Episode #24 - Inside the Academy: Professor Joey Dean, Carolina Family Jiu Jitsu - Caffeinated Jiu Jitsu

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
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So now let's get caffeinatedand on to the mats for our chat.
Welcome to caffeinated jujitsu.
The blend of white belt,enthusiasm, black belt.

Speaker 2 (01:02):
Welcome to Caffeinated Jiu-Jitsu the blend
of white belt enthusiasm, blackbelt wisdom and a dash of
caffeine for that extra kick.
Dive deep into the world ofBrazilian Jiu-Jitsu as we
explore the journey, techniques,challenges and the sheer joy of

(01:28):
the sport from a White Beltsperspective, from intriguing
interviews with renowned coachesand professors to playful fun
episodes that'll have youchuckling mid-roll.
We've got it all brewed andready.
Now stepping onto the mats andinto your ears, here's your host
, joe Motes.

Speaker 1 (01:55):
Welcome everyone to another episode of Caffeinated
Jiu Jitsu.
Excited for this episode, I amkicking off a new series.
As I mentioned at the beginningof the year, we are developing
a bunch of series that will beinsightful, engaging and going
to have some amazing guests on.
Today is our very first episodeof Inside the Academy.

(02:17):
This is where we haveconversations and shine a
spotlight on jiu-jitsu academiesand their owners, and in this
series we're going to dive intothe personal journeys of the
owners and the members of it andalso the story behind their
academies and schools and theirinsights into the world of BJJ.

(02:40):
So my guest today I'm excitedto announce we've been planning
this for quite some time isProfessor Joey Dean.
Professor Dean is the owner ofCarolina Family Jiu-Jitsu,
located in Rock Hill, southCarolina.
Professor Dean is a black beltin Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.
He is also a PANS bronzemedalist at Purple Belt.

(03:03):
He has a background in martialarts.
He was an amateur boxer andwrestler all through school and
he also hails a background inMuay Thai and Judo, before
making the move to focus more onBJJ solely, I believe, in 2019,
he is an avid bow hunter and aLand Cruiser enthusiast.

(03:28):
Professor Dean, welcome to thepodcast.
Yeah, thanks, Thanks, Joe yeahso I gotta ask Land Cruiser
enthusiast, what is that?

Speaker 3 (03:41):
You know the Toyota Land Cruiser Yep, it's like a
SUV.
You know the Toyota LandCruiser Yep, it's like an SUV.
Absolutely I don't know.
When I was a kid my third gradeteacher had a Toyota Land
Cruiser and I remember she hadus go out to her car with her to
get some.
I mean, a couple of otherstudents we grabbed a few.
Sorry, my voice is a littlefroggy.
It turned on me yesterday soI'm all screamed out.

(04:03):
But anyways, we went out to hercar to help her bring in these
paper bags of I don't rememberwhat it was exactly, and there's
some kind of school suppliesand art project stuff.
But she had this beige SUV andI thought, man, that thing looks
sweet, it's all utilitarianlooking, and so I was just
asking her about it.
And then, as I've grown up,every time I see one, see one,
I'm like man, but I bought onewhen we lived in ely nevada.

(04:26):
Um and uh have been looking forlike years to find the.
It's called the 80 series fj80because it seats eight.
You know, because I have sixkids.
So I wanted to be able to getsomething we can go play in and
and ride around the mountains inthe desert, you know, and uh
and uh, you know it seatseverybody and it's a sweet,
capable rig.

(04:46):
So I found that one and so I'vehad one ever since and just you
tinker with it, you try to, Ilike it, I like mine stock, so
you just try to make sure you'retrying to always find oem parts
and but they're superdependable and uh, and that's
that's the fun part about it is,you know, like when you do mess
with something, it it's onlybecause you felt like it.

Speaker 1 (05:05):
Yeah, yeah.
So do you go like off-roadingin it?
Is there like so I see allthese clubs, like these Jeep
clubs.
Is there like land enthusiastsclubs?

Speaker 3 (05:15):
Yeah, it's exactly.
And what's funny is you know,like I don't know if you've ever
heard of the Jeep wave?
Yeah, you know, people ownJeeps to drive past each other
and waving each other.

Speaker 1 (05:23):
Oh yeah, yeah.
I see that when I rent a carand it's a Jeep, people are
always waving at me.
I'm like oh, that's nice.

Speaker 3 (05:30):
Yeah, yeah.
So there's a couple other dudesin the area that have Land
Cruisers and I didn't know thiswas a thing.
But I was driving one day LandCruiser's like coming from the
other direction and see the guywave at me and I because I was
like, well, it's a land cruiser,and I was looking and I saw him
wave at me and I waved back.
I was like, dude, we just did aland cruiser wave, my wife's
very first one, yeah and so, uh,and then a few months later I

(05:56):
saw another one and same thing.
Another guy waved at me.
I was like dang, that's awesome, we're getting to be like a
actual subculture.

Speaker 1 (06:03):
Yeah, you're part of something.
You're part of another movement, right?
Not just jiu-jitsu, but LandCruisers.
So when I was in let's see Ithink it was my second tour in
Iraq we supported some of theSpecial Forces teams they call
them ODAs and we were like 15miles from the border of Iran

(06:26):
and those guys had the had likea fleet of land cruisers and man
they were like up armored and Iwas.
That's my only experience withthem and I got to ride in a few
and it was like riding in a tankman.
I was, I like felt safer inthis land cruiser than I did an
up armor humvee going on convoys.
So anytime we had to go on likeconvoys or supply runs or

(06:49):
whatever, or go between the uh,the bases, the fobs, I would
always want to ride in the landcruiser because I felt like,
yeah, and then also you're inthere with like five special
forces guys.

Speaker 3 (07:00):
So I think you're doing okay, right, yeah um, you
know, um, that's kind of where I, when I decided that that's
freaking it, I'm buying one is,uh, I work in the mining
industry.
So one time I was working downin the gold mine in columbia in
south america.
Um and uh, every rig on thatsite was land cruisers and I was

(07:23):
like riding around in troopies.
You know like, once it was likea troop carrier type one I got
to ride inside an ambulance.
Why I didn't get hurt, nobodywas hurt.
Caught a ride in the ambulancebecause it's pretty remote and
that one was sweet.
This I mean they were, therewere trucks there were.
It was like and there was like50 series, 60 series, seven, you
know 70 series there and 80series lane cruisers and I was

(07:45):
like that's freaking it.

Speaker 1 (07:47):
When I get home I'm finding the guys so I always
like the broncos a lot of peopleare giving hate to the broncos,
but I'm glad they're.
They're back and I'm gladthey're.
They're that box box style.
I always wanted one growing up.
Yeah, yeah, I had a youmentioned that because that was
my.

Speaker 3 (08:05):
That was my first car .
My dad and I, like my sister,had one, my oldest sister, and
so my dad and I I saved somemoney up and he bought.
We didn't have these on me andwe bought a Land Cruiser or not
a Land Cruiser, a Broncotogether, so it was the worst
car I could have had as a highschool student.
Like terrible idea.
Don't do that for your kids.

(08:26):
Buy them the crappiest car.
They should have a shit car, ohman.

Speaker 1 (08:31):
My car was a.
My first car as a teenager wasa 1976 Chevy Nova and I bought
it out of a junkyard for $200.
And when I was like 13 and hadto work like several summers to
get it up and running, by thetime it was 16 and I had that
car for years.
But yeah, I couldn't imaginehaving you know.
You see these parents who buytheir 16 year olds like I don't

(08:55):
know, Corvettes and like thesesports cars.
I'm like man, you're just askingfor high insurance rates here,
like my, my oldest son.
He's 26 and he's had four caraccidents in the past, like four
or five years, and none of themwas his or his fault.

Speaker 3 (09:13):
But still there's some kind of magnet that just
draws car accidents to youngpeople and yeah, I don't know
that's it's no, it's thescariest thing, but that's why I
I'm like, that's why that carshould not have been the car I
had, because we, like it waslifted, had 33-inch tires, had a
351 Windsor in it instead ofthe original 302 that it came

(09:36):
with.
Oh wow, like it had a big oldHolley double pumper carburetor,
like it was oh my gosh, yeah.
So it was like I had this menialjob in high school and I spent
all my money to drive this yeah,I but it was like yeah, my nova
had the same thing.

Speaker 1 (09:50):
It was a 305.
Uh had a four barrel.
Uh, holly, uh, holly bot, Ican't.
Yeah, it's holly, it's what wecall them.
A four barrel carburetor, yeah,yeah and uh.
But yeah, yeah, I guess wecould talk this whole episode
about our, our car, our car, uhbeing car fanatic.

Speaker 3 (10:08):
That's kind of what I think.
Having the bronco is kind ofwhat set me on the path of being
like dude, I've got to get asweet offered vehicle.
Yeah, so so professional you?

Speaker 1 (10:17):
you mentioned your, your uh in your intro.
As far as the the informationyou sent over, what is it that
you do for a profession outsideof jiu-jitsu?
Before we get into your, yourjiu-jitsu journey, what is it
that you do?

Speaker 3 (10:33):
yeah, so um, I am a hydrogeologist what is that?
hydrologist.
Yeah, yeah, hydro hydrogeologyis the study of groundwater or,
uh, you know, interactionsbetween surface water and
groundwater.
You know what happens whenwater gets into the subsurface.
And so you know my, myprofessional careers, you know I

(10:53):
manage water resources for themining industry, you know, and
so, and that's that's been amyriad of different things.
You know a lot of much of mycareer has been spent, you know,
sitting on drill rigs, drillingmonitoring wells or observation
wells and then or productionwells.
You know that pump water Foreither like a city or the mining

(11:20):
operation itself, you know, foreither, or like to have water
to use on site, or or even justto dewater, and that's
dewatering, is a big part ofmining and and heavy
construction.
So, yeah, drilling holes andmaking water go places it
doesn't want to, because italways wants to go downhill,

(11:42):
yeah, you know, pumping thingslike that, it's a big deal.
And then surface water aspectof it, you know it's like you
have to.
Water is the one thing thatwill create environmental
problems, you know, and safetyproblems.
I mean water goes hand in handwith those two things, because
water mobilizes bad things andit makes things fall apart when

(12:04):
things are oversaturated.
So you know that's.
It's been a fun part, funchallenging gig, because you
know it's.
It's exceedingly important andwater is the one thing but
nobody really seems to payattention to until it's a
problem yeah, yeah, it's been afun and challenging career yeah,
it sounds like a lot of jobsecurity too.

Speaker 1 (12:23):
I mean, we kind of have to have it right, and like
71% or 70 plus percent of ourplanet is made of it right.
So how in the world did you getin to becoming a hydrogeologist
Like it just doesn't seem likesomeone who's driving around in
a Bronco is like you know what?
I'm going to study water.
It's like what happened.
How did that happen?

Speaker 3 (12:43):
you know what.
So, what?
It's funny, you asked thatbecause, um, so my wife and I
met in boise, idaho.
Like, I moved to um boise whenI was 15 with my dad um, you
know, and I'm adopted.
So, like crazy childhoodgrowing up and finally, like you
know, family friend is likedude, you're gonna go to prison,
so I'm taking you.
So we were in nevada, nearcarson city, and so we moved to

(13:06):
boise, idaho, and, um, you know,just over the years of growing
up there, it was, you know, it'sa great town, um, really,
really cool place to grow up.
But went to school at boisestate, you know.
And so, um, at boise state,there's three tracks you take in
the geoscience department for,like, a geoscience major and I
was going to be a teacher, andthen I realized that I probably
was not going to go.
Three tracks you take in thegeoscience department for, like,

(13:27):
a geoscience major and I wasgoing to be a teacher, and then
I realized that that probablywas not going to go well,
because I oftentimes say what Ithink I shared instead of using
a filter.
Yeah, and I probably ended uplike getting canned because
because parents, you know thatdon't like take being a parent
seriously really wicked me off.
So, anyways, I had a professor.
She was like, dude, youprobably shouldn't be teaching,

(13:48):
you can't.
I was like, okay, so I'malready in their science
department, so I just theirscience, you know, major.
So I just switched over to ageoscience major and that's when
you start.
So, like the 100 level ofclasses they have, you take one
of three or you have to take allthree of these, these tracks.
So it's like geophysics, um,whole earth geology, like hard
rock geology, and then like, um,hydrology track, so studying

(14:13):
surface water and groundwater,um, and atmosphere.
And so I was, you know, takingthose three classes.
I enjoyed all of them.
You know, took geology in highschool to get out of taking
chemistry and end up falling inlove with it.
And then you go get a you knowyou major and get a degree in
geology and end up taking ashitload of chemistry anyway.
So it's kind of ironic yeah butit worked out.

(14:35):
Yeah, yeah, it worked out andbecause I love chemistry, it's
actually really fun, so, um,anyway.
So so when I was in the youknow the, I took geophysics and
it was great and it was fun, andI didn't do poorly and took
whole earth geology and it waslike, okay, that's cool.
But when I took the hydrologyclass, my brain just seemed to
really understand water physicsand the different ins and outs

(15:00):
of managing it.
I've been hitting head a lotand so I was, was like, you know
, like my brain's really jivingwith this and so, you know, I
just really liked it and sothat's what I was doing for
coursework.
And then, you know, like, one ofmy aunts is a HR manager in the
mining industry, so at the timeshe was with the biggest gold

(15:23):
miner in the world, barrett, andshe said, why don't you't you,
you know?
And I was also, like you know,in my late 20s, when I went back
to school and so, um, you know,it's like getting close to
graduating and I was like 30 andshe's like, why don't you, um,
you know, apply for a internship?
and I already done a few otherinternships and some other stuff

(15:43):
because I recognized like it'sa good idea to know what I'm
going to be doing with thisdegree right right yeah and then
so anybody listen to this herein school like, do as many
internships as you can, becausefor one it's a lot of money to
spend on a degree that you mayend up hating yeah career fields
.
You know when you're done, so.
So anyways, that's a, that'sthe story.
I was a big deal because itchanged my life.
Like you know, I went out thereand you know when you're done,

(16:03):
um so.
So anyways, that's a, that'sthe story.
That was a big deal becausechanged my life.
Like you know, I went out thereand you know my wife and I
doing pretty good as youngparents, but you know like it
was, it was obvious for, likeman, sometimes we're struggling,
you know, financially and stuff, and so going into mining was
awesome.
So, anyways, I did aninternship that summer and was
sitting on drill rigs all summer, you know, just drilling holes

(16:27):
and man, I loved it.
I loved the blue collar hangingout with a blue collar.
You know rough culture of beinga driller and it was really fun
.
And so that, like, ruined mylast year of school because I
realized that much of whatyou're learning is from people
that have never done whatthey're trying to teach you.
So I'm sitting there like man,but you know, right after I

(16:49):
graduated I just went straightback to work at the gold mines
in Nevada and drilled a lot ofholes and got a lot of water
moving and, you know, did a lotof really cool stuff, and so
it's been a really fun career.
You know, I'm grateful, though,because you know, for one my
aunt, aunt Marie, who's a bomb.
Thank you.
And then I also had some reallygood first managers.

(17:12):
You know, like people that Iwas learning from, that are
still my mentors today.
I still bounce ideas off ofthem and, you know, I think I'm
the best at what I do, andthat's only because I have the
resources.
I do with the awesome people,because they're obviously really
the best ones.
Yeah, yeah.
So you know, it's been, uh,it's been really cool, but yeah,

(17:34):
you know that you know.
That's, that's why we've trainedat so many different gyms, is
because we've moved around a lotfor my job, because, um, you
know, like you said, jobsecurity, you know water is
always.
Water is all we need, alwaysneeds to be managed, like
everywhere it's, even in themiddle of the desert.
You know whether it's whereyou're in, a place where it
rains a lot or has a lot ofgroundwater, because the geology

(17:56):
or, um, you know, or it's thedesert, it doesn't matter.
You dig a hole and try tries tofill with water yeah, yeah,
yeah.

Speaker 1 (18:06):
The only experience really, besides having to
consume it daily with water thatI have is, you know, trying to
drink enough of it to stay aliveand hydrated.
I don't want to, you know.
So you know people likeyourself, it's keeping the water
safe, you know.
Hats off to you.
So, yeah, yeah, thanks forsharing that.

(18:27):
I I, when I read it on the uh,the, the form, that, the guest
form, I was like what is that?
Never saw that name before,like that title.
Before I'm in and I'm instaffing, I've recruited for
years, um, yeah, like 10, 15years, and even in the
scientific field Cargill.
I know that's agriculture, butI recruited for them.

Speaker 3 (18:51):
Yeah, we're all here for phosphate miners.

Speaker 1 (18:52):
Yep, yep, I recruited for them for a while too, and
had never heard of that.
So well, let's pivot here, man,let's start talking about
jiu-jitsu.
So let's start off here and, ifyou could tell, share with us
about your personal kind ofpersonal journey into brazilian
jiu-jitsu when and and why didyou start?

Speaker 3 (19:15):
and then we'll we'll jump into a couple more
questions about that, sure um, Ithink you know, like, really, I
guess you gotta start back fromkid times.
You know, like, really, I guessyou got to start back from kid
times.
You know, like me and mybuddies all joined wrestling
when we were in middle schooland that was fun, you know,
traveling with each other as ateam and you get to fight and

(19:37):
not get in trouble for it.
So it was like, you know, likewe were all these rough kids and
so we were all wrestling andthat was awesome, um, you know.
And then going into high school, uh, my best friend growing up,
you know his dad was a boxerand so, like all all through
childhood, you know, we'd grabhis gear and he was a boxer, you
know, I think, in like theseventies and eighties and um,

(19:58):
so he still had his old gearthough, so we'd put that on and
you know our friend Fina was thetoughest one out of all of us,
so he'd beat the crap out of usand then us, you know, less
tough people would beat eachother up pretty good, and then
all through, like doing that allthrough childhood and then,
when we got in like ninth grade,started boxing at the Carson
City PAL and wrestling I didn'tpay attention to wrestling as

(20:22):
much during that boxing timeuntil, like you know, junior and
senior of high school.
But you know, combat sports havebeen a fun part of my life, you
know, since I was young andthen when I went back to school
at I was like 29, I think 28 or29, you know, and I had kids and

(20:45):
you know I was like man, I wantto be doing something, you know
, cause I'd been pretty muchsince I hit 20 when I got
married.
My wife and I got married whenI was 20 and, uh, she was 19.
And so from that time forward,you know, like being a young
adult, you're an idiot.
Your friends and you were likewe're all getting in bar fights
and stupid stuff like that, andafter a little while you get

(21:05):
tired of that, you're like Ican't do that.
But I still wanted to be liketraining because I'd been doing
stuff like that my wholechildhood and up to graduating
high school.
And so, you know, so I started,like you know, going to boxing.
Still, I hit up the local MMAgyms that were opening up in
Boise at the time and just doingMuay Thai and different things
like that.
And then when I graduate where,when I was in college, though,

(21:28):
there's the Boise State JudoClub, and so I joined that and
it was awesome because I gotcollege credit for being in judo
, but, uh, fell in love withthat man.
That's so fun.
You know the the technicalnuance of of.
You know, making someone throwthemselves pretty much that was
what my sensei used to alwayssay is you're trying to get them
to throw themselves.
It was really cool and I lovethat.

(21:50):
You know, I love that there's aground game, so we still had to
wrestle a bit.
And you know, in judo, you know, depending you know 15 or 25
seconds, depending on how youguys hit the ground, and so it's
like you know that's hardholding somebody down for 25
seconds, you know, and not beingable to get you in half guard,

(22:12):
because that negates your pin.
Or, you know, get on their sideor something to where there's
no more, like there's no pinoccurring.
In judo they call it o saiko mi, it's like you know when your
pin count starts.
But anyways, that was great.
And so, graduating college, youknow we my wife and I were like,
you know, well, I, we're goingto move because I'm going to go

(22:34):
straight into work in mining.
And so we moved and you know,doing everything we can in the
town, new town we're in.
And then we moved again toDenver and, uh, this is working
for a consultant consulting firmand, um, you know, like judo,
for me to go to judo over thereand I was a brown belt in judo
at the time so like going tojudo was like across Denver, um,

(22:57):
you know, so it's like that's apretty big town from where we
were compared to where we live.
So I was like man, that's likean hour drive.
And so the nearest place to mewas a jiu-jitsu school and so I
was like, well, I'm going to gocheck that out.
And so I went in there and thatplace was actually pretty cool
because it was part of thisschool called the Greenwood

(23:17):
Village, I think it was a racketand tennis club, but it was a
big fitness facility and theyhad an MMA gym in there, like a
martial arts academy in there,and it was cool because, you
know, like I was doing like JeetKune Do and Silat and Eskrima
and like Kali, you know, withsticks and knives and then Muay

(23:39):
Thai training every day, andthen I was kind of like I'm
going to start doing the jujitsuin every day.
And then, um, I was kind oflike I'm gonna start doing the
jiu-jitsu, so I go in there withmy judo gi on my brown belt and
I'm getting mopped on, you know, by like four stripe white
belts.
You know that are holding mysleeve and my collar at the same
time because the gi is so muchbigger, you know, and I'm like
holy cow and like right, thenit's just like the way that

(24:00):
these guys would move.
You know, like some of thethings about judo, like when
you're learning, like kodokanjudo, is that like the, the
ground game is cool for the ruleset of judo, but, um, like
there's parts of it that justthat have been like um, focused
on so hard that, like you forgetthat there's this other move
you could do to get to adifferent position, or something

(24:21):
.
You know I mean like, like, ifyou watch kosen Kosen Judo like
looks just like Brazilian JiuJitsu, um, and then you watch
like Olympic style Judo, it'sit's.
It's kind of like the groundpiece isn't, like I said, it's
like left out.
Because you know, like if younegate things for five seconds,
they make you stand back up andyou start over.
But so I was like, wow, I amlike terrible on the ground and

(24:43):
I'm so I could, I could takepeople down, but am like
terrible on the ground and so Icould take people down, but you
know, once I got on the groundI'd get the crap beat out of me.
So it's like I've got to keepdoing this and so, you know, I
just fell in love with thattechnical piece of the ground
and the guy was a Higan Machadoblack belt, and so that was
really fun, you know, justlearning all that and learning
that history.
And from there, man, you know,every time we moved somewhere it

(25:10):
was like, um, we moved back toBoise from, from Denver for a
little while, so we weretraining with a guy I knew,
mitch Coates.
Um, his school was an allianceschool at the time.
And then it's like, that's how,like, I met Gigi Paiva, who's
now in Boise with the schoolthere yep um, you know, and
that's such a rad thing to havein that, in in that town, that's
cool, yeah, but uh, but anyways, yeah, so training with Mitch,
and then then we moved um out to.

(25:33):
You know, I went from fromBoise back down to Nevada to
live, cause I was traveling backand forth for work.
And the cool thing was is, likeyou know, like my wife, she's
been a stay-at-home mom since Ithink like 20, yeah, I think
2013, when we moved to Boisefrom Denver and I was traveling

(25:54):
down to Nevada from Boise, solike six-hour drive, but I was
on an eight days on six days offschedule and so, like I trained
when I was home and I'd go downand like, find people to mess
around with.
There were some people who hadmats in this little mining town
and there was a little likemartial arts school there, so
sometimes I'd get access to thatand so we'd go mess around in
that, but then I'd go home andtrain.

(26:17):
But my wife, you know, likeshe's been a stay-at-home mom
since that time and you know shecould do anything she wanted.
But that time, and you know shecould do anything she wanted,
but she was like, well, she's arunner and she's doing these
things.
I was like, well, you know I'dlike you to try and get some
time to yourself, cause you, youknow you got these three kids
and you know we had three kidsand and you know you need your
own time.
That's important.

(26:37):
I think that I think that'ssomething that you know we
haven't always been good at ismaking sure that you know if you
have moms that are doing allthe work, you know we may be
going to work, but try to stayhome with your kids.
Oh yeah, oh it's so much workthat is, and I'm not, I'm not
just saying to you, I mean likeif somebody is ever criticizing
their girl, man, I'm just likeyou, you dog, you you don't even

(26:58):
know, so so and I feel badsometimes.
I criticize my girl today andI'm like, geez idiot, what are
you doing?
You know, keep your mouth shut.
So.
So anyways, she was like youknow, our friend Spencer and
Laura they were, they were goingto Mitch's gym and so his
academy, so she's like I couldgo to jiu-jitsu with Laura and I

(27:20):
was like, yeah, dude, that'ssweet.
So she started going jiu-jitsuand I'm like the whole time I'd
been doing Judo I'd say thingslike we should get some mats for
the house and stuff and she'slike, I don't know, it'll be fun
, the kids can do it.
You know my kids were alreadydoing some Judo at the Judo
Academy or club when I was incollege and then got them doing
Jiu Jitsu.
The day I did my first Jiu J, mythree kids Sienna, savannah and

(27:41):
Jax they started.
They started jujitsu that dayand they so I've been doing
jujitsu for going on 12 years,or just about 12 years now in
March, and so they have two.
So it's nice having kids, youknow they're they're that
seasoned.
But about a year later my wifestarts doing jujitsu when we
were in Boise.

(28:02):
And so she's like, yeah, youknow it's fun.
And then I'm like, okay, well,I hope she really likes it.
And then one time I got homefrom work kids are in bed I came
home on my days off at the endof my eight day shift, and she's
like, hey, we were working thismove at Mitch's.
Can you kind of show me through, because I got my blue belt?

(28:23):
And I was like, okay, so I'mlike I know what I'm talking
about.
And I'm sitting there thinkinglike, dude, we're on our living
room floor doing jujitsu.
And I was like.
And then I said like in my headI'm like, yes, I got her.

Speaker 1 (28:37):
She's going to train forever.

Speaker 3 (28:39):
So, you know it's like, you know she goes, she
goes, she won master worlds, youknow.
You know it's cool, you knowshe's a.
You know she won master worldsat blue belt, so that was pretty
cool and I'm like man, thinkabout that.
You know, like I didn't knowhow far it was going to go.
But you know she loves jujitsu.
We own a jujitsu school nowtogether, so it's pretty cool.

(29:00):
But I mean, yeah, yeah, it'sjust been like we're, you know,
because of my job and travelingto different, uh, towns and
different locations, you knowit's like we've got an
opportunity to train with a lotof really cool academies and a
lot of really cool people andmeet, meet some amazing
individuals.
That's the fun thing aboutjiu-jitsu is it puts you in in
front of people that youwouldn't have normally met.

(29:21):
So, um, yeah, and then you knowwe were, we lived in Florida and
training with one of our bestfriends, one of my best friends,
david Werner.
You know, the John MachadoAcademy in Jacksonville, only
one on the side of the country,and so when we, when I took this
job up here, and it's in NorthCarolina, you know, you know,

(29:44):
right, right on the border and I, I live in Rock Hill, just
across the border in SouthCarolina.
But you know, I was planning onmoving and talking to David and
I was like man, I don't want togo be part of a new group of
people, you know, as a brownbelt at the time, and I'm like
you got my brown belt from Davidand I'm like I don't want to go
start with a new group ofpeople and have them have to
learn you know, and like learnme and my family.

(30:06):
And you kind of judged, whenyou started a new academy, you
know, like for a year, not evenconsidered for a year to be like
moving anywhere up or down, oryou know what I mean.
And so I was like, and I loveJean-Jacques philosophy on on
jujitsu in life, and I was likeI want to stay with that and I
love, you know, being, I wouldlike love to have a David as my
professor.
And so I was like you know, likewhat do we?

(30:29):
Do you think I could open aJohn Jock and Academy Academy up
there?
Do you think that that they'dlet me?
And he was like, let's stopstart talking to him, dude.
So so we did and you know Iwent, went through that and
talking with that associationJohn Jock and Jay and Mark those
guys are amazing.

(30:49):
The support we've had and help.
That's been really cool.
So we came up here to SouthCarolina opened the only John
Jock Machado affiliate on thisside of the country north of
Florida.
So that's been really cool, man, and so we've just tried to
keep everything we really likedabout all the academies we
trained at and not do the thingswe didn't.

Speaker 1 (31:09):
So it's yeah, it's pretty much it man yeah, I, you
know that's.
That's a great journey.
I'll always one of my favoritethings about having guests on is
and I ask that question everytime, you know have them share
about their journey.
It's always different, but youknow, kind of the back half of
the journey it always kind ofends the same.
I, I'm in recruiting.

(31:30):
We every recruiter kind offalls into recruiting.
You don't go to school, incollege, and you're definitely
not in high school thinking man,I'm going to be a talent
acquisition professional but weall just kind of fall into
jujitsu the moment we realizejust how awesome it is and how
much of a superior.

(31:51):
In a sense and I'm not takinganything from other martial arts
I think MMA is a good approachand there's something to learn
from all of it, but just thedominance of it.
And then you add to it thecommunity side and you started
talking a little bit about youknow your academy's start and I
want to continue on with that.

(32:14):
I'm glad you shared, you knowthe how you started through
Jean-Jacques Machado and MasterMachado, uh, but what inspired
you?
Uh, but what inspired the name?
You know, family or Carolina,family, jiu-jitsu.
I'd love to learn about that.

Speaker 3 (32:37):
We went through a few iterations of names as we were
talking about it, um, but Ithink that you know, like one of
the things I like about it isit's like you know, we're in
this part of the country wherefamily is a big deal.
I think that one of the thingsabout not growing up in the
South and seeing the South assomeone from, as kind of an
outsider, is like the firstthing you notice is like people

(32:58):
are really, really into familyand that's what I like.
You know I grew up in a reallyweird family situation and so,
you know, like I always kind ofI wanted to have, you know, a
full on good family.
You know, like a husband andwife, and you know I wanted to
have lots of kids and so, likeyou know, family means a lot to
me because I was, like I'm goingto start over with this group

(33:19):
of people that I can trust, likehands down you know what I mean
Like it's a clean slate with agroup of people that I know I'm
going to love, you know.
And so you know, going downhere and seeing how much family
means to people is a really,really important thing and we
like that a lot.
We lived in South Carolina from2016 to 2019 before moving, you

(33:43):
know, into arizona for a gig,and then um lived in florida for
another job, uh, and that'swhen I met david and the
jean-jacques association.
But you know, like the thingabout the south is that that
family thing is just here, andwhen we lived here before it was
like man, that's really cool.
But uh, so we were like, youknow, jiu-jitsu kind of becomes

(34:07):
like a family, you know, andyou're supporting each other,
even when you don't even realizeit, when you train, and so you
know it's like something thatthat will attract people,
attract people to want to bringtheir kids you, you know and get
themselves training.
You know, like Carolina FamilyJiu-Jitsu sounds right, it

(34:29):
sounds like the kind of placewhere you know, I know that I
think that there are some peoplein our area that kind of hear
that name and see it and theythink, oh, it's just like some
little kiddie karate school orsomething.
And then they come visit andthey're like, damn dude, these
people are kind of hard, but Ithink that's because families
are hard, you know, like.
You know, like you always talkabout, oh, that person's the,

(34:51):
you hear like a woman you mayknow.
She says something like oh, Igrew up with four brothers, you
know, that's why I'm tough, youknow.
Or like you know, like he's theyoungest of four brothers, or
you know what I mean, like youhear about those kinds of things
.
His families are tough and soit's kind of like that, you know
, in the Academy it's like youknow, everybody's got a bunch of
siblings and we're all kind ofjust like pushing each other to

(35:14):
be better on and off the mats,you know, and so it's like
that's, that's, that was thevibe we wanted to put out there.
You know that you know you're,you're trusting somebody, you're
struggling with somebody andthat builds a relationship that,
uh, that I don't think you canget anywhere else.
I think the only places thatare similar, like like military

(35:34):
units, you know, or, uh, youknow you know like people that
work in high stress, you have todepend on each other's
situations, like you know likemedical fields or anything about
like partners that are, youknow, partners in police forces
in some of our bigger cities youknow like that's, that's the

(35:55):
kind of stuff where those bondshappen is where you struggle,
and like you have to deal withstress together and you trust
that person to like you'retraining.
You know, like I remember EddieRobbo saying like you trust in
this person to like yourtraining.
You know, like I remember eddierobo saying like you trust in
this person to not kill you.
You're like if somebody losttheir mind on that and you guys
are just practicing technique,they could maim you right.
So it's like you know, likethat's, that's a, that's a deep

(36:17):
thing, I think, in our psyches.
That, which is why I think, likeyou said, we we kind of get
drawn to it and we kind of likefall in love with it, is because
there's something deep deepdown that you know we aren't
doing anymore that I think wedid do Like as, as like early
humans.
I don't know if it has to dowith like everybody had to be a
warrior back in the day and nowyou don't.

(36:39):
You know, I don't know ifthere's something, there's
something missing over like ahundred000 years that we were
doing.
That we're not doing anymore.
No-transcript.

(37:02):
If we didn't have societies,humanity would have never got
off the ground, because we haveto have societies.
If we didn't have societies,humanity would have never got
off the ground, because we don'thave teeth, we don't have claws
.
You know we can't live innature alone.
We'd be dead meat yeah, yeah, no, I don't know and so like that
vibe that we put out there is abig deal.
And one of the really funnythings about our academy is like
we literally have, like most ofour kids classes are groups of

(37:23):
siblings, um, you know, likethere's a group of brothers,
there's three brothers there's.
It's funny because we had, likethis one section of last summer
where like four groups ofbrothers joined at the same time
and they're all like three ofeach and it was like man and
I've got three boys of my own inthe class and you know, like
their sisters, their two sistersand their older brother, teach

(37:45):
the kids class and I advise, anduh, and so it's like, you know,
that's a big group of kids,that all like our families, you
know that, and so it's beenpretty fun.
And now we've got parents youknow they're, they're, you know,
training with their kids andyesterday we had, um, hey, son,
my youngest just popped in.

Speaker 1 (38:04):
We Mine should be down shortly.
We had yesterday.

Speaker 3 (38:08):
Yeah, yeah, I can hear that dang clod-hopping dog
up there and then she's up therewaking everybody up.
But anyways, like yesterday, wehad our first female student.
She's the mom of our first kidstudent and she competed for the
first time yesterday and she'syou know, she's our first blue

(38:30):
belt too.
You know, she got her blue beltabout six months ago.
So I mean it's like seeing thiscool stuff going on.
You know, people training witheach other and it's been really
fun.
You know and like and our youknow one of the things that I
think that One of the things Ilearned from Mitch Coates when
we were going to his school.
He was talking to kind of likethe class one time and he was

(38:51):
like you know, like why he'slike I have black belt friends
that can't keep their academiesopen and he's like, and they're
always like, why, why, why?
And he's like I don't know, butyou know, gets advice from
Donald Trump, this friend of his, and so like he kind of would

(39:13):
trickle that information toMitch.
I kind of surmised and so Mitchwas like the thing you got to
understand is like if you don'tmake whatever business you have
about the people that you'retrying to serve with that
business and not yourself, he'slike it won't go anywhere.
He's like so he's at my academy.
He's like you come in, you'relike you want to win medals,
let's make it happen.
Oh, you want to get fit, let'smake it happen.

(39:34):
You want friends, we got that,you know.
He's like what do you want outof jujitsu?
It can provide, and I will.
I will do my best to make sureit does, and I'm like dude, I
love that, and so that's.
That's what we try to make sureit happens.
Like you know, if you don'tfeel like a million dollars and
you walk through the Academydoors, then then it's like we

(39:54):
aren't doing our jobs.

Speaker 1 (39:56):
Yeah, yeah, I like that, I like that a lot.
I um, and thanks for sharing,uh, you know kind of the the
story there.
I um.
Well, let me ask you this whathave you seen, or how have you
seen the gym evolve since itfirst opened?

(40:18):
So I think you said you're atthe two-year mark or a little
bit over the two-year mark.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 3 (40:23):
What changes Like a week over?

Speaker 1 (40:25):
Yeah, what changes and also what challenges did you
face that maybe you no longerface or still face?
Yeah, so a little bit about theevolution and some of the
challenges.

Speaker 3 (40:36):
Yeah.
So I think what's really funnyis, you know, like we were like
so when do we open the door?
Do we do a big grand opening?
I was like I don't know, likewe didn't have anybody sign up
before we opened the doors andso.
But one of the things that wasnice is like the landowner or
the landlord.
You know, having my, my friend,David, as my professor, he was

(40:57):
like dude.
He gave me like all of thecoaching on how you do
commercial.
You know, like rentingcommercial and commercial
buildings.
I had no idea he's like youknow this is for you guys all
too.
It's like I'm going to passthat on, like if you are going
to go rent a building, like andthey just straight tell you
here's the rent and you got tostart doing that on the first
day and you still have thingsyou need to build out inside

(41:18):
that thing, like there's a thingcalled build out and you always
ask, like what is the build outperiod you'll give me?
Which means how many months offree rent are you going to give
me while I get this placelooking the way I need it?
And because you don't want tobe spending money when you
aren't having anybody right.
So, like I realize now, therewere tricks we could have done
to like get people signed upbefore we even opened the doors,
but we didn't, you know, didn'tknow anything about that.

(41:46):
So, you know, we were givenfour months of free rent.
So that was cool because, um,you know well, we were like we
moved here in December and wewere like we want to open a gym
in January, and so we, we spentI took a bunch of time off at
the end of at the end of theyear and we just spent like
three weeks getting this placeready.
Um, and it's a, it's a littlelike our gyms, a little, um, you

(42:06):
know, 1500 square foot spot inbetween a subway and a daycare
center.
You know, it's right acrossfrom our kids' high school and
it's a nice place and it hadnever been anything before.
So it was like concrete withsheetrock dust all over it and
sheetrock on the walls that weretaped and mudded.
You know no texture or nothing.
So, which is fine because itlooks cooler flat walls, walls,

(42:29):
but anyway, um, so we spent thatmonth getting it ready, you
know, and as we were, you know,getting ready to open.
You know, we get the mats downwith the flooring in, everything
looks really good and we'relike, well, I guess we just
start training on the schedulewe put on the door, you know.
And so january 11th, we're likeokay.
So it was me and my wife, youknow know, teaching our kids

(42:50):
jujitsu and you know, like myson he came in and he was
already like he jumped at thetime it was wrestling season, so
he went right to the wrestlingteam and so he was wrestling at
the high school, which was greatbecause that team, like
teenagers, were not happy aboutmoving high schools.
The two teenagers we had at thetime and boy, the wrestling

(43:12):
team really helped smooth thatout because they like had
friends right away and that wasa really that group of kids and
that wrestling team at that time, like all those kids have
graduated since, so like it's atotally different team now, but
like that was really cool.
I'll get, we can get to thatlater, but like so my teenagers
were already like off doingdoing other stuff with the high
school.
But all the other kids you knowknow we were in there training
during the kids' time frame ontheir schedule for kids' class.

(43:35):
We had our four kids in thereand then my wife and I would,
just during adults' time, we'dwork on some moves together.
She had a purple belt, I was abrown belt, you know, and we
were just trained, and thenthey'd roll and beat the crap
out of each other.
So people start trickling in,you know, they see this place
that we've got, you know,emblems on the windows and we've
got little signs out near theroad and people like, oh dang,

(43:56):
there's something here now.
So people started just poppingin.
And so I think like one of thethings we didn't realize is how
we could have gotten peoplesigned up before, before we
opened.
But it didn't really matterbecause, you know, it was like
first week was one guy and hehad been training at this, you
know, at this other school inthe area that, and then, and

(44:21):
then so he comes in, and thenthe next week another guy and
then the next week anotherperson.
Kids start trickling in and uh,and it, you know it's like
really fun, because it was like,okay, now there's five of us
training.
You know, now there's nowthere's seven kids in class
because there's three littlekids signed up with our you know
, our four, and then then mydaughter turns 13 and I'm like,

(44:42):
okay, well, that's our cutofffor kids class.
At 13 you go to adults class,so then my daughter starts
training with the adults and youknow we got our three boys and
then other kids that aretrickling in.
And then it's funny because wehad, you know, first four months
of free rent, so January,february, march, april, and by
the time we got to April the gymwas making its rent and its,

(45:04):
you know, like utilities andthen some, and I was like dude,
that's sweet.
And then a few months later itwas easily able to pay off the
mats and we're like dude, that'scrazy.
And then more and more peopleare coming in and we're having
all these people.
So then by that time we'realready the balls rolling with

(45:28):
becoming part of theJean-Jacques Machado Association
and, um, you know, and that'sreally cool.
And then my professor comes upand he hangs out and do some
classes and you just see peoplegrow and you see, you see people
.
It starts catching traction inin this part of town and there's
a couple other schools in in inthe town of Rock Hill, um, that

(45:48):
aren't very big either, butthey're not very like.
Rock Hill is not a huge city,you know what I mean?
It's.
I think it's like 50 or 60,000people.
You know the nearest school islike three miles away.
Nearest school from that schoolis like three miles away on the
other side of it, and sothey're kind of in this like
line across town and we're onthe farthest west end of it, it

(46:09):
which is a little more like outin the country, and so, um, yeah
, northwestern high school islike like the last vestiges of
what you would call a town andthat's that's where our gym is,
right across the street fromthat.
So, um, you know, so like itattracts a lot of people that
are in this part of the areathat are like man, you know like
they want to go do this kind ofstuff.
They they got to drive 45minutes across town or in or

(46:31):
into Charlotte to go do this.
You know to go do somethinglike jujitsu, and so you know
like people that are big fans ofUFC, people that are like they
understand the fitness aspect ofit, or you know, did other
martial arts or wrestling, youknow like they're like sweet.
So it's been really fun towatch the growth, watch people
coming in, and you know like wetalked about you know like the

(46:52):
goals that people have.
You know, everybody starts.
We ask you know, what do youwant to do, jiu-jitsu?
For, you know, and it's alwayscool to hear why.
And then you're like, oh, Iwanted to be doing something
with my kids, you know.
Or you know I want to get inshape, or my wife and I want to
do something together, and it'slike, exactly, that's awesome

(47:13):
and so that's been a coolevolution to watch.
You know, like that vibe growinto.
You know, like what we thoughtwe wanted to attract, but it's
kind of grown past that becausepeople are, you know like, you
know people understand that it'svery.
One of the things we try to makesure we emphasize is I'm like
you guys, like I don't, I don'tknow everything, and I'm going

(47:34):
to tell you the same thing thatI hear Jean-Jacques say all the
time, which is like there's noright or wrong jujitsu, it's
what works for you.
If it worked at the time thatyou tried it, then that, then
that's good jujitsu.
You know, and I'm like you guys,this is, it's a martial art,

(47:56):
which means it's art, it's your,it's your jujitsu, you know,
and seeing people kind of takethat idea and run with it, you
know it's been really coolbecause you know like there's
people that come because solelylike it's meditation, like you
can't think of anything outsideof training when you're doing it
, it's just everything flowsright through you.
If you have a thought in yourhead, it's gone within a second
and you're you're focused somuch on on the training and the
breathing and trying to staycalm and trying to control and

(48:17):
trying to not get this positionand you know like you know like
that's seeing people just grow.
With that that evolution's beenreally, really cool.
That they start like that's thepoint I was trying to make like
doing hard stuff makes yourealize that that you can do a
hard thing and and like that thehard things that come to you in
life aren't necessarily alwaysgoing to be there and there are

(48:38):
times that you can literally nothave to think about them, and
that break from everyday life isreally valuable and we should
be telling each other about itand pushing each other to find
those moments.
You know, and and and that's athat's an important thing and so
like that's been really cool.

Speaker 1 (48:56):
Yeah I, it's so much there.
I.
I love that you shared some ofyour, your kind of your, your,
your philosophy on how youapproach you know teaching and
those who start, you know, wantwant to come and train at
Carolina.
You know, and those who start,you know, want want to come and
train at Carolina.
You know family I um, there wassomething that you that you

(49:19):
said around the the mentalhealth, uh, benefit of of jiu-j
I.
I think that's one of the thingsthat really kept me going.
And you know I'm, I'm a fatherof five, I am the sole provider

(49:42):
for the family.
And when you're the soleprovider of the family,
especially of a large family,people don't understand the
gravity and the pressures youfeel from day to day, just like
I mean, I'm, I have, I have whatI feel is a pretty steady job
and stuff.
But every day something comesacross your mind like man, what
happens if I don't have a jobtomorrow?

(50:02):
Or you know, I mean, regardlessof your savings, in today's
economy, it's going to deplete,no matter what right when you're
paying you know, six dollarsfor water and eggs it's just,
it's.
It's crazy, the the stressrelief that it is, and oh, it's
okay, um sorry our toaster forsome reason like set off the

(50:23):
fire alarm.
We set it up.

Speaker 3 (50:24):
You saw the new fire fire alarm in the kitchen and it
gosh.
Our toaster sets it off almostevery day.
Yeah, that happens, yeah, um no, you're all good.

Speaker 1 (50:33):
I um well, we talked a good bit about you, or you
shared a good bit about yourphilosophy.
What I would like to ask, uh,more for just your insights.
It's something that I'm curious, especially gym owners, because
you, I mean you do.
You do jujitsu, for you know aprofession.
What trends or changes do yousee that are shaping the future

(50:59):
of jujitsu?
It could be the practice initself, or school, school
ownerships, what?
What are some trends thatyou're seeing?

Speaker 3 (51:08):
um, yeah, I think you know, obviously, nogi is one of
these things where, like it's,it's kind of being thought of as
this it's the only way to go.
Um, and I kind of dislike that,because I don't think you're
doing jujitsu if you only donogi.
You know, like you're 100%missing out on it.
You're, you're, you're missingout on an entire set of

(51:29):
techniques that you won't learnunless you know how to
manipulate people's clothes.
You know, and it's like, I mean, like those are weapons.
Why would you, why do you notwant to learn that stuff?
And if you I hear people say,oh, the nogi is so technical I'm
like, what do you think the giis?
Like?
You know, and like everybodytoday, that is a big nogi

(51:51):
grappler that everyone's able towatch on TV, or you know,
whatever, craig Jones, gordonRyan, all those guys, um,
nicholas Margolini, now, youknow, all these dudes, all the
pedigo submission fighting.
I mean, I love all these, Ilove these guys.
They're awesome, um, andthey're even.
They're even their, their,their personal or their
character flaws.
It's like that's awesome,that's humanity.

(52:12):
Let them have them.
You know, like, that's historyGood for them.
I don't care about any of that.
The only thing I don't like isthat they criticize the Gi and
it's like dude, you guys allwere champions in the Gi before
you got into Nogi.
It's like, why do you want toquit it?

(52:37):
You know, like, and so itdoesn't make sense to me, but,
um, that that trend is kind ofone of those things.
I think.
I think that will hurtjiu-jitsu more than it'll um,
just because it creates thisdivision.
And one of the things thatreally pisses me off today is,
like you know, like you kind ofmentioned, you know, being the
sole provider of um, one of thethings that you know, being the
sole provider of, one of thethings that you know, like being
the sole provider in yourfamily, and I'm like I've I've
I've always been fairly bold and, you know, sometimes a bit

(52:59):
obnoxious at work in my career.
You know saying the things thatthat that need to be said.
I refuse to kiss butt, you know, and I don't care if you're the
CEO of whatever company, like,if something needs to be said
because the systems you have inplace are not efficient, then
I'm going to say something, orthere's a safety issue that
nobody wants to talk about, orany of that stuff.
I'm saying it and I think tomyself often, like man, I have

(53:22):
to watch what I say, because I'mworried about getting fired for
being, for doing the rightthing.
You know what I mean.
Like um, and it's stupidbecause we have this division in
our country.
That that I think.
I think 2020 really messed us uplike that, that covid time
frame.
It made us all distrustful eachother.
We all have to like be extrasensitive to every little thing
and which is why, like the multi, the mental health piece of

(53:44):
jujitsu is so big to me, becauseI'm like nobody's gonna
actually care about your healthmore than you.
So don't expect policies thatget put in place at your job or
by the government to actuallyhelp your mental health.
You know, like the only personthat can help your mental health
is you and you need to findthings that actually cultivate

(54:04):
that mental health.
Don't rely on other people'spolicies and regulations.
So, like in the job, you know,like you can't say or do these
certain things and it justcreates this division, cause you
can tell there's people thatare like I don't care, I'm going
to say what I think is right,and then you can tell that those
, those people that are likenarcissistic jerks, you know,
and like what you might call thetoxic you know I hate that term

(54:27):
but like you know the peoplethat legit are, you know pieces
of crap that are still going tosay whatever they want.
You know what I mean and if ithurts your feelings, like, you
can't rely on other people tocare about, whether they hurt
your feelings or not.
You got to be good at dealingwith and managing that kind of
stress.
So, like that division thatsits there, like I don't think

(54:47):
that should creep into martialarts.
You know, I'm like there like Idon't think that should creep
into martial arts.
You know, I'm like we don'tneed more division guys, like we
should be like celebrating andpushing each other's stuff all
the time.
If I see some dope nogi move,I'm like sweet, and I'm not
saying don't do any nogi, youshould be doing as much as you,
as close as you can get to 50%of both.
You know, because, like I said,like there's things in nogi you

(55:10):
will never learn if you don't donogi, like you can't, you won't
learn them in the gi, and solike talking trash on each of
those two pieces of the martialart is really dumb.
I don't like that good bit offlash that people that, like you
know, like when you watch anogi match and a gi match, like

(55:31):
they both have against tworeally high level, technical,
really smart people, they bothhave these aspects you're like
wow, like, and you can see whysome people don't want to watch
it, because they don'tunderstand what's happening.
But you know I'm like those areboth really technical and fun
to watch.
So, like the gi, if you'rereally, really focused on the gi
, you got to figure out a way tobe like the nogi guys that are

(55:54):
like promoting the flash of nogi.
The only piece I don't like isthe the shit talking about each
other and, like you know, yeahtalking trash and causing these
problems because it's like ittrickles down into the academies
.
You know, like one of the thingswe said when we opened our gym
was like I do not want to bethought of for one.

(56:16):
I'm not from this town andthere's a couple of schools by
people that are from this town.
Um, I don't want to be thoughtof as the guy who came in, my
wife and I.
We don't want to be the peoplewho came in and started like
trying to scout people's fromother gyms, right?
yeah we have?
We, we have open mat.
We don't charge a mat fee.
If you want to come and trainon saturdays, dude, I'm like,

(56:36):
I'm gonna learn from you, you'regonna learn from me.
Why would I charge you for that?
I'm like, if you want to comeget a class in every once in a
while with us during the week, Idon't even care, you know, if
you're gonna come all the time,you have another academy already
trained out and that's whereyou get promoted.
I'm like, well, like, I don'tknow if I'm comfortable with you
, even like paying me for aweekly thing if you're gonna

(56:57):
come in three times a week.
Because I don't want to beknown as a dude that's stealing
other people's other people fromother gyms.
You know, because I don't wantto be in this this, this thing
that's growing in jiu-jitsu,which is that like division and
willingness to talk shit on eachother.
One of the things that we hatedabout some of the other schools
we trained at is the professorswould talk shit on some of the

(57:18):
schools in town and and then wewould go to like tournaments and
stuff like that and you couldtell that like there's animosity
between people and I'm like,and I'm like, if you idiots get
in a fist fight at thistournament, cops are getting
called and the cops ain't goingto come in here and act like
they can break up the fight,because we know cops can't fight
, you know?
That's why we have the problemwith cops.

(57:39):
We have today Like they shootpeople because that's the only
thing they train.
And I'm like you know, whenyou're under duress you turn to
your highest level of training.
You know, and so I'm like youidiots getting a fight in this,
in this jiu-jitsu tournament,they're coming in and pepper
spraying and tasing all of usnot one of us is not getting
that dude because they know theycan't come in and stop us from

(58:02):
from fighting each other andthem.
You know like there's no way.
And so you know, like you go totournaments.
You're like that should not behappening.
You know, like, so like I wasat a tournament yesterday.
Everybody's super chill and like, and there is one academy that
I know talks trash on the otheracademies in town and I'm still
chill with that guy because I'mlike dude for one.
He's really young and I'm likethat's okay, I was stupid like

(58:25):
that when I was really young too.
And I'm like, but, but you know, like, why, why keep going with
it?
It doesn't matter.
My wife and I are like, we'reboth like dude, like why, why
foment that?
So like that, that division,that kind of I feel like starts
in this.
No gi versus gi, these guysthat are higher up, you know the
people that everyone sees onInstagram and Facebook and on

(58:46):
flow grappling and stuff, likewhen they talk shit on each
other.
It's like dude.
You know, like people willwatch if you are, if you have,
if there's passion there, likethat's what brings people to
things right it doesn't have tobe this circus.
It doesn't have to be a circus,and that's what I don't want to
see happen is like it doesn'tneed to be a circus to attract
people or a freak show.

Speaker 1 (59:06):
Yeah, yeah, jujitsu doesn't need to turn into a soap
opera.
I mean, imagine what that woulddo to the, to the image you
know I think about uh.
So I'm, when I get intosomething, I love learning
everything I can about it, likethe history and things like that
.
And I I read uh drysdale's bookuh, the evolution of brazilian
jujitsu, and in it it talked alot it's from the perspective

(59:28):
that you know of carlson Gracieand the impact that he had.
He and Holes Gracie and CarlsonGracie trained in the same
studio.
They had a rival but it wasn'tmalice in any way.
They trained together every day.
Their students got along.
But at competition it was acompetition and you know I think

(59:52):
about.
You know well, first off, holesGracie, you know, obviously
passed way way too soon and hewas such a huge impact in just a
short time that he was you knowhere.
But I think it's important torealize even back then, in the
highest you know tensions and inand competition era of of

(01:00:18):
jiu-jitsu as it was developing,that we should be able to go to
competitions, whether it's worldor pans or opens, and be able
to get along.
It's one of the things I loveabout jiu-jitsu is, you know
I'll go to the Atlanta Opens.
Those are the only ones Iusually compete in and it's just
such a good vibe.
And that's odd, especially whenwe're in an area where you know

(01:00:43):
we have autos here, we have artof jiu-jitsu, we have Roberto
Travens here, we have, you know,three alliance gyvens here, we
have, you know, three Alliancegyms here, and then we have all
of you know, the, the, the localgyms.
So it's, I couldn't agree more.
What do you think about this?
And it's a little bit more funfor me.

(01:01:06):
But you see this, this back andforth on guard pulling versus
stand up and take downs.
So I'm going to put it outthere.
I pull guard 100% of the time,almost 100% of the time, and
it's not that I don't have takedowns, it's I prefer to get you

(01:01:27):
in a guard.
And I'm 45.
I'm not athletic.
I never'm 45.
I'm not athletic.
I never have been.
I'm training with monsters andI think you'd have a hard time
telling Alio or crapping onguard pulling with the founders.
And it's jujitsu, right, it'spart of jujitsu.

(01:01:48):
What are your thoughts on that?
And it's jujitsu, right, it'spart of jujitsu, what?

Speaker 3 (01:01:50):
are your thoughts on that?
Well, the funny thing about theguard that we have today is,
like you got to remember likethe guard was meant.
The guard is like.
One of the things I make sure Icover in our class several
times a year is that the guardis meant for you to be able to
kick someone right in theirfreaking face or in their nuts
or in their knee if they, asthey approach you right like you
need using the up kick you'retalking about if you're on your

(01:02:12):
back and up kick right, yeah,yeah, because it's like you know
somebody got you down and thebest, best weapons you have are
the giant muscles wrapped aroundthese bones on your legs.
You know like, and like you knowgetting your legs in the game,
in the fight.
You know, that's, in my opinion, that's what I think's the
difference between wrestling andjiu-jitsu is like wrestling

(01:02:32):
they don't use the legs.
Often they use like leg vinesand things like that, leg rides,
but like they aren't using themas a form of.
You know, like there's not verymany pins that you use your
legs to keep them down in.
You know there's like legtriangle and stuff like that.
But you know, like, one of thethings I love about jiu-jitsu is

(01:02:52):
it's like I call it, it's gotthe fullness of the gospel, as
full of a gospel of grappling asit can have.
And I think the only other onethat's probably as close is like
Sambo, because of the.
You know, one of the thingsthat I think is important to
recognize is that you know Holuskind of, I think that you know,
from my perspective, I think,that he's jujitsu today is a

(01:03:15):
mixed martial art.
You know, it holds so manydifferent pieces and I think
Holus kind of grabbed some ofthose things, and one of the
things I know he got in troublefor was going and doing like
wrestling and things like that.
You know, like people in hislineage didn't like that, you
know, and it was like so we haveall these things, you know, and
the guard is the guard, thoughoriginally was meant you need to

(01:03:36):
get those weapons involved andkeep your opponent away from you
when you're in a bad situation,and so the guards that we use
today are for fighting peoplethat know jiu-jitsu, you know,
that know how to get past yourlegs.
And so I think that it's funnywhen you hear like people talk
trash on guard pulling because,like you know what guard pulling

(01:03:58):
used to be called before westarted calling it guard pulling
what's that it was called.
It was called shutemi waza, itwas called sacrifice throws oh
wow.

Speaker 1 (01:04:08):
So yeah, from the judo side, yeah it's from judo,
like you.

Speaker 3 (01:04:11):
you.
You know like if you went toyour back, it was to take
somebody down from that positionright away.
You know there was no hangingout there and so you know like
I'll pull guard.
I'm with you, I'm 45.
But I was a wrestler and a judoperson and so you know I'm like
pulling guard is necessarysometimes.
I weigh 155 pounds right now,so I'm like dude, there's some

(01:04:34):
guys I have that like when I'min mount and I'll squish the
shit out of them and they'llstill figure out a way to bench,
press me off.

Speaker 1 (01:04:40):
Oh yeah, that's so annoying.

Speaker 3 (01:04:43):
Gosh darn it.
One of the things I think we'veweirdly attracted is also
highly coachable people, andit's like gosh darn turkeys, I
teach you this stuff, not so youcan use it on me, you know oh
yeah, these guys are tough, butI'm kidding, but like Well,

(01:05:15):
really quick on that.
I do have one question, so,cause this is something I've
thought about.
If I ever open a gym and I'm ablack belt professor, do you
ever get afraid of like yourwhite belt guy who's got like
three weeks in or a month insubmitting you Like?
Is that, is that a real like?
Does that stay in the back ofLike?
Why am I teaching people Like?
If you look at our Google, itsays like, focused on families
achieving their goals, like Iwant you to be able to whoop my
ass one day.
Right, that's the point You'resupposed to be.
Everybody walks in the door.
In my mind I'm like cool,another black belt, because in

(01:05:38):
my mind everybody does jiu-jitsu, because that's the only people
I hang out with and so you knowyou should be able to submit me
like dude.
I mean like, yeah, these kidsthat we're teaching, like
sometimes these teenagers likethey, they catch me sometimes
and I'm like dude, that happensand it's okay.
What I do worry about is thespazzy white belt hurting me,
though, so that's I pull guardwith them because I'm like you

(01:06:01):
know and like and so like tothat point.
You know, like I'll you, youdon't ever let them have it.
I got yelled at one timetraining, um, when we lived in.
We lived in louis baffin, I wasteaching at source somewhere
source and moitai but I would goto the in columbia south of
carolina.
My wife and I'd head over theresometimes to get some you know
training with some black belts.
And one of the black beltsyelled at me.
He's like why, why do I keeppassing your guard so easy?

(01:06:21):
And I was purple, purple beltand he's like dude, you keep
doing these things that you knowyou can do on white belts?
Um, you let them have stuff forfree.
You do these little things thatyou know, work on them.
He's like stop doing that.
He's like don't give themanything for free.

(01:06:46):
And I keep them in a spot thatshows them continually that
someone my size can do whateverhe wants, you know, and that my
wife she's 120 pounds she can dowhatever she wants, right?
so it's like and that has gottenso many people to start
training.
You know the fact that that weare smaller and we just own
people whenever we want it, youknow what I mean Like, and then
that's like I'm not obviously.

(01:07:07):
That's that's what jujitsupeople do, right we?
Get to those points, I thinkit's you know like it's
appropriate for the time.
You did it.
Like, well, I did a guillotinein this position.
Well, why?
Well, because that's what thatperson presented me with.
You know, sometimes you're likethis person presented me with

(01:07:28):
the effect that it's probablybetter to pull guard on this
person.
For me, like when I go out andsay, like when I'm competing,
like I don't really try to domany takedowns, to be honest,
like I might do, like fake, fakeguard, pull an ankle pick or
something that's kind of like myfavorite right now.
But yeah, or like collar dragand you know, come up with a
single leg or something.
But because to me those are lowrisk, high reward tries, you

(01:07:51):
know, like I don't have to likeshoot, if I shoot and this
person's good at anticipatingsprawling, you know like I, you
know that's a, that's a highreward but high risk takedown in
my opinion.
But if I pull guard, like youknow, I'm trying to sweep you
within three seconds.
Like in my mind because of judo, it's like if I go on my back
you're down In my job.

(01:08:14):
I need to get on top, stay ontop.
So you know, like for me incompetition I don't oftentimes
try for a takedown because likeI'll go in there and be super
low, like wrestling style,really, really low, and I'll
make that person pull guardbecause my favorite thing is
guard passing, which is ajiu-jitsu against jiu-jitsu
thing.
You know like.

Speaker 1 (01:08:29):
Yeah, it's a chess match, right.

Speaker 3 (01:08:33):
That's when the chess game starts and like I love
that technical side of guardpassing.
It's fun and I get to be a bitathletic at times if I need to
and it's like you know so I'll,I'll do things that make them
pull guard and I'm like cool now, I didn't have to defend you
trying to take me down and I getto do my favorite thing.
So I don't, I don't care, youknow, you do you.

(01:08:53):
There's no right or wrongjiu-jitsu, it's like what, what
works yeah, yeah, and I thinkit's funny to hear people talk
trash, because I was every likeon instagram.
I'm always like, oh yeah, well,they used to call these
sacrifice throws back in the daybefore we started calling it
guard pass or a guard pulling,you know, yeah I um, yeah, I
think having a judo backgroundtoo gives you a lot more
perspective on it, but I do, Ithink it's it matters.

Speaker 1 (01:09:16):
I think it matters in the moment because I do, I do
pull guard a lot, but but thereare times where you know I'll go
for a single leg, especially ifthe legs, like I mean, it's
just there.
It's obvious, yeah, you have togo for a single leg, so, uh,
but now you know, we weretalking about insights and
things, and I just see that moreand more and it's about the
only controversial thing Icomment on.
Um, but yeah, so so what I wantto do?

(01:09:38):
Because we're kind of coming tothe back half of the, our back
end of the episode.
This has been amazing, by theway.
I'm super pumped that we'rehaving this conversation.
But one of the things I put inthe series is kind of like a
rapid fire round of questions,and it's just again.
It's more geared toward fun,but if you're open to it, let's

(01:10:01):
jump into that and then we'llkind of close out.

Speaker 3 (01:10:04):
There's one thing I wanted to say real quick though
about evolution in jiu-jitsuschools and stuff like that real
fast.
That I think is super importantto talk about and should be
brought up in almost everyconversation about academies is
protecting our students.
There's things that I thinkit's called safe Academy.
You know like, when you want tohave your Academy be registered

(01:10:26):
with IBJJF, you have to takethe safe sport, which is the you
know like conduct and ethicsprogram that the Olympics falls
follows.
You know like.
You know like we need to beprotecting our students 100% and
and in particularly like fromthe sexual predator type stuff.
I think that that like I thinkit was two, two, three years ago

(01:10:48):
like there was a big wave ofpeople being found out in
jujitsu schools, particularly ormaybe not just for jujitsu
schools.
But you know, that's the,that's the community I, the
subculture I follow in ourcountry.
So you know like, peoplegetting caught for that good, if
you're a scumbag you shouldn'tbe around other people, you know
100%.

(01:11:09):
Adults are kids and so like.
For me, you know, like, one ofthe first things we did is got
SafeSport certified, because I'mlike no dude.
I used to work with at-riskyouth when I was in college.
That was like my main collegegig.
I was working at a lockdownfacility for kids and you know,
one of the things they talkedabout is you don't set yourself
up and what that means is you'renever alone with another child.

(01:11:31):
You know, like, so, like in ourschool, like that's our rule
Like we do a 5.30 am morningclass, so we're never alone with
any of the students adults orkids in our academy.
Never one coach and one one onestudent.
Um, so like, I'm like okay, solike, when someone comes in in
the morning class, you knowsomething that's really cold
right now.
So we have people barelytrickling in.

(01:11:53):
No one's ever not come in andno one's ever been, only just
one person.
But if that ever happens, likeI guess say, well, I can't have
class because I our rule is wewon't be alone with the ones one
student, you know yeah, I solike yeah, go ahead so like you
need to.
you need to make sure that, likeone of the things that I, when
I, when I tell people likethey're like looking for an

(01:12:14):
academy, I'm like you know, thenthey come to us.
I'm like you know, look at allof us, I'm like, but you should
look at the ones and try andfigure out how do you, how do
you think they're doing withprotecting your kid?
Like one of the things that,like we're about to expand into
a bigger, into not, we're notgoing to leave our location, but
we're about to expand into aspace next door and it's our gym
, is wide open.
There's no, there's no rooms.

(01:12:35):
And I will.
I like that because I can seewhere everybody is all the time.
There's never two people in achanging room together, there's
never, you know.
Like you know we have changingtents, you know we have the
bathroom and I'm like you cansee everything.
And when we expand over, it'slike no, I don't want any rooms,
like because nobody should bealone with each other.

(01:12:57):
Like that kind of stuff.
And like, no, you don't travelto tournaments with just the
student.
You don't like that's like thatkind of stuff, like if you have
a coach that's wanting to dothat kind of stuff with your
kids or you, as I think that's alittle weird and I think
there's weird stuff going onthere and it's like, yes, I want
to be your friend, but you knowwe can hang out at barbecues

(01:13:17):
and stuff like that.
But like, when it comes likethere's a certain level at which
there needs to beappropriateness and, um, there
needs to be some kind of linedrawn where you're not not
willing to compromise that.
Because, like that conduct, youknow, like that's a big deal.
And I'm like dude when you findout those people have done
those kinds of things to kids,or like other women in their
schools or you know, or youngmen, I'm like bro, somebody

(01:13:39):
should have tied a rock aroundthat person's neck and thrown
him in the river.
you know, like yeah those peopledo not belong in society.
Like I'm not about like anykind of like youth era was it
euthanasia or what is it?
Was it called like where you,you know anyways, where you like
take people out of your societybecause they're you know, weird
or you kill them?
I'm like I think people that doinappropriate stuff to other

(01:14:02):
people, like that, I think theymight fall into that.
That's pretty much the onlytime I think about that yeah
like that's.
That's a really important thingabout the evolution of jiu-jitsu
schools is people taking thatmore seriously?
I'm liking seeing that becauseyou can see that's happening
more and more and that's reallycool.

Speaker 1 (01:14:17):
Yeah, I think there should be a requirement,
something like that, or at leasta course on how to identify.
I I know the scouts when theystarted identifying a lot of
that going on, a lot of leadersuh, I had to jump on it right
away yeah, a hundred percent,right, um yeah but no, I think,
I think you know, part of beingan owner of of a business or

(01:14:38):
anything, especially martialarts, especially a martial art
where you're literally connectedto the person during the entire
training, right?
This isn't a non-contact sport.
I think that something likethat absolutely should be a
requirement and enforced.
And I think um, I don't want tosay this I think the image

(01:15:06):
inside the academy matters,especially the behavior of the,
the professors, and what theyallow going and go, you know, go
on.
I mean couples join all thetime.
You and your wife startedtraining um together, but I mean
there's just so much uh,inappropriateness sometimes.

(01:15:28):
I think that goes on.
I'm glad that I've never been apart of an academy that had
that, but I to your point, Ithink that owners need to
consider that in their startupand making sure there are things
that are in place fail-safes,whatever you want to call them
that prevent and protect,especially the kids.

(01:15:48):
No, I'm glad you brought thatup.

Speaker 3 (01:15:50):
Well, and you have to be willing to like set
boundaries.
You know like we teach the kidslike setting boundaries.
You know, through honesty, likeit's okay to tell people like
no, mom, I don't want to hugUncle Jimmy, you know what I
mean.
Like don't you know?
Like no, ma, or like hey, Idon't like you doing that, I
don't, don't put your hand on myshoulder.
Like, and we talk about, likethis, I'm like you know, if
somebody at school is doingsomething they're pushing you

(01:16:12):
and you don't like it and youtell them, I'm like you then
have the right to make them nottouch you, you know, and I'm
like you don't have to hurt them.
But you, you, you know, and I'mlike you don't have to hurt
them, but you can let them knowthat you aren't messing around
anymore, cause you asked them tostop.
You know, be assertive, behonest with people about how you
feel.
And it's like you talk aboutthat with the adults too.
And it's, you know, like we'vehad students that say things

(01:16:33):
that they think are funny.
You know, when we're doingsituationals or something, and
I'm like I approached thatstudent and I'm like I approach
that student and I'm like, hey,don't talk like that, especially
when you're about to train witha woman you know oh yeah, you
know whether we like it or not,like, whether we like it or not,
we have to be sensitive to thefact that, you know, women have
in many ways been takenadvantage of for the past.

(01:16:53):
you know most of human history,you know, being being smaller
and never having been put in alight in society where we, like
now, today, I feel like inAmerica especially we're like we
take pride in our womentraining things that men used to
only do, you know, likelearning to use a firearm,

(01:17:14):
learning self-defense, you know,like stuff like that, like now,
like you can see, like we havepride in that with our, our
women, and it's like still, eventhough you may thought it was
funny, dude, you still gotta besensitive to that.
So don't talk like that.
You know you're going to getyour ass kicked out of here.
You know what I mean, and soand I've had a couple of
students that had to say thattoo, and they 100% are like no,

(01:17:36):
you're right, thank.
And I'm like don't you know?
Because one of the things Idon't want, like I don't think
government regulation isnecessary to make people you
shouldn't have to havegovernment regulation necessary
to make people do the rightthing, and I I hate the idea
that there's people that arelike no, there should be a
regulation against about that.
I'm like no, how about we just?

Speaker 1 (01:17:55):
just be a good person .

Speaker 3 (01:17:56):
The people that were yeah, how about we be really
mean to the people that refuseto do the right thing?
You know?
Yeah and it's like, but butanyway.
So yeah, no, sorry, I just feltlike that's an important piece
to talk about for the evolutionof jiu-jitsu academies because,
again, you know, like if yourschool isn't making that
important, then it's probablynot a good place to be I like
that.

Speaker 1 (01:18:16):
I like that a lot.
That's actually, I think,something that I'm going to
include on these episodes goingforward is, you know, the
protection of, you know, notjust children, but all those
kind of entrusted in yourmembership.
So I'm glad you shared that.
So let's hit this rapid fireround.
First question what's yourfavorite jiu-jitsu move or
submission?

(01:18:37):
I know you'd mentioned you likeguard passing, but is there a
specific pass submission?
What's, what's your take?

Speaker 3 (01:18:43):
I think um.
One of my favorite things islike the trickery of Torriando,
like Torriando variations youknow like keep it basic man.
Yeah, and I'm, I'm not kidding,Like it's so fun to, just it's
so fun to.
You know, like, whether youpull their collar up onto their
butt and spin them, or whetheryou, you, you have a collar and
one pant leg and you pull oneway and they, they, you know

(01:19:05):
jujitsu is the maximumefficiency, minimum effort.
You know, like, I want to useyour momentum again against you
and when you pull, I push andjust you know spinning that and
head dropping in the hip, youknow, right away.
So they can't get that outsideleg back over.
Actually, it's one of thethings we're going to cover this
week coming up, because so manykids got so many good guard
passes and just didn't get theirchest down and get their head

(01:19:26):
down.
So now the person's leg comesback and they're stuck right
back in the guard.
I'm like that's really awesome,that's one of my favorite
things.
And then I think my favoritesubmission is arm bar.
I seem to have always been ableto get that from a lot of
different places and one of myfriends, ariel I'm out in tucson
, you know like I mean he'samazing, but in my mind I'm like

(01:19:49):
I always, just always say likehe actually does jiu-jitsu
because he hits all these things, uh, these fundamental, like
moves and submissions and thingsfrom anywhere, like he can
apply those concepts and that'slike I think that's the hard
part about jujitsu isrecognizing that this concept is
what makes the move happen, notthe that like the dogma of the

(01:20:11):
move itself, you know.
And so it's like, yeah, the armbar is like the one thing that
I think I've got I had thatfigured out early is like, oh,
this position puts me in it.
Oh, look, I'm in the spot whereI can grab that arm, you know,
and and actually have thecontrol that I need to submit
them, you know.
And so I think that arm bar isdefinitely my favorite.

Speaker 1 (01:20:32):
If I have to go for something else, it's typically
some type of armbar.

Speaker 3 (01:20:46):
So next question dream opponent to roll with
train, with past or present?
I want to train.
I want to roll with Master JohnJock.
My son got to roll with him andI'm jealous.

Speaker 1 (01:20:56):
Does he come out, or do you go there or do you
interact?

Speaker 3 (01:21:01):
Last year I got to see him three times.
So like whenever he sometimeswe'll go to where he's going or
he'll go to our sister academiesin Jacksonville.
There, you know, there's two ofthem now in Jacksonville, but
he'll go there.
But every year we go to hisacademy in LA.
So but you know, like we werein Jacksonville and he was there

(01:21:23):
last summer and, like my son,you know, asked Master
Jean-Jacques if he can trainwith him and he, let me roll
with him, dude.
And every so many people walkedup to me, these black belts
that know, master Jean-Jacques,you know, like 10, 20 years,
they're like dude, I've neverrolled with him.

Speaker 1 (01:21:45):
They're 20 years, they're like dude.

Speaker 3 (01:21:46):
I've never rolled with him.
They're like what the hell?
That's awesome, I don't know.
That's awesome, you know.
And I'm like, I'm like dangdude.
And it was in my son, you know,he's pretty adept and he was
like he's all.
It was really weird.
He was like he's so, like hecan tell everything I'm gonna do
and just when, just when Ithink I'm going to do this thing
, he's like just this minormovement and I was like.
I was like, bro, he probablysaw you when you woke up this

(01:22:07):
morning.

Speaker 1 (01:22:07):
Yeah, yeah, I got to roll with one of my with one of
my, I guess, favorites that Ialways watch is with Leo Neguera
, and I remember trying the SaoPaulo pass on him and he's kind
of known for that and I saw himjust kind of laughing and of
course he cross-collared me, butit was awesome.

(01:22:27):
I enjoyed that.
I hope I get to.
We have Bernardo Faria comingout for a seminar in May.
Oh, cool, and I'm hoping so badto get at least one role with
him, because half game is mine.
Yeah, yeah, to get at least oneright, because half game is mine
.
Yeah, yeah, he is, yeah, uh.
So two, two more questions here.
Most inspiring match thatyou've ever watched, or most

(01:22:48):
memorable match that you were in?
Thinking, probably somethingalong the the pans, uh, but uh,
yeah, what's, what's your takeon that?

Speaker 3 (01:22:59):
um, you know, like so most inspiring match I've ever
watched was is my wife.
Like you know, she doesn'tcompete often, but every time
she does she goes out and doesreally well.
But you know, like I rememberthe first time she went out and
competed and this is the firsttime I ever actually got to see
her Like she's been an athleteher whole life.

(01:23:19):
You know she started runningcross country when she was like
six with the YMCA and she justoh, wow has always been an
athlete.
You know, like, walked onto thecross country team at Boise
State, just different stuff,like that.
I mean she didn't end up, endup competing there, but you know
like they were like, yeah,we'll take you and um, but you
know, it's like.
So when I went and got to watchher actually like go be an

(01:23:42):
athlete.
She's like, you know, likeafter you do your first match,
your hands are dead.
You know like your hands aregassed, it's.
You know you've blown out yourgrips.
You're super tired, way moretired than you did in any of the
hardest roles you've ever had.
It's like you know.
So she's like watching,watching her like cool off and
prepare herself for the nextmatch, you know.

(01:24:03):
And then, and then, like youknow, we find out like she was
five weeks pregnant during likethat first time she competed.
Oh my gosh, oh, wow, yeah.
And then she and I'm like, wow,man, you did all that fight,
you know.
And then that's like, it seemslike that's the most tiring time
.
You know, yeah, you know, it's'slike that was really cool and I
would say, like you know, forme personally it was just my is
my first jiu-jitsu match likethat.

(01:24:24):
I won my first jiu-jitsu matchand I think about, I just think
about it how, like man, it washard and the ability to control
another person in that type ofsituation at such a low level of
experience.
You know, I was like man.
That was yeah, I can do this.
I can do this hard thing if Ihave to what so?

Speaker 1 (01:24:46):
what was it like watching her win worlds?

Speaker 3 (01:24:50):
yeah, that was so cool dude, because, um, like
that was like flow grappling,had only been out for like two
years in terms of like puttingstuff like that on tv and uh,
the cool thing about it was, youknow she was, she was a blue
belt, she, you know she'd been ablue belt for a long time,
cause I, you know, for likethree years we didn't train with
a black belt and then we livedin, we lived in Tucson.

(01:25:10):
We only lived there for about11 months.
So, you know, we trained andcompeted there and and then, you
know, we moved to Florida andwe were training really hard and
my wife's just murderingeverybody in the academy.
Everyone's like you should goto the Master Worlds, you should
go to Master Worlds.
It's 2020.
So there's some people whoweren't competing, some people
we were in Florida, soeverybody's like we're competing

(01:25:31):
.
And so they held Master Worlds,where they do the pans every
year, and so we're like youshould go do this, you should go
do pans every year.
And um, so you know, we're likeyou should go do this, you
should go do this man.
And so she's like, okay, Iguess I'll go do it, you know.
And so I was like man, cause Iwas planning on going, you know,
and and like that's, that'swhere I got like my first major

(01:25:53):
piece of call fire.
My wife broke my ear while we'retraining for master worlds, you
know, and trying to armbar meand it's like she's freaking
tough, but you know.
So like we're going, and shegoes down and heard she competed
the day before I did.
So she went down and her andanother person from our team
they both go and compete and hegot silver in Master Worlds and

(01:26:14):
she got gold.
But the first match, you know,like she goes out and my wife's
really tall she, you know likeshe goes out and my wife's
really tall, like she's 5'10,and she goes out and you can
tell that the gal was like ohgosh, you know, my wife takes
you down, our bars are rightaway and we're like dang, first
match wrecked it, you know like.
And then um, she goes thesecond match and wins.
And the cool thing is is likewe were watching all this on

(01:26:34):
flow, grappling on our big tv inthe living room, you know so my
kids are watching their momcompete live on television
that's so cool like a celebrityright, like a tv star yeah, yeah
, and they're like you know,they're like, oh you know, and
everyone's yelling.
We're like, oh man, we're likevideoing it and stuff and and,
uh, you know, and then she getsthe, gets the third match, you
know, and it's like wins thatmatch and it's like everyone's

(01:26:57):
like oh man, yeah, it becomeslike, oh my gosh, she's got a
chance.
Right, she's got a chance to winnow yeah, and she, then she's
in the finals and everyone'slike, everyone's like messaging
and calling us and like, oh man,I can't believe she's there,
you know.
And uh, you know, I'm postingstuff online and people family
members are like, wow, this iscrazy.
And then she wins, you know.

(01:27:17):
And uh, she wins and like likeour kids are just like, oh, my
god, my mom just won a worldchampionship.
And you know, like my wife kindof like downplayed, she's like,
well, it's just blue belt, youknow, and master worlds.
And she's like she's always sohumble and and uh, I'm like,
dude, listen, let's take 99 ofthe people you see every day and

(01:27:38):
go stick them in thattournament and will they win the
world championship?
And I'm like maybe 1% of themwould.
I'm like, so listen, anybodythat criticizes you because it's
a blue belt, why don't you justask them, hey, do you have a
world championship in anything?

Speaker 1 (01:27:53):
Yeah, blue belts have the highest brackets they have
the highest at Worlds at PANS,at the Big Four, they're always
the highest.
I mean adult male blue belt.
Are you kidding me?
There's like 30 people in that.

Speaker 3 (01:28:07):
Those are killers, yeah yeah, they're killers and
it's like and these and theseladies that my wife fought, I
mean they were.
It was tough, it was awesomeand it was like a couple of the
matches went went by advantagebecause they were just back and
forth on each other, you know.
So it's like you know you watch, so you watch that kind of
stuff and I just again, you knowshe's really humble, but I'm
like listen, how many people cansay they have a world

(01:28:28):
championship in anything?
Anything yeah you know, inletter writing, or, you know,
jumping on a pogo stick.

Speaker 1 (01:28:37):
I mean, you know what I mean.
Like, I mean the gravity ofthat.
Yeah, we have yeah it's like soyeah.
Yeah, we.

Speaker 3 (01:28:45):
That's like that was cool, that was like the
inspiring match, you know.

Speaker 1 (01:28:48):
Yeah, I think that would be huge to watch, like
your spouse, especially sittingthere with your kids, like glued
to the TV.
And then you know as a parentand as a mom and you know you
said your wife's a stay-at-homemom Just the message it sends to
your kids that you canliterally do anything you set

(01:29:13):
your mind to and that you want,and I think that's huge.
So last question on the rapidfire here before we wrap up this
is caffeinated jujitsu.
All things caffeinated.
What's your go-to coffee,caffeinated drink?
What have you?

Speaker 3 (01:29:32):
Man, I like just either straight black coffee
that's just been brewed likeregular old coffee pot.
Whenever you're, at Starbucks.
I'm not a huge fan of starbucks,but that that pike's, that
pike's roast or whatever it'scalled.
I'll just get it black, likewhen I'm traveling, for sure.
But you know, when my wife andI drink coffee in the morning,
you know it's brewed in the potand and uh, I just put a little

(01:29:54):
dollop of regular old milk in itand you know just and drink it.
That way I like that.
I think that if you're a coffeedrinker you have to like,
appreciate the smell and thetaste of the coffee and not make
it a milkshake yeah, I'm, I'mpro coffee, anti-energy drinks.

Speaker 1 (01:30:10):
I um man, I had this crazy like intestine infection
after I drank an energy drinkone time and it totally ruined
me on energy drinks and I haverecently started drinking more
black coffee and I don't trustpeople who don't drink coffee.

(01:30:30):
I can't fully trust you if youdon't have some kind of caffeine
going through you.

Speaker 3 (01:30:39):
Yeah, especially if you're like I don't drink coffee
.
You're like, okay, it says alot through you.

Speaker 1 (01:30:41):
Um, yeah, especially when you're like I don't drink
coffee.
You're like okay.

Speaker 3 (01:30:43):
It says a lot.
It says a lot about you.

Speaker 1 (01:30:45):
You know, it tells me .
It tells me a lot right Halfthe time.

Speaker 3 (01:30:49):
People say it like they're snooty.

Speaker 1 (01:30:51):
Oh my gosh and I'm like wow.

Speaker 3 (01:30:54):
Do you think you're better than everyone?
Huh?

Speaker 1 (01:30:56):
Yeah, the worst, worst thing in society.

Speaker 3 (01:30:58):
I think I got a 16 year old to beat the crap out of
you.

Speaker 1 (01:31:00):
So is the right is the rise of the health snob
personality where like gluten isbad.
All this, everything's bad foryou.
You have to eat this or that.
Listen I was born in 1979, grewup in the 80s 90s.
We were drinking water out ofthe hose Hose dog.

(01:31:22):
No one knew what gluten was.
I mean, what the hell is gluten.

Speaker 3 (01:31:25):
I still don't know what it is.
Well, that's what I'm saying.
It's like come on man.
For me.
I'm like.

Speaker 1 (01:31:29):
Watering down a society.

Speaker 3 (01:31:32):
Yeah, no, 100%.
And you know the food pyramidbeing upside down, you know,
know it's like, yeah, on thebottom, yeah, like it's like
what are you doing?
You know, and like it's likewell known that the anyways.
But you know that's a wholenother podcast for me oh gosh,
yeah, yeah, I read, I read likeI think you know, to your point
of like, how these things nowmake people sick.

(01:31:52):
I'm like, no, dude, it's becausewe all have plastic in us.
Like, oh yeah, plastic is the,I think, the one thing that is
wrecked health because itinhibits so many things that are
natural processes in your bodyonce it like gets in part into
your, into your like system.
You know, they say that youingest like half a credit card
size worth of plastic every day.
You're like that's insane.
And here's the thing being ahydrologist, it ruins a lot of

(01:32:16):
shit.
For me being a hydrologist ohmy god, that's a water
professional ruins a lot.
You know like.
So I'm like you're like let's gojump in this lake.
I'm like, no, bro, I'm notgetting in that lake.
I see, I know it's in that lake.
I'm not gonna like.
But like, uh, don't get in yourears.
If you go, don't get in yourears.
But like, you know like yourstomach.
You know like, no, knowing alot about water means I know a

(01:32:36):
lot about water chemistry andI'm like right, you know your
stomach is highly acidic and itdissolves every solid that goes
into it.
That's the point of it beingacidic is meant to dissolve it
and put it in solution so yourbody can, can extract those
things out of this, out of thesolution.
You know, through yourintestines.
And I'm like bro, plastic getslike it gets dissolved too.

(01:32:58):
It's at to a certain level andand that's what microplastic is,
you know, that's why they findit in sewer systems, because it
went through someone's body andit got dissolved and broken down
with sulfuric and the sulfuricacids in your stomach.
So I'm like you know, so it'slike that's not good.

Speaker 1 (01:33:12):
Yeah, you've given me a lot to Google.
You got something wrong withyou.

Speaker 3 (01:33:17):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:33:18):
I agree, I agree, it's, uh, it's, it's been
centuries, uh, proven benefits.
So so, before we wrap up here,professor Dean, uh, what's next
for you and Carolina?
Family jujitsu.

Speaker 3 (01:33:33):
Um.
The next next thing is, um,expanding the space.
You know, we have a, we have a.
We have a good problem rightnow where we have too many
people and not enough mats, youknow we have a good problem
right now where we have too manypeople and not enough mats.
That's a good problem to have,that's right, you know.

(01:33:54):
So we went the rounds oflooking for buildings nearby
because we didn't want to haveto have our current students
have to travel more than 10minutes from the current
location.
Just nothing was fitting thebill.
So we're like we're just goingto stay where we are and wait
out the person next to to us andwhen their lease is up, we'll
take it over and we'll knock outthe wall between us and uh, and
the landlord's cool with that.
So it's like, you know, we'rejust gonna hang out and just uh,
tell everybody be aware of yourspace around you, which is part
of uh, part of jujitsu anyway.

Speaker 1 (01:34:13):
So yeah, it may have to start on the ground a little
bit more, right yeah, or we dothings like start standing in
situationals.
But, yeah, yeah, for sure, soso space growth, and are you
competing any this year, or Iknow?

Speaker 3 (01:34:30):
you need to compete.
I just got my black belt inOctober, so I do want to go down
.
I don't know if I have the timeto go to the pans this year.
The hard part is, you know, mycurrent, my current job is is
pretty taxing.
But right now I have, you know,kids, six kids going in every
different direction.
But I'd like to go down.
I was supposed to competeyesterday but there was nobody,

(01:34:52):
no other black belts, so nobody.
Nobody else signed up.
So I was.
I've been a lone soldier, so Iwas like my first one.
But but you know, like one ofthe things I want to do is I, I
want to, I want to go out tomaster worlds in vegas and, um,
just, you know what will happenis the funny thing about you
know, once you're in black beltmy professor told me he said

(01:35:12):
things about black belt isthere's no divisions in black
belt.
It's not first drive versusfirst drive, it's black belt.
And you go in there and you mayhave a.
You know you may be goingagainst somebody at Master
Worlds.
You know that's been doingjujitsu for twice as long as
you've been a black belt, fortwice as long as you've been
doing jujitsu.

Speaker 1 (01:35:27):
Yeah, they started when they were like 10.

Speaker 3 (01:35:32):
Yeah, well, I mean, like the highest level I've
rolled with is one of the oldstudents from Brazil, and he is
six stripe, and one of the Johnjocks old students from Brazil,
and he is six stripe, and I meanhe knew what I was doing every
time.
So it's just hilarious.
So it's like, yeah, but I thinkthat, uh, I think I'd like to
go out there and just, you know,get my ass handed to me by
somebody that's far moreexperienced, but it's cool.

Speaker 1 (01:35:53):
Yeah, yeah, that's, that's the fun thing.
I prefer training with higherbelts.
I mean, if I, if we get a trick, uh, pick up training partners
at a seminar, what have you?
I'll almost always ask a blackbelt role just because I feel
that's how that's how I improve.
I mean, I'm not here, you know,I'll never more than likely,
I'll never be a world champion.
I don't know if that's myaspiration.

(01:36:13):
I would like to actually teachjujitsu one day, Um, but for me
it's just the joy of improvingand things like that.
So if um you know, and, as weclose out here, where can our
listeners of today's episodefind you?
Either online, or what's thebest way for them to uh to get

(01:36:34):
in contact?
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:36:37):
Yeah, um Carolina family.
Yeah, yeah, um carolina familyjiu-jitsu on facebook um
carolinafamilyjiu-jitsucom.
That's our website.
And uh, we are on instagram.
We have uh, that's really whereI do everything and just filter
it to facebook because I don'treally know how to use facebook
well, we don't have tiktokanymore right, I mean that's,
that's gone, it's just um, soit's car Family Jiu-Jitsu JJM on

(01:37:03):
Instagram.
So yeah, thanks guys forlistening and Joe much love man,
thanks for getting me on.
It's cool.

Speaker 1 (01:37:10):
Yeah, yeah, I've enjoyed doing this for a morning
episode.
I may start switching some ofthese to morning records, so I
appreciate you coming on andit's a great conversation, great
content.
I appreciate it.
I know the listeners are goingto like it, thanks man, but yeah
that's a wrap for this episodeof Caffeinated Jiu-Jitsu.

(01:37:33):
If you enjoyed today's episode,don't forget to subscribe, share
it with your training partnersand leave a review to help more
people discover the journey ofjiu-jitsu.
Stay connected with us oninstagram for more updates.
Join the caffeinated jiu-jitsuig community and remember every
day on the mat is progress.

Speaker 2 (01:37:55):
Train smart, roll safe and keep your passion
brewing and that's the final tapon today's episode of
Caffeinated Jiu-Jitsu.
A big thanks to all of ourlisteners, especially today's
insightful guest, for sharingtheir BJJ knowledge and tales.
If you felt that adrenalinerush and are hungry for more,

(01:38:19):
hit, subscribe, drop a reviewand spread the jujitsu buzz.
For show notes and to contactthe host, reach out to the email
provided in the podcastdescription and to join our
grappling community, head overto Instagram.
Get those geese, crisp yourcoffee strong and always be
prepared for the next roll Oss.

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Episode #24 - Inside the Academy: Professor Joey Dean, Carolina Family Jiu Jitsu

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Episode #24 - Inside the Academy: Professor Joey Dean, Carolina Family Jiu Jitsu