Special Guest Isaac Greeley & Evan Boris PT1

Count money man, my bag riches.

I'm trying to try and told him I'm a beast.

But

What's up gang?

Welcome to the grind cast.

I'm an area here.

Get ready to do the new day.

What's up gang?

Welcome to another episode of the grind cast.

Get ready.

It's a new day.

We got special guests in the house.

We got of course, we got big

perm.

What's up, y'all?

We got Isaac Greeley in the house.

Come on, Isaac.

And we got Evan new to the grind cast.

Evan Boris.

Yes, Evan Boris.

Evan.

Evan Boris in the house.

And so I'm going to briefly

reintroduce Isaac.

Evan is one of the best striking coaches

in the area from from Toronto,

making a huge impact in the MMA world,

a huge impact in a lot of people's lives.

Isaac, former NCAA, all-American wrestler,

multiple time, runner up national champ,

rolling in a national champ, just one pan amps,

silver pan amps.

Right, silver metal pan amps this year.

45 years old, rolling like he's 25 years old.

He's a five now.

He's also a chiropractor and doctor by trade,

Dr. Greeley over here.

But his biggest passion is being a doctor on the mats,

and he's impacting so many people on and off the mats.

And these two dynamic duo in the MMA world.

And whenever you see the mat factory stamp,

which Isaac runs the mat factory, whenever you see

the mat factory stamp and people are fighting,

you know, more often than not,

they're probably gonna come out on top at some of those things.

So Isaac, if you wouldn't mind,

maybe just give us a quick intro of Evan.

Yeah, Evan, Evan striking concepts,

AKA striking concepts.

Yes.

Met Evan a number of years ago now,

he was actually living in South Florida.

He was coaching one of my old guys, Dominic Mazada,

developed a very close relationship,

you know, just hit it off great,

had a lot of mutual respect.

And then, you know, just led us today.

Evan can kind of lead into it, but he lives in Canada.

Right now, kid.

And they're a little bit on lockdown,

so I talked, I talked to him,

He's saying, come down to Pittsburgh,

what's trained some MMA fighters?

So we've been having a blast the last few months,

and really raised our level,

all around level of game with our fighters,

and you know, could be more proud of that.

Let's dig in.

Let's go straight forward.

So Isaac, how do you train your mind

to do what it is that you want it to do?

You know, so much of grappling and fighting,

we were just talking downstairs about the wrestling grind

is mental.

How do you overcome that mental aspect,

what advice would you give?

I mean, the mental side of it is, you know, 90% for sure.

I think the biggest thing for me is,

I like to embrace the suck myself.

If I'm gonna, you know, I'm gonna be a coach,

my philosophy is I gotta be in the grind with the guys.

I like that.

And, you know, I appreciate the grind,

I appreciate the suck.

You know, I take a wrestler's mindset with me in life,

and I, you know, never, I don't think I ever change.

You know, it's bright into me at a young age,

and I think to keep my mind sharp,

I gotta make sure that I'm sharpening the sword at all times.

So that's kind of where I come from from that side of things.

Think the one of the, you know, two things

that sticks out to me about what's different about you

is that not only you mid 40s,

but just still crushing everybody out there on the mats,

but just active with your people like that.

You know, not just coaching from the sidelines,

but just actively out there doing, doing the deals.

Right to passion, you could just feel the love,

the passion, the energy, all of that stuff.

And then the care that you bring,

you know, which connects with that passion of just the care

you could feel the, how much he cares about what he's doing,

how much he cares about the people,

the passion, all of that stuff.

So, you know, part of that is, you know,

you talked about this past week,

you had three fighters, you know, fight,

you guys came out two in one, two fighters,

one, one part of the process is sometimes you win,

sometimes you learn, you know,

maybe Evan, could you talk to us a little bit about,

you know, failure and how you think that relates to success?

I know you've trained some of the best fighters in the world,

and not every one of them goes undefeated, right?

That's right. Like, especially in MMA,

it's a situation where you're always gonna go.

It's just a matter of time,

but you're always gonna go just because the,

the amount that goes in,

the amount of different elements that go in to mix martial arts,

you're gonna get matched up,

maybe along the way where your development isn't there yet,

like, tomorrow's meant.

If you look at his record, he's got a loss to this dude

that you've never heard of in an organization called CFA,

and what that did for him was allow him to go,

oh man, I can get submitted to even though I'm a, you know,

NIA champion, even though I'm this great wrestler,

even though I'm, you know, US representative,

I got these great skills, I can still get submitted to.

Okay, all right, hold up, what do I gotta do?

Let me engineer this thing a little differently.

Yes.

So everybody's always gonna go more or less,

but it lets you know who you are, right?

Like, I wanted to be, I swore I was gonna be the best Canadian

that ever did Muay Thai,

and then I was gonna go into boxing,

and then I was gonna go into kickboxing,

I was gonna do all these things.

You find yourself cut open and having to rebuild from surgery,

and then you figure out like, who do I really wanna be?

What do I really wanna do?

Oh, I really wanna, you know,

devote my life to martial arts, or this is my calling.

And until you have a setback,

you can tell God your plans all you want.

Right. He'll just laugh at you, you know?

You find yourself coming out of a operation

or coming off of a hard loss, or your girl leaves you.

A girl leaves you now, it's a problem man, brother.

Yeah.

Woo! That girl leaves something going down, right?

You lose your, you lose your job.

Yeah, you mad, you're angry, you gotta deal with that.

But you gotta know yourself, right?

And fail your forces you to take that hard look.

Look at yourself and say, who do I wanna be

and how do I wanna get there?

Now, do you guys ever get mad

that wanna be somebody's ass like for real for real?

Like, you know, they say in real life?

Yeah, yeah, yeah, after, you know,

like when you're working, you say,

what you wanna like, what somebody's ass like,

man, I really wanna fuck you up, man.

For real.

I think Coach be getting his moments.

Yeah, I know.

No way.

He gets mad, he gets mad, he gets his moments.

Now, there's a story for all those at the math factory,

there's a story about the time Coach really kicked

everybody up out the gym.

Oh, everybody had to go.

Everybody had to go.

Oh, that's a bad day.

What was that day?

Oh, that was a bad day.

Little bit of a body, it says little bit of body.

Maybe like a second of it.

I mean, how'd you get so mad?

Like how?

I know I would feel like, you know, he gives you that

but because he gives so much love to a place,

it's almost like that.

Oh, I let him down.

And that's what people say.

People say, I feel like I let him down.

I'm a trade coach.

I'm a trade coach, right?

I do it for coach.

I mean, it really kicked everybody out.

It happens.

It's you off, what happened?

You can, my wife could tell you, you know,

I have a line that I don't like to cross.

So I'm a 10 to one guy, 10 positive to one negative.

I like to beat, that's kind of my personal philosophy.

But, you know, if I get to that line

and that negative's there, you know,

one out of a hundred times

and it's gonna be pretty explosive.

So, I mean, it happens.

You know, my coach wrestling for 20 years now

and all my wrestlers, no, they've all,

every generation is seen in at least once.

That side of me.

But, you know, it's there, you know,

it's never gonna leave me.

It's made me who I was.

It's my road rage.

Fire.

No, I haven't had road rage, but.

Do you?

I find, I know.

Her arms getting better.

He's arguing with me.

He get me nervous out there.

Her arms start arguing with people on the road.

I'm like, where?

Get on my nerves.

It's stressful.

Man, I can't get it.

He starts arguing with a shit.

I can't do that.

Yeah, yeah, he gets mad too.

Cause he's like, you know what I mean?

He's like you.

Tell me this as a coach, man, Isaac.

What most commonly stops people with talent?

You know, people that you see that are super talented.

You know, Evan and I talk about this a lot.

Number one, he can dive into this.

It's like unrealistic goal setting.

You know, we talk about that.

You know, being true to themselves.

You know, what do you mean unrealistic goal setting?

I mean, we get guys that come into gym all the time

and you know, they want to be UFC champion in two years

and we're like, well, that's a lot.

But it's also vague.

It's also very vague, right?

Like to say, I want to be a millionaire.

Right.

I want to be rich.

That doesn't mean nothing.

Right.

How are you going to do it?

What's the step are you going to take?

Right.

What does it require?

We got to be able to reverse engineer.

I got to be able to see it from the root to the fruit.

Right.

You know what I'm saying?

Right.

So like the root to the fruit, I like that though.

I wish I came up with it.

I stole that.

I like it though.

Like a guy I love to use tomorrow because he's a guy

that I saw so early on that was like, oh man,

I got to work on this jab.

You want a world title with the jab?

You defended a world title with the jab.

Like, okay, yeah, it did many other things along the way

but he recognized man, small gloves.

I got to I got to understand the defense.

I got to understand the distance.

I got to understand how this incorporates into my wrestling.

I got to work and work and work and work on these little things

because he saw the vision of how it would get to the big things.

You know what I'm saying?

Yes.

You're doing the little things.

Right.

So what else?

I think, you know, obsession, you know,

the most talented guys got to be obsessed.

You got to be obsessed.

You got to be obsessed.

And if you have those goals and you know how to set them,

you're doing little things, you're working on your fundamentals

and you're obsessed, you know, you're spending every waking hour

thinking about your goals.

That's going to, you know, that's going to, you know,

expose your talent.

You know, you're going to be able to have a chance at achieving those great things

because there's 100, you got to realize there's 100 to a thousand of you out there

that want it.

There's a hundred to a thousand in your weight class in the world that want it.

You think you want it?

They want it.

This is bad.

It's going to be the little things that pay off.

Small things.

So the several things are definitely, you know,

I've been it luckily, been around a few, you know, really gifted athletes.

And I've seen guys not reach their potential, you know, which is,

it's heartbreaking.

And I've seen guys exceed their potential.

So I think talent.

What's the biggest couple of things of people that don't reach their potential?

Oh, sacrifice.

Why?

That's where it.

Sacrifice.

Sacrifice.

They don't want to sacrifice.

Everybody wants to be at home with their girl for dinner.

Everybody does.

Everybody wants to be on Saturday and Sunday.

Everybody does.

Yeah.

Yeah.

You don't want to go to practice.

You don't want to go to wrestling practice.

This sucks.

It hurts.

You got to spar the next day.

It sucks.

It hurts.

Because you want to go.

So what you say and what you do got to line up or you're going to end up as out.

Right.

I think that's it.

That's the word sacrifice.

What you say you want and what you're willing to do and give up in order to get it.

Yeah.

That's the key.

That's the key.

How do you overcome self-doubt?

You know, you probably get a lot of people that, you know, have a little bit of doubt and

you turn those people into animals sometimes.

How do you overcome helping people that have a little bit of self-doubt?

I mean, I want to do it.

I want to do it.

Don't hurt me like this.

Yeah.

I think every, I mean, you live, you don't have self-doubt.

That's part of the process.

Yeah.

I mean, I've suffered from that myself.

I mean, it's tough, especially when you're in a competitive combat sport.

I mean, it's you versus them, you know, you're out there on the stage wrestling, grappling,

MMA, it's boxing, anything like that.

There's a ton of self-doubt that creeps in, especially the closer the competition that

you get, everyone can say two wants out.

Like, I'm going to win in this fight.

I'm knocking this guy out.

I'm going to, you know, I'm going to win this championship.

But when it gets closer and it gets real, your nerves start creeping in.

Self-doubt starts really creeping in.

I think the important things are having certain people in place in your life, you know,

having a strong faith in God, huge, huge, just to help you, you know, with everyday life.

Having good coaches that understand that self-doubt creeping in and just shove it down,

you know, to nip that in a bud.

I think that's super important to have those kind of people in your life.

And then, you know, reading, studying, looking at other people that are champions, understanding

their mindset, what makes separates them.

I think a little bit of self-doubt is healthy too.

I don't think it's something that you've got to like completely ignore.

I think that gives you, gives you that edge when you go into a competition, you know,

going to anything challenging.

You have that little bit of self-doubt to really like stand up to it.

I think that's important thing because it makes you sharp.

So, can I add to that?

Yeah, please do.

So, I think what coaches was referring to is all excellent.

And I think that when you combine that with preparation, a lot of it takes care of itself.

For example, we had a guy who, you know, this guy would ask me if it's the right time to

go to the bathroom or if it's the right time, you know, to breathe.

The little less things, he was squeezing every muscle super tight, you know, but for eight

weeks in a row, he showed up on time.

He did the right things.

We drilled specific, specific things.

And a certain point along the way, he started to see himself not as maybe, but as definitely,

you know?

Yes.

And then we walked.

So much work put in that you start to believe so much because you put in so much work.

And then he takes that walk and the cage door closes and it comes off and he comes back

and he goes, coach, how that happened?

And I said, you did it every step of the way.

You visualized it.

You saw it from the route to the fruit.

You drilled it.

You built it.

You failed at it.

You failed.

You failed at it.

You failed at it.

You have part of the process.

It didn't just come out the boss ready to work, right?

Right.

Right.

But he had failed and overcome.

Failed and overcome.

Failed and overcome.

Failed and overcome.

And it.

And love it.

Blossoms.

How long have you been doing this?

Ever?

I got in, I'm 35, I'd be 36, I got into martial arts, about 12, 13, really started at 15.

So that's around that 20 years.

Oh.

Parm root or fruit?

Pick one.

Root.

I knew you was going with the root.

There's no doubt about that.

You was going with the root.

There's the root.

So Isaac, what steps would you take to develop somebody?

And then I want to hear from you too, Evan.

What steps would you take to develop somebody with no experience?

Like if I came in, fundamentals, skills, skills, skills, work.

So I think that you came in first thing we'd have to do is come in and eat it.

You got to stop smoking all the black and brown stuff.

Yeah.

Yeah.

We like Pat and Perm down when he comes in the bathroom, make sure he's finished.

You don't have to have no.

Hey man, no, you know what, we have the gear form, we're ready to go, we got everything ready.

But, you know, is that the next podcast?

The recap of Perm's first wrestling practice?

Fundamental jujitsu is where we're starting them.

We've got the start of them.

Yeah, we've started them right.

So I think fundamentals, you know, we have a system.

I think that most successful, you know, martial arts schools have.

I think you got to teach the fundamentals, the skills that you think you feel are very important

to what your system, your philosophy is.

And then, you know, that's something that even our most advanced guys do on a daily basis.

So I think starting there, starting small, just kind of like,

having them help them understand the concepts behind the skills and why we're doing it, like Evan

likes to say. You know, know the why, understand the why, and then kind of like move from there

to more skills, more skills, until you kind of have a round, a pretty round understanding of

what's going on. And then from there, usually that point, someone's ready to take off with the sport.

Yeah, I mean, I mean, the only thing that I would add to that is, you got to assess what you got.

And sometimes that's like a big undertaking. And sometimes that's as simple as like the questions

I asked you today, where's your personality? What, you know, are you an R&B guy? You smooth jazz

guy because like the mix I might make for you is a little different, you know what I'm saying?

Right. So, we get myself, we know you'll love you.

Yeah, we can be kept. Everybody see Perm, no, he loves it. I'm a lover not a fighter.

You stumped me with the Ninja Turtles. I just, I couldn't remember what everybody did. I just

I remember that. And I was like, yeah, but I mean, for down the tellover, all the geeks out there,

like a Raphael dude, they'll be way different than a Leonardo for sure. Right? It's going to be

a real different. What else I asked him? I asked him, I said, hey, if you were a superhero in your

own movie, right? And you're one on one, right? You bunch of knock the sky off the roof. What

you got in with? He said, oh, I'm ahead of him with the overhand. Right? That's okay. What's

that telling me? That tell me he's aggressive. That's not looking for a counter. He's not looking for

something slick. No, he wants to take it to your neck. You know what I mean? Because I can train a

guy to do pretty much anything. But at the end of the day, he's going to be him. Yeah. You know what I mean?

So you adapt to that style? I have to. Yeah. I have to. Yeah. I can't turn you into point

there. So what's super unique to me about about Evan and a little bit of time that I've spent

around him is just how I could see why you're so good because you're so smart. Right.

Like I could just tell how intellectual you are with the game and then how you can do things like

that. Like, all right, this is this person's skill set or strength. I'm going to just adopt and

build a game plan around that person. Very unique from others, you know, that I've seen and spend

time with. That's the one thing that jumps off the off the scene to me about you is just the

intellect and intelligence that you have around the game, game planning and stuff like that.

I could see you just crushing that. You're in leadership. You're in leadership. You've

been leading a long time. If you treated everybody this, actually, we're talking about this at lunch.

If you treat everybody the same, you're going to get me to getting results. No doubt. You know what I'm

saying? You talked about buying trust loyalty. Right. If if if I'm tailoring my approach to you,

I think it's much more likely that you're going to buy in. Now that makes my job easier.

That makes the likelihood of success much higher. Right. You know, we're working together instead of

working in the essence of speaking and working together. So there's, you know, people will come to you

and they'll work with you on, you know, the for everybody has different goals. Let's say somebody comes

to you and says they want to be a world champion. And you're explaining to them, you know, the sacrifice,

the mindset, the training, the recovery schedule, you know, all of that stuff.

How would you role play that conversation out of somebody looks at you and says,

hey, I want to be a world champion. What do you what do you want to what do you feel like they need

to understand that they're sank? Yeah. I mean, they're saying that they want to have something so

exceptional, so incredible. We're just in a seminar downstairs where a part of your team

was saying dream big. You can't dream big enough. Some people can't even see past their own blood.

They can't see the world. Some people can't see past their own gym to see a world title. They can say it,

but can they see it? It's very difficult. It's very difficult to see what it takes. Most of the work

gets done in the dark. Most of the work gets done without the likes, without the gratification, without

the glory. So I think what I try to get across to people is if you enjoy the journey, right? If you

just enjoy showing up to the gym and busting your butt to be the best that you can be, then the

likelihood of you accomplishing some great things is much greater. What are some things I got a

sacrifice to be a world champion? What are I going to do? I mean, I think the biggest thing is

prioritizing where we put our time and attention because there's always going to be another text message

you can answer. There's always going to be another like. There's always going to be another photo

you can post. Yes, but I mean too soon we get too late, we get smart. We have a very limited amount

of time on this rock. We have a very limited amount of time in this day. We got to get after it.

It doesn't mean you burn the candle at both ends 24 hours a day. You know, 52 weeks out of the

area is not going to work. It's not sustainable. But you have to make the most of your training

schedule and set micro goals to meet macro goals so that we can review and improve. Love it.

What do you think? I'm motivated. I want to be a world champ. Somebody says I want to be a world

champ. Talk to me about. Give me the hard stuff. Give me the stuff that people don't want to hear.

What stuff do they need to hear that they don't want to hear? I mean number one, it's, you know,

why hang out like it? Yeah, your wife angle like it. That's the first one. The first rule is this.

Why ain't your wife going to like it? Why would you say that? Because that's the truth. Why? Why?

The truth. Why? Well, she may or may not like it, but you're in a relationship. So she has her idea

of what the relationship is going to look like. You have your idea of what the relationship is going to look like.

But you're also married to the success. You're married to the game to a certain amount of time.

So you realize, oh, I got 15 years of athletic potential. I got maybe maybe 17 years of athletic

potential. I got to go. I'm sorry, sweetie. I can't watch home and garden TV. I can't. I got to go now.

Right. And sometimes people they agree with the end goal, but how we get there is different.

Right. They say we need a balanced relationship. Well, yeah, when you look back on the balance of the

relationship, some years it's going to be 70% you and 30% her and the other years it's going to be

30% you and say, like, if there's a child coming or something like that, it's not going to be 50, 50 every

day. Right. And so that's where the communication starts to have to happen and sacrifice on both parts

have to happen. And you're not always going to like it. There's going to be some rainy seasons.

Truth. You know, love that. But that sacrifice and dedication to a communal goal, right? What other

things? What don't? What what are they not want to hear? I mean, so she need to hear motivation is

the key. I mean, that's the bottom line. I mean, I can't want it for you. He can't want it for you.

Your girlfriend can't want it for your mom can't want it for you. You got to want it for yourself.

You know, I've had these conversations with guys and I hear their words, but you know, you

have a true champion in front of you. They're telling you this. You're not telling them anything.

They know already. There's no conversation that needs to be had. You know, if I'm telling you,

this is what you need to do and you're taking notes on it, yeah, I can then you're going to think

about it and make your own decisions. But when you're telling me what you're going to do and how

you're going to do it and what your goals are and how you're going to reach your goals. And that's

a world champion. That's, you know, that's a champion in general and anything. So I think for me,

for an athlete, if I see that self-motivated athlete that's doing things in the dark that Evan's

talking about, I don't even know you're in the gym. You don't need to tell me I already know

you're in the gym. I know what you're doing. I know you're eating the right things, skin

your sleep, working on your recovery. I don't need to set your recovery schedule up. I don't need to

tell you today's need to take off. You know, that's the kind of athlete that can really become super

successful in any any any any sport. But for us to be getting excited because, you know, I don't

I mean some athletes need a little help at the beginning. You know, here's what we got to do.

Here's how we set goals. Here's our training schedule. This is what I need you to do. This is

you know, these are your this is your homework. And that's fine. That's part of the that's part of the

process. But when they get to a certain point and they take over their own script and they're

a straight line that we talked about this last time. They're not a square. They're not they'll

have four things they're focused on. They have gym. They're family in the in their craft, right? And

that's the straight line to the gym and home. And they're spending time with their wives or girlfriends

or whatever family. That's it. That's all they care about. They don't care about going out. They

don't care about impressing anybody on social media. They don't care about anything. That's it.

That's where they make quick growth because it happens so fast. I mean, I've seen guys like

that's the obsession. You gotta be obsessed. You know, you see guys like him. I was down at the gym. I

saw him, you know, a couple of years ago and now it's the UFC champion. You know, you see guys,

you know, even even some of the guys that, you know, still have it like Dwayne Dustin,

Dwayne, perfect example. Like he still live in that. You can tell by his, you know, his actions,

you know, he still has that straight line. That's always able to go out and do amazing things

still at his age. And he has, he has, he's married. He's got a wife, very supportive family.

So I think like you can take lessons from that as well. So if you have someone in your corner,

well, you know, we're going to talk about that. That's very, you know, if they're truly in your

corner and they know it's 70% on you right now, we got, we got bills that we got, this is our

time to make hey, they're behind that. That's going to really help you make a lot of hey. Hey,

hey, first time I heard it. I like that. We make some hey dogs. We got to tell them.

That's a quality. That's what makes me happy. Okay.