How rude of me!

Hi everybody,

Excuse my lack of forum knowledge, the Nibru forum is actually the first forum I've participated in.

It seems other more learned folks know to introduce themselves when joining a forum, I never did.

So here it is:

I started training boxing once I moved away from home, but I always knew it was the wrong style for my personality. After watching the UFC and becoming a fan, I knew I wanted to learn how to grapple. I began training BJJ my senior year (Jan 2007) at the UCLA BJJ club after taking wrestling classes at my local junior college for two semesters. I was hooked after my first class, but got tired of being dominated by 140lbs college sophomores. People would never let me get closed guard, probably because of my height, so I figured I needed to learn some other forms of guard. I went to the local borders and bought "Jiu Jitsu Unleashed" and downloaded the Twister DVD(illegally :)). I remember google map'ing UCLA to 10th planet, but the transition from a small club to Eddie's academy seemed like a big jump. There was a 10th planet guy at the UCLA club though, and he taught me the buttocks compressor and the tepee. After I graduated I bounced around CA (central and northern) and trained at a few different places, mainly in the gi.

I had a really shitty period in my life where I hated my job, got fat, injured and quit training Jiu Jitsu. (May 2010- April 2012). At a certain point, I knew I needed to drastically change my life or jump off of a bridge :)

In late 2011 I decided to take the entrance exam for law school and was eventually able to secure a scholarship to start law school in LA. I knew law school was gonna be a lot of work, and I hadn't trained in two years, so my main goal in selecting a school was location, price and the schedule. That landed me at the Tapout gym in downtown LA. As I started to train, I realized that besides my family, Jiu Jitsu was my favorite thing in life. I started to look at joining a pure BJJ school, but about that time, my luck completely changed. Just as my contract at Tapout was about to expire, I got the news that Eddie Bravo was moving 10th planet headquarters to the Tapout gym. My first roll at 10th planet was with Amir Allam....i remember having an o shit moment and wasn't sure what I had gotten myself into :)

After a six months or so of being completely destroyed, I started to get in the swing of things. I memorized the warm ups, and fell in love with the attention to detail in Eddie's class, not to mention the high level of sparring I got from my training partners. I also began to understand why the clinching style is so important, and how effective it can be.

My time at HQ has been unbelievably positive and a time of tremendous growth, on and off the mat. I can't thank the universe enough, and I cannot imagine my life without 10th Planet.

In terms of my life off the mat, I am married and have two beautiful kids (Mckenna-age 8 and Anchor Viviano-age 5). Ever since I had kids, my life has been devoted to becoming the father and man my family deserves. It's definitely a long term project.

Now I've got one year of law school left. My main focus is contract law and recently entrepreneurship. When I was in high school we were evicted from the house I had lived in since birth. Besides wanting to do battle with the sons of bitches at the bank, I remember staring at the fine print on the eviction notice and realizing that people could use language and the law to take something so important away from me, and without the proper training, I was helpless. I kinda vowed to be able to protect myself and my family and had planned on being a lawyer since that day. It makes sense now that I have been drawn to contract law and seem to have a good ability to draft language and understand the implications of subtle changes in meaning. Although law school is typically a time of frustration and chaos, for me, there is a deep inner peace in learning the law.

Well before I go on to long, I just wanted to say thanks to everybody in the 10th planet association, especially the old guard who have been repping 10th planet way before it was cool to do so. Training at HQ I've got to meet a number of people from the association and I'm constantly impressed by the dedication to Jiu Jitsu and the positive energy from each and everyone of you.

Reading the posts on the Nibru forum is a regular part of my day and I enjoy being a part of the discussions that come up. I really appreciate the passion for Jiu Jitsu and the open mindedness on this forum (and all the different senses of humor).

Thanks everybody

Viviano