Lol its funny because we are good friends with William and Andrew. Andrew is actually the last teen to beat my son in competition a sub only tournament in Houston my son's only loss was to Andrew (before that my son been beating adult black belts/brown/purple in agf before the rule changes of color belts had to compete in they rank). We met tye and Kade in Atlantic City last month we were staying at the same hotel ran into them at the hotel gym and had a hour long Convo and exchanged numbers. We going out to San Diego this summer because hes considering training at atos while in college(it's his senior year). My son did trails last month and aggravated a injury he didn't let properly heal. We also been knowing Cole a while because we met him when he use to train in Texas when he was 11yrs old. Mica is THE best out the bunch that young man is special special. My son has aspirations of winning in adcc but he HAS to get out of New Orleans/Louisiana as a whole to achieve that. His gym that he just left(for personal reasons) he and Thahn Le(One feather weight champ)were training partners when he came back here and Thahn trains and is a brown belt under Ryan hall. We used alot of backside 50/50 concepts. My son at 17yrs old is considered one of the best no gi grapplers in this state. The resources are VERY limited here and in order to achieve his dream he has to go when there are sharks that have swam in champion level waters like adcc and ibjjf worlds.
Man...crazy. Was your son's match to Andrew at one of the Kumite events that Bruce puts together? We're definitely in the same circles. I was really close to going to Atlantic City earlier this month for Emerald City. I'm training with John Salter and Joe Solecki right now in NC, and they went out to trials last month as I'm sure you saw. I've been a 4-stripe brown belt for a few years, and unfortunately my coach passed unexpectedly last year. I'm training with them and some old teammates to try and get my black belt taken care of before I open a school.
I travel a lot, and if we're ever in the same spot I'd love to get some rolls with you and your son. Would you mind if I hit you up and exchanged info? That's awesome that he wants to win ADCC and is thinking about Atos. One of my best friends used to live with me, and moved out one day out of the blue to go to AOJ when the Mendes Bros moved to the states. He wanted to go try and become a wold champ. He stayed out there for a few years and didn't have the success he wanted, but he got his black belt from them, moved back and opened an Atos affiliate, and has no regrets about taking a shot at it.
Thahn is a beast. I met him the last time I was at 50/50, but we didn't get any rolls in. It was an open and he was getting in some bag work. I think he's such a surgical striker, and I'm really interested to see how his fight with Garry Tonon looks.