thing, teach or teach

(02:07):
the kids, like Kiko says I teacha teens class.
It's really rewarding.
Like watching them, do the movethat you show'em and like they
come out to you.
Even the parents, like they comeout to me and they, like this
past Saturday, right?
A parent came out to me and Ididn't know how much of an
impact I had on him.
And I'm starting to like, toreally understand, jiu jitsu is
a big thing for me.

(02:28):
It is.
How about you, Ben?
I just want to add to Fernando'scomment, if I can.
Is that okay?
Sure, go for it.
I know it's his story andeverything like that, but I just
want to just add, it's the otherplace too, and you forgot to say
this bro.
Ok.
It's the one place where you canmurder people and not catch a
case.
That's the underline.
He's giving you all these othernames, but that's the real
truth, right?
Because you should see ourthread.

(02:49):
He's showing videos of him.
Elder abuse on Kiko.
Seriously.
He's beating the heck out ofKirby.
I feel so bad for Kirby.
I don't know why Kirby shows upanymore.
There's a reason why Ben livesin Temecula.
It's really bad.
It's horrible.
He's the instigator, right?
He just stays away.
I'm just telling you what I seeas an observer.
Okay, that's it.
Wait, that's it.

(03:09):
He said it wrong.
English is my first language.
You know that?
This is Kiko's second languageand he speaks it.
That's right.
Better than I do.
I'm highly educated.
Now for me, Jiu Jitsu is this.
Honestly, it's, I love JiuJitsu, a lot.
Like I love training, thingslike that, but it's grown into

(03:29):
this.
Kiko, I've known Kiko since,like I said, since we were 10
years old, right?
And Jiu Jitsu, even though wekept a friendship.
Jiu Jitsu has really helped ussolidify that friendship a lot
and Fernando too.
I met Fernando, what, back inSan Jose when we're at Battle
Dome, right?
And Fernando was like mynemesis.

(03:50):
He knows he was, he would showup and I was like, that's the
guy that I'm going against rightthere.
All the time, we were just goingat it.
Like we would go.
At it, we're a blue belt, so wewould just try to like, you'd
think we hated each other.
And then he would disappear fora little bit and he'd come back
and he was better, and I waslike, mmmmm.
Just getting me mad.
So, but that's what Jiu Jitsu isfor me.
It's Jiu Jitsu for sure.
Learning techniques and trainingand stuff like that.

(04:11):
But also there's just thislifelong friendship and
community comes out of it thatit's almost like a club, right?
You go there and you come thereand it's a space where we can
come hang out and nothing elsematters when those doors close
and we're on the mat It's likethe whole world disappears and
we're here hanging out we'rehaving fun.
We're laughing and I can havethe worst day and you hear
people It's very cliche becausepeople say this all the time,

(04:31):
but it's the truth If it's acommon thing that people say it
is true.
And we come in here, we hang outthe minute we're on the mat, we
just start talking trash andit's fun.
It's like everything.
Nothing else matters.
Now I got to come up with oneliners.
I got to make sure that I don'tget my feelings hurt.
I got to make sure mytechnique's on point because
this guy's going to be memeingme all day.
So.
It's true.
So Kiko, What's his nickname?

(04:53):
We just call him Big Ben.
He's always been big.
He's always been bigger than mesince he was 10.
I was like, I'm what, four yearsolder than you, right?
Dang, that's offensive.
I think he's four years olderthan me.
Right.
I'm four years older than you.
Four years older than me.
Yeah.
I'm about four years older thanhim.
Yeah.
But he's always been bigger thanme.
In my defense.
Okay.
Cause my mom didn't cook.
It's all his mom's fault.
Cause his mom would be cookingearly in the morning and he

(05:16):
wouldn't even be up yet.
And I'd be, I'd go over to hishouse and I'd be sitting at his
dinner table right there,hanging out with his mom while
she's cooking tortillas andeggs.
And I didn't speak Spanish.
All I know is.
Um, quires comer.
I knew that.
Like it was like, do you want toeat?
Yeah, I want to eat pretty clearto be there.
Just chillin, eat and keepgoing.
He's like, what are you doinghere?
Your mom said I can eat.

(05:37):
So in my defense, I was alwaysbigger than him because his mom
always fed me.
Fernando, How did you meet theseguys?
yeah through Jui Jitsu, Istarted in 07 seven.
And yeah, Ben, Kiko, you hadn'tstarted yet, right?
No..
I got there and, yeah, man, itwas a Royal Rumble.
Ready to rumble.

(05:59):
We were sizing each other up allday.
We were probably the only twoguys from the streets then, huh?
From the streets, yeah, prettymuch.
I already knew right away,Fernando's my boy.
He comes from where I come from,we train, we're cool, we're
good.
We didn't even have to say it.
We already just knew.
Has jiu jitsu shaped your lifeoutside of training?
I have no doubt.
Okay.
Like in what ways?
More calm.

(06:19):
You're calmer?
Yeah, it makes me like thinkmore now, before it was just a
reaction, and I still have mymoments, you know, but.
I understand like one littlemoment could change my entire
life.
Yeah, so now it just makes methink, I think more now.
So I don't know if it's, I thinkit's part of Jiu Jitsu, but I'm
also like maturing.

(06:39):
You're getting older.
There Kiko knows.
He can say that.
We'll agree with that.
Kiko, you do know what you'retalking about when it comes to
that, being older.
For sure, bro.
How about you, Kiko?
How has it changed your life?
It made him look handsome.
Let me just tell you right now.
Like with those ears, right?
Kiko could be an ear model.
I wish you could do a close upon those ears.
You don't even have to.

(07:00):
You don't have to.
Actually, you can see it from upthere.
I've done some of his,photography for his apparel.
If you guys don't know, look himup.
He's an ear model, right?
Because of Jiu Jitsu, he has acareer Yeah, bro.
Professional career as a earmodel.
So you don't hear me though.
Dad jokes.
No, for me, honestly, it's, Ithink patience.
And then it helps me staysomewhat fit.

(07:21):
I'm banged up.
But you're fit at the same time,right?
You're exercising, you're tryingto exercise outside of Jiu Jitsu
to.
Especially as you get older, youwant to exercise more outside to
be held together to avoidinjuries.
So, those types of things.
But patience for sure, where Idon't react.
I relax, try to think aboutthings more.

(07:42):
I think I've always been alittle patient, but this is,
this has helped more.
How about you, Ben?
Definitely.
I agree with Kiko.
He's always been patient.
He is.
No, I'm being serious.
He's always been the patient.
If you know his brothers, you'relike, yeah, Kiko's the more
patient one.
And we brought his brotherFelipe in here right now.
He did a podcast with him.

(08:03):
First of all, you would needsubtitles in 20 different
languages.
Sometimes I don't even know he'sspeaking English.
But yeah, he would be like,yeah, Kiko, Definitely more
patient one.
But yeah, for me.
Wait, what was the questionagain?
That's funny.
Oh man.
How has Jiu Jitsu shaped yourlife outside of training?
I think it's a combination ofeverything they said.

(08:25):
It definitely gives you adifferent perspective You take a
step back from situations and belike, you walk in somebody like,
yeah, I can handle this.
I'm good, but you have a certainself confidence about yourself.
And I think it also goes back towhat I heard someone say the
other day, there's a lot ofblack belts on the mat, but the
white belts in life.
But I think for us jiu jitsu,we're black belts, but we're

(08:47):
also black belts in life.
Not that we made it all the way,but jiu jitsu is kind of
transformed into our lifebecause before in life, we were
all white belts.
I believe me.
They used to call Kiko poncho,but he had two blades underneath
and he'd be running around allcrazy with that poncho and no
shirt on.
Seriously.
It's like 30 degrees at nightand he has a beanie and a poncho

(09:08):
on, but that's what I mean.
It's like a white belt in lifeat that time without being too
jiu jitsu cliches but it'stransformed us.
It's brought stability to ourlife that wasn't there.
We needed that stability becausea lot of our lives were chaotic.
And when we come here, they'restability.

(09:30):
They're safety.
We know what to expect here andnot saying that we're control
freaks.
We can control the environment.
We know what to expect.
It's our place.
It's our house and people comein.
They can either come in or theydon't have to come in.
It's up to us.
So it creates a little bit ofcontrol in our life too as well.
Okay, that's fair.
Jiu jitsu is often described asa way of life.

(09:52):
Do you agree?
Fernando?
Yeah.
Yeah, it's a way of life.
I'm in it for the long run, man.
It's like I tell you, its all Ithink about even when I'm
stressed, man, I need to go tothe gym.
Even sometimes when I'm at homewith my kids, man, I'm like,
Hey, come here, mijo, let me trythis move on you, you know?
Yeah.
They don't know it, but that'show it was.
Like, I would get injured, and Iwould grab my oldest one,
because he would train, he wastraining like a guerrilla for a

(10:13):
minute, and Hey, come here,mijo, let me try this move on
you, see if it works.
And I'm just choking the shitout of him, you know what I
mean?
Not parent abuse, huh?
That's cool.
It's training, it's okay.
Yeah, it's all training.
It's about bruises, it's notabuse.
That's it.
That's not me.
That's the countessess.
No, that's cool.
And you, Kiki?
Kiko?
You Kiko?
Well, his name is Kiki, too.

(10:34):
He goes by both.
Kiko, Kiki, whatever.
That's why he answered to Kiki.
He's like, oh, what?
No question for me?
Oh, come on.
It's okay.
Be honest.
but yeah.
It's a way of life for sure.
It's not the only thing.
But it's a big part of it forsure, where again, you're trying
to nurse injuries or try toavoid injuries.
So you change the way you'reliving outside, off the mats and

(10:57):
trying to be healthier.
So it's definitely a way oflife.
Yeah, I would agree.
Fernando's the only person Iknow that would get hurt and
come back like 20 times better.
I would like to think I, I hurthim sometimes, I put it on him,
and then he would like, get somad that he had to learn to be
better, you know what I'msaying?
You give him drive.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I'm telling you, those firstdays, he really knew.
We didn't, it was unspoken.

(11:17):
He would come in like, okay,Fernando's here, it's gonna go
down.
And we just, because, I told youearlier, Carlos Melo was part of
that gym.
Yeah.
And I get, and it was like.
It was like kill to be killed.
So I already knew that you wereproving something to the guys
that they want to see that youlike want to train hard and be
there.
So it was like, you go 100percent all the time and they
see it and they're like, yep,you're cool.

(11:37):
You can come with us.
You can train with us.
We want you here.
They invite you to differentplaces.
So it was like, all right, who'smy comp Fernando?
Only the strong survivor.
But yeah, I agree.
It is a way of life.
it's a, it's not the only waylike for that, like you go for
now saying, but it is a part oflife.
It does make up who I am.
It is a part of me and it playsa big part of my life.
Like I love this.

(11:57):
Like where else do we get tocome in here and have this space
and we just get to be ourselves.
Be us, mess around, have fun,and people love that.
They come in here and they feelthat, and they want to be here
more, and like, how great isthat?
That we have a place that we getto do that.
We got to create that.
I think that's pretty awesome,right?
It is awesome.
And it's not like we have topretend to be something.

(12:18):
I mean, growing up, we did haveto pretend to be something
sometimes.
Sometimes, most, I know for mepersonally, I can only speak for
myself, I didn't want to becertain things, but the
environment I was in is, yeah,you better be that or else this
is going to happen, right?
But here, we come here, wecreate this space, and we just
get to be ourselves, messaround, and we get to invite as
many people as we want, that wewant to come in here.
And people come in, they comehang out, and they receive that.

(12:40):
So Jiu Jitsu is It's a big partof our lives in that sense that
we get to live out ourpersonalities and be who we are
all the time here and just inlife too.
We do that anyways because wehave Jiu Jitsu, we're like, eh,
that guy didn't like me.
We'll put him to sleep.
Hit, his bad.
Night, night.
You're bad.
You're bad.

(13:00):
You made a mistake.
So let's talk about the KoffeeKrew.
What inspired the creation ofthe Koffee Krew and who started
it?
I know the three of you wereinvolved.
I don't think it was a plannedthing to do.
It was something that,organically happened.
I think the roots, like the ideastarted.

(13:20):
When we're training, I was in mygarage training and he was
already at Claudio's training.
So I was actually at Shamrocksand, I started training with him
one day and they startedtraining on the ground where I
started doing some groundworkand basically beat me up.
And so then I started.
I still do just want to addthat.
So I started hanging out morewith Ben a little bit and he was

(13:41):
teaching me some Jiu Jitsu.
I think you're living inRiverside, no?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It was a little bit, it was likea couple of months, like maybe a
year before.
Yeah.
So, cause there was a period oftime where I built out my garage
and so I was just training in mygarage, basically didn't have
any instruction.
I would literally watch YouTube.
And I was like, all Nogi,because I wasn't doing Gi, so it
was all Nogi.

(14:02):
And then you, when you were inRiverside, he would come up and
teach, a move, right, for theweekend.
And then I had five guys thatwould come and train, so we
didn't really have a place togo, besides my garage.
And so when he was up, throughhis connections, Carlos and some
of the other guys went toSalinas, Kutar, and other
places, right?
And so then we started travelingto these places so I can get

(14:23):
some training in and I thinkthat's what started that idea
that's what planted the seed ofwanting to go to the places.
And then when we officiallystarted doing an open mat.
We decided, we should go visit agym.
I think the first one wasactually Synergy up in Lincoln
or Rockland.Yeah.
That was the first one we did.
Did you go to that one?
I didn't go to that one.
So it was actually, AlexNortham's buddy who was up

(14:45):
there.
Cause that's where he trained.
That was our first official roadtrip.
And everybody's like, dude, thatwas fun.
We should do it again.
And so then it was like, yeah,let's just plan some out and try
to reach out to people.
So, and that's how it started,right?
It was just kind of boom and wewere just the Sunday morning
open mat.
We didn't have a name So that'show it officially started.
All of your careers are earlymorning, so you were used to

(15:05):
getting up so early in themorning 7: 30am It actually
started at 9 originally.
We were doing 9, because theywere like, oh, you should do 9,
right?
The thing that was, they starteda kickboxing class at 9.
Since they had paying membersand we're paying members, but
we're just doing an open mat forfree.
It was a small group at thetime, but they gave preference
to the kickboxing class whichwas understandable.

(15:27):
Because I was bringing morepeople that we're paying.
So they bumped us to I think itwas like 8 o'clock or something.
So we're like an hour is notenough.
So we bumped it to 7:30 7 7:30.
That's actually how we started.
But even then there's peoplealways complaining, Oh, you
should do it later, you shoulddo it later.
But those people never showedup.
They never showed up.
They're either hungover or theyjust didn't show up.
So the earlier we made it, morepeople started showing up.

(15:50):
More people complained, but morepeople showed up.
So that's why we always keptthat 7:30 time.
And it's like I said, I wasgoing, I go to church now, I go
11 o'clock, 12 o'clock.
So that nine o'clock always keptit really tight and hurry up and
get home, take a shower and goto church.
And so that 7:30 made it easierfor me.
Okay.
That's fair.

(16:10):
And you don't want to mess withBig Vern.
You don't know who Big Vern is,but she will cut you.
I don't even mess with Big Vern.
She don't play.
She'll love you.
Hey, if she's on your side,you're all good.
But if you ain't on her side,it's all bad.
So, I'm like, just don't hurt myboy Vern, okay?
Leave him around.

(16:31):
Were you involved, Fernando, inthe first sessions of the Koffee
Krew?
Yeah, I actually went to Kiko'sGarage.
And it was me, Ben, Kiko, Kenny,Berman, Matt Berman, the
butcher, he's up in, Colorado,right?
Denver.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And then, we started doingSundays and it was like, okay,

(16:51):
cool.
More training.
Good.
What's funny is those, cause itwas a really small group, right?
So everybody was going hard.
I think it was like reallytrying to, we're trying to hurt
each other.
But we're going, really goingfor the submission.
You can say, so everybody'sgetting better quicker.
Yeah, I think.
But, and people noticed it.
You can't do that forevereither.
Yeah, People didn't notice it inour gym though.

(17:13):
They knew they're like, hey,cause I remember the first time
I brought Kiko to Claudio's.
Everybody was scared of him.
Not because he's ugly.
Not because of the ears.
That was one part.
He's a little intimidating whenyou look at him.
I always tell him he's got aface that only his mom could
love.
And that's the truth.
Or Big Vern too.
Big Vern loves him too.
Shout out to Big Vern.

(17:34):
Did you also follow Fernando?
I was already there.
Oh, you were already there.
I took some time off.
Forced time off.
I was already at Claudio, so myplan was always to go back and
go train again.
I went back in 2012 and that'show, that's about the time I
came back to San Jose too.
Okay.
I think that's around the time.
I was already.
You remember Eric had that spotwith that window.

(17:55):
That's right after they combinethe gyms.
And then that's when I met,that's when I met Fernando, too.
Yeah, You were just bringingeverybody together just to get
better for these open mats.
What challenges did the KoffeeKrew face and what did you have
to overcome?
Well, we're not at that gymanymore, right?

(18:17):
Right, right, right.
You have that logo, No DojoTrippin, and you don't want to
say anything bad but it causeschange when you don't have the
ability to be free.
Correct?
Yeah.
The interesting thing is, it'snot bad for gyms to not want to
cross train.
I don't think it's a bad thingnecessarily, right?
Depending on the motives, right?
But at that time specifically, Ithink there was only one open

(18:42):
mat really that had everybodyfrom everywhere going.
And that was one world.
That one was legit.
So that was the one that wasdoing it.
Aside from that, you didn'treally find that anywhere.
But the challenge was trying tobring people in early in the
morning, obviously it's thefirst challenge.
The second challenge is, we'renot just doing it at one gym.

(19:03):
We're trying to travel around todifferent gyms.
And getting other people to buyinto what you're trying to do.
And so when you tell them like,hey, it's free.
And we're just trying to come toyour gym and train with your
students and make everybodybetter.
If you get some pushback from alot of gyms, the interesting
thing is that sometimes the gymsyou think won't do it are the

(19:25):
ones that will, and the onesthat you're like, oh, this guy
will do it for sure, they're theones that say, oh, no, I don't
want my students to get hurt.
So that's a challenge in itself,right?
Trying to figure out who'swilling to open their gym to
other people.
And then, in the beginning whenI first said what we planned on
doing.
Obviously, the instructor at thetime said, nobody's gonna let
you do that.

(19:46):
It's not going to happen.
Don't do it.
You know, just stay here andforget about that.
We didn't, we obviously moveforward and Carlos up and Gilroy
obviously opened his doors to usand said, if nobody else wants
you guys there, do it here.
So I was like, cool.
If nobody opens their door then.
We're just going to do it onSundays in Gilroy every Sunday.
No big deal.
We're still going to train.
Yeah, because at that time,Carlos had just opened up his

(20:08):
gym.
It was in a little DMV spot in,Gilroy.
You remember that little spot?
You remember the first time heopened his gym?
It was really small.
So he's come through.
I want all my, I want mystudents to have training
partners.
And he already knew our caliber.
Yeah.
That we'd go in there and gotrain and put it on the
students.
Because that's what he reallywanted.
He wanted us to go put it on thestudents.
But the other part of that toois, all of this was just us
trying to get better.
That's all it was.

(20:28):
That's all.
And the other interesting partof that is, there was this
unwritten rule that, like Kikosays, you don't cross train with
other gyms, but they weren'tkeeping it honest because all
those guys trained with eachother underground.
They all trained together.
The seed got planted in my mindthrough Carlos because Carlos,
because he was a beast out here.
People would invite him to go tothese secret training rooms.
When Caio had first opened up,he would invite Carlos all the

(20:50):
time to go train there.
Carlos and maybe Tyson and someother guys, but it was a secret
room.
Nobody else could come unlessyou're invited.
And because I always train withCarlos and Carlos knew that I
would train hard, he said, Hey,you want to come with me?
He texted me in the afternoon.
Hey, they're going to have atraining session at Caio's.
Let's go.
I was like, all right, let's go.
He picked me up.
We go there.
So I got invited to a lot ofrooms.
That were like closed off, butthey were all different gyms,
right?
So people they were doing it,but they weren't open about it.

(21:13):
Because there's this unwrittenrule.
You shouldn't cross train withother gyms or share your
knowledge or share secrets andthings like that.
So all we did was just put it onblast, because it's like you
guys are doing this already Whycan't we do it?
Why because we're your students?
And you want to keep us underwraps and you don't want us to
go somewhere else you have thisfear you have this lack of
confidence in your own Jiu Jitsuthat you think someone's going

(21:35):
to steal us.
We were Claudio through andthrough we weren't going
anywhere.
And so we were proud of where wewent because it was us, Carlos,
we had a team there.
We had a squad and we would justgo, we go anywhere.
We're like, we want thechallenge.
We'll go to any gym.
We'll go train.
We don't care.
We'll show up anywhere.
We'll go train with anybody.
Let us come.
Let us in the door.
But even at that though, weweren't doing it to go beat up

(21:57):
on people.
We're actually, we're trying toget better.
By going to visit other gyms, wefelt it was making us better.
Okay.
Did you have any challenges thatyou faced when the Koffee Krew
started?
No.
Like when it started?
No, because I work inconstruction, right?
So I'm up at 4 in the morning.
Even on Saturday and Sunday.

(22:18):
And that's pretty much, programtime, you know, where I took my
vacation.
I was already used to it.
And you always have to have yourboots on.
No, I didn't have no problem.
That's what I'm saying, youdon't wake up, you don't eat
breakfast.
That's right.
Okay, you guys gotta tell me howhe got his nickname and what it
is.
I don't remember who gave it tohim exactly, I believe it was
Tyson.

(22:38):
I think it's Tyson Kemp.
But as you say his name isTerminator, right?
But you can't say Terminator.
It's not as flashy.
It doesn't sound as good.
Yeah, so Tyson speaking in abrazilian accent.
His name is Termin H.
Yeah, that sounds cool.
So now we just call him TerminH.
Because he would just destroypeople he like going like he

(23:00):
destroys people now.
But when we were first trained,he just had a gas tank like he,
and he would just annihilatepeople.
We thought he was part cyborg,that part where the joke was
like, if you pull Fernando's armback, there's all these, he's
all metal.
Cause he's just a, he's anAndroid.
Cause there's no way thatsomebody could.
Just come with that level andintensity just keep and then

(23:21):
just get better all the time.
Like he would get hurt.
He would come back and he'd be20 times better.
It's like how's that possible?
He can't be human.
So that was what that was partof the other thing because if
you went to those trainingsessions.
You would know we're talkingabout.
It was, we were going at it andthen and just still keep going
around after there was nositting out That was the one
rule.
It's like you don't sit out yougo and then you go and you go
hard.
And so for him to continue to goevery round and just annihilate

(23:43):
people.
I mean belts that were higherthan him.
He would just take them out.
And so we're like, there's noway he's human.
How has the open mat evolvedsince its inception?
I think, it's a whole differentthing now.
It's actually, it's still thesame, just on a bigger level.
When we first started,obviously, we're at, Claudio's,
we're at one school all thetime, and we would travel

(24:06):
periodically, right?
Just, it was, once in a whilewe'd travel.
Now we really focus on reallytrying to get out to the other
schools, and that actuallystarted when we left.
And, a few people left, right?
And people went to differentschools.
And so then, they got the wordout to those schools, and
they're like, oh, bring, comeover here on a Sunday.
And then I started reaching out.
Like I'm, we're going to reallyfocus on visiting more schools.

(24:28):
So it's almost, except for thetime when we're here at
Solidarity, most of the timewe're traveling to different
schools and even if it's like arepeat, but it's a lot bigger.
When we started it was what?
Three people, four peoplesometimes.
And that was still greattraining.
Like all you need is two peopleand you'll get good training.
But now it's, you know, three,four people Gilroy's packed this

(24:51):
Sunday.
It was like about 70, 70 plus.
Yeah.
People have already left fromthe picture.
Yeah.
So even when we go to Caio's, weusually go to Caio's once a year
and that one's usually over ahundred people.
So it gets pretty packed.
But, aside from that, it's just.
There's just people fromeverywhere, as opposed to just
being a handful of us.
So we're doing it in Temecula.

(25:13):
So Ben runs that one down thereand then now we got Alex moved
up to Austin and so he's runningthat one.
So it's blown up.
What has been some highlights ormemorable moments of the Koffee
Krew?
For me.
getting our black belt together.
Yeah.
Yeah.
That was monumental for me.
Yeah.
Cause like ever since I met bothof them, yeah, we go at it or
whatever, but these dudes don'tknow me.

(25:34):
I'm was quite, but they kept inthe game, you know what I mean?
So, yeah, that was huge.
That was huge.
That was huge.
That was good.
What year was that?
2017.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Just you and Kiko got your blackbelt together?
No, all three of us.
All three of you?
All three of us.
And then last year, we got it,we got our second degrees right

(25:55):
together, so yeah, man, that wasYeah, yeah.
That's very cool.
That was It was big, especiallygetting second degrees from Caio
and then, to me, a name's aname, but still nice, to get
that and that recognition andthings like that.
And to think of where we startedand to stick with it, like, uh,
Fernando said, you know, healmost quit.
And I think that's somethingthat, that resonates in a lot of
our lives is jiu jitsu doesbring a stability in our life,

(26:18):
but it also helps cast a net.
For us to as well to keep us,going.
And like for me, it was peoplelike Kiko, Fernando, Tyson, that
kept me going.
And if it wasn't for them beingthere and training with me and
pushing me, I probably would'venever got that.
And that's something to be proudof to accomplish because it does
affect us.
Now, look what we have now.
If we would have quit, ifFernando would have quit.

(26:40):
We probably wouldn't be talking,we probably wouldn't have this,
we probably wouldn't have affectother people's lives either.
There's something about yourhomie texting you and telling
you that he's going to whoopyour ass.
And sending a meme.
And saying, you showing uptonight?
It wasn't me.
I'm going to whoop you tonight,boy.
No, the meme game is out ofcontrol.
Let me tell you, this guy, yeah.

(27:01):
I said, I stepped back from youguys.
He had to because his knees aregoing a little bit crazy.
I'm a professional now.
But I will say I do want to givecredit to Kiko because, we
started it.
We didn't start it to make it towhat it is today.
We just knew that in the grandscheme of things, we were part
of this school and we want torepresent and we want to get

(27:23):
better.
And the only way we're going to,because we had to work with what
we got.
We say, what are these?
We go to tournaments, right?
And some of our guys would getsmoked or we might get smoked.
And it's like, what do we have?
These schools are big names.
They have tons of people totrain with.
They have all these black belts.
What do we got?
Well, we got each other.
We got some friends.
So let's just invite whoever wegot.
And tell them to come here andlet's all train together.

(27:44):
Let's learn together.
Let's get better.
So when we go compete, we're notgetting smoked.
We had to pull our resourcestogether and be very creative
and figuring out how we're goingto do this and operate within a
certain round where this wasfrowned upon.
Big time.
They had that word.
Was it?
Creonte.Creonte.
And so that was the one thingyou didn't want to be called.
I've been called that.

(28:04):
Yeah.
It's almost being called a levonon the streets, right?
that was the one thing youdidn't want to be called in the
streets.
You don't want to be put on theL, right?
So here, you don't want to beput on the C, in Jiu Jitsu.
So that was a bad word and youdon't want to be known as that.
You're no good basically.
And what we were doing.
Got us that status in a lot ofpeople's eyes at first because

(28:24):
what we're doing was no good.
But that's the thing that wherewe come from we don't care.
It's what are you gonna tell usand I'm not saying that with
pride or attitude.
What we did is say well whocares they're not helping us
out.
And if they care, then theyshould come help us.
If not, we're still going to doour thing.
And if they don't like it, thenwhatever, right.
We're still going to be us.
We're still going to do ourthings because for me

(28:44):
personally, I want to getbetter.
And I'm not going to letsomebody else tell me I can't
get better, especially if I'mpaying them.
Right.
Right.
It's a business.
Yeah.
Like that's not my daddy.
I have a dad, you know, butKiko, he really helped.
Like a lot of it the growth, hereally helped that thing explode
because if it was up to us, it'dprobably still be like ten of

(29:05):
us.
But Kiko really saw somethingthere and he really started
building upon that and took itto where it is today.
Nice.
That's the nicest thing Ben eversaid to me.
Aww.
I said something nice to youtoo, to Luckee earlier, but I
said don't tell him.
Yeah, he has to hear it on thepodcast.
I can't let him know that I saidthat.

(29:26):
How important is community toyou in jiu jitsu?
And what role does Koffee Krewplay in fostering that
community?
Honestly, I never even thinkabout community, in that sense.
to me, it's like we're justcoming out, we're playing, you
know what I mean?
We're making friends, andeverybody puts their differences
aside, and we have a good solidtime.
Obviously, I guess I'm a littleshort sighted in that aspect,

(29:50):
but to me it's okay, we're here,we're making friends.
And once you're friends, becauseyou're not going to be friends
with everybody you meet.
But once you're friends, now youstart to build that.
Now you can call somebody that,hey, you're a mechanic, I got a
broken car.
Oh, this guy is a doctor of somesort of PT or something.
That's how you start to build.
That's how the community kind ofbuilds together.
Because everybody has somethingto offer, but everybody has to

(30:11):
bring that to the table.
There's always people, I think,in every community, there's
people that just kind of comeand go.
Yeah, they take.
There's taking and that's it.
And they don't give back to it.
Yeah, to me, it's not everybodythat shows up is technically
part of the community, but onceyou start to build those bonds
and friendships.
That's where the community's atright there.
It's almost like a communitywithin a community.

(30:32):
Fernando, how important is thecommunity to you?
Well, because we all grew up,from the streets, right?
So, you just try to give back.
That's it.
I never played organized sportsor I remember when I was little
and me and my brother weretrying to, join boxing because
we used to put the boxing gloveswith dudes that would go to pal
boxing.
We put it on, you know what Imean?

(30:53):
It was terminator back then.
And so we were trying to getorganized, right?
Because, we were trying to getaway from that lifestyle.
We went to my dad and, my dadwanted to spend his money on
booze so he's nah man, so I waslike, okay, we'll just, you
know.
I understand, not every kid hasthe opportunity.
Even as adults, I tell, some kidcame on, the one Carlos.
Yeah.
You met him from church?
Yeah.
And, uh, so he went to YB and heknows my sister,'cause my sister

(31:16):
works at YB and I'm like, dude,come through man.
You know, even just come train.
and it keeps'em away from thestreets.
Even with my kids, I tell mykids, dude, you guys are lucky.
You guys can come and trainwhenever you want.
Some of my oldest ones don'twant to, but I got my little guy
and my daughter once in a while,she'll come and train.
That's a positive thing for me.
How about you, Ben?
Yeah, I think, like how Kikosaid, people talk about

(31:36):
community, but, defining it isdifferent, right?
We all, the community meanssomething different to a lot of
people.
You ask ten different, we cangive ten different answers.
For me personally, I thinkcommunity is at the core of what
we do because this is acommunity.
Like Fernando said, like we'refrom the streets and so I didn't
play organized sports either.
'Cause we couldn't afford it.
My cousins played, my friends,they all played organized sports
and I remember I used to be sojealous and mad because we

(31:59):
couldn't play it and I wanted toplay it.
So we had the streets.
That was our organized sport.
You ain't gonna let me hitsomebody on the football field.
We're gonna go to the streets.
but that was our community.
Kiko was part of my community.
and then we met Fernando.
and so every time we come here,we don't even call it a
community because it's family.
These people are my boys righthere.
And in the streets.

(32:19):
I need to trust Kiko with mylife.
I trust him with my life.
When we go somewhere, we say,Hey, we're gonna go over here.
I'm putting my life in hishands.
Cause what we're gonna go do,probably gonna put us in a lot
of danger.
And it has.
I think that kind of is broughthere.
And people they see that.
When we're hanging out, we'retalking, and we invite people
in, and they become part of it.
That is always in our core beingpart of a community like that

(32:39):
old saying there's safety innumbers there is because we
create there was safety with us.
It didn't matter what anybodyelse said.
We're going to do our thing.
People hate us.
Whatever.
This is us right here.
And out of that.
You know, it created somethingeven bigger that people really
want.
People wanted that.
When we figured that out, hey,people want a place to come in
and be a part of community.
We put on the jams, start jokingaround, it's different.

(33:02):
Nobody else was doing that.
You go to any other gym that wasmaybe doing something like that.
It was serious.
You walk in there, it's like.
Okay.
You can feel it.
But you come in here, you gotKiko doing the worm right there
on the mat just to warm upbecause he can't stretch anymore
like that, right?
The only way his body moves isthis way.
So he's doing the worm forwarmups and he's got like some

(33:23):
what, some P Funk playing andstuff like that.
It's, it just changes the vibeand people are like, this is
cool.
This is dope.
This is what I want, right?
It wasn't like, cause I rememberall the training rooms I would
walk into.
Especially comp training rooms,man, it was like, dang, you
could feel your heart poundingbecause you knew like they were
going to put it on you.
But here, people are going tostill train hard, but
everybody's having fun.
And that community, like peoplekeep that community aspect

(33:46):
going.
They're like, this is thecommunity that started with us.
We keep that going and it justcontinues to spread and grow.
So yeah, community is thebiggest part of this.
So just touching on that'sactually, that is one of the
things I did, or we did.
Trying to, when we're doing theopen mats for sure.
You want to have good music.
I try, people are like, how comeyou don't got these songs, this
song.
I try to keep the music clean asmuch as possible.

(34:08):
Something fun and upbeat.
And clean because sometimesthere's kids here.
We want to be a good influenceon those kids, right?
We don't want to put on stuffthat's gonna, you know, too
derogatory or saying all thesethings.
That's not what we're trying tolead the kids or even impact
them in that way.
But also like inviting peoplein, saying hi to them, being
friendly, like if somebody'swalking in for the first time

(34:28):
through the doors, I try to talkto them.
I try to get around in with themand just let them know, we're
having fun.
You can go hard, but you'rehaving fun and we're trying to
get better.
And set that vibe, right off thebat, because that's how, like I
said, that's how we are.
We're trying to get at eachother, trying to beat each other
up, but we're not trying to hurteach other.
As long as everybody who'sshowing up understands that,

(34:49):
then everybody's going to kindof work in the same way.
And I think that's how it'sbeen.
There's not that many injuries,I don't think.
I think the other weekend we hadtwo, two injuries, but they
weren't malicious.
They weren't people trying tohurt each other.
But that is something that weactually have focused on, is
creating that environment.
Trying to keep it friendly.
And welcoming.
Yeah.
You're a part of what we'redoing.

(35:10):
So who's the mat forcer ifsomebody comes in and, uh, It's
the good, the bad, and the ugly.
Seriously.
But the good thing is when youcreate a community like that, it
makes people less defensive andless want to be in.
And even if they do come in likethat, they're going to get
around him with someone that'sjust going to put it on them
real quick.
And they're going to learn realfast.
Because some people do come onthose attentions, but then you

(35:31):
have 50, 60 people, 70.
And then most of those peopleare cool with us.
Right?
So they already know the role.
So they'll know it right away.
And they'll be like, don'tworry, I'll go get around.
And you don't have to doanything right.
Because nobody wants to mess upthat environment, bro.
You know, this is what, andeverybody loves it.
So why are we going to let thewater be tainted.
With ink like that.
You know what I mean?
Like we can't let it.
So everybody already, it alreadymanages itself.

(35:52):
We don't have to do anythinglike that.
I don't think we've had verymany situations like that
though.
Yeah.
There's been like one or two.
But.
They were handled.
appropriately.
We don't want people coming inhere acting like that.
Starting, starting stuff witheverybody.
That's not what we want.
So those get pushed out prettyquick.
It's been good that we haven'thad many of those situations.
That's good.
All right.

(36:13):
Let's move on.
How do you encourage people fromall backgrounds and experience
levels to feel welcome in theJiu Jitsu space?
Fernando?
No, well, I mean, we just don'tlet him roll with Fernando,
because Fernando's got oneswitch.
It's on and off.
That's it.
Yeah.
So he said, Fernando, you comeover here and coach.
No, I'm sorry.
No, I'm just joking.

(36:35):
It's a life changer.
Right.
like I said, we're from thestreets, right?
So my mentality before it waslike, fuck the police, right?
Right.
You grew up with that mentality,right?
So you kind of schooled likethat way, right?
But then, when I went toClaudio's and then I found out,
Carlos was a police.
And right there, like, I talkedto him and it's just I'm talking
to another, I'm talking to Kiko,right?
Many people have backgrounds,it's a job, that they're doing

(36:57):
or whatever, So, it's just,Yeah, just train, man.
You'd be surprised.
So for me, like I said, thefirst thing I try to do is greet
if it's somebody new.
Especially white belts.
I get messages from, like, Hey,are white belts okay to come?
Yes, white belts are welcome.
I do encourage them to tellpeople, if you've not sparred
very much at all, people aregoing to go as hard with you as

(37:18):
you go with them.
That's number one.
Number two, let the other personknow, especially with somebody
who's experienced at grappling,let them know that you're
learning.
Most people, like I said, mostpeople are pretty cool about it,
but I think the first thing iscatching them at the door when
they walk in.
Saying hi introducing yourself,letting them get chilled out.
Most people, they show upthey're nervous.
They see all these people.

(37:38):
And especially, like I said, itis grown a lot here.
Sometimes 80 people, you walkin, it's your first time coming
to an open mat and you see allthese people on the mat.
You're like, oh, what did I getmyself into?
So calming their nerves a littlebit.
Getting in there.
I try to roll with them.
Teaching them a little bit,encouraging other people to
teach them.
Tell them if you have questions,you're doing a specific move or
whatever, you have questions,ask.

(37:59):
Other people are willing toteach you.
And so that kind of settlesthings down and encourages them
to come in and continue to keepcoming through.
Yeah.
Yeah, it's exactly what theysaid, it's just, we know who the
new people are and just makingthem feel welcome right away.
Roll with them, give them somepointers if they're willing to
listen, and coaching them too.
We sit there and coach them.
The one thing we want people toknow is I don't care what school

(38:20):
you're from, you love jiu jitsu,I love jiu jitsu, let's learn,
right?
Let's have fun.
Yeah.
You're here on Sunday?
This isn't a class.
This is a place where a bunch ofpeople that love jiu jitsu come
together and we all hang out andwe learn jiu jitsu together,
whether it's through our rollsor whether I can help you out
with the point or you can helpme out.
And a lot of people, I thinkthat's another reason why a lot
of people come because you got alot of lower belts and there's

(38:42):
14, 15, sometimes 20 black beltson the mat and everyone's cool
all the black and they'rewilling to share that knowledge
with these guys and you have 20different schools of thoughts,
20 different black belts.
Different training.
So you get an array oftechniques like that, right?
And so I think people like thattoo, because they come in the
lower belts and nobody's tryingto hide anything from them.

(39:03):
They're willing to share withthem.
It's open.
And that's all goes back to theenvironment and creating that,
that people.
Even are willing to show becausethat's what we're doing.
Like we lead by example.
Anybody I don't know.
I don't care what school they'refrom.
I'll roll with them I won't gohard even though they're trying
to smash me right even if theyon purpose.
I'll still go light I'll justwork my positions and things
like that.
And then at the end I'll evengive them pointers or if they

(39:24):
had trouble with something, I'llgive him a point on how to beat
me.
And so, I mean, but where elsedo you go?
Where'd you get that?
I remember when we'd go overmats.
I only speak from my ownexperience and I coach from my
experiences.
When we would go there, it waslike, hey, it's that school
against our school.
and nobody was sharing anything.
It was like, let's see how,let's test your medals, see how
good Jiu Jitsu is from yourschool.

(39:46):
And we're like, cool.
We're about that too then.
But nobody was really sharingand it was hard to get anything
out of people.
You had to be a part of theclub.
When we first started training,even if you were in a school and
there was black belts, They hadto invite you into that circle
of black belts, right?
You didn't, you just weren'tautomatically accepted in there
just because you were with theschool and they weren't just
going to show anything.
They had, they were like, Oh,okay, let's see how they do.
They see how he trains.

(40:06):
Oh, he's cool.
He's good.
And then they started invitingyou in little by little sharing
knowledge with you.
And that's how you get better.
But here, our thing was like, wedon't want to hold back.
I want you to get better.
I tell my students all the time,it's a selfish thing, honestly,
because the better you get, thebetter I get.
And it forces me to be better atdifferent things.
If I just stick to my game andI'm killing you with it.
What good is that?
And then when I go compete or dosomething like that, that

(40:27):
person, he's got a differentgame.
He annihilates me.
Well, it doesn't help me.
I'm not growing.
And so I want you to beat meevery time.
I don't care what belt you are.
You beat me good.
I need to get better then.
Right?
So that helps.
And that's keeps on going whenwe train things like that in
open mats.
What advice would you give tosomeone new to jiu jitsu?
Fernando.

(40:48):
Show up, as much as possible.
I mean, there's no secret to it,right?
the more mad time you spend, thefaster you're gonna get better
at it.
And not try to go all wild.
Everybody learns different.
But I think the biggest thing isjust slow it down and think
about the techniques, you know,and try to apply them.

(41:09):
Because you're going to end upin bad spots, right?
But at least try.
This is what I always telleverybody, just try the
technique that you learned, andeven if you end up in a bad
spot, then you're going to startlearning how to get out of that
bad spot.
Yeah, that's it.
Okay, cool.
Kiko?
So I think, obviously show up,don't try submissions, everybody
focuses on submissions first,people that are new, they want

(41:30):
the submission, it's like,you're probably, most likely not
going to get a submission forthe first six months or so, most
likely.
But don't let that be the, whatdo you call it?
The measuring stick.
Where were you trained at?
Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Gettingused to those small victories
and getting to the position thatyou want to be on top and

(41:52):
holding somebody down or passingguard.
Like those small victories arewhat's going to keep you coming
back as opposed to thinking, Igot to get a rear naked choke on
the first night of training,it's probably not going to
happen.
So getting those small victoriesand learning the positions, the
frames.
Just keep showing up and gettingthose small victories.
Okay.
Yeah.
If you ask younger me, I'd belike, these guys don't know what

(42:13):
they're talking about.
You just need to go in there andjust go crazy and just smash
everyone.
You got a point to prove.
You got to show everyone howtough you are.
And that's it, but now, after,now on this side of the fence, I
would say exactly what they'resaying.
Over at Hillside?
Easy.
Okay?
Let's not talk about it eachyear.
Okay?
Let's keep it clean.
Okay?
But what they say is true.

(42:34):
Showing up, and I would alwaystell people, and it's an old
saying, position oversubmission, right?
Understand what you're doing.
When I was first coming, it wasjust like, hey, I know that
works, I don't know how itworks, but I'll just do it.
Now, and especially after when Istarted training at Caio's,
like, those guys, theyunderstand technique really
well.
And I was like, that's what Ineed to do.
I would tell people, understandwhat you're doing.

(42:55):
Break it down, learn it.
One step at a time.
I tell them, I say, if you learnone thing from this class,
great.
Then we win.
There's going to be some stuffI'm going to show you.
You might not catch all of it,but if you learn one thing, you
want a purpose where your hands,head, and hips are going to be
great.
That's what I want you.
I want you to understand whereyour position should be.
Not just ABC.
You put your hips here becauseof this.

(43:15):
So they could start tounderstand jiu jitsu and where
they should be.
Then that's always my advice.
Understand it.
So if anybody is thinking aboutcoming to a Koffee Krew, what
advice would you give them?
Fernando?
Be ready.
Be ready.
Nah, be ready.
Try to roll with as many peopleas you can.
Okay.
Cause there's so many schoolsthat come to the Koffee Krew

(43:37):
and, everybody has their own,game I guess, right?
And then ask questions.
Like if you roll like with me,and I'm pretty sure with Kiko or
Ben, even when we're done.
Sometimes I'll stop like duringmid match and be like, hey, do
this, but sometimes I feel likethey don't want to hear it.
And then after I'll be like,okay, this is what you did wrong
or whatever.
Ask questions, man.
Just try to roll with a, like Isaid, with as many people as you

(43:59):
can.
and be ready for the vibes.
Cool.
Chokes with a smile.
Go ahead, Kiko.
You're entering a friendlyspace, a friendly area.
Where You don't have to be onguard.
Relax, be ready to have somefun, and I think you'll get a
lot more out of your training ifyou're loose and relaxed.

(44:19):
Somebody's going to try to chokeyou for sure, but nobody's
trying to hurt you, right?
If you're relaxed and ready totry different positions and
stuff, you're going to get a lotmore out of it and just enjoy
the time on the mat.
Try to absorb as much as youcan.
Or give it.
Maybe you're super bad and justshare what you got.
So it goes both ways.
Tap early.

(44:40):
Yeah, that's a big one.
Tap early for sure.
Tap early for sure.
For me, I would say in that bag,when you pack your gi, pack an
extra set of lungs.
I would say come expecting, comewith expectation, right?
Don't come in tense and think ofall the what is, I might get
smoked for this.

(45:00):
No, don't come in with the net.
Come in here and look at this asan opportunity.
It's an opportunity.
It really is.
Because where else are you goingto see so many people from so
many different gyms with so manydifferent games on the mat at
one time at a tournament thatyou have to pay for?
So you're going to be like five,600 and learn a lesson there for
five or 600 when you can learn alesson for free.
And it's not going to be asembarrassing and your pride not

(45:23):
going to be hurt.
And everybody's cool here,right?
And you're absolutely So I tellpeople, I would tell people,
Hey, come here, expect him andbe excited.
Come in here because you'regoing to have an opportunity.
to learn from people, train withpeople, hang out with people,
make new connections.
Like you said, it's networking,right?
You don't know who you're goingto be on those mats.
Like I got a plumber, I got aconcrete, I got tons of people
that I hit up regularly.
Now, just because when I, and weall help each other out, I got

(45:45):
an electrician.
It's an opportunity not onlyjust to learn jiu jitsu, but
just meet more people, put morepeople in your circle and hang
out with them and have fun andchill.
And that's one thing why it gotcalled the Koffee Krew because
of a student that used to come.
Jolene.
We would you know, train andthen we're like, hey, let's go
to Pete's right across thestreet.
Let's go get some coffee, right?
And then we'll just hang outjust talk and chill and it was

(46:06):
fun.
I mean we'd be there for an houror two hours after just chilling
and hanging out and people likethat.
So you get to create this othercommunity.
So I would say definitely comein come expecting come not
nervous, but be excited becausethere's a lot of opportunities
here.
When I do my open mats there, Ihave six or seven black belts
there.
One's from Gracie Baja, one'sfrom 10 Planet Redlands.

(46:26):
So I'm like, look, you get tolearn footlocks.
You get to learn Gracie Baja'sgame.
You get to learn all thesedifferent games right now.
Ask these guys questions.
They are here for you andthey're all, yeah, we want to
teach you guys.
So it's like you get a freeseminar.
Every time you're here, free,right?
Yeah.
Great value for no buck.
Yeah, I think most of the blackbelts that we get here, they're

(46:46):
all cool, man.
They're all like, they're allopen minded, right to helping
out.
So yeah, like all the blackbelts, at least that I've met
here.
I think everybody's willing toshare, which I think is big.
It's even amongst black belts toother black belts.
Some black belts are better thanother black belts.
It's a fact.
Some guys are better.
Definitely a fact.
100%.
I let people work a lot, okay?

(47:08):
Call it whatever you want.
But they share.
It's like, okay, I was doingsomething.
What did I do here at boom?
You're doing this, right?
Because you're going to learnsomething from everybody.
I learned a really good hip bumpfrom a blue belt.
I'm a black belt.
And he was doing a hip bump.
Whatever he was doing wasworking.
Like, What are you doing?
As long as you're willing tolearn from everybody, I think
you'll be good.
See, that's leading by example,right?
It's like just because we have ablack one on doesn't mean we

(47:30):
know everything.
There's guys that come in herethat wrestle collegiately, all
of a sudden they got some stuffto say and they show us stuff
and I'm glad.
I don't mind doing Nogi downSouth and the guys that I
started training with this guyRed that.
Hopefully you have on thispodcast, right?
Yeah, for sure.
And like him is my boy, Luis,who just became CIF coach of the
year out there in Temecula.
But they taught me a lot ofwrestling that I hated
wrestling, but they showed me alot right in there.

(47:52):
Like blue belts, pro belts, oldman, grappler, old man,
grappler.
Taught him a lesson up inVisalia.
I foot swept you when we were inVisalia and then all of a sudden
I saw the light going Ooh, thisguy's not a chump.
Yeah.
You can run it back.
For sure.
You can run it back.
I'm just saying.
I saw something different.
No, what you saw is that timethat we were in, in Texas.
Oh, that was a different time.

(48:12):
That was a different time.
He did sweep me on that one.
That was brutal.
I was like, dang, that happened.
I looked up at the mat and Ilooked to confirm.
You look at the ceiling.
Cause it was like that phantomsmack where you knew you got
smacked, but you wanted toconfirm that you got smacked.
So I looked around to make surethat happened and I looked at
Val, kiko and Bam and they'relike, Ooh, and I was like, yeah,

(48:34):
it happened.
It happened.
I was like, dang, it did happen.
Where do you see Koffee Krewgoing in the next one to five
years?
I've been really strapped fortime.
So it's been hard to plan thingsthat, I come up with ideas
sometimes when I'm driving andthen I open my mouth and say it,
right?
I don't believe, oh, throw itout in the universe, I don't

(48:56):
believe in that or think of itthat way, but sometimes when you
say something to somebody, likeif I tell Fernando, hey man, I
want to do this for an openmind.
And he's yeah, you should do it.
Now I feel like I have to do it.
That's always Fernando'sresponse too.
You should do it.
That's always Fernando'sresponse.
He's yeah, you should do that.
Next five years, I don't know.

(49:17):
Honestly, I don't know, whereit's going, technically, as far
as changing it from what it isnow.
Obviously we want to keep itfree, right?
That's something I think itshould be accessible to
everybody.
We do want to do a really bigopen mat.
We're trying to secure the, Ithink we have the facility
secured, should be in May.
But that's the one thing we'reworking on right now, and I'm

(49:37):
trying to, reach out to all theschools and try to see if
everybody can get together andjust do one big open mat on a
Sunday and have, maybe 200, 300people.
Cool.
That, and then, the July trip toTexas.
Right on.
We got to try to get down toTemecula.
Maybe even Tennessee to go visitSlow Death.
Slow Death.
I've never been to Tennessee.
I don't know what theterritory's like.
I've been to Tennessee.

(49:57):
The other thing I've beenthinking is I'd like to get back
down to Visalia.
Oh yeah.
Over there too, Elite Team.
Elite Team, that's legit.
Yeah, they are.
That was fun.
Tom was super cool.
Like the whole team, everybodywas cool there.
Big mat space.
It was, I really enjoyed thattrip.
It's just been hard to get backover there.
And it's great technique too.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I traveled back and forth for awhole year with that team.

(50:17):
It was fun.
And it was cool.
Who do we have there that time?
Gabriel.
Gabriel Arges.
He was legit.
He was super cool.
I still use his techniques tothis day.
Yeah, so that's kind of what thethings that I've been thinking
about.
Nothing firm besides that bigopen mat and then the Texas trip
in July.
I think that, like, Kiko said,we didn't plan any of this.
It kind of took a life on itsown.

(50:38):
We had people give us tons ofideas of what we should do, how
we should do it, and, but onething that, we know is that we
just want to keep training.
That's the whole important thingis, and then invite others in to
come train and continue to dothat.
And for me, one to five years, Ilove when we go to different
places.
I think it's fun.
I've talked to Kiko about this,when we do a road trip, it's two
weeks and we just go hitdifferent gyms up to a final

(50:59):
spot.
And we just trained the wholetime up there.
And, I don't know if I could bein an RV with this dude.
He's trying to get an RV, butthe one dream.
We talked about it a little bit,and I actually roughly planned
it out, nothing secure, butbasically going from California
all the way to New York, andjust training all the way
across, right?

(51:19):
That'd be stopping and training,drive across, obviously we need
to have a place to shower andstuff, clean, cleaned up,
probably need some, Laundromats.
Gym memberships.
Laundromats.
At least one of them.
Just hitting a gym every state,trying to get over there.
Yeah.
And I think that would be superdope, but that's gonna, I think,
if it was, the way I planned itout, it would take two months.

(51:41):
Maybe we just go throughCalifornia to start.
Yeah, start one state, right?
One state at a time.
But those are like, Those arethings that are just, Hey, this
would be cool.
Yeah.
That would be awesome.
Right?
Everything just we, and then wejust, document it as we go.
that would be one to five years,what I would love to see will it
happen?
I don't know.
But honestly, personally.
I love what we're doing.
So if it happens, it happens.
If it doesn't, we're still goingto be doing our thing and having

(52:02):
fun and inviting people to comealong and have fun.
Just like when we go to Texas,that was just a whim, right,
Alex?
I said, Hey, let's just go visitAlex.
And then we knew, and then wejust happened to know someone
out there, that owns a RenzoGracie.
Mark Price out of Renzo's inAustin.
Yeah.
And we used to train atClaudio's.
Yeah, we used to train atClaudio's.
And so we would take care of himtoo.
He would train with us.
He loved, we took care of himand it just all happened that

(52:23):
John Danaher teaches at thatschool, we got to go do that,
so, you know, it's kind of cool,I like that, yeah.
So how about you, Fernando,anything that you want to say we
don't know what's going tohappen in five years, right?
So just go with the flow, andyeah, follow this dude.
I can say he's the idea, man.
So I'm like, all right, let's doit.
You're the support.

(52:44):
You're the backup.
I got you, man.
There you go.
I'm the idea and he's theartist.
Kiko doesn't agree with all myartwork, but it's okay.
It comes around to iteventually.
But I will say though, I thinkthat there's something to be
said about what was created inthis spot.
Now you see open matseverywhere.
Tons of big gyms are doing openmats.
Everyone does open mats.
They got some legit people outof these open mats.

(53:05):
But, I just think about, itseems like yesterday, but it was
quite some time ago, and it waskind of barren out here.
You know, nobody trained witheach other.
Nobody did that.
And to go from that to what wesee now, that's huge.
If we look back at the landscapeof things and how much pushback,
you talked about pushbackearlier.
Man, we got tons of pushback.
People didn't want us doing it.

(53:25):
People didn't, I mean, we got introuble.
I would go train, do open man onguerrilla that they had it.
They always had a guerrilla onTuesday nights.
And I would tell other people atthe gym and the guy that was
running, he got so mad.
He's don't invite people to openman.
I'm like, why not?
I want to go train and then Iwant people to come train.
So I don't care.
We're going to go.
And but there was just tons ofcriticism, tons of criticism.
But the good thing is becausethe way we train.

(53:47):
We had a little respect with thepeople that we would train with
black belts and stuff like that.
And then they would support us.
Like we had Adam Piccolati.
I think he was one of, probablyone of the first people that we
had come in and kind of do likea mini seminar.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And, uh, Adam Piccolati, he was,he was our boy.
He took care of us.
I remember Adam Piccolotti backwhen I first started and he was
in Half Moon Bay, he still is inHalf Moon Bay, but there was

(54:08):
only a couple of tournamentsthat would go on every year.
Claudio had a pretty big one,but he had this small one called
Jiu Jitsu by the Sea.
So it was all these little localtournaments at his school in
Santa Cruz and Adam would comein with his crew and just
annihilate everybody.
Adam was, I was like, who isthis guy, man?
This guy is legit.
And he'd just come and just, himand his crew would just come and
smoke everyone.
I was like, this guy is brutal.
But we happened to meet him and.

(54:29):
We trained with him and hebecame a good friend and he
would teach us.
We'd go up to Half Moon Bay, gotrain with him and then through
his connection.
So, you know, I, I think that,where we're at now, I think it's
pretty cool to see that it'sstuff that you don't hear about
regularly.
It's stuff that's not going toget written.
People don't know who we are.
If you ask people at a turn ofwho we are, nobody knows who we
are.
Nobody could care who we are.

(54:50):
We're technically nobody'sright.
But I feel like we did dosomething monumentous in this
area before people were reallybrave enough to step out and do
it.
It's easy, to fight a battlewhen there's no war, right?
But it's harder to be a soldierwhen there is a war.
And that was definitely, andthat's just an analogy.
We ain't never been in amilitary, but I'm just saying
that.

(55:10):
It's different though.
It was a different landscape andto get all the flack that we got
and to get, people criticized,didn't want to be a part of it.
And we didn't care though.
and, but now.
Everybody wants to be here,everybody wants to be a part of
it, which is cool.
It's good to see that It's likethe hard work paid off.
And you know the post right whenyou see all that like I think
the best one has been with ahundred and twenty plus people

(55:32):
You're just like whoa And it'sstill underground nobody knows
about it, right?
We're the best kept secret.
There's a lot of history there'sa lot of history between us
three and not just that, we haveconnection to a lot of history
in this area, like I was tellingyou earlier, like the people
that we've come across thatwe've trained with, most people
won't know who they are, butthey laid a foundation out here

(55:53):
so that other people can trainand they'll never get the credit
they, they deserve.
I feel they'll never get thecredit they deserve.
Like Carlos Melo, like MikeWeaver, Garth Taylor, you have
like these studs that You know,nobody will, I mean, some people
will know, some, a lot of peopleknew Garth Taylor in his time.
People respected that guy.
But a lot of other people, theyhave no idea.
You say those names, but whatthey created and what they
helped us do and help us create,like they never get that respect

(56:15):
that I feel that they rightfullyhave earned and deserved.
So, yeah.
Awesome.
Do you have anybody else thatyou'd like to call out.
You know what, somebody like, itwasn't even an open map, but
somebody who, was super cool tome when I went to go visit.
I'm not sure if you were there.
I know Kirby went, Kirby wasthere, I think, went to, Ralph,
Gracie Berkeley with theEduardo.
Fraga, right?

(56:37):
We went to a Saturday class.
And they were doing Nogi, but wewent in, it was a few of us that
went in just to train.
So we go over there andintroduce ourselves.
He talks to us a little bit.
We signed the waiver and he'sjust talking to us, trying to
fill us out.
Right.
And then, oh, how much is thedrop in at first?
oh, it's this much.
We're getting ready.
He's talking to us.
Sign the waivers.
Go ahead and train.
Guys stay for both classes andgo change back there.

(56:58):
Never charges to drop in.
Didn't do anything.
Just felt as okay.
These guys are cool.
These guys are here to train.
And so people like that, causethey have a huge open mat on
Sundays too.
Which I think is cool.
I think is when you look at.
All the different mats, openmats on Sundays now, it's like
from, I don't even know, likedown from Gilroy all the way up,
even past Gilroy maybe, but allthe way up to, Napa.

(57:20):
Just everybody has an open matnow on Sundays, and everybody's
welcome.
But people like Eduardo that.
You know, he's not doing it.
So I need to make money or Iwant people I want to steal
students.
He's doing it because out of thekindness of his heart, he wants
people there, people to train togo train at a school.
So, shout out to them for doingwhat they're doing.
So, you know, people like thatare just helping push everything

(57:42):
along.
I think it's, it's pretty cool.
Okay.
Fernando?
Anybody you, that helped youduring this?
Journey that you want to shoutout to?
Claudio's Just for opening thedoor for, at least for me, you
know what I mean?
Like, both times.
Right?
Just, when I showed up my firsttime, I went to Claudio and I
was like, I didn't even know,man, but I just wanted to do

(58:02):
something right.
And then the second time, when Icame back, he opened the doors
again after they knew what wasgoing on.
Caio's for sure for, after weleft and he opened the door for
us.
Caio and Nick, shout out toNick, man.
Yeah, Nick, take good care ofus.
Cool, cool dude, man.
really like cool guy.
And, Carlos Melo, Gilroy.
You know, like they, when weleft, Carlos was like, do it

(58:25):
over here.
Yeah, Carlos has always had ourback.
So, uh, yeah, shout out to them,man.
What would you like to say toanyone who hasn't experienced
Koffee Krew yet?
Fernando?
Oh, you're missing out.
Were you here when the sheriffcame in?
So I've been knowing the sherifflike since second grade.
You were here when it came in?
And you guys were making fun ofme?
That's why I came for you,right?

(58:46):
So I've been knowing this dude,Jose Ortiz I've been knowing him
since like second grade And heknew, he knows what I've been
through, right?
And he actually went to a KoffeeKrew in Gilroy, man And he was
like, whoa And I'm trying to gethim to come back and train But I
don't know if he's going, butit's just Like I said, man,
you're missing out, man It'sjust different vibes, just a
whole different vibe, man Soyeah, you're missing out.

(59:09):
All right, Kiko.
What was the question again?
Okay, what would you like to sayto anybody who hasn't
experienced Koffee Krew yet?
Well, definitely you're missingout, right?
I mean, there's nothing else tosay, right?
It'll be, for most people, notfor everybody, right?
But for most people that I'vetalked to, everybody says, I

(59:29):
don't like getting up early.
I didn't want to get up early.
But now that I did it, now thatI'm here and I've been training,
I get up and I look forward tocoming every Sunday.
So, if you're not doing it,you're missing out.
Yeah.
Yeah, I agree.
It's no matter what kind of dayyou're having, bad day, okay
day, sad day, depressed day,it's always a good day when
you're on the mats on Sunday.

(59:50):
You still go home after taking anap if you have to, you know
what I mean?
Yeah.
Okay.
Which we do.
I do.
For sure.
Any advice or words of wisdomfor those on the jiu jitsu
journey?
Oh, you go first.
Don't quit.
That's the biggest thing.
Show up with intention.

(01:00:10):
Keep your training partnersaccountable.
Hit them up.
Make fun of them.
and show up to have fun.
Enjoy.
what you're doing.
Don't show up to get a blackbelt.
Yeah.
Show up to have fun and learn.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Be open minded.
yeah, just have fun.
That's it.
Don't rush things.
It's not going to happen fromone day to the next.
Believe that.

(01:00:30):
You know, it's going to taketime.
Jiu Jitsu is not easy.
It's not.
I think this is probably thehardest thing I've ever done.
Enjoy the journey, That's it.
Yeah, I think, I'll, rideFernando's coattails and just be
teachable.
When you show up, be teachable.
That's how you'll get the bestexperience out of all this.
Is be showing up willing tolearn and let the people teach
you.
And remember, jiu jitsu isalmost like compound interest,

(01:00:53):
right?
Like you're going to invest init.
You're going to invest in it.
You might not see the interestgaining at first, but over the
year it's going to compound andbefore you know, you're like,
dang, my game has exploded, butit takes time and it takes you
to be patient and it takes youto keep investing your time,
right in what you're doing.
If you, if you're ever concernedabout a gym or you're worried

(01:01:15):
about going somewhere, come toSolidarity.
I guarantee you 100 percent thatthey're going to take care of
you and you're going to love JiuJitsu.
For sure.
Kiko and Fernando, Tell us aboutSolidarity and how people can
show interest regarding jiujitsu.
So we're on Instagram, you canhit us up or,
Solidarityjiujitsu.Com isprobably the best way through

(01:01:36):
the website.
Sign up, we have classes 6:15,Noons and Evenings.
Kids classes also from 4 yearolds to, what, 14?
14.
I'm the kids instructor for theyounger kids.
Fernando teaches the biggerkids.
Again, everybody's here for agood time, so show up.
Southside San Jose.
Blossom Hill.
Anything else you want to say?

(01:01:58):
No, thank you, Luckee.
You're welcome.
Thank you.
Awesome.
We appreciate you a lot.
You, uh, It's cool ever sinceyou've been here and you're
definitely part of the family.
So I already told pictures myGreat.
We appreciate you man.
Thank you.
Always, always fire.
And I already told them and Idid this, uh, but consulting you
guys first, I told Luckee she'salways welcome to do a podcast
here.
Yeah, she needs to room.

(01:02:18):
So you got it on.
Awesome.
On tape.
So just another quick thought.
I know.
So those pictures I think arejust as much a part of the open
mat as the technique and therolling.
I think people are superinvested in seeing the pictures
after like, Oh, let me see whatposition I have somebody in.
Sometimes you're not in the bestposition, right?
Person training.
But I think people look forwardto that.

(01:02:40):
So that's pretty dope.
Thank you guys.
Appreciate that.
Yeah, you yeah, it's underrated,you're a big part of it.
Thank you.
Okay, guys.
thank you so much for being onLuckee's podcast I look forward
to putting this episode out.
All right.
All right, guys.
Take care.
Have a good day.
Take my stuttering off.
All right.
Bye.