013 - Bobby The Jett - Resilient Repetition

Welcome back to Next Level Athletes Podcast. I'm your host Kelsey Higginson, and I'm super excited to sit down today with my friend Bobby Rodriguez, also known as Bobby the Jet. Today Bobby and I talked about the journey from him being a collegiate athlete to becoming a world-class jiu-jitsu athlete, and then to become a world-class elite coach. Bobby's emphasized how vital repetition and drilling is, even if it's boring. Those are the things that led to his success in jiu-jitsu, and he applies the same principles to his coaching today. His coaching approach is structured yet simple. He focuses on building an athlete's strong foundation and eliminating the rest of the fluff. We were able to talk about how important it is to develop a mindset, discipline, and pay attention to your environment in the journey of becoming an above average athlete. We also discuss how crucial it is for his athletes to be taking responsibility of their training and personal lifestyle through eliminating distractions, doing the little things, and surrounding oneself with like-minded individuals. Let's get into it. Okay, I'm here with Bobby Jett. He is awesome. I've just sat and talked to him for the last while and he's just super cool guy, super passionate about what he does, and I'm excited to have you on here. Welcome, Bobby.

Thank you for having me on. Excited.

This is awesome. I first, I always love to give my listeners kind of a background on who you are, what your story is. And so please don't, I don't, please don't be humble. Um, please just tell us, like, we want to know everything about your past. And so first question I have is, I noticed that you said you played Division I sports, but you've also lived in Brazil and gotten to jiu-jitsu there. Kind of give me a timeline after high school until you started coaching of kind of where your life went.

So after college, I was done with football, obviously, and I graduated from the U of A, University of Arizona.

You played football at the U of A?

Yeah. Well, let me rewind it back. I tried to play. I wasn't that guy. I was a walk-on. Cut, one year on, one year off, one semester on. It's just walk-on life is rough for those who know. For sure. So I was never that guy in college. I like to tell people I actually played one year of junior college, my true freshman year also, and then I transferred to the University of Arizona. But after college, I moved to Brazil because my freshman year of college, our field goal kicker was there. Was from Brazil and he'd just rave about how great the country was. And I was like, when I graduate, I'm gonna move to Brazil. And when, when that time came, I actually moved to the city that he was from. And there is when I, when I started jiu-jitsu and MMA and, and all that, that lifestyle of training, and I fell in love with it. Obviously, I lived right on the water, so I worked out every day on the beach and I still had that football mind. So I took all my cones with me and I was like doing, you know, back pedal drills and, you know, different, just different, different drills on the sand. And then there was pull-up bars and dip bars and I just do calisthenics back and forth like a circuit. And long story short, people would just walk, walk by on their version of a boardwalk and just ask me what I was doing. I was just like, hey, I'm just working out. And the jiu-jitsu athletes and the MMA athletes were in the same area and they started jumping in and then just the general population started jumping in. And like we spoke earlier, next thing you know, I have a boot camp going on and it just kind of happened by accident. But it's something that I was in love with and to this day I am still in love with it and I started training at 7th grade when I was 12 years old, and I've done a lot of sports throughout my life. But one thing that's been consistent in the last, I'd say, 22 years is training. Like, that's just who I am. Like, I love physical training because it's like that one friend that's always been with me in my lowest times and my highest times. Training has always been part of me and That's why I'm so— cliché— that's why I'm so passionate about it because it's always there.

For sure. And it makes sense that you've become, since then, become a coach to kind of give that passion back to other kids. When you were in Brazil, like, did you, did you learn the language? Were you able to learn Portuguese? You said you were there for several years.

Yeah. So I minored in Portuguese at the University of Arizona. I started off as a as a youth kid, as a wrestler. I loved wrestling. All my best friends wrestled and a lot of them went on to go Division I in wrestling. I come from a high school, Sunnyside High School in Tucson, Arizona, where wrestling is king there. So I've always loved grappling and the UFC was taking off during the early 2000s. So I was always fascinated by the way fighters like Anderson Silva, Wanderlei Silva, Shogun Rua, the way those guys fought was— I loved it. So there used to be this, before the UFC, there was this other organization called Pride in Japan, and the interviews were all in Portuguese. So in high school, I'd watch these videos in these interviews and even these breakdown techniques in Portuguese. So I just got fascinated with that. And when I got to college, I was like, well, I want to learn Portuguese because in my head I was going to be a UFC world champion one day. So I was like, I was just said, I just said I need to learn a language. And then I said my freshman year of college, our field goal kicker was from Brazil and I was just like, boom, I don't need it. I don't need to know anything else. I'm learning Portuguese. So yeah, when I got to Brazil, I knew Portuguese, but I didn't know the slang, like the regional slang. So sometimes I'd speak a little too formal and like people would make fun of me because I was like, you're speaking a little too formal here, dude. Like, chill out.

Yeah. Like I mentioned, I lived about a year in Brazil and so I learned there, but I remember getting made fun of plenty too for the language. Like, they appreciate that you're trying to learn it and stuff, but they make fun of your accent and different stuff like that. But it's It's a beautiful language and a beautiful country. I'm jealous you spent 2 years there. That's super cool.

And I go back every year since then. So, last 10+ years, I go back once a year. So I created a family down there. So that's what I love.

That's awesome. So you mentioned jiu-jitsu and like getting more into that. I noticed on your Instagram, I kind of scrolled far back, you You were pretty good, right? Like you, you got— didn't you make it to the world championships or something like that? Like you didn't mention that part.

Tell us about that. You said you want me to brag, so let me brag. I'm in my room.

Yeah, brag a little bit. No, I said I wanted you to brag. Yeah, you can't not brag.

My son, who is 4 years old, he loves playing with these. And these are all my—

wow.

They're all my medals. One that I'm One that I'm most proud of is at the World Championships. I did take the bronze medal. It was a 64-man bracket. That was— it wasn't just because it was Worlds, but it was just the way everything went down. And the bracket is 64-man bracket and just it's a gauntlet. Like it's all in one day too. So I fell short. I lost in the semifinals, but I was able to earned the bronze medal and get third place in the world. So it was a, it was a fun time. But again, I learned a lot about myself and who I can really be if you put in the work.

So, so that's something I kind of want to talk to you about because I mean, only 3 people every year in the world out of the billions of people on this planet get that award, which is so cool. Like gold, silver, and bronze, and you were one of those. And so, I mean, you didn't even— yes, you grew up training, you grew up playing football, you grew up wrestling, but jiu-jitsu is pretty new to you in Brazil, right? And so how did you go from it being so new to you being one of the best in the world in 2 years?

I would say it's so funny, my wife and I just had this conversation last night. I'm really good when I'm just tunnel vision and focused. Like my wife can remember, I was kind of like, I was, I just had this routine where it was, it was like I woke up, I ate, I ate, I still remember the brand, Oikos vanilla yogurt every morning, the zero. Yeah.

I got that in my fridge right now, actually. That's funny.

I had the little cup and I still remember because I got it one day because Cam Newton, this is the power of marketing. Cam Newton was like the man in football at the time and like he would make the commercials like, I'm going to start eating that stuff. But I ate that every morning before my run and then I'd go to work and then I'd do the same thing. I was just like on this routine and whenever I get in this routine, I'm pretty hard to beat. So, and even in business, Even when I played football, but when I'm competing, like, when I get on a good routine, I think that's what it was. So to answer your question, how did that happen? I just eliminated distractions and just eliminated things that didn't matter or, and bring me value when it came to jiu-jitsu. So I, um, I would say that, and then I had a really good coach at the time. His name is Joe Solorio. He was a former wrestler at, excuse me, opposite. He was a former wrestler at ASU, at Arizona State. And then he was a college coach and then he turned into a jiu-jitsu coach. So he spent a lot of time with me hands-on. We worked a lot. I just remember every Saturday, like we would practice one drill for like 2 hours and just like cliché, but like we just worked fundamentals. Like it'd be like a simple takedown, like over and over and over again. Like just, just one move for an hour and a half, 2 hours of just the same thing. Nothing crazy, nothing fancy, nothing like, uh, we weren't trying to do like Instagram viral, uh, moves. It was just like basic fundamentals. It'd be like, it would, it would just be like a boxer just going 1-2, 1-2, like the entire time. So we just mastered the fundamentals, and I put a lot of work in, like, just physically. Like, I worked out a lot, I sprint a lot. I don't know, I just think it's just really staying focused at the end of the day. That's what I can do. I'm gonna brag one last thing because I know I gotta show the public. One second.

Let's do it.

I just came to. So at the time, I didn't really care about awards and things like that, but now that I have kids, I'm glad they could see it because this is the— wow, this is the award there.

So that is so cool.

It was cool, obviously, to represent the country that I'm born, and then it reading that I finished third best in the world. I know everybody wants to win first, but, you know.

Yeah, I'd take third best in the world. That's pretty cool.

It's history, you know what I mean? 3 is not too bad. Yeah.

So I kind of loved what you touched on there, how you said for 2 hours you and your coach would just rep it out like the same thing over and over and over again. And there's something— I played basketball and I mean, I'm sure a lot of people are sick of me talking about basketball because I love basketball, but I played basketball. Growing up, and I was very serious about it as well, and I went to this camp called Point Guard College, PGC, and they preach obviously the fundamentals. A lot of people try to get fancy, try to, um, try to get, like you said, Instagram-worthy dribbling, and you know, they want to look good. They don't, they don't necessarily care about just the fundamentals, just the like a wicked crossover, this and that. Like, they, they just want to look cool. And so they would preach. They said, okay, here's like, they taught us how to train. I was a freshman in high school at this time. And I remember them saying, and it totally shifted the way I looked at things, but I remember them saying, pick one or two things that you want to become a master at and don't work on anything else for at least 30 days. And if you don't feel like you're a master at the end of the 30 days, do it again. And this was a hard, like going hard, 45-minute workout every day. Because they also preach that, like, don't just go and shoot around for 3 hours and think that you were successful. Like, go and get a workout in, go hard, go strong, and like go game-like and make sure that you're repping them out. And so I loved what you had to say about that, and really appreciate it. Like a boxer going 1, 2, 1, 2, some people would be like, that's stupid. Like, how am I ever, how am I ever going to learn this move? And so kind of give me a little bit more insight to how you handled that as an elite athlete. Like, did you get sick of it? Did you just kind of trust the process, or how did you handle that with your coach?

So I like to consider myself a very energetic person. Like, okay, yeah, I got it down. Like, I would tell him, like, okay, I got it, I got it. Like, let's move on. And he was kind of like a— I don't know, it was kind of like Karate Kid style, the movie. Like, nope, let's just stay right here. We're going to— and he would kind of annoy me. Like, all right, I'm ready to, like, move on. And he's just like, nope, let's just do that. So like I said, one move, an hour and a half, 2 hours. And then finally I started going like to tournaments and I was like, wow, that's working. You know what I mean? And he looked at me like, yeah, I told you, you don't need to know like a billion moves. So it's kind of like dribbling. Like if you're going to drive with your left, you can Drive with your right. So if I could take a shot to someone's leg to my left side, I should be able to do the same thing going to my left. Left to right should, you know, master those two shots and take people down and hold them down. You'll be okay. So at first it was a bit of an adjustment, like, because I wanted to learn, you know, the whole thing. And he was just like, no, let's just work on these two moves and that's it. And I think that's the power of good coaching because a good coach would be like, whether it's football, basketball, grappling, whatever it is, like, let's just master the fundamentals and then we can move on to the next level. Because one thing that I do, I love basketball. I'm a big Kobe and Jordan fan. One thing that I took from Kobe is like he said that he doesn't, he does not get bored of the basics. Like he sticks to the basics. So that's what made him great. And I'm like, well, if that's the greatest player arguably of all time, him and Jordan, they're talking about the same thing, like the basics. Like they're not, they're not worried about, you know, behind the back dribbling and, and they're just like, their game is pretty basic. They just do it at a, obviously at a high level. So yeah, I don't know if that answered your question, but yeah.

No, I think that that was great. I wanted to ask you, how have you, because obviously I'm sure that you still grapple sometimes and have fun doing stuff like that, but your main career now is coaching. So how have you kind of taken that principle of the basics and sticking to the basics? Because a lot of people try to get pretty fancy with training as well and lifting, and like, really it comes down, like we said, to the basics. So how have you kind of transitioned to that principle into your own coaching?

Again, studying and and really seeing what the athlete that you're working with does. For instance, today's Monday. On Saturday, the former UFC world champion Dominick Cruz, we worked out and we had a great workout. We grappled and then we lifted some weights, but we didn't do anything crazy when it came to grappling, just like basic you know, fundamental grappling. And then when it came to our workout, you know, squats and then working on the GHD to get our posterior chain going, like, just like steady movements and fundamental movements. Nothing like— I wasn't having them like, all right, throw a med ball this way, do a cartwheel and jump on a box. You know what I mean? Yeah, just like that's not like, that's not, it's not going to help him get better. And so when it comes to coaching, I just noticed that you really have to be sure the athlete is always in technique, just like in grappling or any sport during the movement. So hey, let's control the weight down, say on a normal Squat, and then let's explode and have that bar move efficiently. Because yeah, it's a normal squat, but if you're really paying attention to the athlete's ankle mobility, their hip mobility, that kind of separates you from the other coaches. It's just not like, oh yeah, 5x5, go ahead and just like get on your phone. I see that all the time with coaches or side talk with somebody else. It's like, look, you're locked in for that hour, hour and a half, whatever that is. And you're really paying attention to every single movement of that athlete. So that's how sports for me translated to my coaching today. I was able to pay attention to little details as an athlete. I'm 5'7", so I always had to pay attention because I was always against the 8-ball because I'm a shorter, smaller guy. So I always had to find little advantages to, uh, to beat my opponents in football. So I kind of took that same approach in coaching. So I was like, well, what can we really focus on and not let slip through the cracks on each workout session? So yeah, that's how I translate for coaching.

Yeah, I love that. And what about pro— when it comes to programming too, um, your workouts for your athletes, I'm sure that you, you stay pretty fundamental and basics with them too, especially high school athletes, because they, they need to just build that foundational strength. So how do you help your athletes be okay with just kind of doing the repetitions and kind of doing similar movements and exercises a lot of the times?

I have two things about drills. I'm really big on drills, like fundamental drills, and I say, I say two things. I say drillers make killers. So if you just hone in and we could drill the fundamentals, whether it's for speed training or if it's for grappling sports like MMA, jiu-jitsu, and wrestling, like if we just drill the everyday drills, it later, the bricks are going to stack and you're going to, and you're going to just become a brick house. So I really let them know, like, hey, this stuff is going to get you better. One thing that I do at our gym, we have a wall of all the athletes that have gone on to the next level because athletes need evidence. So I'm like, hey, that guy that you see or that girl you see on the wall, like, she did this, she did these same drills here. And that's evidence. Like, if you do what's required, you can be on that wall one day and be at an institute, whichever one that you wish. It's just not like busy work. I'm giving these athletes busy work. Okay, just do it because I said so. I'm like, no, here's evidence. Like what happens when you do what's required and it's on the wall, it's looking at you every single day. So from the youth athletes all the way to the professional athletes, it's very structured. And it's very vanilla. I'm not going to lie. It's nothing. It's nothing out of the ordinary. I did my certification through a very highly respected coach named Pete Bommarito out in Davie, Florida. And it was a really rigorous certification that I had to do. And that's one thing that I took from him too. This guy has, I don't know how many first round picks, NFL first round picks, and he just— his program is just simple. It's just super detailed. Like when it comes to explaining demonstration and obviously the athlete actually doing it.

So I would agree. Like, I love that you kind of are speaking to the simplicity because I would say a lot of maybe parents and athletes come in and they're like, that's it? Like, that this is, this is all they have to do? Like, there's nothing, you know? And I think that so many people forget that, like, sophistication is in simplicity, you know? Like, the best, most elite— I love what you said, drillers make killers. Like, Same thing with nutrition type stuff. I mean, obviously you have the training and if athletes aren't pairing nutrition with it, then that's an issue cuz that's one of the fundamentals. And, and when athletes come and start working with me, I also drill the fundamentals with them. I mean, we, we get back to the basics of nutrition and they're like, really? Like that, that's it? Like the, it's pretty simple. And I'm like, yeah, it is pretty simple. Like what, what is like, what brings the success is the consistency of it. Yes. You, you could, you could do it one day that you could eat a bunch of vegetables and fruits and, you know, healthy grains and protein on Sunday. And even if you had 20 pounds of that and then starved yourself the rest of the week, like, or ate out the rest of the week and candy and chips and all this, like, it's gonna do you no good. But if you're able to, like you said, to stack bricks, stack days, day after day after day, you're training and you're pairing that with proper recovery and nutrition, imagine, like, yeah, that can be crazy.

And one thing, one thing, uh, that I let the athletes know is like, they, they're in control of that. They actually have control over that. For instance, when it comes to training, we like to, to motivate athletes sometimes. I don't really do this, but, uh, hey, so-and-so from so-and-so team said this about you. Or so-and-so, you know, and it gets the kids. Yeah, like, like, whatever that athlete says or that team says or even does is out of obviously my control, and the athletes that I train, it's out of their control as well. But for instance, I say, hey, athlete, you're responsible for being in shape and staying in shape, and you're, you're responsible for what you put into your body. So, um, that's, that's something that again, that I pay attention to when it comes to training, because we, we see it all the time. You know, a guy comes in like, hey, like, what did you do last night? Or how many hours of sleep did you get last night? Like, hey, that's not very— that's not very good. And then two, you're kind of messing up with the plan because we have to know why we're here. So if we don't know why we're here, we're again, we're just kind of, we're kind of spinning our wheels in mud. Like, you have to know why you're here. So everything has to align towards that main goal. Back to, back to what you said helped me become successful in my early jiu-jitsu career. I'd say like, again, eliminating distractions and then eliminating things that were gonna hinder me the following day. So yeah, I'm gonna go to sleep early on a Friday night when my friends are out because I have to practice at 8 AM.. And I'm not trying to go off of 4 hours of sleep, 2, 3 hours of sleep, because that's going to hinder my performance at practice. And I don't want to waste a day.

Yeah, I think it— this is a book I've— it's super good. It's by Benjamin Hardy. It's called Your Future Self Now. And they talk about, or he talks about how a lot of times we have two different desires in us. And we, like, the main one obviously is, you know, I want to be elite. I want to be an athlete. Like, I want to make it to the NFL or to the MLB or to the world championships in jiu-jitsu, whatever it may be. Um, but then there's the other side of them who wants that Friday night, who wants those parties, who wants that junk food. And so he talks about how a lot of times, like, you're—

who—

what you really want most is what your actions show. And so how if, if an athlete says they want the MLB, they want the NFL, then their actions, like you were saying, will show it. They'll go to bed early so that they can wake up and be primed and ready to go for their practice. But like, if, if they go and party, if they go and stay out super late and like, I'm not saying that they can't enjoy life and have fun too, but like, if they consistently do these things, then really they're, they're saying yes to mediocrity, to parties, to not showing up and maximizing their training, which means they're saying no to the MLB, the NFL, like they're saying no to those things. And so I think that that's interesting. And I try to apply that to my own life. Like I've been known to be a night owl, but I know that my best self wakes up early and she gets her workout done in the morning and she makes sure she's fueling her food. And so if I say yes to my night self and say, yeah, like let's watch one more show or let's go do this. I'm saying no to my morning self who has all those goals to get things done.

And I think somewhere along the line, would you say somebody taught you that or did you figure it out on your own? Because I was in a way coached that as well. I'd have coaches talk to me about stuff like that and then I'd kind of be like, blah, blah, blah. And then, hey, I should probably listen to him. And then once I started applying that, I'm like, wow, I am my best self when I wake up early and I get the things that I needed to get done first thing in the morning done. Like, so I don't know if that's how you went about it or you just were self-taught that mentality.

I think, I mean, I think it's still a process. I think definitely the book helped me with that and coaches too, growing up and playing the, playing on club teams, AU teams, in college when I played there, like, yes, they said, here's the things you need to do. And sometimes you'd be like, yeah, blah blah, but then you'd actually do them, you're like, wow. And so even now, like, I find myself having to relearn these lessons. I don't know why us humans do that, of like, um, you do super good for a few weeks and then you get a little lax and you got to kind of slap yourself back into place and get there. And so like, even now I'm continuing to learn these things a little bit, but it seems like every time that relapse is shorter and shorter and you become better, better with it. And I think the same goes for athletes. And, and then once they kind of get that maybe testimony of sleep and of nutrition and of like all these kind of higher level elite things, then like the— once you have the testimony of it, it's a lot easier to live it, you know.

One, one other thing too that, that really helps athletes, whether they're youth, high school, college, pro, is their environment and the company that they keep as well. For instance, um, I mentioned earlier a lot of my friends went Division I in a lot of sports— baseball, wrestling, football. So yeah, we had our little high school fun, but for the most part we knew what we wanted. So we weren't, you know, we weren't putting things that we that we really desired at risk. You know, we weren't acting a fool when most kids were acting a fool or staying out too late because we knew we had to get a training session in on that Saturday morning. So I really think with young athletes, they suffer because of the company that they keep. Well, I've been boys with him my entire life, or she's been my friend since elementary, and it's like some people have expiration dates. I'm sorry, just like our milk. Our milk has expiration dates. And the company you keep some may have an expiration date in order for you to move on to the next phase of your life. So I think athletes suffer or struggle with that mindset and that mentality that, hey, I have to let go of this group or even this environment in order to step into the next phase of my life. So I think that that has a lot to do with athletes, whether they make it or they don't make it.

Interesting. That— I haven't ever heard a coach say that before. And I think, I mean, I would agree with you 1,000%. Like, people do have expiration dates. Doesn't mean you have to be mean or like, you know, like be But yeah, you're as good as the company you keep. I remember seeing a quote, it's like, you are the average of the top 5 people you spend the most time with. And so if you aren't with the dreamers and the doers and the achievers, then I mean, it's going to be quite impossible to dream and do and achieve, you know?

Yeah. Again, you said I can brag a little bit, so I'll give you a prime example. My best friends growing up, from elementary age all the way until the end of high school. And we're all still friends now. You know, one went to Oregon State to play baseball. You know, another one went to Utah State to play football. His brother played at the University of Arizona. Another teammate of mine went to Oregon State to play football. Another one went to North Carolina State to wrestle. Another one went to Arizona State to wrestle. So again, these are guys that I grew up with, and I come from a city in Tucson, south side of Tucson, where it's a very, very high homicide rate here. Um, the first 48 Hours, the, the show, uh, I don't know if they still do it out of Tucson, but when that show came about, it was always like, I think it was somewhere in Michigan, Tucson. It was always Tucson was always on first 48. So it wasn't the best environment. But again, we, a bunch of kids with the, with a common goal of getting out of here and wanting more, um, through sports and got together and like, again, football, wrestling, baseball. We were able to, you know, gather our thoughts and put our heads together and work. And again, all those guys that I mentioned, they're doing great things in life after their sports. So, and then there was other, there was other kids from our high school, even softball players, basketball players that went on. But I could say like my cohort of friends, we were able to get out of our situation because of sports, but also because we were really close-knit and we knew what we wanted.

Wow. And so I went to a— first of all, that's so cool that you're like that. That's a cool story, and I hope kind of a testament to a lot of other kids of, wow, like maybe I should really kind of look a little bit better for some better friends. What would be your advice? Like, I went to a smaller school And like, there wasn't a whole lot of options there. There weren't a whole lot of kids who wanted to do what I wanted to do. For kids like that, like, what would, what would be your advice? Like, find it— would it be like find a gym who has kids like from other schools and who have those dreams? Like the teams that you, that you spend time on? Like, what would be your advice to the kids who don't have like immediate surrounding type people with similar dreams and goals?

Well, that's the power of social media now. So we live in a time where we can connect with people. Like, look at us. Like, 10 years ago, this doesn't happen, you know. 2014, this conversation doesn't happen. It happens simply because— I can't even go— I don't— I'm not sure if you reached out or I reached out. Regardless, we reached out to each other, and now we're face to face. This is the next best thing than actual human face-to-face experience. Like, it's a FaceTime, basically. So what I would do if I didn't have access to— if I was a young kid and I didn't have access in my area to other athletes with similar goals and mindset, I'd simply like jump online, Instagram or whatever platform they use, and find friends that are having stuff like that and be like, hey, what are you doing currently? Can Do you have 5 minutes to talk to me? And most kids are nice and they'll say yes, like, and let's have a conversation. Like, are you currently getting recruited? Yeah. What steps have you been taking to get recruited? Well, my dad registered me through the NCAA Eligibility Center. Oh, what is that? Oh, I'll send you to the link. You know, things like that. Yeah. Or it can even be, you know, hey, maybe there's a club, there's a basketball club I know it's a 2-hour trip, but hey, we only practice 2 days a week. Or, you know what I mean? Like, are you willing to— Dad, Mom, Grandma, Grandpa, whoever you stay with, are you willing to give up a little bit of leisure time or just time in general and take me to these practices? I know gas is not cheap. I know the team fee is not cheap, but This is what I want to do. So, and then in trade, be like, Dad, Mom, or Grandma, Grandpa, I can, you know, I could do some more around the house. Like, I just want to be around, I just want to be around other kids that want to go to the next level. And I think, you know, that could be an option right there. But definitely connect online with people that are going places where you want to go.

And I think that speaks for parents too, because a lot of I mean, this is kind of geared towards parents and athletes, this podcast, but I mean, get yourself, find groups, find people that are trying to get their kids to the next level too. Because I mean, being able to kind of brainstorm and mastermind together, that, that's way more helpful than just kind of trying to figure it out by yourself. 'Cause plenty of people have figured it out.

And, and I don't know, it just, even the parents and the athletes that they may— it may look like they have it together, they're still going through something. So you can even bring them value and vice versa. So I don't know. I just feel like people can just open up their mind and put themselves in position and situations where, hey, like, I can use this person as a friend or a guide to help me get to the next level, and we can bounce ideas off of each other.

So I love that. I think that's so cool. So like, obviously, sports teach us a lot of things. I mean, working towards anything teaches a lot of things, whether it might be— I mean, I have a sister-in-law who is like Broadway good, but she— so she's worked her whole life towards that. And so I sometimes put us in a box of, you know, sports teaches life lessons, but working hard towards something teaches life lessons. So obviously you've seen, you've worked with a lot of amazing athletes and you've been an amazing athlete. What my first question is, what is the greatest life lesson you learned becoming that world, like one of the world champions in jiu-jitsu? And then I'll ask the follow-up question after that.

So you said what lesson did I learn?

Yeah, like, what's the greatest lesson, life lesson that you've learned that you still seem to always come back to and apply to your regular life?

This may sound a little extreme, so I apologize to the viewers and listeners, but get obsessed. Like, get obsessed with the goal. Whereas like nothing, nothing matters. Like nothing else matters outside of God and family. Like, where that's what I learned the most is during that time, like, nothing really mattered other than, like, God and family. Like, I know that sounds crazy, but I just was able to lock in and be like, I'm not going to get distracted because I am a person who easily gets distracted. Like, if you were to come to me like, hey, did you watch the Dodgers game last night? I'd be like, uh, they played, you know what I mean? Like, so I got so obsessed during that time where I kind of like blocked the world out because I knew that I only have like this much time in this lifetime of mine. And this, we have a timeline that's this long of life, but that timeline inside of life was like this narrow. So I didn't want to waste any single time. I didn't want to waste a day of training, a practice session. Even a rest day, you know what I mean? Like, I just got so obsessed with wanting to be a world champion where nothing happened. And guess what? I didn't end up being a world champion. I ended up being third. But like I said earlier, I learned a lot about what can happen when you just lock in. Like, if you lock in, It's like, hey, I shot for the stars, I missed, but I landed on the moon. You know, so that's the biggest lesson I learned because the same thing happened to me in high school. I was part of a really good football program at Sunnyside High School in 2003. Our first, my first year of high school, we win the Arizona State Championship. And then my last football game as a high school athlete, we lose the state championship, I learned so much about myself and team in the loss of the state championship than any win I've ever had. Because I was like, wow, like sometimes not all winning is good winning. And sometimes we can learn a lot when we lose. So again, I learned a lot in both those situations where I came up short. So, but I was obsessed in both eras. So that's, that's, hope that answered your question.

Oh yeah, that was awesome. I guess my follow-up question is, I mean, that, that was the biggest lesson you learned as an athlete. What's been the biggest lesson you've learned coaching these elite athletes?

One thing that I've learned too is, is when you kind of share your success and what came about it, like that can actually help them because they're, again, they're going through it on a daily. And sometimes when we're in a process of something, we feel so lonely and like out of touch with the world. Like you may ask yourself, and you know, you and I as entrepreneurs, Sometimes we're like, is this life? You know, like, and when you can, when you can put your arm around an athlete and say, hey, I know these days are rough, but guess what? I've gone through it myself. And if you, if you can connect that, that's a special thing because you can tell me who your favorite coach is and who your favorite teacher was. Not necessarily because of the material that they gave or what they taught. It was more of the connection that, that they were able to build with you. And same with me. Like, my favorite teacher of all time is my 7th grade science teacher. I by any means am a science nerd, nor am I very scientific by any means, but he was able to connect with me. And he was from New York City. He was a former professional basketball player. We were able to connect with sports and education. Like, that's how he was able to connect with me and we became a really close unit because he could detach from the schoolwork and attach another plug into me like, hey man, Yankees, you know, kicking butt. And I'm like, yeah, I know. Did you see the game last night? Yeah, this and that. Hey, I heard on the radio this morning that they traded X, Y, and Z. I'm like, Really? Like, yeah. And then he could snap it back, like, all right, put your head back in that book and let's study. Okay, cool. You know, so, yeah, um, when it comes to coaching, you know, I can detach sometimes and talk about a current event, and then I can also detach and tell the athlete, like, hey man, I know you're going through it. Like, for instance, um, I have a— I have an athlete who is now in the CFL where he spent the last 4 seasons in the NFL. You know, a lot of guys, that's a bruise to their ego. Like, man, I'm not playing in the NFL. Like, no, man, but guess what? You still have another opportunity to play the game that you love ever since you're a kid, because it's a kid game at the end of the day. It's football. So we were able to connect like that, where it's like, instead of saying like, ah, man, that's a downgrade, CFL, man, I don't know. You know what I mean? It's like, no, man, let's be grateful for the opportunity that you still get the shoulder pads and the helmet. You get to run around and yell and play in front thousands of people and, you know, and still be able to enjoy and play the game that you love. So when you're able to connect like that with, with, with your players, I think that's, that's a big thing. I know you're a basketball person. So like, for instance, I really enjoy hearing the talks that Geno has from Coach Geno at UConn, because he can lock in basketball X's and O's, and then he could detach and talk about life and kind of like talk, you know, you know, how life is really going to be with his players. And I think that's what separates him from a lot of other coaches where he's just not X's and O's. Yeah. You know, he's X's and O's and life. So I think that's, that's where I can separate myself from other coaches.

No, that's so cool. And I think, I mean, so many people could take what you just said and apply it in so many different aspects. But just thinking about that, how like kids are kids still, especially for parents too. Like, I mean, I think sometimes parents try to take on role of coach and don't detach and be a parent or detach and be a support or a friend. And so I think that what you just talked about is gold in so many different situations. And so I really appreciate everything you've shared as far as like the coaching coaching side and the athlete side, I have one last question for you. And it's, what would be your number one piece of advice for up-and-coming athletes?

For up-and-coming athletes, my number one advice would be, again, get obsessed over what you want in life. Distract— elimination— eliminate distractions. Like eliminate them as much as possible. I'm doing this interview on my phone, or if not, I'd grab my phone, be like, this right here is like a setup. It wants you to keep— it wants to keep you distracted. So yeah, don't allow it to keep you distracted, but eliminate distractions. And then this sounds silly, but don't obsess over winning. Like, don't obsess over winning because since you're 2 years old, you've always wanted to win. That's a feeling that's, that, that's out of your control. What's in your control is things like your training regimen, your nutrition, your preparation, and just your daily lifestyle. Those are the things that are in control within yourself. And then once you get a hold of that, that's most likely going to take care of the wins and losses. A lot of times we talk about parents, they impose their feelings on the kids of wanting to win. Like, come on, we got to win. You can't strike out. You can't. You got to shoot 50% or better this game. Or, you know, you got to win, win, win, win, win. So what does that do to the athlete? It psyches them out. Next thing you know, they're playing not to lose. So instead of saying, hey, you know, in order to shoot 50% or better, you know, you should work on this, this, and that, you know, or whatever it is. Don't, don't talk about things that are kind of out of your control. Yeah, winning, winning is a feeling that we want, like It's already there. So let's not focus on something that's already there. Let's focus on the thing that we can control right now and every day. Practice, nutrition. I would even say the music that you listen to, you know what I mean? And the people that you follow on social media, like those are the type of things that you can control. So I would really focus on the controllables.

Love it. Uh, that seems to be a common theme amongst the coaches that I interview on here is control the controllables, which I mean, I, I believe in that principle 1,000%. I was an athlete who often did not control the controllables, um, and hated feeling out of control. But if we're able to just hone all of our focus into those things we can control, it's gonna bring amazing results. So, yeah. Thank you so much, Bobby, for being on today and for sharing so much with us. I've learned a ton, and I know that a lot of other people will too, so I appreciate it.

Yeah, for sure. I appreciate the time, Kelsey, and I like what you got going on, and you're growing something special.