Jiu Jitsu is like life; we start off raw and malleable, all the possibility and optimism of a child. Of course, along with that comes the initial fear of the unknown. Will I just get smashed? Even if I don’t get smashed how do I win if I don’t know anything? How will I react to having someone laying on me or trying to submit me? Will I hurt someone? Will I do the wrong thing in class and get yelled at? Will my classmates be cool? Will they help me?  Am I too old/young? Am I strong enough?

Most of those fears are confronted the first day we step on the mats.  For those that persevere through the growing pains and insecurities of those initial days on the mats, the reward of these answers is tantamount to winning the lottery. The confidence, the character built by perseverance, the development of mental and physical toughness and the sense of accomplishment the first time you accomplish anything at all on the mats are the unadvertised benefits of a life devoted to Jiu Jitsu.

For me, Jiu Jitsu was initially just a hobby, something to learn after work and keep myself busy because I wasn’t getting any younger (shocking). Then a funny thing happened; my nephew who was 5 at the time saw me coming home sweaty and tired but with this completely satisfied grin on my face every day after class. He could tell I was much happier and seemed infatuated with whatever I was doing and he asked me about it. Then he asked if he could try it. After assuaging my sister’s fears and telling her I would go with him to his class so he wouldn’t be scared, we got him enrolled.

The first day he went to class it was a big one , or at least that’s what I remember. The instructor, Grant, had everything under control. He was calm, confident, and had an ease around the kids that was unshakeable, but the thing I remember most was his energy and kindness. As the class progressed through the warm up and games to the first technique of the day I was summoned out of the crowd. It’s a lot easier showing technique to 5 year olds if it’s shown on an adult by an adult rather than by an adult on a 5 year old. After a couple classes of this pattern repeating itself I was asked to bring my gi to the kids class and dress out. I was not even remotely interested in teaching little kids something I was still barely beginning to grasp myself. My nephew was ecstatic that I was there and my thinking was that I’d do just about anything for that kid. So I just kept showing up with my gi and tried my best to assimilate those skills that seemed to work so well for Grant. I was there to learn a new skill set, get in shape, get stronger and tougher and have fun but life had a different plan.

After assisting for about a year and getting my blue belt I was asked to meet Grant for lunch one day. I showed up just expecting lunch with my friend. He informed me that after he graduated he was going to move to California and he thought I could take over his class. I was horrified. I was also honored, challenged and intrigued. The rest is history. Just like that first day on the mats I dreaded all of the potential disasters but nonetheless charged headlong into the breach.

My nephew doesn’t do Jiu Jitsu anymore. He became enamored and pretty damn good at football and baseball. I became a Jiu Jitsu instructor. I found that those gifts I had received from my own study could be multiplied exponentially and that I could teach confidence, perseverance, character and respectfulness for ones self and others.

Along the way there were many bumps and detours. Some of my students have gone on to accomplish much more than me in the world of competitive Jiu Jitsu and wrestling. The rest are on their way. I never intended to become a Jiu Jitsu instructor. The lessons I learned on the mats had given me the confidence and skills to walk confidently down that path. Most of all I learned that we could all make a difference. If Jiu Jitsu could have such a profound impact on my life at 25, imagine what I could do for a bunch of kids. If I was brave in the face of my doubts and fears I could have a legacy far beyond my years. My son is one of my students now, his little brother is chomping at the bit to get out there as well. I only hope they find the joy and fulfillment that I have found.

Ben Sandoval

I have been an athlete now for 25 years. I have had my fair share of success and failure over the years. I’ve also had countless numbers of interactions with others trying to achieve athletic perfection. In my observation, there are three categories of people in regards to how they learn and the speed at which they improve. These categories are Fast Track Learners, Normal Joes, and an anomaly of people that Seem to Never Really Improve.

We had a great turnout for belt promotions this past Saturday!

Aviela Rios receives her 2nd strip on her white belt!

Aldo Rios receives his 2nd stripe on his white belt!

Natasha Cosgrove receives her 3rd stripe on her white belt!

Dario Jimenez receives his 1st stripe on his white belt!

John Salazar receives his 3rd stripe on his belt!

Shannon Stephens receives his 3rd stripe on his white belt!

Eddie McGovern receives his 4th stripe on his white belt!

Nate Harris receives his 3rd stripe on his blue belt!

Ruben Rivera receives his 2nd stripe on his purple belt!

Joaquin Sanchez receives his 1st stripe on his brown belt!

Jason “Kermit” Frayer receives his blue belt!

Congratulations to everybody and keep working hard! Don’t forget, we have the Southwest Grappling Championship next month and Grapplersquest in November, so put in that mat time!

On September 17th, CrossFit Santa Fe will be participating in Fight Gone Bad 6. Fight Gone Bad is a grueling 17 minute workout that CrossFitters all over the world band together to do once a year to raise money for charity.

Well here at Undisputed, we’re going to make it an even bigger day and hold belt promotions for our Brazilian Jiu Jitsu students. All of your hard work over the past year is going to pay off when you get that pretty new belt!

Belt promotions will be held from 12pm – 1:30pm between Fight Gone Bad heats. There will be some technique taught, rolling time and then presentation of new belts. So make sure you invite all your friends and family so they take can take pictures, show their support and see what you’ve been so dedicated to all this time!

September 17th. Save the date!

I should have posted this a few days ago but I was a little busy traveling to Los Angeles for a business seminar along with my fellow office cohort Shannon and Coaches Ruben and Luis (Weezy) where we spent some time on the beach, went to one of Kenny Kane’s hip hop dance classes (HIGHLY recommended! http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=10150261901894690&oid=74496307121&comments), worked out at CrossFit Los Angeles and attended one of Eddie Bravo’s classes at 10th Planet Jiu Jitsu (more on that later…. )

Last Saturday was Southwest Grapplefest V in Rio Rancho and our guys tore it up! List of medals goes:

Nico Roth – 2nd in gi

Zion Sandoval – 2nd in gi

Jacob Jiron – 1st in gi & 1st in no gi

Kai Omori – 3rd in gi

River Dillon – 3rd in gi & 4th in no gi

Eddie Mcgovern – 2nd in gi & 3rd in no gi

Shannon Stephens – 4th in gi

Jason Herrera – 2nd in gi & 3rd in no gi

Nate Harris – 3rd in gi

Coach Henry Martinez – 1st in no gi

Congratulations to all who competed; you guys rock!

And now, I will leave you with this; a letter received from Charlie Roth, one of our resident CrossFitters and father of Nico Roth, one of our amazing young athletes.

Tait,

A note to let you know that Nico Roth placed second in his age, weight and belt group at the July 30, NM GrappleFest in Rio Rancho. That was out of nine kids. As you know, he’s been practicing Jui Jitsu under Profs Ben and Henry only since October. He clearly deserves credit for a strong performance. But equally clear is the enormous credit due to Ben and Henry. They are obviously talented, charismatic Jui Jitsu practitioners and coaches who know how to connect to the kids. Simply put, Nico couldn’t have gotten as far as he did last Saturday without them. He was thrilled, and now couldn’t be more enthusiastic about Jui Jitsu and wrestling. I’m deeply grateful for that because I think they’re wonderful sports for all the reasons that you know better than I. On a side note, from a what I could see, Undisputed’s older students participating Saturday also benefited richly from their instruction, both day to day and on Saturday as the two were coaching them continuously through the matches, many of which they won.

As for my CrossFit instructors, Crow, Heather and Nate are fantastic. I grew up playing sports competitively year round, and weight training was long a part of my program. I thought I knew a lot about weightlifting and exercise, and to be honest (if immodest), I did. But the truth is, after my eight months (so far) at Undisputed, I now know much more than I used to, and am delighted to be getting back into good shape. I’m trying to find the time to get there more often than twice a week.

You have a terrific crew.

Charlie Roth

Last week was Jason Herrera’s birthday, so we celebrated in true Brazilian Jiu Jitsu fashion: by sending him through the gauntlet!

Happy Birthday, Jason!

“The simplest decisions made with consistency and determination can have the greatest effect on our lives”

If you want something, go get it.  Don’t kind of get it, don’t  kind of try .  You must go after it with all your will and effort.  This is a life lesson but today I am talking about Jiu Jitsu.  About ten years ago,  I found Brazillian Jiu Jitsu and it genuinely saved my life.  I didn’t use it to fight off hoards of gang bangers or bullies; I used it to fight off my personal demons.  I replaced daily drinking with daily mat work.  When I felt down, I found endorphins and confidence on the mats.  When my first son was born, I knew I had a gift to give him that my parents never gave me.  I felt blessed beyond measure and vowed to cultivate this gift and incorporate this into my existence.  Then, I had an unfortunate incident with my coach and had to leave his school.  I was mortified.  I had no place to train, no coach, no team.  Then I realized that Jiu Jitsu was mine.  It didn’t belong to my ex-coach , it wasn’t only possible on his mats and he hadn’t taught me everything.  It wasn’t going to be easy; nothing worth doing ever is, but I also knew that if I wanted it and, I did, that it was going to happen.  I was going to get my brown belt, then my black belt.  I was going to teach my sons those lessons that I was lucky enough to survive as long as I had without.  I refused to allow circumstances, ego and pride to keep me from achieving those goals.

Ben Sandoval

Ok, so this post is long overdue.  I apologize for my tardiness but I’ve been wracking my brain trying to think of something to write about.  Credit goes to Heather for giving me the topic that was finally settled upon.  She brought up the fact that I’m getting ready to drop about 20lbs for a Jiu Jitsu tournament next month.  Yes.  Nutrition.  I want to talk about nutrition.  Specifically, my story with nutrition.

A little bit of a back story; I spent the first 21 years of my life in extremely small towns in the midwest where nutrition is not really something anybody ever thinks about. This is a place where every single person has a Fry Daddy sitting on their counter tops.  I had a nightly routine of going to Gas N’ Shop at 2am to get nachos, a bag of Doritos, a pepperoni stick and a Reese’s Snack Bar. The meals I ate during the daylight hours were not any better.  To say I was anything close to healthy would be like saying Juarez is a great destination spot for your family vacation.  In August of 2006, I moved to Santa Fe. Now, I’d be lying if I said I arrived in the City Different and immediately became health conscious and fit.  A few months after living here, I finally worked up the courage to walk into Undisputed Fitness (then in the southside location in Bisbee Court) and start lifting weights and going to Chacho’s KO Boxing class.  My diet definitely improved (no more Fry Daddy being used at every meal) but was still very far from perfect.  I was getting in decent shape. Definitely the best I had been in up to that point in my life.  I kept with that trend for quite a few months.

Cue a new job and graveyard hours that conflicted with the classes I was going to.  So not only had I stopped working out, but you know what’s readily available (and extremely delicious) at 5am?  Egg McMuffins.  Yep, back to the fast food diet I went.  And back to the good ole fat me along with it.  Fast forward a couple years to 2008 and the opening of the current location of Undisputed in the Solana Center.  With this new location came a new schedule of classes.  But again, if I said that I immediately jumped right back into the swing of things, I would be a liar.  No, it was about 2 months after the opening that I was at work, standing outside, smoking a cigarette (Oh yeah, there was that, too.  About a pack a day at that time.) when I looked over to see the reflection of my profile in some glass and I saw a gut that was sticking out far enough for me to sit my tray of fast food on it, not to mention at least 2-3 chins.  That was my moment of realization.  The next day, I started going to the KO Boxing classes again, stopped eating fast food and quit smoking.  About a month later, I was convinced to give jiu jitsu a try.  That was the beginning of my passion for the world of fitness and martial arts.  So, again, I was getting in better shape and eating “ok”. Sure, I wasn’t eating fast food or mac & cheese but lots of bread and ramen noodles are far from an ideal meal plan.  I could use the excuse that I didn’t know better but I also didn’t care to do any research.  I LOVE food and as long as my output is high enough (I was averaging 3 classes a day at that point; strength & conditioning, jiu jitsu and kickboxing), my diet can afford to be a little lax, right?  Also, here’s a fun fact about me: food is my coping mechanism.  A lot of people, when they have a bad day, will go in search of a stiff drink. Me?  I immediately reach for the phone book and turn to the pizza section.  Some bad news is all it takes for me to dial up Dominos or head to Albertson’s to grab a couple boxes of Mac&Cheese and hot dogs.  I’m a glutton to the very definition of the word.  (You should see me at a buffet.)  But that was ok, I made up for it by training really hard.

Fast forward several months and I’m at the point where I feel confidant enough in my jiu jitsu that I want to start competing in tournaments. Here’s the thing with competition wrestling, jiu jitsu and/or mma: there are weight classes that you are put in so that you don’t have to go up against somebody 3 times your size.  Obviously, everybody wants to be the bigger guy.  So, in order to be the bigger guy, they will lose a lot of weight so that they weigh way less than they normally do and can compete in a lower weight class.  Coming up on my first tournament, I was weighing about 185.  The closest weight class was 170-179.  I ate mostly chicken and tuna and ran more and made weight easily.  The next several tournaments had more common weight classes of 155-170 and 170-185.  Now, the guys who compete in the 185 weight class usually weigh about 200lbs normally.  There is no way I’m going to fight those guys.  Down to 170 I go.  So about a month before each tournament I go about eating extremely plain chicken, tuna, broccoli and other things I find to be absolutely horrid tasting.  Weigh ins come, I make weight and Hey! It’s time to eat good stuff now!  So now I’m in the mindset of, “Hey, I just tortured myself for 4-6 weeks, I can treat myself for a few days and then start eating right (or what I thought was right at the time) again.”  But therein lies the problem, once I gave myself those “few days” to eat whatever I wanted, I got in a routine of eating whatever I wanted which eventually got to the point of eating really lean stuff before tournaments just to make weight and really horrible the rest of the time.  But whatever, I train really hard.

Fast forward again.  This time it’s the year 2010.  By this time, Tait has given me the opportunity to get out of working crappy 9-5′s and graveyard shifts and be a part of the institution that changed my life and give it purpose.  (That’s a whole blog post in itself.)  We got ourselves a CrossFit affiliation and a tidal wave of new information with it.  There was this thing called “The Paleo Diet” that everybody was talking about.  Hmmm, what’s this all about?  Lean meats, fruits & vegetables and nuts & seeds.  Wow.  **** that.  I refuse to give up bread and cheese.  My life wouldn’t be worth living without that kind of deliciousness.  Then we (the gym) start up a gym wide paleo challenge.  Ok, I’m down to try it and see what’s it about.  Besides, I’m a certified CrossFit instructor; I want to be able to talk to the athletes about it and have answers for them so I read the book by Dr. Loren Cordain and sign up for the challenge.  I decide that I’ll go crazy going 100% paleo right off the bat and that I’m going to give myself 3 cheat meals a week.  Here’s another fun fact about me: I have a really hard time with moderation.  Once I give myself an excuse to cheat, it opens the flood gates.  It basically became that those 3 meals were the paleo meals and the rest were the “cheats”.  Ok, I can’t eat paleo.  I’m too much of a glutton and it’s too hard.  I just can’t do it.  But whatever, I train really hard.

Spring of 2011; I’ve now seen my good friends and the majority of our athletes eating a strict paleo diet and having phenomenal results.  I’m genuinely jealous. I WANT that.  I have a conversation with myself.  What is more powerful: my gluttony or my desire to be the best athlete I can be?  **** this.  The past 3 years have been filled me doing things I never thought I would be able to do.  I CAN do this.  I AM going to do this.  I finally get around to reading ‘The Paleo Solution’ by Robb Wolf.  (A MUST read for anybody interested in paleo.)  The beginning of April, we start a paleo challenge for the jiu jitsu guys.   This time around, I decide that I’m going with no cheats, so I don’t open those flood gates again.  Two weeks in I notice that I am waking up long before my alarm is set to go off and I’m feeling way more rested.  3rd week in, I notice that I haven’t had an anxiety attack (which I usually got at least a couple times a week) in about 3 weeks.  I’ve now been on a (mostly) strict paleo diet for 2 months and can honestly say, they have been the best 2 months of my life (not counting a weekend in LA, but that’s another story).  It’s been such a tremendous eye opening experience for me.  I came to realize that the whole idea of “it’s ok to eat crappy because I train hard” is flawed on so many levels.  The analogy I like to use when talking to people is that our bodies are like a high performance sports car.  If we take care of it like we’re supposed to, it will run extraordinarily well, like it’s supposed to.  But if you put in the lowest grade gasoline and the cheapest oil and parts, it’s going to run horribly.

So going back to the beginning and my upcoming drop in weight.  Remember how I said I usually compete at 170lbs and have to diet for about a month to get there?  Well, since eating paleo, I’ve found myself naturally weighing about 172lbs and deciding that the best decision for this next tournament would be to drop down to the 155lb weight class.  Which also ties into something else we are discussing a lot: goal setting.  My goal is to make 155lbs for this tournament on July 30th, as well as succeed at a 50in box jump by August 1st.

WHAT ARE YOUR GOALS???? WRITE THEM HERE IN THE COMMENTS OR GRAB A COACH!!!! OR BOTH!!!!

Nate Harris

We are very blessed to have a great group of kids in our Kids’ Jiu Jitsu program. Jiu Jitsu is a great way for kids to learn discipline and build confidence while learning a skill that will serve them their entire lives and having loads of fun with their friends!

Congratulations to Nico Roth on getting promoted

from his white belt to his egg belt!

(White with a yellow stripe)

Nico consistently shows dedication and drive and is definitely one of the toughest 6 year olds you’ll meet!

Great job, Nico!