As Traven is located in Atlanta, we will have constant assistance from Traven, and his affiliate managers Chip Coffey, and Arman Barros. Chip has been a member of JaxBJJ for many years and still teaches frequently.  He’s been like a bad penny.....just can’t get rid of him. (lol)

Very exciting times.

Professor Larry Shealy
Team Roberto Traven

Rickson Gracie: “Competition Jiu-Jitsu represents only 30% of real Jiu-Jitsu”
Friday, July 23, 2010

“Competition Jiu-Jitsu represents only 30% of real Jiu-Jitsu” http://bit.ly/9t1APk
Article by Rickson Gracie: from Gracie Mag

Kid-Jitsu--Team United
Friday, June 25, 2010

Kid-Jitsu has restructured our program in many ways over the past year, in an effort to more effectively serve our current Affiliates, and as a response to the new surge in Affiliate Activity.

--First and foremost, we have restructured our business model that will allow more traditional schools to become certified, at a fraction of the costs. Just because the economy is sluggish does not mean our schools have to be, so we have decided to shift some costs to benefit the Tradional School Owners who become certified prior to Dec. 31, 2010.
--Chip Coffey (http://www.coffeybjj.com) has moved into a Vice President role in Kid-Jitsu as our Affilate Support Representative.
--Chip is traveling quite a bit supporting our Affiliate base with seminars and private lessons.
--Professor Larry has been traveling with Chip, and also separately to support our current affiliates from the business end in a consulting role.
--We have recently obtained endorsements from a few more big names in the BJJ world, Master Roberto Traven our of Atlanta GA, and from UFC Fighter and BJJ Brown Belt: Alan Belcher.  Alan is currently the #2 Contender in the UFC Middleweight Division and will be fighting Damien Maia on Sept. 15, 2010.  His school Remix MMA in Biloxi, MS, recently completed their certification and licensing, and is thrilled with the Kid-Jitsu Program.
--We have also re-structured our Adult program, and since our goal is to unite traditional martial arts schools, using BJJ for Kids and Adults:  We have changed our name moving forward to: Kid-Jitsu--Team United.  Affiliate schools can retain their own identity:  ie: Lake City BJJ, but will fall under the Kid-Jitsu-Team United Umbrella.
--We have completely changed our Certification and Licensing program by performing the Licensing at the affiliate schools.  Only having 4 seminars per year was limiting a lot of schools from Certification due to the costs of travel for mulitiple instructors, timing of the seminars, and a myriad of other logistical issues.  By Kid-Jitsu traveling to you, we can more effectively License your school and all of your instructors, while keeping your out of pocket costs to a minimum.
--It also allows me to fully assist you as a business consultant, and to work with you on the “next steps” to implementing a top notch BJJ program for Kids and Adults.
--We have designed a uniform, with patches, that will allow you to sell product 10% under wholesale in your school, if you chose to have a BJJ dedicated uniform.
--We have upgraded the ongoing curriculum up to Levels 4 and 5.
--We are in the process of adding video techniques of the week on our newly changed website. (this has been a LONGGGGG time coming!)
--We’ve added a monthly opt-in Newsletter for Kid-Jitsu School Owners.

We have more exciting news that should come to fruition in the next few weeks.  Please visit us often and call Professor Larry if we can be of assistance:  904-242-9343.  Call now, as the July travel schedule is filling.

Words to live by….
Friday, June 18, 2010

Don’t make assumptions.
Don’t take anything personally.
Be impeccable with your word.
Always do your best.
Don’t judge other people.
Treat all beings with kindness.
You are what you eat & drink.
Stop trying to do it & just do it.
Forgive-Love- Laugh

Author Unknown (but borrowed from a friend)

Blessings, God and other Important Stuff
Tuesday, June 01, 2010

The long weekend was incredible, but as usual, not quite long enough.

It’s always nice to sit back, relax, and enjoy uninterrupted time with my best friends: my family. Recharge the batteries, recharge our relationships. It’s Tuesday and “real life” will be settling in again. It’s times like I had this weekend that allow me to reflect on the many blessings I indeed do have in my life.....God, family, friends, a nice career, health, fitness............the list goes on and on and on.

This time off also allowed me to step back and see where God is in my life. Have I been spending quiet* time with our creator? No. Have I put God first 100% of the time? Not even close. Have I allowed “real life” to creep in between what is truly important? Yes I have.

It is abuntantly clear that when I’m spending quality time with my God and my family.....life is GREAT. It’s not that I don’t have problems, but my attitude and ability to deal with these problems are much better. I am just more effective in all parts of my life.

The flip side is that when I don’t......IT ISN"T. I know this, as I’ve lived on both sides of this ‘fence’ and always have the same results. Why do I do this? Why do I take an “I can handle it” approach, when I’ve made this mistake time and again? A case could made for my intelligence (or lack of). I think it’s probably a combination of EGO, Arrogance, the sinful nature of being human and a myriad of other flaws that I so proudly display in my life. That’s the excuse I use.......and it’s probably not too far off track.

It’s crazy, I repeat these mistakes over and over again. I know it is detrimental to me and my life, yet I still “take my eye off the ball.” I’m not a resolution type of guy. I’m not going to ‘resolve’ to do better. However, I did ask God for his love and guidance in this area of my life.

It’s gonna be a great week my friends.

LS

Mike Tyson or Cuss D’Amato?
Thursday, May 27, 2010

Here’s an article a student of mine passed on to me.  Great article by Stephan Kesting from Grapple Arts.  I had written a blog, along the same lines just yesterday here on http://www.kid-jitsu.net, so I thought this would be nice to share.  Enjoy!  Here’s Stephan Kesting:

Hi there,

Some people think that they can only learn from World Champions. And then, when they finally study with a competition legend, they’re often disappointed that he won’t (or can’t) teach them very much.

It’s easy to confuse teaching ability and competition success, but these are in fact very, very different things. There are lots of good fighters, fewer good teachers, and very few people who are both good fighters and good teachers. And you DON’T need a 400-0 record to be a great coach.

Consider one of the very best MMA coaches in the business: Greg Jackson in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
• He’s never held the the title belt in the UFC.
• He’s never been the champion of any MMA organization.
• And he’s never - as far as I know - fought in MMA himself.
So he’s a chump, right?

Not so much! Despite his lack of competition pedigree he’s highly regarded by TONS of great fighters, including GSP, Keith Jardine, Rashad Evans, Nate Marquardt, Andrei Arlovski, etc.

These guys travel across the country to train with him, or fly him out to orchestrate their training camps. I am told that he has an amazing ability to put together a gameplan for his fighters.

Maybe there’s more to teaching than simply being the toughest guy in the room…

An Australian reader recently wrote me about teaching skills vs. fighting skills. Here’s a little bit of what he said:

“John B. Will teaches teaches seminars at our school 3 times a year and he has discussed the idea that there are black belts in technique and rolling but not as many in teaching.”

I think that this idea of a “black belt in teaching” is 100% correct. One of my teachers and role models - Dan Inosanto - has said that he’d rather train with a good teacher than a good fighter.

That’s because some great fighters can’t articulate the details of even their bread and butter moves, nor teach you about the timing of the movess.

Being a good teacher isn’t only about performance. It’s about being aware of the technical details and knowing how to share them with others. It’s about being able to find the best way to teach someone, even if they have a different learning style than yourself. It’s about finding variations and modifications of techniques that work for different body types and temperaments.

I think you’re getting my point by now, but in case you’re still unsure, let me ask you a question.
Who would you rather have as a boxing instructor:
1. ‘Iron Mike’ Tyson (40 KO’s in 58 fights), or
2. Cuss D’Amato (who only had one amateur fight - which he lost - but then became Tyson’s coach and mentor)
Hmmm, I thought so…

Stephan Kesting
http://www.grapplearts.com

Growing Jiu-Jitsu
Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Growing Jiu-Jitsu........that has been my goal from the jump, with Kid-Jitsu.  Nothing more nothing less.......and Kid-Jitsu is growing with people like YOU:  Traditional Martial Arts Instructors.....professionals, teachers, leaders, business men and woman...and from my point of view, GREAT people to grow the sport, as that is where the kids are: in your schools!!  An absolutely perfect fit.

Here is something you, however, might run into:

By and large the majority of the people I’ve met over time in BJJ have been awesome people. However, there is a very small segment of small minded people who will criticize any approach to growing BJJ that doesn’t exactly match up to how “they think” things should be done.  I’m not sure why, but a segment of BJJ people apparently think that:
--they are the only ones who can teach BJJ.
--that one must be a competitor or a world champion to teach BJJ
--that somewhere along the line, they cornered the market on who to teach and how to teach BJJ.....blah, blah, blah.

This is ridiculous and here is an analogy I will use to demonstrate just how incredibly ridiculous this is.

I’m going to use my background as an example.  I have a BS in Marketing from Florida State University, and an MBA from Jacksonville University.  I spent over 20 years of my life in the business sector of the medical device industry, and built a very successful track record. When I retired from the ‘corporate world’, I decided to follow my passion of sharing, teaching, and training in Jiu-Jitsu.  This, and about $4 will get me a cup of Starbucks Coffee.............

For sake of analogy: Let’s say that a person with a different background decides to open a BJJ school.  Let’s say this same person has little or no “formal” education, and has absolutely zero business experience, but this person does train in BJJ. He loves the sport, and he steps out of his comfort zone to open a school and live his dream.

Question:  Should we ‘business people’ malign this person for opening a school?  Should we criticize this person?  How dare him open a business!!!  He doesn’t have the right education!  He has no idea how to run a business!  He will be bad for business because he won’t even be able to pay his bills!  He only has 15 students. His team wins tournaments, but he lives out of his car!  Is that the attitude?  ABSOLUTELY NOT!!
The bottom line, as far as I’m concerned, is this:

The same people who seemingly have all the answers, can just as easily try to do something about growing the sport, equipping kids and adults one of the best self defense systems in the world, and make ‘positive’ waves in the process.  But that is not the easy way.  The easy way is to sit back, do nothing and bash other people.  If people are so busy criticizing others, they obviously aren’t doing what they need to be doing to grow their people, improve themselves and excel in their walk of life or business.

My business/personal philosphy is quite simple, and it can be said in many ways:  do your homework, do what others are not doing, lead don’t follow, don’t be afraid to swim upstream or go against the flow when the status quo is getting you nowhere.

The free enterprise system we are engaged in, sorts these things out.  You build a good product, build your business with good people, and follow good business practices.....and you will be successful. Conversely....if you don’t....you won’t!

This holds true in ALL businesses!  Why is this?  It’s simple.  It’s because we are not in the Martial Arts or BJJ business.  It’s because we are in the PEOPLE business. Think about it.

Time to get back to work.......

I can’t continue to try to grow BJJ in my school or with the Kid-Jitsu program by sitting here on this computer!! 

Train Hard....Train Smart!!

Larry Shealy

Who do you associate with?
Tuesday, May 11, 2010

“If you play with turds, you’re gonna smell like $hit”. Quote from my mentor Coach Jack Taylor

Lesson: Be very careful who you associate with..... This is one of the most important lessons I’ve learned in my life. I will be blogging on this subject on http://www.JaxBJJ.com and http://www.kid-jitsu.net this week.