FloGrappling caught up with the ADCC veteran Tom DeBlass last month as he coached some of his students at the 2017 IBJJF No-Gi World Championships in Anaheim, CA. 

When one of DeBlass' pupils, David Gonzalez, took to the mats for a purple belt medium heavy quarterfinal matchup against Konstantinos Chiutacos, we decided to put a mic on the prolific coach. In result, we got an up-close and personal look at how DeBlass approaches coaching his students. 

Check out the full video below: 

After Gonzalez lost the match 7-6, DeBlass even gave us some words of wisdom to contemplate:

"It was a good match. You guys have to understand, I think everything up till brown belt is just for experience. There's a lot of people coming up short here, there can only be a certain amount of winners. Winning itself is something you must learn how to do. It's not always about how good you are. The better guy doesn't always win. The guy who knows how to compete is gonna win. Winning is a skill. You can't get frustrated. You have to keep coming back and you're time is gonna come."