On Episode Six of the Easton Online Podcast, Eliot sits down with Peter Straub. Peter is a BJJ Black Belt and the General Manager of the Littleton Academy. Eliot and Peter discuss how martial arts can check the ego and spur personal growth. Peter also makes an unusual request of Eliot.
Show Notes
2:10 – Peter talks about how he met Eliot while working at The Foundry, and how training and being friends with Eliot has improved his life. Peter asks Eliot to do the podcast as “the real Eliot”, and to set aside his Fire Marshall persona. Eliot considers and then agrees to this request.
10:35 – Peter took an MMA fight without training. Eliot convinced him that just being “tough” wasn’t going to cut it, and that he needed to train how to fight. Eliot took Peter under his wing as an MMA student.
13:08 – Peter talks about how martial arts made him check his ego and become a better person.
29:20 – Eliot speaks on the importance of maintaining good relationships with the people you work with. This takes hard work!
37:20 – Eliot and Peter discuss how small people have it tough in Jiu Jitsu because they can’t just push other people around. But large people have a harder time learning Jiu Jitsu technique, because they have to make the choice to turn off their physical strength and size. Eliot says what he is most proud of at Easton is that we have created a training environment that is friendly and welcoming to small white belts, but also builds high level athletes who compete on the world stage.
48:45 – Peter talks about how when he became GM of the Littleton academy, he lost the constant contact he had with his many connections at the Denver academy. He had to build new connections at Littleton from scratch. But now Littleton has become its own community.
1:00:02 – Peter thanks Eliot for being authentic and having a real talk.
