Top Martial Artstkd Kenny Kim Brazilian Jiu Jitsu

Getting utterly destroyed the first time y'all footstep on the mat can be such a discouraging experience that many brand new white belts never show up to class again when it happens to them.

But for Kenny Kim, tapping over and over and over again just made him hungry for more.

An experienced and well-rounded martial artist, this Marietta, Georgia resident began his BJJ journey about seventeen years ago and earned his blackness belt five years ago under Eddie Camden. Still, he firmly insists that his jiu jitsu education is far from over.

It would exist easy for a multiple-time IBJJF champion to regain a chip of the ego that we're always told to leave at the door, merely Kim knows amend than that. His humility and quiet confidence has not only helped brand him a formidable competitor, just also a very successful business owner and esteemed coach.

I was lucky enough to be able to chat with this unstoppable black belt about his jiu jitsu journey and learn exactly what it takes to get to where he is today.

Make sure you're taking notes— this guyreally knows what he's doing.

Jiu Jitsu Times: How did your jiu jitsu journeying showtime, and how did y'all stop upwards where y'all are today?

Kenny Kim: I've been doing martial arts my whole life. I was three when I started Taekwondo, and then afterwards, I started preparation in Muay Thai and battle. I had a friend and roommate who was into jiu jitsu. I recollect him e'er hanging upward his stinky gi.

Eventually, I went with him to try it. But you know, I had a striker's mindset. I watched Royce [Gracie] win in the UFC and thought information technology was luck; I questioned the effectiveness of jiu jitsu.

But I showed up, and everyone was friendly. At that place was a good vibe. And dorsum then, everyone was so tough. They didn't make you wait to practise live rolling until you had your outset stripe or whatsoever. They had me curl my get-go day, and I recall I got tapped about xx times in 5 minutes. I got dominated, and that made me want to keep doing it, so I kept it upwards while still preparation stand up-up. I already had my own martial arts gym (at present known equally Kenny Kim Brazilian Jiu Jitsu), just when I became a bluish chugalug, I put in a jiu jitsu program. When I became a purple belt, I took over the program. So about seven years ago, I got rid of the stand-upward program, and now all we exercise is jiu-jitsu.

JJT: How do you think all your feel in stand up-upward has contributed to your success in jiu-jitsu?

KK: The style I encounter information technology with jiu-jitsu, it tin can either interruption y'all or change you. Information technology's the same with all martial arts. Instead of breaking me, it changed me.

I think a lot of guys get this false sense of security when they railroad train martial arts. They think they can defend themselves [with their stand-up], but the truth is that unless they have extensive grooming, years of grooming, they probably won't exist able to.

But with jiu-jitsu, fifty-fifty a bluish belt might be able to defend himself in a street fight if it came downward to information technology. When I started BJJ, I realized that what I knew in other martial arts didn't really mean anything. I hateful, my training in stand up-upwardly gave me corking values, but jiu-jitsu was the missing piece.

JJT: You've been a black belt for five years. Practise you feel that your jiu-jitsu has improved since you earned it?

KK: I've learned more than than ever before during my time as a black chugalug, more I learned at all the other belt levels combined.

Once yous go to this point, you're not chasing a belt or a technique, and that opens your listen. You lot realize that you can larn a lot from how people at all belt levels move and remember.

The way I run across it, jiu-jitsu is an art form, and when a student starts out as a white chugalug, I requite them a brush. Equally they move upward the ranks, they learn how to use information technology. They start creating basic shapes, like circles and squares and triangles.

In one case you lot attain the black chugalug level, though, you've learned to recall outside the box. Y'all start using other tools like crayons or pencils, you starting time creating things that come from your own mind without existence limited.

Jiu-jitsu is about improving yourself. Some black belts refuse to learn. They recollect they ain the mat, that they know all in that location is to know. I still learn every day.

JJT: Your business has become extremely successful. What does your gym practice that helps it stand up out from the residue?

KK: We're very customer-service-based. We value professionalism above everything else. Only like you'd become to college and spend all that money, time, and endeavor to get a caste, jiu-jitsu professors put in countless hours and spend countless amounts of money to become to where they are.

Being a black belt is like having your PhD, just in jiu-jitsu instead of medicine. So we take that part very seriously, and we act like professors. We also know the importance of having a make clean gym. Sure, you might want to train somewhere cheaper, just is that going to exist worth it if the mats are filthy and y'all're getting ringworm and all sorts of other diseases?

Beyond that, we as well offer a safe and encouraging surround. No one's in that location to crush you up; everyone's at that place for each other. Information technology's like a big family training together.

JJT: You've achieved a lot in competitions around the world. Are there any victories y'all're particularly proud of?

KK: For me, being able to encounter my students succeed, watching them overcome their fear of competing, and knowing they can successfully defend themselves is more important than whatever of my own personal gains. Encouraging my students ways more to me than whatsoever tournament.

JJT: Have you ever been tempted to quit jiu-jitsu? How did you convince yourself to go along?

KK: For me, information technology was when business mixed with pleasure. When the focus is to get the bills paid and the business organization is struggling financially, merely you have to evidence up to coach with a smile on your confront, that tin can be tough. I had to discover a residuum betwixt loving what I exercise and running a successful business, and eventually, I managed to practice information technology. You only have to enjoy what you do, and it'll all be worth it.

JJT: You're hardly former at 39, but there are lots of people who would be nervous to train in such a physically enervating sport at your historic period. What would you tell people who are hesitant to train BJJ in their belatedly twenties and across?

KK: Choosing the right training environment is a huge investment for yourself and your family. Information technology'due south a nifty outlet: you lot get to relish doing some physical activeness, you start eating healthier, you meet people who have the aforementioned interests as you. While everyone else is out drinking and partying on a Fri dark, yous're training. Even for people who are older and out of shape, it teaches them perseverance and subject area.

A lot of guys my age and older are overweight and already dealing with health problems because they made the wrong choices. Once y'all get out of loftier schoolhouse or college, nobody's telling you what to exercise anymore, and you lot take to ask yourself what your personal goals are.

For a lot of people, peculiarly in the Us, those goals circumduct around earning money. We work ourselves to death instead of making time for the things we enjoy. And the things that all that money buys are usually so materialistic: nosotros want a bigger house, a fancier car. We're never satisfied.

We should be investing in our health. People mutter that jiu-jitsu is expensive, only they don't realize that if they don't get active and healthy, they're going to be spending all that coin on medication and hospital visits anyway. Even if you lot think you're poor, find a way to do it. It's worth the money in the long run.

JJT: What exercise you call up is the well-nigh of import barrier for lower belts to get over if they want to amend?

KK: Tap, tap, tap, tap, tap. We all take an ego; no one wants to lose. But everyone will get ameliorate with fourth dimension if they're consistent, fifty-fifty if they don't railroad train every mean solar day.

The thing is, if you lot get injure considering you lot didn't want to tap, y'all're going to be out for a while, and then it's that much harder to become back into it.

Safety is number 1, and tapping is role of the journeying. Enjoy your classes the same way you'd savor a route trip. Sure, y'all're looking forwards to reaching your destination, but information technology'south the process of getting there that'due south really memorable. Chasing techniques and medals is similar simply riding one roller coaster at an amusement park. Yeah, it might be fun, but you're missing out if y'all don't try all the other rides, and in jiu-jitsu, you won't get as much out of the experience if you're not focusing on all the other stuff, too.

It's a lifestyle. Information technology'southward an investment.

JJT: Are there any attractions nearby for people who migh t desire to come down and railroad train with you?

KK: Aye. We actually have the World of Coca Cola but exterior Atlanta. Coca Cola'due south headquarters are in Atlanta, so y'all can visit their museum and try all different kinds of Coke. It'south really cool.

There's besides the 1996 Olympic Park, and the Georgia Aquarium is the largest one in the western hemisphere. There'south also so much diversity around there, and then you tin can consume foods from all over the world and also get some real "southern comfort" country food. You can too visit Stone Mountain and check out some absurd Civil State of war stuff there. Plus, Atlanta is home to all the sports teams like the Braves and the Falcons. We have a actually adept nightlife, too.

If you're ever in Atlanta, be sure to brand the thirty-minute bulldoze to Kenny Kim Brazilian Jiu Jitsu if you want to train with a world-class professor in a earth-class gym!

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Source: https://jiujitsutimes.com/kenny-kim/

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