Tyson Kamp exchanged his Tae Kwon Do kimono for a BJJ gi in 1995 after watching Royce Gracie dominate the early UFCs. The “Vanilla Gorilla” trained at a few bay area schools, settled in at Claudio França’s jiu jitsu academy in San Jose, California, and earned his black belt in 2010. Tyson continues to develop his knowledge of jiu jitsu – currently he travels to Brazil to train with GF Team’s Wallace Castro and gain competition experience. Take a few minutes to find out more about this month’s Featured Fighter and get his perspective on what it takes to earn a black belt in jiu jitsu.
Do you have other martial arts training?
Just 2 years of Tae Kwon Do. I think it’s useful for sure, just harder to use as self defense and not as fun for me.
Do you have any training tips for people learning new techniques?
Don’t concentrate too hard on learning a large number or submissions because you will either forget them or not be able to recall them fast enough in a fight. Concentrate on improving your position and being very good at a smaller number of submissions.
What advice do you have for lower belts who hope to earn a black belt someday?
To become a black belt you have to do only one thing: never quit. This doesn’t mean you can’t take breaks. Given this, it follows that you must make sure you are taking care of yourself (in this order: sleep, diet, stretching, hydration and cross training). Along the way you will also see that doing all of this can’t be done alone, that you need to stay connected with your family and your spiritual side to be happy along the way (if you become unhappy, you will quit).
I also think competition is important, because it is important to test yourself with an opponent that generally will not seek to injure you but is not afraid to wreak havoc on your ego. This is becomes more important near and after black belt, because it keeps you connected with reality. You need someone to tell you when you’re wrong and your students probably won’t, but you competition will.
What is your favorite tournament memory?
Although a bit painful, the SF Open. I was reminded that this is a road, not a destination, and that I need to remember to have more respect for my opponents. I like to improve rather than enjoy my place in the hierarchy, which means the matches I lose are more valuable than the victories. I lost two matches at the SF Open.
What tournaments can we hope to see you at this year?
If oil prices and airline tickets will go down, I want to return to the Master/Senior Mundial at what I consider to be the cathedral of BJJ : the Tijuca Tennis Club in Rio. But, I will try to compete my usual 10+ times at my usual spots.
Who is your favorite BJJ fighter?
That’s hard to say exactly, but I think my favorite match ever is a video I saw of Roleta vs. Minotauro, which was just an all out war and Roleta managed to come out on top despite looking really at a size disadvantage. So maybe Roleta, who sort of moved on in life and disappeared from the scene. Watching guys like Caio and BJ is always good too because they are so clever and you can learn a lot.
Who is your favorite UFC fighter?
I don’t know, it’s a coin toss between Royce and Tank Abbot. Royce changed the martial arts world and beat so many big guys, but Tank is so entertaining you always want to watch to see a possible train wreck.
