#7 Koffee Krew Ben, Kiko, Fernando

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Today we're sitting down with the founders of the Koffee Krew. An open mat that's become a staple in the Brazilian Jiu Jitsu community here in the Bay Area. Koffee Krew isn't just about rolling. It's a space where practitioners from all levels come together to train, share knowledge, and build a tight knit community. I'm joined today by Ben, Kiko and Fernando, Three individuals who put their passion into creating an environment that highlights the true essence of Jiu Jitsu. Hi guys. Welcome to the podcast. How's it going? Luckee You know what? I didn't like that. You used our government name, but you didn't use Kiko's government name. That's not his real name. Some people are still on the run. I'm just saying. Okay. You said inclusive but you forgot to say sanctuary gym too as well. So i'm just saying I don't want to throw it out there. I don't know i'm not saying their names i'm just saying. Okay, go ahead. Francisco. Francisco Gonzales. Thank you very much. There you go. Let's get started. Each one of you can tell me in your own way, what does Jiu Jitsu mean to you Jiu Jitsu to me really is, something where I can deal with stress and get some exercise. That's what it is to me. I've been teaching kids classes and I found that I really enjoy it. And so I look forward to doing that, planning games and things like that. So it's something that I can get away from work and everyday life, basically. And I want to do a quick plug for Kiko. If you saw him Saturday, handling all those kids, we're going to start a side hustle. It's going to be Kiko's kiddos daycare. So we're going to give you guys the information at the end. If you need your kids watched. He knows what he's doing. Fernando. How about you? What does Jiu Jitsu mean to you? I guess just my life, man. That's all I think about, honestly. Yeah, I deal with stress and everything and, everything in between. We all have, different things going on. But even through those moments, I'm just like, I'm thinking about jiu jitsu all the time. I can't wait to get to the gym and do my thing, teach or teach the kids, like Kiko says I teach a teens class. It's really rewarding. Like watching them, do the move that you show'em and like they come out to you. Even the parents, like they come out to me and they, like this past Saturday, right? A parent came out to me and I didn't know how much of an impact I had on him. And I'm starting to like, to really understand, jiu jitsu is a big thing for me. It is. How about you, Ben? I just want to add to Fernando's comment, if I can. Is that okay? Sure, go for it. I know it's his story and everything like that, but I just want to just add, it's the other place too, and you forgot to say this bro. Ok. It's the one place where you can murder people and not catch a case. That's the underline. He's giving you all these other names, but that's the real truth, right? Because you should see our thread. He's showing videos of him. Elder abuse on Kiko. Seriously. He's beating the heck out of Kirby. I feel so bad for Kirby. I don't know why Kirby shows up anymore. There's a reason why Ben lives in Temecula. It's really bad. It's horrible. He's the instigator, right? He just stays away. I'm just telling you what I see as an observer. Okay, that's it. Wait, that's it. He said it wrong. English is my first language. You know that? This is Kiko's second language and he speaks it. That's right. Better than I do. I'm highly educated. Now for me, Jiu Jitsu is this. Honestly, it's, I love Jiu Jitsu, a lot. Like I love training, things like that, but it's grown into this. Kiko, I've known Kiko since, like I said, since we were 10 years old, right? And Jiu Jitsu, even though we kept a friendship. Jiu Jitsu has really helped us solidify that friendship a lot and Fernando too. I met Fernando, what, back in San Jose when we're at Battle Dome, right? And Fernando was like my nemesis. He knows he was, he would show up and I was like, that's the guy that I'm going against right there. All the time, we were just going at it. Like we would go. At it, we're a blue belt, so we would just try to like, you'd think we hated each other. And then he would disappear for a little bit and he'd come back and he was better, and I was like, mmmmm. Just getting me mad. So, but that's what Jiu Jitsu is for me. It's Jiu Jitsu for sure. Learning techniques and training and stuff like that. But also there's just this lifelong friendship and community comes out of it that it's almost like a club, right? You go there and you come there and it's a space where we can come hang out and nothing else matters when those doors close and we're on the mat It's like the whole world disappears and we're here hanging out we're having fun. We're laughing and I can have the worst day and you hear people It's very cliche because people say this all the time, but it's the truth If it's a common thing that people say it is true. And we come in here, we hang out the minute we're on the mat, we just start talking trash and it's fun. It's like everything. Nothing else matters. Now I got to come up with one liners. I got to make sure that I don't get my feelings hurt. I got to make sure my technique's on point because this guy's going to be memeing me all day. So. It's true. So Kiko, What's his nickname? We just call him Big Ben. He's always been big. He's always been bigger than me since he was 10. I was like, I'm what, four years older than you, right? Dang, that's offensive. I think he's four years older than me. Right. I'm four years older than you. Four years older than me. Yeah. I'm about four years older than him. Yeah. But he's always been bigger than me. In my defense. Okay. Cause my mom didn't cook. It's all his mom's fault. Cause his mom would be cooking early in the morning and he wouldn't even be up yet. And I'd be, I'd go over to his house and I'd be sitting at his dinner table right there, hanging out with his mom while she's cooking tortillas and eggs. And I didn't speak Spanish. All I know is. Um, quires comer. I knew that. Like it was like, do you want to eat? Yeah, I want to eat pretty clear to be there. Just chillin, eat and keep going. He's like, what are you doing here? Your mom said I can eat. So in my defense, I was always bigger than him because his mom always fed me. Fernando, How did you meet these guys? yeah through Jui Jitsu, I started in 07 seven. And yeah, Ben, Kiko, you hadn't started yet, right? No.. I got there and, yeah, man, it was a Royal Rumble. Ready to rumble. We were sizing each other up all day. We were probably the only two guys from the streets then, huh? From the streets, yeah, pretty much. I already knew right away, Fernando's my boy. He comes from where I come from, we train, we're cool, we're good. We didn't even have to say it. We already just knew. Has jiu jitsu shaped your life outside of training? I have no doubt. Okay. Like in what ways? More calm. You're calmer? Yeah, it makes me like think more now, before it was just a reaction, and I still have my moments, you know, but. I understand like one little moment could change my entire life. Yeah, so now it just makes me think, I think more now. So I don't know if it's, I think it's part of Jiu Jitsu, but I'm also like maturing. You're getting older. There Kiko knows. He can say that. We'll agree with that. Kiko, you do know what you're talking about when it comes to that, being older. For sure, bro. How about you, Kiko? How has it changed your life? It made him look handsome. Let me just tell you right now. Like with those ears, right? Kiko could be an ear model. I wish you could do a close up on those ears. You don't even have to. You don't have to. Actually, you can see it from up there. I've done some of his, photography for his apparel. If you guys don't know, look him up. He's an ear model, right? Because of Jiu Jitsu, he has a career Yeah, bro. Professional career as a ear model. So you don't hear me though. Dad jokes. No, for me, honestly, it's, I think patience. And then it helps me stay somewhat fit. I'm banged up. But you're fit at the same time, right? You're exercising, you're trying to exercise outside of Jiu Jitsu to. Especially as you get older, you want to exercise more outside to be held together to avoid injuries. So, those types of things. But patience for sure, where I don't react. I relax, try to think about things more. I think I've always been a little patient, but this is, this has helped more. How about you, Ben? Definitely. I agree with Kiko. He's always been patient. He is. No, I'm being serious. He's always been the patient. If you know his brothers, you're like, yeah, Kiko's the more patient one. And we brought his brother Felipe in here right now. He did a podcast with him. First of all, you would need subtitles in 20 different languages. Sometimes I don't even know he's speaking English. But yeah, he would be like, yeah, Kiko, Definitely more patient one. But yeah, for me. Wait, what was the question again? That's funny. Oh man. How has Jiu Jitsu shaped your life outside of training? I think it's a combination of everything they said. It definitely gives you a different perspective You take a step back from situations and be like, you walk in somebody like, yeah, I can handle this. I'm good, but you have a certain self confidence about yourself. And I think it also goes back to what I heard someone say the other day, there's a lot of black belts on the mat, but the white belts in life. But I think for us jiu jitsu, we're black belts, but we're also black belts in life. Not that we made it all the way, but jiu jitsu is kind of transformed into our life because before in life, we were all white belts. I believe me. They used to call Kiko poncho, but he had two blades underneath and he'd be running around all crazy with that poncho and no shirt on. Seriously. It's like 30 degrees at night and he has a beanie and a poncho on, but that's what I mean. It's like a white belt in life at that time without being too jiu jitsu cliches but it's transformed us. It's brought stability to our life that wasn't there. We needed that stability because a lot of our lives were chaotic. And when we come here, they're stability. They're safety. We know what to expect here and not saying that we're control freaks. We can control the environment. We know what to expect. It's our place. It's our house and people come in. They can either come in or they don't have to come in. It's up to us. So it creates a little bit of control in our life too as well. Okay, that's fair. Jiu jitsu is often described as a way of life. Do you agree? Fernando? Yeah. Yeah, it's a way of life. I'm in it for the long run, man. It's like I tell you, its all I think about even when I'm stressed, man, I need to go to the gym. Even sometimes when I'm at home with my kids, man, I'm like, Hey, come here, mijo, let me try this move on you, you know? Yeah. They don't know it, but that's how it was. Like, I would get injured, and I would grab my oldest one, because he would train, he was training like a guerrilla for a minute, and Hey, come here, mijo, let me try this move on you, see if it works. And I'm just choking the shit out of him, you know what I mean? Not parent abuse, huh? That's cool. It's training, it's okay. Yeah, it's all training. It's about bruises, it's not abuse. That's it. That's not me. That's the countessess. No, that's cool. And you, Kiki? Kiko? You Kiko? Well, his name is Kiki, too. He goes by both. Kiko, Kiki, whatever. That's why he answered to Kiki. He's like, oh, what? No question for me? Oh, come on. It's okay. Be honest. but yeah. It's a way of life for sure. It's not the only thing. But it's a big part of it for sure, where again, you're trying to nurse injuries or try to avoid injuries. So you change the way you're living outside, off the mats and trying to be healthier. So it's definitely a way of life. Yeah, I would agree. Fernando's the only person I know that would get hurt and come back like 20 times better. I would like to think I, I hurt him sometimes, I put it on him, and then he would like, get so mad that he had to learn to be better, you know what I'm saying? You give him drive. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm telling you, those first days, he really knew. We didn't, it was unspoken. He would come in like, okay, Fernando's here, it's gonna go down. And we just, because, I told you earlier, Carlos Melo was part of that gym. Yeah. And I get, and it was like. It was like kill to be killed. So I already knew that you were proving something to the guys that they want to see that you like want to train hard and be there. So it was like, you go 100 percent all the time and they see it and they're like, yep, you're cool. You can come with us. You can train with us. We want you here. They invite you to different places. So it was like, all right, who's my comp Fernando? Only the strong survivor. But yeah, I agree. It is a way of life. it's a, it's not the only way like for that, like you go for now saying, but it is a part of life. It does make up who I am. It is a part of me and it plays a big part of my life. Like I love this. Like where else do we get to come in here and have this space and we just get to be ourselves. Be us, mess around, have fun, and people love that. They come in here and they feel that, and they want to be here more, and like, how great is that? That we have a place that we get to do that. We got to create that. I think that's pretty awesome, right? It is awesome. And it's not like we have to pretend to be something. I mean, growing up, we did have to pretend to be something sometimes. Sometimes, most, I know for me personally, I can only speak for myself, I didn't want to be certain things, but the environment I was in is, yeah, you better be that or else this is going to happen, right? But here, we come here, we create this space, and we just get to be ourselves, mess around, and we get to invite as many people as we want, that we want to come in here. And people come in, they come hang out, and they receive that. So Jiu Jitsu is It's a big part of our lives in that sense that we get to live out our personalities and be who we are all the time here and just in life too. We do that anyways because we have Jiu Jitsu, we're like, eh, that guy didn't like me. We'll put him to sleep. Hit, his bad. Night, night. You're bad. You're bad. You made a mistake. So let's talk about the Koffee Krew. What inspired the creation of the Koffee Krew and who started it? I know the three of you were involved. I don't think it was a planned thing to do. It was something that, organically happened. I think the roots, like the idea started. When we're training, I was in my garage training and he was already at Claudio's training. So I was actually at Shamrocks and, I started training with him one day and they started training on the ground where I started doing some groundwork and basically beat me up. And so then I started. I still do just want to add that. So I started hanging out more with Ben a little bit and he was teaching me some Jiu Jitsu. I think you're living in Riverside, no? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It was a little bit, it was like a couple of months, like maybe a year before. Yeah. So, cause there was a period of time where I built out my garage and so I was just training in my garage, basically didn't have any instruction. I would literally watch YouTube. And I was like, all Nogi, because I wasn't doing Gi, so it was all Nogi. And then you, when you were in Riverside, he would come up and teach, a move, right, for the weekend. And then I had five guys that would come and train, so we didn't really have a place to go, besides my garage. And so when he was up, through his connections, Carlos and some of the other guys went to Salinas, Kutar, and other places, right? And so then we started traveling to these places so I can get some training in and I think that's what started that idea that's what planted the seed of wanting to go to the places. And then when we officially started doing an open mat. We decided, we should go visit a gym. I think the first one was actually Synergy up in Lincoln or Rockland.Yeah. That was the first one we did. Did you go to that one? I didn't go to that one. So it was actually, Alex Northam's buddy who was up there. Cause that's where he trained. That was our first official road trip. And everybody's like, dude, that was fun. We should do it again. And so then it was like, yeah, let's just plan some out and try to reach out to people. So, and that's how it started, right? It was just kind of boom and we were just the Sunday morning open mat. We didn't have a name So that's how it officially started. All of your careers are early morning, so you were used to getting up so early in the morning 7: 30am It actually started at 9 originally. We were doing 9, because they were like, oh, you should do 9, right? The thing that was, they started a kickboxing class at 9. Since they had paying members and we're paying members, but we're just doing an open mat for free. It was a small group at the time, but they gave preference to the kickboxing class which was understandable. Because I was bringing more people that we're paying. So they bumped us to I think it was like 8 o'clock or something. So we're like an hour is not enough. So we bumped it to 7:30 7 7:30. That's actually how we started. But even then there's people always complaining, Oh, you should do it later, you should do it later. But those people never showed up. They never showed up. They're either hungover or they just didn't show up. So the earlier we made it, more people started showing up. More people complained, but more people showed up. So that's why we always kept that 7:30 time. And it's like I said, I was going, I go to church now, I go 11 o'clock, 12 o'clock. So that nine o'clock always kept it really tight and hurry up and get home, take a shower and go to church. And so that 7:30 made it easier for me. Okay. That's fair. And you don't want to mess with Big Vern. You don't know who Big Vern is, but she will cut you. I don't even mess with Big Vern. She don't play. She'll love you. Hey, if she's on your side, you're all good. But if you ain't on her side, it's all bad. So, I'm like, just don't hurt my boy Vern, okay? Leave him around. Were you involved, Fernando, in the first sessions of the Koffee Krew? Yeah, I actually went to Kiko's Garage. And it was me, Ben, Kiko, Kenny, Berman, Matt Berman, the butcher, he's up in, Colorado, right? Denver. Yeah. Yeah. And then, we started doing Sundays and it was like, okay, cool. More training. Good. What's funny is those, cause it was a really small group, right? So everybody was going hard. I think it was like really trying to, we're trying to hurt each other. But we're going, really going for the submission. You can say, so everybody's getting better quicker. Yeah, I think. But, and people noticed it. You can't do that forever either. Yeah, People didn't notice it in our gym though. They knew they're like, hey, cause I remember the first time I brought Kiko to Claudio's. Everybody was scared of him. Not because he's ugly. Not because of the ears. That was one part. He's a little intimidating when you look at him. I always tell him he's got a face that only his mom could love. And that's the truth. Or Big Vern too. Big Vern loves him too. Shout out to Big Vern. Did you also follow Fernando? I was already there. Oh, you were already there. I took some time off. Forced time off. I was already at Claudio, so my plan was always to go back and go train again. I went back in 2012 and that's how, that's about the time I came back to San Jose too. Okay. I think that's around the time. I was already. You remember Eric had that spot with that window. That's right after they combine the gyms. And then that's when I met, that's when I met Fernando, too. Yeah, You were just bringing everybody together just to get better for these open mats. What challenges did the Koffee Krew face and what did you have to overcome? Well, we're not at that gym anymore, right? Right, right, right. You have that logo, No Dojo Trippin, and you don't want to say anything bad but it causes change when you don't have the ability to be free. Correct? Yeah. The interesting thing is, it's not bad for gyms to not want to cross train. I don't think it's a bad thing necessarily, right? Depending on the motives, right? But at that time specifically, I think there was only one open mat really that had everybody from everywhere going. And that was one world. That one was legit. So that was the one that was doing it. Aside from that, you didn't really find that anywhere. But the challenge was trying to bring people in early in the morning, obviously it's the first challenge. The second challenge is, we're not just doing it at one gym. We're trying to travel around to different gyms. And getting other people to buy into what you're trying to do. And so when you tell them like, hey, it's free. And we're just trying to come to your gym and train with your students and make everybody better. If you get some pushback from a lot of gyms, the interesting thing is that sometimes the gyms you think won't do it are the ones that will, and the ones that you're like, oh, this guy will do it for sure, they're the ones that say, oh, no, I don't want my students to get hurt. So that's a challenge in itself, right? Trying to figure out who's willing to open their gym to other people. And then, in the beginning when I first said what we planned on doing. Obviously, the instructor at the time said, nobody's gonna let you do that. It's not going to happen. Don't do it. You know, just stay here and forget about that. We didn't, we obviously move forward and Carlos up and Gilroy obviously opened his doors to us and said, if nobody else wants you guys there, do it here. So I was like, cool. If nobody opens their door then. We're just going to do it on Sundays in Gilroy every Sunday. No big deal. We're still going to train. Yeah, because at that time, Carlos had just opened up his gym. It was in a little DMV spot in, Gilroy. You remember that little spot? You remember the first time he opened his gym? It was really small. So he's come through. I want all my, I want my students to have training partners. And he already knew our caliber. Yeah. That we'd go in there and go train and put it on the students. Because that's what he really wanted. He wanted us to go put it on the students. But the other part of that too is, all of this was just us trying to get better. That's all it was. That's all. And the other interesting part of that is, there was this unwritten rule that, like Kiko says, you don't cross train with other gyms, but they weren't keeping it honest because all those guys trained with each other underground. They all trained together. The seed got planted in my mind through Carlos because Carlos, because he was a beast out here. People would invite him to go to these secret training rooms. When Caio had first opened up, he would invite Carlos all the time to go train there. Carlos and maybe Tyson and some other guys, but it was a secret room. Nobody else could come unless you're invited. And because I always train with Carlos and Carlos knew that I would train hard, he said, Hey, you want to come with me? He texted me in the afternoon. Hey, they're going to have a training session at Caio's. Let's go. I was like, all right, let's go. He picked me up. We go there. So I got invited to a lot of rooms. That were like closed off, but they were all different gyms, right? So people they were doing it, but they weren't open about it. Because there's this unwritten rule. You shouldn't cross train with other gyms or share your knowledge or share secrets and things like that. So all we did was just put it on blast, because it's like you guys are doing this already Why can't we do it? Why because we're your students? And you want to keep us under wraps and you don't want us to go somewhere else you have this fear you have this lack of confidence in your own Jiu Jitsu that you think someone's going to steal us. We were Claudio through and through we weren't going anywhere. And so we were proud of where we went because it was us, Carlos, we had a team there. We had a squad and we would just go, we go anywhere. We're like, we want the challenge. We'll go to any gym. We'll go train. We don't care. We'll show up anywhere. We'll go train with anybody. Let us come. Let us in the door. But even at that though, we weren't doing it to go beat up on people. We're actually, we're trying to get better. By going to visit other gyms, we felt it was making us better. Okay. Did you have any challenges that you faced when the Koffee Krew started? No. Like when it started? No, because I work in construction, right? So I'm up at 4 in the morning. Even on Saturday and Sunday. And that's pretty much, program time, you know, where I took my vacation. I was already used to it. And you always have to have your boots on. No, I didn't have no problem. That's what I'm saying, you don't wake up, you don't eat breakfast. That's right. Okay, you guys gotta tell me how he got his nickname and what it is. I don't remember who gave it to him exactly, I believe it was Tyson. I think it's Tyson Kemp. But as you say his name is Terminator, right? But you can't say Terminator. It's not as flashy. It doesn't sound as good. Yeah, so Tyson speaking in a brazilian accent. His name is Termin H. Yeah, that sounds cool. So now we just call him Termin H. Because he would just destroy people he like going like he destroys people now. But when we were first trained, he just had a gas tank like he, and he would just annihilate people. We thought he was part cyborg, that part where the joke was like, if you pull Fernando's arm back, there's all these, he's all metal. Cause he's just a, he's an Android. Cause there's no way that somebody could. Just come with that level and intensity just keep and then just get better all the time. Like he would get hurt. He would come back and he'd be 20 times better. It's like how's that possible? He can't be human. So that was what that was part of the other thing because if you went to those training sessions. You would know we're talking about. It was, we were going at it and then and just still keep going around after there was no sitting out That was the one rule. It's like you don't sit out you go and then you go and you go hard. And so for him to continue to go every round and just annihilate people. I mean belts that were higher than him. He would just take them out. And so we're like, there's no way he's human. How has the open mat evolved since its inception? I think, it's a whole different thing now. It's actually, it's still the same, just on a bigger level. When we first started, obviously, we're at, Claudio's, we're at one school all the time, and we would travel periodically, right? Just, it was, once in a while we'd travel. Now we really focus on really trying to get out to the other schools, and that actually started when we left. And, a few people left, right? And people went to different schools. And so then, they got the word out to those schools, and they're like, oh, bring, come over here on a Sunday. And then I started reaching out. Like I'm, we're going to really focus on visiting more schools. So it's almost, except for the time when we're here at Solidarity, most of the time we're traveling to different schools and even if it's like a repeat, but it's a lot bigger. When we started it was what? Three people, four people sometimes. And that was still great training. Like all you need is two people and you'll get good training. But now it's, you know, three, four people Gilroy's packed this Sunday. It was like about 70, 70 plus. Yeah. People have already left from the picture. Yeah. So even when we go to Caio's, we usually go to Caio's once a year and that one's usually over a hundred people. So it gets pretty packed. But, aside from that, it's just. There's just people from everywhere, as opposed to just being a handful of us. So we're doing it in Temecula. So Ben runs that one down there and then now we got Alex moved up to Austin and so he's running that one. So it's blown up. What has been some highlights or memorable moments of the Koffee Krew? For me. getting our black belt together. Yeah. Yeah. That was monumental for me. Yeah. Cause like ever since I met both of them, yeah, we go at it or whatever, but these dudes don't know me. I'm was quite, but they kept in the game, you know what I mean? So, yeah, that was huge. That was huge. That was huge. That was good. What year was that? 2017. Yeah. Yeah. Just you and Kiko got your black belt together? No, all three of us. All three of you? All three of us. And then last year, we got it, we got our second degrees right together, so yeah, man, that was Yeah, yeah. That's very cool. That was It was big, especially getting second degrees from Caio and then, to me, a name's a name, but still nice, to get that and that recognition and things like that. And to think of where we started and to stick with it, like, uh, Fernando said, you know, he almost quit. And I think that's something that, that resonates in a lot of our lives is jiu jitsu does bring a stability in our life, but it also helps cast a net. For us to as well to keep us, going. And like for me, it was people like Kiko, Fernando, Tyson, that kept me going. And if it wasn't for them being there and training with me and pushing me, I probably would've never got that. And that's something to be proud of to accomplish because it does affect us. Now, look what we have now. If we would have quit, if Fernando would have quit. We probably wouldn't be talking, we probably wouldn't have this, we probably wouldn't have affect other people's lives either. There's something about your homie texting you and telling you that he's going to whoop your ass. And sending a meme. And saying, you showing up tonight? It wasn't me. I'm going to whoop you tonight, boy. No, the meme game is out of control. Let me tell you, this guy, yeah. I said, I stepped back from you guys. He had to because his knees are going a little bit crazy. I'm a professional now. But I will say I do want to give credit to Kiko because, we started it. We didn't start it to make it to what it is today. We just knew that in the grand scheme of things, we were part of this school and we want to represent and we want to get better. And the only way we're going to, because we had to work with what we got. We say, what are these? We go to tournaments, right? And some of our guys would get smoked or we might get smoked. And it's like, what do we have? These schools are big names. They have tons of people to train with. They have all these black belts. What do we got? Well, we got each other. We got some friends. So let's just invite whoever we got. And tell them to come here and let's all train together. Let's learn together. Let's get better. So when we go compete, we're not getting smoked. We had to pull our resources together and be very creative and figuring out how we're going to do this and operate within a certain round where this was frowned upon. Big time. They had that word. Was it? Creonte.Creonte. And so that was the one thing you didn't want to be called. I've been called that. Yeah. It's almost being called a levon on the streets, right? that was the one thing you didn't want to be called in the streets. You don't want to be put on the L, right? So here, you don't want to be put on the C, in Jiu Jitsu. So that was a bad word and you don't want to be known as that. You're no good basically. And what we were doing. Got us that status in a lot of people's eyes at first because what we're doing was no good. But that's the thing that where we come from we don't care. It's what are you gonna tell us and I'm not saying that with pride or attitude. What we did is say well who cares they're not helping us out. And if they care, then they should come help us. If not, we're still going to do our thing. And if they don't like it, then whatever, right. We're still going to be us. We're still going to do our things because for me personally, I want to get better. And I'm not going to let somebody else tell me I can't get better, especially if I'm paying them. Right. Right. It's a business. Yeah. Like that's not my daddy. I have a dad, you know, but Kiko, he really helped. Like a lot of it the growth, he really helped that thing explode because if it was up to us, it'd probably still be like ten of us. But Kiko really saw something there and he really started building upon that and took it to where it is today. Nice. That's the nicest thing Ben ever said to me. Aww. I said something nice to you too, to Luckee earlier, but I said don't tell him. Yeah, he has to hear it on the podcast. I can't let him know that I said that. How important is community to you in jiu jitsu? And what role does Koffee Krew play in fostering that community? Honestly, I never even think about community, in that sense. to me, it's like we're just coming out, we're playing, you know what I mean? We're making friends, and everybody puts their differences aside, and we have a good solid time. Obviously, I guess I'm a little short sighted in that aspect, but to me it's okay, we're here, we're making friends. And once you're friends, because you're not going to be friends with everybody you meet. But once you're friends, now you start to build that. Now you can call somebody that, hey, you're a mechanic, I got a broken car. Oh, this guy is a doctor of some sort of PT or something. That's how you start to build. That's how the community kind of builds together. Because everybody has something to offer, but everybody has to bring that to the table. There's always people, I think, in every community, there's people that just kind of come and go. Yeah, they take. There's taking and that's it. And they don't give back to it. Yeah, to me, it's not everybody that shows up is technically part of the community, but once you start to build those bonds and friendships. That's where the community's at right there. It's almost like a community within a community. Fernando, how important is the community to you? Well, because we all grew up, from the streets, right? So, you just try to give back. That's it. I never played organized sports or I remember when I was little and me and my brother were trying to, join boxing because we used to put the boxing gloves with dudes that would go to pal boxing. We put it on, you know what I mean? It was terminator back then. And so we were trying to get organized, right? Because, we were trying to get away from that lifestyle. We went to my dad and, my dad wanted to spend his money on booze so he's nah man, so I was like, okay, we'll just, you know. I understand, not every kid has the opportunity. Even as adults, I tell, some kid came on, the one Carlos. Yeah. You met him from church? Yeah. And, uh, so he went to YB and he knows my sister,'cause my sister works at YB and I'm like, dude, come through man. You know, even just come train. and it keeps'em away from the streets. Even with my kids, I tell my kids, dude, you guys are lucky. You guys can come and train whenever you want. Some of my oldest ones don't want to, but I got my little guy and my daughter once in a while, she'll come and train. That's a positive thing for me. How about you, Ben? Yeah, I think, like how Kiko said, people talk about community, but, defining it is different, right? We all, the community means something different to a lot of people. You ask ten different, we can give ten different answers. For me personally, I think community is at the core of what we do because this is a community. Like Fernando said, like we're from the streets and so I didn't play organized sports either.'Cause we couldn't afford it. My cousins played, my friends, they all played organized sports and I remember I used to be so jealous and mad because we couldn't play it and I wanted to play it. So we had the streets. That was our organized sport. You ain't gonna let me hit somebody on the football field. We're gonna go to the streets. but that was our community. Kiko was part of my community. and then we met Fernando. and so every time we come here, we don't even call it a community because it's family. These people are my boys right here. And in the streets. I need to trust Kiko with my life. I trust him with my life. When we go somewhere, we say, Hey, we're gonna go over here. I'm putting my life in his hands. Cause what we're gonna go do, probably gonna put us in a lot of danger. And it has. I think that kind of is brought here. And people they see that. When we're hanging out, we're talking, and we invite people in, and they become part of it. That is always in our core being part of a community like that old saying there's safety in numbers there is because we create there was safety with us. It didn't matter what anybody else said. We're going to do our thing. People hate us. Whatever. This is us right here. And out of that. You know, it created something even bigger that people really want. People wanted that. When we figured that out, hey, people want a place to come in and be a part of community. We put on the jams, start joking around, it's different. Nobody else was doing that. You go to any other gym that was maybe doing something like that. It was serious. You walk in there, it's like. Okay. You can feel it. But you come in here, you got Kiko doing the worm right there on the mat just to warm up because he can't stretch anymore like that, right? The only way his body moves is this way. So he's doing the worm for warmups and he's got like some what, some P Funk playing and stuff like that. It's, it just changes the vibe and people are like, this is cool. This is dope. This is what I want, right? It wasn't like, cause I remember all the training rooms I would walk into. Especially comp training rooms, man, it was like, dang, you could feel your heart pounding because you knew like they were going to put it on you. But here, people are going to still train hard, but everybody's having fun. And that community, like people keep that community aspect going. They're like, this is the community that started with us. We keep that going and it just continues to spread and grow. So yeah, community is the biggest part of this. So just touching on that's actually, that is one of the things I did, or we did. Trying to, when we're doing the open mats for sure. You want to have good music. I try, people are like, how come you don't got these songs, this song. I try to keep the music clean as much as possible. Something fun and upbeat. And clean because sometimes there's kids here. We want to be a good influence on those kids, right? We don't want to put on stuff that's gonna, you know, too derogatory or saying all these things. That's not what we're trying to lead the kids or even impact them in that way. But also like inviting people in, saying hi to them, being friendly, like if somebody's walking in for the first time through the doors, I try to talk to them. I try to get around in with them and just let them know, we're having fun. You can go hard, but you're having fun and we're trying to get better. And set that vibe, right off the bat, because that's how, like I said, that's how we are. We're trying to get at each other, trying to beat each other up, but we're not trying to hurt each other. As long as everybody who's showing up understands that, then everybody's going to kind of work in the same way. And I think that's how it's been. There's not that many injuries, I don't think. I think the other weekend we had two, two injuries, but they weren't malicious. They weren't people trying to hurt each other. But that is something that we actually have focused on, is creating that environment. Trying to keep it friendly. And welcoming. Yeah. You're a part of what we're doing. So who's the mat forcer if somebody comes in and, uh, It's the good, the bad, and the ugly. Seriously. But the good thing is when you create a community like that, it makes people less defensive and less want to be in. And even if they do come in like that, they're going to get around him with someone that's just going to put it on them real quick. And they're going to learn real fast. Because some people do come on those attentions, but then you have 50, 60 people, 70. And then most of those people are cool with us. Right? So they already know the role. So they'll know it right away. And they'll be like, don't worry, I'll go get around. And you don't have to do anything right. Because nobody wants to mess up that environment, bro. You know, this is what, and everybody loves it. So why are we going to let the water be tainted. With ink like that. You know what I mean? Like we can't let it. So everybody already, it already manages itself. We don't have to do anything like that. I don't think we've had very many situations like that though. Yeah. There's been like one or two. But. They were handled. appropriately. We don't want people coming in here acting like that. Starting, starting stuff with everybody. That's not what we want. So those get pushed out pretty quick. It's been good that we haven't had many of those situations. That's good. All right. Let's move on. How do you encourage people from all backgrounds and experience levels to feel welcome in the Jiu Jitsu space? Fernando? No, well, I mean, we just don't let him roll with Fernando, because Fernando's got one switch. It's on and off. That's it. Yeah. So he said, Fernando, you come over here and coach. No, I'm sorry. No, I'm just joking. It's a life changer. Right. like I said, we're from the streets, right? So my mentality before it was like, fuck the police, right? Right. You grew up with that mentality, right? So you kind of schooled like that way, right? But then, when I went to Claudio's and then I found out, Carlos was a police. And right there, like, I talked to him and it's just I'm talking to another, I'm talking to Kiko, right? Many people have backgrounds, it's a job, that they're doing or whatever, So, it's just, Yeah, just train, man. You'd be surprised. So for me, like I said, the first thing I try to do is greet if it's somebody new. Especially white belts. I get messages from, like, Hey, are white belts okay to come? Yes, white belts are welcome. I do encourage them to tell people, if you've not sparred very much at all, people are going to go as hard with you as you go with them. That's number one. Number two, let the other person know, especially with somebody who's experienced at grappling, let them know that you're learning. Most people, like I said, most people are pretty cool about it, but I think the first thing is catching them at the door when they walk in. Saying hi introducing yourself, letting them get chilled out. Most people, they show up they're nervous. They see all these people. And especially, like I said, it is grown a lot here. Sometimes 80 people, you walk in, it's your first time coming to an open mat and you see all these people on the mat. You're like, oh, what did I get myself into? So calming their nerves a little bit. Getting in there. I try to roll with them. Teaching them a little bit, encouraging other people to teach them. Tell them if you have questions, you're doing a specific move or whatever, you have questions, ask. Other people are willing to teach you. And so that kind of settles things down and encourages them to come in and continue to keep coming through. Yeah. Yeah, it's exactly what they said, it's just, we know who the new people are and just making them feel welcome right away. Roll with them, give them some pointers if they're willing to listen, and coaching them too. We sit there and coach them. The one thing we want people to know is I don't care what school you're from, you love jiu jitsu, I love jiu jitsu, let's learn, right? Let's have fun. Yeah. You're here on Sunday? This isn't a class. This is a place where a bunch of people that love jiu jitsu come together and we all hang out and we learn jiu jitsu together, whether it's through our rolls or whether I can help you out with the point or you can help me out. And a lot of people, I think that's another reason why a lot of people come because you got a lot of lower belts and there's 14, 15, sometimes 20 black belts on the mat and everyone's cool all the black and they're willing to share that knowledge with these guys and you have 20 different schools of thoughts, 20 different black belts. Different training. So you get an array of techniques like that, right? And so I think people like that too, because they come in the lower belts and nobody's trying to hide anything from them. They're willing to share with them. It's open. And that's all goes back to the environment and creating that, that people. Even are willing to show because that's what we're doing. Like we lead by example. Anybody I don't know. I don't care what school they're from. I'll roll with them I won't go hard even though they're trying to smash me right even if they on purpose. I'll still go light I'll just work my positions and things like that. And then at the end I'll even give them pointers or if they had trouble with something, I'll give him a point on how to beat me. And so, I mean, but where else do you go? Where'd you get that? I remember when we'd go over mats. I only speak from my own experience and I coach from my experiences. When we would go there, it was like, hey, it's that school against our school. and nobody was sharing anything. It was like, let's see how, let's test your medals, see how good Jiu Jitsu is from your school. And we're like, cool. We're about that too then. But nobody was really sharing and it was hard to get anything out of people. You had to be a part of the club. When we first started training, even if you were in a school and there was black belts, They had to invite you into that circle of black belts, right? You didn't, you just weren't automatically accepted in there just because you were with the school and they weren't just going to show anything. They had, they were like, Oh, okay, let's see how they do. They see how he trains. Oh, he's cool. He's good. And then they started inviting you in little by little sharing knowledge with you. And that's how you get better. But here, our thing was like, we don't want to hold back. I want you to get better. I tell my students all the time, it's a selfish thing, honestly, because the better you get, the better I get. And it forces me to be better at different things. If I just stick to my game and I'm killing you with it. What good is that? And then when I go compete or do something like that, that person, he's got a different game. He annihilates me. Well, it doesn't help me. I'm not growing. And so I want you to beat me every time. I don't care what belt you are. You beat me good. I need to get better then. Right? So that helps. And that's keeps on going when we train things like that in open mats. What advice would you give to someone new to jiu jitsu? Fernando. Show up, as much as possible. I mean, there's no secret to it, right? the more mad time you spend, the faster you're gonna get better at it. And not try to go all wild. Everybody learns different. But I think the biggest thing is just slow it down and think about the techniques, you know, and try to apply them. Because you're going to end up in bad spots, right? But at least try. This is what I always tell everybody, just try the technique that you learned, and even if you end up in a bad spot, then you're going to start learning how to get out of that bad spot. Yeah, that's it. Okay, cool. Kiko? So I think, obviously show up, don't try submissions, everybody focuses on submissions first, people that are new, they want the submission, it's like, you're probably, most likely not going to get a submission for the first six months or so, most likely. But don't let that be the, what do you call it? The measuring stick. Where were you trained at? Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Getting used to those small victories and getting to the position that you want to be on top and holding somebody down or passing guard. Like those small victories are what's going to keep you coming back as opposed to thinking, I got to get a rear naked choke on the first night of training, it's probably not going to happen. So getting those small victories and learning the positions, the frames. Just keep showing up and getting those small victories. Okay. Yeah. If you ask younger me, I'd be like, these guys don't know what they're talking about. You just need to go in there and just go crazy and just smash everyone. You got a point to prove. You got to show everyone how tough you are. And that's it, but now, after, now on this side of the fence, I would say exactly what they're saying. Over at Hillside? Easy. Okay? Let's not talk about it each year. Okay? Let's keep it clean. Okay? But what they say is true. Showing up, and I would always tell people, and it's an old saying, position over submission, right? Understand what you're doing. When I was first coming, it was just like, hey, I know that works, I don't know how it works, but I'll just do it. Now, and especially after when I started training at Caio's, like, those guys, they understand technique really well. And I was like, that's what I need to do. I would tell people, understand what you're doing. Break it down, learn it. One step at a time. I tell them, I say, if you learn one thing from this class, great. Then we win. There's going to be some stuff I'm going to show you. You might not catch all of it, but if you learn one thing, you want a purpose where your hands, head, and hips are going to be great. That's what I want you. I want you to understand where your position should be. Not just ABC. You put your hips here because of this. So they could start to understand jiu jitsu and where they should be. Then that's always my advice. Understand it. So if anybody is thinking about coming to a Koffee Krew, what advice would you give them? Fernando? Be ready. Be ready. Nah, be ready. Try to roll with as many people as you can. Okay. Cause there's so many schools that come to the Koffee Krew and, everybody has their own, game I guess, right? And then ask questions. Like if you roll like with me, and I'm pretty sure with Kiko or Ben, even when we're done. Sometimes I'll stop like during mid match and be like, hey, do this, but sometimes I feel like they don't want to hear it. And then after I'll be like, okay, this is what you did wrong or whatever. Ask questions, man. Just try to roll with a, like I said, with as many people as you can. and be ready for the vibes. Cool. Chokes with a smile. Go ahead, Kiko. You're entering a friendly space, a friendly area. Where You don't have to be on guard. Relax, be ready to have some fun, and I think you'll get a lot more out of your training if you're loose and relaxed. Somebody's going to try to choke you for sure, but nobody's trying to hurt you, right? If you're relaxed and ready to try different positions and stuff, you're going to get a lot more out of it and just enjoy the time on the mat. Try to absorb as much as you can. Or give it. Maybe you're super bad and just share what you got. So it goes both ways. Tap early. Yeah, that's a big one. Tap early for sure. Tap early for sure. For me, I would say in that bag, when you pack your gi, pack an extra set of lungs. I would say come expecting, come with expectation, right? Don't come in tense and think of all the what is, I might get smoked for this. No, don't come in with the net. Come in here and look at this as an opportunity. It's an opportunity. It really is. Because where else are you going to see so many people from so many different gyms with so many different games on the mat at one time at a tournament that you have to pay for? So you're going to be like five, 600 and learn a lesson there for five or 600 when you can learn a lesson for free. And it's not going to be as embarrassing and your pride not going to be hurt. And everybody's cool here, right? And you're absolutely So I tell people, I would tell people, Hey, come here, expect him and be excited. Come in here because you're going to have an opportunity. to learn from people, train with people, hang out with people, make new connections. Like you said, it's networking, right? You don't know who you're going to be on those mats. Like I got a plumber, I got a concrete, I got tons of people that I hit up regularly. Now, just because when I, and we all help each other out, I got an electrician. It's an opportunity not only just to learn jiu jitsu, but just meet more people, put more people in your circle and hang out with them and have fun and chill. And that's one thing why it got called the Koffee Krew because of a student that used to come. Jolene. We would you know, train and then we're like, hey, let's go to Pete's right across the street. Let's go get some coffee, right? And then we'll just hang out just talk and chill and it was fun. I mean we'd be there for an hour or two hours after just chilling and hanging out and people like that. So you get to create this other community. So I would say definitely come in come expecting come not nervous, but be excited because there's a lot of opportunities here. When I do my open mats there, I have six or seven black belts there. One's from Gracie Baja, one's from 10 Planet Redlands. So I'm like, look, you get to learn footlocks. You get to learn Gracie Baja's game. You get to learn all these different games right now. Ask these guys questions. They are here for you and they're all, yeah, we want to teach you guys. So it's like you get a free seminar. Every time you're here, free, right? Yeah. Great value for no buck. Yeah, I think most of the black belts that we get here, they're all cool, man. They're all like, they're all open minded, right to helping out. So yeah, like all the black belts, at least that I've met here. I think everybody's willing to share, which I think is big. It's even amongst black belts to other black belts. Some black belts are better than other black belts. It's a fact. Some guys are better. Definitely a fact. 100%. I let people work a lot, okay? Call it whatever you want. But they share. It's like, okay, I was doing something. What did I do here at boom? You're doing this, right? Because you're going to learn something from everybody. I learned a really good hip bump from a blue belt. I'm a black belt. And he was doing a hip bump. Whatever he was doing was working. Like, What are you doing? As long as you're willing to learn from everybody, I think you'll be good. See, that's leading by example, right? It's like just because we have a black one on doesn't mean we know everything. There's guys that come in here that wrestle collegiately, all of a sudden they got some stuff to say and they show us stuff and I'm glad. I don't mind doing Nogi down South and the guys that I started training with this guy Red that. Hopefully you have on this podcast, right? Yeah, for sure. And like him is my boy, Luis, who just became CIF coach of the year out there in Temecula. But they taught me a lot of wrestling that I hated wrestling, but they showed me a lot right in there. Like blue belts, pro belts, old man, grappler, old man, grappler. Taught him a lesson up in Visalia. I foot swept you when we were in Visalia and then all of a sudden I saw the light going Ooh, this guy's not a chump. Yeah. You can run it back. For sure. You can run it back. I'm just saying. I saw something different. No, what you saw is that time that we were in, in Texas. Oh, that was a different time. That was a different time. He did sweep me on that one. That was brutal. I was like, dang, that happened. I looked up at the mat and I looked to confirm. You look at the ceiling. Cause it was like that phantom smack where you knew you got smacked, but you wanted to confirm that you got smacked. So I looked around to make sure that happened and I looked at Val, kiko and Bam and they're like, Ooh, and I was like, yeah, it happened. It happened. I was like, dang, it did happen. Where do you see Koffee Krew going in the next one to five years? I've been really strapped for time. So it's been hard to plan things that, I come up with ideas sometimes when I'm driving and then I open my mouth and say it, right? I don't believe, oh, throw it out in the universe, I don't believe in that or think of it that way, but sometimes when you say something to somebody, like if I tell Fernando, hey man, I want to do this for an open mind. And he's yeah, you should do it. Now I feel like I have to do it. That's always Fernando's response too. You should do it. That's always Fernando's response. He's yeah, you should do that. Next five years, I don't know. Honestly, I don't know, where it's going, technically, as far as changing it from what it is now. Obviously we want to keep it free, right? That's something I think it should be accessible to everybody. We do want to do a really big open mat. We're trying to secure the, I think we have the facility secured, should be in May. But that's the one thing we're working on right now, and I'm trying to, reach out to all the schools and try to see if everybody can get together and just do one big open mat on a Sunday and have, maybe 200, 300 people. Cool. That, and then, the July trip to Texas. Right on. We got to try to get down to Temecula. Maybe even Tennessee to go visit Slow Death. Slow Death. I've never been to Tennessee. I don't know what the territory's like. I've been to Tennessee. The other thing I've been thinking is I'd like to get back down to Visalia. Oh yeah. Over there too, Elite Team. Elite Team, that's legit. Yeah, they are. That was fun. Tom was super cool. Like the whole team, everybody was cool there. Big mat space. It was, I really enjoyed that trip. It's just been hard to get back over there. And it's great technique too. Yeah. Yeah. I traveled back and forth for a whole year with that team. It was fun. And it was cool. Who do we have there that time? Gabriel. Gabriel Arges. He was legit. He was super cool. I still use his techniques to this day. Yeah, so that's kind of what the things that I've been thinking about. Nothing firm besides that big open mat and then the Texas trip in July. I think that, like, Kiko said, we didn't plan any of this. It kind of took a life on its own. We had people give us tons of ideas of what we should do, how we should do it, and, but one thing that, we know is that we just want to keep training. That's the whole important thing is, and then invite others in to come train and continue to do that. And for me, one to five years, I love when we go to different places. I think it's fun. I've talked to Kiko about this, when we do a road trip, it's two weeks and we just go hit different gyms up to a final spot. And we just trained the whole time up there. And, I don't know if I could be in an RV with this dude. He's trying to get an RV, but the one dream. We talked about it a little bit, and I actually roughly planned it out, nothing secure, but basically going from California all the way to New York, and just training all the way across, right? That'd be stopping and training, drive across, obviously we need to have a place to shower and stuff, clean, cleaned up, probably need some, Laundromats. Gym memberships. Laundromats. At least one of them. Just hitting a gym every state, trying to get over there. Yeah. And I think that would be super dope, but that's gonna, I think, if it was, the way I planned it out, it would take two months. Maybe we just go through California to start. Yeah, start one state, right? One state at a time. But those are like, Those are things that are just, Hey, this would be cool. Yeah. That would be awesome. Right? Everything just we, and then we just, document it as we go. that would be one to five years, what I would love to see will it happen? I don't know. But honestly, personally. I love what we're doing. So if it happens, it happens. If it doesn't, we're still going to be doing our thing and having fun and inviting people to come along and have fun. Just like when we go to Texas, that was just a whim, right, Alex? I said, Hey, let's just go visit Alex. And then we knew, and then we just happened to know someone out there, that owns a Renzo Gracie. Mark Price out of Renzo's in Austin. Yeah. And we used to train at Claudio's. Yeah, we used to train at Claudio's. And so we would take care of him too. He would train with us. He loved, we took care of him and it just all happened that John Danaher teaches at that school, we got to go do that, so, you know, it's kind of cool, I like that, yeah. So how about you, Fernando, anything that you want to say we don't know what's going to happen in five years, right? So just go with the flow, and yeah, follow this dude. I can say he's the idea, man. So I'm like, all right, let's do it. You're the support. You're the backup. I got you, man. There you go. I'm the idea and he's the artist. Kiko doesn't agree with all my artwork, but it's okay. It comes around to it eventually. But I will say though, I think that there's something to be said about what was created in this spot. Now you see open mats everywhere. Tons of big gyms are doing open mats. Everyone does open mats. They got some legit people out of these open mats. But, I just think about, it seems like yesterday, but it was quite some time ago, and it was kind of barren out here. You know, nobody trained with each other. Nobody did that. And to go from that to what we see now, that's huge. If we look back at the landscape of things and how much pushback, you talked about pushback earlier. Man, we got tons of pushback. People didn't want us doing it. People didn't, I mean, we got in trouble. I would go train, do open man on guerrilla that they had it. They always had a guerrilla on Tuesday nights. And I would tell other people at the gym and the guy that was running, he got so mad. He's don't invite people to open man. I'm like, why not? I want to go train and then I want people to come train. So I don't care. We're going to go. And but there was just tons of criticism, tons of criticism. But the good thing is because the way we train. We had a little respect with the people that we would train with black belts and stuff like that. And then they would support us. Like we had Adam Piccolati. I think he was one of, probably one of the first people that we had come in and kind of do like a mini seminar. Yeah. Yeah. And, uh, Adam Piccolati, he was, he was our boy. He took care of us. I remember Adam Piccolotti back when I first started and he was in Half Moon Bay, he still is in Half Moon Bay, but there was only a couple of tournaments that would go on every year. Claudio had a pretty big one, but he had this small one called Jiu Jitsu by the Sea. So it was all these little local tournaments at his school in Santa Cruz and Adam would come in with his crew and just annihilate everybody. Adam was, I was like, who is this guy, man? This guy is legit. And he'd just come and just, him and his crew would just come and smoke everyone. I was like, this guy is brutal. But we happened to meet him and. We trained with him and he became a good friend and he would teach us. We'd go up to Half Moon Bay, go train with him and then through his connection. So, you know, I, I think that, where we're at now, I think it's pretty cool to see that it's stuff that you don't hear about regularly. It's stuff that's not going to get written. People don't know who we are. If you ask people at a turn of who we are, nobody knows who we are. Nobody could care who we are. We're technically nobody's right. But I feel like we did do something monumentous in this area before people were really brave enough to step out and do it. It's easy, to fight a battle when there's no war, right? But it's harder to be a soldier when there is a war. And that was definitely, and that's just an analogy. We ain't never been in a military, but I'm just saying that. It's different though. It was a different landscape and to get all the flack that we got and to get, people criticized, didn't want to be a part of it. And we didn't care though. and, but now. Everybody wants to be here, everybody wants to be a part of it, which is cool. It's good to see that It's like the hard work paid off. And you know the post right when you see all that like I think the best one has been with a hundred and twenty plus people You're just like whoa And it's still underground nobody knows about it, right? We're the best kept secret. There's a lot of history there's a lot of history between us three and not just that, we have connection to a lot of history in this area, like I was telling you earlier, like the people that we've come across that we've trained with, most people won't know who they are, but they laid a foundation out here so that other people can train and they'll never get the credit they, they deserve. I feel they'll never get the credit they deserve. Like Carlos Melo, like Mike Weaver, Garth Taylor, you have like these studs that You know, nobody will, I mean, some people will know, some, a lot of people knew Garth Taylor in his time. People respected that guy. But a lot of other people, they have no idea. You say those names, but what they created and what they helped us do and help us create, like they never get that respect that I feel that they rightfully have earned and deserved. So, yeah. Awesome. Do you have anybody else that you'd like to call out. You know what, somebody like, it wasn't even an open map, but somebody who, was super cool to me when I went to go visit. I'm not sure if you were there. I know Kirby went, Kirby was there, I think, went to, Ralph, Gracie Berkeley with the Eduardo. Fraga, right? We went to a Saturday class. And they were doing Nogi, but we went in, it was a few of us that went in just to train. So we go over there and introduce ourselves. He talks to us a little bit. We signed the waiver and he's just talking to us, trying to fill us out. Right. And then, oh, how much is the drop in at first? oh, it's this much. We're getting ready. He's talking to us. Sign the waivers. Go ahead and train. Guys stay for both classes and go change back there. Never charges to drop in. Didn't do anything. Just felt as okay. These guys are cool. These guys are here to train. And so people like that, cause they have a huge open mat on Sundays too. Which I think is cool. I think is when you look at. All the different mats, open mats on Sundays now, it's like from, I don't even know, like down from Gilroy all the way up, even past Gilroy maybe, but all the way up to, Napa. Just everybody has an open mat now on Sundays, and everybody's welcome. But people like Eduardo that. You know, he's not doing it. So I need to make money or I want people I want to steal students. He's doing it because out of the kindness of his heart, he wants people there, people to train to go train at a school. So, shout out to them for doing what they're doing. So, you know, people like that are just helping push everything along. I think it's, it's pretty cool. Okay. Fernando? Anybody you, that helped you during this? Journey that you want to shout out to? Claudio's Just for opening the door for, at least for me, you know what I mean? Like, both times. Right? Just, when I showed up my first time, I went to Claudio and I was like, I didn't even know, man, but I just wanted to do something right. And then the second time, when I came back, he opened the doors again after they knew what was going on. Caio's for sure for, after we left and he opened the door for us. Caio and Nick, shout out to Nick, man. Yeah, Nick, take good care of us. Cool, cool dude, man. really like cool guy. And, Carlos Melo, Gilroy. You know, like they, when we left, Carlos was like, do it over here. Yeah, Carlos has always had our back. So, uh, yeah, shout out to them, man. What would you like to say to anyone who hasn't experienced Koffee Krew yet? Fernando? Oh, you're missing out. Were you here when the sheriff came in? So I've been knowing the sheriff like since second grade. You were here when it came in? And you guys were making fun of me? That's why I came for you, right? So I've been knowing this dude, Jose Ortiz I've been knowing him since like second grade And he knew, he knows what I've been through, right? And he actually went to a Koffee Krew in Gilroy, man And he was like, whoa And I'm trying to get him to come back and train But I don't know if he's going, but it's just Like I said, man, you're missing out, man It's just different vibes, just a whole different vibe, man So yeah, you're missing out. All right, Kiko. What was the question again? Okay, what would you like to say to anybody who hasn't experienced Koffee Krew yet? Well, definitely you're missing out, right? I mean, there's nothing else to say, right? It'll be, for most people, not for everybody, right? But for most people that I've talked to, everybody says, I don't like getting up early. I didn't want to get up early. But now that I did it, now that I'm here and I've been training, I get up and I look forward to coming every Sunday. So, if you're not doing it, you're missing out. Yeah. Yeah, I agree. It's no matter what kind of day you're having, bad day, okay day, sad day, depressed day, it's always a good day when you're on the mats on Sunday. You still go home after taking a nap if you have to, you know what I mean? Yeah. Okay. Which we do. I do. For sure. Any advice or words of wisdom for those on the jiu jitsu journey? Oh, you go first. Don't quit. That's the biggest thing. Show up with intention. Keep your training partners accountable. Hit them up. Make fun of them. and show up to have fun. Enjoy. what you're doing. Don't show up to get a black belt. Yeah. Show up to have fun and learn. Yeah. Yeah. Be open minded. yeah, just have fun. That's it. Don't rush things. It's not going to happen from one day to the next. Believe that. You know, it's going to take time. Jiu Jitsu is not easy. It's not. I think this is probably the hardest thing I've ever done. Enjoy the journey, That's it. Yeah, I think, I'll, ride Fernando's coattails and just be teachable. When you show up, be teachable. That's how you'll get the best experience out of all this. Is be showing up willing to learn and let the people teach you. And remember, jiu jitsu is almost like compound interest, right? Like you're going to invest in it. You're going to invest in it. You might not see the interest gaining at first, but over the year it's going to compound and before you know, you're like, dang, my game has exploded, but it takes time and it takes you to be patient and it takes you to keep investing your time, right in what you're doing. If you, if you're ever concerned about a gym or you're worried about going somewhere, come to Solidarity. I guarantee you 100 percent that they're going to take care of you and you're going to love Jiu Jitsu. For sure. Kiko and Fernando, Tell us about Solidarity and how people can show interest regarding jiu jitsu. So we're on Instagram, you can hit us up or, Solidarityjiujitsu.Com is probably the best way through the website. Sign up, we have classes 6:15, Noons and Evenings. Kids classes also from 4 year olds to, what, 14? 14. I'm the kids instructor for the younger kids. Fernando teaches the bigger kids. Again, everybody's here for a good time, so show up. Southside San Jose. Blossom Hill. Anything else you want to say? No, thank you, Luckee. You're welcome. Thank you. Awesome. We appreciate you a lot. You, uh, It's cool ever since you've been here and you're definitely part of the family. So I already told pictures my Great. We appreciate you man. Thank you. Always, always fire. And I already told them and I did this, uh, but consulting you guys first, I told Luckee she's always welcome to do a podcast here. Yeah, she needs to room. So you got it on. Awesome. On tape. So just another quick thought. I know. So those pictures I think are just as much a part of the open mat as the technique and the rolling. I think people are super invested in seeing the pictures after like, Oh, let me see what position I have somebody in. Sometimes you're not in the best position, right? Person training. But I think people look forward to that. So that's pretty dope. Thank you guys. Appreciate that. Yeah, you yeah, it's underrated, you're a big part of it. Thank you. Okay, guys. thank you so much for being on Luckee's podcast I look forward to putting this episode out. All right. All right, guys. Take care. Have a good day. Take my stuttering off. All right. Bye.