DJ Wegesin 

DJ Wegesin is a 3rd degree blackbelt, owner of multiple martial arts schools (The Dojo) in North Atlanta, former competitor, and instructor at the Nova Uniao schools in Atlanta, Georgia.

As a late-stage purple belt, I had a few instances of losing confidence. 

I wasn’t getting any younger, and I was not going to get any bigger (in terms of height and muscle mass).

The younger and larger grapplers were sometimes getting the better of me.  Smashing me.  Passing my guard.  Making me suffer.  The faster grapplers were moving so fast I couldn’t keep their pace.  I was getting discouraged.

I wondered if I had already peaked in my jiu-jitsu journey and if it would be all downhill.  What if my best days were already behind me?

This made me sad, frustrated and disappointed.

But through Diego Saraiva, I noticed this guy, DJ Wegesin. He was five years older than me and at least ten pounds lighter than me.  And he was competing in super fights. 

In class, he would roll with anybody.  I’m talking about size, weight, belt, and age.  I thought the guy was crazy.  Well, he is a bit crazy.

But DJ appeared to be able to handle himself in almost any circumstances.

He was able to neutralize the giants.  He was able to slow the fast guys down.  He could become a pile of jelly when muscular guys tried smashing him.  He’d sort of pop out of some nook and cranny on the other side. 

Then, something remarkable would happen.  He’d submit almost everyone he rolled against.

This blew my mind.

I became inspired.

But I took things one step further.  I took action, reached out, and asked him if he would give me a private lesson.  I just had to pick this guy's brain.  What was his strategy when he rolled?  Did he ever fear his opponent?  How did he change tactics depending on his opponent? 

I just needed to learn more.

And that’s how it started. I began taking private lessons from DJ. At first, it was occasional, then a little more frequent. It eventually turned into EVERY SINGLE WEDNESDAY that worked for our schedules.

I remember the first time I rolled with DJ.  We bumped fists, but he lay there like a pile of deli roast beef about to be wrapped up and handed over to a grocery shopper.  It was like he was inviting me to proceed in any desired fashion.  Do I want to try and pass his guard?  Grab a leg?  Pressure In?  Back out?  Try and grab his head.  Get grips on his Gi?  Grab his ankles?

He didn’t care.  It was as if he wanted me to make an initial move, and regardless of what that initial move was going to be, his initial reaction was always the same.  He’d shrug his shoulders as if saying non-verbally, “OK, if that’s how you want to play it…”

He’d let me make a movement or two, and then he would catch me in a quick submission.

We would reset and start again, quickly ending the same way.  This is a quick submission.

Again, this is a quick submission.

He said he only tapped me out about seven times, maybe in the first few minutes, but it was more like a dozen.  I had never rolled with anybody like this before.  What is this jiu-jitsu style?

I learned from DJ that there are different styles of jiu-jitsu, and DJ had a style that I had never really encountered before. It was entirely submission-based. He couldn’t care less about positions, points, guard passes, or the usual stuff that would apply in an IBJJF setting.

The submissions weren’t typical.  Nor were they all “legal” for IBJJF purposes.  I was a purple belt.  Purple belts aren’t allowed to do bicep slicers, toe holds, kneebars, and Estima locks. 

DJ didn’t care.  If you stuck a foot out, a leg out, a handout, an arm out, or your head out, you quickly learned that it was vulnerable to a quick and brutal submission.

Submissions came fast, hard, and intentional.  NO F-ing around.  You tap, or it snaps.

That part scared me.  I was into safe and technical rolling.

This was what I called “Junk-Yard Jiu-Jitsu.”  It was prison rules jiu-jitsu.  It was, “One of us is going to get a submission, and it’s not you,” jiu-jitsu.

I didn’t always like it.  Most of the time, I was afraid to roll like that, which just made me hesitate, which DJ exploited. The more he got you to pause, stop, think, and wonder, the more time he had to go to his next move, which was already ahead of your hesitation. 

DJ gets in people’s heads.  He got into my head.

I don’t roll like DJ in my style of jiu-jitsu, but I learned a lot about it from DJ, and I’m a better practitioner because of DJ.

But beyond techniques, brutal submissions, and learning how to snap limbs and choke people out, DJ was never hung up on jiu-jitsu politics and culture.

He never cared where I trained, with whom, or where. He loved jiu-jitsu and liked to be around others who loved it.

He knew the benefits of cross-training and different styles.  He knew your game would only improve by rolling against all kinds of practitioners: big, small, strong, flexible, technical, Gi, No-Gi, or fast.  It didn’t matter.  Roll with everyone and learn how to deal with everyone based on physical attributes.  Develop a game that works for you and make that game as precise as possible.

DJ was super supportive of my desire to be non-denominational.  He would train with me in The Jiu-Jitsu Bunker all the time.  DJ wants people to get promoted based on ability and character.  He did not care about affiliations, politics, patches, and gangs.

Eventually, over the years of training with DJ, I got promoted to brown belt and was closing in on black belt. I sometimes wondered if I was ready.  He was so supportive. He not only verbally told me I was ready but also asked what he could do to help me make a black belt my way (however, I wanted my promotion to happen).

When I told DJ that I wanted to be promoted in The Jiu-Jitsu Bunker, he was all in with support. He was well known in the Atlanta jiu-jitsu community, an instructor at Nova Uniao, and the owner of multiple martial arts schools himself. When DJ told me I was ready, it did wonders for my confidence and my internal dialogue.

To this day, I still train with DJ, he still kicks my butt, and I continue to learn from someone that has years more experience than I do.  We also became good friends and enjoyed being around each other, talking business, or just laughing at life.

One last thing that stood out to me over the years with DJ.  When I would attend official classes that he taught, he was very non-traditional in his teaching style.  No bowing in and bowing out.  He didn't care what colored Gi or branded rash-guard you wore.  He never did warm-ups to start the class.  He allowed any question at any time.  He was there to help you get better with your particular struggles and adversities.  He had one primary objective when running a class: he wanted every  student to have fun, and he would ask us at the end of class, "Did you have fun in class today?"  We would all nod our heads and acknowledge that we had fun.  He always wanted jiu-jitsu to be fun for people to learn and practice, and I loved that about his classes and carried that theme into all of my jiu-jitsu training. 

I’m super lucky to have a DJ in my life, but if there are some good lessons in this, I would share them with others.  Some of them are;

• Don’t be afraid to put yourself out there and ask for help. I had to ask DJ for that initial private lesson. Relationships have to start somewhere, and initiating action boosts the odds of good things happening.
• Be humble and a good student. When you start working with someone with a very different style, don’t tell yourself why it won’t work for you.  That’s not the point.  It’s to broaden your understanding of the more significant game.  Acknowledge that you don’t know everything and have monster holes in your game that some people can easily exploit.  Don’t run from your weaknesses.
• Be open to the idea that not everyone in jiu-jitsu is out to harm you or rug pull you. There are many good people in the art.  If you don’t have many mentors in your village, expand your village.
• If you don’t have a DJ, go out and find one. It may take some effort.  It may not happen overnight.  But it is worth the effort in the end.  I wouldn’t be where I am now if it wasn’t for DJ.
• Jiu-Jitsu should be fun.  Practice should be fun.  Rolling should be fun.  If you aren't having fun doing jiu-jitsu (even if you are legit trying to choke each other out, you are doing it wrong.  I loved that.