RICKSON GRACIE | Jiu-Jitsu and a Life in Flow
Episode Stats
Length
1 hour and 1 minute
Words per Minute
165.18202
Summary
Hickson Gracie is a 9th Degree Black Belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and author of Breathe: A Life in Flow. He is also the author of the documentary "Dead or Alive" and the Netflix documentary "Died or Alive: Dead or Alive". In this episode, we talk about what it's like to be a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Black Belt, the shifting paradigms of becoming a mature man, developing a personal code of conduct and honor, and ultimately how jujitsu allows you to live a life in flow.
Transcript
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All right, guys, many of you are familiar with my immersion into the world of jujitsu over the past
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two years or so, but it's become such a crucial part of my life that I look for every single
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opportunity to learn more about the practice and actually train. So with that said, I'm joined
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today by one of the greatest ever to train jujitsu and mixed martial arts. His name is
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Hickson Gracie. Today, we talk about his absolutely incredible life as documented in his upcoming book,
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Breathe, A Life in Flow. We talk about what it's like to be a Gracie, the shifting paradigms of
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becoming a mature man, developing and living with a personal code of conduct and honor.
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Also the physical, mental, and spiritual realm of jujitsu and ultimately how jujitsu allows you to
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live a life in flow. You're a man of action. You live life to the fullest. Embrace your fears and
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boldly chart your own path. When life knocks you down, you get back up one more time, every time.
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You are not easily deterred, defeated, rugged, resilient, strong. This is your life. This is
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who you are. This is who you will become at the end of the day. And after all is said and done,
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you can call yourself a man. Gentlemen, what is going on today? My name is Ryan Mickler.
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I am the host and the founder of the Order of Man podcast and movement. I want to welcome you here,
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whether you've been with us for years or just joining and tuning into the podcast and the
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movement to reclaim and restore masculinity. This is a great one to start on because my conversation
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with Hickson is absolutely incredible. He's a fascinating human being. His documentaries and
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his book are incredible. And there are a ton, a ton of life lessons for ourselves to be extracted
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from this. So we'll get into that conversation here in just a minute. Before I do want to just
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ask something of you a favor, if you would, it goes a long way. I need you to leave a five-star
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rating and review wherever you listen to podcasts. And I need you to share the daylights out of the
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podcast and the movement itself. Keep sharing, keep promoting, keep texting, keep taking those
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screenshots and posting them on social media. And again, leave those ratings and reviews because
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they go a very, very long way. Also starting up a new podcast with my son. A lot of you guys have
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heard about this. If you go to order a man.com slash man in the making order a man.com slash man
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in the making, you can sign up for early notifications, which will be coming out here
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in the next couple of weeks. So again, that's order a man.com slash man in the making. All right,
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guys, with that said, let me introduce you to Hickson Gracie. He is the son of Helio Gracie,
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the man who helped develop a Brazilian jujitsu Hickson's a ninth degree red belt in Brazilian
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jujitsu and a mixed martial artist. He was widely considered to be the best fighter of the Gracie
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clan. And one of the toughest individuals in the world. He's been training since he was six
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received his black belt by the time he was 18 and subsequently went on to be undefeated in his
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professional fighting career. He's also the author of his upcoming book, breathe a life and flow.
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I mentioned that a minute ago and the subject of the documentary choke and the upcoming Netflix
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documentary called dead or alive. Needless to say, this man knows as much about jujitsu,
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if not more than any other man on the planet. And I am honored to have him here today.
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Hickson great to have you on the podcast. Thanks for joining me today.
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Yeah. I got a copy of your book, the advanced copy. I'm honored to get a copy of it. And, uh,
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I followed your journey, but pretty inspired and, um, uh, entertained as well. If I can say that
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about your book, because man, the stories that you tell in here and everything that you share
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is an absolutely incredible journey. I think the guys are really going to enjoy hearing from you
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today. I hope so. Yes. Because that's, that's, that's what it is. That's my life.
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Yeah. Yeah. I'm really curious. One thing that stood out to me, I don't know whether you know or not,
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but I've been on my own jujitsu path over the past, I've been going hard for about two and a half
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years now. Uh, and one thing that really stood out to me is your take in that, uh, jujitsu is not
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so much physical as it is mental. Can you talk with me about that? Of course. Uh, in the art and
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the martial arts aspect of it, uh, jujitsu become the, the idea to improve yourself with the elements,
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with the tools, the warrior tools to become a better, sharper warrior. And in that kind of
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arsenal, we have the physical attributes, the training, the practice, the ability, the injuries,
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the, everything goes with the practice of the, uh, high performance sport, but also we have the
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tools, the emotional tools, the spiritual tools, which if you don't have connection with them,
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you become very shallow in terms of, of understanding and performing properly. The way I've been raised
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in my growing process in martial arts was to, to become an expert in jujitsu,
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and with that expertise dealing with any fighter, any size, any rule, anytime. So it's not like
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preparing yourself for a middleweight, uh, division with somebody you, you be watching tapes and it's
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something much more mysterious and much more unpredictable and much more, uh, emotional because
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you don't know if somebody is going to knock your door to fight in a garage or so was an open
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challenge was for me, it was a very serious matter of representing the family a hundred percent.
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So with this being said, being tough, being, have the heart, have the physicality, have the
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competitiveness, this is good, but it's not enough. We have to fulfill also the, the spiritual strength,
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the, the mental strength to act, to have a, a complete package in order for you to, to deal in, to deal with the
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unpredictable. And for example, uh, patience is something is a very important thing for the, for the, for war,
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for a warfare situation. I'm not saying about a five minutes round, but if there's no limits,
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sometimes you have to bet, get patience to cook the guy in slow burn until you'll be able to win the guy
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because he's 80 pounds, 60 pounds, sometimes heavier than you. So be patient, be emotional control.
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Breathing is such a very important tool for you to know how to deal, uh, and control your emotions. You know,
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visualization is another tool, which if you're not visualizing and planning a good strategy in your mind,
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sometimes you, you, you don't have the, you, you, by visualization, you're creating an extra experience.
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You become, uh, uh, experimenting, winning in a 10 second fight, winning in a two minutes fight,
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winning in a three hour long fight. And if you keep your mindset, visualization, situations where you
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can get punched, you get knocked down, but you still kind of putting guy fading away, putting the guard.
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So you have to visualize the worst moments, the worst situations in order for you to cope
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with the unpredictable. So hope, hope is a very important element in order for you to, to cope
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with the daily warfare situations. So you have to believe in yourself and hope sometimes gives you
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some kind of belief, which transcends your desire, transcends your possibilities, more like in God's
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hands. But if you don't know how to deliver this to God and believe you're going to have an extra
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energy, an extra power, uh, you can go over your limits. All those are kind of mental, spiritual
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elements, which had to be part of the endeavor, you know, the part of the, the venture. And for me,
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I was born and raised in a situation where it was much more than just a weight division or a,
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or, uh, or a sport with rules. Right. So for me, my growing process was preparing to fight the devil,
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you know, preparing to, to do what is never been done. And, and, and you have to have the spiritual
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elements, the physical elements, the mental elements, controlling emotions. So I started to
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adding breathing cold, uh, ice, ice cold breaths and, and meditation and, uh, biogynastica and
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whatever I can do to, to, you know, big wave surfing, whatever I can do to be calm under pressure
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and to handle nature and connect myself with the elements and a, and a mental and a spiritual
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and a physical way I will do because it's a way for me to, to, to embrace the whole package in terms
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of nothing left behind. I, I put attention in my, in my mental and my spiritual and my physical levels
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because sometimes you need the three, sometimes you have more one than others. Sometimes you injure,
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but you still have the belief. So it's still balance. Right. Right. You know, I'm interested in the,
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in the term you initially used, you talked about the term warrior. And I believe just in following
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you and knowing what you're about, you are a warrior in the literal sense, but most men today
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are never going to find themselves in a combative environment. So how does that warrior archetype or
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warrior mindset translate over into a guy trying to improve his career or develop in his relationship
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and take it off the mats to the rest of his life? That's a great question because that's exactly my,
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my mission today is to become, is to evolve the element of martial arts to the point where
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you have to win a fight without a fight. I have to win without a fight. So in order for you to do
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that, because if you're thinking about happiness, we all want to be happy. Doesn't matter if you're a
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fighter, if you're a lover, if you're a musician, artist, a professor, whatever you do, you, you,
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you put yourself in a situation where you, you, you moving towards happiness because you don't want
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to be stagnant in a position where, Oh, I don't know. I don't want to know what I want. Or, you know,
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you don't want to be just without, you want to be with, so with desire, with happiness, with love,
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with inspiration, with motivation. And once you achieve something, no matter if you want to get
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a girlfriend or if you want to buy a car or if you want to buy, or if you want to get a new job,
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or if you want to just buy a house. So whatever venture you are in or whatever challenge that's
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not an opponent, but a challenge, who has to be dealing with the peaceful, the spiritual warrior
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mentality. Because the warrior is there to win battles. If you, if you, if you get a girlfriend,
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somehow you win strategically, mentally, emotionally, you, you get what you want. So you won.
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So that's the reason for you to get happy. That's the reason for you to, to become in a progressive
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way. But that's girlfriend you get today. It's not going to give you the same happiness 10 years
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from now, because now she's a wife or you have kids. So your goal now will be putting the kids
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in college or get a new house. Or so in order for you to become happy again, and consistently happy in
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your life, you have to follow steps to one day get a girlfriend, the other day get married, the other
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day get house, the other day get kids in college. So it's always a new step, a new venture, a new
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challenge. And in what we have in common based on no matter if you want to get a diploma, or no matter if
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you want to beat somebody on the MMA, UFC, is the challenge that is, we have a kind of opponent, we have the
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strategies to be made, we have the emotional control to be important for you. Because sometimes you, your
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enemy today, coming through the email, you have can have the worst, you can have the worst message
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in email, and that email will disturb your emotions, will make you cry, will make you get desperate,
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even be thinking and suicidal. So know how to breathe when you receive a message, know how to
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breathe when you fight. It's so important, no matter if it's just going to cover the emotional
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aspect of you, or if you're going to give you some kind of hyperventilation for you to keep going one
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or two more rounds. But breathing is essential for you to be in control of your heart and your brain.
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Because the brain and the heart are the only organs in the body who are able to give and receive
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information. Sometimes you're directly affected in your heart. So you don't know what it is, but you
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feel emotionally. Right, more intuitive, right? Yes, sometimes you're emotionally involved in your
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mind, stress, confusion. So, and if you know how to breathe, it's the fastest way for you to achieve
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immediately control over your thinking, to calm your mind down. Same thing with your heart, you have to
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have over breathing, a deep control of your heartbeats. And since I started learning breathing
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with 16 years old, because I was already an athlete, I was already a professional. I'm not a
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professor, but I was going to become a professor. So I was training like a crazy surfing. I was always
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being an athlete. And after I started learning biogenastica and how to breathe properly, my performance
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increased in 40%. Solid 40% of better control, better recovery, better understanding of the
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action when I'm in the confusion because it's more oxygen in the brain and give me more capabilities
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to be calm, to analyze, to make. So I get a solid 40% improvement in my performance from breathing.
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And today, my performance reduced to 10% of what I was, but I still have 40% of breathing. So
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breathing today is my biggest ally to keep me calm, to keep me connected with things that are important
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for me, to be able to regulate my heart, to be able to regulate my stress, because I still have
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stresses, different ones. But so through the elements of a perfect practice, a perfect jiu-jitsu,
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practice, we will extend your practice, not only for you to be able to do a sweep or do an arm lock
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or a triangle properly, but also to understand yourself when you're under stress and start to
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breathe properly, to make this stress not as uncomfortable. You start learning how to be
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comfortable in hell. And based on that, you become more in control of your life,
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no matter if it's to sign a contract to buy a new car, no matter if it's dealing with a
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relationship problem. So whatever it is, jiu-jitsu transcends the math because it gives you
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the capacity to check your gauges with much more proper idea. How nervous you are, how emotionally
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disturbed you are, how tired you are, how... So you start to perceive things in a much
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complete idea, you know, and you start to become calmer under pressure. You start to become sharper
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under confusion. You start to become... So those elements, those are completely
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transcending the math area and take it to... You immediately take this to life and a much more,
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you know, it's just comfortable. Is this why you make the distinction between
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opponent and challenge? And when you had other men that you were fighting or challenging you,
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did you view them as an opponent, as an adversary, or did you view it as a challenge? And did the way
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that you view it change your response to it? Yes. If I see the thing as an opponent,
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I take for the ego and the personal matter. It's more like an egocentric thing. You know,
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I don't see the guy who's trying to fight me being personal against me. He's trying to defeat my style.
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He tried to defeat my abilities. So I try to become frozen eyes in terms of being personal and start to
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talk bad things about the guy or start to see personality problems or why he deserves to get beat or
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why he did. So I don't analyze that. I try to become more effective in the way I perform based on my
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preparation against the opponent and, or my preparation against the challenge, whatever you, and not
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feeling personal or not feeling emotionally disturbed based on things he said. Or I try to, because this is
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not going to win the fight. This, this is the part, we just going to be, uh, a nightmare in my brain,
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a little devil telling things what suppose. So this, I try to be away from me and I try to just keep the
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thing in a very, uh, a very direct way based on how I have to respond to that kind of challenge.
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Right. And I have to be effective. I have to be effective and mean because sometimes you have
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a challenge where you suppose just to win the medal. So you want to be gentle. You want to make
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the guy quit and not get hurt. Sometimes the guy challenge you because you've coming from a family
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and he disrespect you and he say he cannot believe in your art and he's better. So rationally,
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he deserve a punishment instead of being just a defeat. So this guy will be able to hurt him because
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he deserves to get hurt. Not exactly because, uh, my mission is to hurt him. It's just because he was,
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you know, disrespectful or, or, or somehow negative in a way. So it's not easy for me to just choke him
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out, put him to sleep. And then when he wake up, he still tell the same things again and again,
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because he didn't show hurt. So for this specifically opponent, I will put him to sleep
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or either before or after I going to punch him in the nose to break his face, to just show him,
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to show everything, show how punished he was based on what he did.
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So, so you say that you say that so, so calmly, I don't think most people listening would have that
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same mentality and you say it so calmly. And so matter of factly, I, your family is one of the
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only families that I know that, uh, care so deeply about your honor and the family name. Where,
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where does that come from? And that, and that innate desire to have people respect your name
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and the art itself. This, this is goes beyond my, my, my lifetime, you know, because when I born,
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I bought an environment where even before I recognize myself, people already recognize me
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as a future champion, as a, as a part of the families, one fighter. So maybe the first before
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diapers, I get a gi. So the situation was like very natural for me in terms of who I am. When I start
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to understand who I am, I was already using a gear as already mentioned as a Gracie more than Rickson,
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you know, I was a member of the family. I was a future champion, people putting hopes and expectations
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on my ability. So I born in an environment where was not about analyzing all this. It's just to
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represent what I become. So I was just naturally involved. And I start to compete with six years old
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and a bracket with seven years old. So my first tournament I lost. And my, and my father, very smart
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man. First, he asked me if I want to go and compete and said, yes, that I want to compete. Yes, yes, yes.
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Okay, great. And I don't have seven, six year old bracket. It's just started seven. So he said to me,
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okay, you want to compete? Great. If you win the tournament, I give you a gift. If you lose the
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tournament, I give you two gifts. With this, he said to me and in between lines, if I lose, he's not
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going to get upset because I could not understand why he's going to give me two gifts. If I lose,
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I just know he will be happier with me if I lose somehow. It's not going to be bad for me if I lose.
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So of course, I'm not going in the tournament thinking about losing, but I have my father's
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backup saying, if you lose, it's okay. So, and I lost and I don't even remember if he gave me two
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gifts or not. But the point was, my dad was not upset with me. Sometimes a father who has very much
00:22:12.520
love for the surf or for the, the, the, the, the soccer or for the jiu jitsu. And then he put this
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and he see his kids with the ability to become good. But the kid missed a goal, missed score
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something and said, why are you missing? Oh man, you should do. So the kid feels like for,
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I disappoint my father. My father is sad with me because I didn't score. I didn't. So this kind of
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would inspire me, charging or asking for the kid, for him to perform well. Sometimes it's
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a disappointing thing because the kid could not fulfill the father's expectation. And that's
00:22:47.160
becomes a sad thing for the kid. Oh, I don't want to play soccer anymore because my, my dad gets
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sad if I don't. So those things never happened with me. For me, it was just winning is great. Losing
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doesn't matter. It's great too. So let's keep going because you are grace. You are. So this was
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inspired me to keep going. And from that loss from six years old until 14 years old, I was a winning
00:23:12.280
straight. And then I lost one more time on 14 years old. And then as another winning straight up today.
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That's, that's quite the winning streak. Yes. It's a, it's a very, I mean, but I just counting my,
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my victories after 18 years old where I get my black belt. Do you feel like I was going to ask,
00:23:34.440
it sounds like your father did a great job in managing the expectations of you and the family
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name. Do you feel like there was any external pressure that caused you to perform inferior?
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And if that was the case, how did you drown that out and overcome that?
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Yeah. Depending how you feel supported, that external pressure becomes valuable because
00:24:01.480
like I did with my son crown or like I was feeling the kids who want to compete against me,
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they want to compete against Elias Gracie's son. Right. So what's, what's bad for me because I
00:24:13.800
expect him to win, but what's bad for them too, because they know they want to fight somebody who's
00:24:19.080
bringing a tradition on her back. So even their teachers, they're going to say, oh,
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you're going to fight Hickson Gracie, but that's okay. You're going to win. So whatever it is,
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I, I, I carry a name, which helped me in a way, and also put pressure in another way. So it's,
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it's a balance there of negative and positive elements. And depending how your father handled this
00:24:41.240
with you as a coach, as a father, as a friend, as a supporter, you're going to feel like whatever
00:24:50.200
happened with me, I'm in a mission to achieve for life and different than whatever happened to me
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can change my way to think, or can maybe, uh, put a turmoil in my ideas because I'm not sure. I'm not
00:25:04.440
sure if I trust my dad. So if things getting in a wrong direction, everything can be jeopardizing my,
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my mission. But my father was not only a general, he was a friend. He was, uh, you know, so he was a
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very special guy because different than a tyrant who has his followers based on fear. He was a leader
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who let have that take people behind him based on love. We love what we are, you know, we respect.
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We, so my life was eating well and a proper diet. We have a special diet to eat. I go to parties in
00:25:42.920
my friend's house. I don't drink Coca-Cola. I don't take chocolates. I don't take hot dogs. So sometimes
00:25:49.720
I take my own, my own, uh, uh, lunch bag. So it was always, I was always feel like the family was not
00:25:59.560
exactly equal to everybody. We are special. We are eating different. We training different. We
00:26:06.440
preparing ourselves for a different kind of challenge. And, uh, and we expect any kind of rules.
00:26:12.760
We accepting no gi with gi with punches, with elbows, head, butts, no, no mount pieces, no, no cups.
00:26:19.880
So no time. So it's, it's kind of crazy. But when you start to get in this environment,
00:26:27.240
this becomes normal. And, and then you become a different breed of person. You just not exactly
00:26:34.440
thinking like other people, not being scared of other things like other people, not feel like,
00:26:39.960
uh, because somehow you have to accept in a very early age, the possibility to get really serious
00:26:48.520
hurt or really die. And my father was always a spiritual guy. He always believed in reincarnation.
00:26:56.200
He always believed our lives transcends this kind of material life and goes to spiritual and then go
00:27:01.320
back to life. So we're not exactly afraid of dying or afraid to try things which lead you to a possibly
00:27:11.240
death. Accepting death is part of the, the, the, the, I feel like a spiritual law, you know, you, you
00:27:19.960
accept life. Why are you not going to accept death with the same naturality? You know, it's just your
00:27:24.920
ego in between. Oh, I cannot die now. I have things to do. I have money on the bank to spend. So I,
00:27:30.920
now I'm in a position, I cannot put myself at risk. And then I become conformed based on what I have.
00:27:36.920
And I don't want to try anything else because now I have my house. If I divorce, I will lose my house.
00:27:42.520
So I'm going to keep a bad marriage just because I want to keep. So people sometimes make bad decisions
00:27:48.040
based on conformity, based on not putting themselves at risk. And for us, be at risk was part of life.
00:27:56.760
Since I understand myself for, for, for, for a person, you know, and, and, and sometimes fear
00:28:03.720
take you from, from not from live, from dying, but take you from living. If you're, sometimes you're too
00:28:11.000
afraid of, of, of dying. You're not trying anything. So you're not living either. You, you, you're dying
00:28:16.920
alive, you know? So those, those situations make you feel like putting everything in perspective.
00:28:24.760
And for me, it's just worth it. When you put yourself fully connected to the mission,
00:28:32.760
if you just halfway, it's, it's okay. You know, it's, it's good enough. It's just,
00:28:38.280
you know, okay, no matter for me, everything matters a lot. And especially now in that phase of my life,
00:28:45.960
I, because before that, I always, if you imagine a triangle, I always work towards the tip of the
00:28:55.240
triangle, focus on my efficiency, my competitiveness, preparing my students, myself to compete in the
00:29:03.240
highest level. Right now, I change my focus, not only to, not to keep performing and, and excelling in
00:29:11.880
terms of efficiency, because I'm an old guy right now. So I try to just create a more solid base
00:29:19.160
and working on the side, on the basic side of the triangle to increase more people who has
00:29:24.760
no ability to fight, no desire to fight, but they still need a lot to learn in terms of breathing, in
00:29:31.960
terms of visualization, in terms of empowerment, in terms of strategy, in terms of handle stress,
00:29:39.400
in terms of so many emotional, mental and physical, because some part of Jiu Jitsu doesn't,
00:29:48.120
it's not developed for you to learn how to kick ass, but it's devoted to you, for you to feel safe.
00:29:54.840
Hmm. And an average person, if you teach them how to have base, for him to believe people cannot
00:30:03.800
throw him on the ground, how to have deflections for people not hurting him on the punches or else,
00:30:09.400
because defensive aspect is shorter, is more perfect than the offense. You can survive or not,
00:30:16.440
you can survive much easier than can kick ass. Right. Got it. Okay.
00:30:20.920
Okay. If I give you a perfect sense of defense, you may not going to be aggressive, you may not
00:30:27.320
going to be a fighter, but you want to be sure you can survive in an emergency. And that sometimes
00:30:33.480
can provide for you a very nice life, because you're not a fighter, you're just a lawyer, or you're just a
00:30:42.680
doctor. And if you get, if you add yourself as a doctor, this capability to, to feel like, okay,
00:30:49.560
I know if I'm walking on the street and somebody tried to attack me, I have a chance against a knife.
00:30:53.560
I have a chance against a bunch, a club or a punch. So you don't have to be sure, but you have to have
00:31:00.120
an option. Right. Once you have that option, that's already increased your possibilities, a huge amount.
00:31:08.840
So for me now, my Jiu Jitsu is to fulfill peoples, is to fulfill the peoples who needs the most, who are the
00:31:16.440
most nonviolent, more peaceful. And they need not only this kind of support, physical, but also
00:31:26.600
Men, let me hit the pause button real quick on the conversation with Hickson and myself.
00:31:31.320
It's no secret that having a dedicated, capable band of brothers in your corner is one of the most
00:31:36.920
important factors in a man's life. But that said, it seems to be increasingly difficult to find high
00:31:42.520
caliber men who are willing and able to stand in your corner and assist you on your path to becoming
00:31:48.280
the man that you're meant to be. And that's why we created the iron council to bring together high
00:31:52.840
caliber men of all walks of life and empower you with a network and framework that you need for success.
00:31:59.000
Now, most of you know how crucial it is to have men in your corner, but we attempt to make that
00:32:03.960
possible. And we've been doing a great job at that over the past six years, by bringing all of these
00:32:09.080
men together, giving you tools and resources and conversations and accountability, everything,
00:32:14.120
again, to help you thrive in your own life. So if you're interested, you want to learn more,
00:32:19.080
you can join us at order a man.com slash iron council. Again, that's order a man.com slash iron
00:32:26.040
council. You can do that after the conversation for now, I get back to it with Hickson.
00:32:31.960
And you know, as you're talking about that, I think that desire to serve outward and serve the
00:32:36.840
people you're talking about probably comes with a level of maturity, right? You're in that stage of
00:32:42.740
life, but I still go back to what you were saying earlier about defending so heavily the, I don't
00:32:50.200
want to put words in your mouth. I would interpret it as honor, the family honor or the honor of the art.
00:32:56.360
Do you still feel the same way that somebody who challenges either the family or the art
00:33:01.240
deserves some of the things that you were talking about earlier? Or is it something that
00:33:05.560
is more likely to roll off your back at this point? How has that changed right now?
00:33:10.200
Change a little bit because we already proved to the world for the four corners of the world,
00:33:15.000
the effectiveness of Jiu Jitsu. Got it today. Today, if you talk bad things about Jiu Jitsu is
00:33:23.880
a problem with the family or personal problem somehow is you minus as a person than I expect,
00:33:35.000
because you cannot talking about, you know, science, you cannot talking about, you know,
00:33:40.520
things which are showing benefits for everybody. How you can talk bad things about something like that?
00:33:47.480
So Jiu Jitsu for me is a, is a expression of, of peacefulness, love, control, effectiveness.
00:33:57.320
So all this is positive for anyone. So I don't believe people will talk in a good sense about,
00:34:05.240
bad about Jiu Jitsu. When they talk about the family, they also feel like either it's personal
00:34:11.000
because they get beat by a Gracie member or. Sure. So they not, they not can come out of the blue
00:34:16.920
and talk bad things about the family who helps so many people who bring so many jobs to the world,
00:34:21.880
who, who shared the knowledge and the, and the, and the effectiveness for so many people. So this
00:34:27.400
cannot be bad. So with this being said, uh, my view of my, let's suppose, against those things is more
00:34:37.960
like towards, uh, it's clarified for people, which our mission is, it's become more like towards the,
00:34:45.720
the, the, the, the, the, the aspect of teaching and, and revising and, and, and enforcing the, the,
00:34:54.920
our mission because I'm, I'm now don't have like the, the concerns about proving myself, right.
00:35:02.520
I'm not there to just, to just restart everything and start to challenge people because now everybody
00:35:10.520
who comes in the ring, he's going to come with some knowledge of Jiu Jitsu, even coming from a
00:35:14.440
Judo teacher who learned Jiu Jitsu. So Jiu Jitsu is, so now it's not exactly a style against style.
00:35:20.920
Now it's mixed martial arts is talking about it. And, and, and, and, and this combines people who learn
00:35:27.240
grappling as a base training and then start striking after and people start to with striking base and
00:35:34.520
start grappling after Jiu Jitsu, submission, wrestling. So now the, the, the mix is very,
00:35:40.360
is a huge mix, which I, I go more towards the, the, the, the persona, the character, the, the, the personality
00:35:48.680
of the fighter, how he talks about other fighters, how he talks about what he's learning and how his
00:35:54.440
mission is in life. And then I start to, to become more in alignment with somebody or say,
00:35:59.640
Oh, this guy's an asshole. He's just don't know what he's saying. So, but I still like trying to
00:36:06.520
follow my mission in terms of giving to the people what they feel like they need in order to excel in
00:36:15.080
life. And Jiu Jitsu is the platform for that. But what may go and he may want to use more breathing is
00:36:22.360
more like control emotions or be peaceful. So he can use that, those tools and different ways to,
00:36:29.880
to become a better. Well, I, you know, one of the things that you talked about earlier was as your,
00:36:37.160
let's say you're fighting with an opponent and you're, you're dubbing it more of a challenge.
00:36:41.560
And you said that you learn more about yourself. I've certainly found that to be true on my own path
00:36:46.920
is that I've learned how I naturally and instinctively respond to threatening situations
00:36:53.640
and have had to learn to breathe, have had to learn how to just relax, be critical, think about it. Don't
00:37:01.400
be so, so emotional and get charged up. I mean, I was rolling with somebody the other day and I was able
00:37:07.800
to submit this individual and I could tell that they were so pissed off and they came at me a hundred miles
00:37:13.560
an hour. And rather than it serving them, I was able to choke them out again because they were
00:37:18.200
irrational rather than keeping this level, calm head that I, to a small degree have learned over
00:37:25.640
the past two or three years. Yeah, definitely. I agree a hundred percent with you. And, uh, and you
00:37:32.200
put yourself in, and eventually on this two years window, you put yourself in those kinds of situations,
00:37:38.920
like in the sparks, you know, maybe once a week, maybe once a month, maybe a couple of times.
00:37:44.440
So for me, it was 24 hours, 24 seven. I could not think about a possibility to go out on the street
00:37:53.160
and fight, you know, because I put myself in a position where, you know, I I'm ready. I put myself
00:38:02.120
available and, uh, and I could not accept some kind of challenge or to postpone or to leave for next
00:38:10.280
month or to, or to create a, like a gossip through the social media, which was inexistent at my time
00:38:17.400
and stay like just putting, you know, to let boiling and stuff. No, for me, it was things are resolved
00:38:24.200
on the beach, on the garage, on the, on the, on the corner, whatever. And it was not exactly for the
00:38:30.680
big crowd that for social media was just for myself to prove I was right. And my opponent,
00:38:35.880
and then after either we shake hands or I leave him sleeping, but whatever it is was something which
00:38:43.960
make myself either explode or leave with that new normal for me. And, and, and, and once you start
00:38:51.720
to develop, when you start to need this kind of capabilities in a daily basis, you start to
00:38:59.560
creating different rituals for yourself in terms of how to breathe, not only when you fight, but
00:39:05.480
when you sleep, when you wake, when you swim, when you, so what's the best way to hyperventilate to keep
00:39:11.320
your mind fresh and visualizations all the time. Imagine myself going surf and then somebody coming
00:39:16.840
on the beach and trying to try to, so the possibilities to, to, to engage, the possibilities to be calm,
00:39:22.760
are there all the time was no, is no mark date. So that gives me a sense of working on my,
00:39:30.760
on my attributes, on my potential daily was not something I do is eventually. So I put myself as a,
00:39:40.440
as a slave of my own desire to improve. And I have to be daily approaching my mental aspect,
00:39:47.720
my spiritual aspect, how, how was easy for me to accept death. So it's for me, it seems like funny,
00:39:56.920
but any, any mission I have during this time, if I have a fight today, I will come up in the morning
00:40:04.360
and say, thank you, my God, to be able to fight, to be able to represent my family. And if it's today,
00:40:09.560
we're going to be my last day. So be it, you know, I will accept that as the most natural thing,
00:40:16.440
like a Samurai and with the sword, I was thinking about, you know, the guys go fighting. They're not
00:40:21.880
going to come, some of them not going to come back, you know, but they still like keeping, keeping clean,
00:40:26.600
keeping on or keeping, uh, integrity until the very last time. So I was amazing about that aspect of
00:40:35.720
the Japanese culture. And I bring this to my own ways. I don't have the sword, but I have my hands
00:40:42.120
and my spirit, which when I lead me to death, if I have to follow my mission. So all those elements
00:40:48.920
with a 16, 18, 19 years old, it's not easy for anyone to start to thinking about how comfortable
00:40:54.840
I supposed to be. If I die today, you know, but that's, for me, was something which is a tool for me
00:41:00.520
to be used in order to cope with my, my life, which was very unusual for the time too.
00:41:08.120
So at this point, I feel like blessed to be able to survive all this time. Also blessed to put myself
00:41:15.320
a hundred percent and, and my, and my focus and my things I have to do. So I'm a very happy man.
00:41:23.240
Well, you know, as, as I hear you talk and, and I've been fortunate enough to have conversations
00:41:28.040
with men like yourself and other extremely, extremely successful men. And there's one thing
00:41:34.040
that these successful men, including yourself don't do. And that's dabble.
00:41:39.480
Yeah. It's not like, Oh, I'll try this thing. I'll, I'll experiment with this when, when you go,
00:41:46.440
and this is what I think you're alluding to. At least what I'm hearing is you're all in,
00:41:51.000
not as in like when I train, I'm all in, but this is life, not just me on the mats.
00:41:56.840
A hundred percent. I think like, uh, in any point in life, no matter if it's financially,
00:42:04.040
physically, mentally, or spiritually, you find a plateau based on your achievements,
00:42:10.600
based on what desires to go, you find a plateau. And once you find this plateau,
00:42:16.440
normally your brain said to you, okay, you get a good position here. Let's settle. Let's be
00:42:23.240
comfortable here because you already have done a lot. So if you put a risk, you can jeopardize
00:42:30.360
in your whole situation. So your, your, your safety, your mind, your protect you from
00:42:37.800
making mistakes. So it's better to be conforming the situation you're at.
00:42:41.320
For me, I disagree with that. I feel like in any point in life, you just want to feel a hundred
00:42:48.920
percent alive. If you're able to put that risk, if you're able to put everything again and again
00:42:55.800
on the table to see, because that's exactly the, the, the, the, the, the, the signification of being
00:43:02.760
alive is to be able to feel liveness by attempting things. If you're 18 years old and somebody asks you
00:43:09.320
to go to China for a year, you go without blinking. You're going to go experimenting and go.
00:43:15.000
If you're 50, you're going to say, but what are you going to do in China? I don't know how to speak
00:43:19.080
China, Chinese. I don't know how to. So what about the food? What about what I going to be? Is hotel
00:43:24.840
is bad. So you start to creating problems because you're not in an age anymore to put at risk,
00:43:30.760
to just go there and feel disappointed. Different than I, so I feel like in order for you to keep
00:43:38.040
your mind young and your heart strong in terms of motivation to be alive, you have to take all
00:43:45.560
the chances and the opportunities life gave you. You cannot be afraid to try. So it's, it's completely
00:43:55.160
interesting that the adaptations you have to do all the time. You know, three years from now,
00:44:00.360
I have a school, I have things going in me and then COVID happened, the schools closed, everything
00:44:06.040
changes. And then I built up a studio, like I stood for, for producing content. And I tried to redo my
00:44:13.800
life through the internet, teaching, you know, I tried to financially, I'm exactly have like,
00:44:21.720
I'm making now a percentage of what I was, a small percentage of what I was doing physically.
00:44:27.240
But I tried to reinvent myself. I tried to be present. I tried to keep supporting. I tried to
00:44:31.480
keep my life motivated. I tried to keep in my mission, a hundred percent focus and, and do my best.
00:44:43.240
if I could do something different, the only thing I have to say is,
00:44:47.080
uh, I could go in a different direction, but if I go in the direction I am, I do in a hundred,
00:44:53.960
ten percent of what I should do to keep myself, you know, motivated in a path. If I going to be
00:45:01.480
recognized, I'm going to get something back from me. I'm going to get another victory in my life. So
00:45:08.760
I'm still on the mat. I'm still fighting, you know, I'm still winning, but with a different levels of
00:45:15.880
expectations, hopes, you know, patience and, and, and, and other things. So pretty much
00:45:24.600
it's important for us to keep not in the conformity level side, but in the putting yourself at
00:45:33.240
able, able to, to, to receive from life, the fully recognition, you know, you have to put at risk
00:45:40.440
and then you want to see life becomes more meaningful. Things going to be better because
00:45:45.560
you really try what you have to try. But when you're afraid to try, when you say, well, I'm not sure
00:45:51.480
you basically stop living fully and start to living only on your expectations, on the situation you can
00:45:59.240
handle. You know, it's not exactly what you want, but you know, and you stop living fully and start to
00:46:05.960
living just partially in terms of life, you know, in terms of intensity, in terms of happiness, in
00:46:14.520
terms of, of, of conquering. Does this go into, cause I've heard you talk about your personal code
00:46:22.040
of honor. Does this concept of risk and pursuit even, you know, even despite that you've had so much
00:46:29.800
success, is that part of your personal code of honor or is that something different?
00:46:33.640
That's a little different because the code of honor give you a sense of belonging,
00:46:40.760
a sense of what you can accept and what you cannot accept in your life in terms of, of, of
00:46:47.240
representing, in terms of expecting from other people, those kind of, you know,
00:46:54.760
judgments or whatever. So you put yourself honorably in a position to debate, to put yourself in a
00:47:01.640
position of acceptance of not acceptance of things. So it's not about how you perform or how you,
00:47:08.200
you project yourself in terms of achieving something. You can be, you can be honorable and you can be
00:47:14.680
passive, you know? So for me, my motivation in life is, is a little separate from my honor.
00:47:24.760
I have to create myself motivated based on what I have today in terms of what I can do to, because
00:47:32.920
a big part of, of my personal success in terms of how I fulfill my heart of love and peace and
00:47:40.280
happiness is to be at service. I learned in a very early age, I have a gold in my hands. Jiu Jitsu is very,
00:47:48.120
very, very valuable. And through Jiu Jitsu, I can help people. I can really make a deep difference in
00:47:55.560
people's lives, giving them more confidence, more sharpness, more tranquility, more, more, more strength,
00:48:05.320
more strategy. So I make the guy transform himself in a better, stronger person. So that service
00:48:13.320
I get addicted for because life for me is a giving and taking. You cannot be only good.
00:48:20.920
You know, you cannot just give, give, give, give and not receiving because you become weak.
00:48:27.560
You cannot just receive, receive, receive and not giving nothing because it becomes like,
00:48:33.240
you're not a, you know, you suppose not to be a needed person who needs everything for you and give
00:48:38.920
nothing. So it's unbalanced too. Eventually life going to get on you. So the perfect way to live
00:48:45.880
is to give and receive. It's a spiritual trade. You know, no matter if I give you Jiu Jitsu and you
00:48:53.720
give me money, no matter if you give you money and you give me food, no matter if you give me food and
00:49:01.320
I give you Jiu Jitsu. So no matter what kind of service, but if you're a good farmer, you're going
00:49:07.400
to love to give your, your, your chickens or your eggs to somebody to feed a family, to make people,
00:49:13.640
to make people feel good about the chickens you sell. If I have Jiu Jitsu, I have to feel good about
00:49:19.560
my Jiu Jitsu because that's really can increase people's quality of life and happiness.
00:49:25.480
So once you get addicted to that positiveness, you give, you feel like that's a mission.
00:49:33.000
I cannot just deny that mission and say, Oh, I don't give enough. I'm a doctor, but I don't want to
00:49:37.480
treat nobody. That's you. You, you, you, you, you, you go away from the, the, your mission
00:49:45.640
and becomes a failure or a, or I don't know what you become because I don't even think about it, but,
00:49:52.120
but you're supposed to do a mission in life because giving, giving, giving, and also receiving,
00:49:57.960
thank you, receiving money, receiving knowledge, receiving, you know, receiving. And then when I receive
00:50:05.000
what I receive, I feel not only proud, but I feel also I deserve it. So, and that's all balance.
00:50:13.880
It smooths out because when I give a class, when I speak to you on this, I'm not saving words. I'm not
00:50:19.880
trying to finish as soon as possible. I like to give a message for your, for your listeners about
00:50:26.920
the best I can be. I'm here giving the best, the best information I can have in my brain
00:50:32.360
just because I feel like that's my debt, my, my, my, my, my mission. And I feel proud about that.
00:50:41.400
So with all this, you know, we, we just have to keep living life and giving the best you have
00:50:48.040
to be able to receive the best you can ask for.
00:50:53.000
You know, the, the value I think of what, what you're saying here is from the outside, looking in,
00:50:57.880
you have the great blessing of having a father in your life who introduced you to something
00:51:03.480
significant and valuable and meaningful very early on. And it sounds like you've pursued that
00:51:10.520
your entire life. And yet I talk with a lot of men who say, I don't have a mission or I don't have a
00:51:17.060
purpose, or I don't know what it is. And what you're saying about service doesn't just pertain to
00:51:21.800
what your mission is specifically with jujitsu, but with anything, whether it's farming or being
00:51:27.960
a lawyer or a doctor, like you've alluded to during this conversation.
00:51:30.840
Yes. Uh, I agree a hundred percent. And, uh, in regard to my father, I was starting to help
00:51:38.920
my brother to, to teach classes, private classes with 14 years old or something. So, and then I asked
00:51:45.960
my father, I said, dad, what I should do to be the best teacher I can be. And he told me,
00:51:52.760
if you want to be a good jujitsu teacher, you learn a good arm lock, a good sweep, a good escape from
00:51:57.800
the mouth position. And you make sure you know the details and you show those details for the student.
00:52:04.360
And then you want to be a good teacher. But if you want to be an excellent teacher,
00:52:08.360
teacher, you have to try to understand what the student needs to learn with this advice.
00:52:18.040
You know, I make me, uh, I, uh, focus on being a good jujitsu instructor, but also give me the
00:52:26.120
focus to be a good psychologist because you have to, you have to capture what the guy show you in
00:52:33.720
terms of if he's emotionally disturbed, if he stands, if he's relaxed, if he's lazy, if so,
00:52:40.440
I will approach the class for a lazy guy, different than approach the guy for a very tense, emotional.
00:52:47.320
So it's not about what I'm going to be the technical information. It's about the approach.
00:52:51.720
It's about, Hey man, relax, breathe. Let's talk. Let's don't be so active. Just be, and for the other
00:52:58.120
one. Okay. But be happy, be fast, lift your hands quick. So the approach will be different.
00:53:04.280
Based on the understanding. So I follow my life from that point, always thinking about how I can
00:53:11.880
serve with my jujitsu and a much, most approachable and direct way for each student,
00:53:17.880
for each situation, the situations change. So this make me feel like I'm on top of my game based on
00:53:27.560
trying to be understandable about what he needs to learn because a woman needs something to learn from
00:53:34.280
jujitsu, which is not exactly again with the man needs or a child needs or an aggressive bully kid
00:53:41.160
needs in terms of become peaceful and more gentle or what the shy kid afraid needs or what's the
00:53:49.640
the uncoordinated guy needs. So everyone is different in terms of how they're going to approach,
00:53:56.040
how they're going to take jujitsu experience. And, uh, with that, uh, it's just, you know,
00:54:04.360
the experience is there to be feeling. And as you evolve in jujitsu, you can get bad things,
00:54:10.760
good things for yourself in terms of, you know, uh, a complete idea of perform and put jujitsu in
00:54:19.480
So you you've used a couple of terms, a couple of times now you've said, uh, peaceful and, uh,
00:54:27.000
you've said, uh, gentle and from the outside looking in somebody who's not familiar with
00:54:33.880
jujitsu or you personally, or what this art is about. I don't know that they would naturally make
00:54:39.800
that association. Do you consider yourself to be this type of person? Have you always felt that you
00:54:45.560
were gentle and peaceful? And then how do you explain and articulate for people that,
00:54:53.080
that it is actually gentle, not this violent, you know, activity that most people see on television?
00:54:58.920
Yeah. Martial arts is a violent thing because it's, it's, it's both fighting is a fight,
00:55:05.800
but it's different ways to fight. You can fight aggressive with, you know, fist and punch somebody.
00:55:12.600
You want to fight a woman. You want to, if you're aggressive and mean, you're going to fight a
00:55:17.000
woman with a punch and you're going to kill the girl with two punches. So, or if you want to fight
00:55:23.480
a woman who deserves to be controlled, if I want to somehow have to engage with a woman, first thing,
00:55:31.080
I don't want to be aggressive or mean with her. I want to control her, make her go back to her senses.
00:55:36.920
And immediately, soon she go back, I relieve because she don't need pain. She don't need
00:55:43.080
brutality. She needs control. So with jujitsu, I can be gentle as I want, because I don't have to hit
00:55:51.800
you. If you just learn how to strike somebody with the elbows and punches, you can be gentle by
00:55:57.800
diminishing a few degrees, the punch, but you, the only thing you do is punch. So you're going to hurt
00:56:02.680
no matter what. But if you know how to control, how to weigh distribution, how to choke, nothing
00:56:08.600
can be more gentle against a crazy guy than put him to sleep. Right. Sure.
00:56:14.440
If I keep choking after his sleep, I could kill him, which is very violent. But if I stop in the
00:56:20.760
right point, it can be very gentle for police officers. I mean, I agree jujitsu is very gentle
00:56:27.720
art, but depending who is fighting against who and what deserves, that's going to be the problem.
00:56:34.360
Well, and not only that, but through your own capability and your work over your lifetime,
00:56:40.440
it's allowed you to be able to have that restraint and control. Because if I'm an individual who gets
00:56:45.000
into an altercation and I have no idea what I'm doing, all that I can rely on is my aggression
00:56:50.840
and violence and just my inherent strength, no technical skill whatsoever to allow me to be gentle,
00:56:57.720
to allow me to assess the situation from an objective standpoint.
00:57:05.080
Yeah. It's a, it's a very, it's a very, it's been a very interesting journey for me. And I've learned
00:57:11.560
so much about myself and life and how it's translated. And I'm just, I'm, I'm excited to
00:57:19.160
continue down the path because I know how much it makes, how, how good it makes me and how much it
00:57:26.040
Yes. The, the improvement is very, very much clear. When you start to engage and you start to feel
00:57:32.680
elements which are, you know, transcending the math, because one important thing too,
00:57:39.480
is because I feel like the modern times dehumanizing you, the technology, the robotics,
00:57:46.360
the internet, they put you in the best image, the best social level, and you can interact with
00:57:52.120
everybody. But it's hard, it becomes harder for you to shake hands, to look people in the eye,
00:57:57.160
to negotiate, to talk with a girl, you know, because it becomes very much spacey and, and, and you can
00:58:05.720
see the entire world by the phone. So jujitsu, if it's for not other elements, they can humanize you
00:58:14.760
because you start to hug, breathe together and feeling. So it's a great element also to, to make
00:58:20.040
you rediscover yourself in a much more intimate way, which makes you feel like regaining the animal
00:58:27.000
elements we have and we need in order to feel complete. We're not just in our heads talking
00:58:33.960
for the internet. We are persons. So this kind of connect you with your physicality, with your thinking
00:58:40.360
together, thinking and doing and, and strategizing. So it's a very complete element in terms of
00:58:46.440
keep you on your highest game. Yeah, that's, that's valuable. I mean, even, and not to mention
00:58:53.880
just the physical connection, you know, we're energized from other people. So I, you know what,
00:58:59.240
Hicks and I appreciate you joining. Um, I've got the copy here. I've read it, man, just an incredible,
00:59:05.080
incredible story of your life. And I'm so honored to be able to have you on the podcast as, as we wind
00:59:11.640
things down, uh, let the guys know where to connect with you. Obviously they can pick up a copy
00:59:16.360
of the book, but where's, where's the best place to connect with you. At this point,
00:59:20.280
the best place is hickson.academy because I start giving some information, which is very
00:59:28.840
valuable for teachers, for students, for new students, for people who start to interact
00:59:33.880
about what it is. So I feel like I can't wait for you to show, show up and, and, and check the site.
00:59:40.600
Okay. Well, we'll, we'll link everything up. We'll sync the guys with it. Let them know where
00:59:44.840
to go again. I appreciate you. Thank you for imparting some of your wisdom with us today.
00:59:49.160
It's a real honor. And I know the guys are going to get a lot of value from it.
00:59:52.280
My pleasure, Ryan. Thank you. God bless my brother and talk to you soon.
00:59:57.320
All right, you guys, there you go. My conversation with the one and only Hicks and Gracie. I hope you
01:00:00.840
enjoyed that. Uh, he shared some of the stories that he shared in his book, but I'm telling you,
01:00:05.480
there are so many more stories in this book that are captivating, compelling, uh, and we'll give you
01:00:10.680
a small glimpse into what it's like to walk in his shoes and learn from some of the best martial
01:00:18.200
artists though, the world has ever known. And I don't say that as hyperbole. That's, that's a,
01:00:22.280
that's a true statement. So, uh, make sure you're following along, uh, get a copy of the book,
01:00:28.200
breathe a life and flow, follow Hickson on Instagram. He does a lot of instructional videos
01:00:32.840
over there. And of course, as I mentioned just about every week, uh, see if you can get to a
01:00:37.240
training yourself because it will radically transform your life. All right, guys do that.
01:00:44.200
Get your ratings and reviews in for the order of man podcast, share, take a screenshot,
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01:00:53.640
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01:00:58.760
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01:01:03.240
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