Did you start with 10th Planet or transition from another school?

[Brandon Mccaghren]

I started at Carlos Machado's school in Dallas and just gravitated to no gi while there. There the emphasis was on "hips not grips" and understanding the concepts instead of purely memorizing the techniques. Also there it was actively encouraged to go to no gi classes. The icing on the cake though was the lack of any ego with no gi. If it worked, it stayed. Since then I have had to relocate to another part of the country, where I have not found the same openness to no gi but the more I have progressed on my jiu jitsu journey the more I have found that 10th planet works with or without the gi so I have kept adding more and more to my game. I agree that many schools are ignorant of no gi but they should not be.

Carlos Machado was the first BJJ guy I ever got to train with; went to a couple of his seminars. He's awesome. Lots of respect for that man.

[John Mejia]

10P only runs through my blood.

[Ben Eddy]

10P from the start with Denny Prokopos in SF. Was looking around for something to do to stay in shape when I got to SF and heard about bjj. I had never even heard of bjj up until that point. When I found out there was a sport that sounded like basically wrestling with submissions, I was extremely stoked. I had wrestled growing up and thought my chances at grappling and competing were done after school. I tried one class at a GI school before I found Denny's. Once I found no-gi and Denny's school, I was hooked.

[anvilwarface]

started off learning 10P from the books whilst starting mma... changed to different gym and got "encouraged" not to play rubber guard "as it`ll wreck your knees"... now at bjj/grappling gym that is mainly gi and have been using rubber guard/10P in nogi classes..

[Keith Kavanagh]

Started off in an MMA gym run by a sambo coach and the student coach is one of the guys who recently joined the forum, Conor Garvey. He was a huge 10th planet fan and was already repping the system like a boss. He thought me all the basics and helped me keep an open minded style with jits. Fell in love with 10p and train little to no stand up these days cause that takes up precious jits time.

[NelsonLucca]

JKD grappling ---> Shamrock ---> 10th Planet Ronin/Herzog since 2005...
Still repping JKD grappling also

[Joe Q.]

My Jiu Jitsu Journey started at school focused on traditional Gi Jiu Jitsu. I later transferred to a school that did both MMA, Gi and No-Gi. That is were I received my Purple Belt in BJJ.

I joined 10th Planet Costa Mesa several months ago. I have been interested in the 10th planet system since I started. I still train in the Gi, but my passion for No-Gi increases with every training session at 10th Planet Costa Mesa.

[Trez "Rat" Reyna]

I've wanted to train Jiu Jitsu since I was little little. I live in a small town and there weren't any schools here most of my life. The few that opened up I couldnt afford the tuition or the gi. Then in January 2010 My brother came into town and brought me the MTR book. I was freaked cause I found out you don't need a gi for Jiu Jitsu. Plus Eddie was open minded and I respected his approach to Jiu Jitsu. The unorthodox style. I really liked the way everything had a name. I was able to study like I was taking the s.a.t.s haha. I couldn't get enough. I've trained with a lot of people since then. I fly the 10 flag anywhere I go! So going on 4 years now I've been a pure blood 10th Planet Ronin. I've never worn a gi but I'm open minded. I say gi or no gi Jiu jitsu is Jiu jitsu I'm just 10M4L!!!!!!

[Matt Skaff]

I started training at a MMA school three years ago. The instructor was a purple belt under Jacare in Atlanta, but we only trained no gi. I was training BJJ 4 times a week, but it was not enough for me. Most guys at the school were only interested in standup so the BJJ classes were small. After about 9 months of training there I started looking for another school in the area so I could get some extra training. I tried a few schools in Nashville and looked into other schools closer but I never felt comfortable at any of them. Luckily, one of my training partners suggested I go to Tenth Planet Decatur to try a class. When I looked for the number to call to get a hold of the instructor it led me to this site. The picture they have of Brandon Mccaghren makes him look like a 6'3 MMA gangbanger. I had no idea what Tenth Planet was at the time, but I decided to go up there and give it a shot. The first time I trained with Brandon he taught the Mouse trap from side control. When rolling started Brandon asked me for the first roll and he was doing things I had never seen before. I remember he hit me with a basic flower sweep from full guard to an arm bar. When we were done with class all I could think about was that 30 minute roll we had. I started training up there a few times a week for a while but that quickly turned into me training there full time. I have been training with Brandon for almost two years now and it has honestly been the best thing that ever happened to me. Brandon is my coach and mentor in BJJ, but more importantly he has become part of my family. I will always be thankful I decided to give Brandon a call.

[Stefan Rüegg]

I'm a brown belt in Bjj, started and still train with the Gi under Augusto Frota (a 2nd degree Black Belt under Antonio Rodrigo "minotauro" Nogueira). We train both Gi and NoGi in our Academy and for us it was always all jiu jitsu, doesn't matter with or without the Gi - this was never a topic in our academy, we trained always both and both every day, first jiu jitsu Gi class 1.5h than jiu jitsu No GI class 1.5h.

So it's kind natural for me to train NoGi, and the trainsition to the 10th planet system is not hard. Of course there are new or a little unorthodox positions, but it's not so hard to learn them, since Eddie is a very good teacher and goes deep into details in his instructions.
I still do both Gi and NoGi and applied as well lots of the 10th planet techniques in Gi matches, and it works fine, for example the rubber guard and all Spiderweb transitions and attacks work perfect in Gi matches.