(warm music) – My name's Rick Ellis. I'm a brown belt under Roy Dean and I run a little academy in Wyoming. I'm gonna punch his wrist in, throw my legs up and over, okay? That's all I care about right
now, is locking my ankles. I need my knee at the shoulder line. Really, really important. I don't want to end up here
because he'll just swim out, and then we're back to where we started. What is jiu-jitsu? (laughs) That's a really deep question. On the one hand, it's
a self defense system. It's a martial art, it's a killer workout, but it is so much more than that. All right, so later stage,
he goes for the triangle and he actually locks it up. My arm's out of position, I can't posture, I don't have the leverage to open. There's a meme goin' around that jiu-jitsu is the
art of involuntary yoga.
That's pretty funny. I need to begin to stack him. I'm gonna take my thumb in
the collar, make a fist, post on the mat, and now I can come up and
start cutting the angle. My knee goes in. Cut the angle, cut the
angle, cut the angle. Look at this, retain the leg. Knee apart. If Andre Nunes calls
jiu-jitsu human surfing, and I love that definition
because it speaks to the highest expression of jiu-jitsu, which is taking an attacker's energy, integrating within it, flowing
with it, blending with it, which is what a surfer does on a wave. A surfer on a wave can't resist the wave, they can't redirect the wave,
they can't control the wave. All they can do is
become part of the wave. Try to go as far as you
can, even exaggerate it. So I'm here about parallel. If I can go even a few degrees, five, eight degrees more, that's better. And if you're still not
quite getting it over yet, try kicking the ceiling.
I think of jiu-jitsu as a vehicle that allows you to perfect your mind, your body, and your soul. It's very, very powerful. Same thing, come in,
come in, cut the angle, but this time, the knee
bar's not available 'cause he hides, boom. Just back step, all right? Now we can change the angle. (mumbles) Make sense? All right, with your
partners, one, two, three. (all clapping simultaneously) (warm music) A few months ago, Roy reached out to me. He said, "Hey, I think you're ready now. "Let's get you to black belt. "Why don't you begin preparing a demo?" So I'm now about six
weeks out from my demo. I've been trainin' hard, man. I've been doin' my cardio, I've been doin' strength and conditioning. I've been drilling a lot,
I've been sparring a lot. And so far, my body's
holding up, uh, okay. But I'm simultaneously terrified and really excited because, you know, the black belt is the culmination of everything you've worked for. And it's not the end, of course.
Of course it's not the end. Everyone who earns their black belt says it's just a new beginning, but it's a very important milestone, and I am pretty excited for that. (warm music) (tense drumming) (warm music) The demo is two things. It is a display of skill and
it is a display of heart. It's a chance to show
your friends, your family, your teammates, your coaches that you have the skill to perform at the level that you're
being promoted to, and it's a chance to show
your heart on the mat, because it's hard. You get shark-tanked, you
have to show techniques. At blue belt, you have
to show 50 techniques. At purple belt, you have to demonstrate a lot of combinations. At brown belt, you have to build on that.
(warm music) I can tell you, as someone
that's done two demos before, that it's a very, very
powerful rite of passage. (spectators yelling out simultaneously) – [Spectator] Yes. Yeah! (spectators applauding)
(warm music) (Rick exhaling deeply) – [Roy] Well done. (mumbles) (spectators applauding)
(warm music) Please turn around. (spectators applauding) – Injuries are part of
the journey of jiu-jitsu. You cannot train in a combat
sport, or really any sport, without the risk of injury. I've had many injuries over the years. I tore my rotator cuff and had surgery, I blew a disc out in my
back and had surgery, I've sprained my back,
I've sprained my knees, I've hyperextended my ankles, I've hyperextended my elbows. I've torn a tendon in my finger. I broke my nose on Roy Dean's head, thank you very much, Roy. – Rick dropped in for a
double leg in the eye, dropped in for a double leg.
(warm music) – Yeah, it's a little crooked. – There, it's goin' this way, but in real life, it's goin' this way. Resonated through my
skull, and I could hear it, and it wasn't just like a pop. It was like a (imitates
bones crunching) crunch, kind of explosively. – [Rick] Yeah. (warm music) It's crooked. – It's not crooked, it's
just more directional. – That's right. – If I could it all over again, I would give up the takedown. (Rick laughs) – No, you wouldn't, he
wouldn't give up the takedown, (Roy laughs) because he knows that once
he's taken down, it's all over. (warm music) So the day after I break my nose, I went to the doctor, 'cause
it was pointed sideways. And the doctor said,
"Yeah, we can reset it, "but it's really swollen right now, "so why don't you come
back in a week or two "when the swelling's down and we'll pop it "back in to place?" So I'm like, "Okay." So I went back to class that night, and we drilled some technique,
and then it's time to spar, and I square up with
Donald Bowerman, big D.
Donald was a very special athlete. He would go on to be Roy
Dean's first black belt. He was the Gracie World
Champion at brown belt. He won everything. Every competition he
entered, he took the gold, and he was just one of those guys that had a knack for jiu-jitsu, and a knack for crushing
everybody, myself included. – [Spectator] Nice, Rick. – [Spectator] Keep
fighting, keep fighting. – [Spectator] Lift through
your elbow, through your elbow. Yeah, Rick, keep working, keep working. (spectators yelling simultaneously) – We go to bump fists,
and I point to my nose, and I said, "Dude, be a little careful." And he's like, "Yeah, no problem, man." And of course, he mounts
me, (mumbles) Gracie style.
He gets one hand in the collar
for the cross-collar choke, and he goes to put the
second hand in, and bam! Straight across the nose. And blood starts pouring out of my nose, and I scream, and I kicked him off of me, and I start yelling at him,
and my adrenaline is surging. And man, he felt so bad. He was all apologetic,
and he ended up leaving, going home early because he felt so bad. And finally, my nose stops bleeding, and I went to the bathroom,
and I look in the mirror, and it was straight. He had actually reset my nose. After that, I got smarter,
and for the next few months, I wore a face mask. – [Roy] Nice, Rick. (Roy and Rick breathing heavily) (hand patting mat) (warm music) – My plan is to do jiu-jitsu
until the wheels fall off, like Joe Rogan likes to say.
And look, it gets a lot
harder when you get older, no doubt about it. Your joint integrity declines,
your mobility declines, your reaction time goes down, your maximum heart rate declines. That's a big one because
it means you cannot sustain high output the way you
can when you're younger. You just have to accept,
when you're older, that you are not going to get the tap as often and as decisively as you would if you were younger, and that
can be really frustrating. And so, you simply have
to put away the ego, and accept that there are nights when the blue belts are gonna
give you a really hard time in a way that they wouldn't if you were 20 or 30 years younger. (warm music) I'm looking forward to seeing how my game continues to evolve, and
how I can continue to learn to be effective, even as
my physical skills decline.
(warm music) (soft warm music) (man mumbles) This never gets easier,
never ever, ever gets easier. Just gotta keep showin' up. I mean, that's the key. I'm not the most athletic
guy, pretty damn old, but jiu-jitsu gives you
answers, gives you solutions, even as your physical attributes wane, so any of you white belts, blue belts, keep on truckin', man. It gets more powerful and
the rewards are greater every year you do it. And it goes deeper into your soul in a way that is very, very
powerful, very powerful. (soft warm music) (bright warm music) (spectators applauding) (upbeat rock music) (spectators applauding) (spectators applauding) (spectators applauding) – Well done. (spectators applauding) (warm pensive music) – [Man] Bow. (mumbles) (spectators applauding) (warm pensive music) (spectator mumbling) – There you go.
– There you go, there you go. – [Spectator] Break it down. (mumbles) Oh.
– [Spectator] Good, good, good, good. (spectator mumbling) – [Spectator] There you
go, pressure, pressure. – [Spectator] Nice, Rick,
good pressure, nice pressure. (spectator mumbling) (spectators applauding) (warm pensive music) Clear, clear, clear, there you go. Nice, Rick. (warm pensive music) Attack, attack, Rick, attack, attack. (warm pensive music) Nice, nice, Rick. – [Spectator] Good, clear, clear, clear. (warm pensive music) Nice. Nice (speaking drowned out by music). (warm pensive music) – [Spectator] (mumbling) That's
it, that's it, that's it. (camera clicking) – [Spectator] Good transition
right there.
(mumbles) Nice! (spectators applauding) (warm music) (speaking drowned out by music) (speaking drowned out by music) (speaking drowned out by music) (Rick grunting and panting) (speaking drowned out by music) (spectators applauding) (speaking drowned out by music) – [Spectator] Yes! (spectators applauding) (warm music) (Rick panting) (spectators applauding) (speaking drowned out by music) (spectators applauding) (Rick panting) – [Michael] Good job, Rick. (spectators applauding) (speaking drowned out by applause) (spectators applauding) (tranquil pensive music) (speaking drowned out by music) (speaking drowned out by music) (spectators applauding) (Rick breathing heavily) (speaking drowned out by music) (spectators applauding) – Come on.
– There you go! (tranquil pensive music) – [Spectator] Yeah! Yes, yes, yes.
– Get it, get it, get it, get it, get it. (spectators applauding) (Roy clapping) – That's it? – What, a little more? A little more love? We can do a little more love. (tranquil pensive music) (Rick breathing heavily) (spectators applauding) One more, one more.
One more, one more. (spectators applauding) (speaking drowned out by music) (spectators yelling simultaneously) (Rick breathing heavily) (spectators yelling simultaneously) (tranquil pensive music) (Rick groaning) Push me, push me, go, go, go, go. (spectators yelling and applauding) (Rick panting) (spectators applauding) (Rick breathing heavily) (spectators applauding) (tranquil pensive music).
