Brown Belt (Ep. 661) | Undaunted.Life

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0:50 This is Undaunted Life a Man's Podcast.

0:54 I'm your host Kyle Thompson.

0:56 Let's get into it.

0:57 In the same way, let your light shine before others that they may see your good deeds and

1:01 glorify your father in heaven.

1:02 That is Matthew 516, guys.

1:04 I am so thankful to be here today.

1:06 We've got really one major subject, I guess you can call them two major subjects to get

1:09 into today.

1:10 But as always, I want to give a big thank you to our donors, guys.

1:13 If you're wondering how we can keep doing the show, you know, I even learned here recently

1:16 that we are the number one show.

1:19 The number one show in the world that is specifically for Christian men, which is kind

1:23 of crazy like to think about, you know, this is kind of a part-time thing and then we kind

1:26 of burned the ships a few years ago.

1:28 And now here we are.

1:29 Guys, we couldn't do any of that.

1:30 We couldn't be in the years of any man in the world that's wanting to be equipped to

1:34 push back darkness without guys like you.

1:36 And now we're number one.

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1:47 That is in the show notes.

1:48 Also leave a review.

1:49 I haven't asked you guys to leave a review in a while, but you know, that's the thing is

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2:01 If it's four below, just move on with your life.

2:03 Just don't worry about it.

2:04 But today's show is kind of a bit of a microcosm of what this year has been like for me 2024.

2:11 2024 has seen some of the biggest highs and accomplishments.

2:16 And I mean, I just mentioned one.

2:18 I mean, we're the number one show, the number one show for Christian men in the entire world.

2:24 I mean, that's just, it's still just kind of mind boggling.

2:26 I'm so humbled that you guys are still listening.

2:28 So there's some big, big highs and we're going to talk about one of those today.

2:32 But man, just some absolutely crushing lows.

2:35 Some that you guys know about like with Roman the giant dying and some that you guys will

2:39 probably never hear about.

2:40 It's just, it's been one of those years.

2:42 This has not been a neutral year at all.

2:44 And so before I get into talking about something that that's fun and exciting, I need to talk

2:49 about something that's that's not so fun.

2:51 And that was the loss of one of my foxhole brothers.

2:54 And so some of you that follow us on Instagram and Facebook, you saw a couple of weeks back

3:00 that I posted that we had lost a member of our foxhole and didn't mention his name at

3:04 the time because at the time I was posting that he had just died the night before and

3:08 there was still family that had not been notified and all that.

3:11 And so it was just kind of a bad situation.

3:13 But his name was Zach Foster and died of a pulmonary embolism at the age of 38.

3:19 So this occurred in the church parking lot.

3:22 His wife ran out to him.

3:24 He like fell out of his truck.

3:26 They rushed him to the hospital, but I think for all intents and purposes, he basically

3:29 died right there with his wife.

3:33 I get to the hospital.

3:34 This is after I had received word that he passed, but I was just like, okay, I need to

3:37 get to the hospital to just see what I can do to minister to people there, not because

3:41 I'm special, just because that's what you do, you go and you see what you can do to help

3:45 people.

3:46 As I'm walking in, I see his father and his brother and it's, you know, as you can expect,

3:51 they had just gotten word in the last half hour that their son had died.

3:55 On the inside, I was, you know, there with his in-laws and he was also close with our

3:59 pastor, Mark Hitchcock of Faith Bible Church in Edmond, Oklahoma.

4:03 And you know, the pastor, Mark was kind of telling me, he's like, yeah, they came out

4:06 to give us an update and they said, look, we can't even get him back to the cath lab

4:11 to try to get his heart going again because he's still like in trauma mode, which I guess

4:15 that means they were still like shocking him and giving him CPR, just try to get him back.

4:19 And so at that point, Mark knew that it wasn't good and he passed away.

4:25 And you know, we just kind of stayed there in shock and I'm, I'm there with a couple

4:28 of other foxhole brothers that knew Zach well.

4:32 And I mean, obviously a guy in his 30s dying of pulmonary embolism, like that's not something

4:37 I, as far as I understand it, that's a blood clot in the leg that goes to lungs that ends

4:41 up in the heart, and this was a man that had been to the heart hospital three times this

4:45 year.

4:46 And he died on a Wednesday and the Monday of that week.

4:48 So two days before he died, he was at the heart hospital for a checkup.

4:53 And Mark Hitchcock, our pastor said something poignant again about that.

4:56 He said, look, you know, if you think we can number our days, that's just an example of

5:01 God is the one that numbers our days that you're telling me that it was the best, he

5:06 was at the best heart hospital in Oklahoma, right?

5:09 He was at the heart hospital, right?

5:11 And you're telling me they couldn't find something on Monday that could have prevented

5:14 what happened on Wednesday if that wasn't what was supposed to go down.

5:18 And so, you know, I had to break the news to some of his friends, which was really tough

5:22 and just, it was a horrible situation, but his wife, Hannah, they've been married for

5:28 a few years and they have a not quite yet one year old daughter named Grace.

5:33 Hannah comes out from the back and where I'm sitting there and I just kind of like pop

5:36 up like, oh, my gosh, like, and then I'm just like ready for whatever, you know, is she

5:40 going to like fall down?

5:41 She's going to melt like, but God, I mean, I don't know.

5:45 It reminded me of the strength my cousin showed when she gave the eulogy at my, you

5:51 know, other cousins funeral, my cousin CJ that passed away, the police officer that was

5:57 killed in the line of duty.

5:59 And she got up there and just delivered this great eulogy and didn't, you know, crack

6:03 even once, right?

6:04 And so she comes out and she just seems like strong and, I mean, exasperated, but still

6:09 strong and I'll get to that more here in a second.

6:12 And she looked at me and the other guys and she's like, do y'all want to go say goodbye?

6:15 I was like, I was kind of frozen by it in, you know, Zach Todd, who's a forging table

6:21 or he was there and he's like, if that's what you would like us to do and if that's

6:24 okay with you, we'll do it, which was the perfect response.

6:27 And then that's, that's what we did.

6:28 We went back there and, you know, there he was.

6:32 And, you know, it's tough.

6:35 It's tough to see a guy that had so much life and obviously if you've ever seen someone

6:40 who's, who's dead, it's not any fun because there's no life there anymore.

6:45 And so that was, that was pretty rough.

6:48 And then it got into, you know, funeral planning and all these types of things.

6:51 But then all these stories about Zach just started kind of rolling out because here's

6:55 the thing about Zach, I knew Zach in college and Zach in college was your typical frat

6:59 guy, typical, you know, athlete, just kind of a [inaudible], right?

7:04 And he would say the same about the guy he was in college, just take what you would think

7:09 and frame as typical frat guy athlete.

7:11 And that's the type of guy that he was.

7:14 But not that long ago, really just a few years ago, Jesus snatched this dude up and he is

7:21 the most insane example of someone I know personally, who Jesus just completely reordered

7:26 his life, reordered his priorities.

7:29 And I say this lovingly, he was annoying about Jesus.

7:33 He would talk about Jesus all the time, you know, we'd be sitting in a coffee or at lunch

7:37 or something like that and someone would be walking by and he would just like bring up

7:39 a conversation about Jesus just, I mean, it was like breathing to him.

7:44 But as, as interesting as that is, the thing that was so incredible about Zach is his ability

7:51 to do things for others.

7:53 That's why I talked about Matthew 516 from the beginning of the podcast in the same way,

7:57 let your light shine before others that they may see your good deeds and glorify your father

8:01 in heaven.

8:02 Not see your good deeds and glorify you, but see your good deeds and glorify your father

8:05 in heaven.

8:06 This is a guy that was just constantly ringing himself out for the benefit of others.

8:12 And so I'll tell a couple of stories for me personally.

8:15 So you know, everybody's got to move a fridge at some point.

8:17 So I hired Zach because I knew he'd be around this area and I was like, Hey, Zach, you know,

8:21 if you can just help me move this fridge into this old house.

8:24 And the thing is, is this was a modern fridge and this was a hundred year old house.

8:28 So what do you think the process of getting it through the door was?

8:31 Well, we get it to the door and it's a old, you know, it's a smaller door and it's a bigger

8:35 fridge.

8:36 And so long story short, we end up having to like basically take this fridge completely

8:41 apart to get it inside to rebuild it inside.

8:44 So it goes from, yeah, hey, help me carry it inside to know where we're going to just

8:48 like have to completely redo this and he just did it, didn't complain, didn't like cuss,

8:53 didn't nothing.

8:54 He just, I mean, he was so glad to be able to hang out with his buddy and be able to

8:57 help him.

8:58 That's just the guy he was.

8:59 But there was another time where I had borrowed a trailer from somebody and, you know, I didn't

9:02 grow up, you know, doing a lot of stuff like that.

9:04 So I didn't grow up pool law trailers.

9:05 And so, you know, I made a mistake with a trailer, a mistake that you make once.

9:10 But as I'm driving down the road, luckily it was a road, no one else was on the trailer

9:14 actually popped off the ball.

9:15 I know stupid, stupid, but it happens.

9:17 Hey, if you guys think I'm cool and smart, hey, I try to give you as many opportunities

9:20 and as much ammunition to prove to you that I still do dumb things and I do them constantly

9:25 on a daily basis.

9:26 And so it pops off, but it's not a catastrophic thing because I had the chains on their ride

9:29 and I crossed the chains because that's what you're supposed to do and all that type of

9:31 stuff.

9:32 But long story short, part of the trailer had bent.

9:36 And the thing was, as I had borrowed a trailer from somebody, I needed to get back to them

9:39 the next day.

9:40 And in my head, the very first person I thought of that could help me in this situation when

9:43 I'm on the side of the road was Zach Foster.

9:45 But I call Zach and not only does he answer, right, like a typical 3 AM friend does, it

9:50 wasn't a 3 AM, by the way, it was like probably 3 in the afternoon.

9:53 He goes, oh yeah, man, tell me where you're at, I'll come, I'll come.

9:57 So it's the middle of the day for him.

9:58 And he drops everything he's doing to come out and he kind of, you know, he's helping

10:01 me evaluate and oh well, let's see if we can do this, see if we can do that.

10:04 We get the trailer back to my house and we're kind of tinkering with it a little bit and

10:07 then he just kind of looks at me and he goes, hey, Kyle, when do you need to get this trailer

10:09 back to your, to your buddy you brought it from and I'm like, dude, like tomorrow morning,

10:12 he's like, okay, okay, okay, and he's kind of paused and he's like, all right, cool.

10:17 Let me just take it and I'll take care of it for you.

10:19 And I'm like, okay, pause, Zach, take care of it for me, like, what does, what does that

10:24 mean?

10:25 Like, what are you going to go do?

10:26 He's like, no, no, no, just don't worry about it.

10:27 Just don't worry about it.

10:28 Like I'll call you tomorrow.

10:29 So he calls me in the morning and he tells me, hey, meet me at this shop.

10:31 And so I go to the shop, Zach had pulled this thing that was bent back into alignment.

10:38 He had welded it and he had repainted it.

10:42 All before the next morning, when I needed to return it to my buddy.

10:46 So I make a mistake, right?

10:47 And this is a mistake that could have, you know, cost, you know, if it had gone catch

10:51 tropical, it could have really hurt somebody.

10:53 But this was a mistake that should have cost me a lot of money, a lot of time and things

10:56 like that.

10:57 But Zach's like, no, I'll just do it for you.

10:59 And he wouldn't let me pay him.

11:00 He's just like, Kyle, like I like doing this type of stuff.

11:02 And there were just tons and tons of stories that were coming out about Zach Foster doing

11:07 for others because he's a handyman.

11:09 He's a Mr. Fix it.

11:10 He's on the handyman crew at our church and he would go and help, you know, widows and

11:14 all these other, you know, single moms and stuff like that, like fixed stuff at their

11:17 house.

11:18 And he would just, yeah, obviously just do that stuff for free.

11:22 And you know, unfortunately I was out of town for his funeral for some pre-book travel.

11:26 But I watched the funeral on YouTube and, you know, just hearing these stories of what

11:30 Zach had done and it takes us all the way back to like, man, like God, like why him?

11:35 Because, you know, people will say things like, Oh, gone too soon.

11:38 But it's like, you know, if we believe that God is numbering our days, there's no such

11:41 thing as too soon in the economy of God.

11:44 But it's like why?

11:45 Like why, why a guy like that?

11:47 A guy that has been on fire for Jesus just over these last few years and the impact that

11:52 he's had like in our children's ministry at our church, you know, the widows and single

11:56 moms ministry and like helping set up the audio visual stuff and like he was just at

12:01 the church constantly and constantly serving people and it's like, why a guy like that?

12:05 Why not the lukewarm Christian that's like basically just like a me bowing their way

12:09 through life?

12:10 Like, why a guy like Zach Foster?

12:11 And it's a question that we can ponder but never actually get the answer to.

12:14 But I can tell you as I wrap up my comments here, a guy like that is a guy that leaves

12:22 a lasting impact because of the way he lived, not necessarily for the words that he said.

12:26 And this is what I mean.

12:28 Since I was gone and, you know, I felt very guilty that I couldn't be there for the funeral.

12:34 But I text a lot of guys, like, how was the funeral, like, you know, how did it go?

12:37 Like, how did the family look like that type of stuff?

12:40 And to a man, these guys text me back and they're like, man, it was brutal.

12:45 It was sad, but it was such a celebration of life.

12:48 And boy, was it challenging.

12:50 And the reason why I was challenging was because there were, I think, four or five different

12:54 people that got up to speak about him, you know, his brother, you know, his boss, you

13:00 know, an older man in our church that was kind of mentoring him and all of them were

13:07 basically talking about these amazing things that Zach had done.

13:10 And it was some of the same things that I've said, just the selflessness.

13:13 And so guys that were in the crowd, like other foxhole guys of mine are like, dang, man,

13:18 you know, you think you're serving Christ and you think you're serving people.

13:21 And then you see a guy like Zach who's serving Christ and serving people.

13:24 And it's just, it took me back to the hospital room when I'm saying bye to him.

13:29 I didn't say it out loud, but I just thought to myself, man, if he's not in heaven, none

13:33 of us are going because it's like, you want to talk about fruit?

13:36 You know, I give John MacArthur a hard time because it's like, you don't feel less saved

13:41 than after you listen to a, you know, 60 minute, you know, sermon from John MacArthur about

13:46 what it takes to be saved, right?

13:47 And if your fruit is sweet enough, but if we can talk about it, the fruit that Zach had

13:54 as an offshoot of his following and discipleship of Jesus Christ was so sweet and so abundant.

14:02 And it was just, it's a guy that you don't forget because if you ever think about, hey,

14:10 I want to be selfish of your head, I want to help this person, you end up thinking about

14:14 a guy like Zach and a life of service that he's had.

14:17 And so with all that said, before we close that out, I didn't want to let you know there

14:22 are a couple ways that y'all can help the, the family because his wife was like working

14:26 like really part time because she was basically raising their, their little baby who I think

14:30 is 11 months old as of the recording of this podcast.

14:33 There are a couple of ways you guys can do that.

14:34 So there's the typical way that everybody kind of understands the GoFundMe side.

14:38 And so there's a GoFundMe link here in the show notes guys.

14:40 I would love if you could, you know, help support this family and this baby.

14:45 Yeah, I know GoFundMe takes a percentage, but for a lot of you, it's just kind of easier

14:48 to do, but also our church, Faith Bible, there, there's a way to help through there.

14:54 It's a little bit convoluted, believe me, I tried to, it was a dumb thing, I can't believe

14:58 they didn't just like add a line item for this family temporarily, but, but, but I got

15:03 a link to the Faith Bible giving website.

15:06 Now in the dropdown box, which is to the right, so you put your amount on the left, but to

15:10 the right, there's a dropdown box, select benevolence fund, okay, benevolence fund.

15:16 So I have it from the pastors of that church that the funds that go into the benevolence

15:21 fund are going to be used to support the foster family, to support Hannah and Grace.

15:25 And so you can do GoFundMe if you want more of a straightforward approach, or you can

15:29 go to the Faith Bible website and put it in an amount and go to the benevolence fund.

15:32 I really, really would appreciate that.

15:34 Hey guys, real quick, as you've heard me describe before, I am incredibly conservative about

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15:40 I spent years being terrified of putting different products in my body because I didn't know

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17:09 All right, guys.

17:10 So there's no quick hitters today, unfortunately, because I've got a lot of things I want to

17:14 talk about, but I want to talk about something awesome and I need to make sure that I gave

17:17 an ode to Zach Foster.

17:18 But in the coming weeks, there will be a quick hitters bonanza because we're planning something

17:23 special for episode 666.

17:25 Ooh.

17:26 Right?

17:27 Isn't that exciting?

17:28 We're playing something special for that.

17:30 So we will do a quick hitters bonanza.

17:31 We'll be getting to all the crazy stuff that has been in the new cycle.

17:34 But we need to talk about September the 17th of 2024.

17:39 Okay.

17:40 So on that night, I was given one of the greatest honors of my life and that was receiving my

17:44 brown belt in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu from the forge in Edmond, Oklahoma.

17:49 So before I get into, you know, the festivities of the evening and my experience at night

17:53 and all my other stuff that I want to talk about, I want to actually break down the statement

17:56 that I just made again.

17:58 So that was the night I was receiving my brown belt in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu from the forge

18:02 in Edmond, Oklahoma.

18:03 So receiving my brown belt, receiving the receiving part is you could rightly say that

18:11 I earned my brown belt, right?

18:13 Because it's like, Oh man, you earned your brown belt.

18:14 Congratulations.

18:15 But I see it as receiving my brown belt.

18:17 And this is why because it was a gift that I had to receive from my professors.

18:24 So we have about, I think now about 20 black belts affiliated with the forge and Edmond,

18:28 Oklahoma, directly affiliated.

18:30 But I basically am under the tutelage of just a small handful of them because those are

18:34 the classes that I normally go to and I'll talk about some of those guys here in a little

18:37 bit.

18:38 But basically at our academy, this isn't a time based thing.

18:42 They basically evaluate you individually.

18:44 So you, the type of athlete you are, what size you are, how much you weigh, what your

18:50 age is, the amount of time that you train, whether or not you compete and how often you

18:54 compete, how do you do when you compete, you know, when you go over to the other schools,

18:57 how do you do against, you know, non-familiar opponents, those types of things and by that,

19:01 they will evaluate you on the white belt to blue belt to purple belt to brown belt to

19:06 black belt scale.

19:08 And at our school, we don't really have like lifetime achievement belts where it's like,

19:13 Oh, well, you've been around for, you know, a few years, I guess we'll give you your blue

19:15 belt.

19:16 That's not really what's happening.

19:17 So it's something that you have to earn from people that know better, you know, as to whether

19:21 or not you are that thing.

19:22 So receiving brown belt.

19:23 Okay.

19:24 And then I've already talked about, you know, white, blue, purple, brown, black, just to

19:29 get, I give you an idea.

19:30 Cause I know you can get, you know, your black belt and karate after like 18 months by some

19:33 fat dude by the airport.

19:36 This is something where if you train all the time, like, you know, when I say all the time,

19:41 I mean, you know, three, four times a week, it's going to take you 10 years to get your

19:43 black belt.

19:44 There's been some savants that have got their black belts like in really short time, I think

19:47 BJ Penn got his black belt in three years.

19:49 But this is something that takes a very, very long time.

19:51 I mean, by the time you get to black belt, you basically get a PhD in choking people,

19:55 right?

19:56 Like that's essentially what it is.

19:57 And so that gets into the other part of the statement Brazilian Jiu Jitsu.

20:00 This is a legitimate fighting style.

20:02 This is hard to climb the belt ladder.

20:04 This isn't like Wing Chun or Bing Bong or whatever these different, like, you know, fighting

20:07 styles are that would never work in a real life situation.

20:10 And again, I just point you to something like MMA, you know, in something like MMA, if a

20:15 guy is a really good wrestler and has a really good Jiu Jitsu, it's going to be really, really,

20:19 really hard to beat him, even if you have fantastic, fantastic striking.

20:22 And that's the most elite form of fighting is MMA, like specifically in the Ultimate

20:26 Fighting Championship.

20:27 But in like a street fight, you're not running into Alex Pajeda, right?

20:31 You're not running into, you know, John Jones, you're not running into guys like this.

20:34 You're running into, for the most part, normal dudes and super zillion Jiu Jitsu basically

20:37 becomes a superpower, because when you've trained for long enough, when you train with

20:41 somebody that's never trained before, it's like dealing with a baby, right?

20:45 They don't understand why they can't do anything, but you understand exactly why.

20:49 That's the part of that statement, the forge.

20:51 That is the best school in Oklahoma, and that's our reputation.

20:53 So that may seem cocky, it just kind of is what it is, because I was literally talking

20:59 to another brown belt the other day.

21:01 He said he went over to another school just to go to their open mat, and they asked him

21:05 where he trained at.

21:06 And he said the forge and they're like, geez, because they were like, crap, I know what's

21:09 coming, right?

21:10 Because, you know, we got some hobbyist guys, but we got some real legit like world class

21:14 guys of the forge.

21:15 And so all in all, we had the best school in Oklahoma as far as I can say, at least in

21:20 my opinion.

21:21 And then last part, Edmund, Oklahoma, I feel so ridiculously blessed that the best school

21:26 in Oklahoma is located in my city 10 minutes away from my house.

21:32 It is literally the closest Brazilian Jiu Jitsu school to my house, and it just happens

21:36 to be the best one, right?

21:38 So in the thing is, is like, you don't have to go to the best school to be really good

21:41 at Jiu Jitsu.

21:42 You don't have to go to the best school to get benefits from Jiu Jitsu, but the fact that

21:45 one of the best schools around on the school with the best reputation probably in the entire

21:48 state is right by my house.

21:50 I feel very, very, very blessed by that and for that.

21:53 Now Jiu Jitsu, for most of you guys, this has been a big time center point for the show,

21:57 but I just want to kind of like do a quick commercial here that even if you're not a

22:00 Jiu Jitsu guy, which some of you guys have already turned this off, I guess, but even

22:04 if you're not a Jiu Jitsu guy, do not skip this episode.

22:07 There's surely a nugget or two for you here, so please just stick with us.

22:11 And I know a lot of you guys have started training Jiu Jitsu because of the show.

22:14 The number of guys that have bought origin geese, again, guys go to the origin website,

22:17 use our promo code undaunted.

22:19 It's the best geese.

22:20 They're 100% made in America, great rash guards, the whole nine yards, and a lot of

22:23 you guys have started training because I get the messages all the time.

22:26 And I even get guys that are like, hey, do you, I live in New Orleans, do you know any

22:29 good Jiu Jitsu schools here?

22:31 And I just kind of tell them like, guys, you just got to go and just experience different

22:34 schools and different teams and different atmospheres and see what's going to work well

22:37 for you.

22:38 I'm so glad that you guys have started training because of the stuff we've been saying on

22:42 the show and Jiu Jitsu is really, as I've said before, one of the best ways to develop

22:49 physical and mental resilience because it is very difficult and it's something that's

22:54 very taxing mentally, especially when you first start, you're not as exhausted physically

22:58 as you might think.

22:59 You're really exhausted mentally.

23:01 Your brain burns more calories than anything else in your body than any other organ in

23:04 your body, certainly.

23:05 And so the brain is something that is working on overdrive when you have no idea what's

23:10 happening to you and you have no idea what the other person's doing, what they're about

23:12 to do is you're just exhausted.

23:14 So there's a lot of resilience and I can talk more about that later.

23:17 But when I've been promoted, okay?

23:19 So from white to blue and then from blue to purple, now from purple to brown, it actually

23:22 gives me an opportunity to kind of sit back, take a deep breath, reflect on my Jiu Jitsu

23:27 journey that started in the summer of 2017.

23:29 So one of the ways that I can do that and why I can always remember the year that I started

23:34 is because I've done entire episodes about my Jiu Jitsu and my Jiu Jitsu journey on this

23:38 podcast.

23:39 And it's honestly the reason that I can remember it's because I remember that I launched this

23:44 podcast, guys, the same year that I started doing Jiu Jitsu, okay?

23:49 So the summer of 2017 is when I started doing Jiu Jitsu and later on that year is whenever

23:55 I launched this podcast because I can remember episode five of this podcast was called six

24:00 months of Jiu Jitsu.

24:01 So I started my Jiu Jitsu journey, my real Jiu Jitsu journey before the show was even

24:05 a thing, guys, right?

24:06 So for those of you that have been around for a long time and you can see, well, we're

24:09 at 661 episodes, like it's a lot, right?

24:12 But episode five was six months of Jiu Jitsu, episode 62 was blue belt, episode 279 was purple

24:18 belt.

24:19 Now we're at 661 with brown belt.

24:20 So you really guys, you should go back and check out those episodes if that's interesting

24:23 to you.

24:24 So you can kind of see how my voice sounded before I had two vocal cord surgeries versus

24:27 now you can kind of see the stuff I was saying then and how dumb I was about certain things.

24:31 But I've actually revisited my notes from those episodes because it's, you know, really interesting

24:35 to kind of remember my mindset and remember where I was mentally during those different

24:38 points, my Jiu Jitsu journey.

24:40 So I'll give you like a quick highlights of those episodes.

24:42 So in episode five, that was six months of Jiu Jitsu, that was released January 18th

24:45 of 2018.

24:46 And so I, you know, it was released after, you know, the year I started, you get it, but

24:51 I went through my athletic history, my lifetime interest in MMA and fighting, you know, joining

24:55 Fight Club.

24:56 That's kind of like my foxhole group.

24:57 I joined that on July 10th, 2016.

24:59 And the reason that I know that date is because the day before was UFC 200.

25:02 And so that's when I met most of these guys, they're like, Hey, on Sunday nights, we get

25:05 together and just roll a little bit of Jiu Jitsu.

25:07 And so 2016 is technically when my Jiu Jitsu journey started, but that was just like a

25:11 once a week thing.

25:12 And it was officially in 2017 whenever I joined the forge and, you know, started, you know,

25:17 put on that white belt for the first time and got in there and got my butt kicked.

25:19 And so, you know, I talked about flirting with the idea of doing Brazilian Jiu Jitsu

25:23 for real, finding the forge.

25:25 I talked about the immediate lessons I learned.

25:26 You know, I learned about humility because, you know, it just kind of is what it is.

25:30 You're getting your butt kicked.

25:31 Really the power of Jiu Jitsu when you start really kind of figuring out certain positions

25:34 and how you can control people and how also Brazilian Jiu Jitsu can be for everyone.

25:38 All you have to do is train.

25:40 Talked about my first tournament.

25:41 I talked about one of the greats of all time, Andre Galval giving me my Brazilian Jiu Jitsu

25:44 nickname.

25:45 So he called me Viking.

25:46 And I also talked about the spiritual mental and physical connection.

25:49 Then on episode 62 of this podcast called Blue Belt, that was released on February the 14th

25:54 of 2019.

25:55 I talked about getting my blue belt.

25:56 I went through the lessons that I had learned since episode five.

26:00 I talked about three things that I need to make even better in my Brazilian Jiu Jitsu

26:03 game.

26:04 So that was, you know, heavier on top, like heavier top pressure, you know, getting the

26:06 take down, you know, keep that dog hungry.

26:09 You know, if there's a scramble, make sure to be the guy that ends up in the better position.

26:12 But then I also also talked on that episode about three things I need to fix in my Jiu

26:15 Jitsu game.

26:16 So being comfortable off my back, more on that in a second, being dangerous from my

26:20 back.

26:21 More on that in a second and not getting stuck in bottom side control, which, you know, that's

26:26 just kind of a thing.

26:27 That's a hard thing for a lot of people.

26:29 And then on February the 3rd of 2022, episode 279, that's when I talked about getting my purple

26:32 belt, biggest lessons I learned.

26:34 I talked about, you know, from no training to white belt, you know, your eagle will kill

26:39 you.

26:40 And from white belt to blue belt, you just got to get them at time.

26:42 And from blue belt to purple belt, you just really need to slow down, you know, you're

26:46 going to suck in different positions and all that, but just try to slow everything down.

26:49 But then from purple belt to brown belt, okay, this is actually following up on what I said

26:53 on episode 279, you know, I'm not really sure right now, obviously, what my biggest lessons

27:00 learned will be.

27:01 Or I mean, in that episode, okay, I was talking about from purple to brown, what I thought

27:06 my lessons were going to be.

27:07 And so it was like, hey, maybe focus on more technique and focus on higher percentage moves

27:12 and positions and submissions, you know, train enough to where, you know, you're doing the

27:18 basics right, not really doing all these obscure Instagram moves and stuff like that.

27:22 But now we need to get into this episode, episode 661 called brown belt.

27:27 Let's get into the lessons that I learned in my journey from purple to brown, okay?

27:32 These are the lessons that I took away a lot.

27:34 There's a lot more than these, but I just kind of narrowed it down.

27:36 I figured out what kind of jujitsu fighter I want to be.

27:40 This was really, really important to me.

27:42 And this is wisdom that I've tried to pass on to other people that are just starting their

27:45 jujitsu journey, which is figure out the type of jujitsu fighter that you want to be

27:51 and then build your training around that.

27:55 So the gal, Katie, that runs our office there at the forge, she came up to me one day before

27:59 our Tuesday night class, which is, you know, the class that I'm basically at every week

28:02 and she goes, hey, Kyle, like, you know, I put up the new tournament signups and everything

28:06 like that.

28:07 And I didn't see your name on it.

28:08 Like, you know, why don't you compete more?

28:09 And I was like, I hadn't really thought about it, but I was, I kind of went back to a Robert

28:14 Frost moment.

28:15 I had, you know, road, diversion, a yellow wood type of thing.

28:17 You can only go left or right kind of a thing.

28:20 I remember when I got my purple belt.

28:23 I got my purple belt, like two or three months before Elijah was born.

28:29 So our second son.

28:30 And so when Elijah was born, I felt like I had kind of that Robert Frost moment.

28:35 It's like, okay, am I going to chase the competition route, train in a way to where you can go

28:41 and represent this school at the top of the podium on a regular basis, maybe travel for

28:46 tournaments and those types of things.

28:49 Or do I want to be just a really nasty training partner?

28:52 And I mean, nasty in a good way, right?

28:54 Where the guys that are competing all the time, the guys that are traveling to go compete

28:58 in national and international tournaments, that when I roll with them, they're probably

29:02 going to get the best of me.

29:04 But goodness gracious, you know, they're going to have to work for it, right?

29:08 They're going to get to some dominant positions, but then I'm going to escape or they're going

29:10 to get to the sub.

29:11 And I'm going to like just move just at that right time to get out of that position, right?

29:16 And that's kind of instinctively what I chose being the nasty training partner.

29:21 Because for me, being in competition mode, and some of you well adjusted people out there

29:25 are not going to understand this, but like if I'm competing on Saturday, I am a wreck

29:29 all week.

29:30 I'm angry, I'm on edge, you know, I'm keeping my weight under control and so maybe not

29:35 eating as much as I would normally eat.

29:38 And like in my mindset, and I've talked about this before, I have to get into the mindset

29:41 where it's like, all right, if this person's not going to tap, like I'm just going to have

29:45 to break it, right?

29:47 Like that's just my mindset.

29:49 Because it's like, look, these are not my teammates in a competition.

29:52 These are not my teammates.

29:53 These are not my friends.

29:54 These are not people that I care about.

29:55 So if they're not going to tap, I will break it.

29:57 If they're, you know, not going to tap, I will drop their, you know, passed out body

30:01 in front of their weeping mother, right?

30:03 That's kind of where I go in my head and imagine having a wife and two small children and imagine

30:09 kind of being on edge.

30:10 Again, for you well adjusted people, you're like, well, just turned it on with the competition

30:13 happens.

30:14 Well, I'm glad you can do that, buddy, but that's just not really available to me, right?

30:17 I'm still a work in progress, right?

30:18 So leave me alone.

30:19 And so it's like not having that stress or strain or anxiety of a competition has actually

30:24 made me better in the room because when I'm going with some of these guys that do travel

30:29 a whole lot, I'm like, all right, it's go time.

30:31 Like that this is my competition.

30:32 And also this is that for them.

30:33 And I'll even ask some of these guys that have tournaments coming up, like, Hey, is there

30:36 anything, anything in particular you're looking for, anything you're worried about or your

30:39 positions or something like that?

30:40 And then we can kind of get after it from there.

30:42 And so for you guys that are starting your jujitsu journey, figure out what type of guy

30:45 you want to be.

30:46 You're 50 years old and, you know, you're just trying to do something to get a little

30:49 bit exercise.

30:50 Yeah, you're probably not going to be training to win master's worlds, right?

30:53 That's probably not going to be something that you're going to be doing.

30:55 But if you're 25 and you're pretty athletic and you're already in good shape and you're

30:58 wanting to kind of build this lifestyle, okay, be a competitor.

31:02 And then you can kind of, you know, coalesce that around the type of gym that you're going

31:05 to be at and the types of classes you're going to go to and the types of people you're

31:09 going to be around.

31:10 And so that'll be great for you.

31:11 So that's one thing that I learned from purple to brown.

31:14 So I learned about longevity over brutality.

31:17 So all the way up to purple belt, I wanted to go to the most brutal classes with the

31:22 most brutal people doing the hardest roles for the hardest amount of rounds.

31:26 And I wouldn't tap into the last very, very last second.

31:30 But like I said, I think in my first four years of jujitsu, I lost a year because of

31:34 injuries and a lot of those are because I just wouldn't tap, right?

31:38 So I would get my neck crank crank crank crank crank crank crank in the triangle.

31:41 Oh, no, no, no, no.

31:42 Okay.

31:43 As opposed to now after having trained for, you know, seven and a half years or so, there

31:48 are certain positions where I know I'm got, you know what I mean?

31:51 Like I'm in this triangle.

31:52 I could really, really go crazy trying to get out of this thing.

31:56 If this were a street fight situation and my children's lives were on the line, okay,

32:00 I could probably figure a way out of this triangle and, you know, deal with the injury

32:03 later.

32:04 But now I'm just like, tap, I've tapped to armbars that I know the guy is about to get

32:09 and my hands are about to come apart and I'll just go ahead and tap, right?

32:12 So you got these guys that'll get extended and then they're starting to move all around

32:15 and then they get up in their shoulder hurts.

32:16 It's like, yeah, no crap dummy.

32:18 Like you were sitting there like destroying your arm, trying to get out of a triangle

32:21 at six 30 a.m. on a Tuesday.

32:23 What is wrong with you?

32:24 There are no lights.

32:25 There are no videos.

32:26 There are no sponsors here.

32:27 Like what are you doing?

32:28 And so I really, really focused on that in purple belt and, you know, getting the iron

32:33 neck was a huge benefit to my neck and overall health with jujitsu because you're constantly

32:37 getting your neck cranked on all the time, but just focusing on, I want to be good for

32:40 the long term.

32:41 I want to be rolling in my 40s and 50s.

32:43 And so, yeah, you're going to have some brutal classes, but don't seek those out.

32:47 I don't roll them back to back days, typically get my body a little bit of time to recover.

32:51 So that's something that I focus on on purple belt also.

32:54 Last kind of big lesson learned from purple belt to brown belt is slow it down for me,

32:59 but speed it up for them.

33:02 And so my approach when rolling, and again, I want to be a nasty training partner, I want

33:06 to be good for guys that are actually way better, that type of thing, is I want to use

33:10 pace as a weapon.

33:12 So you may have heard people talk about Randy Couture was kind of the first MMA fighter

33:15 that used pace as a weapon.

33:16 He was in such good shape.

33:17 You know, I got some anabolic help as well, but he was in such good shape that he could

33:22 put a pace on you for a full 25 minutes.

33:24 And so he didn't have crazy knockout power.

33:26 He had really good wrestling, but he didn't have really good submission game and stuff

33:29 like that.

33:30 But it was just pace.

33:31 He would just break guys down and then finally would give up their arm or give up their neck

33:34 or just get TKO'd, right?

33:36 That was his approach.

33:37 I'm in really good shape, I keep my cardio in shape year round, I keep my strength in

33:42 shape year round.

33:43 And so when I get into some of these roles and I especially get into some of these scrambles,

33:47 it's like you're not going to out scramble me.

33:48 I'm going to go.

33:49 Right.

33:50 We're all going to get exhausted at different points and, you know, those types of things.

33:53 But when I feel you taking a big deep breath, boom, I'm moving and I'm going.

33:57 And so I want to slow it down for me, really think about what I'm doing, be methodical,

34:01 but I want the other person to be like, holy crap, Kyle is moving like crazy.

34:05 There's another guy named Luke do that goes to my church.

34:07 Great dude.

34:08 He also got his brown belt about a week after I did.

34:11 He couldn't be there the night of where we all got promoted.

34:14 But you know, he got his brown belt and when he and I roll, it's, you know, we're about

34:20 the same size, been training about the same amount of time.

34:23 But I remember one time after we got down rolling, he was completely exhausted and then

34:26 class in and he came up to me and he goes, Kyle, what, what cardio do you do?

34:30 Because he's like, I thought I was in shape.

34:33 But there's just, there's something different.

34:35 It's like you had a different gear and the thing was is when I roll with this guy, I have

34:39 to go to that different gear because he's so technical and he does so many different

34:43 things and I'm constantly going to have to think about what he's doing.

34:45 So I'm using my cardio as an additional weapon.

34:48 And so that's kind of the thing when you hear guys that are like, Hey, don't use your strength

34:51 or all that.

34:52 I'm not big on that because it's like, would you tell someone that's flexible to not use

34:55 their flexibility while rolling, would you tell someone that has a really good cardio?

34:58 Don't use your cardio while you're rolling.

35:00 So it's like, yeah, if you need to use strength to get out of a position or get into a position,

35:03 yeah, freaking go for it.

35:04 So in terms of from brown belt to black belt, here are my expectations.

35:10 It's all about sharpening the sword at this point because it's like, you know what you're

35:13 doing.

35:14 Yes, you're going to learn some new positions.

35:16 You're going to learn some new things, but it's about you've got your sword.

35:19 You want to make it as sharp as possible.

35:20 So the things that you're good at, you want to be a lead at also, mad time is still key,

35:25 right?

35:26 So I've known guys that have gotten their brown belt and stopped training.

35:29 And I'm just like, gah, Lee, I know brown belt's not ultimately the destination, I guess not,

35:34 but it's like you get to brown belt and it's like you're almost there.

35:37 You just have to keep mad time.

35:38 You just have to do the boring stuff, which is just keep going to class and just go to

35:41 class again.

35:42 And then next week, go to class some more.

35:43 So you know, mad time is going to be key.

35:45 And then also from brown to black in terms of expectations, I don't want to view black

35:50 belt as the goal.

35:52 Okay.

35:54 I thought when I first started training with white belt, that black belt was the goal.

35:58 But along the way, I realized that black belt is not the goal, but it's the standard, okay?

36:03 It's one more step in the journey.

36:04 And just in general, guys, I am for standards over goals.

36:08 And the reason, and I always use this example, let's say I'm going to bed tonight and I have

36:12 a goal to wake up in the morning and to lift, right?

36:16 To go into my garage and to lift.

36:18 But then I wake up and I didn't really have a nice, nice sleep and my wife and I fought

36:22 before we went to bed.

36:23 And so, you know, I didn't really get as much sleep and she's still mad at me.

36:26 And, you know, the kids were kind of crying out during the night and one of them came

36:29 in the room and I got them still a little bit sore from yesterday.

36:32 And man, I really think I'm just going to take, take care of my body today.

36:36 So I didn't meet my goal, but I don't have goals.

36:39 I have standards.

36:41 So I know that regardless, you know, you know, tornado notwithstanding that when I wake up

36:46 in the morning, no matter how I feel, I'm going to go and get after it.

36:49 The same thing.

36:50 Yeah.

36:51 People have a goal.

36:52 Maybe their goal is to do a sprint triathlon.

36:53 So they train, train, train, train, train.

36:54 A sprint triathlon and then they take three months off, right?

36:58 So it would have been better for their overall health, for their longevity.

37:01 Had they not trained for the sprint triathlon and just like trained like a normal person

37:05 for six months, as opposed to training for three months, doing the thing and then taking

37:08 three months off, if that makes sense.

37:10 And so in terms of this, the black belt is not the goal, but it is the standards.

37:16 And it's just the next step.

37:17 I've known guys that have gotten their black belt and then they're like, oh crap.

37:21 Now it's on.

37:22 And I'm like, what do you mean?

37:23 Well, you know, when you're a white belt, you're evaluated as a white belt and you're

37:27 evaluated with other people that have only been training for that length of time.

37:30 So typically you get your white belt in less than two or your blue belt in less than two

37:33 years, maybe three years, right?

37:35 But then you get to black belt and you realize, okay, I've been training for 10 years.

37:39 And now you're training with people that have had their black belt for longer than 10 years.

37:44 Think about that.

37:46 Because black belt's just wide open.

37:47 Yes, you get stripes on your black belt and then there's coral belt and all that kind

37:49 of stuff.

37:50 But you have guys that have had their black belt for over a decade.

37:52 You've been training for a decade and you just got yours.

37:54 So all black belts are not created equal.

37:57 And so if black belts the goal, I know, I know some black belts that have stopped training.

38:01 They get their black belt and then they don't train anymore.

38:02 It's like, Yeesh, like why would you go through all that for all these years and then just

38:06 think, oh, I'm good.

38:08 I mean, you know, yeah, you can pick some stuff up like riding a bike.

38:10 But other than that, you know, it can be pretty rough.

38:12 Now, I did realize that I forgot to kind of talk about what what we do in terms of the

38:16 Ford.

38:17 So at the Ford's basically the way that we do it is everyone that's getting promoted

38:20 for any belt, their names are called, they're put in the middle and then basically everyone

38:23 else gets in line and that can be 75 to 100 people and they call out a starting position.

38:27 So it could be open guard or side control or something like that.

38:30 And then you go until there's a submission or a sweep of some kind.

38:35 And then the person being promoted stays in and a new fresh person comes in.

38:39 And when there's like 75 people online, they are mega fresh.

38:42 But if you're getting promoted to brown or black, it's not white belts and blue belts

38:46 running in on you for the most part.

38:48 It's, I mean, I basically saw purple, brown and black and there was one blue belt who's

38:52 like a world champion caliber guy that I'll talk about a little bit later.

38:55 Those are the only guys I rolled with.

38:57 And you roll for basically an hour and a half.

38:59 There were two 60 second water breaks and there was like a two minute break where, you

39:02 know, people who were in no key stuff, you had to throw your ghee on or whatever.

39:06 And it's, you know, it's hot, you know, there's all these people in there and you're just

39:09 trying to survive.

39:10 And that's the whole point is towards the end, they're not rolling as hard with you that

39:12 they're just trying to keep you moving.

39:14 And then for the guys that got their black belt, I think there were four guys that got their

39:16 black belt that night.

39:17 Those guys had to roll with every other individual black belt in the room until there was a

39:21 sub.

39:22 And so it absolutely, absolutely brutal evening.

39:23 I mean, I was literally in bed, like, and I felt like my head was vibrating and like

39:27 my ears were like on fire because I was still hot.

39:30 I'm sitting there laying down at like almost midnight and my heart rate was still like

39:34 going crazy.

39:35 So it was a crazy, crazy time.

39:36 But I also wanted to give kind of an honest assessment of my game and areas of improvement

39:40 real quick.

39:41 So this will be interesting for any of you guys that are kind of like evaluating yourself.

39:43 You should always evaluate yourself.

39:44 But in terms of my game, my game is really predicated on the takedown.

39:48 So that's, you know, I want to get two points.

39:50 If we're going to end up on the ground, I want to get two points.

39:51 But if I'm being lazy or tired, if I get caught, they're going to pool guard, right?

39:55 So, you know, I can typically count on one hand the number of times in a year that I get

39:58 taken down.

39:59 It's just, you know, I have a really good base and it's just something that I, you know,

40:02 it really focused on not being taken down because I don't really want to be on my back.

40:05 But my game is takedown or let them pass guard or let them pull guard rather for me to pass

40:10 guard pressure, pace, explosiveness, control, take the sub if it presents itself, but not

40:16 force it.

40:17 So that's one thing that I get into some positions and I feel like maybe I stall a little bit

40:20 because it's like, well, I could go for the sub here, but I might lose position.

40:23 So, but that's essentially my game in terms of my areas of improvement.

40:26 This is what I would say.

40:27 And I think my coaches would, uh, would echo this.

40:29 I have to get in more no gi.

40:31 So yeah, probably in the gi, I'm a brown belt at this point, but I've really neglected

40:35 my no gi over the last couple of years just because of how my schedules worked out.

40:38 I haven't been able to do as many no, no gi classes.

40:40 So I'm going to take care of that.

40:41 Uh, you know, in this part of my journey, you know, start doing some more no gi.

40:45 And just to make my top game even better because I am a top game player.

40:49 And so a lot of people think, well, why don't I just like make my bottom game better?

40:53 Why don't I just do bottom game the entire time?

40:55 And you know, my top game will just stay good.

40:56 Well, there's a couple of guys that I've, uh, you know, train with or know about, uh,

41:01 that are black belts that have been black belts for a long time.

41:03 And you'll know these guys, Chad Robishow and Tim Kennedy.

41:05 Both these guys are top game players.

41:08 Both of these guys have told me individually that if I am on my back, I'm either playing

41:12 around or something has gone horribly wrong, right?

41:15 And so these are not guys that spend a bunch of time training and drilling stuff off their

41:18 back.

41:19 They're, they're decent off their back.

41:20 Well, they're not decent.

41:21 They're great.

41:22 Both of these guys are great off their back.

41:24 That's not what they focus on.

41:25 And both of these guys, you know, uh, military background, you know, fighters MMA fighters,

41:30 those types of things, they're like, Kyle, I don't want to get myself in the mindset

41:35 of playing bottom and getting better at bottom than I am on top.

41:38 And the reason is is because if I have to ever have to use jujitsu in a real life scenario

41:42 and my first thought is Baron Bolo or rolling under somebody to try to get into a leg entanglement

41:47 or something like that.

41:48 Well, guess what?

41:49 You've entangled the guys legs, but now he's pulled out a knife and he's stabbing you in

41:52 your stupid legs.

41:53 Now he's pulled out a gun.

41:54 He shot you in your dumb face or he's not armed at all and he's just slapping you completely.

41:58 Is it possible for you to Baron Bolo or roll under a guy, you know, get his legs and, you

42:01 know, break his leg or break his ankle or tears knee apart?

42:05 Yeah.

42:06 Yeah.

42:07 Certainly possible.

42:08 But I will say in a real life scenario, I want to get the guy down to the ground so

42:10 that I can keep my head up as I'm holding him down, probably Neil and belly to see if he's

42:14 got any other buddies around that are trying to kick me into the next planet, right?

42:19 And so top game, top pressure, again, I'm not doing a lot of competition, jujitsu.

42:24 I want top game top pressure because if I ever do have to use this in real life, I don't

42:28 want to be on my back.

42:29 If my shoulders are on the asphalt, something has gone wrong.

42:32 And again, you're throwing up a triangle because you think you're slick.

42:35 Well, if this guy's kind of a freak beast or if he's high on drugs or something like

42:38 that, he's going to lift you up off the ground and if you don't let go, he's going to spike

42:40 your head on the back of the pavement and that could be lights out for you forever.

42:44 So all right.

42:45 Also, here's a message to those of you that are already doing jujitsu, okay, especially

42:49 if you're relatively new here.

42:51 Here's my advice for some of you newbies.

42:53 I know there's some white belts and blue belts listening to this, okay?

42:56 Just a bit of advice, figure out what kind of jujitsu fighter that you want to be now

42:59 and proceed accordingly.

43:00 I've already talked about that and elucidated that hopefully fully earlier.

43:05 Also just tap.

43:07 Just tap.

43:08 When I roll with some white belts and some blue belts, I'll get them into bad spots and

43:12 I will just let go because they're not tapping, they're trying to get out of it.

43:16 Guys just tap.

43:18 If you're getting beat, if you're about to get hurt, please just tap.

43:21 Like even in a tournament, even if all the blood's pumping and your teammates are watching

43:24 and there's your kids and your wife and you want to make sure that you don't look like

43:27 a post or whatever.

43:28 I get it.

43:29 Just freaking tap.

43:30 Because you have guys get their shoulders destroyed or elbows broken or just bad stuff

43:35 happen in these tournaments.

43:36 It's like, well, dude, now you can't train for like six months.

43:39 So that was dumb.

43:40 You could have just tapped and trained again tomorrow, right?

43:43 Also be a good teammate.

43:45 So if you are not a competitor and you're going with guys that are competing, give them

43:48 competition level energy.

43:50 If you are a competitor and you're rolling with someone who's not a competitor, don't

43:53 try to kill them, right?

43:54 This guy's just a hobbyist.

43:55 Let's make sure he can come back and keep training.

43:58 Show up ready to go, show up, bathe, put on deodorant.

44:02 Make sure your ghee is clean.

44:03 Make sure you're not wearing that same funky rash guard that the moment you put it on,

44:06 it automatically starts to stink.

44:07 Just be a good teammate.

44:08 Also, just stay on the path and don't quit.

44:11 Again, everyone talks about the blue belt, blue zag.

44:13 You get your blue belt and then you stop training, right?

44:15 Just don't do that.

44:17 Make this a part of your life.

44:18 Again, it doesn't have to be the main thing in your life, but just make this a very, very

44:21 center point of your life, stay on the path, don't quit, but now we need to talk to you

44:26 people that are not training Jiu Jitsu.

44:29 This is not something that you've done or you've fallen off the wagon.

44:32 Maybe there's some people listening to this, you know who you are, that got your purple

44:35 belt and then you stop training because you think you're tough enough.

44:37 Yeah.

44:38 Yeah.

44:39 I see you.

44:40 I see you out there.

44:41 Here's what you're potentially missing out on if you're not training, especially if you've

44:44 never trained before.

44:46 The first thing is it will take care of your pride issue if you got one.

44:50 So Jiu Jitsu is not killed my pride, but it is significantly diminished it.

44:57 My goodness, because when you come in, you're pretty strong, you're pretty athletic.

45:02 You've done some things and then this small, nerdy, non-athletic, non-strong person wraps

45:08 you up in a pretzel and literally, I've told the story before, but when I was rolling with

45:12 Tyler Murrah, I was a white belt.

45:14 He was a purple belt.

45:15 He ended up going on to be a world champion, opened up his own gym in Midwest City, Scrap

45:18 City, so shout out to Scrap City, Midwest City, like, we're the same size, right?

45:24 We're about the same strength, but he's purple and I'm a white belt, right?

45:26 And we're rolling and I'm on bottom and I'm trying and blah, and all this.

45:29 And he's at the edge of the mat.

45:32 He sees a bottle of water.

45:34 We're rolling.

45:35 He reaches over, grabs a bottle of water, unscrews the top, takes a drink, screws the

45:41 top back on, sets the water down and the entire time I'm trying to escape and I can't.

45:48 If you've got a pride problem, you will never show your face in that gym ever again, but

45:53 this helps take care of that pride, okay?

45:55 So Proverbs 1812, this is probably the best scripture to quote during pride month, before

45:59 destruction a man's heart is hottie, but humility comes before honor.

46:04 You've got to be humble if you're going to train.

46:07 Also, you'll be confident in your physical ability to end a threat and thus protect yourself

46:14 those you love or strangers that are image bearers of God.

46:18 So many of you guys that don't train you to so many of you guys that are, you know, your

46:22 wives don't like guns.

46:23 So you don't own guns.

46:24 You certainly don't can still carry them.

46:26 None of you guys know how to physically protect anybody much less yourself.

46:30 And I hope this doesn't happen, but there might be a day coming where the wolf visits

46:35 you this time and he's going to try to hurt you or someone you love or even a stranger

46:40 that can't help themselves for whatever reason.

46:44 What are you going to do exactly?

46:46 Call the police.

46:48 Like when, when seconds count help us minutes away, if, if coming at all there are places

46:55 all over the United States that 911 calls are going, not being answered or not even being

47:01 responded to, well, you're there.

47:03 What are you going to do?

47:05 Oh, well, I just hope I never get in that situation and you know, that type of a whoa,

47:09 you can crap in one hand and hope in the other and see which one fills up first guys.

47:13 If you are not actively trying to figure out how to be a threat to threats, then it's

47:20 not going to work out.

47:21 You're going to be in that situation and it could be your life, could be the life of

47:25 someone you love or the life of another image bearer of God that you were not standing

47:29 ready to be there to protect and part of this is because of the next piece of advice or

47:34 thing that I wanted to point out is if you're not trained in jujitsu, you're likely leaning

47:38 into if, if you're leaning into any physical activity at all, you're leaning into a physical

47:43 activity that has zero transferability and zero transferable benefits to everyday life.

47:51 You've heard me talk about this before and I know a rail on golf all the time, but here's

47:55 a thing, driving a ball into the fairway or chipping a ball into the green from 50 yards

48:00 out or something like that has no transferable benefits to everyday life.

48:07 Let me take you back to that scenario.

48:08 The wolf has visited you.

48:10 It's go time.

48:11 He's trying to kill you, right?

48:13 You can't say like, wait, I got to grab my pitching wedge, right?

48:18 Because even in that, like you're not going to use the pitching wedge in the way that

48:21 you would use it on the golf course because you're swinging it this way and I'm assuming

48:26 you're not going to swing that if you're using it as a weapon against somebody, you're going

48:29 to be swinging it like a, you know, a baseball bat or an axe or something like that.

48:34 So if you spent all the time golfing and guys, if you love golf and it's cathartic for you

48:38 and all that great, good for you, but it's not transferable.

48:42 You go golf two times a week.

48:44 What's that?

48:45 10 hours of your week that you've spent just doing a leisure activity where you don't even

48:48 break a sweat unless it's a hundred degrees outside, right?

48:52 So if you want to do that, that's fine.

48:54 But if you're not preparing yourself to be in a fight that you can end, right?

48:59 Or at least stem until help arrives and what exactly are you doing?

49:05 Are you leaning into these other physical activities because they're fun and not really

49:09 that demanding of you?

49:11 Because golf is a hard sport, but it's not physically demanding, right?

49:16 I think, you know, everyone's, well, look at Tiger Woods, his body is like, I think he

49:19 heard himself on his like 40th affair.

49:21 He like threw his black, his back out or something like that.

49:23 So let's not, let's not pretend like golf is like this horrible thing on your body, but

49:27 maybe you're playing pickleball or maybe you're doing something else.

49:29 And like if you want to do these activities, that's fine.

49:31 If you want to play, if you want to do ping pong and you want to do bocce ball and frisbee

49:35 golf and all these things like, fine, great.

49:37 I don't care.

49:38 Great.

49:39 Do those things.

49:40 But if you're doing all those things and you can't fight, what is the exact plan here?

49:44 Like explain this to me.

49:46 Yes.

49:47 Do physical things that are fun.

49:48 Play games like play that silly game where you bounce a yellow ball like the little mini

49:52 trampoline and run around, whatever that's called, play blitz ball or, you know, whiffle

49:56 ball.

49:57 Right.

49:58 I'm four, all those things.

49:59 But if you're spending a lot of time doing those things and you can't fight, what's your

50:02 plan?

50:03 Oh, well, I've got injuries and I'm worried about getting the, yeah, if you learn to fight,

50:08 you will get some bumps and bruises.

50:10 You may even get injured, but is it better to be physically prepared for the wolf or is

50:15 it better not to be?

50:17 So if you're not trained in jujitsu, you need to get real.

50:19 And the last thing here before we get to some quick oads to teammates of mine is you

50:24 are avoiding.

50:25 If you're not trained in jujitsu, you are avoiding perhaps the best way to develop physical

50:30 and mental resilience because you're scared.

50:34 Because the main reason why people don't train jujitsu is because they are afraid.

50:38 They are afraid of being humbled.

50:39 They're afraid of being injured.

50:41 They're afraid of being exposed as someone that doesn't know how to fight.

50:44 They are afraid of close contact.

50:47 So there's a good buddy of mine who did jujitsu a couple of times and he's like, I just couldn't

50:51 be that close to another sweaty guy and things like that.

50:53 Okay, scenario wolf, sweaty guy.

50:58 He's now mounted on top of you and he's trying to kill you since you're the biggest threat

51:02 in the household.

51:03 And then he's going to systematically kill the rest of your family.

51:06 Oh, he's sweaty.

51:07 He's sweating on y'all.

51:08 It's dripping in your eyes.

51:09 What's your plan?

51:10 Exactly.

51:11 Oh, please.

51:12 I just want to reason with you.

51:14 No, you're going to die like again, you know, some of you guys are like, why are you driving

51:21 this point?

51:22 So many of you guys just don't get it.

51:24 You're scared.

51:25 I understand like walking into a room with a bunch of people that you don't know, putting

51:28 on a weird thing called a geek and not knowing how to tie your belt and all that.

51:31 Yeah, it seems very, very intimidating.

51:33 I understand that, but it's what's required.

51:36 Think about all the things that you've accomplished in your life that started with you not understanding

51:40 needing training and then using that training either to sell a thing or to accomplish a

51:45 thing or develop a thing or build a thing.

51:48 You had to be humble and you had to be taught and you had to train and you had to get better

51:53 and all that took time and effort.

51:57 And physically speaking, resilience is what you need, not strength.

52:01 The ability to bounce back, Jiu Jitsu gives you that mentally.

52:05 You're going to have classes as you train and go on where you're the hammer and then

52:09 you're going to have a bunch of classes, way more classes along the way where you're the

52:12 nail and can you mentally get over the fact that I've spent an hour and a half of my day

52:18 getting smashed by my friends, but you walk out with a smile on your face because you're

52:21 like, you know what, I got better.

52:23 And also, you know what, there are people out there that are not training right now.

52:27 So the wolf that might be coming for me, the, you know, the wolf that has my name in their

52:32 book or whatever, he didn't train today, but I did.

52:36 So some to chew on there.

52:37 But before we wrap up, I do want to give a quick ode to some of my teammates.

52:41 This is kind of a, I just want to give a general major thank you to all my teammates,

52:45 all my training partners, everyone that I've ever rolled with.

52:46 But specifically, I want to give some quick shout outs and thank you to the following

52:49 folks.

52:50 So Rob Harper, he is our main professor at the forge.

52:52 And so I trained a lot with him at white belt.

52:55 And so basically none of us get promoted.

52:57 He's the one that put the brown belt on me.

52:58 None of us get promoted if there's not a Rob Harper.

53:01 Then we got rush weapon.

53:02 He was my first Brazilian Jiu Jitsu coach.

53:04 So he, he runs that, that, that fight club group, that group that gets together on Sunday

53:09 nights.

53:10 And he's ran that for like 15 years or something like that, maybe closing in on 20 years.

53:14 And so he's the first guy that was really kind of teaching me different things and,

53:17 and also a really cool thing at one point as I'm getting destroyed on the mat, I look

53:21 over and I see him and two of his kiddos at promotion night.

53:26 So I don't know what Russ had going on on that random Tuesday night, but he took time

53:29 out of a schedule to make sure he showed up to specifically watch me go through the promotion

53:34 night and get my brown belt.

53:36 So very, very thankful for us.

53:37 And then we have Steve Jones.

53:38 So he's the main professor that I trained with during my purple belt run.

53:43 Okay, so he is basically just a gi guy and he's the type of guy where his style is like,

53:48 I call him creeping death because we both like Metallica, but his style is slow and methodical.

53:53 It's not super explosive and athletic, but you could even know what he's about to do and

53:56 you can't stop him.

53:58 His pressure and his technique is so razor sharp and, you know, every Tuesday and Saturday

54:03 basically for the last, you know, two, three years I've been training with Steve.

54:06 And so my, my game would not be anywhere close to where it is right now without Steve Jones.

54:11 When we got Chris Cunningham and other black belt from our professor without him, we wouldn't

54:14 even have an academy.

54:15 So he is the owner of the forge, one of the part owners of the forge.

54:19 And so without Chris Cunningham and his dedication to the sport of jujitsu over his career and

54:24 to bringing in other black belts and doing, you know, different seminars and, you know,

54:29 doing improvements to the gym.

54:31 Like, I feel like some guys just don't really realize how unique of a spot the forge is.

54:36 And that has a lot to do with Chris Cunningham.

54:38 So thank you to him.

54:39 Also Livingston, McKinsey, so this guy, he's there to let me know that you can be roughly

54:45 the same size as someone and not even be vaguely the same thing.

54:50 So the way I describe Livingston to people is in a few ways.

54:53 So he's a black belt and a black belt for a while, but he's also been like a Santa fighter

54:56 and he teaches like Muay Thai and kickboxing stuff like that.

54:59 So he's like all together, the most dangerous human being that I know personally and we're

55:03 the same size.

55:05 And this dude, if you met him, you'd be like, gosh, that's like a really nice guy.

55:08 This guy, he'd walk into the office and he's doing your taxes, you know, like, ah, I like

55:11 that guy.

55:12 He's working at the office.

55:13 He's got his, he's got his khakis on and his, his, you know, slippers and he's got his,

55:17 you know, polo on it.

55:18 Well, not slippers.

55:19 What?

55:20 What would those be?

55:21 I don't know.

55:22 Dress, dress shoes, whatever.

55:23 So he comes into the gym.

55:24 He's just be bopping and all that and that type of thing.

55:25 And if you saw this guy in public, you'd be like, Oh, looks like a nice guy.

55:28 Maybe he played a sport back in the day.

55:29 You know, he looks like he's in shape, but you wouldn't think dangerous.

55:32 The thing with Livingston, McKinsey is he can choose how he would want to kill you physically.

55:38 You know, county, uh, do I want to take him down and choke him to death?

55:41 Do I want to break his arms and systematically break the rest of his limbs?

55:44 That's what this guy is capable of doing.

55:46 And so this is a guy that's still to this day.

55:49 I've never scored on.

55:50 I even told him that the other day is like, wait, you've never scored on me?

55:52 You never even gotten to take down on like, no, like I have a pretty good idea of what

55:56 I've gotten on, on who and different things like that.

55:59 This is a guy that I've been deep in on a double leg before, but he got out of it.

56:03 I've, I've been, you know, elevated with a single leg and he got out of it.

56:07 And the thing is, is if he's even trying it all, I have no shot.

56:11 And so rolling with him is fun because I know I'm not going to get hurt because he's, he's

56:14 really controlled, but it's also like, whatever I am, he's like at least 25% better.

56:18 So like I'm explosive, but he's really explosive.

56:20 Like I'm strong, but he's really strong.

56:22 Like I'm athletic, but he's really athletic.

56:23 Like I have some technique.

56:24 He has like amazing technique.

56:26 He's like a hundred percent better at me in technique.

56:27 So very, very thankful to have a guy like that around and keeps me humble.

56:31 Also need to talk about jet Thompson, no relation.

56:34 This young man started training Jiu Jitsu, I think when he was like four or five years

56:38 old, he's 17 now.

56:40 He just got his brown belt not that long ago, but for all intents and purposes, he's a black

56:44 belt.

56:45 I think he's had over 300 matches in tournaments.

56:49 Uh, a lot of them have been professional matches, even as a purple belt.

56:53 Now as a brown belt, he has routinely beaten black belts and no ghee.

56:57 That's the name y'all need to remember.

56:58 So if you followed Jiu Jitsu at all, remember jet Thompson because he's won some ADCC like,

57:02 you know, local tournaments, I think he won it in, uh, Austin and Kansas City or something

57:06 like that, Chicago, um, very, very impressive young man.

57:10 He like was homeschooled and finished school at 16 so that he could just focus on Jiu Jitsu.

57:15 They have like a Jiu Jitsu gym built out and like a garage or shop at his house or something

57:18 like that.

57:19 Very, very, very impressive young man.

57:21 I'm glad to call him a teammate.

57:23 Another guy that I've never scored on, uh, to my dismay, one of these days he won't just

57:26 sit down at the beginning of the roll and I might be able to get a takedown.

57:28 Then we have Ethan sample.

57:30 This is a young man who's a, who's a blue belt, who's got a lot to accomplish at blue belt.

57:34 Uh, still he's, he's a very dedicated guy.

57:36 He's very methodical.

57:37 I honestly think just like jet Thompson, uh, will surely be a world champion someday.

57:41 I think Ethan will be a world champion someday when I roll with Ethan, the thing that's unique

57:45 about rolling with Ethan as a blue belt, right?

57:48 He's probably 30 pounds lighter than me.

57:50 Um, you know, not, you know, he can't really overpower me.

57:52 The thing is, is he just overloads my brain when I roll with him because he never stopped

57:57 switching positions and going here and going there and when we're doing warmups, I will

58:00 typically drill the same move, maybe three or four times and switch to another move and

58:04 switch another new move, um, during warm up, he will just do a different thing every single

58:09 time.

58:10 This thing to the next thing to the next thing to the next thing to the next thing.

58:12 The guy is just, uh, incredible.

58:14 Uh, I'm really, really excited to see how he progresses.

58:17 Then we've got Dylan Dennis.

58:18 So he is another brown belt.

58:19 He was on SWAT with my cousin C J. Um, and the reason why I wanted to give him a thank

58:23 you is because, you know, he's, he was a OU wrestler.

58:27 Uh, he's maybe an inch shorter than me, maybe 10 pounds lighter than me.

58:30 So we're, you know, we're roughly the same size or whatever.

58:32 But I mean, he's got about 20 more years of grappling on me, right?

58:36 Because he was a high level wrestler.

58:37 But when he and I roll, especially in the G it is so brutal because like we'll get matched

58:45 up and it's like crap.

58:46 I got to roll with Dylan.

58:47 Hopefully he thinks the same.

58:48 He's got to roll with me.

58:49 Most of our times when we roll after six minutes, it's still zero to zero and we are

58:54 completely exhausted because we've just been trying to take the other one down the whole

58:57 time and we can't really get it.

58:59 Now he definitely beats me more than, than I beat him.

59:02 If I beat him, it's because I get lucky, like, you know, stuffing to take down and maybe

59:06 I can move to side control.

59:07 And so I might, you know, win two to nothing or something like that.

59:10 But I just love rolling with him because he's such a high level wrestler.

59:13 He's so much better at the stuff that I'm good at.

59:15 And so it's kind of hard because it's like you, you feel like you're just smacking your

59:18 head against the anvil when you're going with a guy like Dylan, but he's so, he's such

59:22 a nice guy, but you can just tell he's got that like murderer inside of him.

59:26 Like I wouldn't be super surprised if he had like killed people and buried their bodies

59:30 in the rain for us at some point in his life.

59:32 Like he's just, he's that kind of guy where you like him, but you want to make sure you

59:35 keep him your friend.

59:36 And so shout out to Dylan Dennis in the last shout out before we literally float to the

59:39 end here is to Trevor Fulbright.

59:42 So here's the thing about Trevor.

59:45 Trevor was a blue belt when I started, okay?

59:48 And so, you know, we train and, you know, he's a taller guy, I got longer limbs.

59:51 And so you got to worry about some different things.

59:52 He loves triangles and, you know, different color chokes and things like that.

59:56 But what I didn't know when I first started training that I came to realize is that this

1:00:01 guy lost like a hundred pounds along the way and doing his jiu jitsu journey.

1:00:07 So for some people who are like, I need to get in shape before I do jiu jitsu.

1:00:09 It's like, no, no, no, use jiu jitsu to help you get there faster.

1:00:13 And then over the years, uh, he's become like a teacher, like he'll, he'll teach some of

1:00:19 the classes.

1:00:20 He's really big in the, the 545, 6 AM class in the morning.

1:00:23 Um, and he's just consistently trained.

1:00:26 He's just there and he's consistently taking care of his body after basically spending

1:00:31 the majority of his early life, not taking care of his body at all.

1:00:35 And the night I got my brown belt is the night that Trevor got his black belt.

1:00:39 And it was interesting because I went back, the night I got my purple was the same night

1:00:42 he got his brown.

1:00:43 He was kind of like in the same, the same timeline or whatever.

1:00:47 And I went up to him afterwards and I just, you know, I embrace him and I, I mean, it's

1:00:51 just such a big deal.

1:00:52 It's because he is resilience, not just resilient.

1:00:57 He's resilience.

1:00:59 That's what his life has been, man, because he could have just like cashed it in and

1:01:02 been like, ah, you know, I'm fat.

1:01:04 I guess I'll just be fat forever and die young.

1:01:06 I give me some more Cheetos and, you know, code red Mountain Dew.

1:01:09 Nope.

1:01:10 If somebody did, he started super duper taking care of himself.

1:01:13 He has turned himself into an incredibly good jujitsu fighter.

1:01:18 He's a black belt now.

1:01:20 He's a black belt and I'm pretty sure he trained the next morning after getting his

1:01:23 black belt after one of the most brutal things that I've ever witnessed watching him get

1:01:27 his black belt.

1:01:28 And I'm just so thrilled for a guy like that because I preach about resilience all the

1:01:32 time, all the time, all the time on the show and some of you guys get it, but a lot of you

1:01:35 guys do not get it.

1:01:37 And the thing about it is you've got to be like Trevor.

1:01:41 If you're starting out a deficit because you're overweight, okay, it is what it is, but keep

1:01:46 going.

1:01:47 All right.

1:01:48 You get some bumps and bruises along the way.

1:01:49 Maybe some things go wrong at home or some things go wrong with your job or things don't

1:01:52 really work out the way you thought it would here in this life and that life or that part

1:01:55 of your life or whatever, you just keep going.

1:01:58 Be like Trevor Fulbright.

1:01:59 So shout out to him guys.

1:02:01 Thank you so much for listening to the show today.

1:02:03 I know it's very, very jujitsu heavy for some of you guys and aren't big on that.

1:02:07 Yeah, again, for those of you that aren't training, it's time to get after it.

1:02:11 Guys, I kind of just did my outro, but then I forgot to do the quick resilience boost and

1:02:13 I didn't want this to be like the first time I didn't do that.

1:02:15 So add on onto life or mission is equipping men to push back darkness with content that

1:02:18 forages spiritual mental and physical resilience.

1:02:20 So we've got our donation page there and just wanted to remind you guys that we do want

1:02:23 to support Zach Foster's family.

1:02:25 So there's the way that you can give through our church through the benevolence fund and

1:02:29 the way through the GoFundMe.

1:02:31 Thank you for listening to this podcast.

1:02:32 Wherever you're listening to this, please subscribe, rate and leave us a positive five

1:02:35 star review. If you want me to come speak live at your event or on your podcast, shoot

1:02:39 me an email to info@undonton.life that's i-n-f-o@undonton.life. Follow us on Instagram

1:02:45 and like us on Facebook and check out our website for everything else, including how

1:02:48 to donate to keep more content like this coming your way.

1:02:50 Just go to www.undonton.life and as always, we want to thank the band Holy Name for allowing

1:02:55 us to use their music for our content.

1:02:57 The music on this podcast is our song Perpetua, which is off their self-titled debut album

1:03:01 on Face Down Records.

1:03:02 The links are in the description.

1:03:04 I'm your host, Kyle Thompson.

1:03:06 Remember, keep pushing back darkness, keep forging spiritual, mental and physical resilience.

1:03:13 Keep seeking the lion of Judah.

1:03:34 in the next video.