#88 - Gile Huni - Exposing Fake Black Belts and BJJ Scandal for Over a Decade

Guillaume (Gile) Huni, the founder of BJJ Eastern Europe and a 3rd-degree black belt, shares his journey from corporate real estate to becoming a full-time jiu-jitsu instructor and media entrepreneur in Serbia.

• Half French, half Filipino with an international background before settling in Serbia
• Started training BJJ in Paris in 2000 after discovering the sport through VHS tapes of Royce Gracie
• Founded BJJ Eastern Europe website in 2012, covering stories mainstream sites ignored
• Created his academy in Belgrade in 2014, now home to 13 black belts
• Developed "Sloth Jiu-Jitsu" – a sustainable approach focused on technique over athleticism
• Emphasizes having a healthy ego about aging in jiu-jitsu and embracing the next generation
• Uses micro-workouts throughout the day rather than intense gym sessions
• Prioritizes recovery through sleep, cold showers and strategic nutrition
• Believes jiu-jitsu should be an escape from everyday life – a place to laugh and feel good

Check out Gile's instructional "Sloth Jiu-Jitsu" to learn more about his approach to sustainable training and the mental aspects of jiu-jitsu.

Guest Stuff:
Insta - https://www.instagram.com/gilebjjee/
BJJ Eastern Europe Insta - https://www.instagram.com/bjjee/

Chapters

• 0:00 Meet Gilead: BJJ Eastern Europe Founder
• 5:11 Journey to Serbia and BJJ Scene
• 13:51 Discovering Jiu-Jitsu and Training Path
• 22:41 Creating BJJ Eastern Europe News Website
• 32:26 Fake Black Belts and BJJ Police
• 40:31 Modern Evolution of Jiu-Jitsu
• 44:56 Sloth Jiu-Jitsu Philosophy
• 52:01 Recovery and Training Adaptations

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:41

Gilead, welcome to the podcast. How are you, my friend?

Speaker 2: 0:44

Guys, thank you so much for inviting me. It's an honor to be here. I've been following your podcast for many years already. Yeah, I appreciate that, man.

Speaker 1: 0:53

And likewise, you're obviously the founder of the BJJ Eastern Europe news website. So, likewise, we've been following your stuff for a little while as well, so it's cool to meet you. And, of course, you're a third degree black belt as well, so a very accomplished grappler yourself.

Speaker 2: 1:09

Thank you, thank you.

Speaker 1: 1:10

So obviously, eastern Europe BJJ website. We'll come on to that and we'll talk about it in more detail in a little bit. But whereabouts in Eastern Europe are you based?

Speaker 2: 1:18

So I'm based in Belgrade, serbia, for the last around 20 years I've been living here. I'm originally from France, I'm half French, half Filipino and I've lived a bit all over the world. As a kid and as an adult I was working in real estate for many years before going 100% in Jiu-Jitsu for the last 10 years. So I'm quite international background, let's say.

Speaker 1: 1:43

Yeah, that's cool man. That explains the very good English that you speak to us right now.

Speaker 2: 1:47

Thank you, thank you.

Speaker 3: 1:48

And what made you settle in Serbia out of all the places that you visited?

Speaker 2: 1:52

Oh, that's a long story, man.

Speaker 3: 1:55

It's a woman, isn't it? Yeah?

Speaker 2: 1:58

Many people in Serbia. They call me James Bond. They think I'm a spy. You know, they're like man. This guy speaks all these languages and uh, you know, and uh, he's, he's here with us, you know. But basically I I um, when I was a student in Paris in the late nineties early two thousands my roommate was a Serbian guy, you know, and we became best friends and I came, I came to visit uh many times and then I fell in love with a country. Then I fell in love with a serbian girl and this is my wife nowadays, you know. So I'm a kid and uh, yeah, so, and the next thing, I opened an academy here and now I'm stuck here. I can't live anymore, man. I've got these academies here. They need me, you know. So I'm here for life, man yeah, sounds good, man.

Speaker 1: 2:40

And then what's the uh, what's the jiu-jitsu or grappling scene like in uh in belgrade, where you are you are.

Speaker 2: 2:46

It's surprisingly quite good. It started there was a Serbian-French black belt not me, but a Serbian-French black belt who came here in the year 2000 from Paris and he started. He just planted the seed and from then everything grew from there. So the country is like 7 million people planted the seed, you know, and from then everything grew from there. So it's got, the countries are like 7 million people and we've got, uh, I would say maybe around 150 black belts. You know, obviously not all of them are are, so uh are competing at a high level or anything. But you know, it's a, it's a, there's a quite a good, quite a good level here.

Speaker 2: 3:22

You know, um, when I started my academy 10 years ago, I'm like you know, I had, I was, I was a, I was a fresh black belt, you know. So most of my students were white and blues and I had to often travel abroad, you know to, to train with guys. Uh, you know to to improve, you know. But nowadays, 10 years later, we've got like 13 black belts here and uh, honestly, I don't really, I don't really need to travel too much. You know, I've got my. I'm not even the best guy in the academy anymore. They kick my ass, you know.

Speaker 1: 3:51

So it's great, it's awesome man yeah, that's cool man and is Brazilian Jiu Jitsu like the, the prominent like grappling martial art in that part of the world, or are there other grappling disciplines there as well?

Speaker 2: 4:03

to be honest, serbia is really like into basketball.

Speaker 3: 4:06

They love basketball here they do love basketball, don't they?

Speaker 2: 4:10

they're like top three in the world. So many world champions look at the NBA so many Serbian and Yugoslavian players are there. I don't know if you guys heard about Nikola Jokic yeah, I was about to say Jokic, he's massive exactly, and, yeah, he's massive, exactly, and his brothers trained jiu-jitsu before in Serbia, his two big brothers, you know they're famous in the States, you know, like his bodyguards.

Speaker 3: 4:33

And yeah.

Speaker 2: 4:33

So number one sport here is basketball. Then you got like football. They love football. They're not very good at football, to be honest, man, but they love it. And then you know handball, volleyball like what the hell? Volleyball? You know water polo, all these kind of sports. But they surprisingly have the sport with the most medals in Olympic Games is Greco-Roman wrestling. So they have a lot of like high-level Greco-Roman wrestlers. They don't have freestyle, you know, surprisingly, but Greco-Roman they're really good. But you know, wrestling is not a mainstream sport. You got just a small number of fanatics who train it and they're really good. And you also have good judo here also, but it's not mainstream like in the States. You go to the States, I go there often, my sister lives in New York and it's mainstream. Everybody knows BJJ, they see you in the street. You got cauliflower ears. Hey, bro, you train. You know here, not really man. Here you got cauliflower ears. They think you were born that way, man, you know. So like.

Speaker 3: 5:34

He just thinks I was wrong with you. Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2: 5:37

They ask me is that normal here in the Philippines? I'm like I train jujitsu.

Speaker 1: 5:42

They don't know what you're talking about.

Speaker 1: 5:44

Yeah, chatting to quite a few international grapplers. Now it seems to be that the level of wrestling in a particular country somewhat dictates the style of jujitsu that comes out of it. I mean chatting to some of the Aussies and the British lads are the same as well, but primarily sort of guard players and leg lockers where you know the kind of, I guess, that part of the world if there is a strong pedigree of wrestling, then you'd kind of expect them to to have like a wrestling style of, of grappling or jujitsu. Is that the case or are you guys just all over the leg locks there as well?

Speaker 2: 6:16

now it's it's not at all the case, you know, because, uh, I just like in in those countries. Uh, those wrestlers, they don't really gravitate towards BJJ, the BJ crowd here. If I look at my academy, it's mostly IT guys. You have a mix, you have IT guys, you have corporate dudes, you have mom and pops in their 40s 50s.

Speaker 2: 6:40

You've got well, this is Serbia, so you've got a bunch of criminals, gangsters. You've got some politicians, police guys, you know. So it's like, it's like general pop, let's say you know, and then once in a while you'll get like some retired football player or basketball player who comes in, who's like a super athlete, you know, and then uh, but yeah, it's, it's similar like in the UK, I guess, and just like regular people, you know yeah, did you see the only place where you're going to get like criminals, politicians and police officers, like being from the same land.

Speaker 1: 7:10

That's true, man, that's true. Yeah, it's one of the coolest things about it. So take us back to your story then. So obviously you've been a black belt now for about 10 years. You said, Like, where did you first discover jiu-jitsu?

Speaker 2: 7:20

12 years 12 years years. Yeah, what I discovered. Where did I start? Because I I discovered it in 95. I'm old man, I'm 45. You know, I discovered it by watching a vhs tape of hoist gracie.

Speaker 1: 7:31

You know, that's, that's like my generation, you know yeah, man, I'm, I'm 43 this year, so I'm I'm nearly with you as well.

Speaker 2: 7:37

Yeah so, yeah, I, I started watching like um, ufc actually was ufc2 the first thing I, you know. And back then I was actually living in London. I was a teenager living in London and this was like 95, so this was before Hodger or what's his name. Again, hodger's dad, mauricio yeah, way before Mauricio Braulio. So there was no BJJ in the UK, you know. And so I actually started in 2000, when I went, when I, when I, when I went to study in france, I was studying in france, and then my university was in paris, and then there was a brazilian guy who came third degree, black belt, and he opened an academy and boom, that's it. I was hooked, I started and I never stopped from that day, you know, and I was training two times a day as a student. It was amazing, you know. And, uh, you know, I, I had the, you know, and I had the, you know, I thought like, oh, yeah, it's going to be BJJ, it's going to be full of tough guys, you know, like it wasn't, I go in, you know, and then I see the coach, brazilian guy, middle of winter in Paris, the guy's in his surf shorts.

Speaker 2: 8:41

Yeah, he comes in on a skateboard. You know, he's like hey, what's up, brother? You know he gives me a big hug. I'm like whoa, this is awesome. And you're like cool. I got like laid back kind of guy and the way he was with us is the way I am with my students now in Serbia. You know I got like a big brother, cool, fun loving, always making jokes. You know there's discipline, but it's more like, you know, it's more like the big brother kind of vibe, you know, and they like that here. You know they love it.

Speaker 1: 9:08

And how long did you train in Paris for?

Speaker 2: 9:11

So I trained there until I, I guess. So I got my blue and purple belt in France and then, when I moved to Serbia, I continued here and there was an academy here and I got my brown and black belt in Serbia. So over here, even though I'm 100% a foreigner, they still considered me as a Serbian black belt, because I got my black belt here and most of my learning came from here, even though I was traveling a lot and stuff. So I'm very well accepted in the community.

Speaker 1: 9:42

Yeah, that's wicked man. And did you compete much through the colored belts? And are you still competing now?

Speaker 2: 9:48

absolutely, man, absolutely. I was competing like a maniac man I was. I was traveling all over all over the world, or all over europe, and very often by myself. You know, I would go, I would go to compete like in a, from in budapest and hungary, and then I would go to to italy, then would go to London by myself, and I remember, even as a black belt. It was like you know, I got my black belt in 2013, and in my head I was telling myself I'm not a black belt until I submit a black belt in competition. Okay, nice. Do you know how long it took me to do that? A year and a half. I was competing as much as I can. It was crazy man.

Speaker 3: 10:24

And I remember I was in the IBJF London Open.

Speaker 2: 10:28

you know, and it was like November it was.

Speaker 2: 10:32

London. The weather was shit, you know, it was like raining and all that. You know. By myself I compete. So first match, I lose 0-0 by one advantage and I pop my knee, you know, and I'm in, what was it? It? And I pop my knee, you know, and I'm in, what was it? It's Crystal Palace, right, it's Crystal Palace tube station. You know, it starts raining. I can't even walk. I'm like my family is back home in Serbia. I can't even walk and I can't even compete tomorrow for Nogi. Like what the fuck am I doing here, man? You know, like you know. But you know it's jiu-jitsu, you know you love it, you know so same thing.

Speaker 1: 11:06

Yeah, and that first submission at Blackbird. What was? What was it you caught them with?

Speaker 2: 11:10

I caught him. I caught him with an arm bar, it was like a triangle arm bar, you know. And then it was funny because, like, after that happened, it was like I broke the ice, you know. And then I just started winning and winning. Of course, I've lost so much since then, you know, and I still lose all the time, you know, but I just like, uh, it got to the point where, you know, like I, I just didn't think about it anymore, you know, and this, this, this goes, this goes with my whole mentality about competition. Like I do it, I do it to have fun, you know, it's just jiu jitsu. Like we're, we're competing, especially us, you know, us guys. You know we're not professional fighters, you know, but I still consider us like semi pro, you know, like cause we're still training every day and all that you know.

Speaker 1: 12:04

Yeah, very true. And at what point did you kind of decide that you were just going to go full-time and be a sort of full-time jiu-jitsu coach and everything else that you do?

Speaker 2: 12:16

So I've always been a corporate guy my whole life. You know, I used to work in real estate and I was always, you know, wearing a suit, glasses, you know, driving a BMW car like a real corporate guy. But I was always training and I said to myself man, fuck this. One day I want to go 100% never wear a suit anymore, wear surf shorts, flip-flops and just be like a laid-back guy. And so I opened my academy here in Belgrade in 2014 when my daughter was born, and I didn't think I was going to work in the beginning with them. After one year, we had at least over 100 students, which is a lot here for Serbia. But before that, in 2012, I started BJEE, the website which is now, which everybody knows, and so it was parallel. First I started with BJEE and I was doing a good job with that and I said, okay, I'm going to open an academy also. And the academy's been going strong. Bjee has been going strong and that's it. I'm never going back, man. I'm never going back to the rat race, man.

Speaker 3: 13:26

That sounds lovely, mate. To be honest, yeah, yeah, yeah, it's so much hard work.

Speaker 2: 13:30

Yeah, it's a dream, but it's so much hard work, you know. You know, bj, let me tell you like, of course now, bj, I work much less on it. You know, I've got people who work for me, but in the first three or four years I was sleeping at 4 am every night, you know, because I was writing all the content myself. You know, I'm all the way here in Eastern Europe and I'm competing against other websites in Brazil, in the US, uk, and I had to get all the information. You know, and people ask me, like, how the hell do you get all this information? I said I have a good network. I had, like, people in Brazil, people in the U? S, people in in uh, in Western Europe, people in Asia, people I knew, and there they would give me the news.

Speaker 2: 14:12

You know, and, uh, back then this, you know, flow grappling was not even uh, it didn't, didn't, not even exist. You know, there was no flow grappling 2013, 14. I think they came on like 2015 or 16 and when and when they started coming on the scene, they asked me for help to like help them get the name out. Yeah, sure, no problem, you know, and back then it was my biggest competitors was like Gracie Mag, which doesn't exist anymore, by the way. Jiu Jitsu Style.

Speaker 1: 14:39

Remember Jiu Jitsu Style yeah, yeah, yeah, I was in that a couple of times. Yeah, that's gone also, man, it doesn't exist anymore, right?

Speaker 2: 14:48

Uh-huh, the editor, kalem, kalem Metcraf, or something. He trains at Black Belt Under Hodger, you know. So a lot of these BJ media. They've disappeared completely, you know, and I'm still here, you know, like a cockroach, I'll never quit. I'll never quit because because I don't care. I do it because I love it. If tomorrow, someone gave me $5 million, I would still be working on BJ. I love it. You know. It's the, it's the connections, the connections you make, man, you know the network.

Speaker 1: 15:17

I think. I think that like obviously shines through. That's obviously a skill to it. I mean, coming from real estate, had you been an aspiring writer at that point, why did you start a blog that's not not a youtube channel back then, or something?

Speaker 2: 15:41

okay, so, basically, like, I used to follow this blog called BJJ Asia, because I'm a Filipino, so I've always been keeping an eye on what's going on in Asia. That blog doesn't exist anymore, by the way, but it was a blog where they would interview all the main characters, main personalities, instructors in Asia doing BJJ, and they even had a list of black belts and brown belts because they were so rare in those days. You know, for each country I said man, you know what? This is amazing. I'm going to do the same for Eastern Europe. So I started doing that. I started interviewing the first black belt in Russia, the first black belt in Poland, et cetera, et cetera, you know. And next thing, you know, because I would interview the top guy in Poland and then he would share it with his students on Facebook or something you know.

Speaker 2: 16:31

And then everybody started following it, so that it was a blog and it started growing bigger and bigger, you know. And since I've got an international background, I want to feature my friends in France, my friends in the Philippines, my friends in the UK, because I used to live in the UK and so I went from BJJ Eastern Europe to being, like you know, covering the world and, uh, that's it. The site grew and next thing you know, I had people calling me to sponsor the blog. They're like man, do you remember that? I don't know how long you guys have been training, but there was a brand in the UK. This was the first sponsor, black Eagle. Remember that brand?

Speaker 2: 17:06

They had like shitty kimonos, man, do you remember?

Speaker 1: 17:10

that brand Black Eagle. Yeah, it rings a bell. Yeah, I've been training since about 2006.

Speaker 2: 17:15

Okay, so you know it. You know it for sure. They were quite shite, to be honest, man. So they were like, hey, would you like a banner on your site? I'm like, yeah, sure, I didn't even ask for money. He said we'll send you one of our geese and you just do a review and I go okay, cool, you know, and that's how it started. And next thing, you know, sponsors started coming in and then after a few years, you know who was sponsoring the site IBJJF, uaejjf. You know, like never went out to ask to offer sponsorship deals to anybody. They just contact me because they saw that people were going on the website, it was getting a lot of traction. And people ask me, like, how were you able to get so much traction? It's because I was covering stuff which the mainstream sites were not covering. Okay, so, like, all the rumors, all the scandals yeah, I don't give a fuck man, fake black belt. You know, like you heard about Derek and Moneyberg, right?

Speaker 1: 18:16

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 18:18

Derek Moneyberg of 10 years ago. He was always fake black belts. So like someone would say, hey, gile, there's a fake black belt and I don't know, like grease or something, you know. Oh, really, I said, okay, send me everything you got, I'll do my, I'll do my like short homes investigation, you know, and then and then I'll, I'll just publish it. You know, I didn't give a shit.

Speaker 3: 18:37

You know I'd love to roll with him man.

Speaker 1: 18:43

Moneyberg man.

Speaker 3: 18:44

I would love to roll with him.

Speaker 2: 18:46

Man, let me tell you about Moneyberg. So I've had conversations with him through BJE because he told me some stuff. Like hey, take down that article you wrote about me. He didn't say I think he was threatening to sue me or something. I'm like hey, man, it's a freedom of speech, we're not saying anything bad about you, like, we're just transmitting the news about what you're doing, you know.

Speaker 2: 19:12

But that guy, he's very disrespectful towards the Jerusalem community. He thinks the way he talks is like Jerusalem people are idiots, they're poor, they're losers and all that. You know it's going to hit him in the ass one day. It's going to hit them in the ass one day. It's going to bite them in the ass one day. Man, you can't continue like that man. You know that's very disrespectful man. You know like, and I told him you know, derek, like the problem is not the fact that you got your black belt, it's the fact that you got it in three and a half years. What the fuck man, you know that's like reserved for the elite. You know and like, and I just told him listen, if you want to shut these guys up, just compete in a local tournament in the Masters division and even if you lose. As long as you do a good job, people will leave you alone.

Speaker 1: 19:56

He's like yeah.

Speaker 2: 19:57

I don't give a shit what these losers think. I'm like. Okay, whatever man, okay, that's your problem.

Speaker 3: 20:02

And I'm like yeah, yeah, it's more. I don't. I don't know, it's just so fast, mate. You look at the list. You look at the list of the people that have got like their black belts under five years, and then he's just bucking him in the middle of them.

Speaker 2: 20:16

And it's like man. What the fuck is this guy man? I mean like. But you know what's the saddest thing for me Is that the instructors all the instructors.

Speaker 3: 20:27

I was about to say yeah.

Speaker 2: 20:32

Yeah, exactly what I was about to say. Money has bought him about. They just sold out. They just sold out for this guy. As an instructor myself, I've had many people ask me to give them a black belt. They're like what would it take for me to get a black belt? I'm like man, don't even ask me these kind of things, man. It's like I can give you a black belt but all of my students are going to shit on me. Man, you know, why would you give this guy this and this? I mean, I can't do that, man. There's no money in the world that would justify that, you know.

Speaker 3: 21:01

The only thing I would love if he was legitimately a really good black belt. That would be actually quite funny wouldn't it, of course?

Speaker 2: 21:08

of course, then people will respect. But still three and a half years. Get the fuck out, man.

Speaker 1: 21:12

Come on man yeah, I saw that he um, I saw how many hours of privates he said he'd done and I did the maths on it and I think he's claiming that he did something like three hours a day, seven days a week, of privates for like three years straight. I don't know if that's really realistic and even if he had like, like you know, if he had, you're not going to get good just getting instructions from pilots.

Speaker 3: 21:34

It's physique, and this is not a joy about him. But if you were training for three hours a day, you're going to look like Superman, bro. You're going to look like Superman. Three hours a day, seven days a week, you're going to look like Superman.

Speaker 2: 21:50

Honestly, we're not going to cover his things anymore because it's let's just let it die down and let nobody talk about it, because this guy is an embarrassment that's fair play thinking back over all the years.

Speaker 1: 22:05

Obviously you said you've covered a lot of scandals and you've investigated all sorts thinking back over the years. What are a few stories that you've like investigated like all sorts, like thinking back over the years? What are like the a few stories that you've covered that really kind of stand out for you?

Speaker 2: 22:17

so, uh, first of all, before I cover this, I want to give props to my friends from the uk bjj underground because, you know, I've been. I've been a part of the facebook group and I've even been part of the sf uk uh forum, if you guys remember that. That's like that was before the underground. So, yeah, this is the submission fighter UK forum. This was like man, like 2000, 2002, 2007. And they were like I've been, I was a member of that, you know. And then what they would do, like the BJ police. You know, bj police, you heard about it like because I'm good, I'm good mates with, uh, simon and dickie from crossing gracie, london, you know the, I trained many times with them. So they were doing that, they were exposing these fuckers, you know. So I said you know there's uk bj police, let's do a, let's do a worldwide bj police man, you know, and, uh, that's how it started, you know. So we were exposing guys from all around the world. I even got death threats Some guy. He told me I'm going to catch you. I'm like listen, man, here's the address I gave the address to my academy in Serbia. Come over, man, no problem.

Speaker 2: 23:23

But actually I've had some stuff which I refuse to do. There was some anonymous guy who wrote me from the States. He goes hey, I've got this guy you need to investigate. He's a fake black belt. I'm like, okay, let me have a look. So I go on to the profile man, it's a Chechen guy from New Jersey. I'm like no, I'm good. Man, I'm good, it's okay, I don't want no trouble. Man, let him be a fake black belt. It's okay. Man, it's good. You know what I mean. Yeah, but yeah. But honestly, I've stopped doing that because nowadays I think you don't really hear about those kind of guys anymore. Man, you know like it's becoming more and more rare because with social media and all that, they get found out very, very fast.

Speaker 1: 24:12

man, I love that McDojo shit with the Aikido guys and all that, that cracks me up, that gets me every time, mate, where they're just fucking falling over, and that's the one mate, yeah yeah, yeah, and was there a particular story, whether it was a fake black belt or anything else, that just that really stands out, that you kind of Well actually there was a fake black belt in Serbia, you know, and this was a.

Speaker 2: 24:39

this was a story in itself. So I was, this was 2013 or something, oh, no, sorry, 2014, 15. I was local competition and then some guys that hey, gila, you know, there's a guy who's here with his students and, uh, he's from the states, he's a black belt. And I'm like I'm like, uh, he's like a serbian, serbian, american black belt. I'm like, okay, cool, and uh, so I'm like I go up to to to meet him, you know, to introduce myself to him, like hey, man, I'm gila nice to meet you. I heard your, you heard you're new here. He's like like, yeah, yeah, I'm George.

Speaker 2: 25:11

I'm like where did you get your black belt from? It's a normal question, right? And he goes, he says this he says I got my black belt from Hoyce Gracie and he said Carlos Jr, gracie, not even Carlos Gracie Jr. And I'm like what? It's like the two opposite spectrums of Jiu Jitsu. Like why is Gracie and Carlos Gracie Jr? Like they don't even. Those guys don't even talk, man. And I'm like, okay, what's your full name? Again, you know like I was like writing down his name. You know, like, man, I'm like this is some bullshitter right here, man, you know, and I was right, you know, I looked into it and this guy was actually a blue belt from New York and I contacted his instructor back in New York and then they were under this, this fifth degree black belt Brazilian guy, what's his name? Again, the academy is called Gracie Bahapit Bull or something you know. They're quite famous, they're a big association, and it's like Gracie, gracie Baja Pitbull or something you know, like they're quite famous, they have a big association, and it's like no, no, no, this guy, this guy is a is a blue belt man. I'm like, so, I, I.

Speaker 2: 26:18

So, basically, I put up the article and then, uh, the guy called me like after two days. He said, crying, like hey man, you can't do this to me. You know, I'm like. Uh, I said, well, I can delete the article, but you know what you have to do. You have to make a public apology to everybody in the Serbian community. Because he already had an academy with students and I said this is me, I'm not even the worst thing that can happen to you, because he was in a city called Novi Sad, and Novi Sad is like an hour from Belgrade, and this is Serbian. This is not the UK man, over know, and Novi Sad is like an hour from Belgrade and this is Surga. This is not the UK man. This is over here. It's like organized crime and shit, you know like.

Speaker 2: 26:56

So the guys who were the guys who were running the scene in Novi Sad were MMA guys, who were Luta Lever, black belts, you know, and they're friends of mine. I said, you know, like, if these guys find out about you, you're in big trouble. Man, it's not, you know, it's nothing to do with me. You're in big, big trouble, okay, okay. So the guy basically left. He left Serbia, he never came back and we never heard about him. Yeah, it's crazy man. Yeah, man, it's wild, isn't it? It's stupid. I mean, I probably thought these guys here are dumb.

Speaker 1: 27:32

they'll never find out, you know yeah, that was literally what I was just about to say. It's crazy that that people again, like you say, it's not so, it's not so common these days, but the fact that people do that sort of shit and I don't know what, I don't know what, what end to what?

Speaker 2: 27:48

end. I think a lot of these guys are like sociopaths to think that they can swindle people like that. This is a very tight knit community. We all know each other. That's the good thing about Jiu Jitsu. We all know each other, even though there's politics and stuff. If someone asks me to recommend a school, in whatever neighborhood, I'll say I'll recommend that school. I won't say my school because it's too far away. You know, yeah, we're all cool.

Speaker 2: 28:13

Yeah, you connected with the uh, the Globetrotters guys and like the BJJ belt checker website and that sort of thing at the moment yeah, I mean, uh, no, I'm not on the BJJ belt check uh, what do you mean, like what for like the if, the if the black belt is like certified or something. You mean like that or?

Speaker 1: 28:29

yeah so. So it's a website You're maybe not familiar. Yeah, yeah, I know it, I know it, you are familiar. Yeah, yeah, yeah so they. So basically you, you kind of have to like you, you upload your belt and your rank and everything, and then you have to get like community verification to from BJ.

Speaker 2: 28:43

Globetrotters, that's right yeah yeah, yeah, no, I'm not on it. I'm not on it.

Speaker 1: 28:51

I mean, I'm certified by IBJF and that kind of stuff, but I'm not on the yeah, but they've got some really good numbers on there, so again, that's quite a good resource if anybody ever wants to check someone's like quality.

Speaker 2: 29:02

That's true.

Speaker 1: 29:04

That's a good idea for sure, somebody that's been involved, obviously, doing jiu-jitsu and covering jiu-jitsu for a very long time. Obviously it feels like certainly in recent years it's kind of changed a lot and we're seeing a real upward curve at the moment in regard to its popularity and everything else. I mean, as somebody who covers the martial art, the sport, what's your take of it at the moment?

Speaker 2: 29:24

So when I started training in 2001, especially in Europe, it was like really really early, early ages, you know, obviously, I mean we have to look at what's going on in the States, because that's really where all the action is. You know, even though UK, it's like it's grown so much and there's so many, how many black belts in the UK? At least 500, 600, it feels like that, yeah, yeah, it's huge, man, it's huge. I mean, I, I really feel like it's uh, it's uh, it's becoming mainstream or it's actually in the states it's already mainstream. Man, you'll, it's uh. You look in every, every, every city in the us, there's like, there's like academies everywhere. Man, it's insane, you know. And, um, I think, I think the sky's the limit, man, we're very lucky that we have like someone like joe, joe rogan you know who's always, you know, talking about jiu-jitsu all the time on his podcast. That's why, like, whenever you I have like a new student coming in the academy, I ask you like where did you hear about jiu-jitsu? And it's never, it's never like ufc one. No, it's uh, it's either joe rogan or from the ufc. You know, it's those, it's those two things you know.

Speaker 2: 30:29

Or, or, for example, it guys are like oh yeah, I saw that. What's his name? The owner of Mark Zuckerberg. I heard that Zuckerberg was training. That's good and it's also not good, because a lot of guys they get the false impression that jiu-jitsu is accessible, easy. But it's not, man. You guys have been training for a long time, know, you know it's you. You need to really to really love it, to keep training because, especially when you're a white belt right, when you're a white belt it's, it's fucking tough man. You get beaten up every day and you gotta keep showing up, you know. Yeah, keep showing up, man, you know it's the hardest point I said that to one of the lads today.

Speaker 3: 31:09

He was like what am I doing wrong? I was like you're not actually doing anything wrong. You just need to keep this first year, Just get beaten up and just get on with it, you know, and you'll be fine.

Speaker 2: 31:18

I don't know what else to say to him?

Speaker 3: 31:19

because yeah, it's it isn't it?

Speaker 2: 31:23

You just got to keep going. Like I just came back from France. I was in France for five weeks on vacation and, man, I was training there with the young guys you know like 18, 19 year old purple and blue belts and brown belts, who started as kids. So, these fuckers, they've been training for over 10 years. Yeah, it's crazy. They're basically black belts and I trained with this guy who was this year's Purple Belt adult world champion, IBGF. I put up a video. I don't know if you saw it. I watched it, yeah.

Speaker 3: 32:01

Man Good.

Speaker 2: 32:03

This fucker. He was like face cranking me like twice taking my back.

Speaker 3: 32:08

Yeah, I was about to say he done it twice to you, didn't he?

Speaker 2: 32:10

face cranked you twice yeah but actually, like, what people don't know is that I. I told him before hey, bro, go against me competition mode and go as go, as hard as you can, don't worry, I'll take it. You know it's fine, and because I want to see how it feels.

Speaker 2: 32:26

You know, and man but to me, but to me it's awesome because, you see, as an older black belt, you see, like these, these, this new generation, is friggin awesome, man, you know, and um, they learn so much faster than us because they have access to so much information. Yeah, you know, and uh, it's for me it's great. You know, like I look at it like a, like a, like a father rolling with his son. His son is kicking his ass and he's happy. You know, he's like man, it's man. It's so cool, you know, because I see that with my students. You know, I've got, like I said, I've got like 13 black belts here and they're like my boys, you know, like I've got a daughter. I don't have a son, so for me they're like all my, either my little brothers or my sons. You know, and like, every time I get tapped out or get my guard pass or whatever, I'm happy man, I'll make. Man, this is freaking awesome, you know.

Speaker 1: 33:11

Uh, that's the way I see it, you know so, yeah, I think that's the attitude you gotta have, though right, because, as you say, these young kids coming up mate, you just can't. As you get older, you just can't keep up with them. It's insane yeah, yeah and I think, and I think as well, of course, the the game has changed a lot in recent years as well. Obviously, the introduction of the leg locks and the systems around.

Speaker 1: 33:29

That has completely changed things. I mean, how have you, uh, how have you found that transition, like as somebody who has always been training for a very long time and that's more of a recent sort of aspect of the game, you know?

Speaker 2: 33:41

you know, like jiu-jitsu you will never, we're never, gonna master it. None of us, not even hicks and gracey, masters jiu-jitsu. You know it's like an ocean of knowledge, so we're never going to learn everything. So at least learn as much as you can. But you need to also specialize in one aspect. That's the way I think you know. So in my gym I got guys who are very, very good at leg locks, like way better than me. You know I consider myself like a blue belt in a leg lock game Blue belt, belt. You know it's good enough. You know I compete in the master's division so we don't really have, uh, heel hooks. You know I don't want to deal with that shit man. You know I don't.

Speaker 2: 34:19

I don't have the acl acl, uh, surgery or anything, you know. But, um, so I leave it to them to like to go, to go to go deep into it. You know, because me like, for example, I've gotten to an age where I just want to be as good as possible in my type of game, which I call slot jiu-jitsu. You know, like it's that long-term game which you can play until you're like in your 80s, you know, and it's not reliant on speed, it's not reliant on strength, it's just reliant on speed. It's not reliant on strength, it's just reliant on perfect technique, timing and staying calm, you know. So I love leg locks, for example.

Speaker 2: 34:59

You know I love to wrestle, although man wrestling, when you're over 40, wrestling sucks, man, you know, you can't really sprawl so much, you lose all your athletic ability, but you can. You can wrestle up, you know you can. You can wrestle with one knee down. You know, which is what people don't really teach. You know, I, I teach, I show it to my students and they love it. You know, you're like, right away the match starts, you go one knee down, you can already attack the legs. You know what I mean. So you just adapt, you just play it smart, you know.

Speaker 1: 35:32

Yeah, that sounds good man. And then I wanted to talk to you about your kind of sloth jiu-jitsu and how you've kind of adapted your style over the years as you've got into your 40s Because, as I say, I'm not far behind. I'm 43 this year, so I'm kind of going through a bit of a transition myself. I've had to come to terms with the fact that my body just isn't able to keep up with some of the athletic youngsters now. So explain that style of jiu-jitsu and how you developed it and what it's all about a little bit more.

Speaker 2: 35:59

Also, what you're saying is something very interesting. You come to terms with how your body is not able to adapt. I think we need to have, especially when we're older, we need to have a very healthy ego. We need to have, especially when we're older, we need to have a very healthy ego. You know, in a sense, that if you roll with somebody who's 20 years younger than you, don't get pissed off. That guy kicks your ass, man, even if he's like one belt or two belts or three belts lower than you, you know it's 20 years younger than you, man.

Speaker 2: 36:25

You know like it's uh, I even heard like this is rule, I forgot what it's called. It's like a rule like 10 years adds like one belt to level above, or something like that. You know, I think it's true, man. You know, and, and, and. For me, like being on the mat every day is a blessing. You know, I look at I'm sure you guys have friends who are like your age, in their 40s, and they don't train drisko. They go to the pub every night drinking. They look horrible man. They look like they're 60. They don't look like they're 40, man.

Speaker 2: 37:00

So, I'm just grateful that I'm still able to be at the academy rolling with these guys to be competing, you know and to be. You know, when one of my students tells me, hey, coach, you know and to be, you know, when one of my students tells me, hey, coach, you're a tough role, for me that's a compliment, you're a tough role. It's like. It means like I'm not saying I'm a chump, I'm not saying I'm crap or whatever, but it means like I gave him a hard time. You know what I mean. For me it's like hey, thanks, man. So I think that ego, you need to have a healthy ego. You know, like where it's not like oh fuck, this guy beat me. No, no, no, Now let's go one more round. Let's go one more round. You know, I want to catch you, I want to catch you. No one cares about who wins, who beats who in the academy. Man, you know like it's, that doesn't matter. You know like and like and even. Oh, people are going to judge me if I lose. They think I'm not worthy of my level. Let me tell you one thing, man when you lose, most people actually feel good. Others, they feel good. You know why? Because it makes them feel better about them losing also, you know what I mean Like. You know like, oh yeah, if this guy can lose and take it well, then I don't feel too bad about myself losing. You know how I got to this conclusion.

Speaker 2: 38:16

I was competing once, had 50 of my students competing, biggest team in Serbia and I competed, of course, in a black belt division. This was the worst day of my life in competition. I lost four matches. It just wasn't my day. I was cutting weight and I had no juice. You know, I was like I couldn't, I couldn't, I couldn't start, I had no exposure. I was. I lost like six kilos. So, anyways, my daughter was competing that day and she lost the final and then she went home. She felt better because she can see that even the head coach can lose. And I remember I told my students guys, our team won first place, but don't forget, the coach did the worst job out of everybody. He lost four matches. But to make a long story short, two weeks after that I came back and I won four matches and I won double gold in the next tournament.

Speaker 2: 39:21

So you bounce back, you know like it's just uh, yeah, you have a shit day. You know, next time you come back, you Come back, you know, yeah. So so what you were asking about the sludge is so when I was like a Blue and purple belt, you know, in my 20s and 30s, early 30s, I was very explosive, very like I was doing all these crazy games like a guard, like I was doing spider, I was doing a lot of like you know, you don't remember that thing tornado guard from Cyborg. So I basically I blew my hamstring doing tornado guard. So once you blow your hamstring, like it's done, you know you're not going to be explosive anymore. And also I was like a brand new brown belt and I'm like man. I cannot play this game, this kind of crazy game, anymore, you know.

Speaker 2: 40:10

So I went to. I went to this competition. I was watching this guy compete and he did the same thing every time he was pulling half guard. He was pulling half guard sweep the guy, get side control, mount or take the back and choking the guy. I'm like man. This guy is a freaking machine. It's like a. It was like a. It was a perfect game. He had a game which was completely dialed in and all he had to do was focus on his execution. He didn't matter who was in front of him, he would just go past him because his game was so tight, you know like, so good. He said. You know, I want to be like this guy, you know, and it's some random guy, not even famous, I think it was even like a brown belt or something you know. So I went back to the drawing board and I started like refocusing on the half guard, which I wasn't really doing, you know, and then from then, half guard straight into pressure passing and making a whole game. So it took me about four to five years to develop this game, you know. And this game is still developing, you know, and this is a game I call Sloth Jiu-Jitsu.

Speaker 2: 41:10

Because why the sloth? I like the sloth because it's such a cool, relaxed kind of animal, you know, but he's a survivor. The sloth is surrounded by frigging predators. And why are they not killing him, man? Because they probably don't see him as a threat. He's like just there, cool, slow, but he's nonchalant, he gets the job done. So I said I want my recipe to be the same way. I want people to think, man, this guy's a slow, slow, motherfucker man. You know like. But then the next thing, you know, boom, I catch you, you know, I catch you, and then you're cooked, man, you're done, you know.

Speaker 3: 41:50

So that's the kind of game I'm working on it's still of you know, a guard game into, like a sweep into that side, control pressure and just move through those positions. I find it's like I don't know. I just I want people to feel like they want to tap before they've tapped. That's how I try to do my jiu-jitsu, so that's what I aim for.

Speaker 2: 42:20

And I think, like that kind of game, the more relaxed you are, the better it is. You know, yeah, and you know like, I started taking stuff like Rhodiola rosea. Have you guys heard about this kind of stuff? Rhodiola rosea, it's a type of, it's a nootropic, like you know, like Ashwagandha, right, yeah, I know Ashwagandha. So basically, Rodiola Rosea I heard about it through Andrew Huberman, the podcaster, and I take like 500 milligrams a day and it just puts you in a very relaxed kind of mood. And then when you do jiu-jitsu, when you take Rodiola Rosea man, I kid you not For example, when you're on top of thea man, like I kid you not, like, for example, when you're on top of the guy and you're pressure passing, you can, it's like you see. You see like in slow motion, you know and like, but no, sorry, he's moving in slow motion, but you're moving in normal speed and you can see stuff before it happens.

Speaker 2: 43:18

It sounds weird but for example, listen, I'm on top of the guy, okay, I'm like, let's say, a half guard top half guard and I feel his bones moving and usually the bones moving means that what it like predicts his arm moving. You know, like I feel the bone and then the arm is going to move, so I can predict the underhook, his underhook, coming. You know what I mean. So then you go faster than him in that sense, you know, and also you can feel the vibrations, the heartbeat and all that. It sounds like some new age kind of crap, man, but trust me, you know how Hicks and Gracie says Sound like fucking Superman.

Speaker 3: 43:55

Spider-Man no in Superman, he Spider-Man In Superman. He can see inside you and shit, can't he?

Speaker 2: 44:02

I'm telling you, hicks and Gracie, he says you need to feel Jujutsu, feel Well, that's the way I feel. That's how I feel when I'm doing that kind of game. I'm basically like a sloth on a branch which is basically my opponent's leg, and I'm pushing him left and right and I feel him trying to post, and then that predicts a movement. You know, it's something that takes many, many years to feel. You know, like, when you roll a long time, you start feeling this, you know, and then you start developing these automatic moves. You don't even think. You know, like, for example, I know he's going to, I'm going to push him here, I know he's going to post, so before he posts, boom, I catch the arm or something Like that kind of game. You know. Yeah, it's kind of like next level, let's say you know I need some of this stuff, though you have to.

Speaker 3: 44:56

Yeah, you do need some sausage.

Speaker 2: 44:57

I'll give you a 25% discount brother.

Speaker 1: 44:59

Oh yeah, here we go and then away from the mats. Do you do much gym work and what's your nutrition? And everything else look like.

Speaker 2: 45:10

Absolutely we have to, man. We have to because recovery. I'm 45, so recovery takes a big hit after 40. I make a joke when I turned 35, I got hit with a couple injuries, like I got my hamstring and the next thing, you know, I got a hemorrhoid or whatever. You know, like fucking, you know, you get all these things that happen to middle-aged people, man, you know. So, yeah, in regards to recovery, man, like you know, know, like there's like so much new science coming up nowadays, people, people didn't know this like 20 years ago. You know, like, if you look at athletes 20 years ago they were still smoking and, like you know, drinking alcohol and all that.

Speaker 2: 45:54

Man, you know now there's so much you can do, like, for example, like example, like number one sleep man. Sleep is so important For me. Sleep is the number one recovery tool and it's the most powerful one and the best part, is free. You know what I mean. Like it's the hardest thing to get, because you need discipline. You need to switch off your phone and switch off Netflix at night and just go to sleep. You know you need your eight to nine hours, man, you know, and I'm the number one guy who doesn't get enough sleep, because I'm always thinking about what I'm going to do tomorrow, all that kind of stuff. But I have to like, force myself. Man, it's 11 pm, I'm going to sleep now. I don't give a shit, I'm going to sleep, turn up everything thing.

Speaker 2: 46:36

And I have this technique I do is I, I, uh, I put a podcast on my, on my, on my phone sometimes. Sometimes it's your podcast, nice, I put like the earphones. I sleep by myself, you know, because I, uh, I snore. My wife is in the other room, you know I sleep by myself. So I sleep better. You know, move to the side, I stop snoring. You know, it's like man. So here I'm by myself, I put on the podcast and I go in the dark and I, I, I, I kid you not, after 15 minutes I'm snoring and I sleep in like a baby man. You know, and uh, that I've been doing it for the last few years and it's that's what you eat is so important, man.

Speaker 2: 47:23

I've tried all types of diet to help my jiu-jitsu and to help my life. Also Keto diet, I tried carnivore. So basically what I realized is that everybody's different, right, but for me, you need glucose. We do a high intensive sport and you need glucose, so you need basically carbohydrates to function. If you do keto, you need, you need glucose, so you need basically carbohydrates to function. If you do keto, you're going to feel good for about a month and then you're going to crash. You know, that's what happened to me in that competition I had. I had no energy because I wasn't eating enough carbs, you know. So it's like like like long distance runners, they eat well what they eat carbs, they eat good carbs. They don't eat like white bread, they eat lentils, they eat beans like quinoa, that kind of stuff, you know. So you need all that during the day, you know. So I've been researching all of that kind of stuff, you know.

Speaker 2: 48:09

And for recovery, man, okay, of course, sleep, I take cold showers. First thing I do in the morning. I take a cold shower. You know, because you've got all that pain from the night before from training. Take a cold shower. It's like a slap in the face, man, man, I take a cold shower. I've got the energy to go through a wall. I'm like, yeah, let's go. I drive my daughter to school. She's like hey, daddy, you're too hyper. I'm like, it's okay, I take a cold shower.

Speaker 3: 48:38

I'm awake.

Speaker 2: 48:40

I'm awake, let's go, let's go, let's do this. And then also one thing. It sounds counterproductive, but when you're sore in the morning, trust me, the best thing you do is bust out 20 push-ups or press-ups. If you're British, 20 press-ups, man, body weight squats, maybe a few kettlebell swings. That wakes up the body, you know. It gets the blood flow and then you don't feel sore from the day before. You know Arrow the dog, mate. Yeah. So I do a thing called Grease the Groove. I discovered it with Pavel Tatsulin, the very famous Russian-American kettlebell guy. He calls it Grease the Growth. Basically, I work from home, so basically I can do these micro workouts all day long. So I do like you know.

Speaker 2: 49:27

For example, let's say if you go to the gym you go to the gym like three times a week you're going to be tired man, you know. But if you break down, let's say you want to do 100 push-ups a day, right. If you do 30 push-ups a day, right. If you do 30 push-ups, or three times 30, right, that's going to tire you a lot. You know, like I do 30 push-ups, you're like oh, I'm a bit tired now. You know, if you do 10 push-ups and take a break for 30 minutes and do another 10, you don't even feel it. Or if you have a pull-up bar right, you do five pull-ups. You don't only feel five pull-ups, but you do 50 pull-ups a day. So 10 times five, man, you do it every single day. You just build up that strength, you know. So I've been doing that for many years instead of just going to the gym.

Speaker 1: 50:12

So you do that instead of going to the gym and doing sort of hour-long example?

Speaker 2: 50:16

yeah, because the thing is, dude, I, I train six days a week. I, I'm in my academy every single day, you know. So I don't want to, I don't want to overload my, my nervous, my nervous system you know my central nervous system, if I, if I train bjj six days a week, right, and it's like I'm and I'm rolling, every time, every day and I'm 45 man like I don't.

Speaker 2: 50:38

I don't take steroids, man. You know, I don't want to take steroids because I have a heart condition, I've got high blood pressure, you know what I'm saying so I take medication for that. So for me, the smarter way is to do this micro workouts. You know, my goal is not to be a Mr Olympia. You know, I want to be just strong enough for Jiu Jitsu and to have like a good armor for a jitsu, and I think this is good for regular people.

Speaker 2: 50:59

You know regular folks. You know, so, for me, the system. So I have a book about this. It's called Sloth Strength. You know very, very original name, you know, but it's a guide to how to do that. You know, and people love it Guys and girls in their 40s, 30s. It helps a lot and I've been doing this for many years.

Speaker 1: 51:18

Yeah, sounds good, man. Random story I held a sloth once in the wild, did you? Oh, really, I can imagine the smell, man Imagine the smell. I was in the Amazon and we were just driving out and literally in the middle of the road was just a sloth Just in the middle of the road. So I was with some brazilian guys, so we hopped out and basically picked it up by a scuff of it's like back and carried it, carried out of harm's way and they got big fucking claws, yeah, big claws, yeah it was funny though, because, like you, what you were saying earlier about how, how chilled they are, like, bearing in mind, I've just grabbed this thing and picked it up.

Speaker 1: 51:57

so it's, it's fighting its life, and it literally was like with his claw. Yeah, I had to be careful because if it got too close and it grabs you, like you say, you're in a bit of trouble. But yeah, random fact for you there.

Speaker 2: 52:13

Oh man, Did it feel dense. I've never held a sloth.

Speaker 1: 52:17

Yeah, yeah, it was pretty dense and the hair was really like bristly. It felt like like a brush, like it was really thick in like, yeah, bristly, yeah, I wouldn't have picked it up, mate yeah, I would have been like I'd have run the fucker over. Yeah, it was it was the Brazilians man. They were like go on. And I was like I don't want to.

Speaker 2: 52:35

And they were like yeah, yeah, so they bought him. You know how Brazilians call a sloth, yeah.

Speaker 1: 52:40

Cruze Preguiça.

Speaker 2: 52:41

That's it, because we had Penner on the podcast and obviously he's called a sloth, but I don't know how the hell they call him a sloth because his game is nothing like a sloth man.

Speaker 1: 52:50

Yeah, it was from when he was a bit overweight. Yeah, and he was just. He was just going the academy and skip sparring, sit on the wall like they just chat shit and uh, yeah, I think he was his coach, wasn't it his coach? Yeah, called him.

Speaker 2: 53:09

Uh, called him sloth I love, I love these brazilian. Whenever is your coach brazilian or no? Okay, when you have a brazilian coach, I'll give it the most fucked up nicknames. Man, yeah, yeah, I think, uh, I think, apparently he said. What did he say?

Speaker 1: 53:20

like in brazil, you, you like you. When you have a Brazilian coach, I'll give it the most fucked up nicknames. Man, yeah, yeah, I think I think apparently he said what did he say? Like in Brazil, you lose the friend, but never lose the joke, or something. He said yeah, basically everyone has a nickname doesn't it?

Speaker 3: 53:30

Yeah, no matter what, it's always a shit nickname.

Speaker 1: 53:32

Yeah, it's always a shit nickname and A friend of mine who used to train with us was Brazilian back in the day and he used to give some of the guys nicknames as well, and this lad we used to train with he was really sweaty all the time and I think he nicknamed him I think it was Subbozo or something like that, but it meant greasy. Did it just mean greasy.

Speaker 2: 53:54

My old instructor. He had an American guy in the gym. His nickname was CIA. Imagine CIA, Imagine, CIA, imagine, because he thought he was like a CIA spy, and then another guy was another American guy. He called him KKK, like Tukok's client. Oh, I have to peep out.

Speaker 1: 54:12

He gave me these fucked up nicknames, yeah but that's a reflection of the community, though right when you can kind of have that sort of banter with people and just take the piss and Lay back.

Speaker 3: 54:23

I like that. Yeah, we're the same. We're so laid back, chilled, it's all good.

Speaker 2: 54:27

In my academy. It's a good atmosphere. I like people to laugh. I like people to go there as an escape to their everyday shit life they had a shit day at the office or or their wife's breaking their balls, you know they go to. They go to a jiu jitsu. They feel better. They hang out with their buddies, they, they, they, they train, they train hard. They go back. Even so, even if you got beaten up in the gym, you still feel good. You know me, I honestly like uh, like uh. Last time when I was in France, I was rolling with these young guys kicked my ass. I still I go to the gym. I feel good. You know, like man, you know what it's awesome. It's awesome Because you know he beat my, he beat me and I'm already thinking about the ways to beat him next time. You know, like, okay, he took my arm and all that. You know what I mean.

Speaker 1: 55:21

It know. Yeah, man, it's a beautiful thing, mate, that's. That's been really fun chatting to you today. We'll let you go in a second before we do, though. Do you want to? Uh? Do you want to chat about anything else? Would you want to shout out any of your uh, any of your content?

Speaker 2: 55:27

you're obviously your website, your instructionals and anything else no, just, uh, just a big thank you to everybody who's been following b apologize in advance if some articles are shit, you know, but uh, you know, or like you know, like a bit of drama and stuff, but you know it, it it keeps people entertained. You know, it's, it's all positive, it keeps people entertained. You know, I, I don't want, I don't want a BJ to be like a, like a, just like a collection of results from competition. No one cares, no one cares a shit about that. Man, you're like, oh, here are the results of the so-and-so competition. Man, like I like it to be more accessible, to be about Jiu-Jitsu lifestyle, not just about the competition aspect, Because for me, competition in Jiu-Jitsu I love it, but it's a very small part of Jiu-Jitsu.

Speaker 2: 56:11

You know, Most people who train Jiu-Jitsu they don't compete. You know, like I would even say like 90% of people who train jiu-jitsu in the gym don't compete. Man, they go there to get in shape and now to even hang out with their friends. You know, just to socialize. Yeah, absolutely. And you know, all these people who take life, who take jiu-jitsu life so seriously, man, it's just jiu-jitsu, you know what I'm saying. Like I see these people like hey, he's playing this guard it's not gonna work in the street, man, just let bygones be bygones. Man, you know I've got guys in my gym they play like this ridiculous stuff. You know I don't tell them hey man, that's shit what you're doing. No, no, it's just whatever.

Speaker 2: 56:52

Let him figure it out for himself let someone smash him and then he's going to come to that Cause I know when he gets his black belt he's going to be doing slow jiu jitsu anyway, so he's going to, he's going to go back to it, you know. So, yeah, man, you know it's all good, all positive, and uh, and also, yeah, just if you want to learn more about this kind of game, check out. My instruction came out. It's called slow jiu-jitsu and it's more about the mental aspect. You know, like, how I approach training with using this kind of game. You know, it's something I really feel very, I feel give a lot of importance to that mental aspect. You know about enjoying jiu-jitsu for everything it gives you. So, yeah, that's it. And if you want to, always the ones who, if you want to shoot me a message about any kind of questions, about technical questions, I'm always available, you know, yeah, man well appreciate your support on the podcast as well, mate, and your time today, and, yeah, keep up the good work, man.

Speaker 2: 57:51

It's been a pleasure, absolutely cheers, brother, thank.