What Age to Start Jiu-Jitsu and Why: A Comprehensive Guide

Welcome back to the Strong Heart Academy blog.

As a leading Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu gym in Scottsdale, Arizona, we are committed to providing valuable information and resources to help you and your family excel in martial arts.

Today, we will discuss a common question among parents and prospective students: "What age should you start Jiu-Jitsu, and why?"

Let's explore the best age to begin training, the benefits of starting early, and how to find the right program for your child.

The Ideal Age to Start Jiu-Jitsu

While there's no definitive age requirement for beginning Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, most experts agree that children can start learning the basics as young as 4 years old. At this age, children have developed enough motor skills and coordination to participate in structured classes and understand basic techniques.

However, it's important to find a program specifically designed for younger children, often referred to as "Little Ninjas" or "Tiny Tots" classes. These classes focus on building essential skills and values while incorporating age-appropriate techniques and games to keep kids engaged and having fun.

The Benefits of Starting Jiu-Jitsu Early

Starting Jiu-Jitsu at a young age offers numerous physical, mental, and social benefits, including:

1. Improved Physical Fitness and Coordination: BJJ training helps children develop strength, flexibility, and balance, which are essential for overall health and well-being. Research has shown that regular participation in martial arts can significantly improve physical fitness in children.

2. Enhanced Focus and Discipline: Jiu-Jitsu requires concentration and self-discipline, as students must learn complex techniques and strategies. This increased focus can translate to better academic performance and success in other areas of life.

3. Increased Self-Confidence: As children progress in their Jiu-Jitsu journey, they will develop a sense of accomplishment and pride in their abilities. This boost in self-confidence can help them navigate various challenges throughout life.

4. Development of Social Skills: BJJ classes provide a supportive environment for children to interact with their peers, fostering teamwork, cooperation, and communication skills. Studies have demonstrated that martial arts training can help improve social skills and decrease aggression in children.

Finding the Right Jiu-Jitsu Program for Your Child

When searching for the perfect Jiu-Jitsu program for your child, consider the following factors:

1. Class Structure and Curriculum: Look for a program that offers age-appropriate instruction, with a focus on fun, skill-building activities, and values like respect and discipline.

2. Qualified Instructors: Ensure the instructors are experienced in teaching children and have the necessary certifications and background checks.

3. Safe and Clean Facilities: A well-maintained training environment is crucial for your child's safety and overall experience.

Wrapping Up

In conclusion, starting Jiu-Jitsu early can provide your child with a strong foundation for a lifelong love of martial arts and the numerous benefits that come with it. At Strong Heart Academy in Scottsdale, Arizona, we offer a range of children's Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu classes designed to help young students develop essential skills in a fun, supportive environment. Contact us today to schedule a trial class and begin your child's journey in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.

Black Belt Mindset: Discussion on What It Takes

Black Belt Mindset

A third-degree black belt, Mike Martin discusses what he thinks it takes for black belt training. Mike owns Strong Heart Academy, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, in Phoenix, Arizona.

View our blog here.

Watch the video below:

Talk about what I think it takes to have a black belt mindset

Transcript: Black Belt Mindset

Today's podcast is brought to you by Strongheartacademy.com where no heart is no victory. We are also brought to you by BJJ2go, if you wanna build your game and learn jujitsu, go to BJJ2go.com. Okay. So today I just wanna talk about, um, being a black belt, um, this weekend, last weekend, uh, on the fifth, we did a belt graduation. It's the first one I've done ever. Um, I've always given black belts, like are given belts out during class. Like you're already, uh, we do a black belt test at, at strong heart. Um, you have to have the hours required, then you take your black belt test and then we do a gauntlet. And then after the gauntlet, we, I would give the belt for blue belts and purple belts and brown belts. Um, and then black belts, we've done them during, like Kyle would come out and we'd do a seminar and then we'd do a black belt, like the, a little bit ceremony for the black belts.

Black Belt: Reasoning

Um, and you know, my reasoning was that, um, when you're ready, you're ready and I don't want you to have to wait. You know, some of these schools will do once one graduation a year, twice a year. And I always like bother me. What if, like, you know, you have to go outta town for work that weekend. What if, um, your mother is in the hospital that weekend? You know what, it, it's just not, I didn't never seem fair to do that. So we're gonna start doing 'em quarterly. You will have the option. Um, if you, again, you still have to have the hours, you still have to do the black belt test and you still have to do a gauntlet. Um, and a lot of these schools, you know, they just go, I think you're ready. And then they give you a belt. And then, uh, I don't, I'm not a fan of that. Uh, we always had a test, um, and we'll always continue to have a black belt test.

And, um, so that being said, um, you know, we're gonna continue forward, but I think every three months we're gonna have one of these and see how it goes. It went great this weekend. Um, you know, I gave two black belts out. Um, uh, they were earned, uh, Joseph Westbrook. He's trained with me since the beginning. Uh, he trained bef outta school that I ran for years and we both trained together there. So he's been trained about 15 years. So, you know, it's a long road sometimes. And then Adrian is trained with me. I'm not even quite sure, maybe seven years, six years. Um, but he trains almost every day, sometimes twice a day, uh, sometimes three times a day. And he was my first black belt that was from white to black. The, a lot of the guys that I've given black belts to were, um, were started at blue, or they've trained a little bit somewhere first, you know, I've taken most of my black belts all the way, but, or most of the way, but he was the first one I took all the way from white to black.

And for me, that was a big deal. And, um, and I, I told him like, you're gonna be, you're my expectation's gonna be even higher for you, man, cuz you're gonna have to set the bar now. And um, and I think he did, you know, I, I asked him to do a couple things, fix a couple things, work on a couple things and, and he did that. He applied and, and got it done. And you know, Westbrook has been my friend forever. Um, one of my really good friends and um, um, just I'm happy for both of them. We gave out a number of other black belts too. You know, bunch of people got belts. I saw a bunch of, uh, old students of mine that don't train anymore or train. I have like one guy that trains in another school and it was just good to see him, you know?

Um, it was a good, it was good memories. It was good memories. And I was very appreciative of the whole, the whole day. And it was like a very, um, it was good for me. It was good for my soul. So, um, we'll continue those. And uh, I think everyone enjoyed it and, and liked it and, and we'll go forward and we got some good pictures, uh, Marcel, um, from Marcel visuals, he, uh, does photography and videography and he did a great job and, and I'll post those videos up. And if you ever wanna check him out, it's Marcel visuals.com I believe. Um, and he has his own studio too. You can go to a studio and do professional shot, you know, professional shoot, you know, he does with models all the time. Um, so I'm happy for him too. He's one of my students, I'm just happy that he's doing his passion in life.

And it's so hard. Society is not really built for people wanting to do their passions. It's very built for getting the, getting the machine, be your cog and, uh, and shut your mouth type of thing. So it's, it's hard to do your passion, but I think in the long run, even the struggles, you know, you'll be happier on the journey if you do those type of things. And one of the things during the gauntlet or during the graduation was, uh, Adrian said, uh, he whispered to me, I always knew I was gonna be a black bow. And it was like a kind of a mind blowing epiphany, whatever was like, yeah, like you, you have to believe that you can get there. And man, fortunately, there's a lot of watering down in jujitsu right now. I've seen a lot of guys getting black belts and it's not because it's like less time because I think you can get black belts a lot faster.

Black Belt: World Titles

Now I would still say, you should ha you know, unless you're winning world titles, I still say it should take six, a minimum of six years, you know, guys are doing it four or five. That's cool. But have you won any of the world titles? You know, the Kyle got in three, but he was winning world titles after world title, after world title, after world title, doing open divisions. Like, yeah, man, like you gotta give that guy a black belt, but like there's guys getting black belts that I just don't, I don't know that I personally would give them a black belt and maybe my standards are a little high and none of my guys have won titles or anything, but like they have the years in the experience in, and they have the battles in and, um, they've helped others. They've done the things that I feel like are required to be a black belt.

And um, to me, like you almost have to be a, a kind of a crazy person. You have to be super dedicated in order to do it. And you have to really want it. You can't, can't be like a, a hobby. You know, you just, you could be a hobby, no problem. But if you wanna be a black woman, it's gotta be a little bit more than that. It's like your way of life. Um, and I think it's just hard to be a black belt without that. And you can, you can for sure, but it's harder. And I, I highly recommend going all in if that's what you wanna do, if you want to be a black belt. And that doesn't mean you have to, again, doesn't mean you have the world win world titles, but definitely if you wanna win world titles, you have to be all in.

You cannot be a toe in you can't be lukewarm. You gotta be red hot for it. And you gotta love it. You gotta love that grind. And if you don't love the grind, I think it's really hard to get to that to the end. And it's not the end, but like it's the first end. I would say, it's the first end, the first major milestone and that blue belt's kind of a milestone too, cuz you're start like, okay, I think I understand the basics now, but black belt means like you've mastered the basics. In my opinion, you have mastery of the basics. Uh, we went to a seminar. I won't say who, not that long ago. And I saw some black ball Sarah and they were like, they didn't know what da Heva was. Da Heva is so old. <laugh> it's not like this new fancy thing, man.

Like you should know how to play daily. Heva even if it's not your game to play, you should know what it is. He's like, you don't know what it is. How, how are you a black belt? I don't understand. You know, some of that could be not. And these guys, cuz these guys were new black belts, but some of that could be like, you're so old that you never train. You know, it was new back then and 20 years ago. But uh, you're not, you know, you don't play it. But sometimes these guys like they stop learning when they're black are like, ah, I know everything I need and maybe that's true. But like anytime you're in an industry and you quit learning, the industry passes, you buy, uh, jujitsu is no different, you know, jujitsu is constantly changing and there are certain areas I think I'm behind that.

I need to work on, but I try to work on stuff. I really do. Um, age. Isn't the factor that stops me from learning. That's that's um, a limiting mindset that I don't like. And I don't think you should have that as a black belt. It's like, oh I'm a black belt. I'm done learning. No, not really man. Or it could be, but it shouldn't be, that's uh, not a good way to think about or do it. And you could definitely quit after black belt. I mean, it's a, it's a big accomplishment for sure. But like I'm so in, I so love jujitsu that I can't imagine quitting. It's like, uh, marriage, you know that you love someone, you don't, why would you do quit? You know, unless you're physically cannot do it. But even then man, I would be around it. I would be pointing and I would be around and I would still study.

I would be watching Jiu Jitsu and you gotta have that love, man. I just think you gotta have that love to get to the end. You can't make a black belt without a love of it. And uh, you know, I've heard some people lately saying there should be no belts, you know, we should just compete. Whoever's the best wins. And I've, I mean, you know, in wrestling that happens, but there's definitely levels to this. And to say there's not levels is weird because even in basketball, I'm a big basketball fan. Like the difference between high school basketball and college basketball and then the NBA basketball and then the NBA champions or all stars. Those are all levels, man. And those aren't belts per se, but those are definitely levels. You know, you, you, most high school kids will get destroyed by college and most college kids would get destroyed by, um, by NBA players.

So it's it's for me, it's like the same concept, even junior high, junior high to high school. Now some of that is like physical growth, but it's also knowledge and skill set too. I mean that those come with time and hours put in and it just takes the hours and, and Ji's just no different. And uh, so that's how I look at those kind of belts almost is like, um, depth of knowledge and depth of application and skill. Um, and if you just don't have that, just think it is a, uh, it's slows down the, and even like college, you know, you can get a bachelor's, but you can get a master's or you can get a PhD in so many fields that you wouldn't under. Didn't think you can get a PhD in, but you can get a PhD in a lot of things.

So it's like, those are levels, you know, you can consider those like belts almost because, um, it's the mastery of the subject and you're trying to master get a level of mastery of the subject. And I in, I always heard, you know, calling someone master I'm like, I don't like that cuz I feel like you never really master anything, but you definitely have a certain level of mastery of something. Um, but the master is like, I know everything there is to it in my mind and it's just like not possible <laugh> and that's the beauty of logistic. Cause it can keep me motivated and not bored because there's always something new and there's always little adjustments. I don't wanna say micro adjustments, but there's micro adjustments that you can make for sure at a higher level to make you better. And uh, I think that's an awesome journey and um, it was cool to see their families there and support them at the graduation and um, and it went great.

I think it went great. So I definitely wanna continue these and March is funny because um, I got my black belt in 2009, um, on March 24th. So this month will be my black belt, um, anniversary and I I'm coming. I should be getting my fourth Stripe pretty soon. I got meet up with Kyle somehow and get that done. And uh, it's also the month I started to Jitsu. So it was like March 1st ish. Uh, like it was the first week of March in 2000, the year 2000. So I've been at this for 22 years and um, there's times where I've been tired and getting burned out, but I've never dropped jujitsu. I never not trained jujitsu. Uh, the longest I ever took off jujitsu 22 years was two months for a shoulder injury, uh, surgery, I should say. And that was not, I was supposed to do nine months.

Um, but that's just like my love for this. And man, I feel like sometimes I get confused that people don't have the same love with me, which is delusional on my part. But um, you know, that's a super projection, but I think you have to have the same love to get to that end. And it can't be like, this is something I do now. It could be, this is something I do that helps me be straight and narrow and keep me motivated and goal setting. That's true. Um, and it could be like a utility for you even more than a passion. So the utility of it is, is important. You know, I make people write out certain questions I ask when they do their black belt test, they gimme a sheet that I want you to fill out. And um, somebody, she wrote out a thing and she said, you know, one of the things that J's done for me is that it gives me excuse to tell my friends that I can't go out tonight and ha and party.

And I was like, yeah, it does. And, and this did the same thing when I first started. Cause I started at, when I was 20, you know, I was 21. Um, and then when I turned 21, you know, you, you can go out and, and go to try to pick up girls and you're going to bars and things like that. But like in the middle of the week, that's not healthy. And then you can't do that when you're getting you can, but you shouldn't be doing that when you're getting older, you know, you got years in. And like I thought that was a great thing that she said that was like, it gives me this excuse not to go out. And again, that, that would be like the utility of it. Um, this week, one of my students said, Hey, it's my two year anniversary of being sober.

And I, we look, I looked down the line and there was four other people in the line that I didn't say anything, but I know that that they've been, uh, they have a sober way of life as well. And you know, they had their struggles and I think jujitsu's also helped them with that journey. You know? So there's five people in this line of maybe there was a smaller class, like 12 people. So five outta 12 had, are, have used and maybe are using jujitsu as a vehicle to stay clean and sober and do something positive with your time because everyone has time and you gotta, you're gonna fill it no matter what. Even if you sleep all day, it's filling your time with sleep and you might as well do something positive with it. And it can give you an excuse to be positive.

Like, oh man, I gotta do jujitsu. I can't go out tonight. Sorry. And I think the non Jitsu people are like, think, look at you. Like what, why are you rolling around with a bunch of people, but they don't, you know, they don't understand it and they're not in that place in their life where they're ready to make a change. They just wanna party party, party, party. And I get it. It's, it's fun, but there's consequences to that. So, um, and to say that there's no consequences, Jitsu, for sure there's gonna be injuries, but I went over that in the past too, man. Like you get older, there's always injuries. Our body breaks down, no matter what you did, lack of exercise will break your body down. So at least you're gonna have good stories and you'll be in shape in between, in between the injuries.

But, um, I'd rather play those prices than the liver damage or whatever your, uh, fun choice is that you do. That's gonna wear that body down. So, um, yeah, these are just kind of reflections over the weekend and, and of the graduation that we had and I'll put some pictures up, um, you know, Marcel took some great pictures and, and uh, I'll figure out how to get everyone's pictures. We took a picture of everyone getting their belt. So I'll try to do that for you guys and, and get those out for you. Um, sometime this week. Um, some of you, I, I, I text, but it's just too many people to send via text and, and, um, their com I can't know how much I can compress these pictures too. So I'll get those out. I appreciate everyone showing up to for the graduation and, and, um, supporting the people that got, uh, new belts and leveled up. And, um, it was just a great experience overall. So it was a short one today. I just wanted to share that with you guys and hope you guys have a great weekend. Peace.

Black Belt Training starts here.

Kids BJJ Day: Demonstration

CHILDREN’S BRAZILIAN JIU JITSU LESSON

Mike Martin, Owner of Strong Heart Academy, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu in Phoenix Arizona, and third-degree black belt, narrates various grips, holds, and more. Demonstration for children’s BJJ and adult BJJ.

View our other blog posts.

Watch the video below:

Kids Day, BJJ Demonstration

Transcript - Kids BJJ Demonstration

Footwork and Cross Stepping

All right, drop Sandia. I'm gonna show with some shoes, some footwork you can do cross stepping and then your other leg is gonna try to stay within your partner's, uh, legs. You don't want to go too far outward outside of the legs. Now, if they're smaller, you can go a little bit. It's not as bad, but try to stay within and then, uh, squat or drop to your knees. Uh, we tend to teach dropping to our knees. It's a little safer, some more footwork gripping at the elbow, lifting the elbow and cross stepping. Lifting at the elbow, allows the other leg, the other arm and grip to come inside.

Making Room for Grip

You're making room for your other grip. Now I'm gonna show cross gripping the various grips we can use, um, lifting form or, uh, form goes inside. So form goes inside the armpit and my other foot is gonna step behind. So cross step form goes inside and squat. Now you could do the full San AGI from standing or the drop sayNo. We tend to do the drop. San AGI just is a little safer for everyone. Now, this is just a self defense, uh, practicing of gripping. If they're overhand, I'm showing 'em like, if you had something in your hand, like a hammer or whatever, stick, it doesn't matter. It just open Palm out as a stop. And then you're gonna reach in traditional gripping underneath.

Body Positioning: BJJ

So it's easier to practice if you partner a square, meaning both feet are equal. Open the elbow cross step. Now opposite arm comes in. It's the same grip. You wanna make sure you get high in the armpit and not in the middle of the bicep. Pull the hand down. So it's hard to finish you head down and follow through leading him forward. Before you drop will help get him on his toes. And the throw is much easier to finish lifting the hand with the sleeve grip and dropping. You need to get underneath the arm, uh, armpit, and you need to get lower. So if you're a taller person in your opponent, you have to squat lower than your opponent. This is the traditional grip, but his arm is straight so that he cannot curl and go for rear naked, choke and jujitsu. They're gonna try to choke you and put hooks in. So you also, another reason I like to draw it to my knees. It's harder to get the hooks in, to follow through.

Armbar from the Guard

All right, armbar from the guard, gonna pull the arm underneath, pull it across. Same foot will go on the hip cross grip on his shoulder arm that you're attacking. That foot goes on. The hip. Other foot goes high and turning him high on his back high. As you can almost touch your knee, he possibly can push the face, hand slides to the wrist. I step over pinching my knees and curling my legs. Lifting hips. Wrist must stay on your chest to finish this time. When I do the arm bar, I come underneath, I pull the arm across, I step foot on the hip. We step over like a normal arm bar, but they're going to pull their arm out. When they pull their arm out, I'm going to drop my left knee towards the mat. As I hip escape, I hip escape, dropping my knee, clear the arm to the far side, and now I'm tacking the other arm, lifting my hips to step over the head heel to toes.

Securing Wrist and Finishing Armbar

Make sure you secure the wrist to the chest. Finishing the armbar. This last one is a Kyle armbar, which I call Kyle armbar. He has control of my lapels. I'm going to break his grip. We've worked earlier videos on breaking his grips. I lift the sky, switch my grip over the wrist and grab his tricep material at the seam with four fingers Palm up. I'm gonna maintain that hand on the tricep. Do not let go of that. Just like a normal armbar, changing the angle. We're gonna go over his shoulder with my thigh pinching my knees. Many times I can lift up. Do not take your hand off his tricep lift finish even better. Step over. Keep your hand on the tricep and lift your hips for the finish.

Starting with Grips from Half Guard

I'm gonna start with grips from half guard, thumb in his neck, gripping his wrist shin in his chest knee towards my hand. So there's an angle there. Here's the other side, my feet. I like to keep in tucked. You need to hook his bottom knee. So he does not knee cut slice. You, you have to hook your inside leg cannot be on the ground. So kicking him off of an angle and then hand follows my knee. As I kick forward to do like a sit up, my ear goes on his belly button or as low as I can. The lower, the better makes it hard for him to re underhook you. I have the under hook. We need to maintain the under hook coming up to my knee and getting ready to sh him to take his back is the first option. If they do not wizard. Now, the easiest thing to do is to get back to close guard. Now, many people wanna play half guard. This is fine, but you should always understand, pull their hand out and then lay comes out. You couldn't turn this into a scissor sweep as well, but we're just gonna turn my hips, relock my guard, go back to clothes guard.

Strong Heart Principle | SERVICE

View all 8 principles here.

So the first one is service and the way we talk about this is service to others. You know, I try to encourage the kids to, do community service and, and understand that you are part of a community as humans and helping the people around you.

So we give pins out, awards out for 10 hours, community service. And the goal is just to get you in the service mindset. And I know for myself, all the service things that I do, I mean, they hugely impact my own life. Not the people that I help. Like obviously they help the, the people that I help, but I get something out of it. There's something about being a human and helping others. And, what it does for yourself. Like you have a sense of gratitude, for the things that you have that maybe others don't. And, it sets a community, you know, when you're working with others. So we highly encourage service. I encourage this with adults too. And you know, my, we, we even say that, you know, I allow for these community hours of community service, some of 'em don't like, what, what can I do as a kid?

I'm like, you could pick up trash in a neighborhood. Sometimes we think if it has to be like this complicated thing, it really doesn't, you know, you can go at school, you could pick up trash around the playground afterwards, just ask for a bag. I guarantee you, the teachers will say, absolutely, I'll give you a trash bag. You go out there, wash your hands afterwards. And, and, and thank you. So these are just things that we, we try to encourage, encourage, encourage, you know, be a part of the community, help your community, help people around you. And I think that's something that we're missing right now in, in society is everyone's very me, me, me, me, and you're encroaching on me. And, and it's like, how about us? You know, us? And the other thing I encourage kids is to help their grandparents.

You know, America has a, a very strange relationship with grandparents. Um, you know, they're separated like a lot of countries in the world, grandparents live with you. Okay, now, now grandparents live separately. Either they have their own place or they're maybe at a, a nursing home. So I encourage, you know, helping your grandparents, wash their car, pick up dog poop at their house, help them with their laundry pick weeds. Um, there's many things that kids even young as four can do and get these, this, this helping your grandparents out. And, um, you should be, and your grandparents will love it because you're hanging out with them. Um, it's kind of the way I believe that things should be okay.

Thank you.

Kids Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Lesson

Children’s Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Lesson

Mike Martin, Owner of Strong Heart Academy, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu in Phoenix Arizona, and third-degree black belt, narrates various grips, holds, and more. Demonstration for children’s BJJ and adult BJJ.

View our other blog posts.

Watch the video below:

Mike BJJ Kid’s Demonstration Video

Transcript: Kids BJJ

Footwork

All right, drop Sandia. I'm gonna show with some shoes, some footwork you can do cross stepping and then your other leg is gonna try to stay within your partner's, uh, legs. You don't want to go too far outward outside of the legs. Now, if they're smaller, you can go a little bit. It's not as bad, but try to stay within and then, uh, squat or drop to your knees. Uh, we tend to teach dropping to our knees. It's a little safer, some more footwork gripping at the elbow, lifting the elbow and cross stepping. Lifting at the elbow, allows the other leg, the other arm and grip to come inside.

Cross Gripping

You're making room for your other grip. Now I'm gonna show cross gripping the various grips we can use, um, lifting form or, uh, form goes inside. So form goes inside the armpit and my other foot is gonna step behind. So cross step form goes inside and squat. Now you could do the full San AGI from standing or the drop sayNo. We tend to do the drop. San AGI just is a little safer for everyone. Now, this is just a self defense, uh, practicing of gripping. If they're overhand, I'm showing 'em like, if you had something in your hand, like a hammer or whatever, stick, it doesn't matter. It just open Palm out as a stop. And then you're gonna reach in traditional gripping underneath.

Form

So it's easier to practice if you partner a square, meaning both feet are equal. Open the elbow cross step. Now opposite arm comes in. It's the same grip. You wanna make sure you get high in the armpit and not in the middle of the bicep. Pull the hand down. So it's hard to finish you head down and follow through leading him forward. Before you drop will help get him on his toes. And the throw is much easier to finish lifting the hand with the sleeve grip and dropping. You need to get underneath the arm, uh, armpit, and you need to get lower. So if you're a taller person in your opponent, you have to squat lower than your opponent. This is the traditional grip, but his arm is straight so that he cannot curl and go for rear naked, choke and jujitsu. They're gonna try to choke you and put hooks in. So you also, another reason I like to draw it to my knees. It's harder to get the hooks in, to follow through.

Armbar from Guard

All right, armbar from the guard, gonna pull the arm underneath, pull it across. Same foot will go on the hip cross grip on his shoulder arm that you're attacking. That foot goes on. The hip. Other foot goes high and turning him high on his back high. As you can almost touch your knee, he possibly can push the face, hand slides to the wrist. I step over pinching my knees and curling my legs. Lifting hips. Wrist must stay on your chest to finish this time. When I do the arm bar, I come underneath, I pull the arm across, I step foot on the hip. We step over like a normal arm bar, but they're going to pull their arm out. When they pull their arm out, I'm going to drop my left knee towards the mat. As I hip escape, I hip escape, dropping my knee, clear the arm to the far side, and now I'm tacking the other arm, lifting my hips to step over the head heel to toes.

Finishing Armbar

Make sure you secure the wrist to the chest. Finishing the armbar. This last one is a Kyle armbar, which I call Kyle armbar. He has control of my lapels. I'm going to break his grip. We've worked earlier videos on breaking his grips. I lift the sky, switch my grip over the wrist and grab his tricep material at the seam with four fingers Palm up. I'm gonna maintain that hand on the tricep. Do not let go of that. Just like a normal armbar, changing the angle. We're gonna go over his shoulder with my thigh pinching my knees. Many times I can lift up, do not take your hand off his tricep lift finish even better. Step over. Keep your hand on the tricep and lift your hips for the finish flat and then posturing up. So now he's gonna show me, he grabs his elbow tied to his chest balls speeds so that my head goes to the mat, then rolls over towards the side that he blocks arm and I'm showing him to put his hands on my stomach. So it doesn't get CommEd. And push me back down from the guard. Then he'll work to pass the guard and we'll show this full speed or actually faster.

Thank you.

Strong Heart Principles | Diligence and Consistency

View all 8 Strong Principles here.

DILIGENCE

So, so, um, the next one would be diligence. And this is, I think out of, on the list of kids, for kids, this is the one I want to teach them the most. And if, and if they don't get any of these other things on here, I feel like diligence is the most important, uh, it's important for success.

CONSISTENCY

Okay. Consistency kind of, I almost wanted to put diligence, diligence slash consistency. And when people join jiu jitsu, what's one of the first things I tell them, like, there's no secret sauce.

The secret is to show up, okay. And be diligent. And you know, when you're getting setbacks, diligence pushes you through the setbacks it's in, you know, people say quitting is not an option. Quitting is the easiest option. So, you know, this is for me too. I'm, I'm trying to work on my mandolin. Uh, I've been doing it for about a year. And, um, you know, I try to be consistent and be diligent with my practice every day, and then try to push myself things that I don't understand. Um, things that are difficult. I try to do the difficult things and be diligent with, with my, with myself and the same thing with kids, with their work, their schoolwork is being diligent, you know, like set this time, which is also balance, um, to set a time, to get, get your homework done. Okay, get your studying done.

You have a test. You gotta get on it. Understanding the, the subject. You could be very frustrated. Sometimes you're not understanding, but diligence. You have to keep pressing at it. You know, the grand canyon was built by water just to, you know, the, the Colorado river cut that thing down. If you've ever seen the grand canyon in person. Uh, and if you haven't, you know, you should work to do that. I promise you it's a seven wonder of a world is I look at it and, and it's wondered it's beauty, but I also see the diligence of a river can cut a canyon and, you know, water can cut anything. It can dissolve literally anything. So, um, it's and then, and in that process of thinking is like the diligence of it. It's just continually, continually, even it takes a millions and millions of years.

It still did it. And we don't have that much time on our life. But if you are consistent and have diligence, and when things get tough, you press through, it's only going to help you. Okay. The next one is respect. And the respect is kind of similar to, uh, loyalty in the fact that, uh, you give respect where respect is, is, is, um, earned. And I also try to respect people that I don't know now, respect. I try to give instant respect and then tell it's lost. So I'm gonna assume that you, as someone I don't know, deserves respect, and then the way that you treat me or the other people around you that I also see is gonna determine how much respect I'm giving you. Okay. So it's like same thing, gas tank, uh, analogy, uh, a hundred percent respect. And then I say, oh, you do this.

Oh, I do that. Oh, you do that. And then you get less and less respect or you maintain, or you get more. I'm like, oh my gosh, this person is, deserve so much respect. And, and, um, and right now, you know, and living in a big city, it's easy to not give people the respect, cuz there's so many people and um, respecting people's space, faith beliefs, you know, right now everyone wants to fight beliefs, right. Left, you know, like, ah, you're right. Ah, you're left. I can't, I can't respect you. It's um, a dangerous game of dividing everybody. And um, so again, if you say you are left, you know, and something that I, you do that I lose respect and I'm gonna lose respect. If you say that you're the, on the right side and that's fine. But then maybe certain things that they, that the person on the right does that might lose respect.

That's just the way it is. You know, I don't, but I, it's not an immediate thing for me. It's not like, oh, you're a right wing. I can't respect you. Oh, you're left wing. Oh, I can't respect you. It's your actions. Uh, okay. So I try not to categorize you right away. You, you know, the content of your, of your character, you know, uh, uh, Martin Luther king said, you know, don't judge by color of skin, but the contact of character, it's not just color of skin though. It's contact of everyone's character. You know, you can categorize, you know, he was talking, dealing with civil rights, with, you know, unjust to people of color, but there's unjustice of everything. Um, not just that. And I'm not Blitt that at all, but like, um, you know, how do you treat others? You know, you say you're a man of faith and then you, you, you belittle people, you know, you, you, you put people down, you know, I will lose respect for you.

You know, you say you're a man of faith, but then you, you, you, you choose to the tenants of this faith and you, um, you know, you, you give to charity, you help others. You try to help people with their problems. The, the, then I just get more respect for you, you know, but you just try to put people down and then degrade people and you're unwilling to help people, you know, and you're living in an ivory tower and then people, you know, are, are, are starving and in poverty and you, you're not willing to, you're not helping them out. You're driving, you know, fancy cars, but yet you, you, you, you look down on people below you. I, I lose respect. Okay. So respect is get is for me, it's instant. And then it's something to be lost. Okay. Um, and I also try to give respect, even if someone says something about someone, I try to meet them first, you know, and give them the benefit of the doubt, prove, prove me, right, please.

Um, that, that you should be respected. Okay. And then that, that's how I go for it. And, and that's another thing that I don't think people should give me right away. And when I first, um, came up with a black belt and I got my first degree, you know, the first degree you're supposed to be called a professor. And I was like, really weird about that. Some people used to call me sensei too, or coach, uh, coach is a little bit easier for me for whatever reason. But professor was like, I felt like, I don't know. And, and I remember Kyle told me like, Mike, you, you need to ask people to call your professor because it's a sign of respect. Okay. And this is true. Like whoever's teaching the class should get respect. And, um, but I also feel like I should be earning that respect.

And, you know, one way I earned it is 22 years of jiu jitsu. But, and, and my knowledge, you know, that you could respect me because I, I know what I'm talking about. I teach, well, you know, that's a sign of you should, you could respect that if I start showing up late, if I'm not giving my best, if I'm not teaching well anymore, if I'm being losing all my patients, you know, it's easy to lose patients here and there, but, you know, if I'm just not patient with kids that don't understand it, or adults respect can be lost, you know, even as a professor and sometimes, uh, black belts, they think they just need per, you know, they don't wanna roll with others. You know, it's very common. Um, I don't do that in my school, but like, you can't ask a black belt unless you're a black belt to roll.

I don't really care about that, um, at my school. But I understand that that many schools traditionally, you can't do that. You know, you have to, they have to ask you. Um, and, but I, I feel like respect is earned there's purple belts that could beat black belts, you know, you could mess up and you're outta shape. You're old, whatever. And, and young guy's a blue belt catches you in. Something happens, you know? Um, it, it, I respect all people and my opponents as well. Same thing when I'm rolling with a blue belt, I'm like, mm, I try not to get too lazy. Okay. Uh, because I'll catch you.

Children's Jiu Jitsu: Demonstration Lesson

Children’s Brazilian Jiu Jitsu: Demonstration of Moves

Mike Martin, Owner of Strong Heart Academy, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu in Phoenix Arizona, and third-degree black belt, narrates various grips, holds, and more. Demonstration for children’s BJJ and adult BJJ.

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Mike Martin, Children’s BJJ Demonstration. Moves, Holds, Grips and more!

Transcript: Children’s BJJ

So pulling guard have sleeve grip and lapel grip. I wanna step forward and my right leg is gonna go toes out on the hip. As I fall to one butt cheek, and then I'm gonna grab his ankle. My other foot needs to step, uh, hook behind his knee and pull so that can backstep and start passing series. If you fall on your side, it's easier to reach the ankle that you're aiming for. Here's another angle. They'll slow you down. As you could descend, bend one leg and then you'll have our sleeve. And then my other leg, my hand goes right to the ankle. Now you can turn this into a million guards. This is just a nice, simple, open guard. I usually turn into a sickle sweep, uh, but this is the way I like to pull guard.

Intercept Hand and Grip Fighting

All right, we're gonna work on changing levels first here and elbows in hands out. So thumbs are in hands are out. It's easier to intercept, uh, hand and grip fighting, but he feeds changing levels. I have to change levels with him and that's the whole point. My head level is gonna go at his level. I'm showing how to clear his hands, cuz his hands in front. So I'm going to change levels, knee pound and blast double. Now here's the more sophisticated, double leg changing levels. My knee goes to the ground. Head should stay up better than that. I like to grab the calves step and then I'm gonna lift one leg, head up and walk towards my ear. My head is turning him. I'm tapping his knee and walk in a circle will always keep you on bounds and you'll gonna get this side control position. Most likely instead of getting stuck in guard, the blast double will get you stuck in D uh, closed guard. If they know what they're doing, they're it's great for a street fight. It's um, good for MMA, but uh, for jujitsu tournaments, you don't wanna be stuck in the double leg and there's uh, a little bit faster. You really can't do it this

Arm Bar from Guard

Slow either, but uh, showing you how it should look. All right, armbar from the guard. We're gonna pull the arm underneath, pull it across. Same foot will go on the hip cross grip on his shoulder arm that you're attacking. That foot goes on. The hip. Other foot goes high and turning him high on his back high. As you can almost touch your knee, he possibly can push the face, hand slides to the wrist. I step over pinching my knees and curling my legs. Lifting the hips. Wrist must stay on your chest to finish this time. When I do the arm bar, I come underneath, I pull the arm across, I step foot on the hip. We step over like a normal arm bar, but they're going to pull their arm out. When they pull their arm out, I'm going to drop my left knee towards the mat.

Hip Escape and Arm Bar

As I hip escape, I hip escape dropping my knee, clear the arm to the far side, and now I'm taking the other arm, lifting my hips to step over the head heel to toes. Make sure you secure the wrist to the chest. Finishing the armbar. This last one is a Caio armbar, which I call Caio armbar. He has control of my lapels. I'm going to break his grip. We've worked earlier videos on breaking the grips. I lift the sky, switch my grip over the wrist and grab his tricep material at the seam with four fingers Palm up. I'm gonna maintain that hand on the tricep. Do not let go of that. Just like a normal armbar, changing the angle. We're gonna go over his shoulder with my thigh pinching my knees. Many times I can lift up. Do not take your hand off his tricep lift finish even better. Step over. Keep your hand on the tricep and lift your hips for the finish. So we're gonna do guard break. Um, when you're in the guard. So the person in white is gonna roll his two lapels, put 'em together and roll them up like a burrito. And then he's gonna keep his hand. So his thumb is still up. And when his partner comes up, he pushes him back down and stiff, arms him back down to the ground.

Working Breaks

He rolls the gear back up and his hand goes to the hip. One hand on the lapel. When he push comes up, he pushes him back down. So we're gonna work breaks today. Uh, when he's grabbing your sleeve, you're gonna grab his knuckles and pull your hand out. We're gonna do some of these a couple times and you can see he dabs. If you'd like grabs and knuckles and pulls a hand out and then you can pin their hand. The second one is lapel. So that's your lapel. I'm pointing to when your partner grabs the same side lapel, and you're gonna make a V with your hands and break the grip. So he takes his hands. Two hands, hand breaks this time he cross grips. So meaning he grips across the other side of lapel, not the same side. You're gonna loop your head underneath and posture up hard. I helped him by pushing his head over that time. We cross grip, loop our head and posture up and you can break also with your hands as you posture up.

Open the Guard

Now we're working to open the guard up. So you have your burrito grip. You have your hand on the hip. The hand, the knee is gonna go right down the middle and other knee is gonna go wide and you're gonna turn your chest. And he already opened his guard here, but many times they don't thumb inside the knee to push down, to open up and break the guard open. And that's our whole goal knee on the middle step over, keep your leg nice and straight while your hand is on the knee.

Thank you.

Strong Heart Principle - HEALTH

View all 8 of our principles.

The next one is health. And you know, this is kind of mixes with balance. A lot of these mixed together, which I think is important too. But health is, you know, eating right, sleeping, exercising, and mental health as well, working on mental health. We have a serious mental health issue in the country right now. Um, and so I think jiu jitsu's a huge help for it, but it's, it's just an aspect of your mental health. You need to be working on other things and ex, and be a, be a person that self examines yourself and be brutal with yourself.

You know, am I working on the things that I need to do for my mental health? You could have anxiety, depression, um, you know, you know, how are your relationships? That's part of your health too. Okay. Stress leads to physical ailments. It's proven. Okay. So dealing with your stress in a positive way, instead of drinking or drugs or medicating, you know, everyone's so many people taking Xanax. Oh, it's legal. Okay. But, and, and maybe you need it if you're having severe panics. Okay. But you need to deal with the root cause. What is causing the anxiety and maybe therapy might be a thing that you need, okay. Or a psychiatrist or psychologist maybe read on these subjects. Is there something that, a book that might help you, you know, faith, um, I think is a huge part of this too, you know, like not everyone has faith, but I, I believe, um, a good part of balance and health is your mind, your body and your soul.

And, um, health, I think is an important part of that. You know, that Trinity of, of health and balance, um, uh, so, you know, making, making sure you're, you're eating properly, you know, myself, I have a, I have a sweet tooth, you know, and I, I drink way too much soda. And, uh, our doctor, you know, I, I drink, uh, pop, whatever you wanna call wherever you're in the country. Uh, I call it soda, but, um, it's not good for you. It's not healthy. I need to be drinking. I drink a lot of water, but I need, I would like to cut out as part of my thing. Like my list, you get cut out more. Um, I'm trying to cut down on my carbs a little bit. I'm decent at that. You know, my, my, my, uh, my food intake is probably where I suffer the most.

I, I do exercise. I do have, I am a man of faith. I do work on my mental health. Um, I am very conscious of my mental health. Um, and all those things are struggles. You know, not, no one's saying that any of this stuff is easy, but it's, if you don't work on things, um, they don't change.

BJJ Recovery: 5 Things This 3rd Degree Blackbelt Does

BJJ Recovery: Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Training

Mike Martin, Owner of Strong Heart Academy, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu in Phoenix Arizona, and third degree black belt, talks about the 5 things he does for BJJ recovery.

5 Things for BJJ Recovery

The 5 Things I Do for BJJ Recovery. I Started Training Brazilian Jiujitsu in 2000. Ive Trained through My 20's, 30's, and Now in my 40's. These Are the 5 things I do to Recovery and train as much as I can. You can try these by going to Strongheartacademy.com and trying a FREE Trial Class. or BJJ2GO.com is our online platform that can be used any where. or if your not in Phoenix find an Academy near you.

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Transcript

Today's podcast is brought to you by Strongheartacademy.com where no heart is no victory. We are also brought to you by BJJ2go, if you wanna build your game and learn jiu jitsu, go to BJJ2go.com.

Jiu Jitsu Athlete Recovery

Okay. So this one is gonna be about recovery, um, for Jiu Jitsu um, athletes. Um, obviously the older you get, the more important recovery is, um, and how serious you take it. But if you're younger and you start young, you just get the pattern set up and it's gonna be easier and easier and easier and easier recovery. Everything I'm gonna talk about today is, uh, no TRT, no steroids, nothing like that. Obviously those are super recovery tools. People think of steroids like that makes you stronger. No, it allows you to work out more, to get stronger. Um, when you're sore, it's like hard to just work out again.

Muscles and Energy

Like your muscles are just shot, uh, and energy too. So what steroids do is just allow you to cover fast or fast, faster. You can do two, three workouts a day where someone, you know, might take one to two days off per workout, just so your body heals up and you'll get injuries. Um, today we're gonna talk about just what you can do, um, without any steroids at all. And tier T now people get fishy with the TRT. They're like, you know, especially jiu jitsu athletes, um, you know, after a certain age, you're like, well, you could take, you know, TRT because you have low testosterone. You can go to a doctor. If you're gonna do it, go to a doctor, please do it. There, don't buy illegal steroids. Okay. Um, but uh, you need to be careful with those things, because I do think there's a higher risk of heart, uh, failure.

And, you know, if you have prostate problems, which you're getting older, you could actually increase the prostate. So, but they'll test you for those things, um, to make sure you don't have any prostate problems. Um, but it, if you are not catching, you're not getting tested a lot. It could lead to cancer and other problems too. So the other problem I have with TRT is that, um, once you're on it, you're not gonna get off of it. It's like for life basically. So, um, it takes a while to, if you, if you get off, it I've know people got off it and it's like, their body never really comes back. Like their testosterone doesn't stop producing testosterone. So, um, and they're so used to being on testosterone and the benefits that they get that it's like once they come off, there's a mental pro problem too, even though like their levels might get better.

Time and Energy Levels

Um, it takes time and to get used to, um, not having that recovery that you did with taking testosterone and your energy levels and all those type of things too. So, um, it's hard to get off of them once you're on them. So again, once you're on them, it's like you're on them. So just, just a word of caution, if you're gonna do that, it's completely legal, um, easy to do. Uh, just be careful. So, uh, I don't do any of those things. Uh, I'm 42, uh, as of today or as of now. And, um, I've tried everything for recovery. Um, the number one thing though, so we're gonna do five things. The number one thing is gonna be sleep. Um, you know, Americans are extremely sleep deprived. We work a lot. Uh, we don't take a lot of holidays, our vacations, um, me included, you know, I work about six days a week.

I always make sure my Sundays is my family day. Uh, and I try to just go to church and I don't do any other, um, I try not to do, I don't do any jiu jitsu for sure. Or business. Uh, unfortunately I do to work around the house. I should take that day should be completely nothing day, but I run outta days to get things done. So sleep is the big one for me. I make sure I get enough sleep. I do sleep in. I'm kind of a weird guy. I, I like I'm a, a night O um, but whatever your schedule is, figure out how you can get your eight to nine hours of sleep. If I get 10 hours of sleep, I feel like I feel like I'm 10 years younger. Um, and so just keep that in mind, you know, and, and when you're young, you might be able to get a day, a couple days in a row of like five, six hours of sleep.

Sleep

It's just not, it catches up to you. There's a price to pay and you can't really catch up sleep. You just gotta get your sleep habits back, set a time that you want to be unconscious. And what, how long does it take you to get from that, to that now? Uh, I have a doctor friend. He wrote me a whole like prescription of how he does it. And I don't mean drugs. I mean, like he goes, go to the bathroom, do read a little bit, do this. Once you get in bed, you do not leave your bed. The last thing with the sleep thing is, well, not the last thing, but is make sure your room is very dark. You don't want that blue light when you're staring at your phone right before you go to bed. Uh, I tend to read off of an iPad, so that's not good.

Reading

I do a lot of reading before I go to bed. Um, but I think it's better for my eyes versus like, uh, reading a book with bad lighting is not good. Uh, I have really good eyes still for my age. I don't have any glasses or nothing, so I like that better, but they say that blue light makes it more difficult to go to sleep. Definitely don't have any TVs in your room. Uh, so many people, I, I know have TVs in rooms. I I've gotten away with that one. It's kind of me thing with my wife. She's always had TVs in a room and I said, look, this is be hard for her to sleep. You know, it's not good for you. You're not supposed to have any light, your body reacts to light. That's how it wakes up. So knows if it's day or night and, and humans are meant to sleep at night.

Jiu Jitsu: Clear Thinking

So there's always exceptions to this rule. Again, like I said, I, I like to go to bed really late and I like to sleep in. It's hard to do that. Just find your routine. What's gonna work for you. And really, really, really, really try to get that eight hours minimum of eight hours. Um, you know, I've done the game before, like, okay, if I go to bed now I'll get, oh man, I'll get five hours. I'll get six. It's just, you'll break down your body needs rest. Your mind needs rest. You won't think as clearly, you'll be, you know, you'll make mistakes in jiu jitsu. You'll make, make mistakes in your job. Um, you'll get be irritable. There's so many things it's actually bad for your, uh, diet, your metabolism, lack of sleep slows your, um, it, it slows down your metabolism. So there's, there's so many benefits.

I mean, there's so many studies about sleep. That would be my first one. Um, the second one I would say would be water. Um, um, I'm in Arizona, I'm in Phoenix, it's a desert. So we gotta drink a ton of water. It's summer as currently as we're speaking. And that's gonna be 106 today. I think, um, you're sweating. You're an athlete. If you're doing GE Jisu, you know, you have that big, heavy GE you're basically exercising with the jacket on it's great exercise. You're sweating so much, and it's easy to be in kind of a deficit and like a low grade dehydration. Now your body needs water to, for everything to move waste, to, uh, rehydrate your muscles. Um, I find you can get more injuries when you're dehydrated. And again, back to not thinking clearly when, and when you're not thinking clearly dehydration sometimes is that if you're getting headaches, those are all things, uh, for me, like I'm, I'm making sure I pound that water and we're back, uh, technical difficulties.

Water Intake: BJJ

So, uh, back to water, um, that's helps with your metabolism also. So if you're trying to lose weight, um, cutting weight, uh, water's important. Even if you're cutting water weight, you wanna rehydrate first. So tech tech, uh, you know, MMA fighters, uh, or actually anyone cutting a lot of weight. If you pound a gallon a day, you can do a gallon gallon and a half a day, gallon and a half, and you slowly cut it during the week until you're ready for the water cut and the water cut's always done the night before the weigh in, or the day of the weigh in. So, you know, even that you, the water's super important and you will just feel so much better with energy wise. You know, that's what I'm saying by recovery. Like you're tired, you're sore. Water is huge. It is a huge benefit to making sure you're getting enough water intake during the day.

And in Arizona, you're just constantly sweating. If you're outside, if you have an outside job, um, you know, you're, you need to be making sure you're getting a gallon a day. You know, this is not eight, uh, eight, eight glasses of water. I don't know where that ever came from. I don't know how many ounces in a glass. So what is that like? How big is this glass? Just make sure that you're drinking a gallon of water if you're an athlete. Um, and I think even, even back east where it might be a little cooler, I think a gallon is still a good gauge just because, um, you're an athlete and you'll be sweating so much when you train. So especially if you're train twice a day, you definitely gotta get a gallon of water in you, cuz you're kind of always. And when you wake up in the morning makes you drink a glass of water, a big glass of water.

First thing in the morning, before we get your coffee, before we get your, whatever you're drinking in the morning water first. Okay. Cuz you slept again. Let's say that we did the eight hours. That's eight hours of no water. Um, we want to, we need to, we're gonna be dehydrated. You're gonna pee you probably in the morning. You're gonna lose some hydration there. You probably sweat during the night. Uh, so you need to get that water back inside you and you'll feel you'll feel so much better. These so far, these are very simple things that cost $0. Okay. Now the third one I'm gonna talk about is, uh, protein. So, uh, protein helps me tremendously. Now my favorite protein is actual steak. Now steak is gonna have some other stuff in it that I think for me, I just feel like it helps, um, with my intake.

Protein for BJJ

Um, so you know, I'm going through I'm training a lot. Um, I wanna make sure that I have enough protein that my muscles, uh, are performing at the right, uh, level. They're going to feel better, not so sore. Okay. I think creatine is in it. Irons in steak too. Uh, I was using P protein. Somebody recommended pre proteins, a plant-based protein. Some people have problems with weight, figure out what works best for you. Now the other thing that I use, I go to Costco and I buy those things of protein, uh, shakes. Pre-made shakes. Why? Because I'm lazy. I don't want to clean shakers out. I don't, it makes a mess. Uh, they have like 30 grams of protein, low sugar. I shake it up after I get done training. And before, before I train, I pound one after training, I pound another one. Um, that's how I do it.

Now you can do the measures like your weight, how much protein you should ingest. You can look those measurements up online. Uh, but protein, you have to be taking in protein. Again. If you don't eat meat, there's P protein is awesome. Hemp, protein. Um, it's still protein guys. It's still gonna help you out now for me again, if I eat a steak at night, I will feel amazing. The next day I really do. Red meat is huge for me. Um, but I think everyone operates a little bit differently. Besides protein. Everyone needs protein. Uh, if you're not getting enough protein, your muscle's gonna break down and then you don't recover. Okay. So the next part would be for muscles too. Is foam rolling. Now I like to use, uh, foam rollers. If you go to BJJ, uh, BJJ to go.com, which is our online platform.

I have a whole series on foam. Rolling on there. You can check it out. You can look online too. If you'd like, I like to use, uh, different balls to get different areas. Uh, and different softness of a ball will help different areas too. I, I start with my feet and I work my way up. So I stand on the, on a, uh, lacrosse ball and I roll out my feet first, work my way up, my calves thighs inside. And I, and think about each, uh, limb six sides of a limb, okay. Or four. However you wanna look at it. Six is more accurate, um, or massages. So I try to get a massage. I get to two a month. Uh, but I also foam roll. So I would foam roll when I'm really sore. I start formula wheeling. Some people formal before they do exercise too.

Warming Up for BJJ

I've I actually think that's a great way. The older you are, the more warmups you need. And again, preventing those injuries I think is huge and extremely helpful. Okay. Now here's the last one. The fifth one is a sauna or cold plunge. So I use a sauna when I work out, I do one. So on per week I try to do 30 minutes. Uh, but I think two is, would be more ideal. I just don't have access to twice a week. So once a week I do a sauna or they call it heat, shock proteins. I don't know what that means, but I do know that I feel much better from saunas. Um, my recovery is so much better. I'm gonna start doing my cold plunges again. I used to do that when I'm really, I mean, I'm really drained cold plunge. I used to do four to 12 minutes.

Now people are telling me 12 minutes was too long, but I just threw a bunch of bags of ice in a bathtub with water. One thing I would recommend with this, I think I talked about it before is making sure someone's in the house. So if your legs give out, you don't fall and bash your head and die in the bathroom, you know, buck naked. The other thing, I always, always, I put a swim trunk on just in case. Uh, something goes wrong in a pass out. I don't wanna be naked. You know, it's not a good look. So, um, if you have access to an actual cold pledge tub, hopefully I'm gonna get one of those soon. Those are money, they work awesome. And I would highly recommend doing that now. Here's I mean, one more. My bonus thing that I do is I go to a place called, uh, route sport, me, shout out to route sport me.

I've had them on this show. Um, and we've interviewed those guys. They're great. And I kind of think of that as prehab. Okay. Prehab is like, I, I work out with, 'em only once a week. They give me exercise for the week, but I'm too lazy. I don't do them. Um, I'm gonna try to, I'm try, try to start doing that guys, but, um, it's hard. So, um, but that has made my leg stronger. It's prevented injuries. Um, they give kind of like massage, cupping, those type of things, you know, scraping, those are also recovery tools. So that's kind of like all in one. Now that would be like a bonus thing. You know, that costs more money. Totally understand it. If you can't do that, foam rolling is cheap. You don't need a massage pay for massages. Protein can be expensive, but look, it's part of your health.

Health and Diet: Brazilian Jiu Jitsu

It should be part of your diet. Just get it into your diet. Somehow again, I go to, uh, Costco, I buy the big thing. I think it gives me 18 protein shakes. Um, and it's about 25 bucks, 26 bucks, you know, so, you know, probably spend 50 bucks a month probably on protein, not including steaks, but you know, it's your health, health is wealth is the way I look at it. So, you know, you could be spending money now or spending money later in the hospital when you're older and you're all broken down and your body doesn't work. Right. So, um, you're gonna spend money it's just up front or, or, or, or later on, I'd rather do it front and feel better for longer, you know, uh, nobody gets out alive, but uh, I want my time to be my batteries, keep going dead.

So I don't know, uh, sorry about that. I'm, I'm pretty much done with it anyway, but I wanted to say that, you know, figure out what works best for you, but these are my top five is, uh, water or sorry, sleep water foam, roll protein sauna. And then I go to sports, uh, uh, Shawn at sports men, a ton of my students go to the hint, those guys, again, it's gonna cost you some money, but it's your health man. And you will feel great. Like what does it cost to feel? Great. People buy objects to feel great too, but you're physically still not gonna feel great. So this is gonna make you mentally and physically better. You gotta work on your mind too. You know, you could add in meditation in there too. Um, but those aren't my top five, my top five is still gonna be sleep, water, protein, massage, and sauna.

And, um, the sauna again might cost you mu a little bit of money, but cold plunge is not. If you get a bunch of bags of ice, you could jump in your own tub, just be, be careful and mindful how long you're in there for four minutes is good. Um, you and I don't even, I don't even figure out the temperature. I just set cold, fill the tub and then put about three bags of ice in and I feel great. So it's not exact measurement. Um, but I do feel pretty awesome from that. You'll get more energy and my recovery. I mean, I feel so much better when I do those type of things. So thanks for listening for, uh, strong hearts, five, uh, ways to recover. And again, with your age guys, you're gonna have to be more mindful, more and more mindful. I'm trying to stay in jiu jitsu.

Aging Goal: BJJ

My goal is to make it to 70. I want to roll in my seventies, not just like, hang out, I wanna be rolling. And it doesn't mean I wanna be beating 20 year olds, but I wanna be able to hang, be able to keep people in front of me. Okay. So those are my goals, uh, for my happy life, happy, happy jiu jitsu. And uh, if you have any other questions, you could always reach out to me, uh, at Strongheartacademy.com and uh, if you wanna take out any classes, we have a free trial program on Strongheartacademy.com. Just hit the trial button, please subscribe. Uh, I always hear on, uh, YouTube Hulk smash, the subscribe button button. It helps me out. I appreciate any comments, leave comments. Uh, you can tell me I'm a fool. I should be taking TRT, whatever you wanna call. I don't care. It's fine with me. Opinions are great. Uh, good or bad. I don't have, I don't have a sway either way.

And that's it have a great weekend and peace.

Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Can Change Your Child's Life

Brazilian Jiu Jitsu for Kids

Yes, seriously! Getting your kids to learn Brazilian Jiu Jitsu will change their lives for the better. It will also equip them with the necessary skills to help them navigate the minefield that is life in the 21st Century.

Your Child

Gone are the days when everyone had a sense of community and personal responsibility.

Click here for the 8 Strong Heart Principles to Live By

Taking kids through a properly instituted martial arts program allows kids to learn essential life skills such as temperance, resilience, discipline, and respect for themselves and those around them. However, these virtues are no longer enough to get by in this ever-changing world. 

Let's examine how Brazilian Jiu Jitsu enhances your child's life.

Tempering their Egos

We live in a dichotomy between maintaining traditional values and attempting to blend them with modernity. Add in the differing cultures and religions, which, while a melting pot of diversity, can lead to clashing societal philosophies. 

There has been a severe clash in certain spheres between the two. These differences have led to a chasm in terms of values to emulate. To successfully thread through this constant clashing, our children require the right attitude of being reasonable. 

Brazilian Jiu Jitsu tests your child's limits physically, mentally, and emotionally. They will experience failures, attempt to compare themselves with others, and even try to match up. This will lead to pain that is necessary for their growth and tempers their egos. 

This discomfort will be the flint that sparks their internal development and gets them to learn how to be the best they can be. It allows them to appreciate the ups and downs of life, as well as the meaning of effort. 

Buttressing Their Self Esteem

It isn't easy to discount the impact of social media and society on how your children see themselves on the inside. Most media channels, at the moment, focus on bragging and showing off, which can be things your kids aren't capable of doing. Being around people who want nothing can be a real stab for many children. 

Through immersing themselves in martial arts, the child learns to trust in themselves and what they have on the inside. The learning process means they see improvements, no matter how small; filling them with confidence. Since they have worked hard on these improvements, they have what it takes to do whatever they have to, no matter how difficult. 

The Power of Compounding

Jiu Jitsu black belts aren't built in a day. Getting to that coveted belt takes years of concentrated effort and action. What's even more interesting is, in those years, the learner has gathered many skills which they can use to get them to their goal. 

This is a directly transferable skill. Compounding is necessary for personal finances. The little skills, mistakes, and corrections one makes during their Jiu Jitsu journey are the perfect analogy for the road to financial freedom. It doesn't happen in a day, but it takes deliberate effort, discipline, and focus to attain their goals. 

By learning different financial skills, the child can leverage them to gift themselves a type of freedom not many enjoy in this world. 

It Starts with The First Move

The Shrimp is a familiar technique for someone already in a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu class. For your child, however, the first move will be to take a free trial with Strong Heart Academy. We are a family-friendly martial arts gym based in North Phoenix and are members of the Caio Terra Association. 

We have structured our classes for four different age groups, from the Tiny Tigers at 4 to 5 years of age, Mat Monkeys ages 6-7, Kids BJJ from 8-12, to the Teens between ages 13-16. If you'd like to know more about how we work, get in touch with us now. 

You can also view our blog here.

Strong Heart Academy Student Principles #3 - BALANCE

View all 8 of Strong Heart’s Principles to Live By here.

Uh, the third thing is balance. This is the hardest, okay. Balance for me is hard. Uh, I really try to balance my life as much as I can. And this is like all aspects. Like people think sometimes when I say balance is like, oh, can, are you on balance? Like, um, athletically? And that is important too, because that is, uh, balance is a aspect of athletics. And, um, you know, some people will only go to strength, training, endurance, training, stamina up, but I think sometimes flexibility, but balance is huge. Um, huge for Jitsu, uh, huge for almost all sports, really. So that is an aspect of it, but I'm talking about the balance of life.

You know, we try to talk about kids like, you know, and even adults really honestly, uh, is with, you know, video games are video games bad. Absolutely not. If you're playing eight hours a day. Yes. I had a student one time, years ago that, uh, he lost his job because he was playing world of Warcraft, uh, until like four in the morning had to go to work at like six or seven. And he would call in his work, his work dropped, and then he ended up losing his house. Um, you know, these, these are, that's a dangerous thing. You're not having balance in your life, you know, like you need sleep. And that's the thing thing too, like not just video games, but sleep, sleep is a part of balance. Part of the health too, is a healthy person, is someone that gets their sleep.

You know, you work X amount, you, you have X amount of time with your family. You know, sometimes for myself, I, I struggle with, you know, a small business, uh, staying with my family and, and making sure that they're giving time. My kids, my wife is getting the time that they deserve. Uh, and then I also have to work, you know, like if I'm just only hanging out with them and I'm abandoning my, my school, my, my business, it's gonna start to degrade, not do as good. So like, it's constantly like checks and balances of balance in your life. You know, work it out all the time. Your body will break down, you need rest. That's part of the balance. And, um, you know, with school, like you gotta study, you know, if you're not gonna study, then it's gonna be difficult to get good grades and achieve the things that you're trying to achieve.

Um, so, so that's kind of my, my, my take on balance is you need to be wor thinking about it. You can even write it out, like what you're doing. If you write out your day, like at the end of the day, what did I do at this time? What did I do at this time? You'll start seeing the hours of the day. We only have so many hours of the day and you know, you gonna have to get your balance down. What, what are you gonna do? And there's gonna be sacrifices as far as balance of concerned. You know, there might be one month, like I gotta work a little extra hard, but you need to make sure that you're gonna come back and work with your family, see your family, you know, maybe take a weekend off with your family, something like that.

Okay. Um, but these things are important. So even with jiu jitsu, like I'll tell people set the days they're gonna do jiu jitsu. Okay. Sometimes, uh, our spouses are like, why are you always with these people? You know, like, but it'll make you better for your family because you get this, um, respite in doing jiu jitsu and you're being healthy and doing something positive. And then you're gonna go back to your family. And I promise, you'll be a better person. You need to explain this balance to your parent, to your spouse, but your, you also need to be with your spouse. So like, if you're training every day, six times, you know, if I'm training twice a day, five to six times a week, and maybe you're not seeing your, your, your, your spouse, this could be a problem. Okay. And you know, a lot of the champions that I've known in my life, their balance is a little off.

And a lot of times families, um, take the brunt of that. And, and professional athletes is the same thing. You know, the door horse rate is so high because their balance is outta whack. And so to, in order to achieve the levels that they need to achieve, there's a lot of sacrifice. And sometimes, unfortunately, the family is the first thing to sacrifice. So if you're a competitive athlete, you need to be asking yourself, are you willing to make these sacrifices to be the champion? Is it worth the sacrifices? And then, you know, I've known some people that they find out that later, it's not, it's not worth it. You know, like, man, they look back and like, I, I didn't see my kids. I didn't see my wife. And now I'm, you know, I had these gold medals, but what does that mean? Um, so it's a tough one.

It is a tough one. And, um, work and balances for, for me is the toughest on this list, the toughest on this list.

How to Tie Bjj Belt

Mike Martin, Owner of Strong Heart Academy, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu in Phoenix Arizona, and third degree black belt, demonstrates how to tie a belt in jiu jitsu.

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How to tie a bjj belt:

1. Make sure it’s equal,

2. Close your Gi on your stomach,

3. Pull through,

4. Make sure the sides are equal,

5. Right left over tuck under,

6. Both pull till you’re comfortable,

7. Left down right over and goes through,

8. Pull it, tight.

Thank you.

Caio Terra Camp Experience (Third Degree Blackbelt - 2022)

Mike Martin, owner of Strong Heart Academy, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu in Phoenix Arizona, and third degree blackbelt, shares his experience at Caio Terra’s 2022 camp in San Jose California.

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Today's podcast is brought to you by Strongheart academy.com where no heart is no victory. We are also brought to you by BJ to go. If you wanna build your game and learn jujitsu, go to BJ to go.com. Okay. So, um, today I'm gonna talk about my trip to CTA camp. Oh God, Caio Terra. Um, I've been with Caio Terra, I think for 10 years now. I get confused. Um, maybe nine years I've been to every camp, CTA camp, uh, Caio Terra association camp that he's put on. Um, during the last one we did was right before the pandemic hit. So I remember we had, uh, guy that runs at Nick he's super cool. He got us, uh, Airbnb and we had a bunch of guys in one house and, um, you know, a ton of guys in one house and we had multiple guys, two room, we had multiple beds in a room.

Uh, these houses are basically just set up for Airbnbs, but, uh, we're watching the news and, um, uh, we're seeing everything go off, pop off. This is in February, 2020 February, and you could see it in, in China. And you're seeing like crazy videos of people in China. And I remember seeing like them, like netting people, like they're catching butterflies, but it's, you know, people with COVID in China. And they're like, like locking people in their rooms, like welding them in their rooms and stuff. Their lockdown was insane. And um, I'm like, man, I was getting worried. I was like, this is doesn't look good. And I remember the guy I was talking to. He does not a nurse, but he does like blood tests in Canada, Clayton he's super cool guy. But he was like, I don't think it looks like, kind of like a, like a flu or something like that.

It's probably fine. You know, their healthcare is not as good as ours in the west, which is true. Um, but that was the last one we did, you know, than two years nothing. So we, we didn't, uh, or last year we didn't have one. So, uh, this year I was happy. We got it. It was very last minute. So basically they do the San, um, it's in San Jose and, um, they do the Caio Terra, uh, the Caio Terra, um, camp is near a tournament. So the tournament's usually in San Jose or San Francisco this year, it was in Santa Cruz and they were waiting and waiting for I Jeff it's I B JF, uh, IBJJF tournament. And they're waiting for them to announce the tournament. It was like three weeks out. So maybe that less than that, like two and a half weeks.

So it was one of the smallest camps, you know, that's a lot, it's a lot to ask of people to make it out there. Um, it was very short notice and I had to do a lot of things to make it happen. Um, you know, and it was pretty stressful for me. Um, you know, I have a new puppy at home and my kids are just starting school that week. So, or the week, half in the week before. So it's like, okay, kids are going back to school. And then this is also when like, people are, uh, signing kids up and, and people are coming back to, you know, activities like martial arts or whatever. Uh, you know, summer's, vacation's over now, we're gonna start doing things. So I wanted to be at my, my academy help sign new members up and greet them. And I wanted 'em to, I like people to see my face as an owner.

That I'm the guy, this is, this is a mom and pop place. We're not a big giant corporation. Uh, you know, where this isn't like 60 schools and I'm never at these schools. No, it's me. I'm the guy. So even that I was really nervous about leaving. Um, and I know I had capable of people have multiple black belts here. You know, they're all teaching classes and I have multiple people per class, especially with kids, but, uh, you know, for me, it was like walk away from babies, my actual babies at home, my kids, my wife, and, and then my school. And, um, so it was stressful. And, um, I'm trying to get everything, you know, ready in order to do this, you know, and I'm gonna leave for a while. Um, you know, I didn't even leave the full week, but, uh, I, so I didn't have that week with my father's birthday.

The, and I forgot that the week before my father's birthday, I forgot his birthday. I just forgot. I don't do that. I'm not that type of guy. And so that sucked. And then, um, there was a tournament, somebody competed that Saturday and I did couldn't make it. And, you know, they felt like I let them down, you know, and I just feel like I couldn't, I had so much to get done. I didn't feel like I could do it. I also had these issues at home. Uh, my pool was green. Uh, I, I replaced 600 pounds of sand. Uh, I took the 600 pounds out of our filter and put 600 pounds in with a cup. You just take a cup. Okay. 6,000 more of those, you know, it was terrible, but things have been breaking my house. I've been trying to fix everything. So before I leave, like my wife doesn't have to do anything.

I'm already saying you have to take care of the kids and, and make sure the house is okay. And, and this brand new puppy that's tearing everything up. So I was just trying to get everything done and, and, um, you know, so that family, they, they, they felt, uh, I let 'em down, which is unfortunate and, um, made me really sad. So that was like right before I had to go, it was just, it was terrible. Um, I don't like people feeling that I let them down. It's uh, I just hate that feeling. So I try, I try to do the best I can, but that was very last minute. I just couldn't get it done. I just couldn't and I was gonna go earlier, but then the time changed and, um, it was like, okay, well then I'm gonna have even shorter time to get things done before I have to go.

Um, so I got my flight. I went out there to, to camp. Um, I met out there on Tuesday morning, you know, they already did. They had competed that Saturday, Sunday in Santa Cruz. And then they started the camp technically on Monday. I missed that training and then I showed up around noon. They were already in the, the first class of the day for CTA. So when you go to camp, you can go to any classes they have available there, which is like all day long, 6:00 AM. I think they have a 10:00 AM, uh, like a, uh, comp class at one or two. This class is like in between, it was like 11 o'clock class. So that's CT members only, uh, from all affiliates. And it looked like they were doing more advanced stuff, some advanced passing. I was like at the tail end of it.

So I just sat and watched with all my luggage. And, um, anytime Kyle was teaching, I, I like to observe, man, he's such a master, you know? So when you can observe a master, uh, I highly recommend you do no matter what it is. And, um, so it looked cool. Unfortunately, I missed that one. Then that night we went and they opened a new school in, uh, uh, Palo Alto. So, uh, we were go out there that night, which I was excited about to see their new school, uh, the new things they're doing, uh, Kyle and his, his, uh, partner. And, um, I didn't have a hotel, so I didn't know where I was gonna stay. So if that was even planned out, I don't even know where I was gonna stay. And, um, I, every year I've done something different. I've slept on the mats there, you know, I've slept in, they have a t-shirt shop.

I slept in there on the floor. I slept in couches. I've slept in. Uh, I know, like I said, I've done every year, uh, for about nine years, eight years, something like that. And, um, they just, I didn't have a plan. So there was somebody in an office and he was willing to share the office with me. I was gonna sleep on the floor, get a mattress or something. Um, but you know, I decided to walk down. There's like this road goes through the neighborhood and you can walk down. Maybe, I don't know, six blocks, seven blocks about a mile, half a mile. And then, uh, there's a hotel there. And over the years, this hotel is kind of nice. I've been in there once before, um, big rooms, you know, it is like a boutique hotel, not very big, maybe four floors, five floors.

It's not huge. It's very, it's pretty small. Um, and people are like, well, it's kind of ghetto now. I'm like, eh, whatever. Like, I'm, I, again, I've slept on couches. I don't care. I go in there and you could tell, it's like run down. There's a couch in a lobby. That's like peeling the, the, the, uh, leather on it's peeling off. And they don't seem to care. And there's like graffiti etched and stuff like, uh, scratch, you know, scratch graffiti, not, not markers or whatever. And you know, they're not taking care of that. And, um, but the, they were friendly at the desk and he gives me a deal and I didn't even haggle with them. He's like, well, you're gonna be here for three days. Well, I'll take this off. I was like, whoa, it's pretty cheap. I'm like, it's a hundred dollars a night.

That's cheap anywhere in California, that's cheap. But this place used to be a lot nicer. And I was like, whoa, this okay. That helps me out. First night was good. Um, but then the next night got rough. So I'll go back to that. But, uh, I got a deal. I had my place, I, I drop my stuff off. I put all my gear in my bag and I walked back down to Kyle's gym, which is about seven blocks. I dunno, I'm guessing seven blocks away. And, um, and then I got a ride. I was gonna get a, uh, rent a car this year. And I just, again, trying to save money. I spent all this money, uh, prior to this, and I knew this was gonna cost money for this trip. And I had some other things I needed to get, I, I had to pay for.

So I was trying to be cheap and I've always done it kind, the cheap, this, this trip. And, um, so, but everyone's so generous and nice and people, I think I got a ride first day. I got a ride with Kyle. That's what it was. I got a ride with Kyle and his he's a really cool Tesla. Um, and he drives like a maniac, which for me is fun. I'm one of those guys. I die die. <laugh>, it's, uh, he drives like a maniac, you know? And, uh, I trust them though, you know, so I'm sitting in the front seat, zooming in our traffic and we get there. And, uh, Santa, uh, Palo Alto's really nice, beautiful gym, not a big gym, but it was like really pretty well done. They took their time. And I think they, I think they did a great job.

I mean, it's a great gym. I thought it was like really cool things that they did. They had like a changing room in the back. They had all these like touchless toilet. So you just wave your hand at flushes. And, and it was very Palo Alto, you know, they wanna make it nice because that, that's a very nice area, you know, very, very nice area. There's not even homeless people, which is crazy. Cuz San Jose has homeless people everywhere. Um, so we did some deep half and which was fun or actually we did two classes in a row. So we did a fundamentals class, which was very, very fundamentals. Um, you know, I'm a, I'm a black belt. I, uh, fundamentals is fun if there's other advanced belts in there, cuz you can train with them. But, but um, there's a lot of white belts that they brought to the, the CTA camp.

A lot of these, the owners of the others' gyms, they brought a bunch of guys and they were all nice people, you know, but it's like I was teaching, I didn't wanna teach black belt. I didn't wanna teach at all. Like when I go out there, I wanna learn. I'm not here to teach. So I just felt like I was teaching a little bit. I, I didn't really wanna do that. I teach every day, I, this is kind of like a vacation for me from teaching. I want to be a student. Um, and I didn't learn much from the fundamentals cause I kind of know Kyle's fundamentals, probably not at his master level, which is funny, cuz he's even yelling at Blackbelts. It's like about hip escapees, you know, we're not doing it right. And you're like, I'm a black belt, these guys are black belts and for whatever reason, I've never even yelled at by Kyle.

I think he thinks I'm like probably like, uh, ly handicapped and he's like, I don't wanna make fun of a, a ly handicapped guy. I don't, I don't know what the real reason is. But like sometimes I feel like he thinks I'm, we're not supposed to say retarded, uh, mentally handicap. And uh, he doesn't wanna make fun of a mentally handicap guy. So he never yells at me or whatever. But so either I was doing right or he feels bad for me. Doesn't wanna yell at me either way. So that's the first class, first hour, second hour we do deep half, which was pretty cool. He should like a waiter sweep, but a cool back take from it that I didn't, I've never done before. Um, it wasn't like the most advanced thing, but it was cool for me. I, I, I, I got something out of it.

And then, um, then he puts everyone in the middle or not everyone in the middle eight guys go in the middle and I volunteered to go in the middle and there's probably 30, 40 of us and maybe more like 40 something people in the class. And then, um, and so you just stay in the middle and then you, as a person in the middle is like king of the mat, you know? So if you win, you stay in and we had to go from deep half position. So, uh, the person coming in gets to choose almost all of 'em choose top. Uh, they, you know, they don't want to be in the bottom position. So I worked a lot of deep half and I suck at deep half and I was proud of myself. I stayed through like, I'm guessing about 25 people in a row.

I swept them or took their back. Um, I don't think I got any, I did get two submissions. Yeah. But I wasn't looking for submissions from them. I'm trying to get the back takes and stuff. And um, it was good. I I've rolled with some black belt from Brazil. He was cool. He was a nice guy, bigger guy, probably my age, maybe a little bit older. Um, I took a picture with him. Uh, Marcio, Marcio. I man, I felt bad. I don't remember his name. His wife was really nice. I called her, uh, Raquel, but it's Hael cuz ours are HS dummy. I know that I've been doing jiu jitsu for 20 years, over 20 years. Um, nice guy. And so I beat him the first time, but then he went through the whole line again and then man, I had nothing left and it was a good scrap, but he beat me F square.

And then so I had to get back in line. I go through the line and then, uh, I beat this other black belt and uh, I got, I passed his guard and then, uh, and then I was in line again and I was stayed in line to the very end. And this one guy, we end up like scrambling to our knees. He armed dragged me and took my back, but he didn't get, he only got one hook in, so there's no points. Okay. So he tries to choke me and he just crushes my face. He's probably two 50. And then I just like, he was high with his head cuz he is oh, blue belt or white belt. I just grabbed his head and I pulled it down. He cuz he only had one hook. So if you have one hook, I lift one leg up.

You don't have that hook. Boom pull you off. And then I smashed my knee in his chest. I was so mad. Cause he was just trying to rough house me. I get it. You're a wipe belt or whatever. And you get behind a black belt. Like that's an accomplishment. I get it. He's like you could tell I was a wrestler. Right. I was like, yeah, I was like, it was a good arm drag. And uh, you know, he caught me off guard and you're so freaking big, but I was like pissed that he tried to crush my face. I had like a bloody lip inside. I had mouthpiece on too. And it still gave me a bloody lip. And um, it was just weak. I don't know this isn't the Moony house. You know what I mean? Um, so I stayed in cuz I beat him and then I stayed until the very end.

I was proud of myself. I was like, man, I'm pretty good shape or did good. And the next day I slept in I that night I slept in, it was a good night's sleep. The hotel was fine. Um, the next day I go and we do the noon class and it was like just open. It was just, uh, very basic stuff again. And my knee started to hurt. You know, this is three, three classes in, I don't do twice a day anymore. I'm 42. It's hard to, I don't take anything. Like I don't take testosterone or nothing. And um, it's hard to keep my like I'm in shape, but uh, my knees start to get tired and I feel like it leaves the injury. You know, I'm not a young man, I gotta be smarter. So, uh, I started to feel it man, I'm training, but it was, it was okay.

Um, and then we trained that noon and then that night we trained again and it was very basic again and more, more white belts and it was cool. But um, I was like just kind of done with the white belts and then the next day I just took the noon off. I was like, I don't. So I, I contacted, oh that afternoon, sorry, the afternoon I got done, I watched the comp class and they're getting ready for ADCC. So ADCC, if you don't know, is the top grappling tournament in the world? I would say over worlds of moon dials, you know, a lot of Brazilians might, uh, argue this, but this is like the criminal crem honestly. Cause you gotta, you gotta win tournaments to get into it or get invited. You can't just show up, you know, uh, like you can, the, the Moony outs now Moony outs, they used to have this thing where you have to win something in Brazil to get here, but Americans should just go in, which is also weird.

But uh, um, but this is criminal crime. So, you know, Yuri won it twice. I think Yu Simone and he's under Kyle and then Mason made it to the medal round. He lost to Craig Jones and then he beat Craig Jones ands a couple times. Um, but uh, you know, this year I know Mason's coming after it and he's had a good year of GE and no GE you know, as a black belt level and now he's going to kind of revenge ADCC. So it's, uh, it was fun watching. I mean they get after it and I I've learned a lot from his comp training over the years. I like to watch I've done one or two of them. And then I generally chicken out, cuz those guys are animals. I also feel like I'd be wasting their time. You know, they're trying to get they're training for life, altering changing tournament.

If they win this, their life will change. You know, I don't wanna be in the way if I can't give you the reactions you need. I don't know if you know, I'm a young guy and they're not fighting. No, nobody in that tournament's gonna be in their forties. I don't believe. And um, you know, they're young guys getting after it. And uh, so I just, I don't know. I didn't feel like I wanted to, I don't mind getting my ass kicked. I just don't wanna waste their time. Uh, so I watched, it was so fun to watch and I liked how he was running rounds. He's doing three, three threes, three minute rest. So it's nine minutes, uh, then, uh, kind of like wrestling where you have, you know, rounds and kind of like ADCC two a little bit. And then the last round was ADCC rule.

So first round you get to choose second round. The other guy gets to choose. Third round is you start standing ADCC. So it's a ton of wrestling. I'm watching these guys. I mean, great grappling, you know, these guys going after I've noticed this one, guy's really good. A couple guys wrestling was amazing. I asked one guy I'm like, Hey, did you teach privates? He's like, look, man, that guy over there he's better than me. And it was Kyle Bristol. And um, he was a D one wrestler from Oklahoma state. He's awesome. And uh, he teaches at AKA, uh, American kickboxing academy where CIB and all those guys in uh Comier and all them. And so I got a private the next Mor, uh, the next morning. And then I was like, I'm not gonna take the noon class that day. So Thursday, I didn't take the noon class.

I just, um, I just, so I set up a private for that day, that night we took the night class. It was, it was okay, whatever it was basics again. And I don't think even Kyle taught that, I think it was like, what's his name? Mari, Mary go, America go is a great teacher. It's not that it was just, um, it was just very like how to open the guard. I'm like, okay, I kind of know how to open the guard, um, pass it. But, um, so I had fun. We did the private lesson was just, it was great. He let me film it. Um, and I had a partner to kind of work with, uh, call and shout out to Colin from, from Irvine CTA. He was great in Texas. And, um, and uh, so I did that and then, uh, filmed all that thought.

I learned a lot from his, his takedown series. I did San Siegel, high crotch. And then when they sprawl kind of on your side versus in front of you, how to turn the angle properly, how they do at Texas, um, or sorry at Oklahoma state, he taught me how they do it and it was really cool. Um, and I'm gonna use that one for sure. And then he told me, showed me kind of how Comme likes to do his high sea to lift, which is really cool. You know, you can watch it and his MMA matches, uh, actually you could watch it in his, uh, wrestling, old school wrestling matches too. I mean his high, high sea is so good. Um, so I thought that was useful. And then I decided to walk, I was gonna get a G at the shop. They have a shop, uh, OS gear is like right down the road, about block two bucks away.

I walked down there and then I walked in front of the tattoo shop that one of the guys Matt owns that goes to CTA and a lot of guys went and got tattoos. And you know, I just sat in there talking to him and congratulating on his new shop, his beautiful shop. Um, you know, I like nice tattoo shops. They're kind of like art galleries, you know, I've been into some CD ones. I've actually had tattoo in someone's, uh, in someone's bedroom, you know, that he set up a thing in his bedroom, which I don't recommend that this is a nice professional shop. You know, it was, it was nice. I'm talking to him. He was like, I was like, you know what? I wanna give a tattoo. So he didn't have any openings. His, um, apprentice did. So I got this tattoo,

Matthew 6 33. So if you wanna look that up, I'm not gonna tell you what it means. You really need to look up Matthew 25 through 34, Matthew 25 through 2034 to get the full kind of understanding of it. I like that line of it. So, uh, 33. Okay. Math 2 33. Cause that is like, if you just worry about that, it covers the other stuff. The way I look at it. Okay. It's only like someone asked me yesterday, look it up. What do I, is it gonna be reading for like an hour? I'm like, no, dude, dude. It's like a paragraph. It's not very long. If you can't read a paragraph, come on, man. You need to read a little bit more. Um, so I got the tattoo. She was great. Like I barely felt it. I don't have any tattoos on my arms, so I didn't even like, I was like, wow, I don't even feel that.

I literally didn't feel it. It shows so light. Um, so I did that and then I came back, did the training at night and again, it was okay. Um, and then was ready for the next day. I got a leave Friday morning, fly out. So we had our dinner that night, Thursday night. Um, it was fun. We went to Brazilian steakhouse. Oh no, no. It was Wednesday night. We did the Brazilian steakhouse. Sorry. I packed that up Wednesday night. We did Brazilian steakhouse. Um, and whenever I eat steak, I feel like I recovered pretty good, but man, I was still sore on Thursday. And so I took that class. I skipped the noon and then I did the night again. And then that night, uh, me, Kyle, Colin, and Nick, the other associate or partner of Kyle's, they took us to the same steakhouse and he hooked me up again.

And uh, I just thank you for that. You didn't have to pay twice. That place is expensive. It means a typical Brazil steakhouse it's expensive and this is their they're like conno sores of state of uh, Brazil steakhouse. So they think this is the best one. You know, I've been to a ton of them with them over the years, I've done tons of steakhouse, uh, Brazilian steakhouse. If you've never be gone, you should go. At least once, if you're gluing for meat, it's great. Um, there's tricks to it though, how to do it. Right. Um, and uh, so it was good man. And one of the things like I like about these association camps that I've been telling people is that it's the camaraderie that I really enjoy. And jiu jitsu's done this across the board with me, you know, in my own academy over the years and just my own training.

I'm at 22 years, I've met so many people with so many different jobs. Um, you know, even at the, at the, one of the white belts, I'm like, oh, how do you know you train at, he trained at that, at that place? And I said, oh, what do you do? You know, you, you work around here and he's like, oh, I'm a scientist. I'm like, oh cool. What kind of scientist? He's like, oh, I study baby, uh, premature babies or babies. What, why it goes wrong? Like, um, you know, genetic problems, things like that, you know, outside influences and, and what can we do to make it better? I'm like, oh, that's so cool. You're contributing to society. Not all scientists do that. So I was like, that's such a cool job, you know, and I was talking to him about it, but those are type of people that, where am I gonna meet a scientist, any scientist?

You know what I mean? I used to be a ditch digger, landscaping guy, like, where am I gonna meet the, sometimes I would meet the owners of these BI of, uh, the houses I would take care of. So that gave me a little bit of variety. Uh, but you don't talk long conversations with these people, so you don't get the same feel. And Jiu Jitsu, I've had, you know, multimillionaires train with me and, and you just being around people that are in your class are in your race, are in your religion. Um, and I think it's such a benefit of jiu jitsu is getting in where we all have this thing in common, but we're very different, you know, conservative and or liberal or whatever, you know, even in my own gym, I have very conservative guys and I have very liberal guys and we all like to choke people, right?

So it's good to have a common ground in anything. And, and, and it's what society right now is missing. And I feel like we're being pushed against each other on purpose. It's a whole nother thing. But when I was over there in San Jose, I get to meet people from other countries and because the co the association of worldwide. So one day I got to go that Wednesday afternoon, after training, we did lunch, late lunch. And this guy VU, he took me to a Fo place and he's like a connoisseur of foe, which is like, uh, Vietnamese cuisine. Um, and, you know, fo is like a soup with meat in it and different things. You put, put stuff in it and I've had it before, but I wanted to go with those guys and then VIN who's from China. And then, um, Khan was from una.

So it was these three kind of guys, you know, Asian tsunamis, actually south America. Um, but, uh, I got to eat with them and, you know, share the afternoon with them, pick their brain, talk to them about things. And it was just cool, you know, like I'm just some white boy. And I get to, how many times do I get to talk to someone from ser period Vietnam or China? And, you know, I've met people that, um, you know, maybe second generation here, but first generation or, you know, people that are currently living, even if you're first generation, but you're living in America, you still have the, the American experience. If you've been here for a while, if these people are from other countries now, VU, technically isn't VU is from Virginia. Uh, he's from he, he was born in Vietnam, but he's an American citizen.

And, um, he actually works for the government, uh, American government. So that's about as American as you can get. Um, but you know, he still has, um, he still speaks fluent, uh, Vietnamese. So he's ordering for us. And it's just cool to have that experience of like multi multicultured, multi religion, multi social economic, those three things are big barriers that people kind of separate themselves with, you know, your religion, how much money you make and your culture of like borders. What are the borders that you reside in? And, you know, border itself is a dividing line. And social economic is a dividing line where you can live, you know, because you can't live in a mansion. If you make 20 GS a year, you know what I mean? And so you're not gonna live around those people. And, uh, so I find it like super helpful for myself just to have a great, give me myself a perspective.

And I heard his conversation with this guy, and he was talking about like difference between empathy and perspective. And he believes perspective is more important. And empathy, empathy is understand is, uh, saying that your feelings are valid, that I understand you have feelings. And, and I, I empathize with your feelings that you have feelings about a tip topic perspective is actually kind of putting yourself and seeing through their eyes and understanding walking in their shoes, putting yourself in their shoes. And I find perspective is even more powerful. And, oh, that's what it was that CIA guy. I watched a podcast with this CIA guy, and he used to be an agent a couple years ago. And he was, I think, L Friedman podcast. And it was very interesting when he was talking about perspective versus empathy. And he's saying empathy, empathy's a little overused perspective.

He finds very useful. And, you know, when he was trying to turn people in other countries, understanding their perspective gives you how they think, you know, and too many times when we put ourselves in these socioeconomic religious borders, we're in these like categories. And it's like, there's a line between 'em. And it's like, you know, feel like poor people are the, the, the wealthy, tell the middle class to hate the poor and the poor hate, you know, the wealthy. And it's just like, and then the liberals and the conservatives pit, everyone against each other, and it's not helpful at all. Um, and I, I like just having a, a talk over food that we all can kind of have something in common. We all do jujitsu. And even if we don't believe the same things, I can at least get a perspective. And you can tell an honest assessment of how you view things, view the world.

Um, you know, I had a great conversation about VU with his fam about his family and his son. And I just felt like they were honest conversations. I try to have honest conversations back with them and my perspective as too as well. Hopefully they get something out of it. I don't know. But for me, it's like so powerful to have perspective of others and jiu jitsu man has done that so well for me. And, uh, I'll never, uh, uh, take that for granted. And so it's really good for me to go out there, talk to other owners, too. I talk to other owners of businesses, Hey, what are you doing? You know, what's working, what's not working. Um, you know, when you're in your own area, everyone sees you as, um, as competition. So they don't wanna share anything with you. So when I go over there, that people more willing to share and, and what's working in their different markets, um, is helpful too.

Oh, the last thing I was gonna say, so the rest of the week at this hotel was insane. I forgot to talk about that. So, uh, I go in the vending machine to get a Dr. Pepper and I look on the ground and there's like gas station, boner, pills, rhino, whatever. And, um, just thrown on the ground, the, the rappers it's like, he's like, I need these pills. Now I'm gonna get soda and then go off to the room and get down or whatever it was. It was kind of crazy. Then I see, I go back to my hotel and it's late at night. We get back. I think that was the night we had the, the school dinner at the, uh, steakhouse. I see next door. And it's really loud in the hallway. I'm like, what is going on? It's like 11 at night, whatever.

I, I stay up late, but, uh, I see that they peeled, like, instead of like paint on the doors, I think it was like a wall PA. It was like almost like a wallpaper that they put over the doors to change the color of the doors. And they were ripping it off and shredding it. And I have a picture of it. I took a picture. I'm like, what the heck is going on here? I could hear them next door. It was like kids in there if sounding like there's 10 people in that room and they're stomping. We're on the third floor. You stomping around. I hear 'em like, whatever I read, I read at night, I was riding for a couple hours. It was like two in the morning. I'm like, I'm ready to go to bed. It is late. And these guys are loud.

I go downstairs. I'm like, look, can you tell 'em to shut up? Like, it's loud. He's like, well, send security up there. Um, and if they don't, you know, be quiet, then they get kicked out. Nothing happened. Okay. They never got kicked out. They were allowed to like four in the morning. And I gotta get up at, I got up at eight the next day to have a meeting, uh, with Nick and kind of talk with some stuff, which was like, not much came of that, but I was so tired. I had like four hours of sleep and, uh, and then having to do it. And then I did that private lesson. It was just like, oh man, I was dragging. But anyway, the hotel was wacky and I probably won't ever stay there again. Uh, the bed, the room itself is nice, but the hotel itself was ghetto and sketchy.

There's weird, sketchy people out front. Um, there's weird people in the hallways. Um, it, that hotel went down, I guess the pandemic hit 'em hard. And then someone said that in San Jose, like they had some law that if their past below a certain occupants Lev occupancy level, they had to allow homeless people to stay there. And I don't know if the city pays them for that or what, so that could be the thing like, Hey, you're homeless. Wanna stay here? Oh, cool. You know, instead of homeless shelter, which sounds nice on paper, but if you are paying to stay there and they're acting insane, cuz they don't have a job tomorrow, they don't have to work. And they're just taking drugs all night long and being loud. And in like, it was like a Wednesday night, like there's kids in here, they don't go to school or what's going on here.

It's four in the morning. What are you doing? Screaming, just being crazy. So I won't stay there anymore. Anyway, uh, just as a recap, a CTA, I wore this hat, uh, cuz none of the Canadians came out this year. I was bummed out. Clayton gave me this hat he sent from, uh, Canada, you know, they're they love their hockey. So he gave me this hockey hat, which is sweet. Thanks. Shout out to Clayton. Um, and thanks to everyone. I, I got to hang out with, haven't seen in a couple years, um, hopefully next year it'll be bigger. Uh, and we'll have more time to hang out. I'll try to stay longer next year, I think. Uh, and get a better hotel and maybe we'll get Airbnb again, cuz that's always fun to share the, share the house with other people. You can kind of eat in the house, shave some money and use the washer and dryer there too. So anyway, uh, hope you enjoyed this one and peace out.