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When I coach students, a lot of the time I see people kind of gravitate to what they enjoy doing the most. Then once they get good at it, it’s my job to challenge them to fill in those areas that they are not enjoying so much. When I started training I always wanted to do JKD ever since I saw the Immortal Bruce Lee in the movie “Enter the Dragon” at age 13. Who wasn’t hooked after seeing that!! There wasn’t a JKD school here in Central VA so I started with Karate. Then spent a couple of years boxing with an amateur team, which led me into kickboxing. Muay Thai was my passion and love it but I was never any good at grappling and it didn’t come naturally. It also wasn’t something I enjoyed doing because of a case of claustrophobia. Which sometimes would make my “roll” sessions interesting. LOL Gracie Jiu Jitsu taught me that if I wanted to be a complete martial artist I needed to do things I didn’t enjoy all the time. It’s funny how it when I stated to get good at it I started to like it. Funny how that works. To be a complete Martial Artist you have to do things you may not enjoy to get a result that you desire. Kind of like those “burpees” we are so fond of doing at RAM. Also, in the pursuit of the truth you have to train everything. When you roll you find out what are your weak area’s real quick!! You can not fake it, you can’t avoid it, you can’t Coach it UNLESS YOU ARE ON THE MAT learning and training. Truth, every time you roll! You will get tapped and you will get ego checks. Once you think you have figured it all out then look out.. you will get tapped sooner or later. If you are a Coach and you are not on the mat training you will develop holes real quick. Even though you know the technique there are so many things that go into making it work. For example, how are you going to talk to someone about patience, and the ability to stay calm when someone has your back and working a choke?? I encourage all of my Coaching Staff that is reading this right now. Don’t get Coachitis. Symptoms are = Boredom, weight gain, non rolling, big ego which keeps you from rolling, which furthermore keeps you from improving, which keeps you from rolling cause you don’t want to get tapped that would hurt your ego and round and round we go. I say this because I have been a victim of this syndrome myself. Let’s keep improving guys and growing. Professor Sauer has been a big influence on me in that he always has an encouraging word and his dedication to his art is unwavering. See you on the mat!!
Proximo Entertainment is a business partnership and a family of martial artists, coaches, business professionals, athletes, digital ninjas, writers, photographers and more that all share a mutual passion for furthering the growing sport of MMA and creating a home for MMA athletes to compete at the highest level. It was born when Jamie Ridgeway of The Renaissance Academy of Martial Arts and a black belt in Jiu Jitsu and his brother Jeremy, a manager of MMA fighters and promoter joined with the talented team at Prototype Advertising to create Proximo Entertainment LLC and it’s fight promotion the Elite Fightng Challenge. A company that began as a company that solely promoted MMA events but has evolved to also include fighter management, consulting, and an upcoming film documentary on UFC/WEC/Pride/Strikeforce fighter Jeff “Big Frog” Curran.
Far from Las Vegas and away from the bright lights you will find the struggle MMA athletes and promotions digging thier trench in the most exciting sport in history. Here we plan to give you a backstage pass to tell about the happenings, challenges and all things related to growing a young MMA promotion, fight team, and media company as well as the occasional commentary on whats going on with the big promotions such as the UFC, WEC, and Strikeforce and international promotions like Dream and Deep etc…as well as put a spotlight on promotions, trainers, athletes, and brands that are moving MMA as a sport forward as well as discussing the one that aren’t. Here we plan to talk about the stories that are relevant to the sport and the business of the sport, what is working, what is not working.
We want to seek out undiscovered talent and provide them with a home to fight with the EFC as well seeing whats going out there in the world of regional MMA, with over 300 functional (or semi-fucntional) Amateur and Professional promotions and thousands of athletes that are training, learning and competing we feel there is some incredible stories coming.
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