WHY I’D RATHER FIGHT MIKE TYSON THAN A BRAZILIAN JIU-JITSU BLACKBELT: A STORY ABOUT MY DAY AT THE UACTP GYM IN L.A.
Written by Jason Pollock
I walked into the Undefeated Action Capabilities Training Program gym unsure why I was ever offered this job to write about it. I’ve never done Jiu-Jitsu, I know nothing about martial arts and I’ve never watched anything UFC. Hell, when I go to my local gym I either do yoga, isometrics or resistance bands. But after being reassured I could “ask hundreds of dumb questions” I agreed to visit. It was April 1st, both April Fool’s Day and Easter Monday. I was aware that spending time in a badass gym like this would either make me feel like a fool or possibly lead to a resurrection of my mind, body and spirit. As it turned out, both.
UACTP is elemental in its design, physically and strategically, with brick walls, refinished wood beams, and a focus on what they call practical applications. It’s packed with world-class weights, racks, rowing machines, kettlebells and everything else hard and heavy. And UNDEFEATED branded gear like rash guards, shorts, shirts and hats. Their world-class trainers greeted me with genuine smiles and calloused-skinned handshakes. This was surprising as what I expected to walk into was an indoor version of Hell Week - yelling, gym bro high fives and puddles of vomit and testosterone. But let’s go back to where it started.
UACTP was created by James Bond and Robert Abeyta Jr. in 2018. James is one of the founders of the iconic streetwear brand UNDEFEATED. Rob is the principal of creative applications agency DualForces and a veteran. Three years prior, Rob was training as a black belt in the sport/art/philosophy/mental exercise/spiritual practice/martial art known as Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. He was training with Chris Haueter, one of BJJ’s dirty dozen. (The first twelve people to earn a black belt outside Brazil.) As friends, Rob bought James a gift of six training sessions at Chris’s home in Redondo Beach, California. Despite the brutal commute across Los Angeles, James showed up and fell in love. “It was six hours everyday. Four in the car and two on the mat. We’d show up and roll and there’d be a dog on the mat” recalls James. This is UACTP’s origin story. After those initial sessions James remembers thinking “Wow, I fucking survived.” After I took my first class at UACTP I remember thinking “Why is so much skin missing from the top of my feet?” and “Fuck I need to do more cardio.” The fact is rolling unleashes predatory chemicals in your brain and body. It’s primal. Your limbic system fires up as you use every muscle in your body to be put, and put others, in positions most of us haven’t been in since the womb. There is a real sense of aliveness that lasts long after you take a shower and devour the post-workout meal. There are few things I’ve experienced that put you in a singular moment where everything else dissolves. Jumping off an 80-foot bridge. Amazing sex. The birth of a child. And rolling.
James and Rob wanted to start their own gym full of first-rate classes, trainers and equipment, but without the ego. As James recalled, “We wanted to build a gym that was a pathway to aspire and not a judgmental and exclusive space.” Put another way, goals aren’t the goal here. It’s all about practical applications, how it shows up in your life outside the gym. Whether that's confidence, more energy at work or the secure feeling that comes from knowing how to defend yourself. With this point of view, UACTP opened its doors.
There is a feeling of a shared drive in the gym, even though members range from police officers, single moms, celebs, firefighters, CEOs, and former addicts. To your left there’s a world-class trainer with 20 years of teaching a variety of martial arts, to the right a former Wisconsin linebacker doing banded squats and in-between a mom on break from nursing school who’s killing it on the rowing machine. According to James, “We all have similar backgrounds. We’re hard driving, dedicated, and committed to consistency.” During my time I met several members who had overcome either addiction or alcoholism or both. Which makes sense as sobriety requires hard work and showing up day after day after day after fucking day and leaving your ego behind while being humble enough to learn. The vibe of UACTP is one of focus, drive and commitment.
Within a year of opening, COVID hit. Like in Jiu-Jitsu, the gym pivoted and refocused. This time they doubled down on community efforts and the team aspect of martial arts. A great example of UACTP as an agent of change is when earlier this year teenage boys were drinking in the alley nearby and jawing back and forth. It escalated to the point of a fight when a member of the gym confronted them, invited them inside to put on gloves and “work it out.” A few of them did and would go on to stick around the gym. They now fold towels, clean the floors and in exchange train for free. But the gym’s community work goes beyond the Filipinotown streets surrounding the building. Recently they trained Team G and Cali Stars, local high school basketball teams. They also offer sponsorships and do foundation work.
Besides the grunting and heavy breathing, the thing I heard repeatedly was ‘There’s always a way out.” Or as James stated, “Jiu-Jitsu is problem solving on the go.” After participating in a class taught by Chris Haueter (he teaches regularly at UACTP) the best description I could come up with is 100-dimensional chess. It’s reaction, counter reaction, reaction, counter reaction. It’s 1960s improvisational jazz in the back of a dark club, sweating with the intensity it takes to create something by responding in the moment, by giving and taking, by being fully present. At one point I was in guard (on my back with my legs wrapped around my partner). “Try and get out,” he prompted. I did everything possible to break his control except bite him. As a beginner I found myself completely at his mercy. It was clear just how helpless I was. It was the equivalent to me laying on a newborn baby who doesn’t know Jiu-Jitsu. Later that night I reflected on what the hell I just experienced and came to the very reasonable and logical conclusion that I’d have a better chance of knocking out Tyson in his prime. As overwhelming as it was to be so dominated, it was equally exciting to know there are techniques to get out of it.
“There’s always a way out.”
This is the ethos of UACTP. To be a space where everyone is invited to show up, work and find a way to succeed. Not just on the mat but in the grind of everyday life. Jiu-Jitsu is an intense physical workout that gives you a superhero’s ability to defend yourself or go on the offensive, but ultimately it reshapes the mind more than the body. This was best reflected by the Undefeated logos on the shirts and the lone quote in the gym. “It is not the strongest of the species that survives nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is most adaptable to change.”
It’s weird to walk into a gym to get your ass kicked physically only to leave with a sense of enlightenment, or in my case, enlightenment-adjacent. This was due to the many members who compared the gym to a sacred place. Especially one member who told me how the gym is a spiritual practice that “centers” him. And, no, he wasn’t being hyperbolic. This guy meditates for hours at a time, has been a part of ancient voodoo ritual on a mountaintop in Haiti complete with skulls and skeletons, had a transcendental experience and is a key member in building a worship temple outside San Francisco. Yet he told me this gym helps center him more than anything else.
“There’s always a way out.”
And when you find a way out (a triangle hold, a bad business deal, a conflict in a relationship) the next thing that happens is you find your way into something better. At UACTP that better comes in many forms. Better health, better fitness, better self-reliance, better patience, a better, a better community, a better spiritual practice, a better way of approaching the world.
On April 1st I walked into a gym but when I walked out I left a holy place, just with less skin on my feet.
Excerpted from The New Order - Issue 32 “Unconditional”