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Will the distance keep YOU away from reaching your FULL POTENTIAL?

TL Naples BJJ and BJJEngineer: The Distance Problem

“Man you guys are far. I thought you had a gym near me? I live 35 miles away. It’s a 36 minutes drive, gas is expensive these days.”

I hear the above every time over e-mail, or a phone call. I thought it was about time we discussed this simple issue.

If you are picking a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu school, regardless of your reason, you must realize it’s an investment! Weather you are investing in your entertainment, in your health, in your technical knowledge, your personal growth etc… it is still an investment.

Investment: the commitment of money, time, energy, and/or effort to a project with the expectation of some worthwhile result.

Now let me tell you an observation you can easily make when you visit a school (something to look for). If you go to any good school in the US you will find good people that travel from far places to get there. Even though there are training options closer to them, they will not take them, because they realize that 1 hour at a good place it’s a lot better than a week, a month, at another place.

Why will some one chose to go to Harvard over a local university? Why will some people fly thousands of miles and pay top money to attend business seminars, or listen to expensive public speakers? It is simply because they offer a high Return on Investment (ROI)!

In simple terms you can buy a business book or a law book from Barnes and Nobles for $15.00-$100. You may read it and learn a lot, but not anywhere near as if you actually had gone to a business seminar held by someone with a long track record for success, or by a Harvard Law School professor that can give you insights about the subject. If it is true that people will pay top money, and travel for these things why it wouldn’t be true for jiu-jitsu. Well it is true for jiu-jitsu as well. For example:

  • Mike Atkins (purple belt) at age 55+ has been driving for 4 years to attend Crazy 88 BJJ (www.88bjj.com) 1 hour every day. By the same token he is a Senior 2 and 3 Pan-American Champion (purple belt), World Champion (blue belt), and International Masters & Seniors, No-Gi PanAms Champion.
  • Julius Park drives 1 hour to Lloyd Irvin’s academy for over 4 years. Julius Park is a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Brown Belt with 10 years of experience in both competitive grappling and teaching. He is currently the Owner and Head Instructor of Crazy 88 Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. He began his training in 1998 with Renzo Gracie from whom he earned his Blue and Purple belt. In 2004, he began training with Team Lloyd Irvin, which was the #1 RATED team in both 2004 and 2006. He has competed and won in both GI and No-Gi tournaments all over the United States and continues to compete today. He has won over 40 Championships.
  • Mike Fowler used to drive 2 hours to Lloyd Irvin’s Academy when he was coming up. Mike is a Blue belt Pan Am Champion, Purple Belt Team USA vs. Brasil Champion, 2 American National Champion, Purple and Open class American National Champ, Bronze in the Copa de Mundo (World Cup) as a brown belt, Pan Ams Black Belt Silver Medalist and in ADCC 2007 defeated Renzo Gracie and Saulo Ribeiro.

Like this names there are many other stories out there that I just don’t know about. I have personally always been in a situation where I have had to travel long distances to make my jiu-jitsu better. Currently I fly every other weekend to Baltimore and Washignton DC to train and fix the whole in my game with Master Lloyd Irvin and Julius Park. This is very costly, but it makes my game and the game of my students better, and the ROI its ridiculous. I also currently drive my bike to teach classes. I don’t own a car. It’s a good warm-up. I currently have a student that drives his bike for an 1 hour to get to class. That’s 2 hours on his bike! Great for him! If you really want to reach your full potential you can make it happen, but please don’t go train at a school just because its 5 minutes away. You might call me one day and describe me another horror story.

One Response to “Will the distance keep YOU away from reaching your FULL POTENTIAL?”

  1. Liza says:

    This is very hot info. I’ll share it on Facebook.

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