(gentle music) (intense rock music) (music continues) - When you come and you do martial arts, there is no time to think about your life problems.

There's no time to think about what's going on in the world.

The rest of the world's shut off and you're focused.

(music continues) (music continues) (upbeat music) (music continues) - [Narrator] Next Up Minnesota is made possible by Margaret A. Cargill Philanthropies.

- My name is Aaron Sears, Granite Falls, Minnesota.

I grew up Fort Bragg, North Carolina, which is now Fort Freedom and Dallas Fort Worth area of the great state of Texas.

At the Kilowatt Community Center here in Granite Falls, Minnesota, my role is a mixed martial arts instructor.

I instruct a mixed martial arts class, which consists of the first hour being boxing and Muay Thai and the second hour being grappling and mixed martial arts.

Same thing as UFC.

Key activities we focus on is primarily self-defense 'cause that's priority.

We do allow sport and competition as well, but main focus is going to be self-defense purpose.

(suspenseful music) I'm a third generation martial artist in my family.

Both my grandfather and my father were martial artists as well.

So I kind of grew up with it.

Started with my father in the garage at three, hitting the mitts.

And then I officially started in my first boxing, you know, official studio, martial arts studio, was Laredo Police boxing academy in Laredo, Texas at five years old.

Slowly from there we increased things over the years.

Picked up Savate and Muay Thai at seven and then I started all my grappling martial arts once I hit 13.

Traveled all over Texas doing that.

Then we moved to the Dallas Fort Worth area.

Then I started hitting with all the big names out there, training with some elite instructors.

So the great thing about martial arts is you find people from all walks of life and different backgrounds, different statuses in life as well.

You know, all the way from poor to rich.

Everybody has an interest in it, it's for everybody.

It helps everybody.

A lot of those individuals become inspiring because they come from harder backgrounds, especially.

And growing up the way I did, military family, strict, I would say a lot of those guys, mostly my instructors over the years inspired me because they understand people.

Martial artists are real down to earth people.

I've always had guidance, they've always taken me under their wing.

Seeing the hard work they put in, the aspiration and all that, that those guys give motivated me to continue.

I'd say once I turned 13, I started taking it very seriously.

And those guys, even though I was a kid, they took me in as one of their own.

Ever since that moment I've never looked back on doing anything else.

(uplifting music) After leaving Laredo, Texas and continuing my martial arts training in Dallas Fort Worth, I came across starting to travel all over the United States to seminars and different fight training camps all over.

And I met individual, Sigung Richard Bustillo out of California.

He's an instructor under Bruce Lee.

He met me at a seminar in, I wanna say Mesquite, Texas.

He was impressed and he talked to my father and flew out to California and would spent quite a few months in the summer times.

And he's the one that really progressed me into the instruction point and wanting to be an instructor versus just competing, 'cause by this point I had already competed, very young even.

I had done all the things for that, so the next challenge in martial arts is teaching.

It's great to be good at it.

It's a whole nother ball game to get in each individual's mind to help them become successful at it as well.

Sigung introduced me to that challenge in the martial arts world, and I enjoy challenges so I took it upon myself to start pursuing becoming an instructor as well.

And I truly believe since martial arts is for everybody, I became multifaceted with all the martial arts.

I'm certified to teach eight different martial arts.

I truly believe it could change a lot of people's lives.

I've seen it.

It's not a belief thing, I've seen it, it's fact.

Sigung Richard Bustillo gave me my instructorship in 2011.

Same year I was inducted into the United States Martial Arts Hall of Fame.

I've always just taken off there.

I've taught in Texas, I've taught in South Dakota, Colorado, Alabama a little bit, West Virginia a Little bit, and now here in Minnesota.

(uplifting music) - [Interviewer] Who would you say are your role models in the sport and how have they influenced your journey?

- Definitely the old school martial artists.

There's a lot of modern guys you see on TV now that are worth looking up to, I believe, but that generation of the old school Bruce Lee's and the generation under him, those old school martial arts mentalities, they still have a martial arts mindset.

The whole purpose of the invention and creation of martial arts, of any style anywhere in the world, because no matter what you're going through, once you're in there, it'll only improve your life and it'll put you in a mental mindset that's stronger than what you are without.

(uplifting music) The dynamic, since I am so multifaceted and can teach so many martial arts, is almost limitless.

It really is.

I've studied so many other styles on top of the eight that I'm certified to teach that we can add and do anything in there.

That's why I love calling it mixed martial arts, not just as a sport but as martial art too.

We can always improve and add things.

I'll be doing more classes and different styles later for elderly, disability, all that.

And that's a great thing about martial arts is you get a real understanding of what life is.

An understanding of awareness of what violence is, of what doing the right thing versus the wrong thing is.

And martial arts being real and raw itself, you feel the different pains and techniques and different things with each other.

I always tell people, "Be nice to your partner so your partner's nice to you."

So I think with that, everybody has this understanding and mutual respect for each other.

No matter if they're just, they're doing the drills or if they're literally going full hands on sparring with each other, it becomes a brotherhood.

You want to do that in the gym with people that care about you and in an environment where you know you're safe so that way it doesn't happen to you outside on the street anywhere, 'cause that's what we're here for.

That's why we do this.

(gentle music) - [Interviewer] How do you keep that brotherhood mentality with the emotion of aggression coming?

- That comes to the discipline side of the martial arts.

Self-discipline is the best discipline for every individual, and it's also one of the hardest, especially in in any sport.

It's the way the class is structured.

It's the way martial arts in general is structured.

You have to be humble.

It humbles you as an individual or somebody in there will humble you.

Remember, we're striking.

Now, when it comes to grappling as we go a bit harder, that's his world.

You know?

He's not a newbie in the grappling world.

He's just new to the submissions on that.

Not being the biggest and baddest, everybody knows that, and everybody knows that if they want to continue training, that they have to maintain that self-discipline.

I tell everybody when they come in through my door, "Leave your ego at the door.

Wipe it off on the mat before you come in.

Leave your ego on the door and come in here with the right mindset."

An experience that strengthens the bond is how proud everybody is, 'cause everybody's so tired after the conditioning, everybody's wore out, everybody's drinking water together and hugging each other and all the fist bumps and everything because it brings out that inner part of you that you don't feel otherwise unless you push yourself.

And this is a different push than going to weight room or typical running exercise and that kind of things.

Tests you, tests your mentality 'cause it's also frustrating to see the improvements as they go along and the success that the students have and how proud they are of themselves.

Not only themselves but each other.

It's part of what keeps me going.

It's fun.

That's it.

(student speaking indistinctly) Yeah.

- [Interviewer] What would you say is your most motivational tactic to keep your students motivated?

- So that's a big part of the reason why I join them in class and I do the techniques with them and I go to each of 'em and I make sure they know it and they perform it on me.

Even though it's, you know, 12 different guys choking me in a row.

That's the nature of the beast there.

The push in general keeps 'em motivated.

I do the drills with them so they see it can be done.

And me, I'm not a very big guy, I'm not the strongest guy.

There's plenty of guys and there bigger, stronger than me.

So that helps them.

So I keep them motivated by doing it and encouraging them to continue.

And there's different ways to build people up to that.

But breaking confidence is not one thing you wanna do.

This builds self-esteem.

When people overcome that, they realize how worthwhile it was.

(gentle music) with the local community, because they've never had quite anything like mixed martial arts before and especially the combatives martial arts that I teach within it.

It's very new, it's very exciting already for a small town.

And this is the first time I've had to, or that I've ever taught in a small town.

So that's exciting to hear people come up to me and talk about it randomly, and you run into the same people.

I see a lot of my students all the time outside of class, which is new for me as well.

The bond will continue to grow within the community as such, we'll reach out to people and as we grow, we'll grow within the community, get our name around town.

Hopefully when I get the kids' classes going, it'll strengthen within the school system to build future athletes.

Martial arts, it's great for everybody to train, but if they pursue it, it's multifaceted into other things.

I hope that it really helps the sports side of the community here.

Of course I will have my program going, but I'm hoping some of the kids that I bring up that decide to go into other sports later, basketball, track, I really hope that this helps benefit the youth and the community more than anything.

Their strength and future is what's vital to small towns and small communities like Granite Falls.

It'll be a very important part of this.

- What I like about the classes is the coach or the sensei, he's very respectful to you and to everybody else.

It doesn't even matter like, if you've been a black belt or you're just starting out, he's very willing to start with whatever your capability is.

- One thing I like about the class is that the teacher is very kind and respectful and he's very gentle with the newcomers that come and go.

- It's a good feeling of course because it makes me feel like what I'm doing has a direction within the community.

As long as people are talking about it and are interested in it, there's a direction for me to pursue, to show it to people and give them the opportunity to do this that they've never had before.

And I bring the world class teachings aspect to it and technique, which just makes it even better for the small town.

So when people come up to me, it's very motivating for me to continue to drive and push into this program to make it grow and hopefully one day expand into other small communities or help instructors get started in other small communities.

I have had many questions because everybody is familiar with karate, TaeKwonDo and everybody knows boxing, or they better.

This being very new, they're very curious, and I was expecting some backlash or some adversity from somebody, you know, or a hurdle to jump over.

Everybody's been really kind and curious.

That's actually been real good.

I have had backlash before in other places I've trained because it is a combative sport and because they do see it on TV and they don't understand all the strategy and stuff that goes behind it, they just see two muscular guys that look like they're going at it in a brawl and that's, it's not what it is.

So I'm hoping to bring awareness about that into this community as well so they can understand it better and realize how beneficial it is.

And that's why when I have the kids' classes, I love that we have all those chairs there 'cause I absolutely highly encourage parents to come watch and ask me questions and all that.

I love it.

I love it, I love it.

Kids' classes are the best to teach and they ask the most interesting, twisted questions.

And that's the great thing about even being an instructor in martial arts.

You are always a student of the martial art.

Your students help remind you of that when they ask you tough questions.

I do have guys come in and, you know, ask me if I can get them a fight right away, and I sure can, but it's not a good idea.

And so I don't.

But I do get asked challenging questions by the kids from time to time, and they will pick my brain more than I'm able to pick their little sponge brains.

(gentle music) - [Interviewer] Can you share a story where your class's achievements positively impacted someone in the community?

- I have had a few situations and only a few that I can remember right off where a student of mine, all of 'em were about intermediate.

They had trained with me for about a year or more, each of 'em.

But they had an issue where they were at Walmart, one was in the parking lot about to be robbed or no, he saw a person next to him getting robbed and he stopped the situation.

And then another one, they got out of a bad situation that turned ugly real quick.

So it's those things and practicalities of learning martial arts, when I see it, when I hear, when they come to me and go, "Hey, you know, this just happened, thank you for all this training.

It paid off for this moment in my life."

That's what makes this worth it above all other successes and achievements, even the competition wins my students get and all of that.

And that's what my greatest feeling of success is when I can make other individuals become successful within this world.

- The biggest lesson I learned was that I can use these techniques to defend myself in case like, anyone tries to, you know, attack me or anything or assault me.

So I've self-defense and then my teacher just teaches all kind of techniques where you can defend yourself in any scenarios.

- I learned that I have a little bit more fight than what I first initially thought.

Finding that out of you is, it's also nice.

(gentle music) - [Interviewer] How do you believe your sport can influence social change within your community?

- That's the great part of, again, me being multifaceted and teaching so many and martial arts truly being for everybody is this is, this small town community has a good mixture of youth to elderly and a little bit in between.

After I get the program fully up and started, I'll be able to cater to all.

It's always been a dream of mine to teach at like, a deaf or blind school, to some partially deaf or blind is what keeps the challenge going for me that I like.

So within this community of Granite Falls, I hope to reach all ages so everybody realizes it's a healthy choice.

It's a great hobby to have.

There's not a whole lot going on around here unless you stay active.

So my class provides opportunity for people to achieve all those things.

If everybody takes a chance and tries one class, I have yet at least here, to not see somebody return yet.

And the reason for that is when you come and you do martial arts, there is no time to think about your life problems.

There's no time to think about what's going on in the world.

When you're in there, the rest of the world's shut off and you're focused on what we're doing in there.

And after a while it becomes addictive.

And it's a healthy, very healthy addiction to have.

You know, I've been a healthy person pretty much my whole life, but I can definitely tell you that there is no higher feeling than when you get good at this and you come and do it and push your limits.

No higher feeling.

It's a very much sense of peace.

You feel relaxed, you feel better as a person and you walk around with a different confidence and self-esteem.

And you gotta be a thinker in there.

You gotta be a thinker.

It's not a mindless activity, so.

(uplifting music) (music continues) This being a first time where I've taught in a small town, getting the word out, making people aware and also nothing being established here before me that's like what I'm doing now also is a hurdle to overcome.

Those are already three big things.

It's been slow growth progress, and that's the great thing again about this community that nobody's given me backlash.

As a matter of fact the Kilowatt Community Center, Nick, Lisa, all these people that manage the place have been very patient with it, given me also the confidence to go through, 'cause they feel it'll progress, and it slowly has, it slowly has.

Making it fitting for the area, you know, all of it.

These are all obstacles to overcome, whereas where I've taught in places before, I had people flooding into it.

They know what it is already.

They're happy it's down the street from 'em.

They're familiar already with what I do or who I was in Texas already.

So here I don't have any of that.

Getting the martial arts equipment has been a challenge out here.

We are quite a ways away from a city here so I've had to figure out online ordering and proper things, finding new equipment, whereas before I had connections that I grew up with that were martial arts suppliers.

They told me this is too far for them to ship.

I'd spend too much money.

So I'm figuring out new ways, but I'm not giving up, and it has been stressful.

It's been just as if not a little more stressful than if I was opening back up in Colorado Springs or something, so.

But it'll still be worthwhile and to see the impact and to already see the little bit of growth these students have had in the short amount of time we've started out so far.

On a small scale, but it's proving it.

We'll keep taking steps, see where it goes.

(suspenseful music) So I've been doing this for 15 years now, teaching classes.

I've overcome a lot of hurdles that I don't have too much of anymore.

In my earlier teaching days, I would have to learn how to come across the aggressive types, how to talk to children's parents about children that weren't mature enough yet and all that.

But I've overcome those things.

I've learned how to talk and adapt to people to make them comfortable with the conversation, to understand more than anything what we're doing.

There's no secrets about what I do in here.

I want everybody to be good at it.

It's one of those things, if I could just pull it out of here and give it, I would.

I would be handing it out like free candy on Halloween.

But the reality is of course everybody has to come train and learn it themselves and learn.

I do develop bonds with the students, especially when I have my competitive and I have my fight team students, you know, we all know each other 'cause we're together all the time.

And just in general, even the students I don't see outside of class, some have my number and they reach out to me just for advice or just, "How would you handle this?"

Because being a martial artist my whole life I've had to carry myself a certain way with expectation and all.

I love giving that advice, I love that they reach out to me.

They still not only value me as teaching them martial arts, but they're like, "Hey, as a martial artist in life, this is what's going on with me.

What do you think of it?

Or how should I go about my emotions with it?

Or you know, how should I go about my action with it?"

And that's great that they call me for that.

You know, I did it for so long and you see a lot of young athletes that were great that get burnt out.

I was pushed a lot through it all and did so many, so many different styles for so long.

Thankfully there was a little bit of balance when I was younger, but I did reach a point where I was like, "Wow, I don't know if this is for me."

Because even once you get good at it, there's levels to it, and you are not sure if you're even physically capable of overcoming some of those levels.

And really I say to those that when they reach that plateau or they think they're at that plateau, to push and get up to the next level, I would tell them, obviously you don't stop 'cause 90% of success is being there.

Two, adapt.

When you become good at it, you adapt because each person is different.

Each person has a different skillset.

In my class especially, as these students progress and they'll see they'll all each have their own little tweaks and twerks of how they like to do things.

And that's the great thing is you learn the skill and then you hone it and then you make it your own.

Each little movement you can make your own and it's still right.

It's still the right thing in there.

(suspenseful music) Yeah.

And it's that easy, bro.

Really is.

The diversity that I primarily look at that becomes a focus within the martial arts world is women's self defense and the youth, the kids.

That's where the program will expand into.

Not that, women can absolutely come take the self defense now.

I cater and I understand because I have done this so long.

I understand that certain groups of individuals like to be catered to.

And this is, again, for everybody.

Eventually I'll be starting women's self-defense seminars, hopefully a class.

And then the kids of course is the other thing.

Then the elderly.

I don't wanna leave them out.

However, the Kali, the Jeet Kune Do I teach, Olympic style boxing portion of it.

All things that I'll be incorporating in to teach to these individuals.

Once they get started, word of mouth spreads in a small town.

That's what I love about it, word of mouth spreads like wildfire here, which is great for me because I love what I do and people that have trained with me so far love what I do.

(upbeat music) Yes, yes.

Good, that's (indistinct) I got some big goals of course.

(chuckles) And this is all a new challenge that I'm seeing fun and seeing a growth opportunity that I would like to take step towards and see how that goes.

Just getting the whole program put together entirely is goal number one.

Goal number two is getting some of my guys competing.

I already have guys coming in with the itch, but they're all starting out.

None of 'em are ready.

And that'll draw attention to this town, 'cause every competition you go to, they announce Granite Falls, Minnesota.

I would just like to see the sport grow in this whole region area.

You've got Willmar, you've got Redwood Falls, you've got Granite, you've got Montevideo, you've got Marshall with the university and all that.

There is such untapped potential here for it.

I was amazed when I moved here and saw how much potential there was for it.

I'm very open with the students.

Tell them how things are going, what I'm investing into so they know where their time and investment goes into.

- [Interviewer] What would be your number one advice to athletes out there who are really just trying to get their footing?

- Stay humble.

Stay self-disciplined.

Don't get greedy.

This is really hard coming for me to say 'cause I'm so hard on myself, but don't beat yourself down.

It took me a long time to realize what that meant.

Keep putting one foot in front of the other.

We wake up every day for a reason.

We were chosen to wake up today for a reason.

Go and do something with it.

(suspenseful music) (music continues) (music continues) - [Narrator] Next Up Minnesota is made possible by Margaret A. Cargill Philanthropies.

(upbeat music)