Redcat Academy

Last Thursday nights crew. Something I noticed about highly competent people, they usually start out with this clear thought - ‘there is much more to this than I think there is’. Appreciating that there is complexity in almost any thing we look at or any subject we think about - is a wonderful start - a start that every one of these individuals have undertaken.

Last Thursday night, I had the wonderful privilege of being able to present Brandt Ebeyer with his Black Belt. Brandt is a real boon to the mat - he adds value to any training session he is a part of. The bonus for me was to see the two Ebeyer boys - both sporting the same colours around their waists. Well done Brandt.

It’s my 40th Jiu Jitsu anniversary…

What should I do my friends? How to celebrate. I feel very privileged to have been taken in and tutored by what may be best described as the Jiu Jitsu elite. Lunched with Carlos Gracie Senior and Helio Gracie. Daily training with the Machado brothers and other (now legendary) fellow Jiu Jitsu coloured belts like Renzo Gracie, Helio Soneca, Rillion Gracie, and the like.
Being promoted as the first Australian Black Belt, in the late 90’s - was also a deep privilege. I felt like I had a mango stall in a huge apple market.
I began to spend a lot of time travelling on weekends, teaching seminars all over the country - eventually producing black belts in every state; then further afield, teaching seminars across the ditch in New Zealand, and setting up the scene there. Over the next 30 odd years, I delivered around 2800+ Jiu Jitsu seminars, keeping me very busy; all whilst running my academy here in Geelong. That well-spring of Jiu Jitsu, spawned a hundred Jiu Jitsu academies throughout the country and neighbouring New Zealand. Some truly remarkable people became very close friends of mine - again, privileged. My personal work also included defensive tactics design for a lot of different law enforcement and military organisations - challenging work but rewarding in the extreme.
Throughout the whole adventure, my own Academy - Redcat Academy in Geelong - remained my ‘favourite child’. Over the years, my wife Melissa and son Felix have also earned their own Black Belts and they continue to build and shape the extraordinary culture that we insist upon, on the Geelong mat.
So - 40 years in - and now sporting a Coral Belt myself - it still seems surreal in a way, yes - but more than ever, it feels like an extraordinary privilege to be able to help others shape themselves into better human beings, through the practice of Jiu Jitsu. Thank you all.

🥋 JUNIORS & TEENS — READY TO TRY BRAZILIAN JIU-JITSU?
Help your child build confidence, fitness, focus, discipline and practical self-defence skills—all while making friends and having fun in a supportive team environment.
🔥 4-class trial for only $50
🥋 Uniform included
⭐ Beginners and all experience levels welcome
Give them the opportunity to become stronger, more resilient and more confident—both on and off the mats.
📍 RedCat Academy — 159A Malop Street, Geelong
📞 0418 324 835
🌐 www.redcatacademy.com.au
Class Times: 4:15 pm Mondays & Wednesdays
Spaces are limited. Message us today to secure a trial!

Competition
In nature, species have always competed … there were prizes to be had; resources and mating-rights. Competition can often be robust but non-life-threatening. It can also be deadly.
It cannot come as a surprise that humans have gamified this natural competitive drive - thereby dramatically expanding the ways in which we (humans beings) can express ourselves competitively. Rule-sets are devised, in intricate and complex ways - to create new games. Chess, Jiu Jitsu, Boxing, Swimming, Climbing or Singing - all offer outlets for this competitive drive.
We compete for jobs, status, houses, life-partners, money, medals and a myriad of other rewards.
The ‘trick’, in my view, is to find ways to meaningfully extract the lessons we may learn by playing this ‘game of games’ - and using those lessons to lever ourselves into other games for even more chances at reward and development of self. Joy flows from overcoming challenges - both large and small.
Making a series of lateral shifts from one form of competition to another, then another, until we hit one that allows us to perform well … is a form of competition in and of itself.
So when someone asks me - do you like to compete? My mind instantly supplies the inevitable answer - ‘life IS competition’.
(Note: AI helped me make this poster - I don't use AI to write)

A Letter to the Jiu Jitsu White Belt
What I appreciate now as a Coral Belt that I did not appreciate as a white belt ….

Speed Matters: Slow down to the pace that allows you to THINK.

Species of Partner: Be the kind of partner that EVERYONE wants to train with - it’ll give you more opportunities to learn lots of different things.

Experiment: Succeed or fail, it doesn’t matter much - both give us useable data.

Avoid Injuries: Overblown ego’s are the cause behind a lot of injuries. Don’t die on any particular hill - live to train another day.

Don’t be distracted: Avoid jumping from one thing to another and then to the latest and greatest thing. Square away the fundamentals - they’ll stay with you forever and afford you the benefit of compounding gains.

Understand the power of time: You don’t need to beat everyone - you just need to outlast everyone. Time fixes a lot of problems; it allows compounding to have an effect. Short term thinking is what demotivates us - it can pull us way from saving, from learning, from making some of the biggest gains of our lives. Patience.

Belts: Don’t train to get a new coloured belt; you can ‘get’ a new belt down the store - but to earn a belt or even better ‘become’ that blue belt, purple belt, etc - that is the real accomplishment.

Gratitude: be grateful for your instructors efforts - they likely had to put up with your nonsense for a long time - be grateful for your wonderful training partners, for without them, we will learn nothing. Be grateful - and show it.

Have fun: Enjoy it. When we enjoy things, we keep doing them, - and then, time takes care of everything else. Seek enjoyment.

Be well my friends - and remember - we’re all in in it - together.

The Socratic Approach
One of the huge evolutionary advantages of Combatives arts of the non-compliant variety (BJJ, Wrestling, Boxing, Judo, etc) is that we get to pressure-test all of our ‘theories’ in every practise.

We Roll. We find Out.
Every class is an experiment.
Every round is a peer review.
Every tap is a data point.

Many martial arts practitioners are inculturated into their particular martial arts beliefs; they tend to resist change ferociously - and avoid environments that pressure-tests their beliefs - dogma!

If we think about the Socratic approach as it relates to training - then every technique is a hypothesis; and live training is the experiment.

Everyone can be competent - at something!
Not everyone can be fast, strong, wealthy, good looking, exceptional … and so on; but, we can all be competent - at something. When we become competent at something, we can then leverage the ‘approach’ we took. To become competent at something else. Over time, we lever ourselves into living a better version of our life.