The jiu-jitsu instructional industry has skyrocketed due to COVID and quarantines around the world. While some jiu-jitsu practitioners are skeptical of just how much you can learn from a DVD, 10th Planet El Paso brown belt and Fight 2 Win 164 competitor Kemoy Anderson insists that what he’s learned at home has helped turn him into the BJJ athlete he is today.
Anderson began his combat sports career in 2004 when he took up wrestling in high school. Five years later, he began training in MMA, but his time in the cage had to be put on pause when he joined the Army. He didn’t let his time at Fort Bliss keep him away from what he loved for long, though — he began training full-time and even competing in 2016, though he says he had no intentions of competing when he first walked into the gym. “I just wanted a good fitness routine to get in shape until one day, the MMA coach asked me if I wanted to fight ’cause they felt I was a good enough grappler to make it,” Anderson told the Jiu-Jitsu Times.
Anderson managed to have a few MMA fights during his time with the military, but after he went pro, he realized that he enjoyed jiu-jitsu. Once he left MMA and began focusing entirely on BJJ, he said he improved “tremendously.”
Still, Anderson felt that his time in the gym wasn’t enough to build himself into the athlete he wanted to be, and he says that his biggest struggle has been “opening [his] game to be a more well-rounded competitor.” The solution for this, he found, was to watch more jiu-jitsu instructionals, “feeding his brain” with the techniques and then drilling them with a training partner. “I learned in the process you can’t just wait for your coach to 100 percent build you up; the lessons continue when you get home in your free time,” he says.
Friday night Anderson will join a card headlined by a match between Vagner Rocha and Yuri Simoes. He’ll be putting all that learning to the test as he tries to improve his already impressive 4-1 F2W record. He’ll be facing Bradley Schneider on the stage, and while he respects his opponent, he’s going in confidently with a plan in the front of his mind. “I think it’s going to be a tough match. My opponent seems battle-tested and active,” says Anderson. “I feel like my game is perfect for the F2W rule set. I’m coming to dominate on the feet, pass, and relentlessly seek the sub. [I] just feel like I’m good no matter where the fight goes.”
Don’t mistake Anderson’s confidence for arrogance, though. He’s happy with humble victories both on and off the mats, saying that his proudest accomplishment so far is “being someone that’s respected in the city and being in the position to give back and teach others,” adding that he’s happy to simply be able to pay his bills and “live comfortably in America.”
For now, Anderson is keeping himself grounded and dreaming big, but keeping his goals centered around his own peace of mind. He says that his plans for the future include, of course, earning his black belt, but also opening his own academy and helping to bring up the next generation of young grapplers, all while continuing to represent that 10th Planet name. And off the mats?
“Just continue doing what I’m doing and continue living a stress-free life.”
F2W 164 will stream live on FloGrappling this Friday, February 19 in Dallas, Texas.
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