Caffeinated Jiu Jitsu

Jiu Jitsu and Mental Positivity with Rachel Neubauer

• Host Joe Motes • Episode 21

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Ever wondered how jiu-jitsu can transform your life? Meet Rachel Neubauer, a purple belt powerhouse from Alliance Roswell, who shares her astonishing journey through Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. From clinching titles at the 2024 PANS Championship and the American Nationals to mastering techniques like the punch choke from closed guard, Rachel's story is a testament to dedication and passion. Her insights are not just about the victories, but also about the camaraderie and the inspiration found in showcasing medals at our school.

Join us as we unravel a personal journey that began with a chance encounter at a restaurant job, sparking a lifelong obsession with jiu-jitsu. Dive into stories of juggling intense training with a flight attendant career, and the pivotal moments that reignited a passion for martial arts. We talk about the emotional rollercoaster of balancing this demanding sport with life's increasing responsibilities, and how jiu-jitsu has become a cornerstone of personal growth and resilience. Whether you're navigating the "blue belt blues" or celebrating a hard-earned promotion, this episode offers valuable insights into making jiu-jitsu a lifelong commitment.

Explore the highs and lows of competing at high-stakes tournaments, where the mental game is just as crucial as physical prowess. Discover the therapeutic benefits of jiu-jitsu, from the camaraderie on the mats to the sense of community that supports personal development. Whether you're stepping onto the competition mat for the first time or strategizing for Nogi Worlds, the lessons learned here transcend the sport. This is a heartfelt conversation about embracing the journey, overcoming challenges, and celebrating the growth that jiu-jitsu brings to our lives.

Get in touch with Rachel:
Instagram @rahaneu or @alliancebjjroswell

Be sure to check out https://www.genxrefined.com/ use code Caffeinated_Jiujitsu/GR to get 15% off all items.
 

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Check out Rubber Bones at the website link in the show notes, and remember to use the discount code Caffeinated10 when ordering. 



Caffeinated Jiu Jitsu is a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu podcast focused on BJJ training, competition preparation, mindset development, belt progression, and the lifestyle of grappling.

If you’re looking to improve your Jiu Jitsu, stay motivated during plateaus, recover from injuries, or sharpen your mental game on and off the mats, this podcast is for you.

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Keep Your Passion Brewing




Speaker 1

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Speaker 2

So now let's get caffeinated and on to the mats for our chat welcome to caffeinated jiu-jitsu the blend of white belt enthusiasm, black belt wisdom and a dash of caffeine for that extra kick. Dive deep into the world of brazilian jiu-jitsu as we explore the journey, techniques, challenges and the sheer joy of the sport from a white belt's. Thanks for watching. Here's your host, joe Motes.

Speaker 1

And welcome back everyone to another episode of Caffeinated Jiu Jitsu, the podcast where we explore all things Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and over a good cup of hot coffee or caffeinated beverage or, in this case, it's a late night recording, so over a cup of ice water for me. Today, I am super excited to be joined by a very special guest, rachel Neubauer, joined by a very special guest, rachel Neubauer. Rachel is a very accomplished competitor and an integral part at our Alliance Roswell team. Rachel's a Purple Belt and already has a huge, impressive career record. She's won the 2024 PANS Championship in her division, the 2024 American Nationals. She's earned silver medals in the 2024 World Masters and achieved double silver at the 2023 Nogi Worlds. Rachel, did I get all of that? I mean, is there more?

Speaker 3

Just some opens, but I definitely think you oversold me. But yeah that seems to be the big one.

Speaker 1

So how many opens? Because I tried to count. There was a picture you posted on Instagram a while back where you had all of your medals on and I don't even know how you were standing up and I was trying to count. I was like, well, I can't count all of the opens.

Speaker 3

I don't know Definitely a handful. I've also done masters international. I've done american nationals twice now, done a masters world twice now. So it's getting a little better. Every year. Got bronze the year before, so you're gonna have to get like a suitcase.

Speaker 1

You know what we should do. We should have a like a museum portion, uh, at the at the school right, like just like a display case between everybody's medals, because, like we are meddling up man I mean, right, I've said that we should display some of them.

Speaker 3

I think it's uh, people like it whenever you come in you're, it's inspiring. So, yeah, we're working on it.

Speaker 1

Oh, yeah, we yeah, well, we have all the Alliance trophies as you walk in. But I went and trained at Alliance Ackworth and I've also trained at Alliance in Charlotte as well and, yeah, some of the students kind of leave their medals too, and it's just really cool to kind of walk and look at the walls and I think we'll have one of those walls before you know it.

Speaker 3

Yeah, I'm definitely pushing for it. So we'll see what they say.

Speaker 1

Yeah, it'll probably be all of your medals, but no.

Speaker 3

I'll trip in some, but we have a lot of good competitors too.

Speaker 1

Yeah, we just did really well at what was it. What is it? What is the P?

Speaker 3

PBJJ. Yeah, what does?

Speaker 1

that stand for. I don't know what the P is.

Speaker 3

I have no idea. This is the first time I've ever been, but yeah, we had three competitors and they crushed it. We took home second place in the Gi, which is really cool. So it was good, it was fun.

Speaker 1

Yeah, yeah, I wish I could have been there. But, yeah, I wish I could have been there. But, yes, thank you for being on. I have wanted to have you on for quite some time. I'm really, really glad that we're able to spend some time and, for the listeners, rachel has been kind of key in my jiu-jitsu journey because she has helped me hone in on one of my favorite submissions, the punch choke from closed guard. How many times have you hit that in competition?

Speaker 3

You know it's really challenging. I've tried to hit it a couple of times and I'm still kind of working on it. If you don't really lock that arm in, they're going to posture up and then they kind of know what you're doing. But I've definitely tried to hit it a couple of times.

Speaker 1

It hasn't necessarily worked out, but you just keep, keep going for it look, I mean I remember the first time, first or second time you and I rolled. I mean I still remember this. You know, sometimes in your journey you remember like certain rolls or certain matches that like just stick with you. And it was that time because I was like, oh, I'm going to roll this. You know you were a blue belt at the time. You know I had just started rolling with females when I started at Alliance, so I was kind of new to like how much. But anyway, I was like I'm going to do OK here. And when you locked my arm down, I had no clue what you were doing. And then all of a sudden I felt myself like, oh my God, I'm about to pass out. Where am I getting choked from? And it was before Rodrigo had showed us that move. And what would that be?

Speaker 1

fundamentals, I think it would be probably fundamentals, but I was blown away by how simplistic it was and I remember my first competition. You pulled me away by the house how simplistic it was and I remember my first competition you pulled me over to the side and we worked on that a little bit. But since then and I know I'm geeking out about this I have landed that probably a dozen times and in in the Academy and training against multiple levels. So it's, it's been awesome.

Speaker 3

I love to hear that, and getting that overhook is such a good little maneuver to you really lock that arm down and I use it to sweep. Sometimes you can hit the razor arm bar from there, so there's so many things that you can do with it, even if you can't get the punch choke. So I'm really happy that like it's really working for you.

Speaker 1

It is, it is, so I'm going to continue to use that until everybody really figures it out. So which?

Speaker 1

now they're going to because we just talked about it on the podcast, but anyway. So yeah, we're going to. We're going to dive today pretty deep into your journey. That's what we like talking about here on the Caffeinated Jiu Jitsu podcast and learning about, you know, our guests. This is a journey for all of us, so we all have unique and different stories, and then there's parts of our stories that are the same. For example, you know, most of us just kind of fell in and happened, stumbled into Jiu-Jitsu. I haven't had anybody on that, was just born into it. But we're going to talk about you know what it's like competing at such a high level. Now You're a purple belt and explorer I think you and I talked about, we wanted to talk about the mindset and the healthy mindset that BJJ gives us.

Speaker 3

So yeah, yeah.

Journey Through Jiu-Jitsu Challenges

Speaker 1

Yeah, looking forward to the conversation and hope, you know, just gave the listeners a little bit of a preview, so let's get into it, let's get started. If you could yeah, if you could share, share with me, share with us how you first discovered jujitsu and what. What inspired you to kind of get on the map, on the maps, and maybe talk a little bit about your life before jujitsu too yeah, so, um, I the first time I ever stepped on a mat was in 2016.

Speaker 3

I was working at a restaurant it was like bartending and serving and I had a friend that did it and she kind of showed me a couple things. I couldn't even tell you what she showed me now, but I was like, oh my God, that is so cool. So I went and I did a free trial class with her and it was crazy. I was doing maybe like an omoplata, where I'm like rolling over. I couldn't even tell you, but it was. I have no idea what I was doing, but it was really really fun and, um, so that's the first time I ever stepped on a mat, really, really fun. And so that's the first time I ever stepped on a mat.

Speaker 3

But I actually didn't stick with it Because at the time, like I said, I was bartending, I was waitressing, but I was also working full time at a hospital as well and I would pick up extra shifts. So at that time I was working like 60 hours or something and I just couldn't fit it into my life. Yeah, I tend to do that to myself, but, um, so I kind of gave it up for a while and I just couldn't fit it into my life. Yeah, I tend to do that to myself, but so I kind of gave it up for a while and I kept working because I was saving up money to travel through Europe. And so I did that.

Speaker 3

I traveled for a month, went a bunch of places, but I always like kind of had jujitsu in the back of my brain. So whenever I came back home I got another job and life kind of settled down. I started working at a different restaurant and a lot of people there were doing some form of martial arts, they were doing MMA, and the manager's husband, he, was teaching something at a gym and I was like that's so awesome, let me, let me give it a a try. And so I went in there and then I fell in love with it and I never stopped since so he was teaching another discipline, and then that gym was also teaching jujitsu, right?

Speaker 3

yeah. Yeah, it was a UFC gym so they had a lot of different martial arts, but I was like, oh my god, they have jujitsu.

Speaker 1

Let me go give it a try again it seems like all of the gyms, especially anything focused on MMA, has jujitsu in it somewhere, right.

Speaker 3

I mean it, just to me it seems that way yeah, a jujitsu is such a like monumental part of it too. You know, once the fight goes to the ground, you need jujitsu. So yeah, they'll teach striking, different forms of striking, boxing, kickboxing maybe depends on the gym, but yeah, they, they all have to teach jujitsu to be successful so was it?

Speaker 1

was it you've told me, and forgive me if I get it wrong, but you spent a lot of time at it. Was it american top team? Is it? Was it top team where you trained a lot?

Speaker 3

no, uh, fight so.

Speaker 1

I started at.

Speaker 3

UFC gym. Yeah. So I started in South Carolina. I was there for about three months and then I was like I'm going to pick up my life and move to Miami because I have friends down there and I just I wasn't happy with my life, yeah, but I just I wanted to change up my life. So I picked up, moved down to Miami a couple months after I decided and I went to fight sports and so I was there for about two years until COVID, and then I relocated up here to Atlanta.

Speaker 1

And that's when you came to it, got involved with Alliance. Is that when you moved all of that over?

Speaker 3

Yeah, yeah. So, um, yeah, we started at headquarters and then uh.

Speaker 1

so, um, yeah, we started at headquarters and then uh jodorico ended up opening his gym in roswell and I followed him here, awesome, awesome. So, as you, as you kind of progressed and we all faced challenges, but what were some of the early challenges that you faced yourself? Um, whether it was physically, mentally or even just adapting to the jiu-jitsu lifestyle, it sounds like you were a pretty busy person, like loading your plate up. What were?

Speaker 3

some of your obstacles.

Speaker 3

Really early on and I think a lot of white belts do this that I was like I am jiu-jitsu, I'm going to do jiu-jitsu all the time and I would just go to as many classes as possible which you get burnt out so fast. Like I would go train like three times a day and I mean, which is great, but with how much I was doing and working it wasn't sustainable. So that was really hard in the beginning. And whenever I moved down to Miami just trying to build that new life, start a new gym, find a job, I really struggled with that too. But then I ended up becoming a flight attendant, so I struggled with my schedule. In another way. I was gone a lot, so I didn't get to train consistently as I would like to. So I went from going hard and training all the time to just sometimes you know you want to be there for like 10 days at a time.

Navigating Life and Jiu-Jitsu Obsession

Speaker 1

Yeah, see, this is. I'm glad you brought this up and I'm glad this is to hear that you face something like that, because this is the exact challenge that I'm going through right now and you know this, this is not something I probably have to share with you. I used to live in that gym. I would train, you know, a couple times a week, sometimes three times or not.

Speaker 1

A couple times a week, a couple times a day, sometimes, like you, three times. I became obsessed when I, you know, started going there at Alliance and now I'm maybe getting a couple hours a week because of life, and I don't know if you experienced this or if any of our listeners who may have faced this, but I think it's given me a little bit of depression.

Speaker 1

Like I know we're going to talk about the mental health benefits, but I'm like facing negative benefit like negative mental health things, because I'm not getting to train as much. Now I realize I was going pretty crazy. I don't think you should be training three hours. I mean, I'm not like Nicholas Merengali, I'm not going to ADC, or like going to be any kind of a world champion. But, man, you just love it. You fall in love with it.

Speaker 3

Yeah, I think it's like I said in the beginning. You know you're just so excited, you're passionate about it, you want to go as much as you can and then, as you kind of get through your white belt phase, maybe enter into your blue belt, you realize like this isn't sustainable. And, like you said, you know, like I'm also 33. You know, I have a job. I currently go to school. Like, how do you manage that? You know, how do you manage trying to train as much as you can?

Speaker 1

with all those life obligations. Yeah, and I think too, my kids started sports and then, you know, work started not falling apart, but you know, I had turnover in my team at work, which can that's a huge headache and just yeah, some other things started to to to come into focus. But you know, what I have found is that by training, like I'm training now, my training is more intentional. Did you experience that?

Speaker 3

100%, I think. Whenever I moved to Roswell you know we had just started this gym we didn't really have anybody at the time, we had just like a couple handful of students, so you don't have that big diverse group of training that I had at Fight Sports or at headquarters. So you really had to change up how I trained and I, like you said, training with intention and I've been training that way ever since. I really try to go into the game plan, focus on what I'm doing and I think it's been monumental to my growth.

Speaker 1

Yeah, exactly Like I prefer and I tell Rodrigo this all the time that I prefer specific training over rolling. Now, I know that's opposite of what 98% of practitioners do. I mean, we love to roll and I do, but I get so much out of the specific training that we do and how we do it there that I just feel like I'm spending more time focusing on what I should instead of focusing on everything else, because I know well, I don't know when I might get back in there.

Speaker 3

So yeah, yeah. But I think it's also good to, whenever you're having those regular roles, to kind of have like a couple game plans right yeah like you're like I want to work this from close guard. If I get to close guard, I'm gonna work this. If I get to side control, I'm gonna work this. If I'm on bottom, this is how I'm gonna escape so kind of having a couple different goals. So, wherever you, you are working on something actively instead of just kind of trying to do whatever comes.

Speaker 1

Yeah, and you mentioned goals right, and I think I agree 100% as well that we need goals. So did you find at any point in your early journey that there were particular milestones along the way, that you personally felt some breakthroughs and breakthroughs? I guess what I mean is moments that made you realize that jujitsu was going to be a major part of your life.

Speaker 3

You know, I don't know if I have anything that would have made me think that jujitsu would be a major part of my life. It just kind of always was. You know I, just since I started, like I said, I went kind of always was. You know I, just since I started, like I said, I went kind of hard in the beginning but then there's never been a point where I questioned if jiu-jitsu like maybe I should quit or this or that. And I went through a period at blue belt where I got the blue belt blues really bad and just for a good solid several months and I would have to try to force myself to come and train and but I never thought that I would quit, like I just I knew that I'm like I love jiu-jitsu, this is going to be it forever yeah, I I don't think I can put my thumb on it because I think I'm still kind of in that phase we were talking about earlier, that obsessed, kind of crazed phase.

Speaker 1

I mean I would train if I did have the opportunity. I'm sure I would train still like I was. But it happens, I think for all of us, those of us that stay and those that I would say definitely get to Purple Belt, because that's kind of like that milestone Not many Purple Belts quit at least from the statistics that I've seen.

Speaker 1

Usually it's at Blue Belt where you bow out for you know five, six, whatever year you know, and then you come back and then you stay in it, typically to black belt if you come back. But, um, but yeah, I think there comes a point and I think at purple belt you definitely are going.

Speaker 3

There has to be a point where you know, yeah, this is, this is part of my life forever yeah, and I think by the time you get to purple belt you've kind of gone through all of those weird stages of jiu-jitsu. You've gone through that. I am jiu-jitsu, I'm gonna go hard, I'm gonna train all the time. And then you know you go through life changes, you go through injuries, you go through periods where you can't train as much as you like, various things. So you've already kind of been through that and now you've realized how you can train, what consistency looks like for you versus what consistency might be to other people. You know you're training. Even if it's two days a week, you know you're still training. You're making it work. You found a way to make it your lifestyle.

Speaker 1

Yeah, you're making progress right. Right you're putting kind of one foot in front of the other so, speaking of of belts and and promotions, um, so I wouldn't say you're a newly promoted purple belt, but you were promoted on the podium, so you're one of those lucky few. Can you tell me, like, what you were feeling? Did you ever think you were going to make it to purple belt and just yeah, share a little bit about that.

Speaker 3

Well, I, I knew that purple belt was coming. I got my belt in 2019, my blue belt. So I kind of knew it was around the corner and I had talked with Puerto Rico about it and we're like, let's go one more comp cycle, let's try to work, let's try to win worlds. And it was a lot of mixed emotions because I did get second and I was just so sure that it was my year, like I felt. I felt like amazing throughout all of my fights, I was ready, and then in the finals, I got caught with something just totally surprised. Nobody would have expected it and I got injured. So it's, it was exciting to get my purple belt, but devastating to get silver and to lose in that way. So it was just.

Speaker 1

It was a whole bunch of emotions yeah, I, I bet, so I uh I. I think I caught the fight before the injury because I was like you know, we all have the text, uh string, and we all keep up with everything, and I was like I didn't hear what happened. So, yeah, but it was I, I did get to see the video and you know you definitely yeah uh, of you getting promoted and you definitely you.

Speaker 1

I could definitely tell you were feeling a lot of emotions and you know I was super proud. I was showing the kids and we were. It was exciting to see you get promoted. And you know we need purple belts in the gym. We're still at about like 60% white belt right uh we're getting some more blue belts, though we've gotten some really good blue belts in lately that have come from other places but I think that's just, you know, growing a gym too right.

Speaker 3

Like other gyms, they've been around a lot longer, so they've had those white belts that have grown up through the ranks versus. You know, we're still building our jiu-jitsu base. We're still building our student base.

Speaker 3

So, and it is nice that we've had those blue belts come in, kind of like rounding out that colored belt. But that's also part of jiu-jitsu too. You know, you get a ton of white belts that come in wanting to try it and, like you said earlier, a lot of them just fizzle out and don't make it so well, we're growing, we're getting our, our colored belts up there yeah, yeah, yeah, we've got a lot of three and four stripe, uh white belts and it's so fun.

Speaker 1

And I'm I'm a later member too, right, I didn't, I didn't come at the at the very beginning, but just from the time that I've been there, it's been amazing to watch it grow and I love it. We have a great group let's continue talking a little bit about. Well, let's talk. Talk about coaching. So you also coach a lot of the kids classes at Alliance Roswell. How, how is teaching others impacted?

Speaker 2

growth I love.

Speaker 3

yeah, uh, I think it's really helped a lot, especially teaching kids, because you're taking this concept that's even really difficult for adults to understand and you have to break it down to like its most basic levels and then explain it in a way that a child's mind can understand. So being able to do that has helped my jujitsu so much.

Speaker 3

And you know I'll always try to like hit the kids class move of the day as well, but I think it also helps too, because when you're coaching them as they're rolling in the class like, you're seeing these things you're seeing you know submissions. You're seeing you know the passes I'm thinking about the point systems.

Preparing for High Stakes Competitions

Speaker 1

And I think it's just it's really helped me grow a lot as well. Yeah, I you hear a lot of instructors or horror stories about like teaching kids classes and we have a large kids class.

Speaker 3

I mean at a minimum we have what?

Speaker 1

15 at a minimum.

Speaker 3

No, we have like close to 30.

Speaker 1

Yeah on average right.

Speaker 3

Maybe even more. Yeah, it's crazy.

Speaker 1

Like the mat? There's no, and we have a pretty decent sized mat. Yeah. I would say in some days that I come in, you know a little early and I'm able to help out.

Speaker 3

It's like there's only a little bit of room for them to train now so it's so impressive and and they keep coming, class has grown a lot, yeah they're dedicated yeah, I, I love teaching the kids. I mean I think they're funny, I think you learn a lot, and the relationships that you build with them. I love it. It's probably part of my favorite part of the day.

Speaker 1

Yeah, and it's also good to see the parents come and watch. And you know you have, you have so many parents that just you know they sit there and they watch and they cheer and they give thumbs up, I'm the same way when my kids are doing sports.

Speaker 1

So, but awesome, awesome. So let's pivot a little bit and talk about this awesome, incredible competitive career that you're starting to well, that you have been and continuing to carve out. So you've had, uh, just a fantastic run over the last what would you say, a couple years, with the winning of pans and american national. Well, pretty much all these big wins have been within like a year or two, right, I mean yeah, it's been about two years that I've been competing like I've competed before, but like significantly competing yeah and the big ones.

Speaker 3

Right, you were doing kind of opens and and have you done anything outside of of?

Speaker 1

you did something that was televised. What did you do? You did a wno yeah, or that's ftw fight to win. Yeah, yeah, okay, okay, yes, you did that. How was that, knowing it was televised? That was nerve-wracking oh my god, I was more nervous.

Speaker 3

Yeah, I was more nervous to fight that than any of the other ones because I was like you know, it's not a stage. People are there watching you and then if people like you said it's streaming, it's going to be on flow, people can watch you live oh yeah. I was just so fortunate like I was like the second fight to go. So I'm like thank god, because they're going to be stuck in traffic, they're not going to be full no pressure, even though I felt all the pressure yeah, like you get like a poster and an image and stuff.

Speaker 1

I was just like, oh my, you get a walkout. Yeah, oh my god, yeah, walkout song.

Speaker 3

I just I remember being a white belt and like seeing people fight from our gym and it just always seems so cool. So it's kind of like one of those like jujitsu bucket list things. I'm like I want to walk out to a fight song what did you choose?

Speaker 1

do you remember? Uh, I chose the black keys black keys I don't know, that's that name the black keys totally blanking on the name of this song.

Speaker 3

Let me see if I can look it up oh, you know what?

Speaker 1

I'm sitting here thinking about the black eyed peas. Let's get it started. I'm sitting here thinking about the black eyed peas, let's get it started. I'm sitting here thinking, I hear you say the black keys, and I'm thinking of what is it, william? And?

Speaker 2

oh God, what's the woman's name? Fergie, Fergie.

Speaker 1

Yes.

Speaker 3

Now I'm going to have to yeah, totally different vibe.

Speaker 1

Totally different I went with yeah totally different. Yeah, I did the lonely or lonely boy by black east, nice, nice, I'm gonna have to later, I'm gonna have to check that song out. So what would you say? Um, I don't want to say this. Do you have a specific approach to preparing for, let's, a high level competition versus an open? Or yeah, I mean, how do you prepare for these?

Speaker 3

I wouldn't say that I have a specific approach versus the big ones and the small ones. I just try to continuously train the same. I'm always kind of like training towards the next big one. So the next big one would be be pans, so I'm just kind of aiming that towards that. And then the opens. I always view it as kind of practicing competing. So I'm going to go in there, I'm going to try my game plan, I'm going to try something that I've been working on and that's kind of like obviously nobody wants to lose an open, but it, you know it, it doesn't matter at the end of the day like I want to win, but this is, this is practice.

Speaker 1

I'm practicing competing and I'm gonna have that like real-time feedback fighting somebody in my division versus fighting somebody at the gym yeah, yeah, and that's that's important to have that, because, um, I think that what I like about competing knowing that they are going to be kind of my age group and they're not going to be 205 pounds- yeah, and like Randall, be strong kind of deal. You talked about the what was it fight to win? I got that right yeah, fight to win and the mental pressure you had.

Speaker 1

How do you handle that mental pressure when you're stepping on to the mat at such high stake events? I've only done three opens and I felt incredible pressure. I could not imagine it at pans or worlds or something like that. Is there a ritual?

Speaker 3

It's always the pressure leading up to it. So it's like, you know, the several weeks before I'm like it's fine, it's fine, I just kind of pretend it's not happening. Like I'm obviously like training with intention and training a game plan, but I'm like it's not happening happening and I push it from my brain. But it's like the couple of days before that I'm like but, um, as far as rituals, I, the night of the night before I just try to do like self-care. Um, before worlds, I like I took my adult coloring book to like relax my brain. I'll take like a nice shower, I'll bring like face masks, do like a self-care kind of thing, just to try to calm myself down.

Speaker 3

Like I'm not the kind of person that goes on to the mat like before, like smacking yourself in the face listening to metal music. I'm like my adrenaline is already at peak level. I need to calm down as much as possible. So I'll do that. And then, day of, I'll try to do yoga, I'll try to stretch. I don't listen to music, I'll actually listen to white noise leading up to the fight. Yeah, because, like I said, I don't want to have anything that elevates my mentality. I really need to bring myself down.

Speaker 1

Cause you're so kind of. You've been hyped for you know, 10 hours before you need, you want to get in. You know, that's interesting. I think when I, if I start competing again, I think I'll try that, because I listened to. Oh man, have you ever listened to Brown noise? Yeah, actually I say white noise, but that's what I listened to. Yeah, I listened to brown noise, have you? Yeah, actually I say white noise, but that's what I listen to.

Speaker 3

Yeah, I listen to brown noise it is.

Speaker 1

It hits different people don't understand, but it is different and I love it deep and rumbly yeah and it's I've also. I also listened to one uh called space deck. It's like if you're in the space shuttle and you're out in space anyway.

Embracing Emotions and Jiu-Jitsu Achievements

Speaker 3

It's pretty cool oh, oh, that's interesting.

Speaker 1

Yeah, I think that that would be good for me as well, because that kind of music and like I listen to it at night or sometimes when I'm at work, I'll put it on and it helps me kind of. It helps you focus, it does it slows you down.

Speaker 3

Yeah.

Speaker 1

And if you have this game plan in your mind, I could see where it would help you stick to it.

Speaker 3

Yeah, because by the day of, I just kind of have the mentality of like there's nothing else I can do, like I have done everything I possibly can. Nothing is going to change what's going to happen today. I'm just going to go out there and do what you did too. So I don't want to stress myself out anymore, I don't want to elevate my mood. I just just going to go out there and do, do, do, do. So I don't want to stress myself out anymore, I don't want to elevate my mood, I just want to be calm. I want to try to focus, breathe, and then just the worst buildup is you're standing there waiting to walk onto them.

Speaker 3

You're waiting at the bullpen, actually waiting to be called. And then it's like, by the time you kind of like have your toes on the mat waiting to be called out to go fight, you're like all right, this is it, yeah. And then once you like slap bump, it's just you're already in it Like it's jujitsu at that point.

Speaker 1

Yeah, oddly, I think if I was going out to Vegas to compete in one of the big ones, or going down to Florida, I think the travel to oddly be the most nerve-wracking, like the flight out to Vegas. And I don't know why, but that seems like, if I like, when I would go to a job interview and I had to travel or something, I would get so nervous on the flight going there and it's weird, right, because it's like hours and hours before you should be like that wound up then, but I would get anxiety about stuff like that.

Speaker 3

I think that would be the same if if I were to do one of the big ones see it's funny, you say that because I actually prefer to go out and travel and I think you know, maybe because my flight attendant background like I love traveling, but I prefer traveling out there.

Speaker 3

I like their, I guess kind of like a ritual of like packing my bag I always pack the same things, like I kind of tend to try to stay at the same places and I like being in that environment, like I actually hate doing the Atlanta open. I would prefer to go out and travel and do that the whole big thing at the bigger ones.

Speaker 1

Yeah, you just kind of show up and everybody's there and you just walk out Like there's almost like from the time you get into the door there's like very little prep time, unless you're there all day.

Speaker 3

No.

Speaker 1

I could definitely see that.

Speaker 3

And I think it's just because you know there's people from your gym and there's people from headquarters. Sometimes there's people from, I know, from greenville or from miami, and everybody's like what time are you going, what matter you're going to be on, it's like you do love the support, like I appreciate. I don't want to sound unappreciative but I like whenever you travel and it's just like you and your like core group of people or whoever came with you, or a couple people that you know that are there yeah versus like that disruption right before you're about to fight yeah, no, I, I could definitely understand how that would be.

Speaker 1

That would be added pressure. You know, we um, we talked a few minutes ago about some of the emotions you had when you got your purple belt. But, and again, not to bring up any raw emotions, but we all know that losses can be super impactful. In a few moments we're going to start talking about healthy mindset and jujitsu. When you do have, you know, kind of a hard loss, do you have a process of kind of pulling out lessons learned? Do you have any memorable moments or lessons learned that stand out, maybe from a loss and it could be from a win, either or or both. Do you have anything like that to share?

Speaker 3

Well, as far as processes, I would say allow yourself to feel the negativity.

Speaker 3

You train so hard and it's so long, especially going to Worlds that's once a year and it's like as soon as you leave Worlds you're planning for next Worlds, and it's like you put like 365 days into this and so, yeah, it is devastating. And I always tell people and I tell Rodrigo, and I'm like I don't want to hear it's okay, I don't want to hear what I did wrong in that moment, like please tell me later, but I'm like I just want to cry. Just let me cry. It's therapeutic, you know. But then talking about it after kind of watching the video, seeing maybe what I could have done and then using it to help you improve your jujitsu, but not dwelling on it, trying to find that differentiation of making it better versus like harboring that, like that loss and letting it impact you, and I think that's really challenging and that's still something that I struggle with, you know, like I still like try not to think about worlds, because it's hard, it hurts. Try not to think about worlds because it's hard, it hurts.

Mental Impact of Jiu-Jitsu

Speaker 1

Yeah, is there any of your your um accomplishments and it could be your competition wins, it could be your promotion but is there anything that stands out in your jujitsu achievements right now that that you're really maybe super proud of or holds a special place in your heart?

Speaker 3

Yeah, um, obviously, my win at pans. That was the first time I ever got gold at a major tournament and I thought I lost, um, because I won by two advantages. But I thought she passed at the last second. But I had my knee in and so I'm like sitting there on my knees and I'm like don't cry, don't cry. And then I realized I won and just that moment, that like realization and just like you went from like just feeling so like defeated and just sad to just elated. That was really memorable. But also Double Silver at Nogi Worlds was probably more impactful because I hadn't competed in Nogi since I was a white belt, and so I did the Atlanta Open leading up to Nogi Worlds and I only decided to compete Nogi Worlds because Rodrigo was going.

Speaker 2

So I'm like I'll just give it a try.

Speaker 1

I'll give it a try.

Speaker 3

I'm not a Nogi girl, I'm just going to do it whatever. And I I did so much better than I thought I would. And just like going from, just like I don't care, it's whatever, to I want this Like, oh my God, I like I can see the gold, like I got this, like I'm really proud of myself from just kind of not only getting silver but double silver.

Speaker 1

Yeah, I mean that's a huge accomplishment and anybody listening that understands that the brackets hit different at Worlds, regardless of your division or age or whatever. They're hard. I mean these are not people who have been just rolling out of bed doing jiu-jitsu. They for the most part, have been training, like you said, six months, 12 months, to get here. I mean you're probably already training for next year's competitions that you're going to hit and a lot of these brackets are really big. I mean, especially the adult division is huge. But even you know we're not going to call, we're not going to share with the world. You know how advanced and experienced we are in life, but even in the higher divisions there's a lot of people to get through.

Speaker 3

Yeah, and it's crazy too, because I mean I don't mind sharing. I'm Master 1 and super heavy, so there's not many people when you do opens, like, sometimes there's just one people, sometimes there's nobody signed up, especially nogi. So you go from like being lucky to have one fight and then like doing the open class to. You got to go through three, four or five fights to get your goals yeah, yeah so it's, it's a big difference yeah, it's I.

Speaker 1

So last year when, um, everybody was out there I was looking, I was like, oh, look at my bracket, and you know. So I was master, master, three and medium heavy and there were like 15 people in that. I'm like, oh my god, at blue belt, I wouldn't get through that well, I think it always looks intimidating when you look at it.

Speaker 3

But then I always try to remember I'm like you don't have to fight them all, yeah, but it still would be like what? Five or six fights I think it's more like three. Is it three yeah?

Speaker 2

three or four, I always get confused.

Speaker 1

I just I haven't got the.

Speaker 2

The math doesn't math for me yet, but I just go until they say there's no more fights.

Speaker 1

So yeah.

Building Resilience Through Jiu-Jitsu

Speaker 1

Well, so we are uh gosh, we are 40 minutes in. This is awesome Having a great conversation. Now let's talk about some of the meat of what we wanted to get to today. Let's talk about the healthy mindset of jujitsu, and this is something we were kind of planning to get together. You said specifically you want to talk about and you made some kind of good points in the general discussion, and there is definitely a mental side to BJJ, right, yeah, and we know that jujitsu doesn't just develop us physically, but it also shapes our mindset and really, for a lot of us, it changes our approach to life. So let's start out by talking, um, maybe how jujitsu has impacted your mindset, both on and off the mats. I know we've talked a lot about on the mat, so if you want to share you know how it's, how it's impacted you off the mats, it'd be awesome.

Speaker 3

Yeah, definitely. Um, I think, like I said, jujitsu is like radically changed my life and um, in a big way. I went back to school as an adult, I went back in my 30s and when I was younger I ended up dropping out of college. I went through a period of pretty bad depression and I was like I can't do college, college isn't for me, and I went back for various reasons. But I think that jujitsu really kind of equipped me to handle that better and to handle that pressure, because you know, every day in jujitsu you're dealing with pressure, physically and mentally, and so you know, being on the bottom of somebody, in side control, learning how to breathe through it, calm down, realizing that you can get out of these terrible situations and progress. I think that's just such a monumental life lesson and I think it's really kind of given me like these two states of mentality where it's like I can do hard things and I'm capable of more than I thought I can.

Speaker 1

I think that's amazing and you know what I hear you talking about. A lot there is. It's given you or helped you develop even further your resilience. Anybody, anyone who goes to college at any age, you you know immediately. You just bit off a big chunk of whatever it is. You just bit. I mean it's difficult. I went back to school I think I was 40, 39 or 40 when I went to Kennesaw for my master's and you know, in life I wasn't even doing jujitsu then. I think I started either the year I graduated or the year after I graduated. But I had all of these other life commitments. So I can hear how, or I can see how, jujitsu definitely builds resiliency yeah, I think it builds resilience and I think it builds confidence yes you know, I've, um, always just doubted myself, never really knew, like, what I should do, what I'm capable of.

Speaker 3

And yeah, I think it just it builds a different mindset and it builds, you know, that mentality of slow progress. You know you don't have to win the like sprint, the race, it's a marathon, you know, and if you get taken down you get back up, if you're tapped you shake it off, you fight again.

Speaker 1

And I think it just it transcends all areas of life you know, do you think because I kind of think this, um way do you think that jujitsu kind of stands out in the martial arts scene because it's such a slow progress and maybe that's why it's such a force in the martial arts disciplines? Because it's it's not something that you get overnight, and I'm not I'm not talking bad about other martial arts right now, I'm just like this is something that, like you earn, you're not going to just show up and it like changes.

Speaker 1

All of you you know I mean. Do you think? That that, that do you think that's kind of a fair statement, that like it is kind of top of mind? Or I don't want to say superior, but we can say superior because of its slow progress? I.

Speaker 3

I would say so, but I think it's also a lot of the other things about it. It's a very cerebral sport and I think it's a really creative sport. So I think that it gravitate like a lot of people gravitate to that aspect of it and, like you said it's, it shapes your body, it shapes your mentality, it shapes your relationships. Jiu-jitsu it's not just something you just like go in and you do. You know it's therapeutic because you are actively involved. You can't think about anything else while you're doing it and you just build so many relationships too while you're doing it. I just think that it shapes your life in ways that I don't know if other sports do.

Speaker 1

Yeah, I like that you pointed out the creativity of it, because I don't think a lot of people understand that. Um, I mean, we all get to create our different games. I mean none of us in our academy or where we maybe have trained in the past, have the exact same game, right?

Speaker 1

and like we all use the moves that we learn to adapt to our unique abilities. Like everybody knows and everybody lets me know that, yeah, I'm a guard puller and I'm gonna pull guard a hundred percent of the time. I'm not gonna try to take you down ever more than likely. Um, now maybe I'll surprise somebody, but, um, but like it's, it's. I'm having a hard time trying to put into words what I'm trying to say about the, the, the creativity of it, but I love that you pointed that out.

Speaker 3

I love that you pointed that out. Yeah, you know, I think that jujitsu is the only real time that you get to play as an adult right Like you get to go out there and have fun and move your body in ways that you never would otherwise. And it does build, like you know, as you progress in jujitsu, as you learn more things, you know, you get to try things, you get to build on, you're creating your game, you're learning new things and I love that, that growth mindset, that learning mentality and just like the play aspect of it that you wouldn't get in anything else.

Speaker 1

Yeah, I think that's an amazing point it that you wouldn't get in anything else. Yeah, I, I think that's an amazing point you made. I'm so glad you brought that up, because it's something that we haven't talked about, um, at least in the previous episodes with with guests, is how how creative you can be, and I was thinking about that um some time ago about just how cool it is.

Embracing Jiu-Jitsu Journey and Growth

Speaker 1

I think I was talking about this with um, oh, with Papa Greybeard, with Randall and we were talking about like the differences and you know he's a big top player, I mean, obviously, and we were just talking and to some of the things that crossed my mind was just the creativity and the differences in our game and what we're focusing on and developing. So, yeah, got super excited there. One of the things before we leave this topic, do you have any final advice for listeners and this would be listeners that actually train jujitsu and on cultivating a healthier mindset, especially those who might be struggling to stay consistent, like we talked about early, are dealing with things that set them back, like injuries or anything like that yeah.

Speaker 3

So, um, when it comes to like setbacks and things like that, I think that the best thing to do is just take it one day at a time. You know, um, your consistency and your schedule, what you're able to accomplish. It isn't going to look like everybody else's Consistency for you is going to be something different for your training partner and things like that. And I think that you have to reframe the way that you view your training. Right, if you can only go two days a week, like we talked about, you know, training with intention, versus just showing up on the mats and you're there and you're just not really absorbing, you're just you're there, you're just going through the motions. But as far as, like you know, beating yourself up, dealing with that, you know, jujitsu isn't a marathon.

Speaker 3

I think sometimes that we're so goal oriented, which is good, but you know, a belt is just tying your gi, it's holding your gi closed. A stripe is just a piece of tape. You know we need I try to think about skill acquisition. I'm instead of oh man, I didn't do this, I didn't do that. Okay, if I did the arm bar, was it a little more successful than it was yesterday? If somebody swept me. You know, okay, um man, that sucks. I hate that. But now here's an opportunity to work. Mount escapes right and just realizing, you know it's, it's a journey. It's a journey and everybody has areas to improve and you just kind of have to be kind to yourself. You know, treat yourself with grace and you're doing the best that you can, especially being an older jujitsu student. You know, just go in there, try to have fun. If you're not having fun, why are you even doing it? You know.

Speaker 1

Yeah, I think that's great advice and you know I'm going to take that advice myself. You know I found myself the other day trying to compare my, my consistency consistency and my gym uh attendance to like max the senior in high school like.

Speaker 1

Of course he can make it more than I can I have five or four kids at home and you know, and all this, all this stuff going on, it's I, I think that's amazing advice. It's really you know again what I heard. You heard you talking about there is like really putting things in perspective of how jujitsu molds to you, right.

Speaker 3

Yeah, it's your journey, you know your journey is never going to look like this person's, that person's, you know, and it's that cliche. It's not a sprint, it's a marathon. It's that slow progress. So, just focusing on your goals, doing what you can and just trying to improve yourself one day at a time 100%.

Speaker 1

So, as we kind of get close to the end here, what is, as we get close to the end of the episode, but also the end of this year, 2024 is almost over. I don't think you're competing anymore this year, correct? I don't think you're doing that. No, there's nothing else coming up, but I'm pretty sure you're getting ready to load up 2025. Looking ahead, what are some of your goals, both in competition, personal goals? Is there anything specific you're working toward in 2025?

Speaker 3

So as far as competition, I don't have many plans. I'm just kind of focusing on pants and worlds at the moment. But who knows? You know you're always like I'm going to take a little break, I'm going to focus, and then you find yourself scrolling IBKJF like well, there isn't open next month.

Speaker 1

And Nashville, nashville's nice yeah.

Speaker 3

So we'll see how that goes. A big goal for myself is I really want to focus on studying Jiu Jitsu, like I said you know I love coaching. I love helping people at tournaments, coaching. I love helping people at tournaments, I love helping the white belt and it's it's really rewarding. So I really want to study and try to get into coaching more, helping Hodor go around the gym. So that's it. That's a big goal. I really want to just develop my technique, develop my repertoire and my knowledge.

Speaker 1

Have you ever studied judo?

Speaker 3

I've done some judo. I did a little bit of judo at Fight Sports, but I am terrible at it. So that is another goal. I would like to really work my stand-up, maybe try to get into a little judo. Go back to wrestling.

First-Time Jiu-Jitsu Competition Advice

Speaker 1

Yeah, because I've been thinking about this some lately, and no, I'm not going to go jump into judo, but I've been thinking about this some lately and and no, I'm not, I'm not gonna go jump into judo, but I've been thinking about, like it's weird, the small percentage of jujitsu practitioners and tell me if I'm wrong it just appears this way that don't practice or have some type of base in judo. It's usually wrestling, but when jiu-jitsu has a lot of its roots in judo, it just. It just seems odd that, like, a lot more of us don't study or practice judo too yeah, I think it comes back again to you know scheduling issues.

Speaker 3

It's you're already doing jiu-jitsu. You know you're already working, taking care of your family. Whatever it is trying to add more in. So I do think that in an ideal world, I think that, um, a lot of people would love to. I mean I would love to, but then how do you I? Don't want to sacrifice my jujitsu for judo Right.

Speaker 1

Yeah, exactly, and you know, the majority of people who are doing Jiu-Jitsu aren't geeks like us and know the history and all that, read books and probably focus on all of that. But yeah, I was just thinking about that, I don't know. You did a video for Alliance Roswell where you asked those that were competing in the upcoming Atlanta Open any advice they would give to somebody considering stepping on the mats. Anybody can go to the Alliance Roswell page and see that video. What would you give as far as advice to somebody considering stepping onto the mat for their first time? What would you say to them?

Speaker 3

in terms of jiu-jitsu in general or in terms of competing, competing competing as a white belt.

Speaker 3

You've never fought before. Just do it Like it's got to suck. Leading up to it. You're going to be so nervous Everybody is but the worst thing is just the anticipation, and you should do. Do it just to get it over with. You know you're going to make mistakes, you're going to have um, it's not going to go your way. Most likely you're not going to get to hit that super cool thing that you've been working on at the gym, but it only goes up from there, right. So just getting that experience and then you'll know. You know, because how you train at the gym is 100 different than what it is competing. You know it's loud, those mats feel so much different that five minutes goes by so fast. So just do it, just get it over it, and then you'll have that experience for the next time.

Speaker 1

Yeah yeah, my third competition was a lot different, as far as at least the nerves and the anxiety, than the first one. That was terrifying, yeah yeah, absolutely terrifying, and it's like, yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely terrifying.

Speaker 3

And it's like, yeah and especially, you know like if you're it's your very first one, especially a white belt you know like you might not have that uh skill set yet, like my very first tournament. I uh competed like two and a half three months after I started jujitsu. I lost within 30 seconds. I don't even know what happened. I like I slap, bumped and then I was like waking up to the ref. I didn't get tapped out but I just like I blacked out, like yeah, like you don't know what's going on, right, yeah, exactly yeah it's like a fog really like a like you're not you.

Speaker 1

It's weird yeah yeah.

Speaker 3

so I think you know, like I said, it's, it's gonna suck, you're gonna be like so nervous, but just just getting it over with, and then you know what to how to prepare for next time, and then you can actually really start thinking about like a game plan or how to train ahead of time.

Speaker 1

Yeah, yeah, I think that's great advice and definitely wanted to kind of finish on that note because if anybody knows about anything with competition, nerves, the mental games that plays the anxiety, it's you. You've competed at the top, you know competitions and look, I have enjoyed this conversation. I am so glad we have finally been able to kind of get together. I know it's late in the week or late in the evening here and we have to unfortunately work tomorrow, but I really appreciate your time and your honesty and the wisdom you share. I enjoy learning from you at the Academy and I'm sure listeners, whether they're seasoned practitioners or brand new to the art, you know that really where what the, the podcast kind of hopefully, speaks to, will find so much value in you know your, your story here and your advice.

Speaker 3

So thank you so much for that thank you so much for having me um. I love, I'm happy that I can help you at the gym. I hope anything I said was relevant for anybody or they can find some sort of little nugget of inspiration in there.

Speaker 1

But yeah, I thank you so much, yeah and if anyone wants to, or anyone in the audience wants to follow you or stay updated on your journey uh, I know they'll want to keep up with your competitions and and all the things that we have at at alliance ros what's the best way for them to get in touch with you? We're going to put that in the show notes too, so I'm pretty much just on Instagram.

Speaker 3

You can follow me at R-A-H-A-N-E-U that's my handle. You can also follow the gym too. Alliance BJJ Roswell. I'm always the one posting content. So, yeah, Instagram, that's where I'm at.

Speaker 1

Yeah, yeah, and we have a pretty sizable Instagram following. I mean, instagram is kind of just where it's at for jujitsu. I don't do TikTok or anything like that, so I guess I have nothing else to compare it to. But yeah, listen, audience, reach out. Thank you, everyone listening. Don't forget to subscribe and leave a review and share this episode with your friends and your training partners and those who you know in your gym are about to compete and maybe they're they're nervous. They're going to get a lot of good nuggets and tips from this episode with Rachel. Remember, keep training hard, stay caffeinated and let's roll. I'll roll into next episode. I'll see you on the mats.

Speaker 2

And that's the final tap on today's episode of Caffeinated Jiu-Jitsu. A big thanks to all of our listeners, especially today's insightful guest, for sharing their BJJ knowledge and tales. If you felt that adrenaline rush and are hungry for more, hit, subscribe, drop a review and spread the jujitsu buzz. For show notes and to contact the host, reach out to the email provided in the podcast description and to join our grappling community, head over to Instagram. Get those geese. Crisp your coffee strong and always be prepared for the next roll Oss.

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