Keith Owen speaks to the Fighting Photographer

Keith Owen contacted me after reading one of my DVD reviews on www.lockflow.com website and asked me to review his new DVD release, Favourite Moves Volume 1. After doing the review I thought why the hell don’t I interview the guy and find out a little more about this Pedro Sauer black belt?


CF: Keith, let’s start with the new DVD release; how did the project come about?

KO: Thanks for interviewing me Carl, this project came about because all the videos that I was watching seemed to be the same old tired stuff or for the most flexible of people. If you’ll look around you’ll see a lot of videos that you have to be Gumby (editor’s note: “HEY!”) to pull off moves. Pedro Sauer Jiu-Jitsu isn’t like that. It’s all about easy ways to make a person tap for the “average” person. You can’t get more average then me so I decided to give it a shot and do a video and see if the BJJ and MMA Community liked it. I was going to show people literally MY favourite moves. The moves that I do all the time. These are moves that many can be done without the gi so it would appeal to the largest crowd. People shouldn’t be fooled by the fact that I’m wearing a gi. They will be pleasantly surprised to see that for many of the techniques, no gi is required.


CF: What else do you feel sets your DVD apart from the already crowded BJJ instructional world?

KO: I see a lot of videos that are done by “World Champions.” I want to say that I’m not a “World Champion” Jiu-Jitsu player. What I am, at the risk of sounding a bit egotistical, is a World Champion TEACHER. I am highly sceptical that many world champions are going to be giving away there best moves on DVD’s for their competition to get a hold of. Me, I don’t care! Take my best moves; I’ll come up with others! And what’s more, world champions might be able to do the moves but can they teach “you” their moves. From what I have seen lately, it appears not.


CF: Who would you like to thank in connection with the DVD?

KO: I want to thank my camera man and director Tren (not Trent) Long. He is one of my blue belts and is a camera whiz. He came up with a new concept for the video where we would do break away shots (A and B Roll) instead of having me turn my partner for a different angle for people to see every time. It’s amazing and makes the whole production top shelf. I owe him a lot. I want to also thank my assistants in the video Jim “crazy eyes” Pardy on Video One and Matt Owen who will be on Vol 2. They both took my abuse and didn’t complain once.







CF: Please tell me you’re going to be releasing a volume 2 soon?

KO: Tren is working on editing the video now and we should have it in another month or so. I am already getting requests for it. I can’t believe it!


CF: This might be a personal question but for all the fantastic material, how come
you only charge $24.95. You could probably get away with a bit more, don’t you think?

KO: That was very personal Carl (smiles) but we felt that video pirating is out of control in the BJJ world. We knew that if we charged too much- people will just pirate the video for their friends. We believe that people will see the inexpensive price and awesome moves and say “Hey I’m just going to buy this video.” Also, we want to give an extraordinary value for the money including free videos on You Tube and my website bjjmoves.com.


CF: You credited a number of instructors on your DVD regarding the techniques used; have you made any adjustments to these techniques or have you kept them as they are?

KO: Nope, I just taught them the way I learned them. But I have come up with a bunch of new moves from the Sitting Mount, where you sit on your opponent’s chest for various techniques. You can find the sitting mount on www.youtube.com


CF: Where do you teach Keith? How many clubs do you have?

KO: I teach in Boise Idaho. Idaho is a wonderful state and I love it there.


CF: Do you teach anything else besides BJJ?

KO: I teach several programs at my school. I teach Bruce Lee Gung-Fu, Tai Kung-Fu and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. They are all separate programs. I have about 150 students at my school, with about half being BJJ kids and adults.


CF: How did you meet Pedro and how long have you been with him?

KO: I found Professor Sauer about thirteen years ago. He was only one of about 5 people in the nation teaching BJJ at the time.


CF: Did he give you your black belt?

KO: Yes and I count myself fortunate for saying it.


CF: How did you get into BJJ?

KO: I watched Royce Gracie in UFC 1 and 2 and said I have to learn that!! I was already a black belt in Kung-Fu and had my own school. I was about 23 at the time. I met a guy named Dean Heilieman, he asked me if I had ever heard of the Gracies and I said yes. I told him I was going to go look for an instructor in Gracie Jiu-Jitsu. I found Professor Sauer in Salt Lake City Utah and then Dean and I started training together. I would show Dean what I learned from class. Dean died of cancer several years ago but not before getting his BJJ Black Belt from Professor Sauer. Dean achieved something great in his short life.


CF: Has anyone else graded you apart from Pedro?

KO: No, but I did study with Sergio Penha when I lived in Las Vegas for two years. That guy knows a lot of Jiu-Jitsu. He beat me like a rug. He is a very great man. I also studied with Lowell Anderson for a short time.


CF: How big an influence is Pedro in your jiu jitsu and in your life?

KO: I want to say right now that Professor Pedro Sauer is the greatest Jiu-Jitsu instructor in the world. He knows more tricks and easy moves then any instructor I have ever