If you have been training Jiu-Jitsu for 20+ years, you have probably heard of Slavko Ilic. He is as old school as it gets. Slavko’s life is like an action movie, full of twists and turns and based all around the world, from war zones to Jiu-Jitsu academies to Hollywood.
We sat down with Slavko to learn more about his interesting life:
1. Hi Slavko, could you please introduce yourself to the BJJ community?
My name is Slavko Ilic. I started training Rickson GRACIE jiu jitsu in 1994 with Rickson Gracie at his west LA Pico Academy (next to the auto paint shop..yes paint fumes make you high).
2. How did your martial art journey start and how did you get started with BJJ?
My martial arts journey started at the age of 12 in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada. I was being bullied ever since my arrival to Canada. I watched a few Bruce Lee movies and decided that Kung Fu would save me. Hence, I persuaded my parents to pay for a year membership at The Scarlet Dragon Society where I started training Shaolin Kung Fu. From Kung Fu I moved to Tae Kwon Do, to Shotokan Karate and Kickboxing. At 18 I had my first non professional kick boxing match in Detroit, Michigan, USA, against a 30 year old man. I can proudly say that the fight stopped due to my leg kicks against his legs. He was unable to defend himself. From that evening, I continued to search for the best self defense system.
Slavko teaching at Kimura BJJ academy in Belgrade, Serbia:
View this post on Instagram
3. You were lucky enough to have trained under the legendary Rickson Gracie during the 90’s. How were those days and how was the training? (please include some good stories)
After training as a Senshusei at the Honbu Yoshinkan Aikido Dojo in Higashi Nakano, I returned to Ontario and met a Great man who remains in my heart to this day. His name was Mits Yamashita and he was an Aikido Instructor as well as a Purple Belt under Rorion Gracie. During a very big Aikido conference/seminar at which I was a presenter, I met Master Mits Yamashita. At the end of the 3 day event, Mits put on a 4 hour seminar on Gracie JiuJitsu. I had been training SAMBO, Wrestling and Japanese Jiu Jitsu since the age of 18, so I was not particularly interested in Gracie Jiu Jitsu. I reluctantly attended with my friends.
Story Telling: I can be encouraged to tell my stories and only require good food as an enticement. My first Rickson Gracie Jiu Jitsu / jiu jitsu/Gracie Jiu Jitsu story starts with Mits. At the BJJ seminar, Mits teaches some techniques, non of which catch my interest. I had been grappling for over 6 years and thought I understood what he was demonstrating. Mits eventually does some positional drilling and positional rolling and then eventually he rolls with anyone who wants to roll. A side note, Mits was born in 1942 & I was born in 1967 and this was in 1994). Long story short, Mits taps everyone who comes to roll with him. Mits then invites me to roll, as I was the physically largest animal in the room.
I did not have an interest in tapping a 52 year old man. For those of you that know me, I was a strong & sexy beast in those days. Eventually, I am persuaded to roll with Mits. We shake hands and start to roll. My memory is foggy on details, as you can imagine, but i tap to a Kimura. I did not know this submission to be called a Kimura. It was a bent arm lock from cross side. Mits is very humble and I am very confused, as my defense of the Kimura did not work like it normally did. He asks if I would like to roll again and I of course say “yes please”. Today, I can still recall asking myself “what just happened? So, we roll again and yours truly gives up his back and Mits sinks in a RNC. I of course defend the RNC like a pro and to the best of my ability and then tap with at least 1/2 a second to spare before going nigh-night. I watched the stars dance around my thick head for a minute, hugged Mits and walked off the mats to my friends. My friends High fived me and said that it was very nice of me to allow Mits to Tap me.
I spend i don’t remember how many hours explaining to my friends that I did NOT give anything to Mits and analyzing what really had happened. I come to the radical conclusion that I s
simply “do not know what I do not know”. Two weeks later I was on a Plane to LA, where I stayed with Mits at his home for 2 weeks. Mits explained to me in great detail the Gracie family history as it had been relayed to him by Rorion Gracie. Mits explained that Rickson was by far the best in the family and that he would recommend that I train with him. Mits drove me to Rickson’s Academy on Pico Blvd in West LA and I spend the next two weeks training a minimum of 2x per day 6 days a week. At that time we had to buy packages of classes. So you bought 20 classes for $400. I would use up my classes within a week sometimes. After each day, I would make videos and notes, with Mits’s help at his home. I still have those videos and notes some place…I think.
I continued coming to LA and training at Rickson’s Academy until 1997, when I moved to LA to train, compete and work.
At the Academy at this time were three assistant instructors, Chris Saunders, Luis Heredia & Mauricio Costa and Blue/purple belt by the name of Beau “Big Daddy” Hershberger and Henry Akins was starting his BJJ training as well. While traveling back and forth from Ontario, Canada, I would crash at Mits’s, Beau’s and Chris’s homes and sometimes I would even have the use of one of Beau’s vehicles. These were great times..very physically and mentally challenging but always intense with a steep learning curve.
Chris Saunders along with Rickson were my main instructors. I spent the most amount of time with them on the mats, both in group classes and in Private classes. With Rickson at his home in the garage and with Chris at his home in a room build for BJJ. They influenced my BJJ the most. Note: I became Rickson’ Representative in Canada and as such had the privilege of having private classes often AND my new spouse Gabriela worked in Rickson’s office, so scheduling me in for a Private class was never an issue,,,,,unless my friends found out that I was getting more Privates then the average Representative. OK…life is not FAIR!
Chris spend many hours at his home with me doing his best to make my BJJ softer. It was a true challenge for Chris, to teach to not use my physical strength unless absolutely necessary and only if it was not detrimental to the technique itself. I like to believe that me manged to teach me that lesson and many others. Due to my physical size, I do not fight much from an open guard but rather do so from a closed guard. Chris performed miracles with my guard but sadly could not make it good. It is not his fault. Chris once paid me a compliment and that was when he awarded me my Brown Belt calling me “the gentle giant”. Chris your are my brother for life. Thank you FABB! YES, my apologies, “FABB”! Chris was Rickson’s First American Black Belt (FABB).
Beau Hershberger, has the honor of being the first man to ever choke me unconscious from his guard with a cross / x choke. Again this is a familiar theme, I did defend “properly ” but went night-night just the same and for the record, yes, I did pee myself! I had been choked out during training 5 or 6 times prior to this occasion by different chokes but that was during SAMBO training and not while rolling but during drilling. The intention of this was to teach us what it felt like to be choked, so that we could better recognize a proper choke. This was an original form of Stress Inoculation Training (SIT). Today, my favorite choke if there can be such a thing (there should not be such a thing) is the cross / X choke. I hope that the readers of this article, ask Profesor HUNI, why they should not have a favorite choke, arm bar, wrist lock or technique. Beau and I would become good friends and I would learn much about jiu jitsu and MMA from him. He was my physical equal in the Academy, at 225-235lbs and it was always a learning experience training with him. Training with Beau was absolutely great becaue my physical strength was matched and hence useless. If a defense was not perfect with Beau, it simply was destroyed by his technique and strength combined into one. Contrary to modern mythology, physical strength , size, and other physical attributes are important factors to consider in self defense training, combatives training and MMA training, as are mental / psychological attributes.
The night that I am awarded my Purple Belt by Rickson in the Palisades Academy, Beau and I are rolling while the Profesor watched us and corrected my uncountable errors. Beau you are my brother and I can never forget you!
Luis ‘Limao’ Heredia & Mauricio Costa, were tolerant instructors and were the daily instinstructors at the Pico Academy. I credit them for helping me develop a strong and deep BJJ Base. My first and only BJJ Belt test was held by Luis, Mauricio and Chris. This was for my Blue belt. The testing entailed demonstrating various techniques and demonstrating positions and defense as required. I passed the test and also was awarded one strip on my blue belt at the testing. I still have that Blue belt. I have developed a strong belief that a Blue Belt is a Key step in learning BJJ. I have been telling my students for decades, that when you earn your Blue belt, you MUST be able to defend yourself against a “one minute superman”. Sadly, I have lived to witness the severe watering down of the Self Defense from the “one minute superman” concept. On behalf of Rickson, I was awarded my Black Belt in the Netherlands, by Luis. Thank you Limao and Caveman! You both will always be a part of my life. You will always be my brothers.
4. How do you see BJJ’s evolution?
I have been privileged to be a part of BJJ during its introduction to the World by the Gracie & Machado families. I been witness to its evolution both good and bad. OnOn the good side, i list more people training BJJ globally and hence we see more technical developments in BJJ. On the bad, I list, a move away from self defense orientated training and techniques in favour of tournament and grappling techniques. There is nothing wrong with tournament BJJ or just training BJJ for the sake of exercise and stress relief.
I however have from the age of 12 spent much time, money and energy learning practical self defense. I have competed in all sorts of tournaments and MMA. I have been in gun fights on a two way range and have seen active combat. My desire and preference is for BJJ to not lose its roots and to maintain a strong link to its roots by remaining practical in its application of self defense techniques. This is why, when I act as an instructor and facilitator, I do my best to bring as much real life scenarios as possible to each student. I believe that we still have a need for BJJ as a self defense system and as such we must be diligent and fight to not lose this vital component of BJJ.
5. Please tell us about your experience training law enforcement and military
Amongst other taskings, I trained Security, Law Enforcement and Military personnel in Combatives, Firearms and Firearm Tactics, Techniques and Principals and Close Protection. I have trained Military special forces units, State Department personnel, Military Police and civilians in Close Protection / PSD and Firearms TTP’s.
I developed Combatives training programs for Law Enforcement and Military and assisted in the development of training programs and execution of training for Intelligence Agency Operatives and their protection teams, operating in non- permissive environments.
Hence my self defense training in Jiu Jitsu contains elements for real life applications for civilians, Law enforcement and military personnel. And conversely, my LE & Military programs contain elements of Jiu Jitsu, where applicable naturally.
6. Please tell us about your role as a tactical consultant for the Den of Thieves movies.
Now we are getting into some strange territory. Some time ago, maybe six years ago, if my memory serves me, I was approached with a job offer. The position was for a “Technical Consultant” on the development of a movie involving Military Special Forces. Eventually I accepted the position and I have since than been working as a Technical Consulatant on a few action movies. Notably, I have acted as a Consultant for the movie Den of Thieves and most recently, Den of Thieves 2 – Pantera. We finished filming about 8 weeks ago on Tenerife, Spain. In Den of Thieves 2 – Pantera I act as the Technical Consulatant, Stunt and Actor trainer and I have a small role as an Assassin and was the ony actor on set that was permitted to and did perform his own stunts (shameless self promotion).
Essentially, I am the guy that assists in making the bad guys act like “real life” “bad guys” and the good guys act like “Real life” “good guys”. Please note the quotes around the terms that I use. In a nut shell, when someone uses a weapon, I ensure that the Director understands how the weapon is used by that type of actor in real-life and the Director decides how he wants the weapon used during the filming. When someone is shot, I provide real life experience as to what happens when the projectile / bullet strikes their body / body armor, etc. When someone wants to blow up a vehicle, Breach a door or other security apparatus, they come to me and then the Direcror based on the Technical Consultants advice makes a call. If a vehicle needs to PIT another vehicle, iI provide the information and training on how to PIT the vehicle . The list of what I consult on is quite extensive and is dependent on the movie.
During the filming of Den of Thieves 2 – Pantera I had the absolute pleasure of finding a man to work along side me. Agim De Bruycker, a former Commissioner from the Belgian Federal Police was my partner during the filming of Den of Thieves 2 – Pantera and Christian Gudegast was our Director. In the end, I as a Technical Consultant have been in place to assist with making the movie true to life and in some cases to assist in infusing “1% hyper reality ” into a particular scene”. Again, some shameless self promotion; Please look for Den of Thieves 2 – Pantera, in the first quarter of 2024.
7. What is next for you in 2023/24?
I keep busy with my Security Risk Management company., Counter Risk Group and I am currently scheduled to do some more work on two more movies 2024 & 2025 and I am doing my best to schedule some Jiu Jitsu and Combatives seminars in Eastern Europe.
I am from the Balkan and can not seem to tear myself away from the region, people and culture.
A bit of training advice for all my friends and fellow Jiu Jitsu practitioners. Take as much care of your training partners, as you do of yourself. You can not be the best that you can, without your training partners!
