It’s been a long journey, but it has just begun!

Watching Zach Davis's highlight reel made me smile, and it wasn't because of his singing abilities.J It made me smile because I have not seen on video all clipped together how far Zach has come. If you haven't seen it, check it out- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EgjmWgXoLz8. Andres Meraz did a great job on it.
I forget because I see Zach every day. It’s almost like when you see your baby every day; it is hard for you to see his growth. It is only after you look at pictures or old videos that you can you see it.
Zach has been training with me for about 5 years, and as most of the old timers know he wanted to be an MMA fighter from day one. This was before the explosion in the popularity of MMA, basically before the money was in the sport. He wanted to do it even when it wasn't cool. He was so serious about the goal that in 2005 he put a big tattoo that says Vale Tudo down the side of his leg, which means anything goes or free fighting in Portuguese, which is now recognized as MMA here in America.
By putting the tattoo on his leg, he made a public commitment about his goal. There are some goals that you keep secret because you know that if you tell people they will tell you that there is no way for you to achieve them or give you some other negative opinions so you just keep it to yourself. Whenever you go public with your goals, it is no longer a maybe; it turns into a must. You are now 100% committed to it. Zach's tattoo publicly committed him to his goal of becoming a MMA Fighter.
The first time I saw the tattoo I thought he was crazy. Why would anyone who had so much going for him want to be an MMA fighter? Zach at the time was a college student with a bright future but he didn't care about anything but MMA. Explaining to Zach that it was a very difficult journey and there wasn't much reward when you got there didn't deter him. (Of course that is now changing with MMA so popular a fighter can actually make a good living.) He has put everything in his life on hold or cut it completely off to try to reach his goal.
MMA is not something that can be learned in a year or even two. There are so many facets to MMA that training your body for everything takes years. This is what is so hard to explain to new students. If they have never wrestled, boxed or done some type of Martial Arts it will usually take several years of serious hard training. If they have done something else you can usually speed up that process. Most new students (including Zach) don't want to listen and sometimes end up getting emotionally hurt when they discover the truth. We are all used to instant gratification and in combat arts there are no short cuts. You have to train and get your body reacting off instinct, and that takes time. In MMA there are so many variables that getting your body to react instinctually is very difficult.
Zach learned this in his first MMA fight. He had been training boxing, so his standup was better than his opponent. His opponent saw this and quickly took the fight to the ground where he put Zach in a triangle in the first minute of the first round. Some students would have quit after losing like that but Zach looked at it differently. Rather than see it as losing, he looked at it as a learning experience and it just fueled him to be a better fighter and train harder. Since then, Zach has become a professional MMA Fighter and is one of the most popular fighters on the East coast. This weekend Zach travels to Chicago to try out for the UFC Fighter show. He got close the last time; they flew him out to be an alternate. If you see him this week ask him if you can check out that tattoo and then wish him well.
What does the future hold for Zach? I cannot say but after watching his highlight reel I know he has already reached his first goal of becoming a Vale Tudo / MMA Fighter!

Throw Away That GI!

If you have been following the newsletter, you already know about the new program starting at Evolve Academy. The No-Gi Submission Grappling program has not even started and the interest is already overwhelming. I have been fighting the change for a long time, but everything Evolves. In nature, things either Evolve or becomes extinct. I don’t think Brazilian Jiu Jitsu will ever become extinct but I do see Submission Grappling becoming more popular. Here are some basic reasons why-

1. If you tell a new student the Gi vs No-Gi debate he will most likely want to do No-Gi, especially if he tries both classes. The Gi class starts off by putting on that heavy potato sack. Then you do the warm ups, stretching, conditioning, basic body positioning drills, takedowns or self-defense grappling and then you go into the ground techniques, all while wearing that uncomfortable potato sack.
The No-Gi class starts off by putting on a t-shirt or rash guard and shorts and then doing the same basic class. So you can see why the submission grappling could be more appealing if you are brand new to the sport.

2. A wrestler will automatically want to train in submission grappling because he can become proficient in a short time. He will not have to go through as much of a learning curve because this style relates better to the mat time they have already accumulated.

3. The days of gis in MMA went out a long time ago, so most MMA guys will want to train without the gi because it also relates to what they do better. Even though the technical aspects of the gi transfer well in the cage, it is now possible to become a world class MMA guy without ever putting on the gi.

4. No-Gi training is a lot faster pace and the practitioner’s athletic ability becomes a bigger factor. A physically gifted athlete will be able learn and pull off the moves faster because he does not have to be as technical.

4. For the spectator, the No-Gi is more exciting to watch because the grapplers cannot stall as much as they can in the Gi.

6. There is prize money in the sport. Tournaments are now offering money to the winners, so submission grapplers can actually become pro grapplers. The money is not a lot at this time, but neither was it in MMA when that started.

So the addition of the Submission Grappling program only makes sense. I will always think that training in a gi will make you more technical. It allows you to slow the game down and with the gi you have so many more grips to control the opponent with. A smaller, less physically gifted athlete can equal the playing field in a gi if he is more technical. As far as the debate about realistic training for the street, you can learn things with gi and no-gi. Some instructors will say that attackers wear cloths that you can use, much like the way you use the gi. Others will say it won’t work unless it is a jacket and unless it is winter time you are in trouble. This is nonsense because both types of training will give you valuable skills that can easily be converted to self-defense for the street. It is the instructor’s job to train and show the students how.

As most of you know, I have been training 6 weeks without the gi for the No-Gi Pan Ams. Most of my grappling career has been spent in a gi and the 6 weeks was the longest I have ever been without it. The picture of the fingers is what happens when you put the gi back on. Since I could not use grips my callouses have disappeared. When I put the gi back on last week it was a little unfamiliar, my guard passes where harder and the things I had been getting away with were being shut down. I had to really go back to thinking and strategizing my moves more, but I had a blast. I also had a blast the 6 weeks without the gi. You will have to decide for yourself which you think is better and the one that you like more.

After reading this if you are wondering which one I like better, next time you see me pull to the side and I will tell you.

The $606.00 Rash Guard

The $606 rash guard.

$257 train Ticket

$39 hotel room

$117 entrance fee

$120 cab ride

$73 food

Priceless?

What was the The Priceless Moment? That is what I was thinking about Sunday morning when I was looking at my wallet. The Mastercard commercial always has a priceless moment. As you probably already know, I am a procrastinator . I always wait till the last second to make a decision. In some parts of my life it has served me well because there have been times when waiting until the last second has opened up a lot more opportunities. Most of the time it has worked against me; this would be another one of those times. I knew a few days before that no one had signed up for my division at the No Gi Pan Ams, so I sent out an email to the Federation of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and had them move me to the Open weight class. I figured that I would get a match in the Open because there were other Black Belts in my age group and they were all heavier. I was wrong -- nobody signed up. So when they posted the brackets, I sent them another email to move me down an age group but Saturday morning when I looked at the brackets, I saw that it had not been done.

Usually this would not be a big deal because most tournaments want the Black Belts to compete so they will go out of their way to make a match happen. I learned Saturday morning that this was not going to happen even with Brazilian Jiu Jitsu legend Leo Dalla talking to the director of the tournament. His reply was that if he started with me he would have to do it for everyone. I was upset but he was right. I run the Mission Submission tournaments and our most time-consuming process is creating the brackets, so I can understand and actually admire them for sticking to their guns.

The rest of the time was spent explaining to everyone why I was not competing. One of my old friends asked why I have not just signed up for the Adult division to begin with. He said he knew I could hang with them. I went on to explain the major difference between the old man division and adults – 5 Minutes! In the adult divisions the matches are 10 minutes vs 5 minutes for my division. I trained for 6 weeks 2 hours a day 4 days a week. For multiple 10-minute matches I would have to double the training, which is almost impossible for me. Whenever I train for competition, my business and family suffer. I become very selfish with my time and the training is about me not my students. My wife also gets the short end because I become very aggressive and ornery all the time. In the past that didn't effect us because she knew what to expect when I was training but it is different now with Thor.

So back to the Priceless moment- I thought about what part of the weekend was the most enlightening. It wasn't the Renzo Gracie Academy, even though that did give me a lot of new ideas which my students will see implemented in the next couple of weeks. It wasn't the No Gi matches even though there were a lot of exciting ones, especially the Evolve students. I would have to say the priceless moment would be the time I got to spend with Leo Dalla. We have known each other for about 11 years but have never really gotten to hang out for more than a few hours at a time. This weekend was different. Dalla has been in the sport since he was a kid and is one of the legends of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, so listening to his stories about all the heroes of our sport was cool. He is also a school owner with a lot of good ideas on how to run his program. But the most knowledge I gained from him was when he was talking about his kids. Dalla has 3 kids, with his daughter being born one month prior to my son. He talked about all the trials and tribulations of fatherhood and how he balanced all of it. It was neat to hear his reasons for what he does and it really helped me look at things differently. Even though I spent $600 and didn't get to compete it was well worth it, it was a priceless weekend.