In an interview with Joe Rogan, video games designer John Carmack spoke about his love of grappling and how he trained Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and Judo. It began with Carmack detailing his entry into high school wrestling, even admitting that he was a “typical geek” at the time.
Several years passed since then and as they say, the rest is history. Carmack went on to create games such as Doom and Quake, but eventually returned to grappling years later, and claimed that at one point he was “pretty dangerous”
Speaking to Rogan, he said “My wife for Christmas once got me a year of privates with Carlos Machado which put me up several levels. There was a period there where I’d have Judo with one of my coaches one day, then privates with Carlos the other day.”
It turns out that Carmack took it quite seriously and even spoke about training at the legendary Kodokan Judoka dojo in Japan. What’s more, in some archive footage, Carmack even choked out a news reporter unconscious during a demo. Here, he showed a smooth finish to the submission. As BJJ teaches, sometimes the most dangerous people can be the least assuming.
