Up next in our "Where Are They Now" series is Joseph Henle. A four-year member of the Cal Lutheran football team, Henle helped the Kingsmen finish second in the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) three times. For his career, he totaled 86 tackles, including 12 sacks and 20 tackles for loss, which accounted for 177 loss of yards. He added three forced fumbles, two fumble recoveries, two pass deflections and one blocked kick. Now, Henle is a professional Mixed Martial Arts fighter and the Owner/Head Instructor of Spartan Training Academy Bjj and MMA.
What year's where you at Cal Lutheran and what made you want to come here?
I was a Kingsmen from 2001 until 2008 as a student and then again from 2013 until 2016 as an employee. I was really drawn to Cal Lutheran after my first football visit. The team had a vibe that is hard to explain. It was a very open environment where everyone felt accepted. Everyone had a smile for people they didn't know and that made me feel like it was the place to be.
While at Cal Lutheran, what was your experience like?
I learned a lot about myself in my time at Cal Lutheran. I would describe the time as very influential. From the field to the classroom, I met many people who influenced and guided me to find the best versions of myself. Coach Will Plemons (Alum 98') was a great inspiration, from a mentor standpoint, who's teaching philosophy I still apply to my training and teaching to this day. I felt Cal Lutheran was a place that I had the space to make both good and poor decisions, without the fear of losing everything. It was a good place to grow.
How was your experience with the team and other athletes?
My experience as an athlete at Cal Lutheran was a bit mixed, but mostly because of personal choices I made through my journey. I always appreciated the drive, dedication, and desire the coaches put into getting us to perform at our best. It was hard as a young man to understand the business side of coaching and having coaches transition out was difficult, but also taught me that you can't lose yourself when things change. It's really helped me approach change in my life with a certain understanding that life doesn't always go the way you planned and what's important is how you adjust yourself to the change.
My experience with the athletes came in different forms as I was an athlete from 2001-2005 and then a graduate assistant for the 2007 season. Being a student, I really enjoyed how the various teams vibe'd. I always felt all the teams supported each other. Football players came to basketball games, baseball players came to football games, and everyone showed up to support the volleyball games. I still connect with many friends from those days from all the different sports teams. In fact, my best friend, Cody Owens, is still connected to the university as one of their head athletic trainers!
What is your current job, and how did Cal Lutheran prepare you for that?
Currently, I am a Professional Mixed Martial Arts fighter and Owner/Head Instructor of Spartan Training Academy Bjj and MMA in Phuket, Thailand. The experiences I had at Cal Lutheran helped to prepare me for the emotional and financial swings of being a professional fighter. From major success (Being a part of The Ultimate Fighting Championships: The Ultimate Fighter Season 11 Liddell vs Ortiz) to depressing injuries (multiple broken hands, torn MCL, separated shoulders, the list goes on here lol). What I learned on and off the field helped me to understand the swings of life and how I needed to ride them.
My time working for Cal Lutheran also bolstered my confidence in attempting new endeavors. After an injury in 2012 and 2013 that left me unable to fight for an extended period of time, I was able to come back to Cal Lutheran as a temporary employee and was given the chance to build my knowledge in a new field of instructional design. With support from great mentors such as Harry Starns, Cindy Grether, Somneth Basu, Bruce Gillies, Gerhard Apfelthaler in the MBA program led me to become an LMS advisor for Cia DeMartino at the Center of Teaching and Learning and work with great people like Minyan He (Instructional Designer), Lisa Buono (Founding Dean, School for Professional & Continuing Studies), Sean Kreycik (Sr. Systems Administrator) as well as many amazing instructors. The support I received by these, and many more, amazing people at Cal Lutheran gave me the confidence to build a solid career as an LMS Expert later working for SAGE Publishing as well as starting my own advising business.
It was that type of support that helped me to take the leap and move to Thailand and fully immerse myself in my passion for martial arts and take the steps I needed to take to become the best version of my professional self I could by training full time and now opening my own academy.
How did being a student-athlete prepare you for your professional career?
Being a student-athlete helped be prepare to balance a career. In my chosen profession, I need to balance training (Brazilian Jiujitsu, Boxing, Muay Thai, Wrestling, Strength and Conditioning) as well as learning. I've grown to understand that not everything is most efficiently learned just by doing. I spend a good amount of time researching techniques to make sure I'm up to date with new innovations as well as keeping my foundations solid through repetition and drilling.
My time spent with the Rushmen (name for the defensive line, as we were primarily tasked with "rushing" the QB) taught me how to become skilled through drilling something so much that we achieved a state of "Wu-Shin" or "without mind" We would drill so much that our movements were not thought up but simply reactions to stimuli. This is very important in the world of professional fighting because if I have to see when a technique is available, the time to apply that technique is already gone.
While doing this I couldn't allow my studies to fall, since education was the primary reason for being there (or so I was told lol), so I spent many hours in the library making sure that it wasn't only the physical getting the work, it was the mind as well.
What is your favorite part about the job?
My favorite part of my job now is, all of it. I love every minute of it. Teaching provides me a joy that I can't put into words. I love the physical aspect of training as well. From understanding how to manipulate another humans' movements through Jiu Jitsu or striking, my view is of the gamesmanship and not the brutality most see. There is a beauty in the movement that you can really only understand once you've tried it and understand that it is ever evolving chess match. No live training session is ever the same and I love that.
What is a typical day at your job?
My day revolves around routine. Depending on the day it looks something like this
6am - Wake Up
7am - Teach a BJJ drilling session.
8am - Strength/Mobility/Stability session.
10am - Breakfast with my partner
12pm - I'm writing, revising, and researching improvements to my Jiu Jitsu program
1pm - I'm teaching a private Jiu Jitsu lesson
3pm - Nap
5:30pm - Teaching Bjj and running an open mat (live training) session.
8pm - Dinner and Reading with my kids
That's about it. I do take Wednesdays off from training and teaching as well as Sundays. The body can't run at that pace all the time!
Did you know you always wanted to do this, or when did you know what you wanted to do?
Actually, most of my life has been a surprise as far as jobs go. When I was young, I thought I would be a Stock Broker/Financial Advisor. It's actually what I went to Cal Lutheran for! I have my B.S. in Business Administration with an Emphasis in Personal Finance as well as my MBA/CFP. It wasn't until I experienced coaching, LMS work, Fighting, that I found my passions for teaching others as well as finding my own personal physical and mental limits. Looking back, I would definitely advise my younger self to do more exploration in terms of jobs. I always looked at them as a way to survive and make money and not as an opportunity to find my passion.
I would recommend every student at Cal Lutheran do internships, go on study abroad, take advantage of all the wonderful things available through the university. Explore and find what truly fuels your fire at your core, not just a specific job but what about the job that you find fascinating because there are so many opportunities for those with a passion. Jobs come and go, but it's the aspects of what you get to do that keep you striving for more.
What does it mean to you to be a Kingsmen?
Being a Kingsmen, to me, will always represent community. Whether it be athletic, academic, or even as an employee, I look back at my time spent at Cal Lutheran as worth every penny I've spent (and continue to spend ha-ha) on it. I wouldn't change my life for anything and being a Kingsmen was a big part of that.
Kingsmen Born
Kingsmen Breed
I'll be a Kingsmen 'til the day I'm dead.
