Joel Santiago Martial Arts | entertaining podcast with the talented black belt jiu jitsu coach

Joel Santiago  0:01  
Then as everybody doing today,

Jose Flores  0:03  
we're doing good. Talking about you're going to record your own.

Joel Santiago  0:08  
Do My Own demo track track the hottest track of summer 2021. You know, I only do jujitsu part time. Really an upcoming star.

Jose Flores  0:20  
How long have you been doing that?

Joel Santiago  0:21  
My whole life, man. 30 years have been awesome.

Jose Flores  0:24  
That's awesome. That's awesome. Well, thank you for coming on. Thank you for having me here. The place looks great, sir. I mean, it hasn't changed one bit and I kind of stopped liking a year ago.

Joel Santiago  0:37  
Exactly. Your sins we had to close because of the whole situation.

Jose Flores  0:41  
Yeah. Yeah. And it looks great. I mean, thank you for having me. It feels good. Thanks.

It's kind of fun doing podcast.

It is it is. It's pretty, pretty fun. I'm getting I'm still getting used to it. It's. It's a work in progress. But

Joel Santiago  0:58  
I like to be comfortable with yourself.

Jose Flores  1:02  
Yeah, yeah. You're right about that one. So let's, let's get started. How old were you when you started to get to?

Joel Santiago  1:09  
When I started to get to I was 1818. Yeah, I started a 2008

Jose Flores  1:16  
right after graduating high school. Oh, wow. And any reason why or?

Joel Santiago  1:21  
It's gonna be funny, but it wasn't even my idea. It was my homies. I did. Really? Yeah, my friend. He wanted to be an MMA fighter do the whole jujitsu thing. And I was a gamer all I ever did was play video games. I got the UFC 2009 video game with voice craft on the cover. I got really good at that game. I I became like, ranked number one in the world online using Forrest Griffin and now always win by submission because the jujitsu

Jose Flores  1:54  
so part of you want it to the digit to

Joel Santiago  1:56  
fire me one of the geeky side of me love the whole, because the game was really good at explaining jujitsu, the ground rules and all that, and I was a geek, I went through the whole tutorial. So all my friends said he wanted to be an MMA fighter. I'm like, he should do jujitsu. Alright, first thing I suggested.

Jose Flores  2:15  
Okay, and now was Mr. Lima, located here. Was he located somewhere else at the time? Nah. So

Joel Santiago  2:21  
he was located on seventh of Redondo in Long Beach. And my school St. Anthony High School, our school bus would drive by there every day. And it made a stop because there was a bus stop right in front of the Academy. And that will stop right there every day before wonderful ball practice. And I always just see guys in PJs practicing. Because I didn't know what it was. I just saw the name jujitsu.

Jose Flores  2:48  
So I mean, do you know that and I when I found this out, I was like, wow, Mr. Lima is very well known in the Jiu Jitsu community online. He's like a rock star. Yeah.

Joel Santiago  2:59  
So every time we go to a tournament or anything, I can't go more than two or three feet without somebody bumping into him and saying, Oh, hi, professor. And they're like worshiping the

Jose Flores  3:10  
guy who walks in. It's crazy. Now that you realize who you was when you walked in, or

Joel Santiago  3:17  
I'll be honest, I don't know anything. Nothing about nada. Like kois was in the room, and I didn't ever know who he was. And it was holy. It's crazy. And I'm, I'm here about some information. And you know, Professor Wagner is very Oh, hey, yeah, come on them. You need some information. Very helpful. Very polite.

Jose Flores  3:38  
Yeah. He's very accommodating. He's awesome. I mean, that for the first time coming. Yeah. Come on, in. Come on in. Well, I don't have a gear to train in jujitsu and

Joel Santiago  3:49  
try that first class or free. Second, third. If you like it, then we can talk later.

Jose Flores  3:53  
Yeah. I mean, that was awesome. I love it. And like I said, I do miss it here. Now tell me more. So do you remember your first class? How did that go? Or you

Joel Santiago  4:05  
get to class? My first class and mutual gown was actually a wrestling class. Okay? Because I came in on a Thursday to get the information. And then he was like, warnings to get to classes Saturday, I didn't want to come in and I'm like, What do you guys do Friday, Friday with the wrestling. And my mind wrestling was WWE. So I'm like, Oh, you guys have wrestling? I'm like, Can I do that? And he's like, you know, you know, wrestling in the wrestling before. I'm like, I know what wrestling is. And you know, I'm having like little visuals in my head of guys. And tides, jumping in flippity flopping off the rim ropes and all that stuff. That's what I'm thinking.

Jose Flores  4:47  
You're gonna be jumping up the ribbon.

Joel Santiago  4:51  
Like pro wrestling. Yeah. So I come in the next day and they're on the mats with shoes and I'm like, looking around like We're gonna practice in the back because I saw some rope back there. But it was it was for the UFC, like the little cage for the fighters there. And I'm like, wait, what are we doing that and then he starts teaching me wrestling coach Joey and I was like, I was hooked. I got beat up so much in one day that I was like, Okay, I want an unrest that I forgot why I even came for jujitsu.

Jose Flores  5:24  
Oh, wow. So you got beat up the first day and then the following day at jujitsu class

Joel Santiago  5:29  
join. I didn't even realize that I just joined I just came in. My friend did the demo trial to like I joined with five people actually.

Jose Flores  5:39  
Oh, okay. And not training. Wow. So none of them stayed. You're the only one that stayed.

Joel Santiago  5:48  
I never liked to give up once I started something.

Jose Flores  5:51  
That that's awesome. Yeah, that's good. And do you still talk to those friends then?

Joel Santiago  5:56  
We're still good friends. You know, they're two of them are in real estate. Two of them became firemen. And the other guy says, you know, he's very lucky. Well, he's well off in life. Okay.

Jose Flores  6:09  
Do they regret stopping

Joel Santiago  6:11  
now, your different situations life. I started going to school, they started focusing on their careers, firefighter, whatever. One of them my kids, you know, life happens. They talk about coming back all the time. But that's just how people always want to come back. I want to come back, back, but they never actually come back.

Jose Flores  6:34  
Yeah. Trust me. I know. Very well. So tell me more about you coming up in the ranks coming up your training. How did that go? How was that? Was it awesome?

Joel Santiago  6:47  
It was awesome. I remember I'll be I wasn't the youngest guy in the class besides Taylor at the time, you know, Taylor. So me and Taylor were the youngest two guys in the class. Were both 18 and the closest person to our age at the time was David who's up there in that picture the very last one. Yeah, he was 2425 he was the closest Omar ah Wow.

Jose Flores  7:14  
Yes. And like you said you didn't know anything about Mr. Lima at the time. How long did it took you to for that to sit in to say wow, I mean, I'm in this studio or this academy with the legend

Joel Santiago  7:30  
it still didn't even click and I got just a normal person you know somebody that was always very helpful to me guiding me kind of like a father figure. Yeah, always gave me good advice gave me the right opinions what to do if I was a very quiet kid. So like, coming up and you get to all the way up until purple Bramble I never talked to nobody really. Like I would just come train, get beat up, leave, go to work, go to school, do it the next day. And that was just like that for years and years and then Ebola will always give me advice at the class do this do this. I will talk to them little advisors about my business that I the time he helped me a lot and like different situations, you know? Yeah, that's why when he asked me if I if I want to help him out with the kids class, I didn't even hesitant.

Jose Flores  8:23  
Okay, he just stepped right in there.

Joel Santiago  8:25  
Yeah. Because at the time, I think Matt and David had just left to do their own thing.

Jose Flores  8:33  
Okay, you know, yeah.

So on this I mean, I tell this to the kids a lot and I tell this even to the adult is not how fast you get to your next room because the journey there is speaking of that, do you have any any you remember any story or anything during your training that that journey like wow, that that one sticks with you? Like any part

Joel Santiago  8:58  
learn any rank? Well, now, I almost quit a few times actually, believe it or not, Oh, wow. Yeah, but there was this guy. He passed away his name was Javi he was he will always train with me since I was a white boy. He was like I guess my training partner and it sounds Yeah, we will park next to each other we always partner up. We had we came he was a two stripe white belt when I first joined. But back then, if he even saw black though, it was like seeing a dinosaur was red. It was like a legend. Like, oh my god is this like 1008? Like there was like now you walk into Academy you see five Sigma Black Belt?

Jose Flores  9:40  
Yeah, yeah.

Joel Santiago  9:42  
You see a black wheel? Oh my god. Like I remember one time like Audrey Lord Gracie was just standing on the mat. And I didn't really know what it was until I was looking at the poster on the wall. And I'm looking at him. And I'm like, hey, that's the guy on the poster.

Jose Flores  9:58  
That's awesome. Yeah. Do you ever get to roll with them? And

Joel Santiago  10:02  
yeah, so every Friday we will do open mats and they will come and rolling with hoists is like being in quicksand. The more you move, the more you fall, the more you're saying the more you die. And then rolling with hot drink or crazy. It's like, imagine you're a piece of wood. And he's a wood chipper.

Jose Flores  10:27  
He's gonna carbon Do whatever you want.

Joel Santiago  10:29  
Everything he does hurts. Everyone he touches you hurts. If he just points at you, that hurts. shake his hand that hurts. you hug him It hurts. He lays on you. It hurts. But that was the style he came up with, you know, cuz he was a fighter. He was an MMA fighter. Okay. His whole style of jujitsu was GO GO GO pressure, pressure, pressure. style was self defense is more like, protect yourself, defend yourself. So the combination of the two styles of jujitsu is pretty like crazy. And then you have a valdo? Who does both?

Jose Flores  11:07  
He Yes.

Joel Santiago  11:09  
Because he learned from both.

Jose Flores  11:11  
Oh, okay.

Joel Santiago  11:12  
Yeah. And now he will, even though he will train with hoists. And that was like put sparring partner, he will go to train with hot drew or like, why would you will deal with here he will use the academy on Sabbath to train a lot. Wow. That's how ivalo got to champion both of them. And then I just got to benefit because I just was the guy that showed up every day, and then stayed after classes watching. Like I remember as a white belt like that we're doing a move and then like, go back to we're doing Don't worry about what we're doing yesterday. But I would just try to like kind of know what they doing and kind of keep an eye out. And every time they see me looking, I just tend to look away.

Jose Flores  11:57  
So I was because I know there's a big tournament held at the pyramid here in Long Beach. I

Joel Santiago  12:03  
was the ibjjf Pan Am's I believe Yeah.

Jose Flores  12:06  
So is was that being held at the time?

Joel Santiago  12:13  
I don't know about I'll be honest, I never competed up until I was almost a Brahma. Okay. And that was because I went to school and worked on the weekends. Oh, it was never something that I was chasing jujitsu was never something that I thought I was gonna end up doing Jiu Jitsu was just something that I did. I grew up playing sports. I grew up doing everything. So like I told you right when High School. My friends said he wanted to be a fighter. And I'm like, Oh, that was literally all I said. He's like, yeah, you know, plays and I'm like, what about that place that the buzzer we stopped buying? And that's how we ended up on a wall. And then I just stuck around because I liked it. Yeah, I like the mindset work like that. It doesn't matter how bad the situation gets yours always away out mindset.

Unknown Speaker  13:05  
Yeah. And

Joel Santiago  13:06  
then he teaches you the warrior code, the seven virtues and 753 code, like the whole philosophy of jujitsu, the old school ways that became a way of life. And even though every day I train Monday through Sunday, Monday through Friday, Saturday and Sundays, I will go to work. And those two days, I will work 36 hours, just so I could focus on just training and going to school Monday through Friday.

Jose Flores  13:32  
Wow.

Joel Santiago  13:34  
So for literally the last before call the head. Yeah. I was training almost every day for 11 years. But I'll take him and break that. So when COVID when COVID and all that thing happened, and we close her three months. Those three months was the longest I've gone training

Jose Flores  13:54  
in 11 years. Wow. Without training without training. Yeah. That's crazy. So now, you said you didn't start tournaments? To your Rambo? Yes. Do you remember your first tournament?

Unknown Speaker  14:07  
Yeah, it was at

Jose Flores  14:08  
jujitsu all league. Morning. How was that?

Joel Santiago  14:13  
My first match was okay. What was my points? My second match, I kind of got my butt kicked by like this kid. That's pretty good. Now, and I was like, Yeah, but it was fun. Yeah, like, I guess I I never realized how competitive I was. Till I did a tournament and I lost and even though I lost I was like, I want to do next fun. Like I started learning the point system. Because before I didn't know about coins, I didn't know about none of that. I don't know, what's the strategy and it was just the same old mindset of it's just another day of open Matt I'm sitting it goes bar.

Jose Flores  14:51  
Yeah. So you say you don't know the point and to anybody that's listening and that wants to probably get into jujitsu. What is the point? What do you mean by the point system maybe they want to start their first tournament and they don't know about the point. So what is that?

Joel Santiago  15:04  
So one jujitsu is like you know, let's say, five minutes The match is five minutes long. We have five minutes to try and submit each other. But what happens all the time it's very hard to submit somebody in five minutes especially they know they're doing so they start keeping track of points depending on let's say you do a takedown or takedown is two points. Okay? The past the guys guard that's three points, neon, barely two points, mound four points, etc, etc. Sometimes it's not the guy who's the best jujitsu is who plays the game the best who knows how to work the rules, he knows how to score points. And I started learning that as a brown girl and now as a black belt like a lot of it is just some of these guys they fight for the position because they're good at that position. Yeah, and they know if I get here I'm gonna score Oh, I'm gonna submit or I'm gonna be no their game already started learning that later on. That's why a lot of people get pulled guard because they know if I get to this position. That's it. Yeah, when they don't waste time trying to take the person down. They'd rather just pull hard and then people that have good takedowns they're like if I get an early takedown that's two points for the shooting. So it's like playing the game.

Jose Flores  16:24  
Yeah. Okay. And the you know, I mean, obviously both our systems are very different however when I did tournament I was seeing the same people every time that I went up against Yes, that happened with you

Joel Santiago  16:40  
in jujitsu. You'll see a lot of the same guys.

Unknown Speaker  16:43  
So you

Joel Santiago  16:44  
will find some of the same guys as a black male already.

Jose Flores  16:47  
Okay, well, that's I'm trying to get back to that one guy that he said that was really good. When you were telling me that you want to win my first bra. Yeah. Have you ever seen him again?

Joel Santiago  16:56  
Or you bought him again as a black belt? Actually

Jose Flores  16:58  
bid 200 then go I only lost my points so

Joel Santiago  17:01  
okay. So that kind of like the times already returned. First time we destroy me honestly. Okay. I think she did what's known as learn bolo took my back. Yeah. Next thing you know, he choked me. Oh, that was the first time and that was the first time I kind of saw that. Baron bolo stuff. Yes, we do. Self Defense jujitsu.

Jose Flores  17:26  
Okay, so there's weight. There's different types of

Unknown Speaker  17:30  
you could say jujitsu, I guess tech. Okay.

Joel Santiago  17:32  
There's there's point style where you don't worry about getting hit. You don't worry about getting punched you don't worry about anything that's gonna come with a fight. You can worry about scoring points in a jujitsu tournament. Okay, so the fast you get to your main concern is the situation. Are you trying to hit me? Do you have a weapon? Is there people around? What's going on? Yeah, already is to defend myself.

Jose Flores  17:57  
Okay.

Joel Santiago  17:58  
For this. I just want to score a point. Yeah. Lay on my back is on crazy flippy floppy spinning moving? Yeah, do any if like let's say if I'm on site, and I'm in and you pick me up in a jujitsu tournament. If you slam me. You get disqualified. I went out there. You slammed me. You knock me out. Then you still stopped me out?

Jose Flores  18:22  
Yeah, I know. Yeah. So

Joel Santiago  18:24  
no one's no one. There's no one to stop that out there. No, there's

Jose Flores  18:27  
really not.

Joel Santiago  18:29  
As you walk out those doors. Anything is open.

Jose Flores  18:32  
Yeah. That is very true.

Joel Santiago  18:34  
That's why like, like I started like, now I practice one of the points system. Okay, but we still do self defense jujitsu every day. We teach.

Jose Flores  18:44  
Yeah.

Joel Santiago  18:45  
We'll never ask anybody to compete here. We don't even force people to compete. I tell if I compete if some kids compete does because they might see me sign up and they're like, coach, can I do a tournament with a yes or whatever? Yeah, we want to do it. We'll be there for you. We're not gonna say no, you're not ready.

Jose Flores  19:02  
Yeah, no, no, that's that's the thing. Mr. Lima would always be like, hey, you want to do a tournament? I was like, maybe next one. He's like, All right. I'll remind you and he never pressured me.

Joel Santiago  19:13  
He encourages it because it's just a way of seeing where you're at in your jujitsu, because it's the closest thing you have to be in a fight without getting in a fight. Yeah. But at the same time, he reminds you this is tournament rules. A lot of things you could do here you cannot do out there.

Jose Flores  19:33  
Yeah, no, but I'm sorry to cut you off. I noticed that with his tournament. I love them because there was no time limit. First one to submit.

Joel Santiago  19:44  
That's how he came up. Yeah, like the way he started training this. Two guys walk in that room when you want to use walking out. However long it takes you guys it's up to you guys. Whether you tap out the Cuz he caught it caught in a submission, or Dude, it's been two hours. I'm tired of fine. I get by I typed out, you win.

Jose Flores  20:07  
So you've done both.

Joel Santiago  20:09  
I've done okay.

Jose Flores  20:10  
Let's go to the one where there's no time limit. What's the longest you've gotten an hour in 35 minutes. And now we're.

Joel Santiago  20:20  
Oh, yeah, but we're both like young guys. Like, I think I didn't even see it as a tournament. It was just I was a blue belt or any ball do I say, Hey, we're doing this event this weekend. You want to fight somebody? Okay. And then I show up as long as a tournament we're gonna do the time limit knows I was always I've always liked it. But every time ivalo asked me, I got you a fight this weekend. You want to do it on my Yeah, whatever. In my mind, I know. One or two things are gonna happen either. I'm gonna go there and when and stuff I've been doing worse, or two, I'm gonna learn I gotta do something better because I just got my ass kicked. Yeah. Like, I'm not afraid to lose. I'm not afraid to put myself out there. You know? Yes. Mouth don't get fed. As my mom always told me.

Jose Flores  21:10  
Yeah, no, that's what's good. That's, you know, that was good about not being afraid to lose. You learn so much more.

Joel Santiago  21:19  
Yeah. And without any defeat, there wouldn't be any victories.

Jose Flores  21:23  
That is true. That is very true. Now. So obviously, you started doing tournaments that have brown belt, blue belt, there was little tournament. Now. I know. ranking is different in our systems. The and I mean, I'm just the blue out here with you guys. But I could tell when I was getting a little bit better, a little bit better a little better. Were you able to tell yourself like, oh, man, cuz while you're training, you're like, my getting better. like am I even

Joel Santiago  21:54  
thought I always thought like, even even even now. I don't think I'm that good people. When people say oh, you're too good on my bank. You I appreciate it. I'm not gonna say I'm not but you know, I always feel like when I first started, I got my ass kicked every day. Everybody, like people always ask me like, when do you start catching submissions, Bro, I was probably like a purple bow live now we'll get lucky if I will catch anything. No, cuz a lot of the guys I was training with we're all higher belts than me. Yeah, like I was always the lowest bolt in the room for the longest time. And then eventually, you know, I just kept coming people stopped coming in. I kept coming in when those guys would come back. They're still the same belt. They were I'm still the same bill but they haven't been training I've so my timing is better. My rhythm is better. Next thing you know, I'm catching up to them. Next thing you know, they come even less and I keep coming. Then when they come back again. I'm better than I was last time and then it the cycle just kept progressing. You know, there's people that were purple bow and I was a white boy that are still purple books.

Jose Flores  23:04  
Yeah. Oh, man. That's insane. So running with Mr. Lima. I mean, it's so much fun.

Joel Santiago  23:12  
It's an honor, man. It's awesome. Like even now people still ask me this question might have even seen like the light of the day at the end of the tunnel. I have I haven't been close to catching them. And I'm like, if he lets me Yeah, like if he lets me and you could tell he's letting me cuz he's, he's just kind of moving his neck giving them to you giving you arm and I'll go for knowing I'm not gonna get it. Anyway, I get it. I just like he led me.

Jose Flores  23:40  
Yeah, I mean, obviously, there's way different levels between you and I you like you're way better than I am. But when I roll with things like, Oh, come on. You almost got me. Or you almost. You almost hit me. So does he do that to you are listening all the time?

Joel Santiago  23:56  
Tom, it feels like the best way I could describe it. You seen that scene then? The Lion King when scar is playing with the mouse? Same thing. He's a lion, and I'm just a little mouse and I'm just running in between his fingers.

Jose Flores  24:12  
That's how we I guess that's how we all feel, man.

Joel Santiago  24:15  
All he has to do is decide to eat me. Yeah. That's all he has to do. He's like today the day.

Jose Flores  24:23  
That's awesome. How long you got? Well, let's backtrack a bit. So he obviously saw something in you that you were because you're very enthusiastic. You're very confident. And like you said, You didn't start feeling that you were a purple belt. When you started feeling the confidence coming in talking more. You know, being more enthusiastic. I

Joel Santiago  24:43  
started talking more to people mostly because I started hanging out more to help and now more. Well, I didn't talk to them about it because believe it or not, I'm actually bad shot.

Jose Flores  24:55  
Yeah. Okay. I'm

Joel Santiago  24:56  
like the shyest guy but then ones I'm not shy. I want your friend Dora. Just keep talking. But I will I wouldn't talk to people because my schedule was always like crazy. Like literally hours. I planned everything just to be in jujitsu train, do open man. And then I have to go old school go to work, but whatever. Yeah, so I didn't have time to hang out and do anything once I graduated school. And then I had the business at the time, it was going good. And I had more free time, I started hanging out more with people started hanging out more after class started talking more. And then, you know, I guess as people started seeing, and you really talk a lot. And I'm like, well, that's how I am is not is always something on mine, I guess.

Jose Flores  25:51  
Yeah. So when he approached you, and you want to help me out, you know, instructing kids and you

Joel Santiago  25:56  
saw that I was coming every day, even on weekends. Okay, cuz so I was, I had graduated, I graduated college, I finished school. My business was doing very well, to the point where I didn't even have to go show up to work. I just had to basically, make sure the inventory was good. So I was literally here every day. And like I told you, I started hanging out after class. Yeah, started talking. And then he realized that he's like, Wait, you're here every day now? Like, even on weekends that I couldn't come on weekends, what's happening? Are you okay? That I got fired or something? I'm like, I'm taking the year off. And he's like, What do you mean, you're taking a year off? I'm taking a year off, like, work on my life since I was 14. Yeah, I've gone to school. I've done all this. I'm 24. I just finished college. I'm doing okay, I just want to take a year off to do nothing. But whatever I want. And all I want to do right now is train Jiu Jitsu.

Jose Flores  26:55  
Yeah.

Joel Santiago  26:56  
So he's like, so what do you do for work? I'm like, I'm not gonna worry about it. You know, like, that's good, too. Like, if you have some free time with me, come help me out with the kids class. Yeah. No, whenever you can. And I'm like, Professor, this is what my day looks like. I wake up, play video games all day long. Come to jujitsu, go home, play video games, go to sleep. And then I repeat it the next day. So I have nothing but time. When do you want me to be? And he told me it. Can you be here, let's say Tuesday at four o'clock. I'll be here at three. So and I just started like I started coming every day, boom, boom. Eventually, he's like, Look, you wanna help me out here. You don't have to pay any more if any fact I could pay you and I'm like,

Okay.

Next thing, you know, I was gonna go back to work. But then just it just kept like, it became like, snowball. Going and growing and growing. And then the business I had at the time was at Swamy selling wholesale.

Jose Flores  28:12  
Okay. And

Joel Santiago  28:14  
I've always been good at seeing the end result of things. And at the time, Amazon was not a thing yet. Oh, coming up. Yeah. Okay. And I started seeing that people were buying more and more online. Yeah, I had two stores in San Bernardino selling women's merchandise. And then I had a couple booths in San Bernardino at the Swamis. Yeah, I sold the stores. And I sold the spaces because you know, you have to buy the spaces. And so I'm here, I sold everything. And I told I sold them to my family out there. And I'm like, I think I'm done with the swap me. I think I'm done with all this. And they're like, why are we doing so much money doing good online? I'm like, I just don't think it's gonna be good in another three to four or five years. And they're like, no, you're done. Blah, blah. You do so good. Two, three years later, like, a lot of the places we're not a business and laws are going out of business. Things are going out of business. With what happened last year. All these places I just mentioned, out of business. Swap means are pretty much gone now.

Jose Flores  29:20  
Yeah.

Joel Santiago  29:22  
The stores that I used to have that my family members took over they went out of business because they know exactly at the close. It was hard. People were buying more friends on and lucky. Leave for me. I got out at the right time, I guess. Yeah. And I just happened to have jujitsu to fall back on I wasn't looking for it. But sometimes, you know, looking for something that's when you find it. Yeah. You know, and then I'm like, you know what, I must stick around with this. Try to take it a little more serious. And then that's when you have all those like you want to compete. Why not just do it? And that's when I started competing. And so I just started learning to become black girls till I was a black belt.

Jose Flores  30:09  
Wow. That's awesome.

Joel Santiago  30:12  
Because then like I said, I started doing tournaments. I only did one tournament as a black, a brown belt. And then, like two, three months later, I got promoted to black belt.

Jose Flores  30:23  
Oh, wow.

Joel Santiago  30:24  
All right, my second tournament was as black belt monsters that I didn't even realize the level of black belt that those guys are because some of them been competing since they were white belts. So they already have an idea what they're gonna do me I'm still going in there, like, all right, do I wanna go for a takedown now have more of an understanding of what it is I like to do. But like I said, it's been a bunch of bumps in the road.

Jose Flores  30:56  
Yeah, that's crazy. So teaching wise. The we're, I mean, I know for me, it was the first class I taught was. I have butterflies in my belly. How about you?

Joel Santiago  31:09  
My first class is interesting. My first class I actually made a little girl cry. Oh.

What's her name is Aubrey one of the like, one of the coolest little girls we have here. Yeah, they if you meet her now, her dad actually we're sure Stephen like, you wouldn't even believe this story that I'm about to tell you. Cuz you're like know her. No, she's no. So she just started doing jujitsu. This was like her second or third week. She's four years old. Professor Matt went to Texas to start the new journals out there. So it was my first week of teaching by myself. And my little boy told me Look, I'm gonna be in the office. The first kids classes like four or five. I'm gonna let you do it today. I had Caden at the time helping me out and another person, Nick. He's not training no more right now. But they were helping out. And I believe Angelina to you matter. Yeah. Yeah. So it was four of us. So he's like for you for kids. Perfect. So Aubrey comes in when her dad, she's already there waiting classes at four o'clock. At four or five. She's the only one here. And I'm like, So hey, Aubrey looks like it's just gonna be you today. She starts crying. She's like, wow. cheeky little, little little girl Audrey starts crying because nobody wanted to train with her that day. And I'm freaking out. It's my first class. First time I'm teaching. I don't know what to do. She's crying already. I haven't even we haven't even gone on the mat. You're already crying. So Professor Bala like, you know him. He's like, I got this. Goes he I go on the side. He goes on the mat. talks to her starts playing around her like, puts on her back reading like your horse. You know, he gives her like a one hour private lesson basically, all that time. The whole time. I'm just watching the way he handled the situation. I was like, wow. Like he made her stop crying by literally just being friendly and talking to her and playing around with her. And even though she didn't realize that she was doing jujitsu and her mind she was riding a horse. He was just going and somebody around she was practicing double legs doing sprawls taking the back doing all these moves that now I see it but the time if you see from the outside, it looks like he's just playing around.

Jose Flores  33:50  
Yeah.

Joel Santiago  33:52  
And seeing that seeing her the way she is now I'm remembering that story is like, I still I tell that to everybody, man. Every time I see all right, like, believe it or not. She used to cry a lot.

Unknown Speaker  34:06  
That's awesome.

Joel Santiago  34:07  
Yeah, but that was my first class. So needless to say I had some butterflies. Because I made a four year old girl cry before we even got on the mat. So I was already thinking is this what is gonna be like? Like, the next day? I was already nervous.

Jose Flores  34:23  
Oh, the next

Joel Santiago  34:24  
day is the older kids from eight to 12. And you know kids, they have no mercy. They have no filter. Like, God bless them. I love them their little demons. But sometimes, you know, kids are honest.

Jose Flores  34:41  
Yeah. Oh, yeah. They're super honest. They're

Joel Santiago  34:43  
honest. If a kid tells you I've said this 100 times as a kid. You're ugly. I'm sorry.

Unknown Speaker  34:51  
Yeah, the

Joel Santiago  34:51  
kid tells you you're a little chubby. Maybe some kids are too blunt. Yeah, I think that's why love their innocence. They just say what's on their mind?

Jose Flores  35:02  
Yeah, I mean, that's

Joel Santiago  35:06  
what made me so nervous. I'm like, What if they're like, I don't like you, blah, blah, blah. What's wrong with your pain? Who's wrong with you? Not what you're feeling what's wrong with your hands. But that's why it made it so more nerve wracking for me. But eventually, you know, little by little, you get more comfortable you ease into it. Yeah, damages becomes part of nature.

Jose Flores  35:31  
That is true. Any, so any age group that you'd like to teach.

Joel Santiago  35:36  
I like the little ones, the four year olds, five year olds, because they're still very cute run the little games run around them. And when you tell them like, we're like statues when we say they were like, into the little warriors that are like frozen solid, they're still trying not to move. As they get older, you know, they start talking back. They're still nice. They're still cool. The cuteness goes away. goes away. Like,

Jose Flores  36:05  
I know exactly what you're talking about. And yeah, no. Honestly, for me, I love teaching every age group. But for me, I relate more to the eight to 12 year olds. And the only reason why because I don't know about here, but in my studio, like you said, video games, anime, all this Disney movies, whatever. So I relate to that relate to that. And it's funny because the other day I was telling the kids, I was like, hey, do you guys still Dad? And they were like, Mr. Flores.

Why are you saying that? No, we

Joel Santiago  36:38  
no longer do that. Like That's so crazy.

Jose Flores  36:41  
Yeah, we're like, oh, so I make you guys cringe.

Joel Santiago  36:45  
Which is saying that word like Oh, I can't believe you said that word. Nice. It makes you feel old bro.

Jose Flores  36:51  
Yeah, it does.

Joel Santiago  36:52  
It's It's what? Like with her, though. I told you she was four. She's 12 now she's, I believe 12 or 11? Either way. Yeah. That's I've known her mother realized already her little sister. I remember when they would like her mom was still pregnant. Yeah, she's five, six round.

Jose Flores  37:16  
It's crazy. Crazy. Time flies. Right and

Joel Santiago  37:19  
I'm telling you is crazy. Like That was when I first started. I was 24 I'm 30 now.

Jose Flores  37:24  
No way Really?

Joel Santiago  37:26  
Yeah, I

Jose Flores  37:26  
thought you were like 27 3030

Joel Santiago  37:29  
look like it when I'm getting old masters. The Masters one division.

Jose Flores  37:38  
Division. So I know what the whole COVID thing happened and whatnot. And now slowly things are opening up. I know some places don't have tournaments. Why are you planning to go into those places that hold tournament? I

Joel Santiago  37:50  
mean, I just got back from Dallas like last month.

Jose Flores  37:53  
Oh nice. How did that go?

Joel Santiago  37:55  
I lost by two points. Can I get place so that I want versus better? You know?

Jose Flores  38:03  
Yeah, but like you said

Joel Santiago  38:04  
I could I could have won that match. I've seen it a few times and there is some questionable cause I will say but at the end of the day I've always was wanting to say don't blame the rest. No Yeah, don't blame me if I if I didn't want it to end in the reps decision. I should have finished the fight. Yeah, or I should have fall better so the rest of the guys sided with me. Yeah, so I don't get mad when the rest the pic or whatever the read the side I have grown up playing sports I've always heard is my whole life. never argue with the refs. Oh, yeah. The rest can be your best friends or your worst enemies. Yep.

Jose Flores  38:40  
And not because I've seen the woman using that tournament. Yes,

Joel Santiago  38:45  
exactly. Sometimes it goes away. Sometimes it doesn't. So I don't know what the refs whatever the ref The size is your choice. Whatever I can do is improve my situation the next time. I'm gonna do Vegas in May and Phoenix also.

Jose Flores  39:01  
Okay.

Joel Santiago  39:03  
All right. Yeah, I was gonna do April next week. But I had a little injury guy. He'll look at my maypop I was out for two good days before I decided to start training. The weight the way I was brought up as went through the pain. Yeah. And then the way I was brought up in jujitsu was like self defense jujitsu. people on the streets. Don't care of your heart.

Jose Flores  39:35  
Yeah, they don't. Like

Joel Santiago  39:37  
oh, he said, Dan is the one that hurt. So, Professor valdo is taught me you got to know how to move to avoid what hurts? Yeah, because someone out there is not gonna care. But if you're walking up there with your girlfriend, and somebody wants to mess around with you or bump into you or goofing around. What are you gonna say? Well, I can't find you, sir. My knee hurts.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai