Student Spotlight: Cesar

Meet Cesar!

Refuge BJJ coaches nominated students to participate in a student spotlight. They are a few of the examples of what makes our school great! Read below to learn more Cesar and his jiu-jitsu journey.

• What is your name and rank?
  Cesar - blue belt
• How long have you been training jiu-jitsu?
  2 years and 2 months
• What made you decide to try it?
  I had no intention of training. I was actually trying to get my son to train to get his confidence up in sports. I felt I was too old and out of shape for jiu-jitsu. The only reason I tried it was to motivate my son to do it and spend some quality time together. But after a couple training sessions, I fell in love with the sport and haven't stopped training.
• How do you balance family, work, and training?
  When you fall in love with something, you find a way to make time for it. Luckily, I have an amazing wife that helps me with making time for me to train and she takes care of the kiddos on the days I train. It is not easy and at times exhausting, but we all know that in the long run it is what's best for all of us. Keeping everyone active and in sports is the best way to keep them away from the streets and out of trouble.
• What are your BJJ goals?
  I want to train as long as possible as my body permits. I'm 40 years old now, but I look and feel in better shape than I was in my 20's and early 30's. I hope to keep training and someday teach others the way my professors have taught me.
• What type of training or preparation do you do outside of Refuge to support these goals?
  I don't do much more outside training to stay in shape. I do watch what I eat more. Training has made me more health conscious. My jobs is also very physical so that helps. I'm in landscape maintenance so I deal with heavy machinery and climbing trees all the time. During the weekend, I try to lift a few weights and go hiking.
• How often do you train?
  At least 3 times a week.
• Are you a competitor? What drives you to compete?
  I'm a competitor and love competing. I love the amazing feeling of accomplishment after a tournament. I love displaying what I have learned and putting it to the test against others. Win or lose, there is no greater feeling than when a match is over and I look around and see everyone clapping and cheering for our jiu-jitsu display. Of course the face that I've been pretty dominant and winning a lot of my matches helps fuel the hunger to keep competing.
• What is your favorite thing about jiu-jitsu?
  My favorite thing is the confidence and self esteem I have in myself from the hard training. Also, the great new friends that I now consider family. They're also the reason I look forward to training as we are helping each other and growing in jiu-jitsu knowledge together.
• What would you tell others is the best reason to train?
  When others ask me why they should consider training jiu-jitsu, I just say "look at me and what it has done for me and my family". since joining, I've lost over 20 lbs, feel healthy, think of eating healthy, and I've learned a lot of self-defense moves. Jiu-jitsu has brought me and my family a lot closer together as we all train now. My son (15 yrs) and two daughters (12 yrs and 4 yrs), we all talk jiu-jitsu even though we're years apart from each other. Seeing their confidence, respect towards others, and knowing their learning self-defense: that is priceless to me.