» 2008 » November

Standing in the parking lot last night

November 22nd, 2008 by Gumby

I dressed up a little nicer than usual for Strikeforce last night. OTM thermal shirt, designer jeans and a sports jacket. I have a bit of an image to uphold in San Jose lately. Most of my friends commented I looked nice, but I’m not sure how I came off standing against the rest of the crowd.

So I’m standing in the parking lot after the fight and some kid (early twenties) staggers up to me and says he wants to take my backpack. I just grinned.

I haven’t been in any kind of physical altercation outside of the confines of a dojo or competition in over five years. Before that, all I will say is that I have been in a few physical altercations outside the confines of a dojo or competition. I don’t really like to talk about it or glorify it in any sort of way other than to say there is one more reason I have such confidence and belief in Jiu Jitsu.

So I’m grinning because it’s obvious this kid has no idea the trouble he’s asking for and because as much as I hate to admit it, deep down I know I’m going to enjoy what’s going to happen. Here’s an obnoxious kid trying to steal something from me, obviously a bit intoxicated, a bit smaller than me, in a fairly crowded and well patrolled parking lock, and he’s pretty much begging for an ass kicking. Heck the world might be better off if I kicked his ass. He might even think twice before he approaches anyone in that manner again and might even turn his life around. My adrenaline is a bit up from the fights anyway, I’m going to enjoy this moment.

It’s a deja vu moment as well. Years and years ago (when I still had a regular job) I was walking in a parking lot when I was approached by two young men (actually about the same age as me at the time). I had a laptop bag on me, but no laptop inside and the decided they were going to try to take it from me. One of them was clearly extremely nervous, but on orders from the other one he tried to grab my bag. I quickly put the guy in a choke hold and told the other to back off, but then the free guy reached into his pocket and cracked me across the head hard with something. It hurt (he hit hard enough on my temple to draw blood), but what caused me to let go is he put a pistol right in my face. Okay, okay, I’m not going to get my head blown off over a twenty dollar faux leather laptop case and some paperwork and the two of them grab my bag and run away.

My instinct was to jump in my car and run them over, but after the adrenaline dump settled when I got behind the wheel I thought the better of it. Not worth it, and although not the first time in my life I’ve had a literal gun to my face (from a much, MUCH earlier time in my life) I can’t say it’s an experience I particularly relish.

So this kid is the San Jose arena parking lot saying he wants to take my backpack, and I’m standing there grinning, but after about thirty seconds his friends comes up behind him and asks him what the hell is he doing. He proceeds to push him along and apologizes, saying his friend is extremely drunk. I say “no kidding,” and then add “you better make sure he gets home safe”, while still grinning.

Someone got extremely lucky tonight.

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Opening an Academy in downtown San Jose

November 15th, 2008 by Gumby

Yes, once again I’ve been relatively silent on the boards. I’ve had two major projects in the works over the last few weeks. Within my career these have probably been the two largest projects I’ve been involved in. One of them I just gave away in the title, but I will say it again here: I am opening my own academy in downtown San Jose.

If you had asked me this time last year if I was going to open an academy, I would have said it was in the distant future. I had a group of students I was teaching on the side, and I was happy where I was at. Some things happened in my life and the opportunity and need to open up my own place came about, but it was still a LONG process to get to this point, but at this stage everything seem to be worth it. I was actually set to open up a place in September, however zoning issues that came up at the last second prevented this from happening. It scared me to the point that I’ve held off on making any announcements until I was sure that things were definite.

I’ve now managed to find pretty much the coolest spot I could ever hope for to open an academy.

460 South Market Street San Jose CA 95113

We should be opening a few days into December pending the build out.

This spot looks more like an art gallery (which it has been used as) than a martial arts school. A full 4700 square feet of space, brick interiors, high ceilings, two skylights, it’s honestly one of the coolest looking buildings I’ve been in and a dream come true. Aside from the bathrooms you see on the right hand side this place is basically an empty box begging to be filled. It actually has two store fronts, one on Market street and one on 1st Street that look pretty much identical.

Initially we will only be using half of the academy, in which we lay down about 1500 square feet of tatame style mat and all of our grappling programs we be held there. The second half we are reserving for another program, we haven’t decided exactly what will fill this space but it will likely be a boxing, kickboxing, MMA, and/or workout area.

This will be a fully scheduled academy and will run classes six days a week. I will be the head instructor of the Jiu Jitsu program (naturally), but I have lined up some really top shelf talent to run programs there as well. I’m so excited about who I have coming in, that I’m going to leave you in suspense a bit and make those announcements later on this week.

I’ll make plenty more announcements soon, especially concerning on how you can come train with me, contact info, prices, schedules, etc…

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Standing in the parking lot last night

Opening an Academy in downtown San Jose

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