As I was a young boy about 13 yrs old, I would travel from Steubenville, Ohio to Akron, Ohio to train with my uncle in judo and Japanese Jiu-Jitsu. Soon after my dad enrolled me in a kung fu school to teach me self-defense, everything I had learned seemed very valuable but at this young age I did not understand the value and quality of the training I had received. I continued training in the Martial Arts even after I received my black belt. By this time I had been competing in tournaments and winning, but all this changed once I received my black belt. This is mainly because as a red or brown belt I was competing against other red or brown belts who had similar training and experience, but in the black belt division there were competitors with black belts for 5, 10, and even 20 years competing against me. So no longer could I rely on my speed or my power to win but I need to have superior technique. This is where it all begins, I began to travel around the country training with and against some of the top competitors to refine and perfect my technique. I knew I had a strong foundation in the martial arts but, I needed to know what worked, how it worked, and why it worked. On this journey, I learned the essentials to success in competing in tournaments, and learned to refine my technique as well as my student’s techniques. Then in the early 90s one of my students began to tell me about something they had watched on TV called the UFC and that there was some guy named Royce Gracie beating everyone and anyone. At this time, I didn’t give it much attention, nor did I recognize that some of the techniques were similar to what my uncle had taught me as a young child.