Who are you?

[Brent Smith]

Rickson lived up the street. His son rockson was my age. Saw him beat people up. Thought bjj was awesome as a result. However didn't want to train with his team cause most of the dudes my age who trained were the assholes of my neighborhood. Found another gym and started training. Never looked back

Was that at Bombsquad?

[Michael Romano]

I have always been very active, lifting weights and playing rugby was the greatest part of high school. Unfortunately I tore my ACL in my right knee, effectively ending my rugby career during my last season as a Zulu. I could still lift but any sport involving lateral movement at speed was not happening. I managed to survive 2 years of college just lifting weights and during this time my brother Jesse Bell had sparked my interest in MMA. One day in my third year of CEGEP(Quebec college) he called me up and said I had to try a class at the new 10th Planet in Verdun. After one class I knew I had found the perfect sport for me. Later that year Jesse and me both moved to Verdun and I owe a lot of who I am today to him, my coach Louis and everyone in the 10th Planet family.

10th Planet is a way of life that I will rep till death.

[Jason 'J-Faz' Farren]

In my early twenties I was 110kg (242 lbs) at 5'8 and all I did was smoke, drink, and party.
I was a sub-contract super market cleaner who was amazingly out of shape, seriously looking back now I shudder.
Then my then girlfriend and I had a baby girl and I knew my way of life just wasn't good enough for what we wanted for our future.
I busted my ass and got a much better job, and our lives got a lot better but something was missing and I needed to do something about my health.
My brother was an avid basketball player so I gave it a go, and yeah I got a bit fitter and won some trophies but the passion for it was never really there.
Then I was introduced to the UFC and discovered jiu-jitsu and MMA for the first time when BJ Penn destroyed Diego Sanchez at UFC 113.
I was adament this stuff was what i'd been looking for and it just so happened a friend of mine had heard some guys we're holding MMA classes in a Youth hall down town.
We went down and luckily they had a fill in instructor who aside from being a Zen Do Kai black belt had some shoot wrestling experience. He gave us transitional flow drill that ended in an Americana and that was it we we're hooked... then the next week we met the regular instructor.
Man this guy was a tool, real a grade meat head with no technical skill whatsoever just wanting to show what a big man he was. Being a big strong guy all he'd do was steamroll someone to their back wait till they we're tired and kimura them.
He also said he was a purple belt under an instructor from melbourne although some time later we found out he was a no belt under nobody, but hey we didn't have any jiu-jitsu at all back then so we didn't know.
Somehow we persevered and eventually that douche left to start an mma class with a rival club and we took over the class ourselves.
It was during this time we made big strides in our technical improvement working together and with the power of the internet through technique vids like Submissions 101, people like Ari Bolden, Zog, etc have really made such a difference.
My quest to build my jiu-jitsu skills saw me travel to 10th Planet Melbourne and under the expert guidance of Sensei Frank Barca (that guy is turned up to 11!) this whole jiu-jitsu thing started to make real sense, and I still train and compete under Frank and 10th Planet today.
So far this jiu-jitsu thing has seen me quit smoking cold turkey, lose 70 lbs, compete twice win once, we've moved our local dojo out of the youth hall to a permanent gym, and next month we're holding our region's first ever jiu-jitsu competition.
And I even ran into my old "instructor" when I stopped by his gym to drop some flyers off for the Eddie Bravo australian seminar, he was finishing up his class and smugly asked me to roll and I complied by tapping him with a north south choke and heel hook in around three minutes in front of his students- seems there's something to this jiu-jitsu thing when you do it properly.

[brent_littell]

No. I didn't start with Eddie; I started with Carlson Gracie team. Eddie didnt open up till I was almost a purple. Once he did I jumped on board.

[John Hickman]

No. I didn't start with Eddie; I started with Carlson Gracie team. Eddie didnt open up till I was almost a purple. Once he did I jumped on board.

Do you still train/compete in the gi? I'm assuming you were in the gi, being with a Gracie. If I'm wrong, I apologize, good sir.

[brent_littell]

Nope. I am not a fan of the gi. Eddie was the first legit nogi school in Los Angeles so I ran over to him when I heard he opened.

Back then I think Dave Terrell and Chris Brennan were the only ones running no gi programs.