- All right, we're going live. What's up guys? We're back with our podcast. It is nameless. On another podcast we'll probably do probably do, let's name it or something. I don't know. Give a gi away to someone who wants to name it. How are you feeling, Coach?
- Feeling sleepy.
- Sleepy? You know how I feel you never get enough sleep? I always feel like, 'cause I tend to, I'm pretty diligent about when I go to bed. And I feel you just. You're, you know what I really, I genuinely love about Arabic culture? I really, really do love this, and I'm selfishly envious of it, is you guys just like, every night's a party. I'm literally in bed, dozing out half falling asleep. It was all right. All right, bro, yeah. Checking him for the day, okay. Hey Jabriel, come on let's go. We're gonna go get a sandwich. It's 10:30 at night. Where are you gonna get a sandwich from? Where, where? Who's serving a sandwich at 10:30 at night?
- That is a problem that we have every night. It's kinda like those Italian mafia movies. Whenever something comes up, everybody in the house has to have their hands in the pot, trying to figure out a solution.
- I can hear it too, though. I can hear it. The food, yeah Mark says the food,
- The food is a major problem.
- So what do we got here? We got our page. You're going live with your personal, I'm guessing. Okay. All right. And then obviously we're recording for later, for Leo or whatever. All right guys, so we're gonna get. We did get some questions from our members. If you have questions, put a comment them. We're using one stream yard on our page. I think it shows up anonymously, so put who's asking. And then the other questions that we have coming up, just put them, what's up Jessey? Bro, your kids are gonna be savages.
- Jessey?
- Bouchard.
- Oh yeah. He's real.
- That's frightening. That's frightening to watch them at tournaments.
- That's a committed parent right there.
- That is, yeah, that's. He's just raising some little heathens up there. So we got some questions. And I'm gonna pull them up here. So the first one is-
- I just got to say, when I was in high school, I was a little bit of a troublemaker.
- Okay.
- And at the time Jessey Bouchard, I believe, was a world champion fighter in high school. And you would never ever know it by talking to him. And if you want to talk about being very careful who you pick a fight with. I am so lucky. I'm so lucky that I never crossed paths with him in that way. We were friends in high school, but he was just the quietest guy. But you want to talk about dangerously deadly, but you would never know it, he is the one. We love you, Jess'.
- Absolutely man, they. And we were talking about that. This wasn't a question. But me and Tyler and them were talking about that last night. He's law enforcement, and he's like, yeah. He's like, I actually am way more mellow. I'm way more chill. And he's like, I just, I don't want to get in a fight. He's like, because I know what, the scale of people and what they're capable of. So once you've been submitted by every type of human body age available, you just, you have more respect for people. So, Zach Miller. What's the basis of belief behind higher ranks in front of the line, and higher ranks allowed to pull partners away, and take away your mat for themselves? So we do the, we do the line up by rank. Not every school does. We also, I mean don't. We're not really heavy on pulling rank though, stealing people's partners. I mean, I've done it. Like hey guys, can I? But I would do it. I would probably do it regardless. Hey, could you, is it okay if I go with them? You could get another match, or whatever? I would do that regardless. The philosophy of it? I mean you want to answer? Where's it come from? I mean I don't.
- I don't know.
- I'm not really the jiu jitsu history guy. So, I can't tell you that. Perhaps the Gracie? I would, ultimately it comes from the Gracie, I would imagine, but.
- I mean you put your time in on the mat. You have seniority on the mat. And you've worked your way up the line of the higher ranks. I mean, I just look at it as a respect thing. Regardless of age, if you've got the rank you, you know. It's never really a, it's never really a. It's an ask.
- Yeah, and we've never. Yeah, it's never been a. It's never been, and every school I go to, obviously professor Bruno with lead, and professor Alvarez. We go down there. It's almost like the movie "Babe". At the end of the movie, the sheeps just kind of move themselves. He's never like, no one's ever barking orders. You know your place. Get in line. It's just like, all right guys, line up. And on people, their first day, I always, I never say it. I'm never say hey, new guy. Down there. I'm like hey, you're our guest today so you can go. Like that, and they don't care. I do know, is this a, is this? Do we have any military? Isn't it a military thing too? 'Cause I mean that's kinda. I wasn't in the military. I was not in the military. But I would imagine it's kind of similar.
- I would guess.
- It's gotta do with rank.
- Yeah, I mean I would guess military is the same way. You pull rank and you get you know. I'm guessing there is probably so much more.
- What's up, guys? What's up Abu, Brian? So where that comes from, Zach, I don't know, man. I'm not mad about it, I don't. Because what's the alternative? I mean how else do you start class? You just start like, what's up, guys? Okay, let's get started. Let's start warmups. It's just kind of a formal start to class. A lot of people, even adults, they join martial, they enroll in martial arts or jiu jitsu to get more discipline, they're looking for that. Humans are creatures of habit.
- You know, another thing.
- They like routine.
- Senior ranks in the class, even if it's by six months or one year, a lot of times they know better.
- What do they know better about?
- They know better about what matches to make inside, in the gym. A senior rank might look around and say hey, there's two new beginners. And one guy might be 250 pounds. And you have an oblivious 150 ponder, like okay you know I'm here to do jiu jitsu. Sometimes senior rank might make that adjustment and say guys, okay I'm gonna take here. I'm gonna take this one, and you go over there. I think it's about matchmaking too.
- Yeah. Well yeah, the pulling rank. Again, it doesn't really happen much, because that's. One thing I'm like. So you got two philosophy, at least with the adults. You've got those who are like okay, everyone find a partner. Everyone find a partner. And that's how we came up, find a partner. And you were quick to find a partner, because you don't want to get stuck. You didn't want a bad draw. I almost didn't want to get a water break and come back. And now I've got, only Mo's left. And I was like, ah man, isn't there anyone easier? Is there a lower rank anywhere? Or only one of the heavy heavyweights, so you're just like, okay, I gotta find someone right now. Grab a partner first, and then grab water. So we make, a lot of times I'll make the matches, people that I'm really concerned about. They just started or whatever, kind of fragile. Let me pair you up, pair you up. Okay, the rest of you guys figure it out. It doesn't matter who you go with. Lining up by rank. Oh yeah, Mark's a military man, long time. Lining up by rank allows the coaches to see who is here, in order. Also, it does help with that too. When we're doing announcements, you can talk to the high ranks, talk to the beginners. And we have separate fundamentals in advanced classes, but. Favorite HW grapplers, Big Mack And Josh come to mind. I don't know what HW grapplers are, Brian. You'll have to elaborate on that. But yeah you, Mark, regarding the rank, you're absolutely right. Favorite HW. Still don't know what that is. Zach, you also had another question, which I will answer privately on the members only group, because I'm not gonna release that just out of the bag. Literally, so I went to bed last night. And I looked over to Amanda, and I told her seven things immediately this week I'm excited about. Seven things that I'm like, I'm excited about this. I'm excited about this. I'm excited about this. I'm excited about the pod. I don't really like, today was the easiest wake up I've had to do this podcast. And I went to bed late.
- What's late for you?
- Well. Like 12:30. I was making a, just making a video. What's up, Pete? I saw Pete at the, I saw Pete and I recognize him. I couldn't remember his name though. I knew it began with a P, 'cause I always see it as his Friday funnies. And I was like, what's up? You want to try? He's like, I'm actually been there. I was like, I knew you have. I couldn't remember his full name, though. But we saw him at the Elm Heart Street Fair.
- He's the big Teddy bear.
- Pete is. He's funny, man. He's got a good-
- He's the biggest Teddy bear you'll ever meet.
- I can appreciate someone with a sense of humor. I really, really can. And I can appreciate that. Chad Hubert is coming off recovery. He trained jiu jitsu for six months, not a single injury. And he goes golfing for a week, and somehow he's out of the game for six months. What type of golfing were you doing, Chad? I never, I've never heard of an injury like that. So I'm curious if you guys started wrestling on the course, or whatever. He says will you guys ever do a three to five minute weekly video of a move or technique of the week? I have an answer to this. You want to answer it?
- Move of the week? We kinda stick with a series, or position or sequence for at least 30 days.
- He he's saying on social.
- On social?
- Yeah, he's saying here's your one minute jiu jitsu move of the week. Here, check this out.
- Chad, We can't give up all our secrets, bro. I mean, if we could, we would patent this stuff. I mean, we can't give up all our secrets to everybody.
- Not only that, not only that. And I'm gonna go on record right now and say this. You know who cares about that? You know who cares about the move of the week? Jiu jitsu guys, jiu jitsu guys, guys who are already trained. We might do it in our members group, say hey, focus on this, or whatever upload. But why? There are, there is, you could try. If you watch all of the content of jiu jitsu content ever made available for free right now online, you could start January first and watch it every minute of every day till the end of December 31st, and not complete at all. So, what? Are we gonna add to that pool? Number one, number two, no one cares about that. Even a lot of jiu jitsu guys don't care about that. So if we're trying to bring awareness about jiu jitsu to the public, Mrs. Smith doesn't care if her son can berimbolo. Mrs. Smith cares that her son listens the first time.
- I definitely care if her can berimbolo.
- Well.
- I definitely care.
- Well, sure once their in here we can teach the technique. But if you just see, someone asked me at a trade fair. They're like, hey. They invited us out. They're like, hey, Coach David. Would you mind come and do a demonstration at our event? And I looked at him and I was like-
- A jiu jitsu demonstration?
- Yeah, I looked at him and I was like, oh no. No, I'm not gonna do that. He wanted me to do Cobra Kai, seven seven deep, with flames. And I was like.
- I mean, how do you even do that?
- How do you do it? And you do it and one of two things happens. So you could do it, and then you hip toss somebody. I've told them, karate looks way cooler on stage.
- Oh, definitely.
- Way cooler on stage. Jiu jitsu looks retarded. Gi jiu jitsu matches look absolutely stupid. We might as well just be hugging on the mat, just laying there hugging, a lot of times. So it looks, it looks. It looks-
- Unless you're John Wick, and you got your gun your shooting.
- Yeah, unless you're John wick and you have eight actors with choreographed moves. Yeah, it looks dumb. So they. But I said, do you want me to do a sort of a seminar, or a keynote speech, or whatever for your event, I could do that about the benefits of jiu jitsu regularly. But jiu jitsu itself, just it doesn't. You know truth is stranger than fiction sometimes. If you say, tell someone that the art that looks so stupid is the best for self defense. And then the other art with the roundhouse kicks, it's not gonna end well for you. That's a hard mental adjustment for people to make.
- Especially when it looks so good. There's flying and jump kicks.
- You don't want to see me kick. I've round house kicked. You at least, the thing is, you at least, if it came down to it and you're like hey, can you just show me some punches? Your form looks presentable. My goal is I'm just gonna, if you want to throw punches, I'm gonna back away until I can get it to. I'm just gonna kind of keep the Gracie distance, and then close it, but I'm not gonna, there will be no back spinning kicks from Coach David. What do we got? Yeah, Chris Holmes says true. What's up, Jamie? What's up, Chris Holmes. So we was at, I lost my voice at the tournament. Chris was at the tournament on Saturday. It was. Yo, how hot was it in there, Chris? Give me a degree of how hot it was at that tournament. My estimate was 105. And Justin was there too. My estimate was 105, 110, no airflow. That's my estimate, but I'd be curious to see what other people thought. Let's see. What's the next question we got? Oh, Chad's got another one. Because he's injured he says, I got one more, as I need it in the coming weeks. Best drills you can do at home, with or without a heavy bag.
- I get this question asked all the time, especially by newer members, newer people starting. What drills can I do at home? What can I do outside of class? What can I watch? I remember 15 years ago, trying to watch jiu jitsu when I first started. I'm like, man, I freaking love this stuff. I want to watch more. I want to study more. And looking back, I don't think that helped me at all. Watching jiu jitsu on TV, when you first started jiu jitsu, if you're not, within the first couple months, I don't know how much that'll help you.
- I'd tell him like. It's kind of the rookie mistake. In our head, we want to accumulate all this knowledge. I want to add to this, and I want to add to that. And so, you want to all this information. You want to carry it. What happens if we try walking with that information? You're gonna drop something.
- Yeah, you can't.
- As opposed to being like, you know what, man? And Coach Professor Bruno, with lead said this really well. He's like, if you just become the guy. And even business guys will tell you this too. Be good at one thing, one thing. You don't want a guy who's doing your plumbing, and also doing your taxes, and also selling your house, and also fixing your car. You're gonna be like, which one are you good at? Honestly, which one are you good at?
- I'm sure Don River and friends has something-
- Yeah, yeah. I can do it all. Yeah, I can do it all. You're like, which one are you good at? So kind of the same thing, find a technique that you want it. I tell them, him get a submission. Pick one, I don't care which one. Find a submission that you can get to and finish from any other position. So if you want a dart, if you want a triangle, if you want an ankle lock, you want to arm bar, you want to kimura. Find a way to work in any position, whether you're on the defense or the offense, you can get there, and that's your end goal always. That's your end goal always.
- I was talking to one of our members, Christian. And he's about six foot, but his wingspan is probably double my wingspan. His legs are as long as a telephone pole. And I'm like, look. Your starting point in every single match, since you're just starting with jiu jitsu, get the close guard, that's where you work. And that's basic triangle, armbar. Everything opens up from there. So yeah, you have to keep things basic in order to put all the pieces together.
- Yeah, absolutely. I'm just reading this screen. And I believe if I'm reading it, it looks I'm Coach Mohammad, and you're Coach David. See how those names are? I'll fix it later. Obvious, I'm not Coach Mohammad.
- What's up, Jen? We miss you. Hope all is well.
- What's up, Jen? And Jeffrey. Tell Jeffery we said, hi.
- Yeah. Tell them we say, what's up?
- Coach Jimmie. Who else is there? Brett Hamilton.
- What's up, Brett?
- Well, he's talking about like. Chad, he's talking about drills though, coach.
- What do you feel? Kevin's got a good one. What do you feel about upper belt ranks avoiding new, spazzy white belts? Is it our responsibility to roll with them, or protect our health? That's a good question.
- That's a good question. And Kevin is a high rank. So it's not, he's a high rank. It's not like he's a white belt asking. I remember having this conversation with Coach Mohammad. And at our old school, I wasn't the toughest, but I was a gatekeeper, for those who know what that means. And they.
- A gatekeeper, for anybody who's not watching means, okay, you get this big new guy that comes in, or really big physical, tough guy. And there always has to be a few people in the school that, instructors or coaches has to say, okay, that's your match. And that's just letting them know that it's not gonna be physically easy in here. Some people might say, all right you need to kick that guys butt. Or you need to tap him or submit him? Or you could say that you need somebody advanced enough that could hold their own to show them that your strength and size doesn't really matter because jiu jitsu always wins.
- So, but I remember we had this conversation. And Mohammad, in so many words, was like, you know when we open, you're gonna be the gatekeeper. He's like, you're the younger one. You're gonna be the gatekeeper.
- Yeah, I have 15 years on him, so.
- So I was. When we first started, I was the gatekeeper. And my personal, and my philosophy on jiu jitsu in general has changed. The short answer, Kevin, is I believe they should. If you're under 40, 35, you should be rolling with the white belts. Because again, you should be able to, no matter how big or spazzy. And I we've had some. No matter how big or spazzy the guy is, you should be able to control that. And if you say, well, I don't want to get hurt because he's too big or spazzy, how good is your jiu jitsu? You know what I mean? And trust when I say I've had some big dudes in here, 300, SWAT looking, big law enforcement dudes. You have to be able to do it. So I'm really, and my philosophy is really, really focused on self-defense. And we're down river, where the wrestling culture runs deep. So it's not like you're getting a brand new green, white belt. I feel 50% of every guy who walks in here wrestled at some point in their life.
- I mean, there's two guys that I can think of right now. Chad, who posted one of the questions.
- He's huge, nice.
- Yeah, people describe him as one of the biggest human beings they've ever seen. He's a white Shaquille O'Neal. He picked me, literally. He picked me up like a child. He grabbed my gi, and picked me up. I've never. Like, what do you do? My feet are off the ground now. I'm like, okay. Try to get a-
- And then we have another guy, nicest guy in the world. He looks like, and is built like Ronnie Coleman.
- I don't know who Ronnie Coleman is.
- You don't know who Ronnie Coleman is?
- How is he? Relevant?
- We had the discussion about Kobe Bryant the other day.
- Oh, is he a basketball player?
- Oh my goodness.
- I don't watch sports. I don't watch UMC. I literally, I train jiu jitsu, and I go home.
- He's a Professor in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. And I think he's put all of his focus there. But he's not schooled in other sports.
- Boring.
- You didn't know. Was it you didn't know who Kobe Bryant was?
- I get Kobe, and Dwayne Wade, and LeBron mixed up. If I see them, I get them mixed up.
- But do you know what Kobe Bryant brought to the game of basketball?
- He was a very good Lakers player. And he recently passed.
- He's gonna go down in the top five of all time greatest players to ever touch a basketball.
- So how come that conversation is all about Kobe, or all about LeBron and not about Kobe then? How come LeBron has "Space Jam II" and Kobe doesn't?
- That's a nice segue. The point is-
- I'm just saying I hear more about LeBron. I hear more about Kobe as like, I hear the admiration about Kobe. And he's La Bamba? La Bamba? La Momba? That's his nickname?
- Momba. Black Momba.
- Momba. Black Momba, okay. But I just hear more, a lot, about LeBron. And they always compare LeBron and Michael Jordan, not Kobe to Michael Jordan. So if he was that good, likewise, the conversation on LeBron and Kobe.
- Well, Kobe's gone. He retired. And LeBron is just-
- Still playing.
- Still playing, a couple of years younger. And there's just a different type. I would say LeBron is compared to almost like a Gordon Ryan of jiu jitsu, in the way that in the way that he communicates out there. He says, I'm the best, I'm the greatest. And he's not afraid to say it.
- But Gordon is indisputably best. I know nobody, you can't dispute that.
- No you can't.
- But people are disputing that for LeBron.
- True. Individual player, I would say LeBron is probably. He's just a physical specimen. But who would I rather have on my team? I would say the drive, and will to win. Kobe has it. But anyway, getting back to the athletes. We have another guy. Ronnie Coleman is a 10 time, nine or 10 time Mr. Olympia. He's a body builder.
- Body builder, okay.
- Yeah, but he's not like. He's not a small bodybuilder. He's six foot, four or five.
- Like LeBrad. You remember LeBrad? He got into school.
- LeBrad?
- Like Howard Renfroe, huge, huge. Literally the biggest dude we've probably had in here. The big, big jacked up.
- Oh, yeah yeah. That's who I'm talking about.
- Okay. Yeah yeah yeah. Okay, yeah. Huge.
- Humongous.
- 260, and 7% body fat.
- Yeah, I mean with somebody like him I'm gonna, I'm just gonna get on his legs immediately.
- I'm gonna get on his good side, and have him fight with me. I'm not gonna, I'm gonna make friends with that guy.
- Oh, he was a monster.
- Yeah, he's super nice. And those guys are always so funny. John Johnson would say this too. He was like, when wd fight he'd say don't hurt me. And I was like, excuse me? You're just a mammoth, but. I hope that answers your question. I'm sure you already had your. And I thank you for leading that. I know you've already made up your mind on that. Like Kevin Rapps, he's a regular competitor. So, he's already made up his mind on that. But just to kind of like, that's my philosophy on that. I shouldn't turn down a match. I shouldn't turn out a match just 'cause I'm afraid of a white belt hurting me. And matter of fact, our philosophy in here, we teach it. If a high rank and low rank are going together, and the low rank gets injured, that's the high ranks fault. And if the high rank gets injured, that's the high ranks fault, because you should be able to control that match enough.
- Yeah. Well, sometimes it's a little bit. It's not an easy thing to do, to tap when you're going with somebody less advanced than you, but they got all this weight, and all this strength on you. And that's usually where that kind of stuff happens. But I just, yeah, I just am extra careful.
- Yeah, absolutely.
- What other questions do we have?
- That was Kevin's. We got what? Zach says, I just I find it develops ego rather than more team-based thinking. Zach, about you about your lineup question. I-
- I will say, on that, on how we line up according to rank. So we have teenagers in our class that we move up to the adult class. And some teenagers that are 11 to 14 years old, actually have more rank than the adults. And again, jiu jitsu is all about transferring knowledge. So if a 12 or 13 years old can execute an arm bar, show and teach an armbar, but somebody who's much older cannot, that's why they move up in the front of the line, because they have the knowledge that other people don't. They've earned that on the mat.
- Yeah, and Zach your comment about. What's up, Kyle? If I haven't told you already, congrats on the brown belt. I'm pretty sure I did, though. They, if somebody is like, if they're prone to be arrogant and have ego, they're gonna have arrogant, and have ego. Putting them, having them line up by rank isn't gonna make that come out. They're gonna have arrogant. They're gonna be arrogant and ego whenever they get their belt. So that, I mean that's the different mindset. I will say, and you can agree to this. You're here. I go, man. If you got ego, you're not gonna last long here.
- You're gonna not last long anywhere.
- Well, you're not like. Even to the point though, to where ego so much as like, oh, well I need to work and train for myself. I can't roll with the new guy. We're here as a team. Trust me, you'll get trained and stay after if you need to. But you're only as strong as the weakest person on your team. And so that guy needs help. And you're the only one that's, or whatever. That's the match you need to take. And we made, we partner people up appropriately, of course. But the ego of I'm, we very much believe it's the team, it's the team. We went through a tour of the U of M stadium, big house. And they got, one of the coaches put it up in the locker room, the team is everything. So there is no golden boy here. There is no special child. There is no-
- Prodigy.
- Bro, there is no prodigy. There's guys who are great. Don't get me wrong. They're gonna be, you will know their name. Don't get me wrong. But I don't place any more weight on them than anyone else. Because the second you do that, they said oh, well. I'm the reason. I'm the reason that they're doing that. I'm the reason they won that tournament. My single gold medal won them the team tournament. Get outta here. Get outta here. I won't. I will help you find another school so quick it'll make your eyes water, if that's your mindset. So, that question, Zach. We got another one. No, that's it. All right, so I got another one from Christian, Coach Christian. Really excited about this one. And he's, I know he's phrasing this up. He's working on a real right now from the tournament about these parents screaming at their kid. He said, how do you, how to parent and provide moral support to your child when they are competing? I feel there's two answers to this question. One depends if you train. And the other depends if you don't train.
- Yeah, well I. So my son has been competing since he was five. He's been competing since he was five. So I've been, I've been on that end before. And I've seen, I've been the parent that probably pushed my son a little bit too much. And I've also been the parent that says you know what? You need to go compete, do this thing on your own. You're not gonna get any support, or any involvement from me because when you're out there competing, you're on your own. You've got to experience life on your own. You got to problem solve on your own. You gotta manage your nerves on your own. Walking into a tournament is just walking into a big, big function where you've been invited, but you don't know anybody. So my advice on that subject would be, so a jiu jitsu coach's job is to mentor and grow the athlete physically, socially, and emotionally. They're all tied in together with jiu jitsu. My opinion on that is, just be the mom or dad. You can't get involved in, if you're not a jiu jitsu coach, or a soccer coach, or a football coach, don't give any advice. Sometimes kids just need a hug. Sometimes kids just need their mom or dad in that space or in the area where there, they know that I am safe around mom, I'm safe around dad. And they don't need any feedback. They don't need any, you should've did this, or why didn't you do this? Or you could have tried a little bit harder. So my thing on that subject is, and I tell the parents all the time here, just be mom, just be dad. When's the last time that you spent a couple of minutes of quality time on that? I mean, I'm guilty of it just as much as anybody else, about like drilling something into your son or daughter about, you gotta do this, you gotta do that. Like the go to school, study, do your responsibilities. When it comes to training, just be mom or dad. Just be there for support. That's it.
- They. Go ahead and finish, man.
- No, I mean just be there for support. That's my take.
- And let me add this as well. When my daughter Scarlet's on the mat, I'm not allowed to, I'm literally not allowed to coach her. We have a no parent, no sideline coaching policy. Around here, parents can come and watch. And they can ask questions to our coaches. If you're not a coach, you don't need to be talking to the kid on the mat. That applies to me. I'm literally like, so I may be on the mat coaching. But it comes to, it comes to. I don't coach Scarlet. And my number one goal. I got this from Mike Stewart, Jr. The man, by the way. My goal with that. What's up, Coach Christian? My goal with, with Scarlet right now is to not hate jiu jitsu. Do I want her to learn how to bump and roll? Sure. Do I want her to do tournaments? Sure. Do I want to learn self-defense? Sure. Do I want her to make friends? Sure. Do I want her to build discipline? Sure. Do I want all the benefits that come with it? Yes. But to get that, to get that they need to, they need to. They're five years old, six years old. Uh-oh, we got. They are five years old, and six years old. It's easy to not fully appreciate just how fragile their mind is, their little brain is. And so I'm at these tournaments. Christian is gonna make an awesome real. You're screaming at these kids, screaming at these kids, shouting profanity at these kids. You're about to, I'm about to start a fight. He's five, six years old. You've never trained a day in your life, telling him to just get up out of mount. Everybody in the room is looking at you as the ignorant person. And so, great to be there for more support. When they step off the mat, if they won or lost, their crying, whatever. That's the time to be mom and dad, give them the hug. Let the jiu jitsu coaches do the coaching. Even if you do train jiu jitsu, let the jiu jitsu coaches do the coaching. Because the ability to do, and train, and be competent in a sport, and the ability to then properly coach are two completely different skillsets, completely, entirely. I've seen some amazing grapplers, amazing grapplers who, they just couldn't teach. They just couldn't teach. So it's best to just be the parent. You put them in a school for a reason. There's a reason you're not training them on your own. Trust the team of the school where you put them. So that's the way I would answer that. Got anything to add to that, coach?
- No, another question, another thing that comes up. For you guys who train, how do you handle your spouses, your girlfriends, or your wives that don't give you an easy pass, or make it easy for you to go to the gym?
- Oh, that's a head on ask.
- So how do you? So I have my own answer.
- That's a really good one.
- I think some people are lucky that their spouses or their wives understand the benefits of physical fitness, and mental health that comes through jiu jitsu. But what would you say to guys that are having that trouble? And you got to give them the benefit of the doubt. The wives or girlfriends, they just don't get it. They just don't get it. I mean, yesterday I was in a locker room with Ryan. And he's like, you know, he remembers when we first opened.
- Coach Ryan?
- Yeah, Coach Ryan. He remembers driving by. He saw a sign. He was 17 at the time. He called his mom. He's like, mom, a jiu jitsu school opened up. I want to go do it. And he's like, I came in, I did the trial class. I'm so glad that you guys forced me to get on a team, because my life has completely changed. And everybody around him, including his girlfriend now, is training. And his life has completely changed. So he's got the support. But how do you, what do you say to the guys that are dealing with spouses or wives that are not pushing their husbands or spouses to go to the gym? 'Cause they just don't get it.
- Those are two different, so those are two different questions. The one that's not, you're relying on your spouse to push you to the gym? Or you want to go to the gym and they are holding you back?
- You're getting resistance. You get, well, honey you know what? You got to finish that project at the house. Honey, you actually worked late last night and now you want to go to the gym. When is there family time? Sometimes these are, often they're legitimate reasons why they're putting, they're holding you back a little bit.
- I mean we're not gonna get into. I'll try to keep it on topic here, but. I'm gonna address, I just feel like we're gonna talk to just married couples. 'Cause the dynamic, if you're married, there's a whole new level of commitment there. Boyfriend, girlfriend, it's just not as committed by definition. So we're talking about married.
- Married, slash serious couple.
- Fine, we'll roll them together. Fine. Fine. They, they, you-
- He's a marriage-
- I am pro marriage. I'm very much pro marriage. There's no point me in dating someone for nine and a half years, because I don't need a sheet of paper. Listen. You're gonna date someone for nine and a half years? But anyway.
- He's a marriage coach, and life and marriage coach, and business coach, so he works with married couples. So that's why, that's why the.
- Very, very pro marriage. So if you're, I believe in the law of reciprocity. And so if you're, if you're taking from that emotional bank account, you're making so many withdrawals and not putting any deposits, you're going to overdraft.
- What do you mean?
- So what I mean is, in every human relationship you have an emotional bank account. So just like an actual bank account, it starts with so much funds, so many funds of rapport, or trust, or whatever. And then if I pull a favor, like hey. Honey, I need to work. I gotta work late. I know I said we'd go on date night. I gotta work late. You just made a withdrawal. You just made a withdrawal for, so she's kind of like, it's sort of like you're pulling a favor. And then, oh tomorrow. I know I said we'd go on date night today, but I gotta go train. You just made another withdrawal. And then I know, I know I said I'd finish that project, but there's this, whatever, something else, hunting trip, camping trip I want to go to. You just made another withdrawal. Or you just don't do it. Honey, I'm tired. I'd rather not do it this weekend. You just made another withdrawal. So all these withdrawals, without putting things back. So now compare this, compare that situation of honey, I got to work late. I've got to work late. I know we said we'd go on date night, you make a withdrawal. And the next day, you send her flowers, or a card, or get her something special and say, I appreciate you understanding. I know we haven't gotten as much time. And you can do this. You can send it to the house or whatever. I know we haven't got as much time together as we want. But I appreciate you always being there. So now you're making a deposit. Now you've just made a deposit into that bank account. So if you're going to make requests, you need to, you need to make provisions as well.
- Take notes. Flowers.
- You need to make. Or whatever, whatever she's into. She doesn't like, or may not like flowers. So, whatever she's into. So if you're, if whenever you hear. 'Cause I mean, think about it. If your wife is fully satisfied emotionally, she's fully satisfied physically, she's fully satisfied spiritually, and leading her, she's fully satisfied financially. She's fully satisfied, and you are making that time, when you make a request and say hey, I'd like to train two days a week at these times. Why would she not? Why would she not support it? And then she wants to do something, support her in that. Book her a freaking spa retreat. Set up a date with her friends to go out with her. Why would she not?
- Give us two more examples? Flowers sounds silly, and really basic.
- Cook for her. You make dinner one night. You clean the house one day. And I'm just like, because we, Amanda and I have a very, very traditional, almost archaic husband, wife roles. Even though she's a business owner now, she does a lot of the domestic stuff, and I do a lot of the judo guy stuff. Judo, meaning traditional guy stuff. So anytime I were to switch those roles, like hey. Now, you don't want me cooking. So whatever, I'll buy out meal that night. Things that are important to her, I can't answer specifically, because there might be a. There's some shakes out there, they want nothing more than to sit down with a bang energy drink and read comic books. That's not Amanda. But if you know what she's into. Meeting those needs, and being in touch with that frequency of what she needs, and providing that for her. If you're meeting that, but if you're always taking, and taking, and taking, then asking for. And I believe. So those are just two examples. And then another one could be like, get her friends together. Say hey babe, you know what? You've been under a lot. Let me take the kids tonight. I reached out to a couple of your friends, and they want to go out, they want to take you out. They want you to go out. They want you to go have a ladies day. Go to a trade fair. It's Michigan summertime. So go do whatever you want with whoever you want. I'll take the kids for the day. That's, if you got kids. I mean you know. Imagine telling Nancy she doesn't have to worry about the kids for 12 hours, or 15 hours. That's a huge deposit. Because that's all they worry about. You want to say business owners never rests, freaking mothers never rest.
- Does training jiu jitsu make it easier to meet your spouse, or someone that you might court? Does being a jiu jitsu athlete make it easier for you to meet?
- I've thought about this. Well, I think. I think it makes you, by far, a more confident man. I wish you could bring back David from 2009, and have him sit right here, and just see the little boy that he was. I really wish you could. It definitely makes you more confident to go out there. That being said, personally, if I had to start all over I would probably. God forbid, Amanda passes, and I choose to remarry. I don't personally, I like my spouse not being all jiu jitsu girl. I that she's a girly girl. Not to say you can't. But I don't know if I would look for a spouse. I wouldn't get into jiu jitsu to find a girlfriend. Put it that way.
- But we'll jiu jitsu help you find the girl of your dreams?
- Jiu jitsu will help, will make you-
- Outside of the gym.
- Will make you more confident, to be marketable to the girl of your dreams. Because we all know, like women's physical standards. I mean, you're gonna get in shape in jiu jitsu. But women's physical standards are way lower than men's. So they're way more about what's his charm? Is he confident? Is he bold? And that's the biggest thing for me. I swear to you, I feel like you bring in any woman on the planet, any woman on the planet. And I will talk to her with the same swagger I talk to Amanda with. Because there's just any, anybody, forget it. Any human on the planet. Because I'm not afraid, you bring in freaking Putin, Donald Trump, President Biden, any of them. And I'm gonna talk to them. I'm not gonna be intimidated by any of them. Because that confidence just comes from jiu jitsu.
- You know what? There's no money. No money in the world that can give somebody that type of confidence.
- Yeah, I agree.
- No money.
- I mean, we, I do not. There's a no dating policy here. And I've mentioned to some of our members, if you need help meeting somebody, I mean that's easy, easy. We got a relationship coach here. And jiu jitsu definitely, definitely gives you the confidence to meet and speak to people, and just open up your network. But cool. So do we have any other questions before we?
- We got the last one. What's something you know now that you wish you'd known when you opened?
- About?
- Man, it could be anything. Well, it says. I mean, we'll leave it open. Something you just, something you know now that you wish you knew when you opened. He's got great advice.
- Wow, that's a good one. There's so much.
- I can answer it, even before we opened. I wish I had started training take downs at white belt with the same intensity I trained them now. That would be my. If you are. And we're very much yin and yang here. If you are just starting jiu jitsu, get the takedown. Learn to get the take down. That's what. I can't tell you, I've lost track of how many tournaments I've lost two to zero. Because I couldn't get the takedown. And it's not because I couldn't get it, because I just didn't know any takedowns. I didn't really start training them aggressively until purple belt. That's one thing I wish I would have done differently. How about you?
- I feel like today, I have just as much to learn about jiu jitsu as I did 15 years ago.
- 100%, yeah.
- 100%, I remember when Alex Hodie, one of our old training partners, I remember he was one of the smallest guys in the gym. But he was one of the, hands down, toughest guys in the gym. Size did not matter. The day he got his black belt, he's like you know what? I feel like I'm just starting to scratch the surface.
- Scratch the surface, yeah.
- And I was a brown belt at the time, and I'm like.
- He was a purple belt world champion. He was not, he was no, he was no. He was no chump. He was nationally recognized.
- And he's smashing it at the black belt level. I remember when he got his black belt. He's like, I'm just starting to scratch the surface. I just couldn't understand how good he was, and he was thinking that way. If I had to do something different, starting out. This has been a great, great experience. Jiu jitsu has been, it's still the hardest thing that I do every day in my life. It's the hardest thing, physically. Emotionally, the highs and lows. But I would, I don't know how much I would do differently. I might have changed the, some of the people who I decided to call friends over the last 15 years.
- I would have opened sooner.
- You would've opened sooner?
- Yeah. Because you've got this. And you want to block me, ban me, that's fine. There's this. You want to talk about ego, Zack? There's this mentality of you need to be a black belt to teach, to coach. It's not true. It's not. Wasn't Nicky Rod a blue belt?
- Yeah.
- He's known as the Black Belt Slayer. He's going around doing seminars. He's Nicki Rod, right? He's a blue belt. And you can say, oh well, but. No. Bottom line is he's a jiu jitsu blue belt. So I was thinking like. Now granted, I don't think you should necessarily open a school at blue belt. You just might have trouble getting some traction there. Especially in an area where there are high ranks, and black belts, and things. I think the spread between two stripe purple and black belt is so much narrower than it used to be. It's so much, to me purple belt and black belt used to be as far away as white and blue, or white and purple. And that's not the case anymore. There's a reason they throw them all together in the expert division. Expert, there you go. Cool. Five years and up, you're all together. And so I would start sooner, because I was thinking, I was thinking, well I need to be close to black belt. And we were, remember we were. It was a courtesy. It was a favor. They were like, I know you guys are only brown belts. But you can open it. Swear on my life, on my life. And was it? Is that not how it went? That's how it went. We're only brown belts, so you say like. If you are committed to providing value, and changing people's lives, and you are committed to ever evolving as a coach, just as much of as an athlete, and you're committed to the art, and you're committed to working relentlessly for that. and you want to make sure that your students learn the things better and quicker than you did. We both agree we're kind of slow learners. Then you can coach. I would say you could coach at two, three, four stripe purple, somewhere around there.
- Easily, easily.
- Easily. You could coach, and open it, and do well.
- I mean, you shouldn't. I would stress you should not, nobody should open up jiu jitsu because there's money in it.
- Yeah, that's a fact.
- If you enjoy everything outside of being the best at your class, the best in the gym, if you enjoy jiu jitsu, you enjoy the culture, definitely, definitely open up a gym. It's not a gym that we opened up to be lucrative. And we come to work every day because we enjoy it. But yeah, I mean, I think that purple easily, easily could open up their own school and do their own thing.
- And I would also, like I knew I would. I'll just add this, I know we're running late. I knew it was gonna be a lot of work. I've never done so much work in my life, opening this. It was, I've just never worked so hard in my life. And we're still working. We're still working hard, again, to provide that value to our members and things. But, I've just never worked so hard. Consistently for months, and over years on on end. And then you hit things like, COVID in 2020. There's a reason why my hair's starting to look like yours. I got lots of gray hair coming in. There's stressors to it. But if you enjoy, if you enjoy it, then you're willing to put in those 20 hour days.
- And they don't stop. Those 20 hour days haven't stopped for years. We get some great new members, and just life happens. You sign up two, two drop, and you sign up one more. Sign up two, two drop, and you sign up one more. But it's, but I love the job. I love the job. I mean, we've definitely met some of the greatest people, that never thought I would connect with so many nice people.
- 100%, yeah.
- And parents. What's that? Zach, you got one last? When is the cold tub opening up? Bro, we had that cold tub running for a year and nobody used it. So that called tub is-
- It's on ice. It's on ice.
- That's a pun, And that's the second pun to enter the podcast. I'm out.
- I want a real cryotherapy, where the steam is in there. The one you stand up-
- The chamber, yeah.
- The chamber. I want one of those. So I have to go through upper management to get approved.
- But all right, guys. So that's gonna be it. This is not on YouTube. When it gets on YouTube guys, subscribe. Please like this, share this. If you have any comments to it, we're very good at replying to them. If you've loved anything we said, let us know. If you've completely disagreed with anything we said, let us know, I'll comment on that.
- I got, we're very transparent. And we're gonna be doing these weekly, right? It's gonna be every week at 8:00 am. I can get down to that. I hope you all to wake up early. All right, guys. We'll see you on the next episode. And have a great day. Oh, man. This one. Christian says sauna. I know we're still going live. But Christian says sauna.
