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b'Ruben Rivera (@RubenRivera10p on IG) is a 1st Degree Black Belt in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu under Eddie Bravo, he is the former head coach of both 10th Planet Santa Fe and 10th Planet Costa Mesa, and is currently the owner of 10th Planet Dallas. I had an awesome time chatting with Ruben about his perspective on growing up in Santa Fe, how he found jiu jitsu, overcoming adversity and continually working to become a better version of himself. It\\u2019s always an honor to speak with someone who has a longstanding commitment to the mastery of a particular pursuit, in this case jiu jitsu, because I find these types of people tend to drop pearls of wisdom wherever they go, and if I\\u2019m paying careful attention, I can be fortunate enough to pluck a few of those pearls up and work to integrate them into my own practice. I hope you enjoy this conversation as much as I did.

Ruben has a Jiu Jitsu fight this Friday August 21st at Fight 2 Win Dallas, which you can stream live on FloGrappling.com

Some Topics Discussed:

• Santa Fe, the good, the beautiful and the challenging
• Ruben\\u2019s journey to combat sports, martial arts and jiu jitsu
• DIY Boxing on the basketball courts
• Learning how technique often beats size and strength
• First being introduced to brazilian jiu jitsu via the documentary Choke featuring Rickson Gracie
• Learning his first two BJJ techniques informally from a friend: arm bar from bottom guard and scissor sweep
• Intuitively using that arm bar on his bigger cousin during an impromptu wrestling match
• Still not formally training BJJ, but arm barring fools whenever he got the chance
• Joining a band, getting carried away with partying and drinking, and getting called out for having a beer belly as a teenager
• Wanting to get in shape and having the light bulb go off to learn to fight and get into shape at the same time
• Finding Undisputed Fitness, and his first real martial arts mentor, Tait Fletcher
• Hitting that arm bar in his first formal BJJ class
• Having things finally start coming together as he started seriously training in martial arts
• Training and competing and how it naturally began raising the bar for his health and wellness, which created positive feedback loops that helped him feel better, raise his self-esteem and get out of debilitating pain he had lived with for years
• Developing personal authority when so called authority figures give poor advice
• Creating meaning and purpose, and specifically through a practice rooted in adversity
• Jiu jitsu and practicality over theory