You've also studied other grappling arts in addition to BJJ, right? Can you tell us about that?

Actually, when I first started BJJ, I was very narrow minded. I thought BJJ was the best and nothing else compared. I felt like I was pretty invincible even though I was just a beginner. Pretty funny, eh? Well, one day, my college roommate came and told me that he grappled with a Russian guy who was wearing a beat up old brown belt. He said the Russian claimed the brown belt was in judo. My roommate said that the Russian tapped him out easily and did submissions on his legs that he never felt before. I had grappled with judo brown belts before and had never met any that had such a high level of skill in submissions.

My roommate set up a time for me to meet the Russian. His name was Nick Baturin. Nick showed up with a friend of his that was also a brown belt in judo. I first grappled Nick's friend and submitted the guy fairly easily. Then I grappled Nick. Before we started, I thought, "I tapped out one judo brown belt, how tough could this be?" Well, it turned out to be one of the most eye-opening experiences I ever had.

I got manhandled. He hugged my leg and felt an incredible pain in my knee. I thought, "What the heck was that?" This was the first time I had every felt a kneelock. He then proceded to armlock and leglock me at will. After my ass kicking session, I asked Nick what art he studied. He said, "Sambo". Nick trained in Russian for 13 years and was what would be equivalent to a black belt in sambo. I then asked him why he was wearing a brown belt. He said that he also studied judo since the throws were very similar. However, he did not know all the Japanese names in judo, so that's was the only reason he still wore a brown belt and had not tested for his black belt. Talk about underestimating someone based on appearances!

After getting dominated like that, I knew I had to learn those techniques. I realized that BJJ was not the answer to everything and that it had weaknesses. After that day, Nick and I became friends and he taught me the leglocks and armlocks that he used.

What made you start studying judo?

When I was in college at UC San Diego, I tried some judo, however, I didn't really like it. I was taught a few throws, but could never execute them in action. I got impatient and gave up on it. Looking back, I now realized that I was taught in a very traditional manner which was a major factor in my inability to perform the throws in action.

After graduating college, I moved back to San Jose, CA. The closer I got to black belt in BJJ, I realized that I could handled most people effortlessly on the ground, but I really had to put in a lot of effort when trying to take my opponent down if we started from standing. So basically, I wanted to have more of a balance in my game. I didn't want to be a BJJ black belt that had to bust a hernia trying to take someone down. So, I decided to give judo one more chance.

I contacted the judo instructor who taught a class at San Jose State University. Since I was unfamiliar with judo, I did not know that the SJSU team was one of the top judo teams in the nation. The instructor of the class was Dave Williams. Dave taught judo in a manner that was very different from what I had experienced in college. In addition, he also taught the European style of judo which I had never seen before. Besides training with Dave, I wanted to get extra practice, so I hooked up with a black belt from the SJSU team named Shozo Fukuda and began to take private lessons from him. Suddenly, my throwing ability increased dramatically.

Training with Dave and Shozo really opened up my eyes to what the competition style of judo was really about. I realized that there was a huge difference between the average judo black belt from the local club and a national champion. When I did throws with Dave and Shozo, they handled me like a child. It was effortless. They could do everything at half speed and I couldn't stop it. They could tell me what throw they were going to do on me and what side it was going to come from and I couldn't stop it. It was one of those experiences in which I told myself that one day, I had to have that same level of skill.

Continued in Part 6...