Former gang member finds purpose in martial arts
Shaan Lodhie | 12-22-2009 | Comments |
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“If it wasn't for this place, I honestly believe I'd be dead or in jail right now.”Eleo Betancourt’s life turned around when he chose to attend the Gracie Jiu-Jitsu Academy, a martial arts school located in Torrance, California. “I used to be a bully,” he said. “Being here has showed me and taught me a new respect for life, people, and for everything in general.”
Several years ago, before he began attending the academy, Betancourt was in and out of jail, running with a gang, and selling drugs. Even then, he already had a second-degree black belt in the martial art Taekwondo. “I felt like I [could] beat people up, so I went around with an attitude, with a chip on my shoulders,” he said. “It got me into a lot of trouble. I just didn't want it anymore.”
In late 2005, Betancourt decided to look into the academy, hoping to improve his ground wrestling skills. Rener Gracie—the current head of the academy along with his father Rorion and brother Ryron—was the one who first spoke to him on the phone, taught his first class, and took him under his care and counsel.
“When I came here, the first time I stepped foot on the mat, I just felt the love and the warmth, the positive energy that was radiating from everybody.”
Going on four years now, Betancourt said his level of commitment to the academy is profound, and he plans to attend for the rest of his life. “It'd be hard for me to explain with words what this place means to me,” he said.
Betancourt, now 26, said that if his next child is a girl, he will name her Gracie after the academy, and if it’s a boy, he’ll name him after Rener. Betancourt wears academy t-shirts, has a tattoo of the logo on his arm, and sports an academy decal sticker on his car.
“I’m extremely proud of training here,” he said. “To me, this is like the Harvard of martial arts schools.”
The Gracie Jiu-Jitsu Academy, established in 1925 by Helio Gracie, is a world-renowned martial arts institute with 45 locations across America, as well as in Singapore, Trinidad, South Africa, and other places around the world. Among others, the Gracies teach their jiu-jitsu to the U.S. Army, the Navy Seals, and the Secret Service. Jiu-jitsu is based on defensively using an attacker’s energy against him through leverage-based joint locks or throws.
Gracie Jiu-Jitsu has also aided Betancourt in his life outside the academy. Because of his knowledge of the martial art, Betancourt, a man of both average height and weight, is able to face opponents larger and stronger than he is—an advantage very few martial arts give.
By day, Betancourt does loss prevention work for Home Depot in Compton. “Basically, I'm a plain-clothes detective,” he said. “I just walk around, looking for people who are stealing, committing theft, attempting to commit fraud...things of that nature.”
He recalled an incident last October when three men tried to commit fraud by purchasing $5,000 worth of merchandise with a fake credit card. When they returned the next day to pick everything up, Betancourt and the local police were ready for them.
One of the three men attacked him, and Betancourt was able to easily take him down while the police subdued the other two men.
In another incident over the past summer, a man broke into Betancourt’s home while he, his girlfriend, and his five-year-old daughter were there. He was able to engage and defeat the man without anyone being harmed.
“I make my family and my girlfriend very secure, because they know that if, God forbid, something is going to occur where someone's going to try to cause them physical harm, they know that I'm capable of responding and defending them,” he said. “It builds a lot of confidence, and it makes you secure as a person, knowing that you have that power."
Although one of the academy’s primary messages to its students is to only use the martial art defensively, Betancourt’s goal is to one day make it to the world-famous mixed martial arts fighting league, UFC, or Ultimate Fighting Championship. Betancourt was always interested in the art of fighting, beginning at age 12 with Taekwondo, and then learning a little bit of Hapkido—a Korean martial art—and wrestling in-between.
For now, he is more than happy to continue training at the academy where he finds solace from the outside world.
“It's more than just a place where I come and train,” he said. “This is like my little slice of heaven on earth.”
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