The Old Grappler
The Old Grappler
A Wrestling Coach's Take on Training, Combat Sports and Parental Guidance
Buckle up as we embark on a road trip with Buck Watkins, the head high school wrestling coach at Fraser High School. Buck shares the tale of his wrestling camp journeys across the United States over the past five years, a narrative that showcases his dedication and love for the sport. From 20-hour drives to Colorado to nights spent sleeping in his truck, these adventures have not only expanded his worldview but also created unique cultural experiences for his grandson.
As we move forward, Buck reveals how he brings wrestling to life in small towns, emphasizing the crucial role of community support in the sport's growth. He shares his transition to Jiu Jitsu training, the lessons he's learned along the way, and his approach to coaching his athletes. We dive deep into the significance of emotional control, proactive strategy, and a strong grasp of basic techniques in achieving long-term success in wrestling.
In the final stretch of our conversation, we venture into the world of combat sports, with Buck offering valuable advice for parents supporting their children in this arena. He shares the physical and mental benefits of training in different realms of Jiu-Jitsu, and the importance of thorough research before choosing a combat sport for your child. As we cross the finish line, Buck provides information for those interested in attending one of his fall clinics. Brace yourself for an engaging and enlightening conversation with Buck Watkins on wrestling, grappling, and Jiu-Jitsu.
Hey, welcome back to Old Grappler. I'm here with Buck Watkins and we're gonna talk wrestling today. Buck is, I'll let him introduce himself where he's from, what he's, what, what he's doing here, and we'll go from there.
Speaker 2:Hi, I'm Buck Watkins. I'm the head high school wrestling coach at Fraser High School. I'm also, obviously, the clinician and owner of Washington Strait of Wrestling. Since 2015, I've been working on Traveling the country to hit all 50 states, doing camps and clinics. I'm also a wrestling mindset coach for wrestling mindset. I help athletes Get mental clarity on the mental side of our great sport of wrestling. And this is my fifth year coming to Los Baños. Yeah, I'm coming to Los Baños High School working with the kids, both boys and girls. And About what was it about? Two years ago, maybe three, we moved it to strike fitness. Yeah, three years ago.
Speaker 2:Yeah, three years ago moved the strike, fitness it expanded. It's been a great opportunity and you know I'm I'm really excited, you know, as I continue to grow. Obviously, when you met me I was a as a young guy and I'm a kid, you're still young. And you know, now I got a little boy. Yeah, that, yeah, brings in some perspective. You know I traveling gives him the opportunity to learn about different cultures and Hopefully someday get the opportunity to come out of California.
Speaker 1:Oh, he's coming. He's gonna wrestle Mateo. Yeah, that's fine so I'm a grandfather, right? My grandson is Mateo. He is. He is two days younger than Bucks kid, right, luca? But Buck had his firstborn and I had my first grandchild two days later. So, small worlds, it's the way everything works, though you know, the world happens and Starts lined up and we can have an all-star classic mass and go straight to fitness. Yeah, we're gonna have it so that, hey, I told you last night, mateo's gonna do jiu-jitsu first.
Speaker 2:I can't choose double. A gets his, gets his nest checked out, he'll be alright. Yeah, it's a learning experience.
Speaker 1:So you do wrestling camps, you, you're you're obviously like you and I know each other five, six, six years now You're the head coach at Fraser High School back in Pennsylvania. You're pretty successful doing what you do. You, you travel the United States Doing camps and what have you for wrestling? Tell me about that so it always.
Speaker 2:You know, everybody has this perspective online. Man, it must be nice to travel. Oh, it does stuff Hold on and they have this perspective. All must be nice to get doing to love, right, because it looks easy. Everything on social media makes everything look easy, right, yeah?
Speaker 2:for sure yeah but they don't know, in 2015, in April, I was obviously teaching at a time. I'm a master's education former teacher. Like I don't know, 10, 311 o'clock at night, I get on social media, of Instagram, start messaging all these people Okay, I'd like to do a wrestling camp. You know, hey, this, what, whatever. And I get two response back out of like 40, 30 or 40, right, mm-hmm. And so the first two states I go to is Colorado, go out to a place called fountain, colorado, okay. And then the next place I went to was rain, louisiana, right, and, and it was nice, it was easy, travel is easy, right. And then hold on. And then what? Start growing? Okay, and now, there been I've that. One summer I put on 40,000 miles on my truck In one summer you said hold on, I was gonna ask you about that.
Speaker 1:You were driving back. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I was driving. So there was a lot of times that I was sleeping in my truck because I was saving money, so I know that's a good thing. I told him no, yeah, like I'm talking, it's not just driving like five hours like go do a camp in Ohio or Indiana, right, mm-hmm, I'm talking driving like here the whole way, the brush, colorado, which is like 20 hours away, doing camps in between Going to Rawlings, wyoming and then driving the whole way back and Then like driving the whole way down south. That's driving the whole way. It was only me at the time, right.
Speaker 1:Right yeah.
Speaker 2:So I'd be gone for like a week or two at a time when I'm just, like you know, sometimes, obviously People because of travel, because you were driving right, but yeah, but sometimes people will put you up.
Speaker 2:You know like, hey, we got your hotel room is cool. But there was times where, like I need to get the next camp, like I'm not stopping the hotel room, I sleep in my truck. The one camp I actually Showed up at, like I don't know, four o'clock in the morning in the high school parking lot and I fell asleep and the coach knocked on the window. I was like, hey, coach, you know, are you good? Like my alarm went off. I'm like, yeah, I'm ready for camp. I got out, wash my face, got out there, boom, did a whole day camp before I went to and stayed in a, you know, took a nap and got my rest. And you know people are like all it must be nice. But you know, this past summer, this past summer has been rough with travel in the air, obviously you yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah obviously you get back home faster, but there's been a lot of canceled flights like that. One night I I landed in Chicago at midnight and they're like, hey, we're, we got no, any flights coming out, so you're not spending night. And I'm like, well, I get a flight out in the morning. No, your next flights at two o'clock in the afternoon. So like I'm spending 12 hours in the airport right and Doing thing, you know, I got to put this in perspective. There's a reason. Things happen and You're not in control it, but you're in control how you respond, right?
Speaker 2:Yeah so that's the nice thing about technology to you is I'm able to face top my son. Yeah, and you know, no matter what I'm doing, like today at wrestling camp, we're doing the session. My son was talk, I'm answering phone, like it, I don't care. Like, like, like there's been times where I brought him to wrestling practice. I'm instructed he's gonna run out. Why I'm instructing he comes first and I'll be like here, look, you got stand here and watch and he'll be like okay.
Speaker 2:Yeah but he understands okay and he's always gonna come first it. You know, at this point, like I don't care how much I Accomplish in wrestling, I don't care how many state titles my guys win, and you know as much I love that. My first perspective Is making sure I'm a good dad, like I, like I don't care, like and Luke is number one right. Like you know, Obviously runes freshman year. You know the throw heard around the world.
Speaker 2:There's a photo of me getting thrown as beautiful as that was when I show up Home and that little guy runs through that door and gives me the tightest hug in the world.
Speaker 1:You should throw that will.
Speaker 2:That will, that will triumph everything. I don't care if he never went if he ever wrestles or whatever, but he's around the sport and. And he sees that that's another thing, especially to me, is, you know, one of my wrestlers, rue Lawrence, wrestling 220 this year to 15 220 at Frederick High School is gonna be has an opportunity to become the 13th for timer right and Hold on for those that don't know what four-timer is.
Speaker 1:Yeah four-time state champ. Yeah, four-time state champ in the state of Pennsylvania and like, like, I'm a California guy right, I know California, we have one state tournament, that we don't have multiple divisions. But I understand too, as a coach, that how tough Pennsylvania is. Right, you guys have two divisions, right. Yeah, we have triple a double and and he so rune is a three-time as we speak today. He's a three-time state champion at Fraser High School and he may be the 13th yes four-time.
Speaker 2:Yep.
Speaker 1:In all of Pennsylvania all these years. It's tough to do Pennsylvania's tough wrestling right.
Speaker 2:It's. I think it's over. There's been I don't know exactly how many years. I know it's over 70 years of high school wrestling instead of Pennsylvania. And For my son To be able to witness that, like he's more observant now cuz older, get ready, turn through, right, right. So for him to be more observant like he comes wrestling match every Wednesday. Mm-hmm.
Speaker 2:He's gonna screw you He'll. It's kind of funny as much that young coach out of my right here I can hear him screaming to Like like he don't know what he said he's your assistant. Yeah, like he don't. He don't know what he's saying, but he's grabbing hold of my dad because my dad comes, my mom and dad come watch, now bring it. He's grabbing hold of my dad and, like you know, saying whatever my dad says, I get up, you know.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah oh, you know whatever. But To put everything in perspective, I know that someday I'm not gonna be able to do this, like I'm not gonna be able to do this, and I know, in a matter of A second or a blink of an eye it can all be taken away, right?
Speaker 1:Right, yeah, I know.
Speaker 2:I know that and I know that there's a lot of people. So, just like I said yesterday, I made a lot of mistakes as an athlete, right, and there's people who remember those mistakes.
Speaker 1:But hold on, but we talked about this earlier, right, right.
Speaker 2:So once you start becoming successful, they start Remembering those mistakes and then they don't hate you Because your mistakes. They hate because you're successful despite your mistakes.
Speaker 2:Yeah and that's exactly and that's where it comes in perspective to like why does this person win when I know what he's done or been through? Like I, he should have win right. Like I'm a guy, I shouldn't be coaching high school wrestling, I shouldn't be Doing all these things. Like I shouldn't be traveling country, I shouldn't have gone over 40 some states and been hired be a camp clinician. According to a lot of other people, you're always gonna have haters, right, you're always gonna have. You know. I always think about this. So, guy, put in perspective the 90 10 rule 90% if 90% of people love you and the 10% don't. Don't worry about that. 10%, it's when it's only 10% like you, 90% don't like you. Then you got a problem as a coach. Yeah, you got a problem as a person.
Speaker 2:So, I always put that in perspective and I've always taken that approach. Now especially, you know, as I travel, as I start posting more like I've gotten really out of my comfort zone, posting videos of techniques and things and the ability to talk and do podcast out of your comfort zone?
Speaker 1:Yes, yes, you're not dude, you do pretty well Filming yourself, doing the, the videos post and like. So your wrestling mindset coach, your head coach at Fraser, your, your, my high school teams wrestling mindset coach, we, once high school season starts, you your every week or every other week on a zoom, zoom feed with my high school team, right, there's never a point where I feel like you're a lack of confidence or unsure or you put it out there like this is what we're doing. You, you do a very good job of Putting the kids in the right mindset. For, for my team, right, like We've been working together for five years, right, six, if you don't count COVID. Right, or if you count COVID right, we've been doing this for a little while, right, and we I just paid for two more years. Right, because what you're doing makes a difference, like, and I know you feel like it's out of your comfort zone, but when you're doing all that stuff, it Doesn't look out of your comfort zone, it looks like you're doing what you love. And we talked earlier, right, like I had a certain feeling about how things went today. Right, and then we talked about how I Like, looking at the end of the day, like one thing didn't happen the way I wanted it to. But looking at the big picture, the future of our wrestling program in Los Banos was successful today. Right, there was little kids in our camp today that Learned great technique that you provided and and had fun. Right, like, like they faded at the end, but they're little. Right like Maybe I shouldn't have booked it for a two and a half hour session after, right, but they did well and they finished. Right At the end of the day, that was part of what you were doing. Right Like, you're walking around the mat. The other coaches are walking around the mat. We had the Cortez's there. Cortez's are walking around the mat.
Speaker 1:Like, the perspective is what I wanted out of the camp and what I got out of the camp. Two different things. Right, what I wanted was every high school kid that I have to be there. Did we have that? No, but at the same token you know we talked earlier.
Speaker 1:I didn't look at it that way. Right, I wanted, I was disappointed that every kid that I have at the high school didn't show up and I failed to see that we had 12 kids from the youth program show up. Right, and, like I look at it, like in perspective, it was successful, like it's always successful, right. Every time that you've come, we've been, we've gotten better, right? So maybe it's not the high school that got better today or yesterday, but those 12 kids that can't you know. Nine of them were there yesterday, 12 of them were there today. Those 12 kids are the future of the high school later. Right, and that's the way I look at it. You know, you look at it as one way. We both really look at it very similarly.
Speaker 1:But today I had I was a little my high school kids aren't here. This is for high school. It's always been about the high school, but today it was a diff, different perspective. Right, I have all these kids. One day they're gonna be at the high school. So what are we doing? We're providing a situation for young athletes to come through a system to eventually feed whatever high school they go to, right, I would prefer that they come to our high school, right? But at the end of the day, it doesn't matter which high school they go to in our town, because there's two. As long as they're getting better at wrestling, as long as they're part of a program, keeps them off the streets. It makes like I love what I do and that's part of it.
Speaker 1:Right, the kids, the high school today I was. I told you I was a little kind of like heartbroken, right, brokenhearted about not all the high school showing up and I missed the fact that all these kids showed up. They wouldn't have showed up if we didn't have this and it wouldn't have happened if you didn't come. Right, like, we talked about bringing in a big name. Right, a big name is super. It could be super expensive. Right, we're a little town. I'm trying to provide opportunities for the kids that are here that want to show up, an inexpensive way of getting better at wrestling. Hold on, let's get back to that.
Speaker 2:So you said about providing a little town right. So one of the camps that I do almost every year is in Big Sandy, montana. They graduate 15 to 20 kids out of their high school right and they are in what I call right outside of Great Falls, probably about an hour hour and a half away. So this is like what I call in the middle of nowhere God's country. There's nothing. There's farms, tough people. You're self-reliant, and so that's where I have to find my niche. Like I'm not a big name guy, I don't have a national champ in front of me, I don't have an old American right. So I really have done everything organically and I've had to work. I've spent a lot of hours around people better than I am, learning techniques and things To bring it back in the small towns to where kids have an opportunity, because I feel like if I had a chance to grow, I feel like if I don't do that, I'm not helping wrestling grow in areas that it needs to grow. There's a lot of small towns with tough kids.
Speaker 1:Absolutely.
Speaker 2:And they're not getting the opportunity to get exposed, just like my high school. I think we graduate, I don't know. I wanna say a hundred kids at the most here. Right, it's been less than that, and they just started high school wrestling in 2016. So I was a volunteer the first year and then I became a high school coach, but they had laid the groundwork in 2010.
Speaker 1:So out of that point. Wait, wait, wait, wait. Let's go back to that. Okay, they laid the groundwork in 2010 and it took six years for it to actually happen.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so the kids got old enough. This before I got there. I was a grad assistant at Whelan Baptist University in Texas. I was coach in college.
Speaker 2:At that time I was a grad assistant, so they were building the groundwork and in 2016, they had their first. That was the fall of 2016. And I came back in January 2017 as a volunteer assistant. I was a young man there, started working with them. They never had a state place or place as high as he did in any sport. He ended up taking third in the state tournament that year and he had never placed higher than fifth in youth state.
Speaker 2:Okay, is this Thane? Yes, thane Lawrence, right, he ended up placing fifth his eighth grade year. That was the highest he had done. That was the best. And then he gets his freshman year in high school and takes third. So that's a big jump, right? Absolutely yeah. And then the next year I become high school coach, right. And then he becomes state champ. So here's the thing I want people to understand. It's not just me. We have local club coaches and private coaches who do a lot of work with all my kids. At Frasier, we have this opportunity. Okay, I call it a triangle, because there's a club here, there's a club here and there's a club here within 30 minutes, 45 minutes away in either direction to where the kids need to go to get better, right. Yeah.
Speaker 2:So they're gonna get a lot of one-on-one, gonna get a lot of attention. Okay, my job, I feel, with a lot of my kids. Obviously there's some kids that come out of classrooms. I gotta make sure that they're up to scale to where they're competitive, right. But as far as the other kids, it's about just having them mentally ready and obviously conditioned. You know they because a lot of my kids wrestle club, so they're getting extra time.
Speaker 2:I think I wanna say about five of them wrestle all year round, right, five wrestle all year round. It's all they do. So they're doing a lot of wrestling and there's nothing that I can teach or say. You know, obviously some of them will ask questions. There's little tidbits that you'd say, hey, I would drive this way or hey, what'd you learn? You know, cause I'm learning from them too, yeah, and but my job's just get mentally ready. By the time that you know they get ready to wrestle, there's probably been about three or four different people in their year of what they gotta do and this like that. But I always tell them three things control your emotions, score the first, take down and don't finish a period on the bottom. You do those three things, you're gonna be successful. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Okay, and that's important because I mean, obviously I know a lot of wrestling. I've been around a lot of guys, I've traveled, I've been in the college wrestling rooms, I've seen what people teach, so I have a pretty high wrestling IQ okay, and you know I'm thankful for that. You know I learned from my high school and club coach that's what you gotta do. You gotta surround yourself in the sport because people are better than you, so you learn. Yes.
Speaker 2:And so I know that. So like, for my kids to get better, for kids to always get better in the sport of wrestling, for it to grow, you have to work with a village. There's always gonna be clubs, there's always gonna be club coaches, there's always gonna be parents. There's always gonna be you being the high school coach. So you have to drop that ego like, oh man, he's a really good high school coach, but I'm only as good as my athletes allow me to be Right, because at the end of the day, if these kids aren't training hard and they're not winning, I'll go to my Like. You know, at the end of the day it takes everybody, it takes club coaches, it takes parents, it takes the community, it takes administration and it takes me too. Yeah, as far as like the leadership, when you look at the high school coach, that's the standard. I gotta be more mentally tougher, I gotta be physically harder and I gotta do all these things to keep up with everybody. Yeah, so that's why.
Speaker 2:So, getting back to that, that's why I started to Andy Frazellis 75 hard, a technical guide to winning the war within yourself this year. You know, I started at June 1st and obviously I'm down 23 pounds. I stuck to a diet. You know I'm still not finished with it yet I got 10 days. I stuck with a diet. I stuck with these things to make me better because I know that I have guys.
Speaker 2:You know, after our first, after this year, we won our first section title, going undefeated. Then we end up making a preliminary round of the state team playoffs first time it's ever done in school history at the wrestling and we ended up losing to a team that took second in state for it LaBuff Great team, tough, you know had a very good draw. So there's that. So that means that I gotta get better. That means I gotta up my game, because I want these kids up their game, not physically but mentally, Like we're not gonna hide, we're not gonna be somebody that's hidden anymore.
Speaker 2:You know People are like, oh, frazier's obviously getting better, but how good are they? Now it's like Frazier, frazier, wrestling has arrived and you know it's like in the past two and a half years you know obviously traveling and stuff and you know since 2020, it's kind of taken a back seat. And you know there was some struggle. There's been some struggles in my life personally and things and it is what it is but starting this summer to get back on the road every weekend to where I've got 16 camps, 15 straight weekends of wrestling camp shows how much I've grown as a coach, shows how much you know. Organically I put in the work you know, put in the road, work to get where.
Speaker 2:I'm at and now I'm not driving. You know I drove to one camp this year no two camps, you know, about five hours away. You know one was three hours, one was five, so I drove to two camps. Okay, so driving five hours is not bad for me, cause I've been so used to driving 10 to 12 and driving the whole way. So driving one camp five hours, driving the other was like three and a half. It was within the state of Pennsylvania, so now I fly. So take that in perspective. You used to be a guy that had to drive and now you're flying everywhere. That's a total upgrade. Like you know, if there's no delays or something, instead of driving nine hours to get home, you're getting home in like two and a half.
Speaker 1:So but okay, let's backtrack a little bit. When you first started camps and you were driving like were you putting a price tag on your time to drive.
Speaker 2:No, so I didn't think about that. So my so think about that, they're actually my first two camps that I did. They actually did fly me out. Okay, they were Colorado and Louisiana, but like that, next year I drove everywhere. Like I drove to Kentucky, I drove to Arkansas, I drove to South Carolina, I drove to Florida, I drove to Iowa, I drove to South Dakota, like I was coming on, I was coming.
Speaker 1:So, coming off the East Coast, the furthest that you drove that first year was Midwest, right Right, south Dakota, right Right. So you stayed along the East Coast line down to. Florida.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but you figure, driving to Arkansas it was 12 hour drive from where I was in North Carolina one way, so so like you got to put that in perspective. So I didn't even think about a price tag of any of that because I was trying to get started.
Speaker 2:Get your name out there, right, right, like this guy can do a good product, this guy can do this and obviously it's grown. You know, I have 15 straight weekends right now since starting the first weekend of May and obviously I'm taking two weeks off and I probably wouldn't if someone called me up for a camp, I'd probably go right.
Speaker 1:Only if it was in Pennsylvania, right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's right. No, no, it's like somebody called and said, hey, I'd like you to come out Like we'll take care of this and everything. You know, I tell my price and everything, and they come out and do it, I will do it. I'd be there in heartbeat because I feel that I'm giving. I don't want to take out an opportunity away from kids Like I. I understand I have my boundaries now as a dad, but I also am not. I don't want somebody to take an opportunity to wait for my kid, because nobody's ever cheated me Right out of an opportunity and I'm not gonna cheat a kid out an opportunity. I'm not even gonna cheat my own son.
Speaker 2:Every time I go to a camp, I think about how would I treat my own? How do I want somebody to treat my own son at a wrestling camp? Yeah, how do I want somebody to talk to my son? How do I want them to joke with them? How do I want them to be approached? Those types of things, right? So that's where I'm at, yeah, so, but getting back to that and also, you know, doing this challenge is 75 hard challenge and Take a more perspective my health and things like not only is it gonna help me as a wrestling coach. I think about, you know, I got two and a half year old who will wear me out, you know, a couple hours. I gotta be ready for that.
Speaker 2:Like I don't want to be that dad that's like, uh, you know, since that defense and just watch, it's like I want to be that dad when, like my son looks at me and like man, my dad's savage that my dad's coming out here, he's gonna throw the ball, he's gonna wrestle. You know I started doing jiu-jitsu more. Like my dad's teaching me not only how to win Competitively, but he's teaching me how to win life. Like I, like my son's not gonna know how to follow a dream If somebody doesn't do it before him. Yeah, and and that, and that's for another reason like this has always been built up to that. I've always had a mindset like I'm gonna be a dad someday. So I want to try to knock out as much as possible as I can, so that you know, when I become a dad, I will put everything in perspective to where you know he comes first. You know, there's always that old saying God, family and wrestling, and that's just the way I put in perspective of it. Yeah.
Speaker 1:I see that. So you, you said you were so Old grappler, right, the whole start of this whole podcast was because I started jiu-jitsu, right, and I go to these open mats and I see all these people and I see their journey and like they helped me with my journey. You came in yeah, wait, I knew you were started. You had got back on the mats, you were doing some training with jiu-jitsu. You came in, you flew in on Thursday, had like a we got, we got jiu-jitsu Thursday night. Buddy, you're going, you're like I'm down, right, so so let's talk a little bit about that. Like, back it back in Pennsylvania. You're training. How often?
Speaker 2:so I was training once a week. I actually got back into it after the rest of season. It was like April May. I Started training as a place. I highly recommend it. If you're in Western Pennsylvania, Go this place called a math factory. Good guys.
Speaker 2:There's a lot of good guys here. A high level got a lot of knowledge and then, just good right, hard-working people right. Yes and so I got back in into it. So here's the story of that. So back in 2010, when I moved to Texas at Wellum Baptist University is playing you Texas, right, mm-hmm? So if you look back in the WC, there's a fighter by the name of Leonard Garcia.
Speaker 2:Yeah and, and it's his hometown. So I ended up meeting a relative of his in a barbershop, mm-hmm, and that's how I met Leonard and, and obviously Leonard was fighting WC that time, you know made it UFC.
Speaker 2:Yeah, made it to the UFC. He's the bad boy, you know. And so I started, you know, getting interest in jujitsu, into fighting and then I ended up having the opportunity, because of Leonard and his brother Bobby, of Going to. At that time it was Cowboys around his ranch but it was like called to tap out ranch because tap out was still big then right. Mm-hmm.
Speaker 2:And so I ended up going out there the first time. It was like for a week, mm-hmm, and I got to train, got to go to Jackson's and I was learning about it, like these are high level dudes, like yeah, and and then, you know, the second time I went out, I ended up staying. I think I stayed there for like almost a year, close to it, and I was just training all the time doing those things. But you got put in perspective to and you know, sometimes you just meet people. You know that there's something different about them, why they got it.
Speaker 2:Mm-hmm and you got a sometimes meet that realization like this ain't for me right. Yes, so like, because there was a lot of dudes that, like you would go into the gym in Jackson's and there was a lot of dudes Like outside you saw who were like really good and you're like a wire thing in the UFC, like there's just something different about them to them guys who make it that level, whether it's UFC Bellator or 1FC champ, you know, yeah, there's just something different about them and I applaud them for it and so like. After that then I started like I Quit grappling, I quit doing Jiu Jitsu and things like that like. And it was like Then, once I got back, you know, this guy, the map factory, isaac, really kept saying hey, man, you need to get back into it. I'm like I love to. You know, like I, I miss it, like I'd love to compete it something again.
Speaker 2:Right, six years old, my son, my son's getting ready. Like it's easy on a body, I know, I mean, don't not say it's not hard, but it's a little easier than rest. Whatever was right.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, Because you just slow it down. Yeah so let's be honest, so you don't train G very much.
Speaker 2:Oh no right.
Speaker 1:There's Thursday night. We get Patrick. Gave you a loner. G is like a, I got a G, yeah. So hey, I commend you because for not training G you were like fuck it, let's do it. You threw the G on, you did class, you, you were successful. You finished class right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we did technique, we did live right, and I also ended up tapping somebody else. That was cool.
Speaker 1:Hey, wait, wait, wait.
Speaker 2:Hold on. I don't mean you, but I know you didn't tap me. Is I ended up tapping someone out. Yeah, and I've never. That was the only second time in my life I ever trained game alive, okay. So Obviously, that was, you know, last night we didn't know gain open Matt and I was able to tap somebody out. Yeah, there too, that's a little bit more fluent for me, because it's it's a little bit more faster pace, yep, and it's, you know, wrestling a little bit to me. Yeah jokes.
Speaker 2:But getting back to your G thing, you know obviously I struggled. You end up. You know you tap me out and stuff like that. But I was trying. It was harder for me because I'd never like I'd never grabbed something and had to hold on right, because in no G you can't grab a hold of something except someone's neck or their arm or whatever. But when you try to move they can still grab your, your G right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 2:So that was hard for me, and Let me ask you something.
Speaker 1:Yes, so when you were grabbing yes, did you burn your arms out a?
Speaker 2:A little bit, because I didn't. You don't know what you don't know, right? Yeah, so you don't know, so like that's how I know that, that's what I mean I know when I'm in, when I'm in against a guy who's grappling no G, and They've been in a G for a long time Because they're grips different, like when they lock a hole, you their grips different, like they still have the grip where they're like hold on to that, to that G, and it's a whole lot tighter.
Speaker 1:It's funny because, like We've talked, like I'm the no G guy, right, like coaches put his foot down, and Because I would go to all the open mats with no G and everybody would be there with G's and I'd be the only one take in the picture with no game coaches, like a like this is why I told you not because you're going no G, like you're the only one not in the G, you need to be in the G. So I mean I wore G. I wear G most of the time now. We did open mat last night and it was hot in the gym. It was like 100 degrees. We we did no G last night.
Speaker 1:But the grip thing, like when you first start out and you're grabbing the G, like you're holding on for dear life, right, like you're, like I'm not letting go and you don't realize that you're holding on so tight, right, I've learned that now over time, right with the G Transitioning into the G realm, like it, there's a fine line of holding it tight and not hold like not holding it tight at all but still having a grip. Right, like you, certain grips, you could roll the key and have a grip without having to use any energy in your arms right, no muscle no. So over time like that'll develop if you still train G right, but you won't get that in the no G perspective, right.
Speaker 2:I'll tell you what since getting back into doing G no G, you know, doing Jiu Jitsu and things, it has really helped me mentally.
Speaker 2:So, me becoming better mentally, helps me become a better mindset coach, and not only helps me become a better mindset coach, it helps me become a better dad, it's helped me become a better son and it's put a lot of people in my circle now who are, I consider, lions, like they're just tough people, and I'm not just talking physically, I'm talking mentally Like they're just tough people and they know that I'm mentally tough too. So like when you get a group of them, no matter what happens in your life, they're coming with you. Yeah, and that's the way I feel too, is being in with all these guys and you know, girls and stuff is we've gotten into that point to where I'm like we're doing this, you know, like we're, we're getting after it.
Speaker 2:Like you know, I can have deep conversations or like hey, I'm showing this a little better. You know, hey, I want you to win. You know, and a lot of guys that I train with at the Matt factory, they, they're competing. So like that's my urge right there, Like I want to be on a card, Like I don't like I don't, I don't even care if I win it's. I mean, obviously I want to win, I don't think anybody goes into that competition.
Speaker 2:But I would just love to compete again. Like I would love to put in a full amount of work to compete to where my son could watch and be like man. This is really cool. Like it's something I want to do because I think about that Like I. I want my son to have that perspective and know that his dad was and is a competitor. Like there's a photo of my amateur fight and fighting and my hand raised right. Yeah, I remember watching that, and my son yeah.
Speaker 2:And my son will look at that and be like Daddy won, but he'll never get to experience that right Like he wasn't there. Like he doesn't know that feeling Like you know, if I, if I would have had a minute at that time and things I probably wouldn't be the dad I am today. I, you know, just reckless and loose, and you know we're going to shoot from the hip.
Speaker 2:But, having you know the perspective, now I'm a much better dad, I'm a much better coach, I'm a much better son to my mom and dad and I'm a much better friend to the people around me. Yeah, you know, because of that, and I have a newfound respect for so many different cultures of traveling as well.
Speaker 1:So the it's. It's funny that, like, we're talking about the open mat, last night, like Patrick is one of the guys that was there last night the mindset that you have to have in certain situations right, like, he took my back. He didn't have hooks in, but he was trying to choke. Right, he's trying to go rear naked and I, maybe a few weeks, maybe a month ago, I showed him technique like cross-facing. Right, like cross-facing and wrestling you take your forearm across the bridge of the nose, put their nose on the other side of their cheek, right, right, so, in order to open up the neck, you put your forearm on the nose and you bring the nose up. Right, god, he was doing that multiple times last night. Right, and it's just like fuck, why did I teach this guy this? Right, it was very uncomfortable, but the mindset is like my mindset. Right, I taught him this. God damn it. It sucks that I taught him this, but it's making him better.
Speaker 1:He's using the tech, certain situations that you teach people. Right, was he able to get the choke. He was pretty close a couple of times. Right, just the lack of knowledge. Right, he's still green, new to Jiu-Jitsu. He's jumped in, he's doing what he's coming to the practices and he's training, but like if he had a little bit more, like he may have gotten me last night, but in my mind I'm like, fuck he's doing this. He's fucking putting pressure on my nose. It fucking sucked, but I'm not. God damn it.
Speaker 2:That's good that you fucking listened to me, but you're not going to break me from that right, right, right, no, I agree with that, and that's the other thing is like being around a community of people who are like being competitors, right, like that's. The other thing that I think that has helped me as well as a coach is I don't just watch people who are tough in wrestling, I want to know the toughest marathon runners. I'm not talking like a marathon, just run a marathon. I'm talking like Mo.
Speaker 1:Aches Mo At 240 or Blackwater. I want to know who's running David Goggins shit, right, right.
Speaker 2:Like I want to know who's the best at everything what they do. So that's the other reason I listen to a lot of podcasts and I start following a lot of people I think that are the best in their industries, and so that's why it's opened my horizon. For about the past month I've been shooting a bow and I've been shooting a compound bow. For at least once a week been shooting a bow, I want to kill an elk with a bow. It's my goal. I don't care what anybody says and I don't just want to sit in a tree stand like I'm going in a mountain, like I'm hiking back here. I don't care if I go go 25 miles deep, I'm coming for the baddest bull that's in there, like this is bucks bull. Like it's coming me, you, whoever, like I'm going to figure it out. And so I've been studying a lot and that's like the also thing with my diet as well that I've been doing on 75 heart.
Speaker 2:It's been an animal based, carnivore diet type thing and I studied it for three years, like I found people who had a lot of success with it, what they did, what didn't work like what should you try, like what's going to work best for you? It's not like I just jump into things. I always. I always people are like oh, you got to jump in and feed first and things like that, and I think that there's a lot of value that. But there's also more value if you take time to prepare and study, and I think that you I'm not saying that there's people who don't jump right in and have a lot of success but when you're prepared and you've done your Dishortation of everything and you've done your homework, you're gone to be even more successful than you would have you to just jumped right in head first, or jumped in feet first, because you don't know.
Speaker 1:Yeah, there's perspective, yeah.
Speaker 2:You don't know at the bottom, like you, you know you see a lot of people, how they failed, or you know you read reviews how they failed or what was successful for them, and then you start filling your body and things like that. So you take that in perspective as well. And that's another thing is like you can tell a lot. I know that people say like, oh, you can tell a lot about how successful a person is. You know by what they spend and things like that. I look at how healthy is a person, like physically? You know confidence can lie in the face, right, yeah for sure. But the real truth comes out in body language, like a confident person doesn't look overweight, doesn't slouch, doesn't do all these things. Like I think a confident person really takes care of themselves. And that was another thing, reason why I wanted to get healthier too is.
Speaker 2:I'm going out in front of these people. I've been your mindset coach for five years, right, and you know I get on the computer and things and you're in this guy talk about like all this stuff and meanwhile he's not living it right. And so that's where the perspective comes in. Like I'm posting on social media, like I'm doing all this stuff, but I'm not living it off it, and so that like bothered, that would bother me. So I want to be authentic. I've always been one authentic and truthful with it. So when you ask me like oh, it looks like I'm confident and what I'm doing on the computer, right, but on the backside, probably about an hour before I start, I'm looking in the mirror talking to myself to get ready.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Because I'm prepared. You're pumping yourself up Right, I'm affirming myself that I am prepared to do this. Whatever question comes into mind, I'm going to have the answer for it.
Speaker 1:Right, it's. It's funny because the whole will jump back to wrestling, right, the whole. So when we started the wrestling mindset right, and honestly I don't remember who the first coach we had with wrestling mindset was I just didn't feel like there was a rapport with my high school kids and that guy, right. And then the whole that season ended and, like I had, I was like 50, 50 on the wrestling mindset, right, like, did it benefit us? Yes, did the kids have rapport with that guy? No, right.
Speaker 1:So I seen you post about wrestling camp, right, and I was like well, he's a wrestling mindset coach. He works for a same company, right, he does camps, let's see if we can get them out. Right. So I send you an email, you respond with hey, can we have a phone call? Right, and I'm like okay, like, yeah, so I send you my number, you call me and you're like you basically interviewed me, right, like, hey, this coach walkins. Yeah, like, we need, I need to ask you a few questions. I need.
Speaker 1:So this was your approach to me, right? I remember this. You said I need to know if your philosophy is the same about wrestling as mine. I'm gonna ask you a few questions and you asked me the questions and I don't remember what the answers were, but you're like, at the end you're like we're good, let's set it up, right. So I mean, back then you still in my eyes you had a perspective of what you wanted, who you wanted to work with, and if they didn't live up to what you were about, why were you going to work with them? Right, I know you said you don't want to shortchange a kid opportunity, but at the same token, you lived by what your standards, your boundaries were right. You set something up and you lived by them. You called me, we had that conversation and then after it's crazy, because I was like, I called my assistant coach at the time, he's our girls coach now he's our head girls coach. Now I called Esteban and we go call him Beanie, right, I called him like dude, like he interviewed me, like he wanted to know if our philosophies were the same as his, and he's like, so what happened? I'm like, well, he's coming, we're gonna fucking figure it out, right, but like, in the big picture, like we just want to provide an opportunity for kids to get better, right, we want to be good at what we're doing.
Speaker 1:I'm a firm believer that basics win right. We don't have to be fancy Big schools. Teams that win win with a lot of basic wrestling right. They're just good at it right. So I look at it that way. I'm like we need to be good, really good, at our basics and then you know there's gonna be.
Speaker 1:You have 14 weights. Not every kid's gonna wrestle the same way. You're gonna get. Look at room. I'm tall, lanky, right. I have a tall, lanky kid on our team. He's a leg writer right. Room's not a leg writer, right.
Speaker 1:Everybody's different and you just got to learn how to produce the best wrestlers that you can with how they wrestle.
Speaker 1:It's not about me, it's not about you. You show a bunch of technique, great technique. I show technique. I have other coaches that show technique, all the technique in the world. We could put it all on the table and kids are gonna pick and choose what works best for them. Right, we're putting the puzzle out there and the pieces that work best for them are the ones that make their puzzle whole. Right, and they're the ones that have to perform. They're gonna take those pieces, no matter what level they're at. Right, they're gonna pull what you teach, what I teach, what the other coaches teach Every kid's different, so they're gonna pull what works best for them and they're gonna be successful at what works best for them. You may have to fine tune some of that stuff, right, but when they work on it they're getting better, they're getting good. I mean You're a good example of like rune and fame. I mean they're Between the two of them, their brothers for Frazier right the two and two of them, the five state titles right and so going off of that.
Speaker 2:So there's other kids that are coming up through the program now. Like last year, we had three State qualifiers. Talk about growth. Three state qualifiers this year Jonah, early Ryan slashing, obviously. Rune Ryan was one match away from Placent. Jonah ended up, you know, not performing well but he made it there for first year as a freshman. That was huge. And Ryan didn't even make it out of regional last year and now he's one round away from Placent with two other guys, a Match away from going to state tournament. So my goal this year going in the team is Getting five state qualifiers and five state placers. I'd love all five state champs. No doubt about it, that would be, huge, and but here's the.
Speaker 2:Here's the other thing you got put in perspective. Just like I said earlier today, it doesn't matter if you're going for a Fargo title, become a state champ or just make the starting lineup. Your work ethic has to remain the same yeah. That's something you can't compromise. You can't compromise work ethic. You can compromise how you do it and how you go about it. Mm-hmm but the work still got to be hard, though the effort still got to be there. You can't hide effort.
Speaker 2:Right and you can't hide a person's attitude. You can't hide a person's body language. You can't hide that, I can hide what. I'm gonna say to you but I can't hide.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know. Speaking on that, it was nice to hear Isaiah and Elijah talk today. Right, right, both California state champs this past season. They took third last year. Both of them they're going into their junior year, but to Like, I try to pull out of them Stuff for the kids at camp to hear what their journey is. Right, like, yeah, they started in Los Vanos when they were four or five years old and their journey has taken them to multiple clubs, like you said, to get better, and their journey took them to to Gilroy. Right, gilroy is like 45 minutes away. That's where their journey took them. I'm so proud to have them come back to laws, to Los Vanos and help Help be clinicians at our camp. Right, like it, it's. They sat down and Like, it was nice to hear the little kids ask them questions like For the little kids, right, how many tournaments have you gone to?
Speaker 1:yeah man, those kids been to hundreds of tournaments, right. Those kids been to Russia, right.
Speaker 2:Like the opportunity that they were afforded because of what they're doing and their dedication is Is crazy good, you know so let's go back to what they talk about and let's go back to about me being your mindset coach and I would come together here and we've been together. What five, six years, right? Six years yeah six year and you finally end up winning league title.
Speaker 1:So I did it, we did it win the league, right oh yeah, so we took second at league.
Speaker 1:But because the top two teams, oh yeah, in our league go to sections, right. So we, we took second at league. We lost in the last match, right, it was a nail biter back and forth. It was at their gym, so you know it wasn't about their team, like there was no drama about it, right. But it came that like Hometown the, the atmosphere Don't get me wrong we had fans that were Roaring for us just as much as they were roaring for them, right, it was a nail biter.
Speaker 1:Yeah but it came down to the last match we lost right, right, so we take second. But we qualify as the second-place team in our league for to go to section duels, right, and we we talked about this right, we go to section duels and there there's teams there, right, I think it's like a six man or eight man.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no second seed right.
Speaker 1:So I, we walk into the seating meeting right, and these guys are just like, well, this team this, this team that and the yada, yada, yada. I'm like, well, put Los Santos out there, because we should be the one seed right. And they're like, nah, I'm like no, who'd you guys wrestle? Who this, what, what that? And I'm like I said so. So what are your arguments for you guys to be the one seed?
Speaker 1:So a team up from up in the mountains, calvars, they won last year, right. So they're like, well, we won last year. I'm like, well, shit, you're the returning section champions. Okay, I all concede our team to that right, like I didn't want to, but you, we didn't win it last year. So shit, okay. So you're the the one, right. And you know this coach is well, we should be the two, we should have been the one, but we should be the two. I'm like two or three, I don't really give a shit, right, you can take the two, we're good, we're good, we'll take the three. We ended up being the three seed, right, I knew we're gonna see them in the semi-s, right.
Speaker 2:We win that, like we win that.
Speaker 1:Like we blew out the first team. We it's. It's crazy because like there's like animosity, right, like my team should be this, my team should be that. Well, we'll wrestle, I don't care you end up.
Speaker 2:We wrestle them right, we beat them right.
Speaker 1:It wasn't very close, right Right, and then the number one team got upset. And then the number one team got upset okay and then so we wrestle for the title and the we. We had it Sealed up after the second to last okay, didn't matter, so let me ask you this.
Speaker 2:So that's the first time that you in school history that you'd won that right.
Speaker 1:Not in school history, but first time in since 2015.
Speaker 2:Okay, so first time since 2015. So what I'm getting at is is like people are like they want instant gratification, right. Sometimes, when you buy something, you're like, oh, I wanted this to happen quickly, but that's not the way Building a culture right and the mindset you want to implement into your culture, and you don't get that instantly right. You, it takes.
Speaker 1:No, it takes you to Work right, it takes work time, effort, all these things and so like.
Speaker 2:Same with jujitsu it takes years, takes time get a black belt right all these things takes, it's you know there's no instant gratification, so Everybody's gotten better. You know we've been here six years. Everybody's gotten better in every aspect of their life one way or another. Out of this, absolutely yeah, and so, like you, finally developed a podcast. Mm-hmm.
Speaker 2:I, you know, I keep traveling country, I keep growing. Coming dad, you become a grandpa. There's been a lot of things. We've gone through the process and I always tell people this like you kind of forge yourself through the fire and you get rid of the nicks and the imperfections once you put it in the fire and you know you go back where you were when we first started and I look back where I was when I first started. It's been a process of coming through here and things and you know Now you've gotten the opportunity to have me on your podcast and things and you know I'm grateful for that because it's gonna help me Get, you know, some More publicity. You know organic publicity grow grow because I'm not.
Speaker 2:I'm not sitting here. You're not nobody's Throwing out big money to get all this out of here. Like you know, we're just a word here to have a good conversation, so I'm grateful for that. You know. I'm grateful for that opportunity. You know we had that this evening and you know we're just gonna keep going and I look forward to the future.
Speaker 1:No, yeah, absolutely so it. Let's wind down with Any advice from you to the, the people that are just starting out with wrestling. I mean you're more of the the wrestling side of the grappling right and, but you do do jujitsu, so I mean you could Lean one way or the other. I mean you're gonna lean more to wrestling, but you have any advice for anybody that's just starting out?
Speaker 2:I I think so the no, let's think about this. In any combat sport, any combat sport you do, you got to. You got to Learn about it first. I would study it, I would read something and be like this is what they do this, what they do this, what they do in this. Okay, this might be a little bit more to me because of my personality, right? Right. So I would suggest Watching a YouTube video now with technology See yeah, see what it's about.
Speaker 2:So you have that opportunity to study a little bit. Then you're not going into someplace that's Like a blink-paste paper. You have things written down like oh you know this, this, this, you know this, what it requires, or anything like that. But it doesn't matter what combat sport you do, it's always going to require work. Yeah, okay, and. But I would find out you know what, what you're looking to get out of it. Like, if you're looking to get a college scholarship, you know I'd like my school paid for. Obviously wrestling is a way to go right. You know, if you're looking just to have some fun and be competitive and learning art that could be used as self-defense, you know you could. You got jujitsu. You got Muay Thai, you got. You know karate, you got. You know all kinds of different martial arts, right right.
Speaker 2:Do you want something that's school-based, do you want something that's you know you pay to go to a gym, those types of things. And you got to figure out. You know, like I said I think they they always use this term anybody can wrestle, right, anybody can, but it's not for everybody. Just like jujitsu, right, right, there's a lot of you know. That's why, that's why I like Gee and no Gee. You know, like, if it was just an engage, you just see, might not be for me, I might be like man, I won't do this, no more. But because there's no Gee, it it opens up another avenue. So that's the other thing where you know, in wrestling, you know we have singlets and things, but they've opened up another avenues and yeah, yeah and stuff like that.
Speaker 2:So that's been helpful. So if I'm a person that's getting out there just starting his first time as an adult or as a young teenage kid, I would study, I would read about it online and figure out what I want to do. Talk to people have been in it and Say what, what is it done for you? But if I'm a parent and I've never done it before and my kid comes home and says I want to wrestle, mm-hmm, the first thing that I would want is I would want to go and meet the head coach of that program and say look, I've never wrestled before. I Obviously don't know what to say, don't know what to do. How can I help my son and see what their answer is. There's gonna be a lot of different philosophies and things, and I think that's the nice thing too about technology. You know there's a lot of books to read out there. There's a lot of stuff on YouTube. I hope you become a better, successful sports parent overall, especially.
Speaker 1:I mean there's so much stuff on social media yeah, I mean not just YouTube, but I don't know how much on Twitter, like I'm more like on Instagram. Yeah, there's so much out there like Little reels that show technique. I mean you like for me for Jiu-Jitsu, like we have class, but I'm Constantly looking and it's as simple as Typing in wrestling in the search window. Right, you're gonna get a fee, like the feed is just gonna be a Abundant you could scroll through that. I mean, like I'm a big fault, like I Really pay attention to ironclad, I pay attention to compound. You know those are two clubs over, not anywhere close to California, but the, the technique that they're providing on social media is Legit.
Speaker 1:Okay, right, like I, I value I Don't say that lightly like I look at a lot of content, right, if I was gonna lead my kids to anywhere on social media, right, that's providing technique, like on a regular basis, those two firms, without a doubt, or putting out great content. You know, like, even like Keri Kola has all those tutorials on YouTube. That's great, great to right, there's a there's. If you want to Spend a little bit of time on social media, youtube, instagram doesn't matter, right, compound, ironclad, keri Kola great People that have great technique out there all on YouTube. I don't know about Keri Kola stuff on Instagram, but ironclad and compound on Instagram, right, that's a good stepping stone to like. This is what you like. Here's some stuff that is out there that you could look at and and shit that I'm sure they have hours of. You could scroll for hours and see technique.
Speaker 2:I agree, I agree. Yeah, no you know, no, that'd be my advice to parents. I'd be my vice of young kids and things like that. And you know, not, ever. Not everybody has a competitive spirit. Right, like you have to be a competitor. Like, if you want to do a combat sport, you got to be a, you got to be a competitor. You have to be competitive one way or another. Because if you don't have that competitiveness and you combat sports aren't going to be for you right, that's okay, but they're not for everybody right.
Speaker 2:You should you should. But at the end of the day, whether you know if you're not a competitive person, you should still do some type of exercise. You should walk, you should run, you should lift some type of weight. Do something, yeah, just get yourself better. But no, hey, that's all I advise that have for anybody. You know, being on my this I think it's like my six or seven podcasts through the years, you know, getting the opportunity to be here on you know you're starting your own show of old appler, obviously, last year was on Jesse's, you know.
Speaker 2:I'm still waiting for that video to be so.
Speaker 1:He's working on it. Yeah it's still work in progress, yeah, work.
Speaker 2:On it. You've been done in three days. Yeah, it's a year later, still waiting on it, but now. So like I'm excited for the future, you know, for both of us, both our programs, you know, you grow in your content, podcast your jiu-jitsu journey. I'm gonna keep growing wrestling and everything like that. So, no man, hey, I appreciate it. It's been a good time and I'll catch you next time. Have a good day.
Speaker 2:If anybody wants to get a hold of you oh yeah, if you want to get a hold of me, you can find me on Instagram. It's buck underscore Watkins. I have a Facebook wrestling page. It's Watkins wrestling. I'm actually looking to do, you know, two or three fall clinics Through September, october, 1st week of November. You can reach out to me. My emails, watkins train to gmailcom. You can get a hold of me on Facebook, instagram, and you know I look forward to it and, like I said, it's been a great time being here with the old grappler.
Speaker 1:Cool Peace. Thank you All, right man.