Photo by Maria Celis

Flores gets ready to throw his opponent over his shoulder while sparring. He trains 7 days a week and works hard to perfect his skills.

Senior Fernando Flores performed this move as many times as it took to perfect it. He could sense every muscle move in perfect harmony as he swung his leg towards his opponent. His mind and body, perfectly in sync, working and performing as simply as it does while brushing his teeth. His body runs like clockwork, calculating the needed steps in order to defeat his opponent and reach his maximum potential.

Flores, a current purple belt, first began training jiu jitsu at age 11 after spending two years boxing. Flores’ parents enrolled him in jiu jitsu training to help him have security for himself and others in the outside world.

“For a while before I was doing jiu jitsu full time I was boxing,” Flores said. “My parents put me in jiu jitsu because they wanted me to be able to defend myself. They wanted me to be able to handle myself in case something went awry.”

While the physical benefits of learning a martial art give protection, mental benefits can be just as effective. Flores’ says his mentality started in a sheltered space as a young child, however he says he blossomed as he grew up learning the discipline and strength required for the art.

“I was basically terrified of everything. I was scared of my own shadow, it was pretty rough. I was a pretty shaken up kid,” Flores said. “But then after I started growing up, I’ve gotten a lot more assertive. I’m a lot more direct now too.”

Training martial arts has helped Flores with his confidence and overall physical capabilities due to the work he puts in during his daily life. Flores’ coach at Fishers Brazilian Jiu Jitsu & Boxing, Jason Kesler, notices the time and work Flores puts into the sport.

“He trains seven days a week [with] about 20 hours a week,” Kesler said. “During the summer he trains twice a day and during school he trains in the evenings and weekends.” 

Although fitting jiu jitsu into his schedule is difficult, Kesler notes that Flores continues to treat his training with the utmost importance.

 He’s always been pretty passionate about jiu jitsu and training as a whole. Overtime he has gotten a lot busier and there’s a lot going on, but he still finds a way to manage his time and to make it in here and make it a priority,” Kesler said.

Flores says he finds it easy to make time for his passion since his training environment is less like a workspace and more like a family. Flores finds that having good relationships with others who train with him helps him to build friendships as well.

“Everyone there is great, all like family, all super fun. Everybody there is a great person, they’re all good guys,” Flores said. “I still have friends who are training there too. I’ve made most of my friends there.”

While his passion may be to learn and perform the art, he simultaneously coaches and trains at Fishers Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. He also is able to teach other martial arts offered at the gym.

“I teach taekwondo, jiu jitsu, [and] boxing. I’m able to teach muay thai, which is kickboxing,” Flores said.

Flores says he loves the opportunity to teach what he’s passionate about. In the future, he sees himself creating his own positive gym atmosphere that he has at his current gym.

“I love teaching and in the end my goal is to graduate early and work to do some sort of job for retirement, probably firefighting,” Flores said. “Off of early retirement I want to open up my own academy.”

According to junior Sydney Howle, this dream of eventually owning his own gym is not out of reach for Flores. As another young coach, Howle understands Flores’ passion for the martial arts and knows he does his job well.

“I also do martial arts and I teach them as well so I’ve done classes with him and taught with him, he’s a very good person to spar with and does well running groups,” Howle said.

Flores’ commitment to training as well as teaching allows him to have a sense of security in his jiu jitsu skills. Flores believes that being able to teach a sport with such precision and passion gives him more confidence in himself as well.

“[Teaching] definitely does make you a lot more confident though, like when you can say ‘I know what I’m doing,’” Flores said. “I can break down veterans’ techniques to the last detail and I’m not questioning myself anymore.”

With the experience that he has, Flores encourages others to start as soon as possible, but that learning martial arts is still for anyone who wants to learn no matter how old they are.

“For anyone who is debating on starting any martial art, they need to get into it sooner than later,” Flores said. “It’s never too late.”