Professor Chris Wojcik started jiu-jitsu at 17 in Chicago, wanted to be a storyteller, and wrote a novel draft when gyms closed during the pandemic. Freelance writing paid the bills, but teaching was "the only job I've ever had that I actually didn't want to quit." Watching his first coach arrive happy two hours early every day showed him a life in jiu-jitsu was possible. A year before this conversation he moved to Austin to train at the B-Team with one goal, to make ADCC, and he is now preparing to compete in the 88-kilogram division.

Chris explains how a selfish competition camp can sit alongside coaching and helping teammates, why watching tournaments as a spectator made him calmer as a competitor, and how an eighth-grade wrestling season of 4 wins and 28 losses taught him to keep showing up. In Austin, purple belts tapped him in his first week as a black belt, and training with less ego made him enjoy jiu-jitsu again and improve faster. He talks about the lag between learning a lesson on the mat and living it off the mat, teaching life lessons without being preachy, and why community now matters to him more than technique.

In this episode

• 0:00 Welcome
• 1:06 Meet Professor Chris Wojcik
• 2:07 The writer who chose jiu-jitsu
• 5:21 The coach who planted the seed
• 7:34 Teaching his first class
• 9:38 Balancing competing and teaching
• 14:56 Lessons from losing in wrestling
• 19:13 Moving to Austin to chase ADCC
• 21:19 Tapped by purple belts
• 24:28 Choosing no-gi
• 26:34 When mat lessons reach daily life
• 29:42 Helping students compete calmer
• 33:58 Teaching without preaching
• 39:11 Why community matters more

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