[Music] after my biggest loss in my life which is losing my son with 18 years old i was confused for a while about three or four years in a dark thinking about suicide or thinking about drugs thinking about you know what's the purpose of life and i realize with huxo's departure we may never not have tomorrow tomorrow may never happen hey everybody welcome to another episode of impact theory today i am joined by a living legend this man's life is so extraordinary the one the only master hickson gracie thank you tom thank you so much
for being here dude i read your book cover to cover i was blown away i watched the documentary choke i knew who you were before i read your book and before i saw the documentary but this was performance on a level the note i took was this is a person who's actually made use of his full potential it is really extraordinary what you've accomplished in jiu-jitsu thank you i mean the gracie name at this point is synonymous with jiu jitsu yes in large part thanks to just your unbelievable accomplishments we'll get into some of the
specifics for sure as we go but there was one moment in the documentary that defined for me why you're so different than everyone i've ever met and that is you're you were in a championship fight but the way that it was was it was rounds back to bauer fights back to back so you would beat one opponent then you'd get paired with another opponent and so you and this other guy each had i think two full fights before you met yeah and he had been punched in the face so many times yes that he couldn't
see and in the locker room somebody in your corner said you've got to punch him and do you remember what you said yes said i don't i don't want it and i don't need to hurt him to win the fight because i felt compelling based on he's a warrior he's a tough guy he's lighter he previous fight against uh a hull a dutch guy who is very mean and and and dirty and poke his finger poke his eye with the finger and uh he was hurt and he won this fight after about about of 30
minutes or 40 minutes for a fight and then he fought another big wrestler who's also and then he end up in the finals with me was an eight-man tournament and my my training partners my my my people say oh you have to kill this guy pancho said i don't i don't have to be violent on this guy because i'm not intimidated by him the opportunity is based on striking so i will be gentle because i believe i'm more technical than him and i can win so that's what i did and this was a very interesting
because japanese are very particular in observing details moral details personality ego you know brutality and after that match the press recognized my my kindness and uh in the spirit of the true samurai which was not exactly overpowered you know you just do what you have to do in a loyal and and nice battle and that was the thing that i found so interesting in your whole journey and even when you ask your brothers and cousins like what are the things that made you so special you hear that idea of spirituality a lot like he really
understood his body he understood like the transcendent nature of the fight and seeing that the the honor of that and that for you fighting seemed to be connected to something else how do you conceptualize fighting because there were times where i mean you've said many times i am prepared to die literally die in this fight yes so how does the same guy that's prepared to die to protect his honor say i don't have to be violent to win this fight yes because for me i was never prepared myself to be a fighter i was not
seeking for elements to win an opponent i was representing jiu jitsu you know i was not seeking for learning box or learning elements to just be prepared with all the in all the corners to to defeat my opponent and i event to make money or so i was there to fight for free to represent the art to just acknowledge the fact what have been practiced is a legacy from my family which brings a technique which enhances the weaker one and a fight to give possibilities so i was focused on representing the family representing the style
with this being said you you pick just a fight but if you get any achievement if you want to buy a car if you want to buy get a girlfriend if you want to buy a house if you want to get a new job whatever endeavor you focus on is somehow a challenge somehow a battle somehow you have to use martial arts you have to use the ability to because martial arts give you tools the tools are connection base deflection strategy emotional control the capacity for you to to over to visualization and other elements so
if you want to buy a car you have to use a strategy the same way you use to to win a fight you have to see how much you have to put in the car everything else after that so basically in order for you to achieve happiness you have to be strategically correct you have to be capable to control emotions you have to be focused you have to be perseverance nothing coming easier for free so and happiness is always changing what makes you happy today 10 years from now it's not going to be the same
thing you're going to be have different goals different expectations so in order for you to really feel happy you have to be present you have to have a goal my goal always been representing my family and that's make me happy to go in a challenge situation to represent my family to be able to to bring everything i got in a positive mission in my in my you said that being born in gracie put a lot of expectations on you yeah you fought in no holds barred tournaments which is important for people to understand you fought
where people would show up at your training facility to challenge you and show up to hurt you yes and how with all that expectation with so much physically riding on the line in so many of these fights how did you control your mind like how do you get control of the field yes i think i think what's crucial for me was the the deep understanding all my practice all my talent all my physicality is not going to be enough all my thinking all my emotional control all my strategy is not going to be enough all
my surrender all my capacity to accept death is not going to be enough if they come in long separate i think we have to in order for us to grow as a spirit of warriors no matter if it's physical or just theoretical your growth to facilitate your life to conquer things to be happy you have to have a good unified body in terms of body mind spirit you have to understand your physicality you have to understand your mind you have to understand your spirituality because those three things combined make you feel powerful how i could
engage in a fight a serious fight like that with no time limits no weight division no no rules basically no mount peace no no cups no so you basically go for a unpredictable situation how i could go just by be trained with a guy 60 70 pounds heavier than me so just being prepared just being talent is not enough just be able to focus and be strategically correct is not enough i have to have this spirituality to say today is a great day to be in a battle if i have to part to depart today
from another from a different different dimension i would be grateful to get here that far so i was accepting death in order to be comfortable in hell because how a fireman can leave home disregarding the possibility he can be the last day because he can be and try to save a kid in a building and die how a police officer can leave home without knowing the possibilities he may have to get shot if you don't realistically believe on those possibilities you should not be a police officer you should not be a fireman you should not
be a fighter like myself in that kind of perspective of unpredictability being an athlete being a sport like a judo or mma which has rules as time limits has weight divisions those are pretty much predictable is a sports a very interesting a very brutal a very contact a very aggressive sport but it's still a sport martial arts transcends that because martial arts i have to feed my students with unpredictable situations for them to start to realize they have a chance when everything is go dark when everything goes like if i have a knife against you
so i don't know what you do so pay attention come just put your hand here so i start to build up confidence i start to build up situations where the guy will feel i supposed to be dead here but i have a chance i so building that windows of opportunity windows of chances i've been creating myself as a confident and possibilities so i'm not going there to lose or to compete i go there to to preach or to do what i know and be sure i'm going to win so in my mind was no defeat
was no was just victory and that's it because i believe what i do is perfect now what makes that so interesting is that i know at um i think you were 14-ish you were in a fight you the you had kneed the guy in the face and you said he just spit his teeth out and was still ready to fight and you were like that was so troubling to you that at round break you were like i don't want to go back in and your dad pushed you yeah that was my first professional fight i
was 19 years old the guy was 30-something oh he has 120 fights and four draws so 120 victories and four draws you know he was never been defeated wow and my father pulled me to ios crazy about representing and he kind of received a call from the the manager of the this other guy and he set up i said no i'm sorry i don't have nobody to fight and then i said dad please put me in pull me and pull me and i said i have a kid here 19 years old and the and the
manager said no master this guy is professional he's a very tough guy and as the guy tried to take my my my father out of the deal my father got excited because he felt like oh i'm gonna have to put this kid to prove himself but he's good he can handle so he set up a fight with me with this guy his name is zulu and uh and i was there to fight the guy and he have a trademark move which comes like he starts and then he block himself together don't get punched he get
close to you put one hand between your legs and lift you and throw you back on the floor like it's like a a move he always does as he approached that i was quick move myself back and hit him with my knee with the best hit i could ever possibly think and in my mind i said i win the fight for sure it was a knockout and after this he just shook his hand speed a tooth and ready to promote i said wow so that's take me out of my comfortable zone in terms of nothing
is what i expect right and the fight goes on for the because it was 10 minutes rounds unlimited number of runs so so when the first round stops ends i was dead tired full of his blood and i was crawling to my my corner and i said dad there's no way i cannot go back there and my dad might even listen to me he says are you doing great you know he's worse than you now you're gonna kick his ass and this and that said dad i'm serious i'm just dead here i cannot go and
i start to argue with my dad and and my brother halls throw me a bucket of ice and water in my head [Music] and then the the round bang bangs like bells again and i went to the fight and like my dad said i beat the guy in three minutes because he's already tired i could get a good position and choke him out and i noticed my worst enemy at this point was my own mind playing tricks on me tell me i don't have enough tell me i was tired tell me i gonna lost so
my mind was completely against my purpose and i felt like i could not let this happen ever so after that fight i make a a a a statement in my spiritual in my mind i said i'm not gonna quit anymore i have i prefer to die then think i have to quit so since then i already created an element of i'm going with a hundred percent and if if i fail trying so be it but there's no quitting there's no expectations there's no oh that's got harder and stuff so based on that i bring myself
mentally to a next level was a was an obstacle which to jump that obstacle i have to see life different after that and were there things that you could do to cement that so that you knew that you would actually rise to that in the moment yeah visualization because in the water arsenal we have different tools we have physical tools like talent mobility strength coordination techniques leverage angles timing but if you're talking about mind we have different tools visualization emotional control in the spiritual side we have hope we have faith we have patience those elements
they give you chance of of letting the situation cook and in a slow burn and see how it goes because if you impatient if you don't have the hope if you don't if you're not believing yourself sometimes you get caught in the middle of the of your chores without you know what what but if you fake you're gonna find the light you're gonna find the whole you're gonna you have the hope you think is gonna do well so you become smoother even in the bumpy rides so i start to feel like my growth was depending
of this growth not only physical not only mental but also spiritual yeah i find this warrior spirit cultivating the mind getting yourself to a place where you've rehearsed like if i'm in this situation this is what i'm prepared to do i'm going to go all the way i'm utterly intoxicated by it like i find this when i think about what does it mean to be a man that's part of it for me like just that you it doesn't have to be fighting but it does need to be that warrior spirit that there's something that you're
so committed to that you'll go all the way in the book you talk about a moment where this really got put to the test that all of this stuff together hixson it it almost seems impossible to believe that it's one person but the time that i think of as a japanese fighter shows up at your school and fish hooks you yes walk us through that story because in the book you detail it so well and i was like oh my god yes uh the situation was after i become successful in japan in the in the
mma scenario professional wrestler in japan is big it's huge but professional wrestlers they have fighting backgrounds they coming from judo wrestling catch catch con striking box so they tough fighters but they fix fights and i was invited to fight under their arena and i said in the magazine i could not ever fight their champions and stuff even though the rules are good because they supposed to be fake fixed fights then and doesn't give me legitimacy so when you're losing there has no place no role on my realistic view and i said that and i said
i i'm welcome to bring those fighters to that to to the rio arena which has rules which are for real and i hear nothing and then couple of months later the number one guy was challenged before changed the scenario for the number two guy which was mean that guy like the the villain of the the whole scenario you know one of the big villains of the wrestling world and he said i i want to go to to los angeles i'm going to kick your ass i'm gonna beat you and my friends japanese friends coming oh
anjou said he coming to fight you weren't gonna say and i could not say nothing about it because i'm not sure if he's coming right i'm not sure when he's coming so i keep living my life naturally as nothing happened because i could not be prepared for i don't know when or what eventually one day i was sleeping in my house because i don't teach the morning classes the very early morning classes so about 10 o'clock my instructor called me and said hickson we have a a a couple here wants to talk to you some
japanese guys and immediate immediately i imagined the fight the fighter was there to fight me said okay i'll be right there and i was with my my like pajamas and stuff and i got into a car my son was going with me so i give the camera for him for him start to become familiar with the camera and i start to tape in my hands before i get on the freeway you know to get there ready to fight and i get there my academy was in the alley so soon i get into the alley i
saw a van full of japanese reporters with cameras and stuff you see a crew of a filming crew in there and then i get i pull in i get there was a couple a very tall guy mr gracie how are you i said oh how are you doing sir they are very well dressed i'm president of the ufo the the federation there and i wonder because i want to invite you to fight in japan i said man i told you this before i don't want to fight in japan for you guys yeah but you also
mentioned you could fight for free if the guy coming to you said yes and i come here because i expect you to be the fighter he said yeah but the fighter is outside and then i realized the fight was outside with the crew can i pick him up can i call him i said yes so as the guy approached going out to pick up the fighter this is like out of a movie i said to one to my students which is also a bouncer and uh said man stay on the door please let the guy
the president come in let the fighter come in but keep the press all out don't let the guys come in and that's being said the guy come in the fighter come in and then the guy was all kind of looking ugly like look at everybody like this and i said for mr sign the waiver because if somebody gets hurt it's just a waiver to be signed here you ask and then lemon give it to him the the waiver the guy look at the waiver like this and then the president called me said mr gracie that
means if you don't sign the waiver you're not going to fight immediately i felt like a double trick that because if i say you know he has to sign he could leave and tell i'm scared i'm afraid or i was quitting whatever he said no no forget the waiver throw the waiver out he come in to fight come over let's fight man and then the fight begins and i felt he was his approach was he want to hit me hard on the face you know his base the way he's positioned himself comes more towards the
striking mode than actually grappling [Music] and based on that i i kind of played myself a little dummy for him to approach when he go for the punch i deflected grab him under the waist lift throw him on the floor mounted and i start to beat him up but in my mind different than a regular competition was not about defeating the guy making tap because if i make a clean victory and make him tap he can stand up and say nothing happens so i have to show physically the damage so my intention is not just
put him to sleep or squeeze his arm was just punching him in the face and after some punches and break his nose and make him very bloody he turns back and i choke him out and put him to sleep and and as he's sleeping face down on the ground i stood up until the press could come in so the press starts to come in and take pictures of everything and the president of the his his friend tried to cover his face to don't show his old bloody and stuff and then uh the guy said to
him gay now get out let's clean his so it shows his face on them so and then two days after this guy coming to my place with a samurai helmet and offered to me as a gift sharing was a lack of respect for him and he's apologizing and he was you know feel like i was honorable and and and gracious on defeating so he was giving me a gift and left did you live ready to fight at all times at that period yes yes was no time for preparing was just be in shape all the
time be ready to fight any time because that's why that's the only thing i could do yeah that's what i think makes your family and your style of fighting certainly in the era where you were the number one so interesting is that is born out of being ready for a street fight it's born out of really being able to defend yourself in a life or death situation not just in the sport how were you raised your dad seems to be a very unique character what what values did he instill in you guys my father was
a very special guy because he was very weak when he born he learned jiu-jitsu long before his practice in jujitsu because he was forbidden by doctors to practice his sport he could not run a bike or run and play soccer because he has verticals he passed out he was very tense and very weak physically and he was learned from my uncle his older brother and but he could not practice so when my uncle opened his school on the 1925 in rio de janeiro my father was sitting on the corner for about three years just watching
my my uncle teach different moves so he memorized everything he knows everything just by photograph and he'd not exactly fighting because he was forbidding so in one day 16 years old uh a student come out come by and my uncle has not arrived yet so he said for the students mister if you want to practice a little bit i can play dummy for you i i can just be aspiring for for a little while until my brother arrives said oh i love to do that kid let's go so my dad engaged with the guy statue
practicing stuff half hour later my uncle arrives and the student said to my uncle said carlos if you don't mind i love to keep training with your your younger brother because he's so talent he's so good i love him and that's my that engaged himself in the practice but different than normal persons the choke for example was done choking somebody using the arms he could not do one pull-up he could not do one push-up so he's weak so instead using power from the arms he developed power from the chest which comes much more leverage and
minimizing the the real muscle effort and gives more strength on the leverage of the the action so he starts adapting himself for the jiu-jitsu he learned and we compared elio gracie to jiu-jitsu as einstein's to physics he was inventor he creates things to to modify things to adapt for himself and that's why jiu jitsu gets once arrives in brazil this kind of special element of more techniques or more softness or more capabilities to adjust especially fighting from the bottom which my father could not ever fight from the top so he developed ways from the guard
position which he has opponent between the legs to be able to not only be comfortable against punches and so also submit with triangle chokes armbars and strikes so he becomes very clever on that aspect of fighting so with this being said my dad grew as a general as a as a new modern view for jiu-jitsu and make not only his kids but his his nephews parts of a clan my uncle carlos always been a very dedicated to create a clan and my my my father elio was the guy who is the the the general for
the army you know he was more physical he was more giving talents and my uncle has more the spiritual guidance giving more nutrition values for the family giving more sense of strategy for the accomplishment so he was the guy behind with his mind open for everything and my father was the guy who was really bringing the fight bringing the techniques to the cousins and the family so when i'm born my father was already on his 50s so i could not have the experience of him fighting i could not remember those elements i remember him more
older giving my brothers thanks for improving my jiu-jitsu or guiding students or talking about the federation talking about the politics behind so i get from him the impression was he's the guy who leads all of us to a better future to a better representation to grow the family did he push you guys to be tough or anything like what were his you know he's very strong on morals you know he's very strong on i don't wanna you guys fight each other so whoever is wrong too many men is in the house so whatever is wrong
is better apologize because if you not apologize when you're wrong and you guys fight for that when i discover who is making the mistake this guy will pay triple so it's value guys arranged so i was feeling confident to argue my brother got the apple i was about to get so give me the apple i was so i saw no no so i'm gonna talk with my dad because you're wrong the guy said okay kid take this because he keeps like a moral values he keeps honesty he keeps you know if you talk the truth
no matter what you're not gonna get punished if you lie you get three times more more punishment than you supposed to have so you did you who breaks this said i break that so don't do this again that's pretty much it was not big punishments because i tell the truth if i lie would be worse you know will be different punishment so we very early understand how important is to be honest the valuable the integrity the capacity for you because a lot of what i learned from fighting was in the dinner table seeing my dad
talking about resilience about you know elements he passed on his fight so i was getting that kind of information and applying on my own life do you think that being small and weak influenced the way that he thought about things like resilience 100 his possibilities he has to develop possibilities outside outside of the physical fight is physical fight is brutal fight is violent how a guy who is not physical can be fighter he has to use strategy techniques leverage angles you know and that's bring a completely different dimension it's so interesting that he took to
that so well that he could just watch it and then be able to do it instantly and then be able to innovate it's uh it's really pretty impressive yes now is he unique like that or have there been other people that have added he was just genuine he's just a special character who he not only devote himself fully to jiu-jitsu passionately he's very passionate about but he has the coordination and the talents sometimes he spend eight months without going to the sidewalk he's spending on the gym eating sleeping on the gym waking up training sleep
without going to the the beach without going to the bar or the nothing it's just spend eating on the school so it's unbelievable how much passion and dedication yeah it's interesting like that so there's a quote i forget who said it aristotle or somebody that the only impossible job is raising kids and one thing i know you've talked a lot about is when you're coaching or being a parent that you have to first assess what that person is like what they need and then give that to them where did that insight come from yes one
time i was start reading to helping my brother to teach as a dummy for him so he pulled me lay down hixon john mount so i was playing the dummy for the student practice day whatever they so i was there and he gave me a little tip in the end of the class for me to buy ice cream whatever so i started making little money from my brother and i got my dad and said dad what i should do to be the best teacher he said if you want to be a good teacher you learn
the choke you learn the arm lock with precision with details and then pass through the student and ask him to get tight here or there so give him the details of the technique if you want to be an excellent teacher you have to capture what the student needs to learn so with that advice he gave me the sense so i cannot be just a jiu jitsu teacher i had to be a psychologist too because i have to approach a guy who's tense insecure in a different way than approach a guy who's just lazy and completely
off so the whole tone of the class the whole inspiration the whole talk talking process thought process has to be different from one to another i cannot teach a girl as i teach a boy i cannot their aspirations are different so based on that sense i start to realize jiu-jitsu has a lot to do with the mindset with the approach because we all need to learn something from martial arts but sometimes you're not aggressive you're not mean you're not a competitor that doesn't mean you need you don't need to learn martial arts like martial arts
is not exactly just to win so mindset is something you and i were talking about before we started rolling is being a common denominator among people that are successful what elements other than emotional control which we've already talked about resilience we've talked about but what elements of do people need to be successful of mindset my developments my mental spiritual and physical developments they could reach a plateau if i was not involved with breathing the way i am it's very interesting but the only organs are capable to give and receive informations are the brain and the
heart other other than that the word the body just works but doesn't have influence if you get a bad email you immediately gonna get upset you're gonna get claustrophobic you can get emotional you can get you know depressed because your brain tells you you don't you're not happy sometimes you feel something but doesn't heat your brain hit your heart and immediately you feel emotional you feel sad you feel whatever because you felt in your heart the lungs are the only organ who are capable to have a connection a direct connection with your brain and with
your heart when i started training breathing i started to felt a completely different dimension of death and my sensibility and my capacity to feel myself deeply because normally in average people born people get slapped on the butt start to cry and then they feel like they know how to breathe they can survive and then they learn soccer they learn fighting they learn baseball they learn sports surf and they live based on the same breath doing things but the the real learning of your breathing system is to learn how to maximizing your ventilation hyperventilation to cope
with the activities you plan to do the the perfect breeding system give you hyperventilation give you capacity for you to relax and sleep in mood give you capacity to be sprinting for longer not only for one breath take so whatever you need from your body even from your spiritual guidance you have to drive by a perfect breathing system the breathing allowed you to find yourself deep into the this your system what's the thing in your career that you're most proud of oh man it's hard to say because was just a continuous mode of successful elements
i'm undefeated i have 400 over 450 fights jesus i never i never win anyone by by by points i always submit or knock out so my career is very successful from even for my retirement maybe the most imp thing i'm proud of was after my biggest loss in my life which is losing my son with 18 years old i was confused for a while about three or four years in a dark not feeling appetite for training for surfing nothing really appeals to me i was putting a lot of time on my guardian on my hillside
just meditating and thinking kind of little depressed and but i allowed myself to to get deep in the dark you know i allowed myself to hug a stone and go to the lake and stay deep on the thinking about suicide or thinking about drugs thinking about you know what's the purpose of life being a very much weak in the purpose you know crying and not feeling like no that's okay i'm strong because if you try to hide the emotions from yourself and try to show everybody okay you just making a patch which is not working
so i have to feel like weak and and and completely vulnerable and then i get there and in order for me to get out of this this hole one day i was meditating in a little uh platform i did on top of the trees for my son and i was there and i thought about my dad and my dad always saying everything bad happens to you it's always a good side of it and everything good happens to you it's always a bad side of it so nothing can be only bad or only good and i
start thinking about what could be good based on my my son's departure and i realized time for me was always something i was in charge about it i could fight at will i could teach at will i could i raised my kids i could my dad i want to talk to okay not today i'm going to surf tomorrow we talk i was able to be in charge of my time and my will freely and i realized with huxor's departure we may never not have tomorrow tomorrow may never happen and i start to understand how important
for me was appreciation of today our conversation today is the most important thing for me now nothing can be better than this for my attention for my focus for my passion for for the audience for you i want to be present here i want to be fully so when this is over i will think about what's next so being present make you make a big difference and thinking about my son thinking about that i give you a glimpse of how i change if i going for a fight in japan now and i'm on the freeway
or a seminar or something a show or something and my daughter called me dad i need to talk to you i said what's happened sweetheart yeah because she starts to cry i will stop my car in the freeway talk to her try to resolve the problem get into the depth of the situation because whatever i have to say how long it takes i will be there for her and after i turn it off i will see if i still able to get the flight if my trip has to be canceled if whatever is going to
happen after i will deal with but i'm not going to say srihar i go to japan i call from nearby i never will do this anymore so my appreciation for time becomes different and i'm grateful for hawks on departure because now he gave me a completely different perspective of how i should live my life and how i appreciate my time and how much i kind of tight the notch for not getting loose gaps and and be just not concerned about things that matter today my day is based on what i can do best to make
my best day today i have to walk the dog i have to do things which are i feel complete if i do what i have to do if i leave my dog without her i will feel like wow man i let him down so i want to do my best day no matter if he's walking the dog no matter if he's helping somebody to to go to costco to to make bite stuff no matter if i have to fix my my roof whatever i have to do i'm focused and grateful and help and happy about
it in my way so the appreciation for that those elements coming from my understanding and maybe was maybe the biggest change the biggest progressive positive move i did in my life since i know myself was exactly that kind of positive change and then after i understood that i think about hawks so i'm happy i thinking about my possibilities i'm happy and inspired with the moves i do to jiu-jitsu through my federation through my so my life changed because what was my biggest loss becomes my biggest sign of how i should do to have a happy
life it was really heartbreaking reading in the book about that i didn't realize that you had lost your son when you think about that like the spirit of you know a kid growing up in your family and how hard they have to fight how do you like rein them in you have a really interesting philosophy about how much you can guide and then at some point you have to let them be them how do you do that when you know like that it you know tomorrow isn't guaranteed like that seems so difficult yes my father
has 10 kids so not all are champions not all are fired we all involved in jiu-jitsu but in the sense of education we we bring they bring judges to my attention they bring they sport jiu-jitsu to my attention they bring the philosophy of martial arts to my attention and i could be a doctor i could be a police officer i could be other things was but it was underneath pressure which you grace you're supposed to be a fighter so i know what my direction was but i have to recruit my my courage my desire my
sacrifice which a lot of members of the family doesn't doesn't feel like oh man too much training today i hurt myself i'm not gonna go back there next day so it's a different elements too to combine the experience i have what's the information i get with the dedication and the and the and the compromise i put myself in so it's it's a dual thing nobody could make me what i am if i was not focused and passionate about it so my dad com make his put his part on it but also i put my part
on it my commitment one example is i was 12 years old i was very orange belt practicing in a group class with adults they they have fun with me they're not hurting or anything so i was there playing and then one time i fly to uh a strong man not tough guy but just tough just strong and he got me in a headlock and headlocks technically are not exactly to make you tap it's a position which is very uncomfortable but you can resist i was tired i was a kid the guy was very strong and
i tap and i got so upset because it was claustrophobic was not about the pain or the the submission was about the agony and i get panicky and i tap and i was upset i cried a little bit the guy said what's your cake now i'm okay thank you and i went home with that in my mind and i get home in a in rio de janeiro like summer time 120 degrees heal me it's like unbelievable i laid down myself in a carpet almost like that i lay down myself on the corner of the the
carpet like this and i tell my brother holt to roll me up like a burrito and just take me off here in 10 minutes leave me 10 minutes here for me too to get claustrophobic in this feeling so i was enrolling the carpet all dark smelling bad get claustrophobic at first and then eventually i started thinking about the beach the seagulls the wind the breeze on my face start to get calm and i start to take the panicking out of my system and then he unfold me from there in the same year i did three
more times the same experience until i felt like was just another day in the park just do this like and i look so that shows my commitment with my own fears with my own i was upset because i got panicked and i was trying to fix my panic on the carpet in home was not a doctor it was not a pill was not a conversation was just brutally stay in the hole until you get killed you know it's like so that's kind of commitment i have in a very early age to be the best i
can be and for me breathing was always a not a problem but it was something which when you get panic you panic man everything all the strategy all the thinking all the the goes to the to the to the drain so i was focused on naga panic and then i learned how to breathe and this was the missing link in my life the breath the breath i saw you also do like cold water exposure it seemed like you did a lot of things to make yourself extraordinarily uncomfortable yes in a functional strength i never learned
functional strength i invent functional strength in my mind playing with elastics which i never heard about i bought elastics from diving the ones you put on the you just had an intuitive sense that it would work yeah you have to be a resist a consistent resist and i have to move but with resist so i i put in elastics i put in light weights and start to do like crazy and also the cold water cold water is a very important treatment for me because if you're thinking about something who gonna scare you the most is
get burned alive second is get cold water because give you chills from immediately like i don't like that it's like putting a cat in the water i hate that every touch every coff is is the uncomfortable superb you're just not gonna get killed you're going to get hurt but mentally you could not be in a more stressed situation than being the ice so i felt that will be a good learning ground for me so i was using the ice bets how'd you get introduced to that like you're doing stuff back in the i mean are
we talking the 80s like yes you're doing this stuff back in the 80s i didn't hear about this stuff until like 2015. i mean this is yes crazy because i was seeking for things were giving me tools and emotions and i love to play with nature because nature is unbreakable nature is stronger so surf for me plays always a double role first this part of surfing the the delightful element of playing the ocean [Music] second is the energy of the ocean is how the ocean moves and you cannot fight the ocean you have to go
into the channel if you get caught if you lost your board you cannot just swimming back through the channel you have to get pounding on your head and go from the waves so you have to have a is a is a is a ways to do it to deal one time i lost my board and i had very heavy surf in the in the very late afternoon i was by myself in the ocean and i lost and the i i said i think about the bet the last set i wouldn't get so i get one
more wave a guy deep so i was about to get this set i got one pound in the head and i broke my leash and i was already out there getting dark by myself with the channel pushing me towards the ocean and i was by myself so i have to be calm enough to to just go through the ocean and then eventually go sideways through the along the beach for about an hour and ten minutes and then go back to the ocean to back to the sand and i arrive on the sand about nine o'clock
at night thanks god for for being alive and lost my board but that's give me a sense of calmness and the pressure and and so i was not intent to do that but as i put myself in that situation i could use this as a positive experience so hixson you're now moving into a different phase of your life do you feel as alive now as you did when you were a champion or do you think about it differently no i don't feel better but thankful i'm not feel worse because what i could do with very
very graciously and very motivated inspired for me was lost was changing the focus from if you imagine yourself in a pyramid i always focus on the top of the pyramid efficiency and competition and proving jiu-jitsu is the best for the last 25 years or so jiu-jitsu has been growing based on the and and becomes more competition aspect tournaments and submission tournaments grappling tournaments and and they become i feel like they're losing the the martial arts spirit becomes a game without that spirit and now for me my goal is not only not to force or to
show details for better fighters but to give a more accessible base for people who are not fighters and they need something to really grow because if you put yourself in perspective of of how much you can grow from jiu-jitsu practice i tell you you can double your perception of yourself in terms of of understand your gauges of tiredness of sharpness in your mind possibilities of strategy calmness emotional control everything you have you don't put a test because you're not playing jiu-jitsu when you start your playing you start to understand the physicality the under the techniques
the movements and that's give your perception which i call invisible power you start to develop a better sense of balance you start to develop a better sense of deflection and not get punched or how to respond to so based on that learning process you start to become more confident you start to humanize yourself another big problem i see today is the fact technology robotics internet dehumanize you we become half humans and half this universe we live here so you can be anywhere you can talk with anyone you can see any tree so everything is there
but it's not the ability to shake hands to look somebody in the eye to just for a job to talk with a girl to to be present human you know we are humans we have to eat we have to to connect relationships so dehumanizing doesn't make you strong in relationships doesn't make you strong in in your presence jiu-jitsu just the hug just the breathing together just give you that sense of presence the sense of of connection which is very important and you not feel how much is important for you but because you're not sometimes you
feel like you spend your time without feeling a hug feeling the sweat feeling something which is very so jiu-jitsu can also help you in that matter of of supporting your life not for the fight because today this is weenie fighting this is win without a fight i can give you tools for you to become more peaceful more connected with yourself more sensitive to others better in relationships better in your sense of believing in yourself for endeavor and you're not gonna you don't have to spar with nobody the concepts i change in my teaching progress now
is before in the first month you're gonna learn some techniques and you in the first month and the end of the first month you're already sparring and that sparring session can be very positive for some warriors but can be jeopardizing a lot of guys who are not designed to fight in what way does it jeopardize them emotionally yeah because if you come into learn techniques and you amazed by oh i like the tech and you come in and i put you to spa with a 17 year old brutal aggressive with nothing in the head and
he coming to grab him okay so hurts and discomfortable in agony and you're gonna say four i don't i don't i don't want that in my life the guy is stupid he's so if you get too soon involved with the the actual competition aspect jeopardizing your your learning process in martial arts which i believe the first year right now i'm sure the first year of practice has to be learning practicing with a training partner not with an opponent the opponent you're just going to face not in the first month not in the second month but
you're just going to face when you say yeah i feel like i want to learn a little more how to get a belt and so now you're going to start you don't go here john come here so you try to see who falls on top and then you start the competition but you have first to get under a deep understanding of the the purpose and the ideas and you may never like to to compete and you're going to say you know what hicks i want to keep the the the fundamentals program which i feel in
shape i feel the knowledge i feel the possibilities i add to my myself but i don't want to compete you know i just don't like it because the average attendance for a jiu-jitsu school those days is for every 10 students who come into your to the class new students eight will live in less than six months wow so that drop off means that it's too hard too soon you know if i keep under my attention i can keep a student passionate about for the first two years easy and he's getting shape he gets to learn
how to to do the things but he don't have to inspire hixon your wisdom is incredible what you've learned from fighting and just life in general is really breathtaking the book was amazing thank you your life story is truly unbelievable it is inspiring in ways that i can't articulate where can people connect with you where can they buy the book uh the my my new site now is hickson dot academy the book is all over is like a big release in the four corners of the world japan europe u.s brazil so it's not going to
be hard to find what's the title for people breed because breed i think was the is the initial process of enlightenment and performance and understanding and spirituality if you cannot control your heart if you're gonna control your brain you're in bad shape so breathing is a big inspiration for me and was the turning point of my evolutionary process yeah the book is really amazing thank you my brother thank you so much for coming on my pleasure guys trust me you're going to want to read the book if you don't already know who he is you
are going to be absolutely blown away the book is part memoir it's all mindset it's exactly what he did to become arguably the greatest fighter of all time when you get into like real fighting circles this is the name that comes up over and over and over again uh the documentary choke one watch of that and you will understand exactly why uh it's it is a career that's truly unparalleled and uh i think you guys will get a lot out of reading the book and spending time with him online it's really really extraordinary and speaking
of things that are extraordinary if you haven't already be sure to subscribe and until next time my friends be legendary take care you know a lot of us are going through a hard time in life some people have been bullied some people are just stressed out some people are insecure some people are fat and overweight and the world puts a lot of this in your mind it's not just you yeah you help it
