Fucking spectacular interview @ErikApple. Finally got a chance to actually listen to it this morning.
Me and another black belt saw the Ruotolo/Paulson connection come together and were really surprised. Paulson hadn’t been in coaching spotlight in a while, and the Ruotolo’s seemed so new school it seemed to be an odd connection. This interview is the first place I’ve heard it explained well.
It makes me so happy they ended up with a guy like Erik. He’s a fucking legend with more experience being around MMA than almost anyone else. And he has the intellect and the passion to bring that experience to bear as a coach.
I was so afraid that when they decided to do MMA (Kade at first) that they would just end up at one of those super gyms where there is basically no coaching and good guys just basically spar each other like Syndicate. There is this weird cultural shift in MMA and especially in BJJ where people are losing a lot of the core things that make great fighters. Any coach who actually cares about their athletes and expects training and respect is called a cult leader running a “toxic” environment. It goes hand in hand with this eco faggotry. No one wants to admit that there are guys like Paulson who have so much knowledge that they couldn’t come up with on their own and they need to throw themselves at their feet and do what they’re told.
The fact that the Ruotolo’s ended up there gives me a little bit of hope for the future.
