Todd White on Finding Jiu Jitsu in 1993

I was working at Warner Brothers Tiny Tune Adventures and I was a PA, production assistant at that time. It was the first job I ever had in LA and that guy says, hey, we're going to have a party tonight. We're going to watch these fights. They're like cock fights. Come on over and let's watch them. And I went over to his house and I was literally hypnotized watching Hoys Gracie do what he did. I couldn't believe it. Everybody else was talking. So it was just like 93? Yeah. The first day of UFC? The very first, the first UFC. It was the first one. Wow. So you watched the first one live. Yeah. I saw it at a party that I was not supposed to be at and nobody else was paying attention to this. It was just on. It was like two other guys watching it and I'm watching this going, I got to do that. It was speaking to me in a way I've never, you know, like art speaks to me and I was watching it. And the next day I find Torrance Gracie Academy because they kept saying Torrance Gracie and I knew where Torrance was. So I was living in Studio City in the Valley. I drove, I had a Honda Prelude. I drove all the way on the 405, the worst for you in the world. And it took me about three hours to get down there on a Saturday morning. And I walked into that place and it was, they were done, but I could smell all that sweat and humidity and nastiness. And I was like, Oh God, this is great. I walked in and they were very nice to me, but there was like these dudes and they looked so intimidating and they were just ripped up and clawed up and dripping wet. This isn't the pretty days where everybody has rash guards and designer geese. This is like Kruegens geese. They were yellowed and nasty smelling and, and no, there was no, there was chest hair in your mouth. I remember Kruegens. And, and they came walking out and I was just like, I felt, man, I felt like a little bitch. I was just looking at him going, like, I want to be you. And he goes, Oh, where are you from? You know? And I go, Oh, the Valley in the Valley. This is a Sufar, my friend. And he goes, my cousin's John Chuck is in the Valley. The Machado's go there. And I was kind of like struck in awe by everything. Right? So I thought, okay, I'll go to the Valley, you know? And there was no internet. Understand there's no internet. You can't just Google. So I got the Thomas guide out and I started looking around and I would ask people and, and so nobody knew the answer to this because remember, as you know, in the early days Brazilian Jiu Jitsu was like, Oh, you do that karate stuff. Yeah. So I got on my mountain bike. I was a heavy mountain biker then. And I got on my bike and I was in Studio City and I decided to ride Ventura Boulevard. And I'm going to look at every shop on Ventura Boulevard. And I was driving, I got all the way down to Encino and, and just, and I see this Jiu Jitsu, right? And I go, Oh, that's it. I walk in and this little kind of chubby round guy comes walking up and is tucked into his gi and he goes, I can help you. And I go, I'm looking to do, I'm looking to do that ground fighting stuff. And he goes, yeah, we do that here. And I go, okay, sign up. And so I signed up and I'm there a week and I'm there every day. And not once are we on the ground. We're doing this stand up small circle stuff and like, and I'm looking at my classmates and they're all like horribly out of shape and like they can barely move. And I'm thinking, God, this isn't what I saw. What was the place? It was like Mooshin Roo Jiu Jitsu, right? But I was so out of my head trying to find it. And so I'm there a week and he's like, Hey, congratulations, you get a belt. And I'm like, I hardly know anything. And so he gives me this belt and I'm working out with this one guy and he says, Hey, I think what you want is the Machado's. And I was like, where am I? He goes, this isn't it, dude. I'm like in the wrong movie. And so I go, okay. He goes, that's down the road, dude, like four stores, four shops, four shops short, right? And literally at class, I'm like, hurry it up. And I'm like, I gotta go. And I walk down there and I see them. And it was, this is on Ventura Boulevard. He wasn't at his place in in Tarzan yet. He was getting ready to move that week. And I walk in and it was a place as big as this studio. I'm not kidding. And he goes, you know, John Jax spoke very poorly English back then. And he was like, Oh, hello. And I'm like, uh, sign, I sign up now. You know? So I signed up and I started going to him, but I had made like two friends say I went to LA. I didn't have any friends. I was there to work and become my goal. And so, uh, I was still talking to these guys and still going to the other place. And the time worked out where he was early and I would leave and go next door to John Jock, right? So I was there about another week and we're just doing drills at John Jock. We're doing armbar drills over and over again from our back, from open guard drills. And I would go home and I would draw it in my book. I had a sketchbook of everything. So everything we learned, I would draw it and I would, you know, I was an animator for a long time. I could animate the movements and I could see in rolling where we would end up. So if we start here and I did this, this, and this, I knew we would end up over here in this position. In my mind, it was easy because I had animated. So I would see rolling like cartoons and they would just kind of roll into it. And so it came very, I wasn't a wrestler, but it came pretty natural to me to the movements. Right. So a week later, the guy at the Mushin-Ru Jujitsu place was telling me, oh, you got to do this because, and I go, but if you did that, you would get stuck in an armbar because he's having me like choke, like reach up. And he goes, no, you can't get an armbar from there. And I go, I think, I think you can. He's like, you're not going to do it. And so I go, we'll watch. And he got in my guard and he like, he did his little chest slap thing, you know, this little like, and he like stuck his arm out. Where's the little chest shot? Yeah. You know how they like get ready to fight and they're like, you know, they do their poses. And he did that in my guard and it was weird and everybody's watching. Right. And they're standing there watching the instructor tell me I didn't know what I was doing. And he did that and he stuck his arm out and I grabbed his arm and I pulled it in and I threw my legs over his face and I armbar'd him. And he got real pissed off. And he goes, he got up and he was really perturbed. And he goes, that wouldn't work in real time. That only worked because I was letting you get there. And I was scared. And I go, I think it would work, man. I think it would work. And remember, I had two friends now, right? My two guy friends, right? And they were going and I hear one of them go, oh no, it worked. And I'm looking around him and he's getting kind of pissed. I mean, he's a short guy, but he was really stock. And he goes, he goes, look, I'm tired of hearing about this Brazilian. So I tell you what, you use your jujitsu, which by the way, I had had like two weeks of training. Now granted, I was there every day with John Jack, like doing drills. So you know, if you got one movement that you do a hundred times, you're going to have an inkling of how to do it. What year is this? Bro. So you're talking about 94 right after the first year of C, maybe like 93 months after the first year of C. Also the 93. Yeah, 93. And so ahead of the curve. So I'm sitting there and I go, okay, uh, I think, uh, I think it'll work dude. Now I don't know anything about standing, right? So he gets up and he goes, okay, I'm going to attack you and you attack me. And I'm like, I don't know how to attack you. So he goes, he goes, he goes, he goes ready. And like all of a sudden I'm in a video game. I'm standing there. So what do I do? I copy what I saw hoist Gracie do. I stick my arms up like the karate kid and I stick my foot in front and he fucking starts like like coming at me with his elbows and swinging and he looks like a little machine. And I just took my foot and kicked him in the front leg. His leg goes down. He lands on me. We fall under the guard. He starts hitting me with his elbow on the top of the head, right? Like I grabbed him, I clenched him, I squeezed him really tight, mostly so I didn't get punched in the face because I was afraid. And I took my head in his chest and he's hitting me on the top of the head. And I'm like, and that heat comes up your back from your butt, hold to your neck and you go, you motherfucker. You're hitting me now? And I go, okay, all right, all right. Now we're in a new league. Now you're not my friend. Now you're fighting me. And I literally just kind of monkey shimmied up his high guard and I just threw him in an armbar and I cranked as hard as I could on that arm and he screams, okay. And I get up, right? And I'm like, you got that blood rush. I'm like, hair messed up. You motherfucker. You motherfucker. Okay. And I grab my bag, I grab my bag, my little fucking goofy bag, I grab it and I walk out, right? I'm like, I don't know what to do. I'm like flustered. I walk out and the two dudes come running out after me. They're like, bro, bro, I'm coming with you. Where you going? Where's that school at? And they came and they fucking trained all the way to purple belt, both those guys. Who were the guys? It was Jim LaHahn, the wood carpenter guy and a guy named Seth. I don't even remember his last name. They both trained all the way through purple before they kind of faded away. And you fade away when you're at purple. That's such a shame. You're so close as an instructor. Now it crushes me when I give a blue belt to someone and then I see them fade. And I'm thinking, God, dude, you got past the hardest part of color. Yeah. The greatest belt you can get is blue. Yeah. I say that to this day and I'm fourth black blue because you're a color. You're not the white anymore. You're in the club. You're in. Dude, the day John Jock gave me a blue belt was like one of the greatest days of my life. The day John Jock gave me my purple belt, I was like, oh my God, I'm close. I'm so close to brown. Purple is a danger. Purple belts, tap people. So I remember seeing a lot of purple belts that could tap brown belts. Oh yeah. Purple belts that were dangerous. They had like one really good move. Oh yeah. Catch new episodes of the Joe Rogan Experience for free only on Spotify. Watch back catalog JRE videos on Spotify, including clips. Easily, seamlessly switch between video and audio experience. 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