JRE MMA Show #101 with Kevin Holland & Travis Lutter

Joe Rogan (0:14)

Okay, we're rolling. Kevin, what's up? Is that your phone? Travis Lutter.

So, first of all, welcome. Thanks for doing this. Appreciate it. And it's good to see you again, man. I haven't seen you in forever.

Travis Lutter (0:27)

Yeah, man, it's been a few years.

Joe Rogan (0:29)

Try to keep this like a fist from your face.

Travis Lutter (0:32)

Fist from my face, yeah.

Joe Rogan (0:34)

We were talking right before about injuries.

I always like to talk to guys who've been doing Jiu Jitsu a long time, because they always have this laundry list of injuries. And you were talking about neck fusions and disc issues.

Travis Lutter (0:49)

Yeah, I mean, I'm just like everybody else. We get, everybody gets injured. We all get old.

It just takes time.

But my opinion is if I'm gonna teach Jiu Jitsu, I have to stay doing the art. I think that when people just teach and they don't train, it's like, it's a perishable. It's like your skills are perishable. And then it's also your thoughts. It's like, yeah, it's like, oh, well, if we just, that's when you start seeing bullshit Jiu Jitsu.

And so it's like, if I'm gonna teach, I have to train. And it's like, I love training. I much prefer to, I wish I could still fight, but I can't. So it's like, but I do train. And it's like, and I have to.

Joe Rogan (1:34)

Did you notice a difference in improvement in some of your skills when you start teaching?

Travis Lutter (1:38)

Yeah, for sure. I think that teaching definitely helps you improve because the way that I think about it is, is that when you're teaching, you have to think about how he's looking at a problem. So you show him a move and then you come back and he comes back with a question. And it might be in a way that you've never thought about it before.

And then so then you've got to break down how to answer that question for them so that it makes sense to on their level at their and their wavelength. You know, so it's like that helps me because now I understand the position even essentially better. Yeah, I could do this position before, but now it's like I've answered so many different questions over the years.

You know, it really, really improves your jiu jitsu.

Joe Rogan (2:23)

Kevin, when you started training, did you start right away with with Travis or did you start somewhere else?

Kevin Holland (2:27)

Like jiu jitsu?

Joe Rogan (2:28)

Yeah.

Kevin Holland (2:28)

Yeah, I never did jiu jitsu with anybody else but Travis.

Joe Rogan (2:31)

Did you do martial arts before?

Kevin Holland (2:33)

Yeah, I was a kung fu black belt when I got there.

Joe Rogan (2:34)

Oh, that's right, because you call yourself a kung fu fighter when you enter into the octagon.

Kevin Holland (2:38)

Everybody's kung fu fighting.

Joe Rogan (2:41)

What kind of kung fu was it?

Kevin Holland (2:42)

So it was actually a mix. It was a mix between Hawaiian kimpo, no, my bad, American kimpo and kung fu sansu. So kung fu sansu was originated in the States from Jimmy H. Wu bringing it over.

And then kimpo just has a thousand different stories, so I couldn't really keep up with that. So I was always more fascinated with the kung fu sansu aspect of it. So I actually went to Bill Lasseter's studio out in Ranch Cucamonga, California and took a couple classes there. So I was just mainly focused on the kung fu aspect of it. Sansu was always funner than the forms that we did for kimpo.

Joe Rogan (3:17)

I'm trying to remember what sansu is. What's the fundamental difference between sansu and other kinds of kung fu?

Kevin Holland (3:25)

So probably the other differences, I probably couldn't tell you, but it's more, I guess you could say it's more common.

And so it's more like, it's more brutal. We're not doing a bunch of pretty things. Yeah, yeah, nothing wrong with Tai Chi, but we're not doing a bunch of breathing techniques and stuff like that. It's more so like bash you over the head with this stick, bash you over the head with my fist. Just, it's a mean kung fu style. And it worked well for me, especially in high school, it was my type of thing.

Joe Rogan (3:53)

Yeah, you don't see a lot of, there's a lot of kung fu techniques that I think probably would work in the octagon. Like here's one that you see now that you didn't used to see before, people thought was kind of bullshit, is that oblique kick.