Nathan Mendelsohn is a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu athlete who is born and raised in Santa Cruz, CA. As it happens, he is also a life-long martial artist, saying “I started training Karate at 4 years old, switched to Taekwondo at 6 then BJJ at 10!” Since then he achieved his black belt in BJJ at age 23 from Claudio Franca. He currently trains at Coalition 95/Claudio Franca Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.
On his entry into grappling, he recounts, “My master Claudio Franca knew my dad from the restaurant he worked at. Then one day Master Claudio moved the location of his school to the shopping center right behind my house. I was already training Taekwondo at the time so my dad didn’t think I needed any other martial arts training (which is something we laugh about now). He decided to let me try Jiu-Jitsu though because the academy had moved so close to us. I fell in love with BJJ and the rest is history!”
We asked Mendelsohn about his favorite techniques whilst playing BJJ – he said he prefers the Worm Guard and backward roll sweeps from the position. When passing, he uses the knee cut “With strong Rodolfo Vieira style shoulder pressure” and likes the armbar from mount as his main position. Interestingly, it is also Rodolfo Vieira who he lists as being the most influential grappler on his style.
Mendelsohn also has bags of competition experience over the years and is currently a middle-heavyweight after years of competing in the lightweight category. We asked about his biggest experience in competition and he said “It’s probably Abu Dhabi Grand Slam Tokyo 85kg Adult Black Champion, IBJJF US National Heavyweight Adult Black Champion, Bronze Medal IBJJF Europeans Middleweight Adult Black Belt and being ranked #8 in the World by Flograppling in 2018 Black Belt Adult Middleweight.” With this said, it’s fair to say he has years of experience at the highest of levels.
Like many competitors, Mendelsohn has also had his share of injuries and says “I tore my ACL and had to have surgery. I’m Back to 110% now though.” Due to his prowess, he’s also had a number of tough opponent’s down the years and we asked him who his hardest ever opponent was. He replied, “Buchecha! I fought him in the first round of Absolutes at my first Pan-Ams as a black belt (I was competing as a lightweight).”
Q&A
From what I understand you had a fairly normal kind of middle class childhood and then got involved in bjj. Is it true that various Brazilians would turn up to your house to train? If so where did these Brazilians come from? Was that a normal thing in California at the time? And what did your parents think of it?
“So the deal was that my master Claudio Franca runs tournaments here in California and he is very busy because of this and thus he wanted to start teaching less classes at the gym so he could focus on organizing the tournaments. At the time I was a blue/purple/brown belt and wasn’t capable of stepping up to fill in for him yet and I also wanted to be the best in the world and he knew that and wanted to provide more opportunities for me and the rest of the team to train harder and learn more.
So what we did was start to invite black belts from Brazil to come stay at my house and teach at the gym, that way Claudio could teach less and focus more on the tournaments and also I would always have some really tough Brazilian black belts to train with and learn from.
My parents always supported me in my BJJ dream and it was their idea to have the Brazilians stay with us. We have a little studio at my parents’ house that is separate from the main house that is a perfect guest house for people to stay in. Those were good times and it was during that time that I really learned how to start speaking Portuguese well.”
Also regarding upbringing in places like California. Do you think some of the kids are kind of overprotected in a way and not allowed to do things like BJJ in modern day because it’s violent? I know bjj is popular there but if we compare grappling for kids in USA compared to Russia it’s a lot more normal to train over there.
“I think kids are most definitely overprotected here in the US and especially California in general. However, not so much in regards to training things like BJJ. It’s quite the opposite actually. Jiu-Jitsu is actually starting to become widely recognized as an essential life tool for children and parents are eager to sign their kids up at a very young age.
This is in part due to very famous athletes like Kelly Slater going on record to say that children should be put into BJJ before any other sport. As a BJJ instructor it is very exciting to see this trend manifesting in the world I hope it continues to spread and grow! I believe Jiu-Jitsu should be taught in schools and every kid should graduate from high school with a blue belt.”
Also I heard you are not a fan of Ralek Gracie’s g in a gi and made a song mocking this. Do you make a lot of music or just did this track as a one off?
“I make tons of music! You guys can find my first album “Kimura Trap Vol 1” on Spotify and the “No G in a Gi” music video on Youtube (as mentioned above). I have been rapping since I was 12 years old but more recently have started taking it more seriously and creating music for the BJJ community. I’m working on “Kimura Trap Vol 2” right now and have a few music videos in the works. There may even be some IBJJF/ADCC World Champion black belts appearing in the next video but you’re just gonna have to stay tuned to find out who!”
I have heard your style is a lot of sparring which personally I think is great for beginners. Do you think BJJ is becoming too soft and shying away from things like this?
“I use a sparring heavy approach to teaching with all of my students including children. I feel like that is where most of the learning is done. Jiu-Jitsu becomes ingrained in you through trial and error. If you put your hand in the wrong place and get tapped because of it then you probably won’t put it there again.
I can tell you not to put it there but it will only really sink in once you get punished for making that mistake. The opposite is also true about figuring out what works. Jiu- Jitsu is a practical martial art not just a theoretical one and thus students must put it into practice as much as possible in order to truly learn. I think a lot of academies are taking this approach (at least the serious ones).
There are still some academies out there selling a more theoretical brand of Jiu-Jitsu that you can learn online and practice on dummies etc but that isn’t real training in my opinion. The greatest part about Jiu-Jitsu is that you get hit with reality on the mat on a daily basis during sparring and the mat never lies!”
Any other comments you want to be mentioned (if you want us to link to your gym website etc)?
“My Youtube is Nathan Mendelsohn BJJ, my Instagram is @nathanmendelsohnbjj, check out my music video “No G in a Gi” on youtube and my first BJJ themed Hip-Hop album “Kimura Trap Vol 1” by Elite Technique on all digital platforms! Also, send me your videos for analysis and personalized coaching at tekneek.io/elitetechnique.”
Lastly, do you have any plans for the future? (Goals etc)
“Win a lot more adult titles, work my way back into the top ten rankings, grow my youtube and build a successful online business surrounding it.”
