This is an excerpt of Mikey Musumeci’s interview on JRE.

Joe: What is the caliber of training partners over there?

Mikey: Uh, the training in Asia is actually really high level, you know, um, in Vegas where I train, I just train with hobbyists in my garage. Um, my, the last five years or six years I’ve been doing that.

Joe: You trained with hobbyists?

Mikey: Hobbyists only.

Joe: So meaning just people that are friends?

Mikey: Just people that do jiu-jitsu as, like for fun, like they get outta work and they train for fun.

Joe: So you haven’t been going to a formal school?

Mikey: Um, I would represent big teams, but a hundred percent of my training would just be with hobbyists because I like their energy better than competitors.

Joe: Really?

Mikey: Um, so if you train with a competitor, they have the vibe of like a nine to five job. Uh, when I train with a hobbyist, they actually wanna be there ‘cause they’re having fun. So how I train, I train more like a hobbyist, like my energy. Yeah. So I prefer being in an environment like that. So I surround myself with mostly hobbyists.

Joe: Wow. What I would imagine there’s some sort of negative to that in that you’re, you’re not being pressured by elite grapplers.

Mikey: But the way that I train, I’m more just teaching everyone around me to give me certain reactions that I need to work on. So I’m more observing. So if I’m having, if I’m doing a position and I feel like something stops it, I’ll teach everyone I train with how to stop what I’m doing, and then I have to figure out how to, uh, solve it again and again.

Joe: So you basically just piece that all together once you actually get into a match. And when, so it’s like you’re making, you’re creating like building blocks while you’re training.

Mikey: Yeah. And I control all the different variables and I just add different things in.

Joe: Wow. So no major gym where you go there and, and that’s incredible. Um, so you could easily recreate that in Singapore.

Mikey: I could train anywhere. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Uh, the training in Singapore is the same level as, if not higher than my training in Vegas, so it’s sufficient, you know.

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The full episode is on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/02yF358T52mxlWBBs4WOAk