Competitors who teach. Teachers who compete.

Marcus began training BJJ at 19 in a rented space above a Chicago boxing gym, with mismatched crash mats and 6 other students. He earned his black belt from Professor Romulo Barral in 2017 after 12 years of consistent training and competition.

His teaching philosophy is built around the BJJ hierarchy: position before submission, base before movement, understanding before speed. He doesn't teach techniques — he teaches the principles behind why techniques work, so students can problem-solve in real time on the mat.

Outside of coaching, Marcus competes at masters level in ADCC regional qualifiers and volunteers as an advisor to a Chicago youth outreach program that uses martial arts as a mentorship vehicle for at-risk teenagers.

Jana first encountered Muay Thai in a kickboxing class in Chicago that felt too slow. She flew to Bangkok the following year, trained at Fairtex for three months, fell in love with the art, and spent the next two years fighting on the US amateur circuit before deciding she preferred teaching to competing.

Her coaching style is unusually analytical for a combat sport coach. She uses slow-motion video review, positional drilling before pad work, and detailed breakdown of the mechanics behind each weapon — the hip rotation behind a teep, the shoulder positioning in a left hook — rather than simple mimicry.

Jana teaches all levels, but her strength is intermediate students who have the basics but can't figure out why their technique isn't transferring to sparring. She has a particular gift for diagnosing what's missing.

Sam Rivera spent six years teaching physical education at an Aurora elementary school before joining Iron Lotus full-time. That background shapes everything about how they run kids classes: age-appropriate progressions, positive reinforcement over punishment, and session structures designed for 7-year-old attention spans.

The kids program at Iron Lotus is not a watered-down version of the adult curriculum. It's a purpose-built track with belt progressions calibrated for youth development, age-separated beginner and advanced groups, and a curriculum that emphasizes respect, conflict resolution, and self-confidence alongside technique.

Sam runs both youth tracks: kids ages 5 to 10 and the teen program for 11 to 14. Several students who started at age 6 are now teenagers transitioning into the adult classes, which is the clearest sign the progression works.