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Hey everybody! Episode 61 of the show is out. In this episode, I spoke with my friend Alex Ecklin. Alex and I met about a decade ago when we were both students of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu under the great Vitor “Shaolin” Ribeiro in New York City. Alex went on to compete, medaling in world championships, teaching under Shaolin, and eventually opening his own school in Brooklyn, and now Manhattan, Masterskya. I have a lot of respect for Alex in how he carries himself, as a jiujitsu practitioner, as a teacher, and as a man. In this conversation, we talked about martial arts, jiujitsu, muay Thai, MMA, plant medicines, life, and the tao. I really enjoyed talking to Alex and I think and trust you all will also. As always, to support this podcast, get early access to shows, bonus material, and Q&As, check out my Patreon page below. Enjoy!
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"Alex Ecklin and Van Allen Flores lead the Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu program in Masterskya. Together, they assembled a team of like-minded, passionate instructors to work alongside them to achieve their vision and dream of providing honest, highest level training possible that is accessible to anyone. They believe that the martial arts should be available for anyone, and the focus should be to help people achieve whatever goals they have through training.
Alex and Van attained their Black Belts under BJJ + MMA legend Vitor “Shaolin” Ribeiro, and have been training together for over a decade. They taught at the Manhattan academy together for many years, and later individually when Alex taught in Coban’s Muay Thai Camp and Van at UFC Gym in Soho.
For many years, they dreamed of working together and this is truly a dream that is coming to reality.
Alex medaled in the IBJJF World Championships, European Championships, No-Gi Pan American Championships and won the American Nationals, Chicago Open, several New York and Boston Opens as a Brown Belt. He also is a veteran of the Eddie Bravo Invitational, fighting in the first one and the seventh one, where Van was his coach and cornerman.
Van and Alex are also currently teaching group BJJ classes in the Google Headquarters in Chelsea.
Van helped Alex film a G-Roll instructional several years ago, which can be found on YouTube. In 2019, Alex teamed up with Grapplers Guide to film the G-Roll 2.0.”
For more info about Alex and his work, visit: https://masterskya.com/ and on Instagram @AlexMasterskya
This episode of the show is sponsored by the Temple of the Way of Light. To learn more or sign up for a retreat, visit: https://templeofthewayoflight.org/
If you enjoy the show, it would be a big help if you could share it with your own audiences via social media or word of mouth. If you’re watching on YouTube if you could take a second and Subscribe to the channel and if you’re listening on Apple Podcasts to leave a starred rating and a short review. That would be super helpful with the algorithms and getting this show out to more people. Thank you in advance!
My colleague Merav Artzi (who I interviewed in episode 28) and I will be running dietas in the Sacred Valley of Peru on September 1-29 and in the Sinai desert of Egypt on October 10-27. If you would like more information about joining us and the work I do, visit my site at: https://www.NicotianaRustica.org
And finally, with the pandemic, most people doing this work have been without access to work since March of 2020 and the future is uncertain. If you are able to and would like to donate to the show to help out with new content that would be deeply appreciated. For just a few dollars a month you can subscribe through Patreon and it gives you some really nice added benefits like early access to shows, bonus episodes, and a chance to ask personalized questions.
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Music courtesy of: Nuno Moreno (end song). Visit: https://m.soundcloud.com/groove_a_zen_sound and https://nahira-ziwa.bandcamp.com/ And Stefan Kasapovski’s Santero Project (intro song). Visit: https://spoti.fi/3y5Rd4H
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This will help me with ideas for future shows.
Thanks and until the next episode!