In February 2000, James Clingerman was a blue belt sitting at a stoplight when a man pulled up next to him and shot him in the face. The 9mm bullet is still lodged in his skull, and he's blind in his left eye. Two weeks later, the academy where he was set to teach opened its doors, and on opening day he was the only coach who showed up. "I was literally laying on the edge of the mat, my face all swollen, an eye patch on." He went on to take that academy over, and he's been teaching there ever since.

With Pete and co-host Professor Lucas Rubbo, Professor James talks about what he hopes students take away beyond technique, the student whose game-plan notes said "don't lose, don't suck, don't get choked out," the ten percent who need extra help and the ten percent who need more, why the credits never roll in jiu-jitsu, the four-month white belt with a highlight reel, what new students get wrong, the walk-in who wanted $500 a class to teach "deadly" Marine Corps combatives, a student's 100-pound journey to black belt, and why the hardest thing in jiu-jitsu is seeing your own progress.

Recorded in October 2023, on the 16th anniversary of James's black belt, when he was a fourth-degree black belt. This is a new cut of that conversation.

In this episode

• 0:00 Cold open
• 0:45 Welcome: Pete, Professor Lucas Rubbo and James
• 1:54 A Passion for Something
• 5:18 Brad's Notes
• 10:41 The Ten Percent
• 15:16 The Credits Never Roll
• 23:57 Jiu-Jitsu Is Simple
• 27:57 The Walk-In
• 36:00 A Hundred Pounds
• 41:54 Two Weeks
• 45:47 Slow Progress Is Still Progress

Watch on YouTube · Subscribe to The Jiu Jitsu Mindset