Are there any other instructors you trained with that stood out?

I was vacationing in Hawaii when I was a blue belt and decided to stop by Relson Gracie's school with a friend for some training. I participated in a group class with my friend and then we decided to take a private lesson the next day. At the end of our private lesson, Relson said that he would grapple with us. However, he had to put one arm inside his belt because that arm had gotten a spider bite that ended up getting infected. So basically, he would grapple me by only using one arm.

I knew Relson was very skilled, but I thought that I would be able to do fairly well considering that he could only use one arm. Boy, was I wrong! He pinned me down and armlocked me left and right. I was giving him all I had, but the fact that he was only using one arm didn't seem to slow him down one single bit. I was pretty impressed with that display of skill.

How did you meet and end up training with 2nd degree black belt Marco Nascimento?

Marco was a friend of Joe Moreira. I first met him when he came to the US to compete in the Pan Am competition in Florida. Before the competition, Marco was staying with Joe in California. I happened to be visiting Joe's school at the time and had the chance to grapple with Marco. He toyed with me. His game was very smooth. Joe later visited my school and brought Marco with him, so I had the chance to hang out and train with him a little more.

After the competition, Marco went back to Brazil and I didn't hear much about him for a long time. I later heard that he came back to the US and was teaching in New York. He was there for a while, but then I suddenly got a call from Joe saying he was relocating to my area. Marco ended up teaching out of a kickboxing school that was about 45 minutes north from my school.

Once I graduated college and moved, I had not been able to get instruction on a frequent and regular basis. So, this was great for me because I now had the opportunity to train with a good instructor on a very regular basis.

Have you trained with many other BJJ instructors? If so, what did you learned from those experiences and how did it affect you?

I have been fortunate enough to have trained with over a dozen BJJ black belts throughout the years. As a result, I have been able to experience both the positive and negative aspects of the art.

On one hand, I have met instructors who were extremely giving with information and genuinely cared about their students. These were instructors that taught to the best of their abilities and treated everyone fairly.

On the other hand, I have met instructors that held back techniques, scammed people for money, and even physically abused their students. The unfortunate fact is that most people that received such negative treatment never speak out against those instructors. The really sad fact is that people are more likely to speak out against the good instructors when they do the smallest thing wrong before they will ever say anything against the bad instructors.

These experiences had a definite effect on me, since I know I will forever be a student and instructor of the art. Consequently, I try to emulate all the positive qualities and I know I will never do the negative things I saw or experienced. In addition, it has really made me appreciate good instructors. When I say that certain instructors are good, it's not based on their reputation or what other people say, but rather based on my first hand experience and my ability to comparing them to many other BJJ black belts.

As far as what I learn about the art of BJJ itself, having trained with many different instructors made me see that there is no single correct or incorrect way of doing things. Every instructor has their own personal preferences. I used to get so confused when one instructor would say, "Do it this way" while another instructor would say, "Do it that way". Well, which way is the correct way? It took me many year to figure out the answer - the correct way is the way that works best for me.

Continued in Part 5...