How I got into Jiu-Jitsu

As far back as I can remember I wanted to get a black belt in some form of martial arts. I always thought it was an impressive accomplishment. Growing up I took a collective 2 years of various forms of Karate, Taekwondo, and Kick Boxing but my main passion at that time was weight lifting. Looking and being in shape was always my number one priority. I was also working and going to school so I really only had enough time to either lift weights or do martial arts. Weight lifting was something I would never give up doing so I finally caved to the reality that if I couldn’t commit to a martial art 100% then I should just commit to weight lifting. Besides, weight lifting was cheaper and I had very little money at that time. When the UFC came around in the early 90’s* Royce Gracie introduced to me, along with just about the whole rest of the world, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. It was so stunning the way he would crush his opponents**. I was an instant fan as were most people that saw him fight that day. From that day forward I always thought that if I was ever to get back into martial arts that I would train in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu(BJJ).

Throughout my college years I would look up places to train Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu but never followed through. Of course back then there weren’t a lot of options available and I was really still more interested in weight lifting and in love with playing basketball. In the late 90’s I graduated college and started my professional career. At one point in my career I spent 5 years working in New Jersey where joining martial arts never even crossed my mind. Once I moved back to Los Angeles and started to work from home it was apparent that I was still talking about Jiu-Jitsu. When I started to date my current wife of 8 years she bought me my first Jiu-Jitsu book when we were dating, Mastering the Rubber Guard by Eddie Bravo***. Well, with my career in full swing and married with two daughters I found martial arts again to be something out of reach. In fact, my weight lifting wasn’t really what it used to be either. I was still in shape but not at the level I was 20 years ago. In July of 2017 I decided to start looking for a new gym to join. My plan was to get into a gym I could really put time into and get back into the shape I was when I was in my twenties. This was going to be impossible to do at my current gym because it had been bought out by Crunch and Crunch had started to sell memberships for $9.99 a month. It was getting too crowded to work out there anymore. I was looking into going back to my old gym, LA Fitness, across the street for $30 a month. It was pricier than $10 a month but at least I could find a time during the day that I could work out without having to wait around for equipment. However, before I followed through with signing up with LA Fitness I wanted to check out the new UFC Gym that had opened up down the street from Crunch. I thought it was going to be a long shot because I figured with the gym and martial arts all in one place the price per month would be way too much. Most BJJ schools were asking for on average $150 per month for unlimited access and they didn’t even have any workout equipment. My 7 year old daughter was staying with her Aunt one Saturday so my wife and I were spending the day together and were coming home from lunch. I told her I wanted to stop off at the UFC Gym to take a look at it. We walked in and I got a full tour by the person at the front desk.  It was a nice place, it had a full gym with plenty of equipment, locker rooms, an octagon, and a full matted room dedicated to BJJ training. One of the nice things too was that there was no one working out so I knew I could lift weights without having to wait around for people to get off of the machines. Once we were done with the tour we went over the membership price. There were 3 separate payment plans available but they were having a “special”. No money down and $79 a month. I looked at my wife in somewhat disbelief. Then I asked, “what if I want to take a class? I always wanted to try Brazilian Jui-Jitsu.” The sales person’s response was, “all the classes are included in that price.” I looked back at my wife and said, “there isn’t anywhere that exists where I will find a deal this good.” The rest is history. I signed up a week later and ordered my UFC Gi. My first class was on August 8^th, 2017.

*UFC 1: November 12^th, 1993

** For those who aren’t familiar with the original UFC, there were no time limits, rounds, weight classes or judges. The only rules were essentially no biting or scratching, each of which would be enforced by a $1,500 fine. Royce was the smallest fighter in the ring and would dismantle every professional kick boxer, wrestler, and black belt of any kind one by one. At UFC 1: he defeated 3 fighters all in 1 night and won $50,000. He was the only one that got paid.

*** Rubber Guard is Eddie’s signature guard. Eddie is also the owner of the 10^th planet Jiu-Jitsu schools where Joe Rogan got his black belt in BJJ.