Ever since I was a child, I've been captivated by martial arts and fighting movies, always believing that one day I'd replicate the awe-inspiring moves that fascinated me. However, before I could fully understand the intricacies of Karate and Kung Fu, a traumatic incident struck very close to home—a family member was brutally attacked, beaten to the point of being unrecognizable.
This was a profoundly difficult period in my life, not only because of the violence that touched my family but also because of my youth and vulnerability. Being quite young and only starting to explore self-defense, I was acutely aware of how easily I, too, could have been harmed. Who was I kidding? I was only a small kid, barely starting to explore self-defense. Part of me still spent time worrying about a large enough gust of wind taking me away to who knows where when stepping outside.
After my family's incident, I told myself that someday I'm going to learn everything I need to know to not only defend myself, but to defend all of my loved ones if that time ever came. Well life happened and while focusing on my education and a career, I realized that all of a sudden I was in my early 30's and I really hadn't dedicated any long period of time to any martial arts.
One day, I mustered up the guts to shoot off an email—yep, not even a call! I reached out to this Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu school nearby, just asking how to dip my toes in. And guess what? They said, "Sure, come on down, first class is on us!" Talk about nerves! I spent days freaking out, picturing all kinds of crazy stuff behind those Jiu-Jitsu doors. But you know what? I did it! I pushed through, walked right in, and bam! Met some super chill instructors who I still hang with today. And from that day forward, I never once glanced back.
I trained mostly to learn and to defend myself like I told myself that day as a kid and I did that pretty consistently for about 10 years, until my instructors said, "Hey Albert, black belt's coming your way soon—better come up with something epic to say." Was that the end of my journey? Of course not, why would I stop now just because I reached black belt status, which by the way was one of the greatest days of my life. I loved training with and meeting other passionate people and hearing about their whys.
My focus has shifted a little and I now enjoy training others, providing as much value as possible to them and for whatever their goals may be, I'm here to help make them better. Better at Jiu-Jitsu or just becoming a better person. 'Cause let's face it, that's exactly what Jiu-Jitsu did for me.
