Glen
black belt
Jiu-jitsu is more than a hobby. It’s a journey, an outlet, and a community. I think of it as a form of meditation. Anytime I am on the mat, I have to focus and be present. It doesn’t matter what's going on at home or at work. You can’t think about that while you are trying to defend your neck. It’s also my primary source of hard exercise. I doubt I could get my heart rate up that high or sweat that much doing anything else.
Q: How long have you been training?
16 years. I started at Renzo Gracie’s in NYC, rotating through all the great instructors there, like John Danaher, who was the primary lunchtime professor, and an amazing lineup of guys like Neiman, Igor, Daniel, and Rolles Gracie. After I received my blue belt, I moved up to Connecticut and stopped training for a year or so while the kids were little. One day, I walked into Gracie Sports Norwalk and saw a big photo of Renzo and Neiman with Master Marcio “Maccarao” Stambowsky. It turns out he is Renzo’s uncle, Neiman’s father, and one of the “Famous Five” Black Belts promoted by Rolls Gracie before he died tragically. He is now a Red/White Belt Grand Master.
Q: What was your original goal when you started?
My original goal was to try to find something I could do after recovering from a catastrophic knee injury. I had injured myself playing lacrosse, and the doctor suggested I ease back into it with something that didn’t do so much pounding like basketball or lacrosse. He suggested yoga and I settled on Jiu-Jitsu. I had been a casual UFC fan, and I always noticed I got really tense and sometimes broke a sweat when a guy was caught in a submission. Probably because I didn’t understand what I was watching, I felt helpless. I wanted to conquer that.
Once I got to purple belt, I became very serious about technique, the art, and the culture, beyond just exercise.
Q: Tell me about your first day on the mats.
I remember walking past the Renzo Gracie flag outside that building on 31st by Penn Station. I hesitated because it was in the basement and walking down there was a little intimidating. I didn’t know what to expect and the staircase was fairly industrial. As soon as I got down to the basement, I was greeted by several big Brazilian smiles. They were incredibly warm and welcoming. I did an intro class that day, a 1:1 with a coach named Magno Gama. He demonstrated a few things for me and I thought it was magic. I remember him showing me what a straight Achilles lock felt like. I walked into our apartment with two new gis and one year membership, which was news to my wife.
Q: Do you spend time with teammates outside the gym?
I do. Master Marcio cultivates a very positive culture. He’s got two main locations and over a dozen affiliates throughout the state. So the Gracie Sports family is pretty extensive. I’ve known some guys for over ten years. People come and go in this sport, but I have some guys I see regularly outside the gym for a beer or occasional BBQ. We also host a few big social events each year. Like most gyms, we have men, women, a high school janitor, Wall Street guys, lots of cops (the jiu-jitsu sticker on the car helps!), a fishmonger, a bar manager, and a couple of chefs. It’s an incredible sport that doesn’t attract a certain type of person like tennis or golf. It’s literally useful for everyone.
Q: Any mat enforcer stories worth sharing?
We have such a positive vibe in the gym that assholes and meatheads do not last long. We have some world-class killers at all ages, so when a guy is visiting or moves to town from a gym that has an aggro vibe, he usually gets put through the gauntlet. All with smiles on our faces.
A few years ago, we had a wrestler/bodybuilder kid who came in as a white belt and immediately started asking for stripes. He injured quite a few white belts with explosive moves he had learned from YouTube. He entered and won a few tournaments and basically demanded a blue belt. At the next open mat, Master Marcio smiled and asked a few of us to roll with him so he could evaluate. This wasn’t the normal procedure. He didn’t explicitly tell us what to do, but he said not to hold back: This guy believes he’s a blue belt, so show him your pressure game. It was a lot of fun trying to see how many different submissions we could apply in each round. A lot of knee on belly, twisters, bow and arrows, and loop chokes from everywhere. Master Marcio then suggested that he find a gym more suited to his goals. It’s one of the things I love about Gracie Sports. He will forgo the revenue from a membership if the student is disturbing the culture.
Q: Who is your favorite training partner and why?
At the moment, I really enjoy rolling with Professor Alessandro Martins. We have very opposite games, so it becomes a chess match almost every roll. We’re about the same weight, but I am taller. He has an amazing open guard. Not only is it hard to pass, but he is also extremely dangerous with quick submissions from everywhere, and he can disguise his sweeps very well. The best part of my game is passing, top pressure, and taking the back. So it is strength against strength. Also on the feet, I use wrestling and he uses judo, so that is fun too. More often than not, I take him down, or he pulls guard, and we spend several minutes in some very technical positions. Sometimes I pass eventually, and sometimes he sweeps me. We can roll for a half hour and the time flies by.
Q: Worst injury?
I always say that more than half of my little injuries happened when I was a white belt. You don’t know your limits, you’re a spazz, your partner is also a spazz, and you tend to put yourself in dangerous situations unconsciously. I tell new students all the time to relax and think. You should try to end every roll breathing easier than your opponent. It’s always interesting to point out to a white or blue how hard they are breathing at the end of a round. If I am not breathing hard at all, it’s because you are wasting energy. Grunting, squeezing grips for no reason. After all of these years, all I have is a little cauliflower ear, a permanently crooked pinky finger, and a floating rib that sticks out. Master Marcio has the same rib thing and he said to me: “Brotha, we won’t die from this, but we will die with this.” I think it’s interesting that I did this to recover from an injury, and it’s proved to be a safe sport with the right discipline and partner vibe.
Q: If you could advise your white-belt self, what would you say?
Don’t worry about “winning” at all. Play more defense, put yourself in bad positions all the time. Open up your early game to more creativity. Train equally with those better, the same, and less skilled than you. Relax. Use less strength. Tap!
This is part of a weekly series on the people who make up jiu-jitsu culture.
