What drove you to do Jiu Jitsu...

[David Rosado]

That's it. I can relate. I am not the first person to say this, for sure, but BJJ saved my life.

(I can say this with certainty because I just about dropped on the mats at the club when my heart went into fibrillation on me, twice, prompting me to quit smoking finally. It was scary as hell. Stewart was there and can attest to the the freaky nature of the fibrillation. I honestly thought I was going to drop rigth there.)

It's a third chance at life for me.

I relate to you as well as far as the family defense thing. I'm getting married soon and already have a kid with my wife to be. But the benefits for family extend beyond just defense. The humility JJ gives has translated to my relationship and made me a better communicator. My endurance helped me keep up with my little girl during our family's disney trip...while carrying a 30lb bag around all day. Getting subconscious bio-instinctive aggression out on the mats makes me a calmer individual. I could go on and on, but tiny things that BJJ forces you to do has helped me a ton.

[derrick ikwueme]

for me it was royce choking out all those giants, and as an artist, jiujitsu is truly the artist's martial art, i write music, & that's my main art. but jiujitsu is another fun creative art for me. i could never get into other martial arts because there not as creative as jiujitsu.

[Stewart Landry]

Thanks Jay
For me it was because I never wanted to be a fat rock star ....

[Isaac Atley]

i remember when i got into it all. ther was a big boxing match on a few years ago in new zealand. everyone watched it and was a big thing and so therefore the next day when im getting my hair cut i bring it up with my hairdresser, not expecting at all that she would know a thing about fighting. then she starts going on about how she loved this combo here and there etc. we kept on talking and eventually she mentioned her husband trained with "a few guys" out on their farm. id be welcome anytime, heres the number and so on. it took me a coupl month to finally get around to it but from the start of being choked and armbarred, i got hooked. i started coming once a week as it was all i could manage and fell in love with all the passes sweeps and moves. i started hearing some names and yeah learnt a few things like lockdown but nothing much, then i moved to germany and after trying a bit of german ju jutsu which wasnt for me. i started to roll with a friend at his houe, we quickly found submissions101 and one night, it just clicked, and i became obsessed with 10thplanet. rubber guard new york, sorcercer etc. and then we were on the internet one day and i found that there was a real 10th planet here where i was living. never looked back. ever. now im in the best shape of my life, stronger and better cardio not to mention more flexible. and everything 10th planet has done for me is amazing. im never going to stop.

[Kyle Spalla]

I've always enjoyed fighting. Not even because I was angry. I just enjoyed it. Probably because I grew up watching Bruce Lee, Chuck Norris, Van Damme, Segal, and all the other B action movies that came out during the 80's early 90's. Of all of them, my favorite was bloodsport and all the knock offs that copied the style vs style idea.

Then came UFC 1. The real version of bloodsport. And watching Royce Gracie do what he did changed everything for me. When I'd fight, I was slower than most kids so I'd have to grapple them. Most fights I had growing up ended with me in mount. And here is Royce using mount scientifically....but he could also fight off his back? My uncle was a wrestler and would bully me. I landed an armbar from guard and I was in love with BJJ from then on. This was the coolest martial art I've ever encountered. I still feel that way.

Sadly, it took me nearly 20 years to actually become a practitioner. When I wanted to train BJJ when I was a kid, there was no such thing. And I kind of just left it like that. My love for BJJ turned into a love for MMA until I saw a video of Eddie demonstrating the truck. My mind was blown. I had no idea BJJ had evolved so much! Then I started searching 10th planet stuff. Found out about 10th planet rochester and started browsing the forum and PM'ing coach Herzog. At that point my work schedule didn't let me join. Nah, truth is, it was inconvenient and I was still in excuse mode. I don't have a car. I'd have to wake up hours earlier. Winter's going to be tough. Blah blah excuses. Then last year, I wasted a whole summer drinking bacardi 151, eating trash, and getting fat. For the first time in my life I was unhappy with how I felt. And I stopped making excuses and started going to JJ.

Life's been great since then. It's had an amazing impact on my whole life. Seriously. It's helped me be a better man.

Yeah unfortunately when I got the calling for Jiu Jitsu, I was only a 16 years old kid with no car, phone, job, money of my own and father who was sick with cancer and had medical bills and couldn't afford to pay for it even if I wanted to, and the nearest Jiu Jitsu place was in the heart of Oakland where any skeptical white mother won't take her kid to do night classes since I had homework (which I rarely did anyways), so instead of begging and pleading for my mom to let me take my chances with the gangbangers (which I later found out the area in which it was in was not terrible at all, fuck stero-types), I rolled over and sought out other outlets while I was dealing with bullies and douchebags at school. In my sophmore year I discovered there was a dojo at my school, no not a wrestling room, a no shit DOJO headed up by the man Sensei David Quinonez a 4th Degree black belt in Judo under the local and martial arts legend and found of Small Circle Jujitsu Wally Jay. I have really bad A.D.D so I was encouraged by a family friend that it would help me focus. It did. Mostly on martial arts, but it helped me get in great shape, make some new friends, and eventually my grades improved too. Me and my friends were always there first and would beg our teacher to let us stay and watch the dojo till his night class. Which being a bad ass motherfucker and trust his students, he did! It was at this time my friend introduced me to boxing (he is a black belt in Kook Sool Won), and again our teacher let us do it under his roof and lot's of boxing matches later I soon found MMA, as a fan I was hooked I was taking boxing lesson at the gym I was going to and Judo at school, but still I was always looking for a Jiu Jitsu school. It wasn't till after I joined the military that I reconnected with martial arts. Been chasing the dream ever since

[David Rosado]

That's awesome Kyle.

[CoreySmith]

I grew up in a family where fighting was the only way to solve any problem. My dad and brothers are known as some of the toughest and most badass people in our local area. Also atleast 90 percent of my family that i have met are on heavy drugs. Growing up i thought the only way to live was to get drunk and fight all the time. Dont get me wrong, i still love my Dad and all my family with all my heart, i dont believe that just because someone is addicted to drugs it means they are a bad person. My Dad is the nicest guy i have ever met, everyone is constantly suprised with how nice he is, considering his reputation.
Growing up even as a little kid i was always in fights, if some other kid stared at me i would just start punching them. I have had anger management and councilers work with me from the age of 7 until a few years ago.
At the age of roughly 11 is when i found out my dad was addicted to speed, and soon after that i realised my brother was addicted to speed, ice and anything he can get really.
A year later just before i turned 12 i started drinking straight vodka by myself in a little bush out the back of my house until i would pass out. Then i started hanging out with a bunch of older people about 18-21 and started getting into gang voilence, by the age of 13 i was triple dropping LSD and E. Not long after that i shot up heroin for the first time and ODed.
It was after that, my dad sat me down and had this heart to heart talk about his regrets in life and for the first time in my life i saw my dad break down crying. I ended up moving from my mums into my dads house for a few years. My dad was a golden gloves boxer when he was younger so he started teaching me some boxing stuff, and my eldest brother was doing judo at the same time, so he showed me some throws.
My dad ended up convincing me to join a local BJJ school when i was 16 and i loved it, thats when my whole outlook on life changed.
It humbled me so much. I stopped fighting on the streets unless someone started on me.
After about 4 months of training there we moved away and i stopped training.
I couldnt stand not training so i looked on youtube and started drilling with my mate in my room. Thats where i found submissions 101 with Ari teaching the twister, as soon as i saw the twister i researched it, it looked so cool haha.
At the time i thought it was a black belt level move that i wouldnt never be able to do haha
I ofcourse found information on Eddie Bravo, so i bought the Mastering the Twister, Mastering the Rubber Guard DVD.
I studied them and watched alot of interviews and stuff with Eddie and he become my idol. He is the first person i have ever actually looked up to like i do. I noticed how chilled and humble he is, and the fact he has no ego problem at all and that has honestly made me such a better person. Today i avoid any confrontation possible, i dont like voilence. I love fighting as a sport, but not street fighting.
The only thing that stopped me from joining a school was that i developed agoraphobia, so i couldnt leave my house. I was too scared. Roughly 4 months ago i was put on Anti Depressant and Anxiety medication and a month later i joined a gym about 15 min from where i live. I mentioned the 10th Planet style and everyone instantly had a go at me,they were all traditional GI style. I decided to try another gym out that was a bit over 2 hours away from where i live. My first day my instructor noticed some scarson my wrists and we ended up having a deep conversation about things for hours. He told me about his families history with drugs and stuff. I later found out he grew up in the house i currently live in. I mentioned Eddie and 10th Planet and all he said was lay on your back, i done so. He got twister side control on me and rolled me into the truck. He told me he teaches a bit of the 10th planet stuff in his classes. I was so happy, so i decided from then that this would be my school.
I was never able to get my lisence because of my anxiety so now i catch a bus to the train station and then catch a train and then walk 25 minutes to my Bjj school 3 times a week, and i couldnt be happier!!
And really i owe a huge thankyou to Eddie for creating this system and being so open minded with it, also to Ari for being kind enough to put those free Submissions 101 videos up,and really to the whole 10th planet family for keeping this whole thing going.
Thankyou

[CoreySmith]

Holy shit i didnt even realise how big of a post that was
Im sorry for that, im sure pretty much no one will read it, but it feels good just to have it out there for some reason.
Im hoping i dont get too many negative comments about it

[Terriebourgeois]

I grew up with abusive parents and I was bullied in school.
When I was bullied I never backed down from any confrontations, but for some reason I was still a target. All of the bad things from my childhood always haunted me. I was angry all of the time and I took my anger out on others, I drank all of the time, I committed a lot of crimes, and eventually I got into some trouble with the law. I hated who I was becoming and I hated myself for making it that way. My senior year in high school a friend of mine that I was on the wrestling team with invited me to a school that his dad taught at part time. My parents forbid me to go, but twice a week I would sneak out and go to the classes anyway.

At first I only knew how to wrestle, so I got worked over by the good guys. It gave me a new challenge; something to look forward to. It became my safe haven. It was where I could go to get out all of my problems and all of my anger. It wasn't until my skill level began to increase that I truly stared to be able to express myself through jiujitsu.

At first I hurt a lot of people, and was just a dick. I projected my anger onto others and didn't care if I hurt anyone. I will never be sure, but I think my instructors could tell that I had problems outside of the gym. They never hurt me or were mean to me, they just showed me the right path. If they had decided to "teach me a lesson", I'm sure that I would have never continued to learn jiujitsu. For that I will be forever grateful.

Jiujitsu has completely changed who I am as a person. The things that I did in the beginning of my journey, I could never imagine doing now. Jiujitsu has humbled me, and made me into the man I am today. I practice jiujitsu 6 days a week, and I could never imagine my life without it. The path in jiujitsu is a never ending one, and whenever I think about that it makes me excited for what tomorrow will bring. My life will always have jiujitsu.

[AJ Camacho]

Great stories. It really shows how powerful this art can be.

Personally, I just didn't want to get fat. I'm mexican, and us mexican's can get crazy gut fat. Our legs stay the same but our gut and arms just grow and grow. Something about my families metabolism takes a fucking nose dive at 30 so I knew I had to find something physically demanding to do at 29.

Once I started training though, it was exhilarating, fun, and addictive. It was sort of like skateboarding but without the fear of slamming my skull into concrete. Relatively speaking, it felt like safe chaos. Like a nerf fight, or a video game with unlimited lives. If shit got too hairy, I could just tap out and restart. Rolling is kind of like a drunken fun dream for me. I don't think rationally, I just go and my body thinks on it's own, adapting to what my opponents do and planning against what they have done.

It's probably the only moment in my day to day life where my mind and body literally operates on a synchronous level and I'm always astounded at some of the crazy shit my body does despite who I am. That lucidity is just pure fucking joy for me. No stress, no self conscious fears, no ego, no social anxiety... just lucid action.

To put it simply, I'm driven towards jiujitsu because there's nothing funner than grappling.