Day 1

Hey folks well I’m back from my vacation from San Jose and boy did I have a great time. Such a fun and great experience that I had down there or since it’s up north, I should be saying “UP” there. Anyway you can probably guess what this blog is going to be about right. Overall the reason why I took this trip was because I was getting a little stressed out with LA life, plus it was an early birthday gift to myself. I choose San Jose because it was a nice little town & it was affordable. So here is what happened on my San Jose experience.

Upon arriving in San Jose I check into my hotel. Now most of the hotels I’ve been to were crummy run-down pieces of shit. But man this Hotel was the BUSINESS!!!!! ; Flat screen TV, king size bed, decked out bathroom, & a clear view of the city. For once in my life I feel important –haha-. As much as I wanted to stay in my hotel, I had to leave the room because of course, I was on vacation. So I decided to tour the city.

To make a long story short touring the city was pretty cool. Everything seemed to be in close proximity of one another from the food spots, to the museums, to even the famous San Jose State University.So it was a lot of stuff to see. But in the end I ended up getting lost somewhere in the city while it was pouring down raining –lol- Luckily for me downtown San Jose is a small town so I was able to get back to my hotel safe & sound with my pizza still hot. After a brief rest, I took a small trip to San Jose University where I went to go check out The San Jose State University Judo Team. It was very interesting to see these Judo Champs in practice. Too bad I couldn’t stay longer to see them practice more.

After a long day of exploring, getting lost in the rain, eating some delicious food it was finally time to get my train on. While I was there I visited Heroes Martial Arts Academy ran by Ralph Gracie black belt & co-founder of the famous OTM brand Alan “Gumby” Marques”. A lot of peeps have told me good things about this academy & his style of teaching fitted right into my game which is the main reason I choose to visit the academy plus it was right across the street from my hotel.Anyway upon arriving there Gumby and the crew made me feel right at home which is very rare at most gyms you go to nowadays.

The 1st class that was taught was the Judo class which was taught by San Jose University Judo team Black Belt Shozo Fukada (who was a laid back and funny dude). It was very cool & a good experience to get a different perception of how to apply judo throws ( being that I’ve only studied Judo under 1 instructor for 4 years).After throwing people & getting thrown by people it was no rest it was on to the BJJ class which was ran by Gumby himself.

To give a brief description of his class is like it starts of with a light warm-up exercise, then he has use do positional guard training (which is I believe is Ralph Gracie training type trademark), then going over technique, & of course sparring. The rolls I had at the academy were a lot of fun.I got a chance to roll with a lot of Gumby’s blue belts students (all different weight classes) who are all very good & to top it all off my last roll was with the quiet but nice Ralph Gracie black belt Justin “The Machine” Holder who has the sickest spider/ dela riva guard I’ve ever seen for a guy his size.

After nearly 3 hours of straight training I rapped up the night with a nice salmon fish plate while watching a movie on ShowTime. This ended my 1st day in San Jose.

Day 2

After eating breakfast and a light workout at the gym in the hotel. I made my way back to Heroes Academy for a bjj private with Justin Holder. While waiting for the arrival of Justin, I talked with Gumby a little bit bout BJJ stuff while watching him play Assassins Creed on the ps3 and then I notice out of the corner of my eye he had the Street Fighter 4 game –L- So we had this big conversation about the game...Too bad I didn’t get a chance to play him in it though it would have been a very interesting to see his skill set in the game. After a 15 minute conversation Justin finally arrived and gave me nearly a 1 hour & 30 minute private (yes folks he went over the hour) which defiantly helped & fitted right into the game, I’ve been trying to develop for 6 months now. After the private with Justin, Gumby was nice enough to invite me to lunch with him and Justin which was hella cool of him. He took me on a little tour of the city while trying to figure out what we wanted to eat. In the end it was Philly Cheese steak that got our vote for lunch that which was my 1st time having ever, which was hella good.

After the lunch & a rest at the hotel, I went right back out to tour the city again. Upon exiting my hotel I noticed some crazy people with signs and Iraqi flags preaching their message of bafonnary which in all was very funny when the police shut their ass down –lol-. After that brief minute comedy, I took a visit to the best museums in town The Tech Museum & San Jose Art museum which featured some of the best work I’ve seen ever, I honestly don’t know how long I stay in them places.

After another tour around the city it was once again time to get my grapple on at Heroes Academy. This time is was a full 3 hour class. The first hour it was the fundamental class and after that it was the regular bjj class. What makes Gumby classes so good in my opinion is most of the moves are very simple and practical to do. I feel sometimes as we grow as bjj players especially for white belts and blue belts we get caught up in this fantasy of wanting to learn the fanciest shit that we will never pull off in competition or even in sparring instead of working on the simple core fundamentals of our game. It’s like a friend of mine would say “Fancy Shit works because your basics suck”. Anyway after a great session of techniques it was once again time to spar. This time it was more blue belts for me to train with which was hella cool. Two blue belts in particular that impressed me were Andrew Jones & Rob Morales because they had great offense and defense. It will be very interesting to see how they do in future tournaments. To end my night at Heroes Academy I got the opportunity to meet the other owner of the academy David “Canada” who was also a really cool and nice guy & of course what would a visited be without a picture !!!! And that end my training at Heroes Academy.

After the class I took a brief walk to enjoy the night life and I was back at my hotel eating catfish and fries.In all the entire trip was a great experience. I want to once again thank everyone down at Heroes for making me feel so welcome especially Gumby & Justin for all their help. To end this blog I would quoting a super villain “San Jose Hasn’t Seen the last of me” !!!