Professor Reggie Almeida left a corporate career in Brazil, where he worked as a commercial consultant reporting to a CEO, to accept an offer to teach jiu-jitsu in the United States in 2008, at 37, with his wife pushing him to take the leap. Now settled in Nashville with three American kids, he tells how his hard, Brazilian-style first classes shrank from 50 students to almost none in two weeks, and how a former karate instructor taught him how Americans like to train. One of his private students turned out to be Megadeth's Dave Mustaine, whose first call Reggie nearly ignored.

Reggie describes years of private lessons with Dave and the tours that followed: more than 100 shows, a mat set up in every venue, a tour bus full of men reading books and eating salad instead of the chaos he expected, and the day he took over Dave's schedule from the managers. The whole band tried a class. He explains why people quit too soon in a fast-food culture, why he still trains every day "because my jiu-jitsu is still very bad," why feeling worse often means you are opening up your game, and how getting smashed on the mat teaches calm under pressure off it.

In this episode

• 0:00 Welcome
• 1:07 A life he never expected
• 3:18 Leaving a corporate career at 37
• 9:40 The class that emptied the gym
• 13:46 Told to quit in his first week
• 15:48 Jiu-jitsu and the discipline of music
• 19:01 Life on the tour bus
• 23:16 The call he almost ignored
• 28:42 Finally going on tour
• 30:48 Running the schedule on the road
• 38:27 Sharing jiu-jitsu with the band
• 44:49 Why he never stops learning
• 50:13 Feeling worse means you're growing
• 53:20 Lessons from getting smashed

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