Interview from Breaking muscle: Featured Coach: John Hackleman, Part 1 - Origins Of The Pit
Coach
John Hackleman - Owner of THE PIT is one of MMA's most respected Trainers and his revolutionary style of training both technically and physically is something that continues to inspire and produce Champions in the most important arena of all...LIFE!
When you meet John Hackleman, founder of The Pit and CrossPit, he seems like a guy who would train fighters - big, bald, covered in tattoos, and full of prison jokes. He has trained some of the world’s best, including UFC fan-favorite Chuck Liddell. Hackleman, however, also teaches families and children, worked for many years as a nurse, and is an accomplished business man.
John knew from an early age martial arts was the sport for him. In fact, it’s the only sport he’s ever done. Born in New York City, he moved with his family to Honolulu, Hawaii when he was just four years old. At the age of nine he began studying Judo and then Shotokan Karate. It was at the age of ten he found his true calling in the art of Kajukenbo.
Kajukenbo was created in Hawaii in the 1940s from a combination of karate, judo and jujitsu, kenpo, and boxing. Its name in fact, is taken from the first two letters of each of these styles: ka-ju-ken-bo. In that sense it was a “mixed martial art” long before MMA as we now know it existed.
When asked about his ranking in Kajukenbo, John injected his typical sense of humor:
I was awarded great-grandmaster in Kajukenbo, from the head guy, Adrian Emperado, before he passed away. And my instructor [Walter Godin] before he passed away in 2001 awarded me great-grandmaster, as well. And then I awarded myself great-great-great-great-grandmaster. So I’m a three-time grandmaster, so I’m a super-great-grandmaster - and I think I am.
As far as his own fighting career, John began fighting at the age of 14. He started as amateur in boxing and kickboxing. He competed in a few no-holds-barred fights in the 1970s, as well. After a stint in the Army, John turned professional. As a pro-boxer he earned the nickname, “The Train,” early on - named so by an unlucky opponent on the receiving end of one of John’s knockout punches.
John knew, however, that fighting was not a long-term career. Indeed, one of his trainers coached him on this point and it led to John’s second profession as a nurse:
When I was boxing I was always really interested in the medical stuff, because I loved science. One of my trainers was actually a respiratory therapist. I was just starting my boxing career and he said you’re not going to be able to box forever; you should go to school and be a respiratory therapist or something like that. I thought that was a great idea, so I went to school to become a respiratory therapist and from there it kind of evolved. There’s just more work as a registered nurse, so I went back to school for that.
Eventually John’s passion for martial arts would lead to the birth of the now world-famous martial arts gym, The Pit. The Pit began quite modestly, in a backyard in Woodland Hills, California.It was 1985. I was living with someone in Los Angeles and I was working as a respiratory therapist in a hospital and it was just pain to go to the gym every day and work fulltime. So, I decided to put a gym in our garage. Some of my friends from the hospital would come over and workout with me. Actually one guy, he was a lab tech or a nurse, said, “This gym, this place is so small; it’s like training in a pit.” That’s where it got its name. It was just a little one-car garage and we liked to lift weights, hit the bags, and spar out in the driveway.
Before long the gym outgrew the garage and John built a small gym in the backyard. From there, he and his wife whittled their jobs down to part-time as the martial arts school started growing, while having little to no overhead. John would also evolve the very art he was teaching. "In 1985 there were some things I wasn’t crazy about in that system," he explained. "So I started taking some of those things out that I didn’t like and putting in things I did like. I created my own style, called Hawaiian Kempo, and that’s what I pretty much do to this day."
In 1990 John moved the school to Arroyo Grande, California, starting off with an 800 square foot building in the backyard of his new home. It was at this school that Chuck Liddell and John Hackleman were introduced.
Now, in 2011, The Pit resides in a 4,000 square foot gym replete with heavy bags, rowing machines, and weights. There is also a brand-new second location in Las Vegas measuring 12,000 square feet in size with a 30-foot cage and full CrossFit gym. Pit affiliates operate in 12 different states and in the United Kingdom. As John said, “It’s evolved a little from the beginning.”
The original Arroyo Grande backyard gym is still in use. “I call it the compound – so it’s not the ‘backyard,’” explained John. The compound now includes a sauna, a block-glass shower, a Jacuzzi, and a sleeping room for visitors. And the visitors do still come.
I train the CrossFit guys there who come - they love that. My old-school students come once a week and we do workouts once a week in the backyard with the gi on. It’s part of the old-school workout that they have to wear a gi. My fighters I usually do once a week. My certification seminars, usually a couple of the workouts are done in the backyard, too.
From a garage gym in Woodland Hills to a mega-gym in Las Vegas, John and The Pit have come a long way over the years. All of John’s endeavors, however, revolve around his passion. When asked to describe that passion, in terms of what gets him up in the morning, John responded:
Thinking how I can train that day to train really hard to tax myself and to train my people - how to get everyone in the best shape, with what techniques. I spend a lot of time on the techniques that I’m going to teach them, how to put them together, and how to condition them. And then, not as much the techniques for me, but how I can train to my fullest that day. Whether it’s one workout that day, two, two easy ones, one hard one – whatever it is – to program my workout and my students’ workout. And build my business, The Pit – to take it to the next level. Those things combined are all separate, yet the same. That’s my passion.
I just want to grow this. There’s nothing else I want. There’s nothing else I’ve ever wanted to do and nothing else I do want to do. I just want to keep this where it is now, or even grow it bigger. Then that’s beyond my wildest dream. I’d be tickled pink.I’m just a karate guy; I’m not too smart.
John Hackleman, while a coach and trainer for a living, has been a student all his life - starting with martial arts as a young boy, through nursing school, and then CrossFit. Anyone who has spent time around John knows he is always studying business or some aspect of it. He is on a mission for success, yet still seems to enjoy the journey and it is his commitment to learning that perhaps has him be such a successful coach.
Although his main focus is martial arts, John is also well-known and respected in the CrossFit world. Like Mixed Martial Arts (MMA), John was involved with CrossFit from pretty much the start. He attended one of the first few certifications ever offered by CrossFit and immediately saw how a blending of the two disciplines could be beneficial for martial artists and athletes of all types. The hybrid was dubbed “CrossPit.”
Athletes are able to train CrossPit-style at any number of the Pit affiliates around the country and some even choose to trek to Arroyo Grande to workout at the backyard compound. John described what a workout in the backyard facility looks like:
They do wheelbarrow pushes - those are one of my staples. Can’t get much better than that; it’s a whole body workout. We do a lot of heavy d-balls, where we throw them for distance – you throw it, run to it, throw it, run to it. Sometimes we clean and jerk it and then throw it. There are a lot of farmer’s walks, a lot of sledges with a tire, a lot of double-unders, a lot of bag work. There are pull-up bars, rings, kettlebells, and barbells. Any workout you can do in CrossFit, we can do, plus we add in the hill work like the “D-Ball Mile” and the wheelbarrow.
For John, whether it is martial arts or CrossFit, the key to successful coaching is being able to put yourself in your student’s place and be fluid about what they need to learn.
You have a set curriculum or schedule, but be able to change it at a seconds notice if it’s not working. Say, I’m drilling hooks and I notice my guy drops his hands, then all of the sudden I’ll work on bobbing and weaving. Or if I’m working defending the takedown with Chuck and I see him get leg-kicked, all of the sudden I’ll work on leg-checks and counters. Just have a feel to change as it goes and not be stuck.
One of the faults John sees with trainers is they don’t understand where the mind of the athlete is during competition or during the midst of hard training. Too often coaches push when it’s not appropriate.
A lot of trainers have never fought. I think some of the best have never fought, like Greg Jackson. He’s one of the best trainers out there and he’s never fought. Or Blauer, I don’t think he’s ever had any real combative stuff, but for some reason they can have empathy with someone who has fought. You have to put yourself in your fighter’s position - especially when he’s training hard. You have to know how he’s feeling when he comes back to the corner after a hard round. You have to have empathy for what he’s doing. Too many trainers are really brave in there, saying, “Get back out there.”
Having spent so much of his life around competitive sports, it is natural to wonder what John thinks of how to become a successful athlete, particularly in terms of CrossFit or martial arts. What it comes down to is the same for any sport, really – find a good school and do the work. Find a good coach and listen.
If they want to do CrossFit they need to go to a CrossFit and do the training. But make sure it’s a reputable one – that’s kind of hard. I’m lucky in my town we’ve got five CrossFits, but it just so happens I’ve got Bill Grundler. He’s the farthest one probably, but definitely the best, so I know to go to him. Even if I don’t like a WOD or his programming, I know it must be good because he knows a hell of a lot more and he’s more successful than I am. So I just shut up and do it. Just like if he comes to my gym and wants to be an MMA fighter, well, he better just do it and shut up and listen to what I say.If you want to be an MMA fighter and you don’t have a good MMA gym in town, there are more aspects that you have to learn and train equally. I don’t think one before the other – you have to learn them all equally – striking, wrestling, jiu-jitsu and conditioning. I think you have to do 25% has to be for each one, with no emphasis on any of them. I think that makes the most successful fighters.
And what is John Hackleman, the perennial student, working on himself? Despite his success in growing his business from his garage to a school with world-champion fighters and state-of-the-art locations in California and Las Vegas, John still does not consider himself a businessman.
I am a martial artist and a guy who loves to train, but I’m definitely not a business man. Instead of just doing it for a hobby, turning it into a profitable business has always been my biggest challenge. It doesn’t come naturally for me. It’s never ending. I have mentors up the wazoo - everyone from Tony Robbins to Master Bill Clark. I have mentors who help me and I read about it and I’m studying about it all the time.
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