The Sevan Podcast - #586 - Jay Rodriguez

Episode Date: September 12, 2022

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uh shadow my old one is actually kind of delete bam we're live it's kind of deleted not deleted i can see it i i don't know what's going on it's suspended no one else can see it but me well now that you got zuck uh you know all fired up on mma and jiu-jitsu you got to hit him up and have him put you back in the game dear mark zuckerberg you know I'm friends with J. Rod and Nicky Rod, right? You know that, right, Mr. Zuckerberg? We're back in the game. Jay, what's up? What's going on? Good to see you again.

What's up, Jay? My name's Jason. I know your brother pretty well, but you and I, I don't, maybe we met at a, you know what? Actually, I watched you fight, I think think at a who's number one an event in person but i don't know if we met uh i don't think we've met but i definitely know of you you went to one of those in person jason yeah yeah yeah i actually went and saw um so when i went out and i was doing some uh uh, I did some filming with, uh, Nicky Rod and then him and I rolled and stuff at 10 planet. And then we ended up going, um, who was fighting? Um, I can't remember who was fighting. I think it was, um, Nicky, Nicky Ryan, uh, you know,

Gordon's brother was fighting. There was a couple of people fighting that night and, uh, yeah, we just hung out with the crew. So yes, i went there and rogan was actually at that that one that i went to it was pretty cool i'm fixing uh jay's uh instagram right now hold or is his handle right now hold on copy um how do i do that i go over here and i just put why why is it is 2.0 because you lost your first instagram account or is it um just 2.0 like this is the new version of you uh i think that was our thought behind it yeah the second one yeah yeah you were just a measly wrestler and now you're killing machine yeah i was actually wrestling at the time and i was like how i need an easy way for people to find my Instagram. And JRod was, like, already – like, just JRod alone with no numbers or anything was already taken. So this was the next best thing.

Hey, dude, you're doing a seminar. Yeah, I'm doing a seminar in Jersey. Yeah, in Jersey, October 29th. First one? Yeah, in Jersey, October 29th. First one? No, I've had a few like right before or right after trials. I did a few in Jersey as well. And then I did some more competitions, and now I'm doing another one after I DCC.

Do you like doing the seminar? Yeah, it's gotten easier, like talking in front of people and stuff honestly it helps with my social skills and I have obviously the people I train with I I'm learning all the time so I have a lot of stuff to teach people it's crazy dude I'm so stoked for you. That's like, uh, your shit's just coming together. So, so amazing. Your parents must be so proud. How old are you? I'm 20. Crazy, dude. Hey, what weight class are you fighting in? Um, at ADCC?

ADCC, I'm doing, uh, 88 kilogram, but I'm like really light for the weight class. Okay. So you're feeling good for all the weigh-ins and all that kind of stuff? for the weight class okay so you're feeling good for all the weigh-ins and all that kind of stuff yeah i i'm actually like 10 to 15 pounds under so i like should be getting bigger dude they're 80 kilograms or 88 right what was that they're like pretty big gaps they're like 25 pound gaps between the different weight classes right yeah it's pretty big yeah it's honestly quite unfortunate because i'm sure there's a lot of people like me that are like kind of just in between the two weight classes like i could just lose the 10 pounds uh and go 77 but i'm i've cut so much weight i'm so tired of it

hey dude that's 194 pounds did you say 888 two eights in a row? Yeah. 88. Holy shit. And you walk in and you walk around the fat version of J Rod's one eight had 10 pounds less than that. One 88. Yeah. Yeah. Or one 84. Like, like one 80, one 85. Wow.

Yeah. What do you think Jason smart? Who gives a fuck? No, you know what? So, um, I actually think it's super smart because I, uh, I mean, I'm probably not as good at, I'm sure. I'm sure you've, um, dropped weight quite a few times wrestling before. Um, I didn't know how to do that. Cause my, my, you know, my background's in CrossFit and in CrossFit, you don't have to really ever cut weight. It really weights, just a factor of like how much, how good you're going to be at gymnastics verse, whatever. And so I went in and and i was competing i think it was like my third uh jiu-jitsu tournament i went in i tried to drop weight to uh 208 with the gi on and so i had to weigh like 201 and man i just felt like shit i just didn't feel strong i felt and you know they weighed in they weighed me right before i went on to the match and so it was a big learning experience for me so yeah last time i just got i

just got done in master worlds and i i went up to the. And so it was a big learning experience for me. So this last time I just got, I just got done at master worlds and I, I went up to the next weight class. It was a completely different experience just cause I, I didn't feel like that, you know, exhaustion that I felt before. So I totally get why you would do that. Why are you guys watching?

You're watching because this is Jay Rodriguez. Uh, he is going to the ADCC Abu Dhabi Combat Club Championships. It's in Las Vegas. It's this coming weekend. And you're looking at a very special man. One, because he trains with a bunch of very special people. But two, because this year he went to the West Coast Trials.

He won all seven matches, which you had to do anyway to go, right? Whoever was going to go was going to win. So he goes undefeated. This is the West Coast of the United States, guys. No slouches over here. As Nick Diaz says last year, this is where the real Gs are, as he said yesterday. But not only that, he submitted all of his guys, meaning, for those of you who don't know, that means they couldn't get away.

If he wanted to, he could have extinguished them their existence from planet earth he didn't though you didn't kill anyone right no no they tap and you let them go right yes i'm excited you submitted all seven year of your fights yeah wow that's cool what's your go-to like what did you uh i i knew you qualified i i kept up on it but i didn't i didn't watch each one of your fights uh so what did you finish them with like something similar or were they all different yeah every single one was a rear naked choke except for my finals match in the finals match i did a buggy choke i don't know if you've heard of that yeah wow it's all chokes huh yeah hey when you do a buggy choke, are you always being carried around? That one was the one where the guy's carrying you around, right?

Yeah. So especially with ADCC. And someone yelled at you to let it go and you said no. Yeah. That was actually Nicky Rod told me to drop it. Actually, like half my team told me to drop it because they didn't want me to get slammed on my neck. they get slammed on my neck um but with adcc the rules are kind of weird so with the buggy choke like with any submission a fully locked submission you can slam out of it but if it's not a fully locked submission you can't slam so i had to make sure when my opponent stood up um it like wasn't fully locked so legally he wasn't't allowed to slam me. I'm looking for this video. I'm going to go to YouTube.

Go to YouTube, people, and type in J-Rod, J-A-Y space Rod, and you will see a video that pops up, number one. And it is called Black Belt Slayer 2. Yeah. You want to see this. This is cool. There won't be a second. It's 21 minutes and 57 seconds. There won't be one second where you're like, why am I watching this?

Even if you have no interest in jiu-jitsu, no interest in combat, you'll watch it and you'll be like, oh, shit. As fast as 22 minutes of my life. The only thing better is the Sevan podcast. So go see it. What's the deal with um uh flow and in your relationship i watched the video just now right before we came on and it was posted yesterday and it's you going against what is that gordon ryan's brother nikki nikki oh nikki ryan and this guy's fucking trying to suffocate you like he has his hey he has you pinned and he has his hand on your mouth. Yeah. That shit gave me anxiety. No shit.

Yes. So, uh, especially after trials, I've really just training with, uh, Craig Jones in general. Um, he's made me, uh, like very toxic and now I like smother people and like, I like choke people and stuff like that. And I do that to Nikki Ryan because I know there's not much else I can really do to him. So I just do shit like that to fuck with him. And now he gets angry at me and does that to me instead.

So it's, uh, we don't hate each other. Actually. It's just fucking, we're just fucking around. But you still came with him even though you're at B team and, and he's cause he's not a B team, right nikki ryan uh yeah yeah nikki ryan oh yeah nikki ryan's with

you guys that's right yeah okay never mind um yeah all right so you train with so who do you train with the most him and craig hey it's a fair question jason it's a weird it's a it's a weird situation it's a weird situation when you try to follow it on the internet. That's a totally fair error, Jason. Totally fair. So do you train mainly with Craig and him? Yeah, so mainly just like the top, like the main guys. I have Craig. Nikki Ryan is close to my weight, so it's always good.

Isaac as well. Isaac's at 88 as well. He is so tough. What's his last name? Isaac, Mitch, Mitchell, Michelle.

He's like, when you go in to take him down, it's like running into a brick wall. It's, it's so tough. Is he a French dude? Craig qualified for ADC. He's Australian.

Okay. Craig got invited. Cause he got invited. Okay. Yeah for ADC. He's Australian. Right? Craig got invited because he did well the last time. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Same with your brother, yeah? Yeah. Yeah, nice. Dude, it's so exciting. It's exciting. So you're going to go there.

How many days before you go there? I leave Thursday, so about four days and you land and then uh you'll get there thursday and then the event starts on friday uh event starts saturday but we have weigh-ins friday and uh weigh-ins and a rules meeting friday so all the athletes will be there by friday and you'll only and you'll be at 88 kilograms, and then it'll all be the same belt as you? No. So with ADCC, belts are irrelevant, right? So it's just the top 16 grapplers in the world.

With IBJJF, they have Blue Belt World Champ, Purple Belt World Champ, but there's no belts in ADCC. It's just all the best grapplers. If you won or you've placed in ADCC before, you're in there. How many trials were there? How many trials were there around the world? I'm not sure, actually. There was five or six or something like that?

Yeah, something like that. And then on top of that, obviously the people who won ADCC the previous year, they get invited. Or if they place well, like Nicky Rod took second, so he got invited. Craig Jones. If there are 16 people in the class and there's only five events, does that mean multiple people get invited from the West Coast? So the second place guy you beat also gets invited? No, not from the trial, but from the main tournament the previous year. So like 2019 ADCC, the world champ, not the trials.

Like the top three or four people usually get invited. So Vaughn, remember back in the day at the crossfit games like hey if you won the crossfit games you get a automatic invite forever and then you know they change the rules there but uh which which i think was for the betterment by the way um but in in adcc it's the same thing like if you show up and you're dominant and you podium you basically get an invite later on uh so i think if i'm not mistaken i think yuri out of kyle terra's location i don't i don't think he i think he got the invite because he won it um a couple years ago as well yeah so yeah he's gonna be badass savon you got you got you got stack brackets from either people that

qualified through these qualifiers or who got an invite and then depending on how all these guys do which i hope you do really well um they'll um mo who's like in charge of the event he's in a hand select i'm sure there's certain criteria he looks at for different people to to represent the absolute category and there's a super fight that's gonna be badass too and the super fights between gordon ryan and that fucking giant guy doesn't speak English, right? No, I went to his Instagram. I was thinking about inviting him on. I don't think he speaks English.

He speaks perfect English, right? Yeah, yeah, he does. It's just, I don't think it's, it might not be his first language. But he does speak English? Yeah, no, it's not his first language, but he for sure speaks. You can invite him on on he could speak in

perfect english okay and and then but but then um but then gordon's also going to be in the same weight class as your brother yes yes that's that's like his main like i keep telling him uh he's like training specifically for Gordon, because obviously that's an NLBL match for Nick. It's like, yeah, take one match at a time. And I'm sure he will, but he's just so focused on that style, competing against his Gordon style. That dude, Gordon's brother's brother nicky that you

train with how much does he weigh is he heavier than you no uh nicky ron's competing at 77 so he's actually cutting quite a bit of weight but uh yeah he's fucking shredded right now and uh and he's tough yes yeah he he uh can submit me whenever he wants yes yeah he he uh can submit me whenever he wants how are you feeling about that's crazy yeah how are you feeling about uh um the brackets being released because you don't know um in a very minor way i felt some of this anxiousness a couple days ago i was competing but like not even close to your guys's level but it's like you're wondering like hey who am i going up against what's his deal and in my case like you know um it's like, you're wondering like, hey, who am I going up against? What's his deal? And in my case, like, you know,

when you find out, you're like, oh, I'm curious who this person is. I'm gonna go look him up online. The guys, I didn't see anything online. But I mean, for you guys, all of you guys probably know each other, at least within a certain realm, the 16. So then you find out Friday night, right?

Who you're competing against Saturday. So like, i imagine the emotions are gonna be pretty like it's almost again savannah the cross of the games we don't know what the event's gonna be because dude the guys that he's gonna be competing against each one has a different kind of skill set i imagine they're all badasses but you so so are you gonna basically look at who your opponent is and then based on who your opponent is you're gonna be able to then decide like the game plan you're going to go against that individual is that what you're thinking yes and no um it's it's tough for me to like study my opponents and stuff i did this once

a while back in high school and it did not work out well like i was just so focused on like defending and like worrying about what my opponent was doing. And I never ended up getting to do what I was going to do. I ended up losing the match and I was like, wow, I'm never doing this ever again. So, um, I like having a general idea of what my opponents are going to do.

And I know what, you know, most of my opponents, I know who they are. I know what they, their general games are, but I don't like to like study in depth. Cause then I just focus so

much on what they're going to do and i never end up getting doing getting to do what my game plan is they're looking at you though and going hey if this dude gets on your back um we're toast he got six rear naked chokes in the trials they know that yeah yeah everyone knows that you cannot give jay roger back it just goes downhill from there dude it's interesting though with nogi how the the chokes are such a like a i wonder what the percentages of finishes at adcc will be chokes versus other submissions right like ain't i i imagine it'll be a lot of i mean well you tell, you tell me, what do you think? You think it's going to be mainly like chokes or leg locks or is it going to be like leg entanglements or is it going to be, I'm curious what your thoughts are there. I think the previous ADCC, there was a lot of leg locks and now it's been two or three, and the game has sort of evolved. Now there's a lot of offense from people, like,

trying to entangle your legs and stuff. So I don't think we're going to see as much, like, heel hooks this year. I think it's going to be more, like, people taking the back from, like, people trying to invert and entangle legs. If I invert on Nicky Ryan, he's immediately taking my back like it's it's crazy and i think uh the whole game is starting to move to that so i think there's going to be more rare naked chokes and things like that rather than leg locks like how it was the previous time yep you talk about um you and your brother are like opposites right there's a well in terms of

you sorry i'll be more specific in terms of your approach to the game yeah um uh so when you see this oops sorry when you see this uh like you don't do you recognize that guy oh no i do not that is a person that's only out on the mat for like 10 minutes that is the cool part about the documentary because it kind of it kind of gets into that that basically like hey this is a side of you that you don't get to see either this isn't like something like you go home and and see yeah yeah nick nick kind of brings like his persona like how he is out on the mat like that's just kind of who he is 24 7 i've never read i like me ripping my rash card on off i've never done this ever before like i don't know this is pure like adrenaline i don't know yeah you're fired up yeah yeah i don't know. This is pure like adrenaline. I don't know. Fired up. Yeah. Fired up. Yeah.

Yeah. I don't get in the first interview I did with you. It was long and I didn't get I don't get any of that from you. So this is just like you just blowing off steam. This is just like it's kind of in CrossFit. So if Jason knows his his snatch is 300 met PR in the gym and then he goes out onto the field and he snatches more, he snatches 330, he can be like, holy shit, I have a metric to see how much better I was with the crowd and with the intensity and the pressure and living the moment. But you kind of in jujitsu, you don't really have a metric for that. Like you could be performing out there. The guy out there that we see ripping off a shirt might actually be able to beat Nicky Ryan. But that guy just won't – that guy doesn't just show up in the gym. No. Yeah, I can't do that.

I don't know when – like I don't know what happens. I guess it's just under the lights. Is it equivalent to like me not wanting to dance at a school dance in the sixth grade? Like I just would never do it. I just would stick to the wall. But in my bedroom, I would just dance, right, with no one around. Is that kind of how it is? Like when you're out there and it's that intense, it's just fucking whatever?

Yeah. Yeah, I think so. But I don't know. I don't know why I react. Like me screaming all that I don't, I don't know. I don't know why I react like me screaming all that guy's back. I, I don't know. I don't know. That's just so unlike me. Like my training, I'm like, I'm calm. Like I'm thinking about what I'm doing. Uh, like, but when I'm in competition, it's just, it's just so different. Dude, that was such, that was so smooth to watch right there.

it's just so different. Dude, that was such, that was so smooth to watch right there. Dude, you are pretty incredible to watch move. Oh man. I can't wait to,

I'll be out there. I'm really looking forward to watching you compete. Um, I, uh, I'm looking forward to watching quite a few guys, you know, Mason Fowler, uh,

you know, you, your brother, um, your, there's a bunch of guys I'm looking forward to watching compete. So, um, to, uh, just before I jump off, so I'm, uh, Melissa was wondering how I did. Uh, your brother um you're there's a bunch of guys i'm looking forward to watching compete so yeah um

to it uh just before i jump off savann melissa was wondering how i did uh jay i think this might relate have you ever lost i'm sure i don't know the answer to this is either in wrestling or in jiu-jitsu have you like had a match where you felt like you were like the more aggressive but the score was even and then the referee gave it to the other person. Have you had that happen to you before? Yeah, actually in jujitsu, my, my first, whose number one match was against a guy from new wave. And he's actually in my weight class for ADCC as well.

Had a match. He took my matches 15 minutes long. He took my back in like a minute, two minutes in, and I was focused on escaping for like 10 minutes. He had my back for like 10 minutes. I escape. And, um, I, after that, I take him down like two to three times. I, I pass his guard a few times. i even took his back at the end and almost uh locked up a choke and uh at the end they still gave it to him which was kind of like in the moment i was like okay yeah he he had my back for 10 minutes yes but i kind of did more and like in 80 cc rule set like technically i kind of won more and like in 80, 80 CC rule set,

like technically I kind of won that match because at the beginning, there's no first half of the match, there's no points and the points are on after the first half. So all those points from the takedowns and passing the guard, like that's, you know, a lot of points that I would have scored if it was in a different rule set. So it's, it's tough. It's really frustrating. Yeah. I was telling, I told Siobhan this, but you know, my, my, I competed at, um, so I was at purple belt at the, um, uh, master worlds. First match went really well. Second match, uh, do me and this guy, we ended up just standing up

for the full five minutes, but it's so short, you you know five minutes isn't very long yeah and i got an advantage i took him down but i didn't i didn't you know control the position then he ended up getting an advantage and then dude i was just you know we ended up um going to ref's decision and it was so frustrating because like i felt like i was you know the more aggressive whatever but it's like dude at the end of the day it is what it is i should have been more dominant i should have But it's like, dude, at the end of the day, it is what it is. I should have been more dominant. I should have left it not up to the choice of the ref. And so that ended my, uh, my jujitsu. So just so you know, that's what happened is I won my first match by really well.

And then second match was not so good. I thought, correct me if I'm wrong. I thought if it was kind of a tie that it's whoever scored the last points or whoever did best at the end gets the win so that i saw my kid went for 400 jiu-jitsu match this weekend he lost and i said why and they said because the other person was uh scored the points last and then one of my other kids was in a match and it was zero zero but he attempted four takedowns but at the very end the girl just kind of spun him around and almost took his back standing but didn't and he lost that match and

someone said hey it's whoever does the last aggressive thing but that wouldn't make sense for j-rod because j-rod did do the last like five or six aggressive things towards the guy yeah i it just it depends on the rule set it depends on where you're competing it depends on the ref you know it's there's so many that's the thing with jujitsu like i said there's so many different rule sets. It's kind of frustrating to, uh, but you can't just go to an IBJJF and then, uh, go to an ADCC with the same kind of style and, and expect to, uh, like have the same outcome. It's, it's kind of, it's really different. Yeah. I'm excited to see which one like takes off. I mean, it seems like ADCC, you know, for, for people who are listening that are more in like the CrossFit space in, in CrossFit, there's a general rule set, right? It's like reps sets, but the events could be totally different. You don't know what you're going to do,

but in jujitsu, what's, what's, I guess, tough about it is like, if you go IBJJF and you're going gi, there's rules in nogi then there's different time domains depending if you're a master and what belt you're at allows you to do different submissions and there's a bunch of rules and then then you adcc where sometimes you have 15 matches other times you have 30 sometimes you have unlimited and so i wonder in the future what will happen with jiu-jitsu about like hey this is going to be the best for the fans this was going to grow our sport it's going to be you know 10 15 whatever it comes out to be i'm curious what it'll end up being because the five minute matches it's just it's so short it just it's it's just it's it just doesn't seem like that's going to help grow the sport much because it's not

you know yeah there's only so much you can do in five minutes you know five minutes i'm like just getting started exactly it can be super frustrating especially those ibjjf matches i i competed ibjjf and i got into a leg entanglement and they're like oh you're a blue belt so you can't like you can't reach you can't do all these things and i'm like just getting started i'm like i, you can't do all these things. And I'm like, just getting started. I'm like, I don't really know, like all these, like, I don't even know what reaping is. So like I got into the leg entanglement. I still won the match, but I'm like, I froze.

I'm like, why am I thinking about these extra rules right now? Like, it's just, it wasn't good for me. It didn't work for me. Yeah. Um, well, Siobhan, I got to jump and grab some dinner. But Jay, thanks for poking your head in. Yeah, of course. Hey, man, congratulations on the awesome achievement to qualify for ADCC.

You know, I know how much work people are putting in. I know how much work you're probably, I can only imagine how much work you're putting in. So congratulations on all that. And I just can't wait to go see you go put it out there. I'll be cheering for you, man. Jay,ay don't leave i'm keeping you 10 more minutes thanks cleva um speaking of hard work how much are you training so um usually we'll do in this camp, we usually do three days of a week. We'll do two sessions, and then the rest of the days we'll do one session.

And then sometimes we'll do like some cardio in the garage, just some extra stuff in there. Are you and your brother on the same training regimen? Are you and your brother on the same training regimen? So, so basically you're in the gym at the same, you're in the, uh, you're, you're practicing jujitsu at the same time and then you guys go do other training together. Yeah. Yeah. So usually, honestly, Nick does so much more because he is like, I don't know, we're kind of like on different pages.

I feel like my body is falling apart and I feel like, okay, I need to recover. And Nick is like, okay, I'm going to go recover by doing cardio 40 minutes on this wrong machine. And I'm like, is that recovery? That's just another workout. And what do you do to recover? I mean, ice, sleep, make sure I'm eating enough. I mean, we work out a lot, so it's really rough to, like, have another workout as recovery. Yeah. He sounds like he's almost addicted to it like I am.

Like, for me, when I'm in pain or when I'm tired, that's what I want to do, too. I mean, I just want to get – I want tired that's what I want to do too I mean I don't want to I just want to get I want to start doing metabolic I want to row or ride a bike or do something to start sweating yeah I would say Nick is obsessed that's that's the word obsessed do you have a day job no I am four so so basically the seminar game is important to you also. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Yeah, I need to, like I have sponsors and stuff, so I'm kind of like staying afloat now.

But honestly, it's really, I'm like, I'm alive because I live with Nick. You know what I mean? Like I pay for like half the food and stuff or whatever but it's like he's he's paying rent like i'm sleeping in his house for basically free um so thank god i have a fucking loving family how does that work i never had any brother i think it would be kind of cool up until a point like you guys are both young enough he did tell he was engaged, but I would feel like you're both young enough for it. It's kind of fun, right? Like he's probably enjoying playing the big brother.

And you enjoying playing the little brother. Like in the same breath that you say, hey, we have different approaches. He steps onto the field with the bravado. I don't like to do that. It puts too much pressure on me. But at the other time, you've said that when you're out there scrapping with some cats uh when nikki uh i think you even used the word angel you said when you hear i'm coaching you it's like an angel talk to you i was like wow this shit is fucking awesome i wish i had a brother yeah that i was actually talking about nikki ryan nikki ryan is yeah when i said that sorry sorry nikki rod sorry nikki ryan's like the way he

speaks about technique is so helpful it's it's just ridiculous are you guys close you guys are friends friends like you guys would go to a movie together uh i mean we don't really go all we really do is train eat and sleep so we don't like go, all we really do is train, eat and sleep. So we don't like go out, right. We don't do like normal people things, but, uh, you know, we spend a lot of time together on the mat. So we're like naturally close. And, um, Jason obviously had it, had him, um, had him confused because your brother used to train with his brother.

And then those two camps divided into two and then nikki ended up is it weird that nikki ended up coming to this camp and not with his brother is he still and his brother's in the same town now too right yeah so they're like both both the teams that like split uh everyone from the original team is basically all in Austin. We're just trained separately. And yeah, they don't live together or anything. They're not like you and Nikki. No. Nikki and I do everything together.

Before we did the first interview, you're like, hey, dude, don't ask me any questions about politics. I don't know about that shit. Before this show, maybe you should have said that to me, dude, don't ask me any questions about politics. I don't know about that shit. Before this show, maybe you should have said that to me. Hey, don't ask me any shit about Nikki and Gordon and Nikki. I mean, Nikki Rouds said worse, so I think I'm good. Yeah, you know, from the outside looking in, just from just a complete outsider, it doesn't look like there's anything that bad, honestly. I mean, it just looks like just intense men who want to all be at the top, and it just seems like normal shit.

Yeah, I mean, it just, I can't really say much because I wasn't really like, I wasn't training with them. It's all hearsay for you. Basically, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Is your future to stay in Austin? Like when you look, the only thing I heard you say that might change that is you said your body is getting beat up.

But do you see this as a long – do you see yourself like 10 years of just this is it? Yeah. Training-wise, like my career is going to be jiuitsu so like competitive jujitsu so uh i'll i'll be wherever these guys are training you know as long as everything stays together and they don't fucking split up another time and then there's like a fourth of the team for whatever reason um i'll be with them indefinitely and uh until i retire i guess do you see that when you say you're you're working on on making a living pursuing something that you love do you see it like it seems like you see the light do you see it seminars some sponsors yeah i mean i've done uh i think i'm they might want me to start teaching at b team so that'll help with

money as well and then um i also have a couple dvds out and i plan on filming more after adcc so i mean honestly the dvds helped out a decent amount as of now. What's it called? It's on BJJ Fanatics. I have one that's like how to take down larger opponents, and then I have another that is, oh, like how to tap higher belts. I did not choose that title, but it's catchy. And you, oh, how come I can't find it?

Maybe I'll type in BJJ Fanatics, J-Rod. And you don't like that title because there's a certain, is it a humility or is it fake humility? I hate to call you out on that. Do you know what I mean? The difference? Like, are you really, are you just not comfortable with how good you are yet? I don't know. I don't know what it is, but yeah, I don't know. It's just the way it's it comes off. And I'm sure a lot of people read it and they're like ah this guy right this guy you know but i mean there's a lot of good stuff in that dvd like i specifically

filmed it so like there was an overall like this is like this guy's just starting jujitsu i'm giving him a little bit of every position um just the good stuff so like skip to the good stuff. So like skip to the good stuff. There's a lot of schools that they start teaching like how to break fall and like all these like extra things or like just things that don't work at like higher levels. Like, and they know like, oh, I want to be, I want to be good at like a competitive level. Like, okay, we'll teach you how to uh like break fall you don't need to learn how to break fall you need to learn how to take someone down and stay on top you know what i mean like is yeah out of do you have a favorite of the two you have or is there one that you think people should start with i mean i guess it depends on what whatever uh issues you're having uh like

in competition and and in your training um if you're having if in competition and in your training, if you're having, if you want to get good fast, get the how to get good fast one. Right. But if you want to, I have the other one taking down bigger opponents, like I'll teach you how to take down like your rod. It's not easy, but I'll teach you how to take down the naked rod of your school. You know what I mean? Dude, what a great title.

What a great title for a video. Would your brother be okay with that? Would you still get to live at the house? Would he appreciate that? He'd probably rip my head off. How to take down Nicky Rod. Holy shit. Why are you dyeing your hair?

Oh, I had dyed it a long, long time ago. Really just for a match i i um i got a haircut it was actually my my girlfriend's mom she cut my hair and then my girlfriend was saying to like uh like i should bleach my hair or whatever so i ended up going like kind of silver um for like three days and then it all like faded away and it was just like an ugly blonde and then i got it cut and then that's that was the look for ac so i had like frosted tips yeah and how about now are you doing anything like that for this one i'm actually trying to add like highlights i plan on adding highlights maybe after this we'll see but um yeah i like you better with your regular hair just my i'm just some random dude out there change is good change is good um

this this kind of a theme of our discussion is kind of confidence you're 20 years old doing seminars got the dvds and coming into your own i i made uh i made 10 i directed and produced and executive produced at least 10 movies and five of them are on the all-time 100 best documentaries most money-made documentaries on in itunes history go ahead go wow but yeah that's crazy thank you um but but. But I still would never tell anyone I'm a director. Yeah. I'm just not comfortable with it. And they say that's imposter syndrome, but I don't really think it's imposter syndrome.

I just, just like, why? Yeah, yeah. I mean, I would understand. Why do you have to tell people you did seven? You tapped seven dudes in the fucking trials yeah yeah like if they ask you yeah talk about it but you're not gonna go out of your way to like oh i'm a director by the way you know what i mean it's like people that's just i'm sure that rubs people wrong i'm not trying to be humble either it's not because i'm humble i'm not humble

i'm not humble like that yeah what belt are you uh i got my purple belt after i won trials and and um uh craig jones hands it to you yeah yeah actually craig. So do you have it right there all folded up still or did you unfold it? But that would be killer if you still had it in the package because he hands it to you. It's all folded up and you take it. And I'm like, this is fucking crazy. It's like in my closet, I think. So Nikki Rod was saying like before, like a day or two before a trial to saying like, Oh, like he might win it or whatever. Like he has a chance. And Craig was like, yeah, you know, and I honestly, I had the same, I had the same mindset

as Craig. Like, you know, what are the chances? Honestly, there's like over 200 people in the, in the week. That's, I didn't think I was going to win. Um, a 200 person bracket. What are the chances, honestly? There's like over 200 people in the week. I didn't think I was going to win. A 200-person bracket? Yeah, I think it was like 260-something. That's fucking maddening. Yeah, that's why I had seven matches.

Seven matches. And at that, my first round, I had a bye. So I would have had eight matches if I wasn't seated where I was. That's, that's crazy. For those of you who don't know what the fuck a bracket is, if there's 260 guys, basically everyone's in it at the bottom.

And, and is it double elimination or single elimination? Single elimination until like the semifinals and then the semifinals, if you lose, you fight for third and fourth. Wow. Wow. Wow. That's a fucking lot of stress it's single elimination yep it's crazy when you um uh tapped uh sean o'malley's uh i don't know i think that's his coach right yeah his coach yeah was that pretty big um i didn't know i know i knew sean o'malley was coaching obviously but uh i didn't know it was like his his coach that was that i was competing

against so i actually thought it was his student like at first was always he's like coaching this guy or whatever um but then after he like came up and talked to me a little bit did he smell like weed i can't remember i don't think so do the trials just stink like weed i mean honestly i can't tell i've i've kind of been around it now so it's just like it's just the normal scent my not yeah my nostrils are used to it i don't do do any of that. It's like everyone. Good, good. Your mom and dad are proud of you. Yeah, don't do that stuff.

Yeah, I. There's no need to. I've never, I've never drunk any, I've never drunk any alcohol or smoked nothing at all. Really? You've never, you've never had alcohol? Yeah, never. I like, I always, I don't know what, I've never been to a party. I've never been to a party. I've never been to a party.

Everyone's like, everyone accuses me and like fucking everyone in Jiu Jitsu, like a lot of people do steroids. So automatically you do anything significant. People are like, oh, he's on Jiu Jitsu. People accuse me of stuff. And I'm like, how are people accusing you? I told someone, I'm like, dude, I i'm having j-rod on and i cannot believe when he celebrates how crazy his arms look and someone said to me the only person people in jiu-jitsu who aren't on juice is are the rotola brothers someone told me that i mean honestly

that's like that's what i'm talking about people like there's a lot of people like an unhealthy amount of people on certain like i can only imagine i wonder why you perceive it as unhealthy i mean i've never done it i've always wanted to do it but i'm too scared to do anything like that like what if my prostate gets too big or something i'm old there's there's a lot of people that are doing it and they're just like buying shit and just sticking a needle in their ass and yeah that's crazy like they're not like i'm sure there's got to be like a math like one of my sponsors is california hormones they take your blood and they make sure it's all safe one of my sponsors yes you should be getting blood work done and like like making sure you're

you're getting what you need or whatever but then there's people out here just buying it and fucking putting it in their body. There's no way that's healthy. There's no way. But it comes from Mexico. These guys, these jujitsu guys. So you're really on the straight and narrow. You have a very disciplined life. People say disciplined, but it's just

like good habits i'm just this is just me you know i just sit home i train and i go home i eat and i play video games this is all i do um uh i had this dog and people used to be like man your dog listens good i'm like no he's a fuck because i took the dog everywhere i'm like no he's an he's an ass listener he's just a good dog yeah yeah but like if he's eating in a trash can i tell him not to he just like looks at me like fuck off yeah but he's a good dog he like doesn't run away and shit or bite anyone yeah so you're just it's just um and does your girlfriend drink yeah she drinks and um does she tell you you're square you need to try it you need to get out you know go go live on the edge no honestly there's a lot of people that

like they're like oh that's good like no one really ever tries to get me to do anything yeah that's good healthy i'm around good people you are around good people hey does um does craig jones do podcast? Is that his name? Craig Jones? Yes. Craig Jones. I don't know.

I don't know what he does. I don't know what he does with his spare time. I don't like talking to that guy. You don't like talking to him? No. Why? Uh, it was more of a joke. Oh, okay.

Good. He's just, uh, yeah. He's wild. Yes, he is. He is the most frustrating person to roll with he just he'll just play with me like a toy and throw me around when when you experience these things with um nikki and with craig do you somewhere in your does it in your mind are you like okay i'm two years away from being as good as them or is it the other holy shit i'll never be able to figure this out this is like a rubik's cube so some days it feels like one way and some days it feels like the other way right

okay um some days i'll like get my ass beat and i'm like wow this was terrible. Why do I even train jujitsu, right? And then other days, it's like, I don't know, maybe some days aren't as bad. And it's just like, we can figure this out. Or because honestly, I'm like, I know a lot of stuff. But I know there's so much stuff that I still need to learn. And the sport of jujitsu, like, there's other sports that don't like evolve jujitsu is always evolving like like how uh when Jason was here um we were talking about how um how three years ago at ADCC the uh, uh, there's a lot of people don't heal hooks, a lot of people getting into leg entanglements. And now two or three years later, there's people learning how

to take advantage of people trying to get, uh, get into leg entanglements, people taking the back from people inverting and stuff like that. So the sport is always going to be evolving and I'm just trying to catch up to that line. And it's infinite, right? So like in chess, there's like 300 trillion moves, right? They say like, whatever the fuck that number is, but it's even more than that in jujitsu. Yeah. I mean, there's no, there's nothing, there's nothing finite though. At least chess you're trapped on the board with these pieces. Yeah.

Honestly, it's like, like I said, some days it's like, okay, I can do this. And other days it's like, why am I here right now? Who's the strongest dude at B-Team? Not the best, but just the strongest dude. Okay. So we have this argument a lot, right? Oh, good. Nicky Rod thinks he's the strongest which is he is uh very strong and then craig jones is a different

kind of strong so like nikki rod is strong and powerful and explosive like he can explode and like just go crazy right but craig craig can't that. But he can like get a grip. And if he wants to hold on to that grip, you're not getting out. You know what I mean? Like, he'll grab my wrist, and I'm like, pulling my arm away. And that's pulling me toward him. Like, he is so strong, Like he is so strong. It's, it's ridiculous, but it's different kinds of strength. So I think Craig is stronger, but in a different way. Don't let Nikki Rodd hear that. This is, I feel almost embarrassed to ask this question, but do people ever get like just skin pull, like you're holding onto someone so tight, you just pull skin off them. So it's,

I mean, I'm sure that could happen in, in like the earlier rounds rounds, but, uh, like once you're like five, 10 minutes in, you're all, yeah,

we're all slippery and stuff. If you ask any athlete going into their championships, do you plan on winning? They would say, yeah, I wouldn't go unless I plan on winning. But for some reason, I feel like if I ask you that question,

you might say, no, do you, do you plan on going there to win? I mean, I, this, this is the thing people say like,

Oh, if you don't plan on winning you're going to lose that's what I do with trials when I won just because I don't think I'm going to win doesn't mean I'm not going to try you know I'm going to go out there and try to kill everyone across from me that doesn't mean I'm

I'm I think I'm going to win but you know I guess like how they say in everyone has like a puncher's chance or whatever. Okay, let me try to trick you with this then. Fuck, I got another guest coming on in 12 minutes. I should have kept you – I should have blocked longer for you. You deserve three hours.

You get to the trials on the west coast and you know you have seven or eight guys ahead of you you beat the first guy whatever you beat the second guy you're stoked you beat the third guy and now all of a sudden you're cresting over the halfway point three and now you can see the end there's only three guys left does that shit fuck with something like fuck with you since since you're kind of trying to stay in the moment and not be like a winner or a loser you just are what you are yeah but now you see the fucking sun coming up and you're like oh shit yeah so there's like little little bits of both so it's like i remember i would go into the back room and I'm like, how am I doing this right now? Like, how am I winning all these matches?

I remember before the, either the semifinals match or the match before that, I'm like, like, there's no way I win this next match. Like, how am I doing this? Like no matter who I have, they're going to be good at this point. You know what I mean? And, and I, at this point, I didn't even know who I was going against. I didn't even know who, who I was going against. I didn't know any of the people I was going against until I was like on the mat. So, uh,

You're like, you're choking this guy out and you look over and Sean O'Malley's yelling at him. Yeah. It's fucking crazy. Yeah. And you never get an answer to it either. Right? Like at the end of the day, you're like, Oh, that's how I did it. It's like you won and you still don't know how you never get an answer to it either right like at the end of the day you're like oh that's how i did it it's like you won and you still don't know how you never get an answer to your question yeah i mean god you're fucking a special human so some people are like you know stephen king

said that about he wrote this book on writing and he's like i fucking no idea where the books are coming from yeah if you ever want to read that book, it's a great book. It's only nonfiction. It's called On Writing by Stephen King. He's one of the greatest writers who ever lived, and he's like, I don't know. I don't know. That's crazy.

That's crazy. Like he's channeling it. In those seven matches, did you ever call your mom during any of the matches? No. No. It would be a distraction. Did you ever call your mom during any of the matches? No, no. It would be a distraction. I might have, like, texted them or shown it to a few texts. But, yeah, no.

I called them after. Yeah, I can't do that. If you were to call your mom, what is something she would say to you? Good job or are you eating or don't hurt those boys or she would she would say something like oh i'm so proud of you or something along those lines um is how about your dad is he tripping that he has these two animals that are sons or did he always know that you're animals um i mean he was there no matter what we do they're like uh just behind our back you know supportive in us but um i guess i guess they didn't know what uh what was in store like like you didn't grow up in some family like where like you were beaten all the time as kids and you were destined to be fucking like killers or like no no yeah they didn't even like like a lot of uh parents in in wrestling you'll see like the one mom or the one dad that's like super like always like watching their kids like

practice and like telling them to do this and telling them to do that and i think that's like the one thing that nick and i uh were thankful for we didn't have like um we didn't have like that car ride home and like the parents are like oh why'd you do this why'd you do that like it was always uh healthy they didn't like they didn't tell us to wrestle we did we wrestled because we wanted to same as jujitsu we we train because we want to train you know we train every day because this is what we want to do and they're just here like okay you you do you you know we're whatever you do we're gonna support you okay i want to ask your advice you're fucking me up last question advice you're fucking me up last question hey i'm but uh i am gonna bug you during the adcc uh but um obviously you don't have to answer but i'll be texting you and bugging you yeah but just like do like your brother does and ghost me but he always gets back he's a good dude

um My son is in a best out of three no-gi with a kid at the tournament. Okay. He wins the first match 9-2. Second match, 4-4. He loses because the other kid scored points last. Uh-huh. They go into the – so he can get the gold. All he has to do is beat this kid and he gets the gold.

I know he wants the gold. He's told me he wants the gold. He wants the medal. Yeah. He wants the gold. One that the gold. All he has to do is beat this kid and he gets the gold. I know he wants the gold. He's told me he wants the gold. He wants the metal. Yeah. He wants the gold. One of his books, gold. Yeah.

They're about to go out there and he goes, I'm not going out. I'm like, what's up? He goes, I'm tired. I go, I do shit all the time when I'm tired.

He goes, I know, but I'm tired. And I go, dude, I, I do shit. I drove you.

I'm going to drive you home to in a few minutes. I'm fucking tired. Like, what are you talking about? I don't get how that's the excuse because I'm tired. All right. I got, so I drop it.

Like I'm like, okay, I love you. And I go, Hey, do you want me to force you to go out there? He's seven, by the way.

Yeah. I go, do you want me to force you to go out there? And he looks at me in tears, start coming out. I go, okay, cool.

I won't force you. I just want to make sure. Just checking, just checking. We're good. We're good. And I, and I,

and we get in the car how we get in the car we get in the car and and we drive home but then today i go today we're in the car so his brother got arm barred and his arm got hyper extended in a match we took him out he cried i'm like there's no way he's going back in and five minutes later he's like dad put me in i'm like really and this gets five i go yeah so he goes back in and arm bars the girl i'm like oh good good on you you know so today when we're driving to go play tennis i said hey uh avi um i said ari was scared but he faced his fear you were scared but you called it tired he goes that's not true i go yeah it is i go you were afraid that you were so you were afraid

because you were tired that that guy was gonna to fucking take advantage of you. And so you missed an opportunity to prove yourself. You're better. He goes, I don't think that's true. I said, okay, well, either way, I love you. And then I dropped it. Did I push too hard? No, I think that's a perfect health him out, you know? Hell. Okay. And he didn't cry or anything. He was cool. Like we were cool. Yeah. Yeah. There's, there's a difference between like the moment like you said the moment you saw your kid uh like starting to get emotional you dropped it you know yeah i dropped it it's like hug him love him i'm like we're good yeah yeah they are and i'll take you home whatever um i just don't want to not push hard enough and him miss because sometimes i feel like my parents

let me off the hook and like they should have just just been like, because the times they did push me, I've never, I don't look back and I'm being like, they shouldn't have done that. I'm like, well, that was good. I mean, that's kind of the thing with us where like Nick pushes himself. Like Nick, I think Nick has like, did he always do that? Did he always do that? He's always kind of been like this. He just does so much extra stuff. And I mean, you see it the way his work ethic is crazy.

Not everyone sees how much he trains because you guys don't live with him. You see like, oh, workout here online or whatever. This guy trains two or three times every day. And I'm like, bro, you need to slow down. He's like, no, dude. No, I'm recovering. He's like, bro, you need to slow down. He's like, no, dude, no. He's like, Oh, I'm recovering. Like, dude, you just did an hour on the wrong. Slow down. Like it's, it's ridiculous how much he trains. That being said, it inspires you.

Yes. Yeah. Like he's like, he's like almost like a parent. parent like he he pushes me to do like uh things but if uh if i'm like nah like this is banged up today it's like all right whatever and then he'll go work out and then i'll feel like a piece of shit while i'm you know icing my leg or whatever but he doesn't say anything like this is just me. I know what I should be doing. Do you ever – I know I said that was the last question. I'm already fucking up the next show. Do you ever – you said you know a lot. That's obvious. But you said there's so much more to learn. Do you ever work out for a week and been like, Oh fuck, I became complacent. I'm just sitting here practicing shit I'm good at. And I, and I,

and I lost a week of my life or does that, or do you have just so many fucking assholes around you? You can't do that. Just dudes running. Yes and no. Like in camp, it's like, there's only like, you shouldn't really be trying to learn stuff. You should be trying to like perfect what, like you shouldn't really be trying to learn stuff you should be trying to like perfect what what you already know you know you're not going to learn something in a week or so and like be the best in the world at it so in camp you know the past however long

we've been in camp um we're really just perfecting what we're good at you know uh but you did go to the east coast trials and not qualify that being said then you went to west coast and you were significantly better and you postulated in that video you looked at the camera and said man i'm i think i'm going to even be better by adcc which you can't do in a lot of sports. But you see it happening. And you're 20. Shit. Yeah. There's like – there's a lot – that's the thing with any sport really. People will take – they're like, oh, I train two, three hours every day. I'm like, okay, but what are you doing with that time? People mindlessly spend time on

training, which I get some days, like some days we go and like, we just like train really hard. And like, okay, that was our goal. We pushed ourself. I want to be dead tired at the end of this training. I achieved my goal. That's, that's it for today. And then other days you walk in, you're like, okay, I need to get better better at this and you just put yourself in that position or you focus on doing that move or whatever it is and that's really like what what we've been doing to get better so much faster just just that concept alone like what you're doing with your time is so important if the the the thing amongst um you know the wise men in all those self-help books with for professional athletes it's like basically if you're not failing you're not getting better exactly just straight up yeah and it makes so much sense

yeah yeah especially because you're not pushing the margins of your failure, right? You're not pushing. Exactly. That means you're not pushing. time and it was a tough position and bottom out was not where you want to be and the moment i get home these guys are torturing me for weeks with bottom out rounds and they're like oh get on bottom and they're just fucking i'm trying to that's what i was looking for so you have so much time yeah yeah every everyone is is trying to help everyone get better and whenever you have a question you know about certain things like oh nick, how, how do you do this? And then it's like, Oh, Isaac, how do you do this? And this, everyone is, is trying to help everyone get better. There's no like one main coach.

Awesome. Uh, my next show just started. Hey, you know, ma'am, I really appreciate you coming on. It's fucking great getting to know you. I look forward to talking to you again soon uh yes sir well i'll be watching from flow cheers dude all right thank you thanks brother okay guys i'm going to nikki rod uh no j uh jacob j j j rod j rodriguez what a fucking cool cat i am going to take a leak refresh my coffee and i will see you guys with brian friend at 705