Well if you don't know yet I'm kind of an innovator. Yeah, I know you hear that a lot but in this case it's true. In 1990 I started watching this skinny brazilian guy whooping bigger peoples butts and thought"man this is really gonna catch on". If I would have understood then what I know now I would be a rich man. Fast forward 10 years.
So now I am asked to coach the United States Naval Academy "jiu jitsu team". I use this term lightly because until 2010 it was really just a rag tag group of Midshipmen that used BJJ to get their sports credit. In the USNA you must play some sort of sport. Anything from squash to football, they even have rugby,fencing and of course all the big sports. So as a Midshipmen you of course must balance academics with athleticism as well as military procedure and conduct. When I walked in for the first time to the most honored military institution in the world (sorry West Point) I was taken aback by the overwhelming amount of people on the mats. Again "this is really gonna catch on" flashed through my mind. Why you ask? Because there were men and WOMEN, that's the key. I was one of the first coaches in all of the military to teach both men and women on an equal level. This is a huge deal. Can you name one sport in any college,university or the military establishment that compete men versus women equally? I'm not talking tennis here I'm talking about realistic grappling with submissions and endurance. I viewed everyone on the mat as equals no matter their gender they were students and the future of my country.
Fast forward 2 years...now women are filling combat positions equally...like I said I'm an innovator.
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