Posted on December 1, 2008 - by Jim Hughes

A Hearty Thank-You

Jim,

First off, keep the emails coming; they are informative, funny and enjoyable!

Secondly, thanks for all you’ve done thus far to get the New England schools running. Funny thing is, I first learned of mma, or whatever it was called back in the day, by watching Royce at UFC 3. Since way back then, I always admired bjj, for many reasons, but primarily because it allowed you to end a fight without necessarily getting hurt, or even doing much damage to your opponent.

Years and years later, I got into traditional wrestling in a club-type environment, and some of the guys were doing submission wrestling. After a few arm bars, I thought, enough of that! I googled bjj in CT, and lo and behold, found a school (Danbury) that was right on my commute. That it was an actual Royce school was divine providence, if you ask me.

That was over a year ago, and all I can say is that Gracie jiu-jitsu has been perhaps the single most important influence on my life thus far. It’s not that I am looking to fight anyone (outside of class …), but having that confidence has affected every other aspect of my life for the positive. I know that if I should ever get into a fight, my automatic responses, drilled into me through hours of training, will pretty much get me through most anything.

The recent Royce seminar in Danbury was my first-ever with the man himself. And it was even better than I’d imagined. Royce was pretty intimidating, but not in a bad way — more in a “I have even more respect for him” sorta way. That Royce himself awarded me my blue belt was an experience I’ll never forget. I plan to study Gracie jiu-jitsu for the rest of my life, God willing.

Again, thanks for all you do, and Lou at the Danbury school does a tremendous job as well!

Sincerely,

Frank Masi