Small world brother! haha
Indeed!
At the time, I lived in Lancaster, CA.
My kid brother told me about "Gracie jujitsu" ... and, as a boxer, I didn't believe in "martial arts" as being very effective in a real fight, as I thought MA was basically just "play fighting in a gi."
My brother told me I was wrong, that BJJ was the real deal, and he drove up from San Diego to show me.
Repeatedly and consistently, my kid brother (whose @$$ I had beat-up my whole life, including when we boxed together) would quickly and efficiently
take me down and submit me, every GD time <45>
I was instantly "a believer," and as such, I could no longer walk the earth with my kid brother able to beat my ass <Lmaoo> ... so I traveled from Lancaster to Torrance, 3x a week, and trained with the Gracies for about three years.
When I learned about Rickson Gracie, I started to train there in, Santa Monica, but Rickson never personally taught one single class. I forget the name of his instructors, because I didn't stay that long, but they were sloppier in their technique then were Fabio Santos and Lowell Anderson, who were very clean and their techniques
Later, I moved to San Diego, and so had Fabio Santos.
I trained with Fabio for about a year, which was right before Dean Lister turned pro.
Fabio is a great dude and so was Dean, who was a purple belt at the time and really good, but as I said hadn't turned pro.
With more time invested, Dean became a master at leg locks, and ultimately had a pretty decent MMA career
Now I'm an old man who lives in AZ, I no longer train, except for a home weightlifting gym, but still a big-time fan.
Cheers and nice to meet you,
Jack
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