Awesome job to all the competitors that competed in the 2014 US OPEN! Thanks to all the Smash Gyms Coaches and training partners that got them ready. What an amazing team we have! Another dominating performance!
People who know Mario Rios know two things about him. He is super nice and he knows A LOT about grappling! Mario is a very caring and passionate instructor. He has been involved in wrestling, judo and BJJ for almost 20 years. This incredible experience in grappling provides a wealth of information anyone interested in advancing his or her grappling knowledge. If you take Mario’s classes you can look forward to highly detailed technical instruction explained in a way that you can easily understand and implement right away. He has helped many people advance in the grappling arts with his organized and systematic approach to grappling.
Mario started his training with grappling in 1995 while he was a student at Fresno State College. In Fresno, there were no Jiu-Jitsu studios, so he started working out his house with Jason Hannen, now a black belt at Pacific Martial Arts. Most of the techniques were drills based on Renzo and Craig Kukuk videos, since youtube was nonexistent, and information was hard to come by.
Mario Rios & Jason Hannen BJJ Black Belts
In those early days Mario sought out other Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu students who were commuting long distances to train at some of the Gracie Academies and began training regularly with them. Some of these partners were wrestlers from Fresno Pacific and Fresno State. During this time, Mario was also training at the Fresno Judo Club before moving from the area.
Mario Teaching Classes at Smash
After completing college, Mario was faced with the decision to relocate. He had two requirements, finding a job, and finding his passion, Jiu Jitsu. Mario found both and moved to the Bay Area in 1996. In the beginning, he took classes with Claudio Franca. Although he enjoyed the classes because of such a long commute to Santa Cruz, he decided to train in Mountain View at Ralphs. Training at Ralphs was a great experience. Mario was able to train with some of the premier grapplers at the time and began to really understand the dedication necessary to excel at this art.
In 1999 began training with Michael Jen. Michael’s unique approach and attention to detail was different from the Jiu-Jitsu he had experienced in his earlier training. Mario was impressed with Michael’s highly detailed instruction and his openness to share techniques.
BJJ Black Belts!
In 2010, when the first Smash Gyms opened Mario immediately became a leader in the gym and helped many people in different programs. The environment and resources that Smash provided motivated Mario to focus and push himself until he received his Black Belt in 2011 from Michael Jen. Mario believes Smash Gyms amazing instructors and members helped push him to reach his long-time goal of becoming a BJJ Black Belt. After seeing the incredible growth of Smash and the value that it has brought to our members, he decided he wanted to help open another Smash in San Jose. Mario is co-owner of San Jose Smash Gyms and will be working full-time and teaching BJJ classes along with fellow BJJ Black Belts Rudy Sanchez and Michael Jen. Mario’s goal is to bring as much value as possible to Smash members in Evergreen and East San Jose.
Javier Wins the US Open without Giving up One Point!
If you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you’ve always gotten. Tony Robbins
If you’re offered a seat on a rocket ship, don’t ask what seat! Just get on. Sheryl Sandberg
Get out of your comfort zone! Safe & Fun!
I always did something I was a little not ready to do. I think that’s how you grow. When there’s that moment of ‘Wow, I’m not really sure I can do this,’ and you push through those moments, that’s when you have a breakthrough. Marissa Mayer
If you’re going to be thinking anything, you might as well think big. Donald Trump
Pearls don’t lie on the seashore. If you want one, you must dive for it. Chinese proverb
Patrick Kong in another dominating performance!
You can’t outwit fate by standing on the sidelines placing little sidebets about the outcome of life. Either you wade in and risk everything you have to play the game or you don’t play at all. And if you don’t play you can’t win. Judith McNaught
If things seem under control, you are just not going fast enough. Mario Andretti
Bootcamp, Circuit Training, Personal Training!
Do the one thing you think you cannot do. Fail at it. Try again. Do better the second time. The only people who never tumble are those who never mount the high wire. This is your moment. Own it. Oprah Winfrey
Life is inherently risky. There is only one big risk you should avoid at all costs, and that is the risk of doing nothing. Denis Waitley
Smash Gyms' 3-time US Open Champ Brian Kuhn
Go out on a limb. That’s where the fruit is.Jimmy Carter
The universe has no restrictions. You place restrictions on the universe with your expectations. Deepak Chopra
Anyone Can Learn Kickboxing! Beginner Friendly!
Do one thing every day that scares you.Eleanor Roosevelt
In order to succeed, your desire for success should be greater than your fear of failure. Bill Cosby
Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Steve Jobs
Smash helps Wrestlers Succesfully Transition to BJJ
If you are not willing to risk the unusual, you will have to settle for the ordinary. Jim Rohn
There is only one way to avoid criticism: do nothing, say nothing, and be nothing. Aristotle
You get what you settle for. Thelma and Louise
Kids Judo!
If you don’t build your dream, someone else will hire you to help them build theirs. Dhirubhai Ambani
I refuse to accept other people’s ideas of happiness for me. As if there’s a ‘one size fits all’ standard for happiness. Kanye West
The first step toward success is taken when you refuse to be a captive of the environment in which you first find yourself. Mark Caine
US Open Champion!
Always go with your passions. Never ask yourself if it’s realistic or not. Deepak Chopra
You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something – your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.Steve Jobs
Leap and the net will appear. Zen Saying
I don’t think you’re human if you don’t get nervous. Sidney Crosby
Beginner Friendly
A ship in harbor is safe, but that is not what ships are built for. John A. Shedd
Think big and don’t listen to people who tell you it can’t be done. Life’s too short to think small.Tim Ferriss
I’ve missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed. Michael Jordan
Women classes!
Your dreams are ballbusters; they’re not the yellow brick road. Kelly Cutrone
When you take risks you learn that there will be times when you succeed and there will be times when you fail, and both are equally important.Ellen DeGeneres
Ujam, Yoga, and other Fitness Classes
If we listened to our intellect, we’d never have a love affair. We’d never have a friendship. We’d never go into business because we’d be too cynical. Well, that’s nonsense. You’ve got to jump off cliffs all the time and build your wings on the way down. Annie Dillard
When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be. Lao Tzu
Right Across the Street From Eastridge Mall!
Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go. T. S. Eliot
Don’t be too timid and squeamish about your actions. All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better. Ralph Waldo Emerson
Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant. Robert Louis Stevenson
It is never too late to be what you might have been. George Eliot
Often the difference between a successful person and a failure is not one has better abilities or ideas, but the courage that one has to bet on one’s ideas, to take a calculated risk – and to act.Andre Malraux
Every man dies, but not every man really lives.Braveheart
It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might has well not have lived at all, in which case you have failed by default. J.K. Rowling
Fun for all age groups and fitness levels!
The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now. Chinese Proverb
Don’t worry about failures, worry about the chances you miss when you don’t even try. Jack Canfield
Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do, so throw off the bowlines, sail away from safe harbor, catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore, Dream, Discover. Mark Twain
Martial Arts and Fitness
Everything you’ve ever wanted is on the other side of fear. George Addair
Screw it, Let’s do it! Richard Branson
You can’t have everything you want, but you can have the things that really matter to you.Marissa Mayer
Strength & Conditioning!
Trust your own instinct. Your mistakes might as well be your own, instead of someone else’s.Billy Wilder
I am thankful for all of those who said NO to me. It’s because of them I’m doing it myself. Albert Einstein
Only those who play win. Only those who risk win. History favors risk-takers. Forgets the timid. Everything else is commentary. Iveta Cherneva
And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom. Anais Nin
Life is being on the wire, everything else is just waiting. Karl Wallenda
The question isn’t who is going to let me; it’s who is going to stop me. Ayn Rand
Eastridge Mall San Jose Jiu-Jitsu Gym