Originally Posted by
Brandon Mccaghren
And how long ago did you start training Jiu Jitsu? And how many hours have you logged on the mats since you started training Jiu Jitsu? And how many competition matches have you been in since you started training Jiu Jitsu? Since you're gonna start throwing out numbers it'd be a good idea to give us the whole picture.
What art did you begin in? Did you wrestle in high school or college? How much grappling did you do in your previous martial arts training.
Help us understand why you're qualified.
My path started when I was about 9. I became obsessed with the fact that there were techniques out there that could keep people from hurting you. I started reading anything I could get my hands on. Everything from standing at magazine racks just reading if I couldn't afford to buy them, to digging through both my grade schools and the city library trying to find anything information whether it was something on pressure points or something on bruce lee. There were these ninja books that I have zero clue where they came from but me and my friends loved them as any kid would. I mean come on ninja stars and grappling hooks to climb walls and trees, plus killing a dude that has a sword when you only have a 8" stick. I grew up in a remote small town so options on training were very limited. There was a karate class at the boys and girls club on the basketball courts. I was a member there and could have done that but, even as a 3rd-4th grader I could just tell whatever it was those nut jobs were trying to do it wasn't anything close to being effective so back to reading, playing ninja with my friends and ignoring the people in that class trying to indoctrinate me into their cult. My cousin who lived in a bigger city had the bug also and I tried his class when I stayed over but it was just like the other places, it just didn't feel right. I noticed one day a place opened up across the street from our grocery store that said something about self defense club. Eventually I got up the courage to go in the place. There were korean flags, heavybags hanging, a wall lined mirrors. When the instructor gave instructions the students not only did what instructor said, they did it with purpose. This was far from the cult class where you'd have to stop your technique to kick a basketball back to someone. This place just felt right. There were pictures of the instructor showing that he was a army ranger(surprise I was also obsessed with military special forces). He was a black belt in tkd so that was the majority of classes. For anyone that doesn't know. Much like JJ with two black and white sides, tournament and self defense styles, tkd is that way too. Most peoples opinions of tkd is from the tournament style. In tournament style it's all about scoring, your focus is landing fast slapping strikes with breaks and restarts after points are scored. Far from my class where it was all about lets learn to kick someone so hard it breaks their ribs and punctures a lung. I excelled but do to politics I was kept from climbing the ranks quickly, but I was given things like a stripe of the next belt just to keep me ahead of all the other people with my same color belt. I was even teaching full classes at 12. I did that for maybe 2 years before the instructor hurt his back at work(extraction team at the max security prison in town) and he closed up. I tried another couple schools that popped up in town but there was just no comparison to what I had been doing. The last school I tried while sparing normally(his mom was a cunt ass teacher to me and was present so I made sure to knock him around) the instructor broke us up and yelled at me that this was sparing and to use that stuff when they did street self defense days. I was only kicking and punching not trying to eye gouge or something so to this day I still dont know what she meant. The last straw with them was when I went to my first tournament with them up in chicago. I walked to the finals where I was in my opinion cheated out of a 1st place fighting a asian opponent with a asian ref. On a rogan podast he stated this was something common which gave me piece of mind that I wasn't just being a baby for losing or something. But the easy 2nd just made me think it was too easy so I quit. Hell even during the tournament after a point I scored and we were resetting the ref told me that I could just barely make contact and it would count the same. After not getting awarded 2 or 3 points I scored it was back to launching people across the mat.
As far as grappling is concerned when was the first time I started training JJ. Back in 93 at that self defense club. It was obvious to our instructor that fights dont stop when someone/both guys go to the ground. He taught us that if your on the ground and if your on the bottom closed guard is where you need to be. So we'd spend time working that. I only wrestled my 8th grade year and would have kept going in HS but grades became a requirement to compete and I gave zero shits about school so thats where that stopped. I tell people all the time thats pretty much one of my only regrets was not wrestling all the way through school, it just makes a harder person and I wish I had that. Even though I wrestled one year I had friends that did/and didn't for years and we would constantly be rolling trying to tap each other when we were just hanging out. As far as my JJ training I started in maybe 08 at a Gracie Barra in orlando. I went 5 days a week for about 8 months doing both basic and advance classes before I had to move back to nowhere IL. One of my friends who went pro as a mma fighter opened a gym in the little town. This was my only option besides driving a hour down the interstate for the next gym. So I made the best of it for about 4 months when he had to close due to financial reason, so for a year Id occasionally make the hour drive and get to roll at a bigger mma gym. Since my friends mats were just sitting in storage I covered a spare bedroom in my apt and every once in a while I could get a friend over and get some rolls in. I just moved to a bigger city and there is a mma gym here full of wonderful people to train with. Although the level of JJ instruction/competition there isn't that high, were are working hard at changing that. Ive only done 2 JJ comps. The first was in Fl at some state event. I competed with only 3wks training. The other was a few months ago. I forced myself to do it. I didn't compete because I used to have paralyzing anxiety and dealing with the butterflies of a competition coming up just turned me off. Now however I have a different focus and I'm down for competing in JJ but due to finances not at the moment. So over the course of 5 years training JJ I consider myself as having what would be equivalent to mabye 1.5 at the 5 day a week pace I started and I wish I had access to.
So yea 1.5 isn't much in terms of JJ but from the time I was 7 and started playing little league I have always been competing in something and if you understand the concept of musashi then it should be obvious that I can spot things like whos better than who even if the better guy loses.
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