08/07/2026
A new chapter.
For a while now, jiu jitsu just hasn’t been the same for me. Between work & life I found myself showing up here and there, catching an open mat when I could, but never really getting back into a routine. Somewhere along the way, I lost the consistency and motivation that made me fall in love with it in the first place.
My brother Adriano Garcia has been talking about training for years. He’d come with me to open mats whenever he could, drop in for a class here and there, and hell there was even a stretch where we were down in my basement just beating the s**t out of each other, sparring and rolling, trying to figure things out. Now he’s back in KC for good, living downtown, landed the job he’d been working toward, and finally decided it was time to commit.
So after a lot of thought, I decided to join my brother at Alive Jiu Jitsu & MMA . It wasn’t an easy decision, I was looking at a couple of other amazing gyms but getting the chance to train with my brother every week was something I couldn’t pass up. I have been going to Alive’s open mats for some time and not only do they have a lot of great talent but they have always made me feel welcomed here.
Kansas City is lucky to have the jiu jitsu community it does. I’ve been fortunate enough to train at quite a few gyms over the years, every coach, every room, and every training partner has something different to offer. That’s one of the things I love most about this martial art. You can walk into a gym almost anywhere, introduce yourself, and before long you’re training, talking, and laughing with people you just met. No matter where you go, everybody on the mats understands the same language.
I’ve been super fortunate to learn from coaches like Jeremy Whorton and John Monk .Both of them great coaches! They both gave me the same advice in their own way that will always stick with me “I don’t care where you train, I just want you training jiu jitsu.” Looking back, that says everything about the kind of men they are. I’m super grateful I’ve had the chance to learn from them.
Knowing me, I’ll still be dropping in and training all over the city like I always have. See you on the mats.