- Joined
- Jun 1, 2004
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Obviously it is harder now then when I was coming up because you have people strictly only doing bjj and nothing else. I just believe we should promote the youngsters who are doing other things plus bjj.
They do sometimes. Mikey was in college while he was winning all those titles and he was studying to be a lawyer, but I don't know if he changed his mind or is just postponing it to do BJJ. His sister won her world title while she was in law school. She competed yesterday in the big WNO tournament and got 3rd even though she is now a full time lawyer. Flo did a feature on Grace Gundrum where she talked about going to school for computer science, working for some microchip company and training. She just got 2nd place yesterday. Shane Jamil Hill Taylor also won his world championship while going to college and I think he has graduated now.
I think the biggest thing is age. People who start young are already set skill-wise by the time they get their blackbelt, so they only need to work on things like strategy and getting stronger. They can do that while working or going to school. If you start at 25 you need to make up for all those hours you lost and time isn't on your side. The Ruotolo borthers can work at McDonalds 40 hours a week and still get 2nd or 3rd in major tournaments. That said I believe together the brothers won $65,000 this weekend. I wouldn't be surprised if they cleared 6 figures from grappling this year. I'm glad people are finally able to make a living from grappling.