Episode 652 - Professor Seth Shamp

Professor Seth Shamp is a martial arts practitioner and instructor at the Gracie Jiujitsu Vermont.

One of the things as a martial artist, especially when you’re dedicated to it, is that you worry about how you could be able to recreate something. You know, what I have here, I love so much and how am I going to be able to recreate this somewhere else…

Professor Seth Shamp - Episode 652

Professor Seth Shamp has been training JiuJitsu for over 20 years. He received his blue belt from Kyle Saunders, and his purple, brown and black belts, from the legendary Royce Gracie. Professor Shamp was deemed a black belt only after undergoing a rigorous testing process overseen by 40 different black belts, a Red Belt, and Royce Gracie himself. Professor Shamp is also a registered professor with the International Brazilian Jiujitsu Federation, and SafeSport training certified.

In this episode, Professor Seth Shamp talks about his journey to the Martial Arts, Jiujitsu and helping people the best that he can.

Show Notes

To know more about Professor Seth Shamp’s school, check out their website at GracieVermont.com

Show Transcript

You can read the transcript below.

Jeremy Lesniak:

What's going on everybody? Welcome. This is whistlekick Martial Arts Radio Episode 652 with my guest today, Professor Seth Shamp. My name is Jeremy Lesniak, I'm your host for the show. I'm the founder of whistlekick. I'm a passionate martial artist. And that's why I started this organization. You want to see all the things we've got going on, go to whistlekick.com. Check out everything that we're involved in. Because it's a pretty long list. One of the things that we've got going on is our store. And if you make a purchase in the store, make sure you use the code: PODCAST15. It gets you 15% off, and it lets us know that people who appreciate the show are making purchases. If you want to go deeper on this or any other episode of the show, go to whistlekickmartialartsradio.com. You're going find two episodes each and every week under the heading of connecting educated and entertaining their traditional martial artists of the world. Over on that website, in addition to listening to or watching the episodes, you'll also find transcripts and show notes with links and social media and photos video. There's an episode you remember listening to years ago, and you're like, oh, what was it? Who was that? Which I actually get emails like this, go to whistlekickmartialartsradio.com, there's a search button, you can search. You'll find it. If you still can't find it, let me know. But you'll probably find it right there.

If the work that we're doing for the traditional martial arts community is a value to you please consider supporting us whether through a purchase at whistlekick.com or sharing episodes with friends leaving reviews, or connecting with the Patreon. Patreon.com/whistlekick, we give you exclusive behind the scenes content you're not going to find anywhere else, the more you're willing to contribute, the more we're going to give you back, people stick around, we're doing something right with that. Today's guest had the interesting path of identifying a martial arts hero, before they had ever started formal training. And then, in one of the most wonderful, I won't call it a coincidence. Occurrences of fate that you could imagine became, well, you know what? I'm giving it away. I'm going to stop. And let's just say that sometimes things happen for a reason. And those reasons are awesome. Hey, Seth, welcome to whistlekick Martial Arts Radio.

Seth Shamp:

Thank you for having me.

Jeremy Lesniak:

Of course, of course, you know, always happy to connect with a fellow martial artist. Especially a Vermont martial artist. Yes. He is born and raised in Vermont, and newly returned. How long were you away?

Seth Shamp:

I've been gone for let's see, I left Vermont in 1999. And I've lived a lot of different places in between now and then. But I just moved back last November. So, I've been back almost a year now.

Jeremy Lesniak:

Okay, you were gone for a minute there.

Seth Shamp:

Yeah, it was.

Jeremy Lesniak:

Did you miss it?

Seth Shamp:

I did. I was fortunate enough that I had family here. And I had family here for the last for the entire time that I was gone. And then in particular, I had a close family here in the last seven or eight years. So, I've been back and forth quite a bit. I've not been out and gone for any long period of time, I've always considered for my own even though I've been gone for a long time, I've always come back.

Jeremy Lesniak:

Nice. Nice. And as anybody knows, if you're a martial artist and you travel, you move away, you have to get good at kind of hitting the reset button. You know, there's a really, it seems like when I talk to people, they move, the job piece is fairly straightforward. In fact, a lot most of the time, it seems that people might have the job before they've been the martial arts piece, I think for a lot of martial artists is even more important and not something that they line up ahead of time. So, you know, we'll get into that I'm sure even if we try not to. We'll get into that. So, let's just rewind the tape to the beginning. And let me ask you the most fundamental questions. How'd you get started?

Seth Shamp:

Yeah, so, I think you're spot on. I think when you move from someplace, you know, just to touch on that real quick when you move from one place to another. One of the things when you're a martial artist, especially when you're dedicated into it is you worry about man, am I going to be able to recreate this in what I have here I love so much and how am I ever going to be able to recreate this somewhere else. And I'd love to tell you about that story about getting into it. But my martial arts journey I feel like if I were to trace it back, it has to go back to being a kid. I was a huge fan of all martial arts as a kid I watched The Karate Kid. I watched the last dragon. I was into ninjas. I mean every Halloween was something to do with a ninja or a karate or something rather. That's what I wanted to do. I wanted to do that.

You know, martial arts as a kid, it wasn't in the cards, I don't think we could really afford it at the time growing up, but it was something I wanted to try to get into. But never really had a chance as a kid to get into it. But I was always watching and always practicing around my house around my yard in my own head. As I got older, I remember it was probably the mid 90s. And I saw these tapes, these like bootleg VHS tapes of the UFC. And I was like, wow, this is insane. This is crazy. These guys are going into this cage. I literally thought it was the craziest thing was like, on that level of like the faces of desktop, which I never watched. But it was like those, those crazy videos that you could find underground.

Jeremy Lesniak:

I think we're roughly similar age. And I remember kids talking about those in the same way. Yeah, they were these secretive, like we shouldn't be watching it. And you know, you're getting away with something, then kids weren't supposed to do.

Seth Shamp:

No one, I was watching it with my friends in their basements or wherever it might be. And we were just sort of getting together. And then I was sort of playing around. I was like recreating whatever I could see watching these guys do it. And I remember being immediately obviously like most of us were sort of drawn to this skinny Brazilian kid who was doing this magical stuff that nobody had ever seen. And from then and there I was just like that's the cool thing. You know, like Gracie Jiu Jitsu or Royce Gracie and trying to figure it out. And I remember thinking that, you know, that would be so cool to learn, but I could never do it. I was like, I could never get into a cage.

I could never go in there and do this kind of crazy combat fighting. I mean, you're just going to get killed. You know, these guys look scary. Tank Abbott, Ken Shamrock and super scary looking guys, but I was always mesmerized by it. And at one point, I think around 1996. You know, there was not a lot of jujitsu around that we couldn't really find it in many places around that time. But you could order the Gracie in action tapes. And so, me and a friend had gotten a hold of the Gracie in action tapes. And we were watching them in his basement. And we were recreating the moves and learning what Royces and Orias were showing and practicing arm bars and practicing triangle chokes and practicing the self-defense and, that's what I was, you know, kind of introduced to it as and that's all I did for a couple of years was just watch these tapes and practice with my friends. And it didn't take long for me to be able to beat up all my friends.

You know, we would have fun and we'd be at a party or we'd be hanging out and wrestling around or whatever. And I was always able to, you know, put the screws to whoever I was, I was doing it to and just having fun, but it was super informal. And I was very, very green and super rough. I probably cringe at what I looked like back then doing jiujitsu. But what I remember is there in the early 2000s. So, a few years later, I'm living in upstate New York. I had moved to Rochester, New York, actually. And I was living with my girlfriend at the time. And I had found that there was a school there was actually a guy teaching jujitsu. And I was like, oh, maybe I should go see what this is all about. And for real, you know, with a real instructor. I remember looking it up. And he was a brown belt at the time. And I was like, just a brown belt. And I had no idea how this thing worked. Right? All I knew was that if you're a black belt, you're the master. You're great. You know you are good. I didn't realize in jiujitsu that if you were a blue belt, you're probably going to spank me up and down.

But I thought I might know a couple things. And so, I went to that first class with him. And man, he worked me over he was not a big guy, maybe five foot 755 pounds maybe. And I'm a big guy. So, I am about 6’6, but 210 depending on where I'm at in weight classes and stuff. I'm a big guy, and he made me feel completely helpless. Just did whatever he wanted to start on the feet. Take me down, choke me, arm lock me. Just absolutely mop the floor with me. And from that day on, I was hooked. I said, “What was that? How did you do it?” And I want to learn more. And I had been training literally ever since that day closing in 20 years, just nonstop training, just addicted to figuring out how to get better. Now that was sort of where I got into the jujitsu. That's where it started was officially was in upstate New York with a brown belt in Rochester, New York. That's how I got started.

Jeremy Lesniak:

That's cool. How old were you when you when you went to that first class?

Seth Shamp:

When I went to my very first class, I think I was mid 20 or 24. Maybe it might have been 23 or 24 years old.

Jeremy Lesniak:

Because what I'm finding interesting is you forgot this at that point years of what you would probably discount as background now. But at that time, you probably had I mean, you talked about it a little bit, you had this expectation that you kind of knew what you were doing. And so, you're stepping in with these years of training, you know, whether or not it was effective and efficient, it was still there, still time on the clock. And you step into this class with this expectation that, you know, I know what's up? And if you didn't.

Seth Shamp:

Yeah, it's the...

Jeremy Lesniak:

But the ego of the mid 20s. Male typically, yeah, he's going to rear its head. And I think quite often say, well, you know, like, try to justify in some way, leave? Hmm. And you've probably witnessed that. Oh, yeah. On the other side now. So, what I'm most interested in right now is, why did that experience not result? In you stepping away? Why did it result in you being more involved, more committed to training.?Seth Shamp:

You have hit the nail on the head, I believe there's two ways to go. When that when you're presented with that scenario, which you're right, I've seen it on both sides. Many times. Someone steps in tough, young, maybe has a little training, maybe done a little something here and there. And they step into that first situation. And they, you know, get worked, they get completely humbled, they got two options at that point. One is to just pretend that didn't happen, go back into their bubble, live their life, assuming and pretending or believing that they are tough, and that they can handle whatever comes their way, or humble yourself and say, “What was that? How did that work?” What did you do show me that I want to get better at that. And I have seen that play out many, many times in both ways. And for one reason or another, which probably I could extrapolate on if I tried to, is that I was in the other camp, I was in the show me that I was real, that's what it was, it was that I was, you know, I had been be able to help my friends out, do these things. And, you know, in tough situations, had a couple fun, you know, no real fights or anything like that.

But competition type things were me and some guys were wrestling so you could win and even at some gyms and stuff, and some wrestlers, and I was fairly good at it. And I'd won a lot of, you know, just scraps. And in that situation, I was shown that I had so much to learn, I could feel things happening to me that I was full on 100%, trying to stop and not able to. And that was like one of the most real things I've ever felt like, you look for things sometimes in life that you can hold on to, whether that's a skill you've learned or a skill you admire someone else being able to do, and you see that thing, and you say that really just happened, you know, they really just played that song for me, and they hit those notes beautifully, or they painted that picture. And you know, it looks gorgeous, but they did it for real in front of me. And I was drawn to that ability. And I gravitated towards and so I was sort of innately humbled, and then inspired. And those two things together, put me on a course to allow whatever ego that I'm sure that mid 20 year old male had to put on the backburner and accept these, these losses and accept these humbling experiences, you know, whether you want to call it a bug weapon, or you want to call it getting smashed, or whatever you want to call it, it was many, many, many, many times over and over again, and there's just no room for, for a disposition of unbeatable, there's no room for, that's not going to happen to me. And I've seen it on the other side as an instructor, as a person in the class when I was just a student, but I was in higher ranking students.

You know, I spent many years in places where there were colleges nearby, and we would have many college football players, college wrestlers come through tough young males. And you know, you put them in the mat, and you'd put them with someone who was smaller, because that always made a better impression. And you just say, all right, you know, you're going to go roll that person tonight, you know, not in an aggressive or dangerous way, but just to like, you know, work with this person here. And you see that they would go a little hard and get a little bit, you know, intense and then that person would all of a sudden have them in a compromising position where they're tapping out and at the end of that class or the end of that session, they had to make that same choice. And I saw many people, you know, never come back. I saw many people, you know, say show me and that's sort of an individualized thing that I don't know if I could put my finger on the character. Traits of it. Um, but I've definitely seen both of them. And I was I was that person as well.

Jeremy Lesniak:

It's a pretty powerful combination to be both humbled and inspired. And it's not something that I think happens very often in very many places. Right? It happens in martial arts. And it happens, I think more frequently in grappling arts because it's a little bit easier to let someone try to test themselves without injury, right? You know, as more of a striking guy, if I've got a karate school and somebody walks in off the street, I'm not going to pair them up with someone who's two thirds their size, knowing that they're going to go hard, because you know, there's a little bit more risk for true injury rather than, you know, getting your butt whooped.

Seth Shamp:

True. It's 100% true. And that's, I've said that about, you know, we do a lot of striking in our jiujitsu, and I did kickboxing and Muay Thai and American kickboxing for many years and I even taught kickboxing for years. When you get somebody and you're sparring with someone and they go a little too hard, or they have a little bit of a, you know, an ego or whatever it is so much harder to calm down and control and show the effectiveness of your art than it would be if I'm grappling because I'm grappling, I can take your energy. I can sweep you I can get to the Mount. I can put the screws to you not hurting you just making you uncomfortable feeling the pressure and you're stuck. I can slowly ease and an armlock slowly ease and a choke. But if we're sparring and you, leg kick me as hard as you can, I can ask you to ease up. I can please. You know, take it easy a little bit here. Or I can you know basically it's either that or I kick you back you know and now that's usually an unproductive scenario and so, I think you're right on is that in grappling, it is easier to, to show that and give out dole out about whipping or dole out the experience of the effectiveness, not to say that it can't be done and striking because clearly it can't. It's just you are like you said, potentially going to injure someone or you know your side, kick them in the guts and now they're not the wind knocked out them laying on the ground, making weird noises and then embarrassed them or made them feel uncomfortable. And so, it is a much trickier thing for striking arts for sure. Alright, so...

Jeremy Lesniak:

You just mentioned offhand a number of the other things that you do. Or do perhaps, how did you go from mid 20s, your first portable class to all of those things? And there's a journey in there I want to hear about.

Seth Shamp:

Yeah, it's a great story that I love to tell and that is the school that I started at was a primarily sport jujitsu school. It was grappling, there was Gi and we did sport jiujitsu tournament style jiujitsu, I started competing within a few months of my first class. I was very successful on the tournament circuit, and was winning a lot of tournaments as a white belt and blue belt. And the reality was those in the back of my head, I knew that I wasn't a complete martial artist. I knew that I had good grappling. And I was, you know, strong in the grappling arts, but I definitely didn't have a striking component didn't have much of a wrestling or a takedown component could play really well off my back. My guard was really dangerous. A closed guard was hard to pass. My top pressure was really good. My passing was really good. But I knew I knew I didn't have the other components that I wanted. That thing I saw as a kid and so I kept thinking to myself, well, you know, I'll get my black done jujitsu. That would be amazing, right? And then maybe they'll take up like, another striking art, you know, I've seen like American kickboxing. I've always thought Kyo Kushin karate had a very strong, striking, powerful art. I always thought it was an art called Hawaiian Kempo that I'd heard of that I thought was cool. Muay Thai was cool. And I thought, if I was a black belt in a striking art, and I'm a black belt in jujitsu, I'd be the complete martial artist.

That was in my head. But it was still early in my journey. And then in mid 2000s, me and my wife at the time, got married, had a kid and moved to North Carolina. And so, while in upstate New York, that girlfriend that I was living with, we ended up getting married. I was working as a Guitar Center, and I was a musician and I was teaching guitar lessons. So, I played piano, I play guitar. I was working at Guitar Center. I played in a band play piano and guitar and you know, scratching a living with music. Well, my girlfriend and wife were going to school and she was going to medical school, she said Undergraduate was going to medical school. And when we decided to have our first kid, we decided what we were going to do, how we're going to handle this. Childcare is really expensive. And so, the path for pursuing a career seemed like hers was the one most smart to support. So, I decided to become a stay-at-home dad, something that I treasure to this day, the experiences that I had. I had my daughter and it was just me and her all the time. And at the time, I was able to also train Jiu Jitsu. So, I was going to take classes and I was able to keep doing my jujitsu. And then when we moved to North Carolina, I found a gym in Chapel Hill that had a daycare in the gym, which was crazy. It's like, you know, peak fitness or an ode to fitness or Planet Fitness kind of gym, and in the back, they taught jiujitsu and some other martial arts and they had a little daycare there, which was amazing, because I could go drop off my 18-month-old two-year-old daughter, go train five days a week during the day, and then, you know, hang out with my kid all day. It was just an amazing time where I was training full time and had my kid but when I moved to that school in Chapel Hill, coincidentally enough serendipitously It was a Royce Gracie affiliate. And here I am now training at the school that Royce Gracie is the head instructor of the school there's a purple belt teaching.

And I'm just like, that's crazy you know voices the reason I got into this is the guy that I used to see him those videotapes and you're telling me he comes here and does seminars and they're like yeah, he'll come usually once or twice a year and do a seminar here and I'm just that's amazing. I'm going to meet boys Gracie. I'm going to be doing jujitsu at school and meet Royce Gracie. And again, purple belt was teaching but at that point, I understood what a purple belt was. And so, I'm a blue belt. Purple belt was amazing. But the focus of that school was self-defense. Gracie jiujitsu. And for those of you who don't know, there's a distinction between BJJ and GJJ. Gracie Jiu Jitsu, there's a big distinction. And even if you Google it, you know it's actually got a pretty good answer on Google right now is that the main difference between Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and Gracie Jiu Jitsu is BJJ is a sport is a grappling sport with a competition and ruleset and all that stuff. And Gracie Jiu Jitsu is the martial art. It's the fight. It's what you saw. He's still you know, always wasn't fighting tournament rules when he fought Ken Shamrock or dance. Everybody was fighting for his life. Right? Gracie? Jiu Jitsu is a martial art that's rooted in all of aspects of a fight. And I learned that I learned that first thing. So, there's a lot of guys doing MMA school. My instructor was a Professional MMA fighter is purple belt. And, you know, we're learning about strikes and I'm, I remember going to my first class where the class started with a clench off of a strike. It was like, oh, we're not starting on our knees and playing guard. We're starting on our feet and we're punching each other in the face.

Okay, here we go. And it was a complete shift from the jujitsu that I had been doing. And I was ecstatic. I was so happy to be given this opportunity to be learning jiujitsu from the standpoint of a real fight. Like a real situation. I knew I knew now that I was getting back to what I wanted to be, which was a complete martial artist and a complete fighting system. And so, I started doing the striking classes there. He was a black belt in I don't want to get it wrong, but he was a he was a black belt in American kickboxing, a third-degree black belt in American kickboxing under show. I believe, and he was a Shotokan. I believe he should have come black belt may have been maybe something else but I believe he was a shorter black belt as well. His mom was a black belt in karate school in in North Carolina as well. And I was doing the MMA classes. I was doing the kickboxing classes, and I was doing the jiujitsu classes, and I was loving it. It was a complete shift in my jiujitsu. And it introduced me to the striking and self-defense aspects of jiujitsu. So that's how my journey shifted from just doing the sport of grappling into the world of Gracie Jiu Jitsu, Royce Gracie Jiu Jitsu, and pretty much from then that was in 2005 I have been directly under Royce Gracie, ever since then, you know, he came and met him. He gave me some stripes on my belt and then I got my purple belt from him. I got my brown belt and black belts all from him.

Jeremy Lesniak:

I want to know about that moment. You met him. That must've been see we, as martial artists, we don't have a whole lot of people that we can look at and go oh, that guy's my hero. That woman's my hero. We have a pretty small set to choose from. Right and much of the time those heroes That we find come long after our entrance to training. It's after you've been training three 510 years that you realize, “Oh, this person from this movie or this person had this competitive career”. I really like respect admire them, but yet your hero predates your formal training. Right? So, it was pretty interesting. He was the reason I even knew what jujitsu was, right?

Seth Shamp:

He was the whole reason that I had even scratched the surface of it or look forward or ordered those tapes and so I remember you know when I first learned that this is a great Royce Gracie school and that he's going to be coming I was just super over the moon you know telling my friends telling my family like yeah that guy we used to watch. This is his school and one of his purple belts is teaching here and so like he does when he comes in visits his affiliates he does a big seminar and you get a lot of people from around the area together big seminar and he teaches and his priority at this point although he had still had a few fights after that original visit of mine a bit you know, he's teaching but his priority has always been teaching you know, he's told me that then his dad told him that is that you know, great winning tournaments, win fights go out there and become a champion. But what we're doing here is teaching what we're doing here is creating martial artists what we're doing here is spreading the jujitsu that his father, brothers and uncles in a really developed and tested and so he comes in he teaches and that first class you know that first time he came he taught a seminar. I don't really remember what the topics were because I think I was just more you know in in being in his presence larger than life figure wandering around you know, he talked to me and I do remember this I can tell little stories that I remember at the end of the seminar.

You know, sometimes he'll do some sparring sessions were here last you know get you guys rolling and he'll partner people up, pair people up and they'll have them sparring. I'll have them roll and so at the end of that seminar, he was going to have some people rolling and he was going to have us I'm sorry, did I lose you there you know, okay, so he was going to have a sparring and he partnered me up with this big, big blue belt whenever and I just remember as I'm rolling I'm going to sort of out myself for being kind of an idiot but whenever I was a blue belt, but every I was just sort of rolling and then when I would see Royces turned towards me and walked towards me, I would try to do some cool moves. I would like neon stomach backspin amount or like something I was I was clearly better than the guy I was rolling with so I was using an opportunity to secure a position when he wasn't looking and then when he was looking through something flashy and you know total newbie, kind of trying to look cool and be cool and I don't mind it my students will tell you I make fun of myself and embarrass myself and talk about my journey how I learned as I went and so just being stupid trying to look cool when Royce was there because it was just such an honor to be around him I wanted to impress him I wanted to stand out he did give me I think one stripe or two stripes that first class and for that first summer that I was there and I got to get domain got to put myself on his radar didn't have any clue at the time that we were heading for the kind of relationship we have now never had any idea that it would be like this. I just he was the purple belt instructors head instructor and I was just one of the many guys on the team.

Jeremy Lesniak:

Nice. Nice. You know, I like the self-deprecation or I guess you could look at it another way be awareness of where you were at looking to gain the approval of someone that you looked up to so much. And I don't know that there are too many people who wouldn't have at least a little bit of that motivation. Right no matter how long they've been training you know; I've hooked up to Bill Wallace for a very long time and I'm fortunate enough to have a bit of a relationship with him and train with him and hold rank him. And you better believe when he is watching me. I'm doing a little bit better really is trying a little bit harder. Right? Yeah. And you know, it's not just celebrities, you know, any of my instructors, I've wanted to make sure that I impress them I want their validation I think we all do when we step into maybe not even just a martial arts class, but any class we want to feel good about our skill.

Seth Shamp:

Sure. And I see it as an instructor on the other side. I know that now I'm watching my students during sparring or during drilling and I'm catching them looking up and see if I'm looking you know seeing if I just saw that sweep they did or they just saw that they caught that takedown or that tap so I know it's a normal behavior and I just you know, it's funny to look back on myself and just think like yeah, I was once one of these new game newbies coming up trying to try to impress voice but it was a great experience a great shift in my journey is what I usually say is that shift in my journey. I'm so grateful for it because it put me on a different path that I was on it will woke me up to I know in retrospect that I was not prepared for a self-defense situation of sorts, probably was because I was young and top and big but in reality, you know, I can remember this story, one of my brothers know one of my friends' birthdays and we were in Vermont. I was back home visiting and one of my friends was having a birthday and his girlfriend got like a limo and we were going to go out bar hopping on mid late 20s maybe been training a few months but I'm still a white belt maybe a year but I'm still a white belt at this sport jujitsu school and we go to a bar up and stole I think we're somewhere out on the other side of the notch and there's just you know some drunk guy who's just whatever didn't have noxious and starting stuff with people and he like said something to my brother who can you know handle himself just fine but I remember you know, he's talking junk to my brother and kind of getting aggressive and in my head again outing myself I remember thinking alright if this goes sideways I'm going to jump guard pull him down, go for a triangle off my back and I'll choke him out and I mean to be able to look at myself and say that was your game plan set from the disposition of I have now as a you know, a black belt in jiujitsu who knows the ideas of self-defense. And knows way better than to want to put yourself on the ground let alone the bottom you know we preach stay off the ground in a self-defense situation avoid the ground at all costs in a self-defense situation and if you have to be on the ground be on top you know.

Jeremy Lesniak:

Can we put that on a T shirt, please?

Seth Shamp:

Right. In the ground be on top.

Jeremy Lesniak:

So, many people that don't get that anyway.

Seth Shamp:

Well, you're right it's that you know, I hear these conversations where people say “oh, jiujitsu is not good for self-defense because you shouldn't be on the ground in a fight”. And I always say “I believe in... I agree with half of that statement, which...”

Jeremy Lesniak:

Or the inverse.

Seth Shamp:

That should be on the ground?

Jeremy Lesniak:

Yet, all BJJ is the Brazilian jujitsu etc. is the best because most fights end up on the ground so just there to start.

Seth Shamp:

Right but it means to think that the idea is that I would want to put myself on the ground you know, just I mean, as an instructor, I teach like you know, get away make space do whatever you can don't do you know, if you have to go to the ground, you go to the ground, if you have to go to the ground to be on top if you go to the ground, and there I was thinking in my wife's head, I'll pull him on top of me and I'll close my eyes. You know, that's like, that's the old looking back in retrospect and being able to like, look at how far I've come this journey but also remember what it's like to be new. Remember what it's like to be a white belt and all the thoughts that you have so I share stories like that all the time with my students and I think it helps them to feel more comfortable about some of the things they might be thinking or even doing, you know, they're like, you know, they probably look at me and be like, that's you know, knows so much and it does this that the other but then I tell him, you know, well, this is how I used to think and they're like, oh, okay, good, because that's what I'm thinking. You know, and it helps people navigate those long stretches of, of feeling like you're not getting better or feeling like you're not improving. I think, I don't know for sure. I don't.

Jeremy Lesniak:

Let's talk about how that that path started to veer. You talked about that first seminar session with Royce Gracie, and how it shifted you know, the school shifted your attitude, but then your experience starting to work with him shifted it even more. Can you talk about the contrast? Can you talk about maybe even where you think you might have gone? Let's say it hadn't been a Gracie Jiu Jitsu school that you ended up and I know it was more of a conventional BJJ school like where do you think things would have gone.

Seth Shamp:

Yeah, you know, like I said, I want to believe that I would have done what I said which is seek a, you know, striking art to compliment my grappling. I like to think that that's what I do, but I can't say for sure. I know that I was not going to stop jiujitsu. I know I was going to stay doing jujitsu but I met very well may have just ended up being a sport Grappler and, you know, finding myself just getting my satisfaction and the completeness of my journey just from the sport can't, it's hard to go back there right to think what would I have done? Or what would I have? Then after that setting but the split to the Gracie style, you know it really did open my eyes to what I wanted to become and where I wanted to go with it. I really say, I say this to my students all the time. I'm really grateful for that veering. But you know, what's interesting is inside of that is what we talked about briefly at the beginning, which was moving, right and re assimilating yourself, I remember being really bummed that I was going to have to move.

I remember thinking, Man, this school, I've worked my way in here. I love my instructor, I love my teammates, I love this, this atmosphere, it's such a good learning environment. And I felt like, I'm never going to be able to recreate that I'm never going to be able to get myself back to where I was. When I was first, you know, training, it was a tricky thing. And I know that when students are leaving me, and when students are moving from my gym, and they move to a new place, and they tell me that they're just like, you know, I really don't want to move and I tell them, like, I felt the same way, I felt super bummed that I was going to have to start over somewhere and re acclimate myself and, and maybe prove myself or whatever it might be and climb that rank, you know. But then I can also assure them that it can be done, and you can flourish, and you can find, you know, another good environment and another good setting to, to keep the journey going.

It's one of the sorts of learning points of my journey was to feel like oh, man moving out of this spot, is going to be harmful, but then to actually have a successful transition. Does that make sense? Because, you know, moving to a new gym, I think everybody, when they first leave their space, they feel like, you know, it's, it's, it's hard, it's hard. Maybe also is because you feel like you've proved yourself climbed the ladder to a certain extent, and that maybe you're going to have to do that all over again, I don't know, maybe you feel like you're going to be fresh bait, when she stepped into a new gym, and everyone's going to be coming after you. Because now you're the new guy there, or whatever it might be.

Jeremy Lesniak:

It connects to the conversation about skill and wanting the validation of people around you, when you've been training somewhere, or even just, you've worked a job in a particular place for a period of time. You have a routine, and you know what you do, and you know how to do it. And in the context of training, you've got a pretty good idea of what you're working on what you need more work on, etc. But when you go to a new place, it's all up in the air. Am I going to be the big man? Am I going to be forgotten about am I going to be the you know, the one that nobody wants to work with? Right, like a lot of our fears start to come up when you roll the dice again? Yeah, and I think for a lot of people, it keeps them from taking opportunities, even knowing that they're in a bad spot, whether it's a bad school, that training or something outside of the martial arts, they stay where they are, because they choose the devil they know.

Seth Shamp:

Yeah, that's a really good point, I think you're probably right in a lot of settings. And there's a lot to that, you know, there's a lot to finding the right space for you. And I'm a firm believer that like when my students leave my gym, and they say they're moving and I've had a few students already move. But obviously over the years, I've had hundreds of students move away. And I tell them to try classes everywhere. I say, you know, try this anywhere that's offering a free trial, go do it. Even if you'd like the first place that you went, just, you know, keep looking and make sure you find a place where the learning style is conducive to you because as I'm sure you know, there's different attitudes in different places. Their shark tanks, their sink or swim gyms, there's places out there where they don't really cater to anybody except those who are tough enough to survive. And, you know, there's a lot inside that. That statement right there that I just said that's helped me learn about our jujitsu because, you know, that school that I was training at that MMA program that was a tough, that was a tough program. It was not for the faint of heart, and you had to be tough to survive that and while I learned a lot from that, in terms of, you know, running an academy and running a school. You know, I also learned that different schools, different instructors, different emphasis, if you will present different training opportunities, and you got to find the one that that works for you when, when finding a new school when moving to a new area.

Jeremy Lesniak:

Now at some point along the way, and I'm curious where in the journey it was, you decided you might want to open a school. Before you did open a school or decided to open a school you thought about opening the school? Do you remember the first point you thought about that?

Seth Shamp:

Yeah, I will say pretty early. And actually, I wouldn't say about opening a gym, I would say, teaching. I like teaching. And I am a I think I'm a born teacher. I think that's just what my calling was in life. You know, I think that some people are just naturals at different things. Some people are meant to teach. And I feel like I'm just I have a knack for teaching. It's in my DNA to be able to work with people to help them understand. Whatever it is that I'm understand, I think from a very early age, I was helping out with my, my mom's daycare, my mom at a daycare when I was much younger. And I was always helping out with that working with kids. I was a camp counselor for, you know, four years in different recreation programs. I have a sister who's 11 years younger than me, who taught me so much about you know, mentorships and helping. Basketball was a huge part of my life growing up. And I was a coach from, you know, for the little rec leagues, and working with kids. And so, when I, you know, fell in love with jiujitsu. And of course, as I was teaching guitar, and I've taught piano lessons and guitar lessons. But when I fell in love with jiujitsu, I naturally assumed that someday I would probably be teaching this.

And that, you know, helping people learn, and I was excited about the prospects teaching, I thought that would be super fun. And opening a school I wasn't necessarily sure of or thinking it was going to happen. But I definitely knew that I was going to teach someday, how opening a school came to be, is interesting. I was training at that school, that Royce Gracie school in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. And the purple belt there was technically he was under a black belt of voices. He was under a Royce black belt. And that always black belts sort of ran at a group of schools called team rock. And Tim rock was a school in North Carolina had many affiliates around the state, even in Virginia, maybe in South Carolina. And we were all part of Team rock. And that purple belt in that black belt had a little bit of a falling out. And the purple belt decided he was going to split. And so that was tough, because I'd only been there for maybe a couple of years. And I was really good friends with a lot of the other training partners there. And the purple belt who was really the only one that I'd known. I didn't know the black belt. Maybe I'd met him once or twice, but I didn't really know him. I felt more of an allegiance to the purple belt. And so, his name was Jake and so when they did a little split, Jake, Mom, like I'd said, owned a karate school. They had some mats in the back of the karate school. And she said we could train you know, after they were done in the evening.

That like, you know, after the karate classes were done, we could go in, mop up, walk up, and we were going to do that. And so, I went with him, and only maybe two or three other students very few most people stayed. Another guy came in and started teaching took over the team rock and we left and he started a school and we called it triangle jujitsu Academy, and triangle jujitsu Academy. It was where I trained from there. And so, he was teaching classes there, and probably for not very long, maybe like six or seven months. And then he decided he was going to move about an hour and a half away to live with this girl that he was getting married to. And we had about seven or eight maybe 10 guys though, I trained with jujitsu, and he said, Steph, would you like to, you know, take over classes and teach. And I was like, sure. And I just got my purple belt. And this is 2007 I think and so I take over classes. I'm teaching a couple nights a week, two or three nights a week I'm not getting paid anything. I'm just teaching and his mom and him are kind of running this program. And you know he's getting the money and that's basically what we did for two years and didn't try to make any money. Didn't try to ask for any money. I was teaching some private lessons, making a little bit of money. Teaching privates, but just teaching and training and competing and teaching and training and competing, and learning a lot about jujitsu learning a lot about teaching, and I would go to train with him when I could and different people. And then after two years, my wife at the time had just finished her residency.

That's what brought us to North Carolina, by the way, we moved down there because she was doing her residency at Duke University. And she just finished we're trying to figure out what are we going to do? Are we going to move back to Vermont, or we're going to move back to New York, are we going to stay here, and I had kind of been putting all my plans for jujitsu on hold, because I didn't know what I was doing. So, we talked about it, and we decided our real estate here, she's going to open up a medical practice. I had the talk with Jake and I said, “Hey, we're going to stick around for a little bit.” I've been, you know, running this program for you for a couple years. But I think I'd like to, you know, maybe take on a little bit more of an ownership role of it. And, you know, when he was all aboard, he was like, absolutely, you've been doing this, if you're going to stay That should be your school should be your program. And so, I took it over. So, in 2010, May of 2010, I started my own school triangle, jiujitsu became mine. And I was able to take over teaching. That was sort of how I became a gym owner, in a very, you know, sort of roundabout way was just kind of fell backwards into the opportunity. And it wasn't like, let's get alone, find a space open up and do it. It was sort of like I took over teaching for a couple years, and then I said, “You know, I think I'm going to stick around here and do this.” And at the time in Durham, there was a young guy and I got to shout him out just because he's been instrumental in all of my jiujitsu progress as a business.

His name's James Hogaboom, everybody calls him Boomer, and he owns cage side MMA Toro BJJ. And he's just an incredible human being in terms of supporting the martial arts community. He's a huge supporter of kickboxing and wrestling and Judo and Jiu Jitsu in North Carolina. Boomer is the man and he was, you know, making t shirts making the selling fight gear, fight shorts, Gi, kimonos, gloves. He just, he was doing it in a small little tiny warehouse. And he had grown his business from a very small space and sort of grow bigger, got bigger, and I went to go get a pair of shorts for him one day from him because someone had ordered some shorts, one of my fighters was and they told me to swing by boomers place it's over here in Durham, middle of nowhere. And I went in, and I was like, “Hey, I'm looking for Boomer”. I'm here to get some fight shorts. He's like, “Oh, I know you”. You're that guy that I always see winning it all the tournaments. And I was like, yeah, and he's like, Boomer, and he was like, we got some mats back here. And we, you know, we roll around, you know, around noon every day, which combines some time and rollers roll this. I was like, sure. And at this time, I was still a stay-at-home dad, but I had a second daughter now little Izzy. And so, I'm with Izzy. And I came over and rolled with him. And I was like, hey, do you have any of these, like, these kinds of shorts? And he's like, Yeah, I got a pair right here. Give them to you. If you come back and show us something again tomorrow. And I was like, sure, came back the next day.

So, he and I developed this relationship. And then right around that time, when I was going to start taking over the program, that triangle jiujitsu. He said, “Have you ever thought about getting out of the karate school and being able to find your own space?’ And I was like, ‘Oh, I'd love to’. And he was like, well, this, you know, warehouse, two doors down. He's got two big bays, and the front couple offices. He said, what have you and I moved in there. You had one office, I had one office, we put mats down in one of the bays. I had my retail stuff. And the other day, we opened up a little shop together. I was like, oh, that'd be amazing. And he gave me a chance. And we he and I opened up a little location, really small location in Durham, and that was the first triangle jujitsu, TJ that I owned it was that little space and it was mine had an office and I had some students and we just grew really grassroots word of mouth. You know No, didn't have much in the way of marketing never really had much in the way of marketing everything I've really ever done in terms of growth has been word of mouth where people say oh, you should try this. You should try that. And, Boomer nice stuck together. We had a outgrew that space moved into a 7200 square foot warehouse, red, more matte space, a full cage, a little strength and conditioning area. We were in that till about 2016 and then we opened up an even bigger space in Durham, an 18,000 square foot place where he had a big retail shop, CrossFit gym. I had a big mat space. And you know he's still killing it down there.

And that was where I was up until now. COVID and so when COVID hit, you know, and here I am in business now for 10 years along the way, and I'm kind of jumping around here. But okay, along that way I had, I found I found an opportunity to start teaching at Duke in the PE program. And I got myself a job as the club sports BJJ club, there was a club there and I was the coach of that club sports. And then I was also working in the PE department teaching different physical education classes like towards credit classes, every, every student at Duke needs to credit PE to graduate and I was teaching some kickboxing classes, I was teaching some MMA classes, and they were half credits each. And I taught that from rolling 2008 on up, and so I had carved myself out this little business where I had a gym, and I was teaching part time at Duke. And I was able to train and compete, and was actually scratching out a living doing jujitsu, which was pretty amazing. So, opening up the school was a rather serendipitous endeavor, that I was fortunate enough to be in the space with the right people around to help me do it. Mainly Boomer who's huge and working with me to, you know, as I'm sure you know, getting a space, getting a retail space or a facility up and running is a lot of work. But when you share it with somebody else who's got their business going, you cut your costs in half. It was a very good relationship that he and I had for many, many years. And we still have an incredible relationship. He supplies me and my students with all of our gear, anything you could ever need for any martial art he carries. And the literally just one of the best guys in the world of martial arts.

Jeremy Lesniak:

Cool. So, let's talk about opening the school here in Vermont. You know, you talked about the what you seem to term as a very atypical genesis of a school. I've talked to a lot of martial artists on the show off the show. It's not as uncommon as you think I think, the journey to say I'm going to open a school and put together a business plan and do all that. I don't think that happens as often as people think. I think we're often it's some confluence of accidents in Kismet that lead to a school that I'm going to I'm going to guess you know, you you've done some things you had some experience under your belt, opening school running a school. And so, coming here and being able to put a pretty darn famous name getting the endorsement, boys, Gracie, that's there have to be some steps involved in there.

Seth Shamp:

Sure. So, the relationship has maintained right ever since I first met him at that first one. You know, when I took over the gym, I was an affiliate of his I was actually under the banner of the Royce Gracie network. I was going to network gatherings I was continuing my relationship with him. I got my brown belt from him. And I was able to test for my black belt eight years ago, and you know I got the endorsement of him for my black belt which is which is a huge step in jujitsu is getting your black belt is a huge accomplishment. And of getting a Gracie Jiu Jitsu black belt is a pretty big accomplishment. And there's nothing against any of the other levels or styles or schools. You know, there's people who can win a big tournament and they'll get their black belt on the podium, you know, they want to the worlds at brown belt and they got promoted to black belt on the podium, which is an amazing achievement. But in the Gracie Jiu Jitsu network in the Royce Gracie Jiu Jitsu network, that test is really tough endeavor where you are basically testing in front of 40 or so black belts, including Royces including a red belt and actually red belt that I tested under, and you have to get the endorsement of the entire group, the entire network has to endorse you for your black belt.

So, you know, I facilitated that relationship to the point where I was even asked to test and that was in Miami, eight years ago, and I was able to, you know, get the endorsement and I got my black belt from voice. And three or four years after being a black belt, he promoted me to Professor, which is where you know, I have white bars at the end of my black belt, which basically means I'm, you know, teaching allowed to promote the black belt. And it's just something that you know, I take great pride in that is much of an emphasis that Royce and his father and brothers put on teaching jiujitsu as the mission to be promoted to a professor which basically means that he trusts me or believes in me enough to spread this to create my own black belts, that was a huge step in the direction of being able to, you know, represent and open up a school. And so, I'm in North Carolina, I'm teaching, COVID hits. And I had always in the back of my head thought about moving back to always kind of thought it might be the place to be for several other components to family and things like that, but it's what I wanted to do. But I never really thought or was sure if the community, the population, you know, could support me doing jujitsu here, certainly, if I could, like, get a gig like I had down there, where I'm working at a college full time and then running a school that would be conducive, but, you know, I kind of really was super fortunate to have that gig at Duke that I was teaching full time. And, you know, working in the clubs, sports departments, so I had a stable of private students that it was doing weekly, I had a lot of things going for me in North Carolina, that I was very nervous about making that taking that plunge.

But when COVID hit, Duke went full remote. And we that we spent the spring semester of what is I guess, 20, the spring semester of 2020 teaching online. And when they announced that, in the fall of 2020, teachers in the PE department we're going to be able to choose between hybrid be online, in person or a hybrid. And I did my fall semester online, or in person and mixed mixture, actually. But the wheels were turning. And I was thinking to myself, if I went full remote, and had the cushion of my Duke job income, to see if I could get this school going, I would have something of a safety net. In addition to that, I did sell my school to one of my students. And so, I had a little bit there. And I moved up here in November of 2020. And was prepared to start trying to see what I could do with a school. And so, I just kind of putting everything together, seeing maybe what it would look like have to find a location. But I still am going to be teaching spring semester online, I've got that going for me. And I found a little spot in Burlington on Pine Street. Little Big factory called the soda plant. It's kind of a big warehouse scene place. And there was a woman there who was advertising her room that she taught yoga out of for an hourly rate or a daily rate. And the rate was super reasonable. And she had openings on Tuesdays and Thursdays. And so, I said, well, I wonder if I could secure those two days. And she said Yeah, and I signed a year lease with her to teach on Tuesdays and Thursdays at this place where I would teach my Duke classes I would go there, set up my mat set up my zoom, do the classes, and then in the afternoon teacher kids class and teach an evening class and that was my that was where I started and had no idea what to expect.

I had no idea what kind of you know response, we had some protocols we had to follow for Vermont State Health Department. We had some you know, mark off sections of the mat where we had to be in, we had grappling dummies, really just trying to abide by the rules, but also see if we could, you know, scratch out training, make it work. And we were doing it and we were getting a lot of interest. A lot of people were interested in we had I think that people were just starving for like getting back to doing something. And then, you know, vaccinations were becoming more and more plentiful. And by February of this year, we had where you know, reached capacity and reach capacity and a waiting list and people wanting to train and then have room for him. And plus, that I was on a lease. But I was looking around at different places and in Essex, I had seen this one spot next to Price Chopper. I think when I was a kid it used to be called city drug was a drugstore grown up. And I think it'd been many different things including like a blockbuster type video rental space and a few different things. But even several years ago, I had called the number on it because it's been for lease and available for a long time. And I remember talking to someone about it a few years ago, just kind of in the back of my head. I went back there and looked in still available and I called and said can we meet up and this really nice guy, Brian at Pomerleau real estate company shout out to him because he was super cool. And he worked with me and we came up with a deal where I could start leasing this place and so I had to get out of my lease and I was shredding over this idea. What am I going to do? I can't break my lease. So, like, well, worst case scenario, I could just, you know, manage to pay it off or something like that. And really, this is the true story, right?

As I'm getting ready to, you know, send this email to this woman, you know, asking for some leniency. She emails me and says, says I'm so sorry to do this to you. But I've decided it's too much for me running this yoga program right after having a baby. And if you look at the fine print of your lease, it says that if I terminate my lease, your lease is terminated well, and I'm so sorry to do this to you. But I need to terminate your lease early. And I was just like, it was like a shining light. It was like this is what's supposed to happen right now. Here we go. That's the door that just got opened. And so, I was able to take my mats, I only had three minutes and bring them over here. And I remember that first night was a massive snowstorm was the biggest snowstorm of the year, of last year. And I had three mats down on the ground. I told my students and told everybody who had been interested in it to come on out, we had space now. And that first night, I think we had 18 people on the mat. In our very first night in the middle of a blizzard. I remember the guys plowing the driveway and Pomerleau were just like, man, it was crazy. I thought there wouldn't be anybody here and you got everybody in there that first night. I was like, I think people are ready for this. And I tell you, it's just been a steady influx of people calling, emailing, trying classes. We give everyone a free class. So just come on in and you don't need anything, just come in sign a waiver, we have a uniform for you, and you try it. And we have had an such a positive response from the community from the people here from the people who are looking to get their kids into jiujitsu from just I've talked to a bunch of other people who in the jiujitsu community here and it's, you know, for the most part been great.

People coming back from COVID getting back into their journey getting back into the routine. And I'm just super fortunate, and overwhelmingly happy with the turnout and the growth of this academy. As we come up on our one-year anniversary. It's been amazing. And yeah, I as well, July 4, when all the restrictions were lifted. I was planning to do a grand opening. I had been planning on it since we moved in in February. And when they, you know, the governor said dry fourth, we're back on back in business, I called voice and I said Sir, I'm back in Vermont, I'm trying to open up the school. I mean, he knew I was back in Vermont, I said, I'm trying to do a grand opening for this school here. I would love if you would be you know, we're able to we're willing to come out and help you with a grand opening celebration and do a seminar. And he his response was congratulations on getting back in business. I'm super happy for you. I'll let you know. And so, he was working his schedule out. And then he just hit you off with I mean, I was planning to do it whenever and whenever. But he hit me back and said Hey, I got a spot-on July 10th before I head to Europe, if you want that Saturday, I'll come out. And yeah, I was snagged it and started spreading the word. And we had a great turnout for that grand opening. We had a couple of news organizations I think WPTZ the ABC or whatever it is. They came out did a story on it and mats were packed that day, we had capacity, we sold out both the kids’ seminar and the adult seminar and did a meet and greet with the community we had people come in with like old UFC posters for signatures, and people not even training just coming out to meet voice and it was a it was a really great day and a great, great jumpstart to the school.

Jeremy Lesniak:

Awesome. Awesome. Yeah. Talk about not necessarily unique, but uncommon circumstances and just the variety of things that had to occur for this to all work and you know, what, what better example than what you were talking about with the lease and how that could have been and statistically should have gone very differently.

Seth Shamp:

Sure.

Jeremy Lesniak:

But it didn't. And it all worked out.

Seth Shamp:

Yeah, I mean, you couple that with being able to teach online with the power of Duke you know, I was able to officially retire from Duke and after being there for 13 years, this last semester. I said I think I'm going to do this full time now. And you know, I no longer teach there and I'm just running the academy full time. It was a lot of moving parts and COVID definitely presented a lot of obstacles and barriers and difficulties for a lot of people and myself included, my family included. But it did in in some ways, open up the opportunity for the timing for this endeavor. And I just sort of was able to seize it was able to capitalize on the opportunity as it as it presented itself, and that's where, you know, the origins of this academy have sort of come from and at this point, again, we're riding the wave of word of mouth, you know, people are talking and telling each other and I'm getting people were coming back from COVID from their break, and they're saying, you know, I want to get back into it. I've heard great things, we'd love to come try a class, parents are talking about it.

And, you know, our jiujitsu program for our kids is, is really rooted in the martial arts. You know, grappling is fun, and, you know, tournaments are fun, but my kids program is 100% focused on giving kids tools to manage, you know, growing up, bully prevention, being able to deal with kids and situations that arise at school and I just want my students to have a game plan I want them to have a blueprint for when they're confronted with that, hopefully never, but that situation where you know, someone's trying to do something to them, or say something to them, or in any way, intimidate them, and give them these tools. So, our kids' class is a great mixture of the fun aspects of grappling, mixed with the ideas of you know, bully prevention and tools and parents just love you know, giving their kids the opportunity for that discipline.

Jeremy Lesniak:

If people want to get ahold of you, you know what can we give them? Email, social?

Seth Shamp:

For sure. So, my website is GracieVermont.com, there's contact information in there, you can email me through that. That's just www.GracieVermont.com. My email is RoyceGracieVermont@gmail.com. But again, it's easiest just to go to GracieVermont.com. Everybody gets a free class, all you got to do is just schedule with me and come on in and try it. We have kids' classes on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday at 5pm. We have adult classes, the same thing Monday, Tuesday, Thursday at 630 as well as Tuesday, Thursday at 11:30am. And we have an open mat on Saturday from 11 to one. And we're currently doing some competition training on Sunday afternoon for enrolled students who are interested in the competitive side of it. But we welcome anybody to come in and get to know us and try a class and see what they think about, you know, the jiujitsu journey, I think one of the things I really tried to do is let people know that this is a safe environment, and you're not going to get hurt, you're not going to get injured. And you're not even going to be able to sparring on your first you know session or a couple sessions.

I've gotten a lot of feedback over the years from people as to why you know, what took you so long, because the number one thing I hear from everybody is I wish I had started sooner. I wish I had tried it earlier. And the majority of the people didn't know what to expect. And they thought, well maybe they're going to come in here and it's a bunch of young killers or lions or they're going to get in here and people are just going to smash them and, man, I don't let that I have such a tremendous amount of oversight on my mats for sparring and rolling and the use of sparring to get better and how we use it that it's 100% safe. People think well I've got this injury well I need to lose weight. Now we work around injuries. We work around your abilities, you'll lose weight doing jiujitsu, there is no I have yet to run into someone who cannot do jujitsu.

I have taught people in wheelchairs. I've taught blind people. I've taught obese people I've taught kids, adults, men, women, big small, short, tall, I've literally taught the gamut of human beings. And we adapt our jujitsu to you. That is the beautiful thing about jujitsu. It's not a one size fits all, you know, to use the use the, you know, analogy from Bruce Lee is that you know to be like water is that I take you know who you are and I fill up your jujitsu cup, and we put that jujitsu into your cup, it looks differently than when it goes into my jujitsu cup, the jujitsu goes in, and it forms around, whatever your help is. And if you're a mug or a tall glass or a shot glass, we're going to pour our jiujitsu in there and it's going to fit you. We just we've figured out how to adapt it. So, we would love anybody who's ever thought about trying it, you know, reach out to me through the website, GracieVermont.com and give us a shout. I can chat with you about it. We'd love to schedule a free class. And let's just see what it's all about.

Jeremy Lesniak:

Sounds great. Well, you've been really generous with your time. You've told some great, great stories today, but we're going to wind down here. Sure. I don't want the last words to be yours. So, what would you want to leave the audience with today?

Seth Shamp:

I would, you know, love to be able to share how much martial art It has impacted my life and helped me in my life. Martial Arts, martial art is an art. And it's your art. It's your expression of these things. And everybody is going to take from their artistic expression are their artistic experience something different. I have been able to find peace in many different aspects of my jiujitsu from, you know, the confidence to know that I'm safe need me to the ability to work out and sweat, and get a workout in and exercise to just the creativity and problem-solving aspects to fighting and sparring. There are so many different benefits that are unknown, until you do it. And to me, there's so many different metaphors about life that are happening inside of a martial arts journey. You look back at different points in your life. And you say, I wish I knew then what I know now, right, and you say that about so much. But the only way to know what you know now is to have lived through what you've lived, and to have experienced the things that you experienced. Martial Arts gives you that experience, of growth, of personal challenge of expanding your horizons to what you're physically capable of, and what you're, you know, what you can set for goals to achieve, like, goals for the future are a part of what keep you thriving and growing.

Becoming a beginner, and starting over as an adult, is a hugely important process to growing as a human. I tell people a lot that jujitsu gets you comfortable being uncomfortable, putting yourself in a spot where you're not as comfortable as you could be, but you're doing it on your own accord under your own volition, you're putting yourself in a space to be new, vulnerable, and humbled. That is how you grow. That's what grows the human that is inside you to something else, we often get stuck in our own routines of living the comfortable day to day routine that we've set forth for ourselves, when you step into a Martial Arts Academy, as a beginner, and as a new person, you take on an opportunity for growth, an opportunity to become something bigger and better than yourself. And it's all part of this, this journey. In that first couple of classes that first couple of weeks, you're going to feel like you're lost and you're going to feel like you're, you know in over your head, but what you're actually doing is picking up these pieces to a massive puzzle that's yet to be put together. And there's no expectation for you to understand how those pieces fit together. Right, if you come to one of my classes on day one, I teach you how to escape a headlock or do an armbar. And it feels awkward and uncomfortable, or even how to shrimp down the mat. And you're like, man, my body doesn't like to do that when you're holding a piece to a puzzle. And just like if I asked you to dump out a 10,000-piece jigsaw puzzle, called the Wheat Field, you're going to dump that puzzle out and every single piece is going to look the same. And it's going to be really hard to tell by picking up one piece where it goes.

But if you put in that time, and that effort, just start putting that puzzle together, you'll slowly build around each piece to the point where it's completely obvious where that piece goes. That armbar that headlock escape, it can only fit here, you've built the peripheral puzzle, to fill that in. That's a metaphor for your life, that you go into a spot where you're completely fish out of water and you don't know anybody feel this awkward comfortability, that's a piece of growing up. That's a piece of becoming a better version of yourself. And you can't know that until you've put in enough time to be able to look back and say, “Oh man, just like I did when I went to my first jiujitsu school”. Look what I thought, look where my head was that look at the person that I was and look at the person that I am now. I had no idea what was possible. But because I stuck with it because I humbled myself to this space, because I was genuinely interested in doing this art, whether it's kickboxing, whether it's Judo, whether it's Jiu Jitsu, you're genuinely enjoying it. Let it become a vessel for betterment, and I believe that we all can benefit from that. You know that, like you as I'm sure know, just as much as I do them the multitude of benefits from training martial arts. You know exercise is a key component to making yourself a better human and my I guess wish for people would be to if they are on the fence if they're considering it if they're ever even thought about it to reach out reach out to a martial artist in your area. See if you can tag along to a class if you're not near me here in Essex reach out to a martial artist that you know ask them about it to see if you can come and just try it because you're going to... If you get into it and you love it and you find yourself you know addicted to it like a lot of us do. I promise you the sentiment is going to be I wish I had started earlier. So, now's the time. Now's the time to take that first step and see what the world of martial arts has to offer you.

Jeremy Lesniak:

That was a fun episode. Good stuff. Thank you, Seth. Appreciate you coming on. And yeah, I have no doubt we're going to connect at some point. I mean, the guy lives like right there. He's right there. To all of you listening. Thank you. Thanks for tuning in. Thanks for your support. Thanks for all the things that you do to further grow, support retain our other words here martial arts and the martial arts community. We appreciate you immensely. If you appreciate us, remember leave a review, buy a book, share something, tell people something, review something, patreon something.

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