Ruben has a Jiu Jitsu fight this Friday August 21st at Fight 2 Win Dallas, which you can stream live on FloGrappling.com

Some Topics Discussed:

• Santa Fe, the good, the beautiful and the challenging
• Ruben’s journey to combat sports, martial arts and jiu jitsu
• DIY Boxing on the basketball courts
• Learning how technique often beats size and strength
• First being introduced to brazilian jiu jitsu via the documentary Choke featuring Rickson Gracie
• Learning his first two BJJ techniques informally from a friend: arm bar from bottom guard and scissor sweep
• Intuitively using that arm bar on his bigger cousin during an impromptu wrestling match
• Still not formally training BJJ, but arm barring fools whenever he got the chance
• Joining a band, getting carried away with partying and drinking, and getting called out for having a beer belly as a teenager
• Wanting to get in shape and having the light bulb go off to learn to fight and get into shape at the same time
• Finding Undisputed Fitness, and his first real martial arts mentor, Tait Fletcher
• Hitting that arm bar in his first formal BJJ class
• Having things finally start coming together as he started seriously training in martial arts
• Training and competing and how it naturally began raising the bar for his health and wellness, which created positive feedback loops that helped him feel better, raise his self-esteem and get out of debilitating pain he had lived with for years
• Developing personal authority when so called authority figures give poor advice
• Creating meaning and purpose, and specifically through a practice rooted in adversity
• Jiu jitsu and practicality over theory

Some topics discussed:

• Working at a library in high school and recognizing similarities between christianity, buddhism, taoism, parables and how they applied to 
• Flow state and being Present in outdoor activities
• Violence as a tool to be used with discretion rather than it using you
• Coming to a deeper understanding of Taoist ideas through becoming a sniper i.e. becoming one with nature to blend in because lives depend on it
• Learning to be comfortable being uncomfortable from an early age
• Being unique and not adopting an identity or path from the external world
• Apprenticeship and experientially dense education vs information dense education
• Learning with high stakes, i.e. Life and Death
• Effective communication as a key to flow in relationship and teamplay
• Duality of Violence and Peace
• Incorporating body language consciously into communication
• How suppressing negative emotions creates patterns in the body by locking up tissue
• How body language relates to physical performance
• Using body language to facilitate win-win situations
• Practicing a spiritual practice versus embodying, integrating and living a spiritual practice

Some topics we discuss:

• The effect of not having a strong/healthy male role model while growing up
• Physical Abuse, Acting out and finding identity through “being cool” and partying
• Writing as a creative outlet for self-directed healing 
• Developing emotional awareness
• Dealing (or not dealing) with abuse, trauma, tragedy and loss
• Going from casually selling drugs to moving millions of dollars worth of cannabis
• The Ultimate Saturn Return: Going to Prison at 30
• Being accountable and truly taking responsibility for your actions and mistakes
• The road to redemption, training and learning to coach and be a leader while in prison
• How to lead and build a team that continues to grow and evolve
• Creating a welcoming and supportive growth environment
• Learning to train adaptive athletes - Movement Unlimited