Ivan Ivanov: [00:00:00] I was gonna tell you, for my athletes, I sometime, I'm a coach Ivan normally, but I can be coach Ivan, know what I
Ivan the terrible. yes, because we, we must have results.
Riley: Today I have Yvonne Ivanov, the owner of Suples. He pronounces it Su-pless wrestling gear, and Ivan is joining us today. He and I met at Salt Lake City at the Fight Con event here a couple weeks ago, [00:01:00] and I just kind of got intrigued.
I watched him and his team doing some, some training, uh, using their equipment and they had it all set up in this area. And they were, man, Yvonne was running these guys through the ringer. And it looked like a good time. Looked like very hard work. Um, Yvonne, I wanna welcome you to the show, man.
Ivan Ivanov: Thank you. Thank you, Riley. Glad to be here.
Riley: Yeah. So I wanna have you describe to us what is Suples. pronounce it correctly. You're gonna hear me say Sule through this episode. I apologize ahead of time, but can you tell us about
what the company is,
Ivan Ivanov: the same.
Yeah, it means the same, uh, su play or surplus. It's, it's a resting technique. It's, it's right here in our logo and it's a Greco-Roman, uh, throw, but can be used for any, uh, any styles of wrestling, including folk style. Um, but style, you have to [00:02:00] kind of throw a little bit on the side.
It's not straight back, but belly to belly can be used in folk style as well, because it's more safe. Um, the word surplus means exactly that. It's, uh, the, the suplex, which is a French word for this technique that, we all know Sule or suplex is Bulgarian pronunciation. That's the country I'm coming from Originally.
I'm native Bulgarian first, then I became American citizen later. So I'm half and half, um, half Bulgar, half American, because even now more American, because I've been living more, most of my life in the United States now. Um, but the, name of this move means. That body lock throw that we join, it's this technique that can be only executed from very skilled [00:03:00] athletes, strong athletes. this move requires flexibility, explosive power, coordination, and of course technical knowledge. So that's what means surplus. when I started to think about products that can help, um, my athletes can help my job as a coach to be more effective. Um, and then we start doing some sales, mostly to, to coaches. Um, then I decided that we have to register a company, and that's where, uh, that's why I registered a company in 2004. it was, uh, surplus back then. Surplus, LTD. It was like this. See, this is old logo that we don't use anymore. I still, I, we still [00:04:00] own, I still own surplus LTD, it, I didn't even know back then much about branding.
I didn't know about companies. I started surplus, not really to think, to sell. I started surplus. Because I needed equipment help me through my training process. Like the first, the first equipment came a surplus dummy, I call it surplus dummy, because I, I didn't invent the dummy, but I redesigned the dummy with appropriate weight, appropriate arm and body compositions, you know, or everything.
That for me, the, the, the, the standard dummies are not, not useful. you probably know that in America, they were few companies, they're making dummies and they, they were actually, I found out later, they're, they're [00:05:00] football people. They're not Muslims. So they're not using the dummies for technical throws that I understand using for pushing and just knocking them down.
Not really, are not functional as my dummies. so later when I came up with the Bulgarian back, you know, and, uh, we started to, um, reach out more, more people, um, they're coming to me, actually not me. I didn't market, I didn't do anything. But my process of coaching, I was able coaching for USA wrestling, especially. The national events. I was connected with many coaches and they, they wanted to see what I do. was doing clinics or they come into the Olympic Training Center where I was located mostly. I was staying there. They started to, to see how I'm using the dummies, how I use the Bulgarian bags, some, some original clips are out there, internet, how I, how I [00:06:00] coach my athletes. And um, then I, I had to, I thought, wow, we have to, we have to put a, make a logo and what is that logo has to represent? I had to make a connection. Me, my brother was here, he is also wrestler. So both of us, my brother Stefan Ivanov, he's in Bulgaria now. He's, uh, uh, running the manufacturing for surplus. So we, we have a very good understanding of what we want to do together.
And we said we have to come up with, with a, with a logo that represents something. It cannot be just something. we came up with, with, um, the white, green, and red. This is the flag of Bulgaria, where we both came
and we choose surplus, the move of the Greco Roman wrestling, mostly because that's where we came from, where Greco guys, you know, so that's, that's briefly the story about the, the [00:07:00] brand.
Riley: Yvonne, talk about this, man. I, I would like to have you build a little background about what your athletic career looked like. You know, what's, um, when did you start wrestling? At what age? And, and then how did you move through that and to what level did you attain?
Ivan Ivanov: I started to wrestle probably about 10 years old. And, um, I wrestle for, if you can call it two years, because it's not two years. Like now. I train the guys every day, full week, non practice a week. I train three times a week because the coach had to come from another city
to coaches. So three times a week.
So, but call it two years. And, um, I, I quit and, um, I quit because I just didn't win any matches. I was weak or they wrestle me [00:08:00] with older athletes, much more prepared. Um, I just, I was not very good. I quit. And then, uh, we didn't have a coach for, for a while. I don't know, maybe it was close to a year. No coach in our little town in Bulgaria, Guro is the, the, the name of the town that I, it's about. One hour drive from the major, major city in the county, star Agora. It's like a middle, middle part of Bulgaria where the sports schools, the sports school was, there is a sports school there that, um, offered training full-time in Greco and freestyle and other sports. And, uh, the, the coach was coming from that city three times a week to, to train us.
And, um, and we didn't get much training, but kids are winning. I wasn't winning. Some kids from my town are winning. I wasn't winning. So I quit. I [00:09:00] thought, this is not a sport for me. Until another coach came and he came to start the team again and he, he found me on the street and he said, Yvonne, I heard you, you wrestle, um, before, and I'm trying to put a team together. Would you like to come? I'd like to invite you to come with us to compete. And I told him, well, I'm not that good. I thank you, but I'm not that good. And, um, I don't know how well I can do, but I respected the, the older man, you know, the, this, this coach very, very well. And I couldn't say no. I just, just because he asked me, I couldn't say no. he, he was prepared and he said, know, you don't have to worry because the sports school kids will not be there. that gave me a little courage because back then you, you, you hear sports school or you see on the back, you know, back the, the, the, the name of the school. You get a kid to wrestle, you know, [00:10:00] you are a kid from sports school, man, we're going running into the bathroom.
We're so nervous,
Riley: Yeah,
Ivan Ivanov: scared to wrestle those kids because they're trained well, they train, like train every day. They have probably, maybe three times a week, twice a day practices. They eat the government food, which is very important. Three, three meals a day. I didn't, I didn't have three meals a day in my town.
There's no way I'll eat three meals a day. Not because my parents are poor, but they just busy working and you grab something and you just, know, so it was not like a regular place. This place, these kids. The sports school, they have everything taken care of, including three meals a day and place to train good coaches, nice gyms, equipment. no way you're gonna beat them, um, unless you, [00:11:00] bless you, some super athletic. But it's at the first year after that, there's no way can. So that's why I started wrestling about, uh, yeah, about 12, uh, 12 years old. I joined the sports school because I won bronze medal at this tournament.
Riley: Okay.
Ivan Ivanov: At this tournament.
And the, the funny part about that was I, I didn't beat anybody. I didn't, they made a mistake. I didn't know by today. I don't know what happened. Maybe I, I think we're more than three, I believe, because I, I, I believe we're more than three people. I don't know. I lost two matches, and there's no way I supposed to win a medal, they call my name.
I, I was just almost praying for that medal, I wanna win one bronze medal. I never thought about [00:12:00] or silver. I, I said I wanna win one bronze medal. I wish I could show you. The medal is in my office. I'm, I'm in my home office right now. I have it in my office. medal is a little medal. It's, um, it's a bronze medal that it's the most valuable medal for me. And, um, and because of that medal, actually, I got so excited. And, and later when the coach, uh, asked me to join the sports school, um, I, I really wanted to go now
because of that inspiration. I, I was, I was about to beat one kid. I was beating him six to nothing. And then he pinned me, you know, and, but I feel, I feel I can be good now. Um, the funny part was my, my dad asked me how many guys say how many kids I, I beat. And I told him I didn't beat anybody. And he said, so why did you [00:13:00] get this medal? And I was really embarrassed. And I, that's the other reason I wanted to show my dad that I can be good and I can win a, uh, I can, I can really, I can win a real medal.
And, um, once I joined the sports school, few months later, I was winning a real medals.
Riley: Oh, that's awesome. Do you, uh, and this was your 12, 13, 14 at this point.
Ivan Ivanov: Yes, I joined, yeah, 12 years old sports
Riley: Okay. Yeah.
That's
Ivan Ivanov: I remember because, well, they, I had to go through the obstacles. I wasn't just like, oh, you, you go there and you're accepted. No, I had to go through the obstacles I was 12 years old. I remember I did 12, 12 pull-ups
Riley: impressive.
Ivan Ivanov: and now I'm asking, I remember this and asking the kids to come to our club. How old are [00:14:00] you?
Can you do 12 four or 11? Or can you do 11? I don't know. I do only six. Oh, you gotta work. So, this, um, I remember this, but um, um, I had to go through obstacles. Not only pullups, they, they give us a list of, of exercises to do. Pull-ups was one of it. I remember a, a squad with a partner, a back bridge.
They check your, coach that accepted me in a sports coach checked your flexibility. we run six 60 meter dash, um, a thousand meter, you know, from spot or throwing a ball in a target pushups. I, I remember pushups. I did 40 and they stopped me squat with partners. I remember I did 36. This, the kid the same weight and they ask us to wrestle about two minutes match. That's it.
Riley: Wow.
Ivan Ivanov: know, [00:15:00] maybe I miss maybe one or two of other, other obstacles. But it wasn't just like, oh, here you go. You know, you can, your dad has money or anything. There's no money here, there's nothing. You, you accept it in the sports school. And my, my mother was there with me and, um, my mother asked the coach, when do we know if he is going to be, uh, accepted in the school or not?
And the coach said, in two weeks you go to the, to the school. And that, at the, whatever floor is at the, the lobby, you'll find a list. And if he's not on that list, he's not accepted. If he's on the list, he's in.
That's how,
and I was in, yes. And I'm still
because of that little medal. I wish
I,
Riley: that.
Ivan Ivanov: I wish I
could bring it here.
It's a little, metal that it's, uh, it's not rusty, but it's not, it's not the most beautiful medals that you've seen. You know,[00:16:00]
Riley: Well, send me a picture of that medal man, and I'll put it up in the episode so people can see it.
Ivan Ivanov: I'll send you that. No
Riley: I'm gonna write that down so we have it. But yeah. Um, tell me this as you, uh, so you're still a young man at this point and you joined this school, and then how far did that take you? Did that take you clear through your high school years?
Ivan Ivanov: yes. was in that sports school until I graduated from high school. 17, 18 years old. Actually I had to join the Army. 19.
Riley: Okay. And then did you do anything? 'cause wrestling has, there's only a few avenues really. After after school, right? You can go to college, you can be a college wrestler, at least in, in the us right? And then, and then you either go for a national team or you're kind of, it kind of ends, right?
There's, it's a, it's a tough one. You, you become a coach is what you do generally. So [00:17:00] what, uh, what path did you take through that?
Ivan Ivanov: Well, Bulgaria is a slightly, slightly different system back, back then. Now it, it's a little bit different, but back then was obligation. You had to go to the, the army and I was able to, from the high school already to, um, obtain, um, education, to be, um, to have, it's a, it's a, it, it's a technical college in the high school.
So we, we already had some profession. My profession was a mechanic. Mechanic and um, and I got a license for a truck driving, which America, now they, it's nothing. You know, here for us is you, you gotta have truck driving or car
Riley: Okay.
Ivan Ivanov: it's, so we had to study more for truck, you know, so, so I had just that diploma in case something happened.
I never [00:18:00] wanted to work this job. My whole idea was just to make, I don't know, just wanted to wrestle and, and, and make living and join the sport, the Center Army Sports Club. This is the best place we had. It's, it's, uh, the best athletics rodeo in Bulgaria. Everybody wanted to go with one of these, um, organizations to, to serve either army, which is the, the Army, which, that's where I went.
Uh, or the police academy, where they also offer, through your service, um, duty of the service, they also offer you, uh, a club that you can get paid to compete. And, we all, we all were like, um, uh, trained for to be a wrestling instructor so we can become basically in wrestling. That's how it was structured back then. Or you can [00:19:00] become, uh, in my organization, I, I wanna show even my, my, my military passport. Now you're talking now I, I think you'll be interested to
People will see it. I have,
I'm with uniform and I had hair on my head and had couple bo, couple bolts. I was a lieutenant, uh, back then. um, I wanna be, uh, by now, um, a major or colonel from the Reserves in Bulgaria. And we were all taken care of that, that was, the military was very, very well taken care of to be, to be a athlete under center Army Sports club. That's why I was in Sophia, the capital, it was a privilege. The best elite athletes were there. And the, the, the, the duty was mostly after the, what do you call the, the swearing ceremony, which is only like month and a half.
We, we studied this, we trained for that. And then after that we pretty much do [00:20:00] in athletics. We just train. And, and we had, um, in our unit, they were all like, we call it heavy athletics, um, wrestling, bow styles, sample juro, um, way lifting, boxing, all these studs, the elite of Bulgaria that the, the, the new generation.
Some guys actually didn't even go at all to swearing. They were at the Olympic games, competing at young age, the weightlifters, for example, know, some guys you didn't, just, like, you see them there on the, on the tv. They, they, they, they're, supposed to be there with us, but because they're so good, they were excused not to, to go to the Army.
They were at At the very high competitions, worlds Olympics. So that's how it was back then.
Riley: And so then you, you go from, from this kind of military, [00:21:00] um, season of life, and then you move into the coaching role and you, you said you, you coached an Olympic team. Is that, did you told me that off air?
Is that, did I catch
Ivan Ivanov: Well, no, I, before I go to there, um, my personal accomplishments, I was, I was, um, national champion and juniors and national champion at SOR, I don't know if you know that they, they changed the, the, they changed it later. The, the terminology, it's, it's all junior, but first the juniors, we call it up to 18 years old
Riley: Okay.
Ivan Ivanov: and under and later I won as well, up to 21 years old back then, which they called right now it's juniors or 20, U 20 or U 23.
They, there's no 21 anymore. It's U 20. They, they just finished with the U 23 World Championships. [00:22:00] Actually. It's still gone today. I wanna check on some results today. Yeah, it's in, it's in Novi, um, Serbia. Uh, anyway, the, my, my accomplishments. Back then were, national champion. I won the International prestigious tournament, it Duba.
It's um, only eastern B countries. It's very com was very competitive. Um, I won that in, in, in the Soviet TuneIn back then. I was outstanding wrestler as a, as a international outstanding international wrestler for, uh, gave me a award for the best I beat my guys pretty good at that time.
And, and all of these, uh, accomplishments qualified me be recruited on at the Center Central Army Sports Club, ESCA, [00:23:00] they call it, abbreviated in Bulgaria, ESCA Sofia. It was a amazing, amazing wrestling program because we had champions, European champions who had Olympic champion, um, in our, in our team.
And, um, they're all active. And to train with these people was a, was an honor for
Get some to learn, you know, somebody to learn from. Just being with these people was amazing and we're still friends with, uh, uh, those who are alive, you know, still. And yes, we're good, great memories. So I, I was recruited because of my accomplishments and later. During my service and, um, I had two years I had injuries. Um, right after I came back from this German and Soviet Union, I had an injury with basic meniscus. But then in [00:24:00] Bulgaria, the, the medicals, it's not not good quality. My surgery got, I had infection in my surgery, so I had to spend month and a half in the hospital dealing with infection and then had to recover. It was, I didn't know if I was gonna be able to win the nationals to secure him. I was a national champion before, but the coaches are looking, what do you do this year? How you doing this year? And I, and I was able to prepare myself with, um, with minimal limited time and, and I still won the nationals at, which is I, I had to wrestle with older athletes. And then I joined, I was recruited in the army and then my other leg, same problem, meniscus, but was lucky [00:25:00] they didn't, they, they take, took care of me very well. Didn't have infection or anything, just a recovery. But it's still a cut, not like now these days. A scope. In two weeks, you are moving, you are doing things.
Now for me, I was with crutches for a month. Old, old school. I had
cuts on my knee and, and this is how they did it back then. But, um, anyway, these two years, um, affected my training process and I had to change weight and it was very challenging for me to get back to be top guy. And, and, and I changed the senior level from juniors to seniors took me a couple of years.
And then eventually 1991, I was the number one guy in Bulgaria. I wrestled at the World Championships as a, how do you call it? A rookie. Rookie you call it, when your
[00:26:00] right. I was rookie. Nobody knew me, but I almost, I almost go on the finals
and the round robin, I don't know if you remember the ro, the round robin
Riley: Yep.
Ivan Ivanov: we were group of three people at the last Korea, Turkey, and me. I, I beat Turkey, but I lost from Korean guy and Turkish guy beat the Korean. So now one of us, we have all three losses. So I was the luckiest guy who goes for 15 and six. The Turkish guy who I beat, he went for the FI on the finals and the Korean went for third and fourth.
Riley: Oh wow.
Ivan Ivanov: So, yeah, that I, I, and I wrestled with the, with the Japanese, and I lost, I lost blows match, um, and finish end up sixth in the world, my first world championships with this round robin.
Riley: That's amazing man. This is from a, a, a when you quit, quit [00:27:00] at 10 years old 'cause you didn't, weren't winning and now you're world champion. You know, in that level, in that
caliber.
Ivan Ivanov: Yeah, exactly. W what took a lot of hard work. I, uh, I mean, I, I was one of the best juniors even in, in the world for my age before I tore my meniscus and go through this process with the suffering, all this infection, all this stuff. So at that time, yeah, it's, it's, it, it's amazing how, how things can change.
I, I didn't, I didn't see myself as a skilled athlete. Even my coach didn't see me the first year as a STEM kid to grab his eye. He was looking at these kids who have broad shoulders, you know, more athleticism. I wasn't of any of these kids, but I was, I was very coachable and humble, I didn't care get bullied because in Bulgaria, that's something that I, I want people to know.
There's a, there's a lot of bullying when you go to a sports school. It's just like your parents send you to [00:28:00] another place you are. You are total on your own. You live in the dormitories with kids that can, they're bigger, older kids. They can bully you. You know, when I say bully you, they can make you massage them, you know, all night until they fall asleep.
They can have you go, bring me water, uh, the cafeteria, bring them a, a, a food, you know, with a, with tripod, right? What do you call it? Tri with a
Tray
Riley: Tre
Ivan Ivanov: a tray. You bring them a food and they say, bring me a water. They call you rabbits. You know, those are funny, stupid things. And you are like, uh, you are like somebody slave.
You know, it's a bad thing. I hate, you know, just talking about this, like right now I'm getting really emotional about this. um, anyway, I, I had to deal with all of this stuff and I, I want people to, to know it was, uh, yeah, it was a, it was a tough life back then, but, um, I was able to [00:29:00] survive with, with everything.
Riley: Yvonne, is this, um, now you, you had mentioned Greco-Roman wrestling before. Is this the, is this the version of wrestling you're doing
Ivan Ivanov: Greco-Roman wrestling.
[00:30:00]
Ivan Ivanov: Greco-Roman wrestling.
Yes.
Riley: Okay. Explain, just so the audience knows the difference, because there's, we all just think of wrestling. A lot of people will think of like, you know, American, uh, professional wrestling.
It's not that at all. It's more like Olympic wrestling where you're, but Greco-Roman is all upper body, right? There's no leg shots or leg takedowns at all. Am I correct?
Ivan Ivanov: Wrestling is all upper body. can grab legs. We use our legs in some blocking, but they're legal blocks. Like our legs touch. Nobody's gonna go and pull a device to check the pressure, you know? But we use legs. we use our legs as long, as much as the, the, the rules allow us to use our legs. We do our, but we don't trip.
We don't do like hooks to take you down. That's illegal. know? So [00:31:00] that's kind of how I can under explain it.
Riley: Yeah. we have, um, I remember back in, I just, I don't know what years it was, but the, um, oh, Rulon Gardner, you remember that, that,
match in the
Ivan Ivanov: I remember.
Riley: uh, against, uh, what was the, what was the other guy's name?
Um,
Ivan Ivanov: Alexander.
Riley: Carin. Scariest human being I've ever seen. Uh,
and
Ivan Ivanov: Very, very skilled athlete. And you, this is what Rulon Rulon is a hero. I know him personally. know how tough he is. And, um, uh, but it was still, was still not too many people believed that Rulon could do that. And he showed a big heart and, and really was able to everybody and, and prove that he can do
Riley: yeah.
Ivan Ivanov: And he did it to [00:32:00] Beat Corral.
Riley: No, that's a, that's such a tough sport, man. 'cause it's such a different version. You know, every time you have a rule set change, it changes how people move and how, how things work. And we're gonna talk about that a little later, about this machine that your partner talent invented to deal with a very specific, uh, Greco-Roman style. Um, again, we'll get to that in a little bit. I have some more questions in the meantime. But as you, as you're going through this wrestling career, what, what eventually inspired surplus as a, a company, what, what kind of got those wheels turning for you and what made that happen?
Ivan Ivanov: Well, just to get back a little bit on my, my story of my, my personal success, I, I was able to climb to, with all my challenges that I had with my. My injuries, I was able to climb to second, uh, being second in the world in 1994. I was World Silver medalist in [00:33:00] Tom, in Tre, Finland. And then later I, um, I had another, another injury in my knee 20 days before I tore MCL I had to compete in Atlanta Olympics with MCL MCL.
So I got a, I finished fifth an injury, finished fifth, and pretty much that's, that's was the end of my career. And, uh, but before that, I was coming to America to train with, um, American, uh, one of the best American wrestlers, Dennis Hall, who later we won medals. He also finished third the World Championships in, uh, in Tom, period where I finished second and next year, Dennis won the World Championships in Prague became world Champion.
And later Dennis won medal from Atlanta Olympic Games. And we, we developed friendship and, [00:34:00] and, and many people of me being in America got, I got, they got to know me, I got to know them, and I was invited, uh, later from Steve Frazier actually, uh, Mike Hoke, the, the first USA, uh, Greco Roman world champion invited me. To, um, uh, visit the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs and enjoying a camp with the, the local residents, the athletes who are training there full time, and, um, and Mike Koch. Mike Cook is the, uh, he's a great man. He is, uh, world champion and, and, but he, but he had to move to another job after that.
And, um, we didn't have much time to, to work to visit again with him. Um, he passed the national coaching position to Steve Frazier, who was also the, the first, the very first USA [00:35:00] wrestling Greg Cuomo wrestling Olympic champion. He won the Olympic Games, um, uh, in Los Angeles in 1984, Steve Frazier. So Steve Frazier brought me actually to America just to, just to participate at the camp and be a clinician one of his national camps in 1997.
And that's where the interest about coming to America and do more and to, to, to help Greco. That's where I started, uh, that started that camp, call it a January camp in 97. And later I came back to train with another, um, athlete and visit the training center again. And that's where we, we started to talk about me staying there and help Greco. And basically had to start a new chapter in my life coaching not think about [00:36:00] resting anymore because it was a, my, uh, close to 30 with the injury that was not healing very well. Um, a lot of uncertainty in Bulgaria. So I didn't know if we can funds to train at all. Was was kind of like, not really sure what we're gonna do.
And then I, um, then I my coaching journey here, uh, in the United States.
And
Riley: So,
Ivan Ivanov: question about, you know, the, the surplus, ideas about the, the equipment, is that what you wanted
Riley: yeah. Before we go to that though, you just mentioned something. I'm, I'm really curious, um, because I'm, I, I'm, I'm kind of asking advice here. Okay. Um, as you switched from the athlete role and started dealing with injuries and you're kind of getting older for the sport [00:37:00] you switched to this coaching role, how did that affect you?
Just personally, how, how'd you deal with the ego part of that, kind of realizing that, man, that the clock's ticking and I'm kind of having to move to this other role. you talk about that a little
bit?
Ivan Ivanov: Absolutely. It was very difficult. Very, very difficult. I. I didn't share this with many people. Half of me wanted to wrestle and half of me was telling me, look, you'd be realistic with your goal. What do you want to do? You have a great opportunity to coach here. Or you wanna wrestle, you have to go back to Bulgaria and, and train there because you, it's gonna be difficult training America and go and, and compete in Bulgaria.
Also your injuries, also your age. And I decided I'm gonna, I'm gonna be realistic with myself. Even I start feeling good and healthy. [00:38:00] I had to move up weight loss, you know, all of these, a lot of, lot of things. So it's a, it was tough time for me. And, um, at that time I receive a offer um, to coach in Salt Lake City and start with a youth club. And, and it was right before Sydney Olympics. And I, I still was dealing with this. I got a full-time job and I was still dealing, I, I was working out, running in the mountains. The kids were too young for me to wrestle. I roll around with them. I was just like getting, getting ready for this, getting ready. Anytime. I like, I feel like I, I still wanted to compete, but I didn't tell anybody. And the, the owner of the club, Jay Jones, maybe he sent something and he told me one day, he said, Yvonne, do you, do you wanna go to the Olympics and give it a shot? You know? And, [00:39:00] and I said, no, I don't want, I, I wasn't honest with him.
I, I, because I, I didn't want to tell him that, you know, this was, I, I was uncertain. And the guy said, if you want this, think about it. If you want, I will be happy to help you with this, to support you with the training, you know, like, financially, to make things for me so I have a opportunity to train. said this, this would be great for our club. I didn't tell him that later. I told him, Hey, you know, you asked me. I, I wasn't honest with you. I, I, because I wasn't sure. I didn't want to give you my word and not, not follow, but here's what I did to show you how, how this affected me. And I'm sure other athletes are dealing with this, like me, you know, because it's not very easy to quit. Doing everything, all your dreams, everything. I didn't accomplish my goals. I got to second in the world. I, I, and I beat, I beat all these top three guys at the Olympics, the Olympic champion. I beat him, uh, uh, [00:40:00] at the Worlds. Now he won Atlanta, the second guy. I beat him at the World Championships as well.
Now he beat me, the Cuban guy, the number three guy. I beat the first match at the Olympics. He went to the other pool. And third place, nobody beat him, you know? So I beat these top three. I just couldn't beat him at the, at the same time, you know, so you can imagine how I feel about this. So I went back to Bulgaria.
Guess what? I, I haven't visited my country for two years. I went to see my parents. I get outta my car and I'm going to, I'm going to the camp where the national team at the high, elevation, they had a camp in, uh, this place, they call it Bell Mechanic. It's a center up in the mountains, like two thou, 2000 meters above. had a camp there. So I went there just to train and I did couple days camp. And then we had Matton [00:41:00] one day, and I, and I went the paired me with the, they had competition matches. And my right elbow I had bone chips
cartilage.
So see my arm. I
ma, this is my mark.
see that's my mark.
Sometime when I do Bulgarian back, I can't snatch up, see my, see how it is. Ben I teach guys arms straight, arms straight. nobody told me, oh, how come your arm is not straight? I say, well, this is, I would've tell 'em, but they didn't pay attention. Like nobody asked me actually why my arm is not straight. My right arm is not straight. It's, that's it. I fixed it later. So my, my arm after that match, it just swollen and I couldn't move it. It locked and I said away, I don't have time to go and surgery and recover and then to qualify. They already had another guy. And [00:42:00] so and so I said, that's it. That camp, I already was certain, I got my answer.
I had peace in my heart. Finish, focus on your life, focus on your coaching. There will be other opportunities in life. Just have to work hard and, and that's it. That burden was out of my head. So that's how I deal with this. Focus on coaching.
Riley: Yeah. That's a tough thing, man. I know. I'm, I'm, I'm kind of realizing, as I told you, I'm a grappler too, right? It's a different, different sport in the Brazilian jiujitsu, but I'm coming to that place where, you know, I'm 49 years old here in a couple months, and I'm, I'm realizing. That the, you know, the athletic part of my world is passing.
Right. And so now moving more into that coaching role and, and it, it's got, it's, it's a little emotional for me. I I totally get it. I, and that's why I'm asking you about it. 'cause I'm, kind of walking in those shoes a bit right now. [00:43:00]
Ivan Ivanov: Well, you know, the good thing about what I did, my best decision was like I was realistic. knew, I knew how to study my first myself. I was pushing really hard and my body was not recovering as, as, as well. So I, I was, that's something good that I did. I was able to evaluate my current condition and compare it with, when I was a stu, when I was cutting weight and I was recovering faster.
And it's completely different person after, you know, when you come to thirties and I, I was cutting pretty good at the last, last two years of my career, you know, over 20 some pounds and that, that beats your body, you know, and, and that's all of these things happening. people, um, cannot do the, uh, the fair valuation and they [00:44:00] keep being naive, keep going, keep going, and then they get behind in their, in their life.
Because wrestling is not very thankful sport, unless what I, I mean, I, I was thankful I won some, some prizes, some tournaments, some, the world medal helped me to establish myself. I wasn't on the street. I had two homes in Bulgaria, paid in the capital, you know, and I, I was doing fine, fine for myself financially.
Just finally say I didn't have family anything. But I cannot stay, you know, and had to be realistic. I has to start thinking about other opportunities, what to do, how my future is going to be, and not, not just keep going and resting until I'm 35 or whatever. And then completely now lost, you know? So, and, and, and, and look, I, I still found my, own, my passion.
I, I was competing through my athletes. I'm still doing[00:45:00]
Maybe that was the reason I had a success in wrestling, uh, as a coach. You know, I, because I, I think did that hunger. I still am hungry. still competing through my athletes. We're partners. I'm, I told my athletes we're partners. If we're not partners, I'm not here.
I have to give you my time. You have to give me. Being a coachable and being disciplined and, and, um, and if we have this, we, uh, we're having a good partnership and I can keep going and that's why I'm here for now. I, don't need to coach, but I, I coach for those kids really, I'm coaching performance. You know,
the wrestling club, I said it's surplus is a result oriented program, now I have activity, I have three coaches. They coach kids. We don't know. We don't know where they going to be. Some have different goals. We coach [00:46:00] fitness, you know, we coach just strong bodies first and then we see which kids will follow.
Not everybody is bored to be a wrestler. Right. But, I, I, but my position in my, the club, my club, I am general manager of my club and I have three coaches who are coaching at different level. I coach only Greco right now mostly, and I coach the coaches how to coach other styles, our super style. That's my position.
I have opportunity to choose my position, but it's still, I'm coaching performance.
Riley: So now, now this is where su surplus comes in and you, you start this company. What, again, what's, um, what inspired it, man? What, what did you feel like what need in the market wasn't being met that you needed to
meet?
Ivan Ivanov: Oh, was not thinking about market at all. I was thinking about first what is going to be my [00:47:00] style of coaching when I started. And that's, that's something that I, I feel I did better than some other coaches. I'll explain. I started to my coaching journey from the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, working with the elite athletes, with the national team. Now being in that, at that place, everybody's hungry to be at that, to get that job, you know, the big job to work with the senior guys.
Riley: Hmm.
Ivan Ivanov: For me, that was not very interesting. I was there mostly as a training partner. I even Gardner, the guy who, you know, sometime I had to fill, I was a, I was a 60, 62 kilo guy, but my weight was, uh, was moving later up, you know, let's say I was 72 kilos.
When I ed with ru was only few practices that I had no partners. So I ed with ru just to tell you, I was mostly training with the lower weights, but [00:48:00] with just about anybody. But I, but I realized that if I really want to study coaching and be successful, I have to start from the grassroots to study right from the kids and work my way up. And my dear friend Steve Frazier, who is uh, who was the national coach, he advised me v study, study the American System. Because many foreign people get very frustrated here. The first thing they want to do is how can they change America to Russia or to some other country, right? Turkey or whatever.
Foreign guys are coming all the time and they all wanna change. I wanted to change it too when I first came. So this is, this is crazy here. They rest in three styles and how can you compete with other guy? I never seen anything like that, but Steve told me, study, this is different. first, and then you find a way.
And that, that's what I [00:49:00] did. And I started to study. I took that job with a, with a youth in Salt Lake City, and I had success. The first nationals weren't there with five kids. We, we came back with, um, four, four national titles from Fargo. You know, Fargo is a big event. It's the biggest in the country. I got fired up, you know, I can be effective. This, this is the, this is where I wanna be. And to. Started to educate myself and to identify what style I need to study to so I can, so I understand, and that's so I understand how to, in America, I use this term terminology, maybe you use it too, how to skin my cat in coaching.
Riley: Yes. Yeah.
Ivan Ivanov: I said, how you skin the cat? Okay. How do you understand your own co your own training, coaching process? That's what I mean. And, [00:50:00] and that's where, that's where the idea about the dummy came. I didn't think coming to sell dummies, knew that my style must have a body locked throw. There's no way back arch, back stab back, arch throws, gut wrenches, shrink and conditioning under my control.
And that's why it came up and invented the surplus dummy invented the Bulgarian back because serves to my purposes of training my needs. And people saw it and I, and then I later, I said, I, I have to, I have to develop business. The Hertz rope came. The Hertz, everybody thinks they understand the elastic bands. They do curls and they now, they copy my exercises. The company, were strong marketers. I see them copying my exercises, but the athletes don't know why they're doing it. They don't know why they're doing it because. tell. We laughing. All people will trade through [00:51:00] me. They, they smiling you. I say they, they know, they, they, they using your stuff.
They mimic, but they have no idea. They just try, they getting themself tired. that's the different, what Ivan is doing. I'm just not having my equipment to get you tired. No, I have to train you in your skill, in your style. Like, like see the, the, the, the surplus power dummies. I use those dummies for building specific power.
You tell me what exercise and what machine can help you build that power cannot be bench press and barbell for sure cannot be,
but that dummy has to be heavy. Right. So you can, you can use more low towards that movement. You know, the speed dummy, for example, is designed for multiple repetitions to have you master the, [00:52:00] and fine tune the technique for, so you can put a lot of repetitions, speed, and you build your conditioning tool, but you gotta put more reps.
The, the power D is heavy. You cannot do that much. That's why I changed. I, I've, I made the lighter dummy, you know, and then I have another one, a Tucker. I don't know if you've seen these dummies hanging on the wall, their halves.
even selling much of those. Because it takes time to educate people.
They cannot, they, they, they don't get it. How, convenient is now you have your equipment and you're making of teaching skills. So you put, let's say you, you put like three kids or six kids on the, on the attacker dummies to do back steps, back steps, back steps. And then you have another six kids on the speed dummies doing the whole throw, the, the whole entire throw.
And then you have another, another six kids on the power dummies, 12 dummies you have, and then another 18 dummies. And you, you rocking [00:53:00] kids are, you know, but this is just my warmup. There's no running around. There's no stretching, which is no front rows, no cartwheels on the dummies teaching skills, because we're coaching three styles.
Guys,
I have no time. I'm, I'm a good coach, but I don't have time. I'm not a remote control guy. You gotta be here. You see, you see how my mind was
how the equipment was helping my process, and then the Bulgarian back even we are doing mechanics where I'm asking the kids to throw on throw, not to get tired, just to watch their legs, their head position.
I
Riley: Yeah. Show us. Show us the Bulgarian bag. You've got one
right there.
Ivan Ivanov: Here's the.
see this. Now when you look the back here, see this? I don't care if I have arm or a back from here, I'm gonna throw you, or if I call, call your head. But I'm watching the, the, the [00:54:00] leg positions.
I'm coming from a i I, I'm coming Indiana. I, I just came back on Sunday and I went there to a, um, their coaching clinic. There were 150 coaches and I had to share with them. I said, guys, you know, there's a, there, there's a, what I see here in America, we do a lot of clinical coaching and I know without being in your gym, it's the same clinical coaching. Someone's gonna go show you a move and show you good luck. 1, 2, 3, go try it. No way. I show them move. I say, this is where we need to go, this is where we need to start. And you gotta, you gotta spend time. Otherwise it's a clinic, money, it's okay, few people pick it up. [00:55:00] But effectiveness ness, until you totally understand the process, how to break it down and train progressions and have. Specific that can continue keeping you on task gonna be very difficult for these athletes to master this technique. And that's why tools sometimes and drills and so many, so many components are important for the whole process to develop athlete who is going to hit that move without thinking, you know? So anyway, sharing a little bit of my, my, my coaching
Riley: That's exactly what I was getting at there, Yvonne. Is, is have, I always say this, when I'm teaching students in Juujitsu, I say the [00:56:00] teaching art is very different than the tactical art of the grappling we do. Right? I can be a very good Juujitsu practitioner, still be a terrible coach. 'cause I can't explain how to do anything.
I can't explain the movement that it takes. And, and so that's a, it's a separate art form to learn. And that's what it sounds to me like you've really gone down that path and put a lot of thought into what makes the mechanics of, of the moves, right? It's not just, I can show you this thing once or twice and you get it down now you've got a full body mechanics, you got muscles.
You have to, recruit that and, and you're finding other ways to make this happen. And it's fascinating to me to, you know, seeing the tools you've come up with, uh, talk about when we were in Salt Lake, I saw a whole bunch of stuff you had out there at your booth and then you had an area where you had some, they almost looked like, I don't know how to describe it.
Almost like a balance beam almost. But there were these padded things. You guys were doing different, uh, [00:57:00]
different
Ivan Ivanov: little track, like a path. We call it a path if you walk, it's a paths like this. I actually have it downstairs in my, in my home too. I, I slammed the ball. Um, absolutely I can, this is amazing because I, the reason I, I invented this thing, um, it, it's a long story, but I'm gonna go straight to, uh, the idea of what made me develop this.
I was looking for, have you seen these balls that we
Riley: Yes,
Ivan Ivanov: So I was looking for a, for a form that can me with few things. First, number one. Um. Uh, develop more resistance for the slam, for the bounce. So when you hit it, it sinks kind of, it bounces back slowly so you can enforce more power. So I can crank my athletes and push them harder when they slamming, because if it, if it's, if the ball is, uh, slam on the, on the, like, uh, one and a [00:58:00] half inch mat, it's, it's bouncing fast and you don't get as much training. And also can, um, uh, you can save the ball if you, if you slam it on the, on the softer surface can have a longer life for your ball. Now that it's gonna break on the inch and a half mat, but it's not very good for the ball either. And it's not good for the training for the beginning just to learn how to slam it.
It's okay, but then you, you need a, a, a, a, a thicker foam. And, and that was my idea first until I start getting more of these cubes and I said, man, if I connect this, then I can make. I can do jump and slam and all different slam, but all slam all to surf on the ball for conditioning. When you perform the slam in resting, we level change, you know, you level change, you squat basically have squat night and you start doing this faster.
Imagine what's happening to your quads and you glutes, you know, and your legs get pumped right away. Plus the [00:59:00] snap down that we do here, that's very, very similar movement. Then you can be more creative, you can do duck under slams on the regular mats and, and just visualize something that helps you to be stronger and conditioning your skill. It's all about the skill. See, this is very difficult and I don't wanna offend, uh, the string conditioning coaches, but sorry guys, until you wrestle. There's no way you're gonna be creative in that area. You know, many people, I'm, I'm gonna, I'm gonna say something else that you probably wanna hear this. When I ask people where do you see me being effective? And some people who work closely with me, but they didn't know me, they say, well, you have a, a lot of equipment and, and all of these said, I, I had results without the equipment. What do you say? Ah, yeah, well, you know, you want me, and I ask them and they couldn't answer why I'm effective. And I tell you, okay, you [01:00:00] gave up. I'll tell you where I'm effective. have a very good understanding about my techniques that I teach, period. Nobody, nobody can argue this if you don't have a good understanding on the techniques, on the technical process. Good luck. I, I'm gonna make one clip make a big pile in my gym with all my equipment.
I say, guys, you can have all of these. Let's see, let's see, let's, let's see how you're gonna make it Without the education, without the, you gotta understand first the technique. Don't buy this stuff. If, if you are thinking, you know, like just to do few reps with these bags and they gonna help you, have to know how and what you looking to do.
The purpose of your training. What's priority. If you just trying to get yourself tired, get you back and spin, get yourself tired or slam the ball, that's okay too. That's for my [01:01:00] fitness friends. But how can you create inve, come up with exercise that is so specific for the skill that you train? What do you mean the skill?
You know, the body lock or the throw that I do, or off balance, you know, any emotion, any snap down. I'm just. I'm serving my own still.
advise my, my coaches or who else buying this equipment and say, okay, how can this help my style of coaching? Because I don't teach these techniques that I don't teach.
I'm a, I'm a freestyle guy. I, I wanna put priority in shots. So then my advice would be fine, something that these back or this dummy does for you, and if does buy it. If not, don't waste your time. You go do something else, you know, or find another exercise, another tool. I hope, I hope this was interesting for you to
[01:02:00]
Riley: It's very interesting, man. I, I think it's so cool because I, like I said, this is the journey I'm on personally. So, you know, I, I'm almost feeling a little bad for the audience if they're [01:03:00] not as interested in this as I am. But what you're saying here is just resonating with me, man. It's, it's. Putting these exercises together and these tools together that, that assist in a very practical movement, but multiple of them at the same time.
You know, you're talking about this bouncing ball and the, the shucking and the changing levels and the, you know, all the things that happen within a, a very quick succession in a wrestling match. And you've got it all in one tool. 'cause you've designed it to be very effective for training. And it takes so much thought to, to do that.
That it, to me, it's mind boggling that you've put this together and it, and it's not just with one product. It's, you've done it with the, with the balls, you bounce, you've done it with the Bulgarian bag, you've done it with this track system. Um, even did it with, uh, tell me what that tool's called again.
The, the Talon Invented
Ivan Ivanov: Spartan
Riley: Spartan Bar.
Yeah.
Ivan Ivanov: Yes. For the gut wrench, defense and wrestling and core, core [01:04:00] strength. There's are many things people can look for it, but, and another, another reason that I was so motivated, so fascinating to, to come up with training tools because I don't know if I told you, but I'm a group coach. I, I, I just, my job, I, I don't even have a club now and, and people asking me if I do private, I can, but I don't because I, I'm on many different fields in my company. I don't do privates. I many people think my, my son, I, I have an i I, no, I don't know if you know, I have a son that he is a two time national champion in Greco.
Riley: I didn't, did
Ivan Ivanov: years.
Riley: Yeah.
Ivan Ivanov: Many people think that I train Ivan one-on-one. No, Ivan trains with my team. So my equipment have to be effective in my team [01:05:00] training.
So this track that you're talking about, I call it path of glory. By the way, do you know, do you like the
path of
Riley: of glory
Ivan Ivanov: glory? for athleticism?
Not, you know, not, not religion thing. It's a good religion, you know, but I'm talking athletics. I'm thinking athletics. Path of glory. Everybody wants to go it.
It's a catchy name. I love it. Surplus Pact of glory. This tool, I was thinking about slamming with the ball and all this stuff later, man, this is amazing for agility training. You watch some videos, you see how I keep, or my coaches are keeping these athletes on track. It's proven. I just have a different tool that later when, when we do the agility, we can add the balls and keep cracking them even harder.
But this path of glory, we train, train almost tops. Kids that, you know, three years old, is it Toler [01:06:00] four? it Toler?
Riley: Um, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Toddler
is the word. Yep.
Ivan Ivanov: Toddler. the daycare kids, because they walking like a bears like Raf, and they stay on the path of glory. They jump and it's safe. But we, we crank the 5, 6, 7, 8 years old. Even the world class athletes, they need variety. That's the next thing I want to talk about. Surplus equipment and my knowledge, how to structure different varieties of workouts and avoid the monotony. Help me not to have burnout. Athletes, this is so important, and I also understand the periodization because I train guys nine practices per week, all year around, you tell me if you have the same old, how you gonna, oh, he's burned out.
Of course, it's burnout. It's not your problem. It's the coach
He coach, burn him out, or his dad burn him out because his dad doesn't [01:07:00] know how to stop pushing. He doesn't know what he's doing, he's doing. And then the kid quit because the dad burn him out. Of course, it's the same old. This is a big process, guys.
It's a huge, it's so important. There's no burnout athlete from Coach Ivan, Ivan. No way. different varieties. But I never changed the purpose of my training. The purpose stays the same, but you show 'em different exercise, different intensity, different period of time. This is for performance. It's, it's, it's so, it's so important to have this knowledge.
Riley: It's beautiful, man. 'cause you've, you've obviously put a ton of thought and a TA ton of time studying just how to work out, but how to coach how to, this, this idea that you're talking about, about, um, variety in the training and burning athletes out with just a same [01:08:00] old routine all the time is, this is cool stuff, man.
I, I'm, I'm. love to
hear it. I love,
Ivan Ivanov: interesting.
Riley: hear it.
Ivan Ivanov: I know, because I know more about you and your system even without being in, uh, in, in, in, in other combat sports. In Jiujitsu. I a little bit, but I know the system in the United
Riley: Yeah.
Ivan Ivanov: I, I discovered surplus because I needed to perform world class results. I've been getting, I, you gotta have, we need Steve Frazier, my friend told me.
I'm expecting world medalists from you. Well. How did you do that in Bulgaria? Nobody, nobody wrestle Greco after only Greco after, uh, 18 years old. This is unheard of. Nobody, nobody's doing it in Russia. Nobody's doing it. Iran. Nobody, nobody dig. And I had to make, they expecting for me to make world [01:09:00] class results. What do I do? And I didn't give up. I say no, I didn't say no. I said, let me see what I can do. I did it. I have, I even have a world, the title is World Medals from my little club in Boise that, you know, in Boise will have million people with the cows here. I have no time to re and I don't turn anybody, anybody who comes, come welcome.
Let's see what we can do. I cannot promise I can make a world class wrestle from all of them, but I promise one thing, I'm gonna make a huge progress with that kid if he follows.
'cause and parents have to follow because you know what, you know, I have three practices per week. It starts 5 45 in the morning till seven, three times a week.
And they have to come in the evening, afternoon actually with me, or evening three to five [01:10:00] six to eight. So. With me. There's no, there's no entertainment, there's no, there's no here activity. It's a pushing and cranking and, and it's, it's a hard work. Or if it's instructional, you gotta be focused. You gotta be with me.
You can't go and just lay down on mat, you know, just, just to get up in the morning. You are already one point ahead of your opponent. these kids have to get up 30, 40 minutes to drive. You know, I'm, I'm getting up at 4 45, 3 times a week. Take tomorrow. I have a practice. I gotta get up 4 45. I'm up, I'm there 15 minutes before everybody open the gym, get everything ready. So, you know, it's, it's not easy,
but,
Riley: Right.
Ivan Ivanov: so that's how I work. I am not hiding anything. This is
Riley: Yvonne, what, uh, what year when did you [01:11:00] start Su plays as a, as an actual company?
Ivan Ivanov: 2004. I
Riley: 2004. Okay.
Ivan Ivanov: I register it. Yes. The registration was, uh, made 2004. I was still at the Olympic Training Center in, in Michigan. I had a small website register, you know, and yeah, it's actually, yeah, just the, see the
side, it's your LTD. That's how I was showing again, but it, it was just a part-time for me.
It was just for someone who. Who knows me and I thought, well, let's have a website and have some information and post some videos. What I do with this, it was nothing. I had a full-time job back then, but when I, when I moved to Boise and, and we lost the funding of this program here, and I, I just didn't have anything else to do and, and focus on surplus
Riley: So what does that look like as you, [01:12:00] when you started that, uh, as a, as a business entity, what did you do as far as, um, growing the company? Where did you go first? As far as customer base goes?
Ivan Ivanov: first, I had to see and get to know who is my ideal client, someone who really I want to focus to serve. And I knew one thing that you don't study surplus by just buying it and go do whatever you want because just like a normal tool that you see on the internet on, on tv, they sell some little things. I don't know why they say, oh, burn a lot of calories. Yeah, you can, but it's annoying. Most of the people use it for a few times, put it on the bed. I knew they could do the same with the Bulgarian back, so very soon I understood that surplus works with education, so I must. some training tools, at least basic [01:13:00] video, what to do with this.
People have some ideas so they can copy. You know, I, I started don't understand me, and I talked earlier about learning by copying, but that's how I started. But I, now for results, I made a huge progress because I go to surplus school every single day. I never stopped gonna school, know, and I upgrading. So that's, that's what I, my strategy was first like, who is following me? These people need to get what they need to. And were internationally, they were people mostly in fitness, not wrestling in America, mostly wrestling coaches at first, but then started to I and, and myself going around the world started to attract more people from, mostly from [01:14:00] personal training industry string and conditioning people who like functional
string training. Yes, exactly. Those people. So if you are talking with, I'm giving you example. If you're talking to string coaches or personal trainers and tell 'em, Hey guys, do, do, do you know the Bulgarian bag? Do you know the, what the Bulgarian bag is? And they tell you that they don't know what the Bulgarian bag is. They never heard about the Bulgarian bag. You have, you, you have the answer what level of instructors they are. See, that's my signature on the other
so I can recognize my bag. They have some copycats
Riley: I bet
Ivan Ivanov: these these
Riley: I
Ivan Ivanov: unfortunately, you know, but you know, they, these people, they, I thank him, I thank him very much because now they help me. [01:15:00] Everybody knows who surplus is because of the Bulgarian bag. And now more people know the brand that I have, six systems, like, just, just like this. They don't know it. But this was the easy tool to copy and take. are, you know, this is a brutal world. And, and you know, I was just talking with some people today with my brother, you know, uh, because we have, we know some, some companies in, in, you know, in a fitness industry that they're, we are partners with them, but I, we said, how did they even make it? Because they have the huge companies, but they can go down in a, in, in a month because they fight the competition. And we're in business because we have interventions all the time.
I have,
I have another seven systems, [01:16:00] just like the Bulgarian back. And people now sold surplus because if you tie Bulgarian back, they can't take this from me. It goes to surplus. And they see my other thing. So they help me. These dude help me market. They help me become very famous in the world because they copy, you know, my back because everybody calls it Bulgarian back. If a Bulgarian sent back, it goes back to surplus. Everybody knows who Ivan and Surplus is.
So thank you guys very much. You know what the,
Riley: This is such
a cool outlook on
Ivan Ivanov: it's awesome.
Riley: you
Ivan Ivanov: awesome. You see there is a, there isn't some, you know, justice because now they know this.
Riley: Yes.
Ivan Ivanov: Yeah. I tell you something funny. go to a big trade show in Germany, big trade show. I take 13 people with me, you know, in, in, in, in, uh, Ong, Germany. we go to [01:17:00] the next grocery store. I see Bulgarian bags for 28 euros. No, I mean, it doesn't say Bulgaria, it doesn't say surplus. They can't have that. it's the same design as my back. It's bad, you know, bad quality. It's not a leather like this one, it's a, some rubbish vinyl stuff, but it's 28 euro and I'm spending thousands of dollars to educate on the, and you know, in, in Cologne, Germany, the, the, the, the trade show that it, it, it brings about 130,000 people for four or five days.
Can you imagine that? We, we spending time? It's very, how do you, I mean, how do you think I felt about that? was, he just, for me and my family we're saying, what are we doing here? What, you know, we showing here people this and there, and next grocery store, they selling my back. Are [01:18:00] you kidding me? And it is like, oh, but then I, later, later in, after looking at the whole process, still in business.
These dudes. Next year I go to fibo. I didn't go to boot, nothing like two years ago I went there. few companies are selling Bulgarian bags because are not, surplus is not there. We are not showing them what to do. um, they slowly, slowly, they, they, they quit. anyway, I thought you, you like to hear that story.
Riley: I mean, I love it because you're talking about, you're building a top quality product and you've got these other companies come in trying to, with these knockoff versions that kind of look similar, but they're not, they're not built the same they don't have the rest of the educational backup behind them. And so it fizzles out for these companies that are doing it kind of halfway. But because you're, you're all in and you're building a top quality product and you're adding the education component to [01:19:00] it, um, the support that comes with that thing. Yeah. You're still in business and they're not right.
Ivan Ivanov: Exactly. Oh, so I didn't waste my time too. I always just keep going and create more systems. Not, not many people know I have three patents. On the Bulgarian back. I have another two models, two models. They didn't want to mess with copying those because how to make, they don't understand what's the purpose.
Doesn't make money, they quit. No worries. You know, I, and I keep making for purpose
now my customers telling me I must change the, because the grip it goes like, you know, the different, different, different needs for my customers. But so in other words, I'm sharing this because I know some people. That are in my position, will have the same challenges. They invent, they invent something, have a great idea, [01:20:00] and someone wants to benefit from their idea. Guys, this is life. You know, just instead of sitting down and, and just worry about it, just keep going forward with being creative. your partners like you are a partner now. You are. Express interest to me. You know, I owe you, you know, like my respect, everything, you know, to be on your show with talking. And I partner with many people who, who reach out to me. Um, and, and, and that's, that's, that's the, that's the best. There'll be always people who are going to try to be sneaky.
There'll be always people out there try to get to the top, but cheating, you know, and what they punish themselves, know, that's, there's some way comes back to them. I, I'm not worried about this. I keep going, keep going forward and do what I know it's the right thing to do. And partner with [01:21:00] people that I feel good about it. That's, that's my
Riley: We, we, you and I haven't talked about this, but six weeks after I opened my electrolyte company, company made a very similar name. They spelled it one letter different, they came to market and started buying ad space. And you know, now we get to see what happens with that. When we're getting all these, um, so much confusion with it.
The people will call us about the other people's product thinking that we're the service, you know, we're gonna do something about that product, you know, and it's a, it's just a knockoff version and it's a, it happened to us too. And so, um, you know, I was talking to a, a man named Brandon mcc Catherine, he's a, a big name in the jiujitsu world.
And he, he told me the same thing as you just said. He said, worry about those knockoffs, man. Just keep pressing, beat 'em in the market and.
I hear it. I love
Ivan Ivanov: That's, I'm sorry to hear that. Wow. Even because, uh, [01:22:00] with, in your industry that it's a very competitive
all your brand name matters. Big time, I, I learned this, you know, but, wow. Just absolutely going forward and be the
know?
Riley: right. That's right.
Ivan Ivanov: way this is.
Yeah.
Riley: Well talk about this. You talked about the Spartan Bar, and this was invented by a young man
named, named
Ivan Ivanov: Talen kn
Kn
Riley: Yeah.
Ivan Ivanov: invented the Spartan Bar. Amazing, amazing tool. Very simple tool, much complications. It's very durable, made outta steel and allows you to train. Just, I can start very basic because I train different level of kids here. kids cannot do regular pushups. You know, they either barely, it goes
they get their butt sticking out and they just can't control that. The Spartan bar, that, [01:23:00] that little, um, um, like the little height, little elevation that you have and, and the grip allows the kids to, to learn how to stay straight. So that's the very basic thing I can recommend, can be used for little kids for just basic pushups. Then they start liking the rotations, then the knocking down.
And if I wanna be more specific about racing, because that's where I mostly use it, i, I, for my performance training for the gut defense, and that's where the idea came for the Spartan Bar talent. I show him this exercise that we call it side to side pushups. We do it on the ground. Uh, it's a progression.
And then the very tough one was when you do it between two stable benches and a plate, plate of 20 kilos on my back. So I go like this below the, the, the level and it, so your shoulders are like, like, stretching here is going to pop your shoulder [01:24:00] almost. And I, and I, I benefited from this because sometime I stop guys with one arm.
People say, I'm gonna a, your, your, your arm is going to. You, you, you're gonna dislocate your, your shoulder. But I, I was fine because this area always, I trained very well. That's why I'm gonna,
I'm doing that with my admin. So for that reason, when Talend shared that with me, I said, talent, this is a great idea. I must have this. And that's how we got it into, um, into our system first. we can have it for our athletes. And then now we start selling it and I'm making an upgrade in few months. I don't wanna say it right now, but I made, we tell and I made a great upgrade. uh, this upgrade will benefit, uh, not only wrestlers much, but also the, the people who like to train core.
We added, we have another
I don't wanna share what it is,
Riley: [01:25:00] Okay. Well, we'll look forward to seeing that come out on the market, but
one of my questions
Ivan Ivanov: have
Riley: that, one of my questions about that Spartan Bar is, so Talen comes up with this idea, you love it, you celebrate, you're excited about his idea, and you incorporate this thing into your company. Now, you guys, your partners on the level of just that product, or are you partners in the whole thing?
How, how's that work?
Ivan Ivanov: we are just partnered on the, on the product, on the, on the product. Uh, just, just the product. help him market this because, see, you gotta show it. You gotta have someone who actually is a name out there. People believe him. And, you know, we talked earlier about that. Um, I don't know if it was on video, but I told you, I don't just bring equipment my, in my gym, you know, in my, in my store, or I've been asked to sell food and supplements and all this. I'm, [01:26:00] I'm not in this market. And I, I'm very specific. It doesn't fit into my system. I don't, I don't need it. And if I cannot provide education, I don't need it. It's not me. They can go find it for someone else. So the Spartan Bar is equipment where I can, I'm helping talent. Talent was a wrestler, but he, he had other business.
They're successful manufacturers, still manufacturer. They're doing a very high end product for like, they don't have, they don't have just any customer. They high end customers. These people are buying, they're wealthy homes. They, they buy from them. Fire pits and certain projects that very specific stuff.
They're not on the one Spartan bar. But talents, talent is, it's the inventor of it. And I want people to know, and I know it's by himself. He's going to be quite difficult. I have a wrestling club. I have results. We use it all the time. It's not someone [01:27:00] something like blah, blah, blah. Ivan is just talking to sell something.
No, I have results. And let me show you how this helps that skill. The gut wrench, defense, you gotta have, doesn't matter what style you are, you gotta know how to defend here, how to use your, any luck. If I can defend, I can defend, I know the technique, but my, I'm strong here now, but Right. My, my ribs and my hips are raw. So see, I know, but without conditioning my body properly, I can only stop some kids. Now you get someone who is wrong.
afraid to post or afraid to, is going to, gonna crush my ribs. So I have to be well conditioned.
Riley: so that the audience knows a gut wrench in Greco Greco-Roman is your opponent does not want to get turned to his back, right? So he's laying flat down the ground. And if [01:28:00] you're the guy doing the gut wrench, you have your hands down around his waist with your, your arms underneath his belly, and you're trying to turn.
him just by twisting his guts.
Right? That's why they
Ivan Ivanov: turn.
Riley: wrench.
Ivan Ivanov: Full turn with your partner, with your opponent two
Riley: There you go.
Ivan Ivanov: So that's very important position. Because if you get a, it's very hard to defend that if you have,
you have a weak shoulder, especially weak ribs or sometime from practice, we are bleeding down on our hips. Even the ribs are bruised right here.
We break ribs sometime or we can hurt shoulders pretty
you know? So these core muscles, spartan bar, trained core muscles, shoulders, I mean, everything, also, because depends on what position you are, you stay still stiff, you know? it's all very, very [01:29:00] beneficial. Sp if I, you know, again, be more specific.
I'm talking resting right here for this particular position, gut brunch, defense. It's very helpful tool.
Riley: Well, something you mentioned with that was that it's a, it's a product that compliments your other products and that's why you were willing to take it on. Right. And willing
to promote
Ivan Ivanov: Not exactly, not, no, sorry, I'll correct you. Um, it does, it does work well with other products, but mostly, remember I said it earlier when I started surplus, I was, I had to identify who I am as a technician guy
Riley: correct?
Ivan Ivanov: and, and I choose techniques and gut
technique that I totally understand how to teach this. There are different variations, but I understand what re requires to have a successful gut, gut wrench. And, when you teach technique, you also have to understand the counter, uh, techniques, the counter attacks [01:30:00] for that technique. Because every technique, there is a counter always, right? defense now comes here, the defense.
So the, that's so important for me because it was part of my system. So to fine tune the product. So when I start teaching good wrenches, show you the move. But if you're so weak, like I said, I'm weak now. And if get a, some strong guy, my son will smoke me. Probably. He's big and strong now. I teach him, you know, we went on the mat the other day, he was gonna crush me.
I say, I can't fight with you anymore 'cause you're too strong for me. Now I know the defense, but I can't, I he luck one time I'm done. So I'm afraid to post because he has, you know, I'm afraid I have know that he can break that before I can pause with someone here. I now I feel, I feel by the muscle tone if I can stop this because I'm conditioned. So it helps me in my skill very much. Because when you think about developing a technique the [01:31:00] end, you have to think about which exercises can help me build more strength into that skill or that technique. It's the same thing.
That's the final thing. 'cause you have to, you teach first theory, show tie up, you're showing techniques, everything, but they're too soft. So
without, so things are connected and we used to study by clinical and very often we don't have time to explain that. There's also a strength conditioning component to that to find, finalize, you know, find just to master these skill. So we can do it on unskilled
people or
Riley: Yes. No, I love it, man. 'cause you're, you know, as you're talking about these things and you're, you're talking about making sure that the vision you had for who you are and, and, and what you're doing, the system that you put together, thing falls [01:32:00] right into it. But there's all these other products that other people approached you about over the years that just don't belong with what you're doing.
And as a businessman, staying focused is such an important thing. And not getting off on some weird path of, know, some other market that's not related to what you're doing, you lose focus that way. And you're very smart that way. Man, I'm really impressed,
[01:33:00]
Ivan Ivanov: Absolutely. I'll give you example. I sell barbells and plates, the good quality barbell I make and bumper plates that can be on the map. You know, I invested into this, you know, how many people buy this? Zero, zero people. But I, I'm okay with this because I, I mean, not, maybe should correct myself, not zero, because people who know me, people who know me, they, and they wanna have the same gym as me. They will buy the, the, the barbell that I have. But those only those people, only few people who will buy the whole gym with me. Uh, I have another apparatus, so I call it, um, surplus frame that has a, a squat rack. [01:34:00] And I wanted my barbell to be branded surplus because matches s well with my whole system, it's a surplus branded, it's not yellow color.
I mean, I have some yellow first was wrong order. They made, uh, colors for me. Um, and it's fine, it's the same, uh, plate, but it, it doesn't match with the color. So it has to be surplus white. black surplus, red, you know, colors so it matches
good for the brand, you know, and, it's from the same company. But I didn't make this, this barbells to sell and compete with rock fitness. I have no chance. I don't, I'm not in that business, but they cannot compete with me because I have patent on my frame and my system with my stuff. They're not looking to compete. But I have to offer my barbells and my place that for that reason, I made these not, you know, so that's not my top, product.
My [01:35:00] top products are, you know, the Bulgarian bag, the surplus dummies, the surplus wall and accessories designed for the wall. That's the other, you know, example I can give you, you know, the, the wall is not like the typical gymnastic walls. My wall is completely upgraded with new accessories the years that fit just for that wall.
Riley: Well, I'm gonna have to check that out 'cause I
don't know anything about the
Ivan Ivanov: you gotta come to the, you gotta come to see our gym. Yeah, you have to,
you'll
Riley: I think I need to do that, man. We, we should do that as part of this and I'll, maybe, it'd be cool to get some pictures of that and kind of show, this Jim you're talking about. That'd be, that'd be wonderful.
Um. I'm gonna switch gears a little bit. I have a, a question, it's business related, but, um, I want you to talk about, I met your daughter is Magdalena, is that her name? [01:36:00] Yeah, I met her at the Fight Con event also. Um, great young lady. She really seemed to have her stuff together and I wanted you to talk about working with family man. There's that, that can be challenging at times. You've got, you guys seem to have a really great relationship there and she was, she was, uh, really seemed to be knowledgeable about your products and, and, and what you guys were doing, but you've obviously spent some time with her in developing that over time and how's that looked?
The, the, the, just the family dynamic in business.
Ivan Ivanov: this is a great question because things I was advised not to do in America and, and this is one of them. Don't work, don't do business with your wife. And I got my wife in the business and so far, knock on wood, we had a great time. because we did a lot of trips together. We educated together.
[01:37:00] My wife is also, um, former gymnast and a black belt in Juro. She's switch in Juro and now she's a surplus instructor advisor. And she helps me in many, many ways in the business. And we had to travel and, and, and deliver seminars, courses together. She was my assistant. so and definitely for us so far is working well.
My daughter, first, I had to twist her arms to come to my courses when she was about 13. She didn't want to come to the Bulgarian back
now it's time to study this.
She, dad, I don't wanna do it. I don't wanna stay here. She was a gymnast. And, now the last few years she decided not to, not to go to college, just to work at Surplus.
And she goes to college, you know, and, and [01:38:00] my daughter is only, uh, 21. She's gonna be actually 22 in December. So she's still very young. And, and two years ago she organized the first Bulgarian back. Um, uh, world championships. I mean, she was the main person who took over this and my whole team help my wife and in my office assistants there.
And they help everybody, help everybody, coaches, everybody. But it wasn't me. I didn't even know what that's gonna look like. I just gave some advices for, uh, for, for the disciplines, that's all. Um, um, but that's just, a, that's a proof that, uh, we, we made it work, so be fun for her. Um, my son also is in wrestling.
He, he, they work for a company, you know, partially my other daughter, who is going to college here in Boise, but she also works part-time for surplus. [01:39:00] We find a way to work and to, to tell you briefly how we doing this is basically I give them authority to make decisions in the, in the, in the area that I consider them to help me. You know, of course they have to report to me, but I have to be telling me, Hey dad, I have this plan. They, we got the solution here. I just have to say yes. Or I say, oh, wait a minute. I have concerns. I'm sorry you didn't know of this. This could happen. Let's think about this before. know, we do something with that.
So other than that, I, um, I, I'm giving them a green light to lead in the area that they should understand more and what I expect from them, not to get into my business because when it comes to training and coaching people and, [01:40:00] and other stuff that they, it's not their job. don't cross that. And I'm, we're fine. But once they tell telling me what to do in a certain areas that it's my area, we say, wait a minute, we forgot. You know, something, not, not telling you how to do your job, but don't tell me that's my, even if I lose, say, if I even said that, we support it. So we, to be honest with you straight, we did have some frictions, we, through these situations, we learn our lessons the work between us as a family is easier, easy, and nice and smooth.
And I, I can tell you right now, I can go on a trip. My wife runs the whole business. I trust my wife. trust Magdalena, I will forget, you know, I will not have this thing here if was not my wife, to give you a little, a little souvenir, [01:41:00] you know, to even make, you know this, uh, drop it business card. You know, I'm not, she made all of this stuff.
It's very important for the business. Oh, good. You got it. My wife, my wife, who's not me, my wife helped me have a business card. So anyway, I think it's, it's good for people to, to hear what others. I, I would love to hear, uh, people what other people, how other people are dealing with. and I can, one second, I, I'm, I'm, I'm sorry if I am talking too long, but one thing that could ask me, how do you train your son?
me this question
Riley: this is a question that Yeah, I would, uh, I would probably have asked you that off air. 'cause I train with my
sons, right? And I,
Ivan Ivanov: do. I didn't know
know You have a son.
Riley: they, they, I have two of them and they, they did juujitsu with me, but I tend [01:42:00] to, um, I tend to not push them too hard. I let the other coaches push
them
Ivan Ivanov: Wait a minute.
There's no, I have other coaches, but, but they're not training that level that I do. So he has pretty much not big a chance yet. Mean, my other coaches will not, they, they're not gonna step, they're in my club,
Riley: yeah. I.
Ivan Ivanov: I told my son, I said, look, there's a one thing I haven't accomplished in my coaching that I am, that I feel I'm not satisfied with my accomplishment.
It's to make my son a champ. Then I got everything in coaching what I was looking for, and if you can help me be the greatest coach in the world, if you allow me to coach you, and you listen and be coachable, or I know this way, and that way I can walk away and I'm, I'm still, you know, I'm, I'm, but help me be the best if you want, and I'll [01:43:00] help you be the best too. That's how I talk to my son and I, I can only a dad, but if you want me to be a coach in a gym, once we step inside, you must call me coach. There's no dad here.
Riley: Yes. Okay. So we, do that within our company. So, uh, my wife works with me on the social media, the marketing side, my youngest son works with me in the shipping, kind of receiving shipping department. And yeah, they don't get to call me dad or honey, you know, it's, uh, I'm ri I'm ri when we're doing business, man, it's, uh, and we do that. that because it keeps that separation, it keeps that, you know, that understanding that we're in a different capacity here. So this is great, man. I love it. I love what you're
saying.
Ivan Ivanov: very common things we have. But I, I found my own way. Um, not that somebody taught me much. I mean, [01:44:00] of course I watch what others people are doing, but most of the friends I have that have kids, they are not coaching their kids. They were not. And I, and I didn't know if I were able to do this or not, but it's not, was not easy.
A few times, and actually before Fargo this year, I told my son, I'm not coming. he, he was not coachable in one of the practices, like about, um, um, 10 days before we go to Fargo Nationals. And I said, I'm done. I'm not going to Fargo. I'm not going to Fargo. Period. has to go by himself. And, and I, 2, 2, 2 days in the mornings, we drive together, we drive in the car.
I don't say a word to him. And then the third day we driving and I said, look, what do you want me to do? So you totally understand how serious I am. I'm not, I don't [01:45:00] like this. I, I, if I don't believe in this preparation, I'm just, I'm, I'm just gonna step out and I be your dad. know, you don't understand that I, I cannot work like this. What I need to prove you more. I work with so many athletes. I can be only effective if I do it this way. I don't understand other way. Maybe we, I hire someone else to do it, but I can't do it this way and I cannot be with you. I don't wanna go there. You do something that I don't believe. So you have to really take this serious and, and make a decision.
What do you want me to do? Because I, continue like that.
And
Riley: Yes.
Ivan Ivanov: he was smart enough to say, dad, I'm sorry. I'm just trying to do my best. And, I'm trying dad, and, and blah, blah, blah. You know? And, and he fixed it. And, and we, we had a great championships, great memories again. do I deserve this as a [01:46:00] dad?
It was, it was very hard for me. And, and, and I told him, look, okay, I will do it again. I mean, you are my son. I, if you are not my son five times by now I'm out.
Riley: Yeah.
Ivan Ivanov: But we still gotta go in the same house and still eat the same food and everything. And, and it, it's not worth it. And, um, we made it work. I mean, we have this upside downs.
Riley: Yeah. That's, that's for real, man. Those ups and downs are, you know, sometimes it's hard for a, a young man to hear, you know, stuff from his dad, you know, to learn this other skill from his dad. It's like, man, it's just dad echoing in the background. And, and I, yeah, there's a, there's probably is a way to do it, but, uh, I'm, I'm not gonna promise I figured that one out yet.
Ivan Ivanov: Yeah. Well, once he knows, uh, and I'm very, he knows I'm serious and when I step out, I'm done, finish.
Riley: yeah.
Ivan Ivanov: And, [01:47:00] but, um, he doesn't have too many, uh, chances, but at the same time, he's growing. I see, uh, he's growing. He's only 16. it's, it's normal, the kids to make some dumb decisions sometimes, but as we see they making progress, they're trying,
um, you know, that, that's, that helps us to keep going and we'll see if he wants to make me the best coach the world, or be who I am right now.
Riley: I love it, man. Hey, can we switch gears to a few
lighter questions as we
Ivan Ivanov: yes.
yes.
Riley: right, um, this is called like my shirt says the Go Earn Your Salt podcast. And I'd like to know from you, when you hear the term go earn your salt, what does that mean to you?
Ivan Ivanov: Say it again. your soul. Uh, I don't see [01:48:00] Oh, go earn your salt, huh?
Riley: Have
Ivan Ivanov: to me?
Riley: term before?
Ivan Ivanov: No, first time. And
Riley: Okay,
so,
Ivan Ivanov: we things in our mind Slightly different. By
Riley: well, so, so what this. What this refers back to, I'll tell you where, how we came up with it. Um, one of my guys one morning was, was grappling on the mat and we finished up and he's sweating and he's tired and he's been working hard and he says, man, I sure earned my salt today. And that's an old phrase that goes back to ancient times when, you know, sailors and different people were paid with salt as a preservative.
It was valuable. It's like they used it as currency, like money. And so guys would earn their wages in salt and if they were, if they were good workers, if they worked hard, they were, they said to have earned their salt. And so that, that's where that term comes from.
Um,
Ivan Ivanov: makes sense. [01:49:00] So they were sweating their butts off in practice for the results.
Riley: That's right.
Ivan Ivanov: Exactly. So words in your company, in your, in your mindset, you, you don't get anything just like that for free. You are working your tail off for that. Is that what you're
Riley: Yeah. That's just
it. Yeah. We're
Ivan Ivanov: That's how you made it.
That's how you made it the same. So I, I, I really like that. Um, but again, I'm bulgar if I have to just re we, my wife, she will completely say, well, this is the, the, she goes word by word. She, she will not know the meaning. Uh, because we just have to live in the culture. I pick up things a lot easier now. I know, understand. after you gave me a little callus here, I totally understand where you're coming from, so,
but, uh,
Riley: you mentioned earlier the term [01:50:00] ghost. Uh, you there's more than one way to skin a cat, right? You mentioned that and I thought, okay, maybe, maybe he hasn't heard the go and your salt one 'cause that Yeah, that's, that's a different, different phrase in, in, uh, mean from different country. Right.
Ivan Ivanov: Yeah. But I, but I got, I, I got, I get it. um, it's, it's, uh, it's no surprise everybody who, got something, who accomplished something. It, it worked, it worked really hard. And especially, you know, in this country. Now, I came here in America, I said one dumb thing. and I think you might want to hear that when I first came, this is in 1992, in December, in December, I'm landing in. In Wisconsin there training with Dennis Hall, meeting some, some of, some of the athletes from Stevens Point College. And, um, it is my friend [01:51:00] Joe. Uh, well, not Joe, who's another guy. He became a very successful business guy. I I told him, oh, you know, Brent, I mean, here to be successful, you have to be like, you gotta, these people, they have to cheat or have to do something.
And he looks at me like this and he said, Ivan, not in this country, my friend. And I'm looking, oh, really? I said, yeah, man, I'm coming from Bulgaria. They, I'm just, I was 20 some years old young man. I, I'm just talking what people are saying that honest, you know, with, with honest hard work, you cannot, you basically, work, work, work and you never have money, basically.
You understand? I mean, that's the, that's what they saying. Basically. You gotta do something, gotta cheat some gotta do shortcuts somewhere. I mean, shortcuts is fine. He is smart. But another way, you, you, you honest way fairway is how to do it. And when [01:52:00] Brett told me, Brett Pinnegar, he is a, he a great friend of mine. He's a, he is a very successful business guy now these days. But, um, he told me, heaven, no, no, my friend in this country, you can. And I was like, Hmm. Really, I believe him, but I don't know nothing. I'm just a, a simple wrestler and just repeating what I heard
Riley: You know, it's funny you say that. funny you say that because we have a, we have a phrase in this country where it's the people will say, the little man can't get ahead. Have you ever heard that term?
Ivan Ivanov: No,
Riley: Yeah. The little man can't get ahead. And it basically is what you're saying. It means like, you know, the, the poor man, the guy who starts from nothing, cannot work hard enough to ever get ahead.
And, and I think that's bologna, man.
I, it's,
Ivan Ivanov: that's yeah.
In this country. Yes. And you know what? Actually now these days in any country, you can do it. I see successful [01:53:00] people in Bulgaria. They're starting from nothing. And they, they, they running a very successful companies. They're helping many people, you know, so everything is possible. But back in those days when it, the system was changing and as a, there's a lot of unfair things and people are like, they're discouraged and you see attorneys are working on the street market selling cucumbers and tomatoes.
I mean, it was embarrassing. They, people with education, I mean, they, that's how, that's where coming from, you know, people with education, selling on the street market, vegetables, this was embarrassing. know, that don't have jobs, you know, it's went to school for so many years and, and that's why I just, I hear what people are saying.
I was just an athlete sponsor there from, my club or, you know, I was there in the army still, you know, so I, I just never had to deal with my life. [01:54:00] Like now what I did here, I mean, this was, I was totally alone. I'm still alone. I'm still, I know nobody's funding me. Government don't fund
Riley: Yeah. You know, it's funny 'cause I, when I built my, my other company, I have a, I have a auto, auto, uh, maintenance company that does oil changes and stuff on cars. And so I, I own this other company also. And when I built that, in order to survive the building process, I delivered pizza in the evenings in my early thirties.
And, you know, I'm working with all these teenagers and I'm delivering pizza in the evenings and building my business during the day. you know, it's kind of the same thing as the, you know, you talk about an attorney out there selling cucumbers, you know, and it's,
yeah.
Ivan Ivanov: in Bulgaria, not
Riley: Yeah, correct, correct.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I heard that. But then I thought about myself out there delivering pizzas with all these teenage kids in this evening job just so I could have money to eat while I built my business. And how it works, man. It's, it's a [01:55:00] grind, right? Yeah.
Ivan Ivanov: Yeah, yeah, I mean, I mean, uh, I learn in this country, I, I work. I work for many, many people. I've been always happy camper here. done many jobs, many little, little jobs like this, you know, and, and I worked and just love it here. And that this is a, is something I think you might wanna hear because, um, I still think a little bit more as a foreign person because my half life was there. I'll give you example. My, my wife very often say, oh wait, you know, what do we do with, um, our kids, the education and all this? I said, I said, because she sees me. I'm not worried much. I said, look, why do you want me to worry? I did my, I brought him to a country, all of you, to a country with opportunities.
Also, you can go back to Bulgaria anytime, because we never left an appropriate, [01:56:00] we are free to go. We can go live in Germany, we can live anywhere. We're free. We, we have, we're outer rise, you know? And so why I have to worry about my son goes to school, let him go, whatever he wants to go, whatever. He has a passion. I did my job. I cannot tell him and force him where to
He can go work for McDonald's and make, he still is gonna make some money not to beg on the street. That's his, that's his, that's his decision. My parents did, did they came and tell me what to do. I left my house 12 years old, and then I moved to the capital when I was 17, 18 years old.
And that's it. My, I was helping my parents, you know, later. What, I mean, this is, what's that interesting for
Riley: It's inter, it's, it's interesting, man. Your whole story's interesting to me. I, yeah, I feel like I'm, uh, we're almost two hours in right now, and I'm still just
super intrigued at
Ivan Ivanov: can [01:57:00] stop any, any
Riley: No, no, no. I've got a few more questions and then we will wrap it up. But let me ask you this, what's your favorite thing to do outside of the wrestling world?
Your favorite
Ivan Ivanov: well, you know, I, I, uh, my favorite thing is when I go to events, uh, outside of wrestling, for example, I, I like to travel to fitness events. It still has to be something for purpose. I used to go with friends. I cannot do this. I used to go fishing when I was competing for, to get out of this, this noise and gyms to recover and enjoy a little bit, something I like to do. Um, but these days I don't. I'm not, I'm, my brother goes and hunts. I can't do this. I don't hunt. don't fish anymore. my, looks like the, the biggest thing I, I, I will choose. The most [01:58:00] interesting thing for me will be when I travel for, during the courses, hanging out with the personal trainers, with my partners, and then see the place where the country is, side little sighting, eating some domestic food and spend a little time like that.
Or, or, or, or see event where we can connect with who are doing what we are doing. Athletics and sports. That seems to be, for me, the most interesting thing to do at these days of my life.
Riley: Excellent man. Ivan, what's your, uh, your favorite band of all time? Favorite music.
Ivan Ivanov: Music.
Riley: Yeah. Favorite, favorite band? Like favorite
group?
Ivan Ivanov: I don't have a favorite group. I, I, you know. I'll say something funny. I, I, I choose, we, we, music is a very important because you gotta, I cranked him with the music. I [01:59:00] have always the whistle. now these days Bluetooth allows us to crank it when, you know, the music very intense. Some songs that you don't, you don't hear cussing, you know, mother,
stuff like that.
And I don't like that stuff. We train kids also. I don't like it. I just don't think you're gonna get tougher because you're listening, you know, cussing and stuff. I don't, I don't
out of my gym.
of my gym. We listen music that is appropriate, that pumps the kids up. Mostly, mostly like that, that like, like some like trans techno that is pumps them up.
Or if it's something more like a hot rock and stuff doesn't have cussing and stuff, and still pumps them up and it tells them, hey, now it's time to, time to, um, push. or there's a few songs that they, they played in, in Fargo, in Fargo Nationals. You know, I can tell you when, [02:00:00] you know some, um, ac, CDC, thunder,
Riley: Yes.
Thunderstruck.
Ivan Ivanov: even what they say much.
But, but if you, I say My guys, you know what? If you hear. The, the Thunder, you know, the AC CDC song and if you hear American Woman, you know, you made it to the Fargo finals,
Woman, that song,
they don't they don't play it anymore this year didn't. But songs they play and some others, you know, some of the songs, uh, you know, my, I tell my guys who are training for Fargo, he said, if you hear these songs, you know, in the finals.
So when we do our last competition matches before we depart Fargo, make them warm up on their own. And I play the musics that most likely, most, most likely will be played in Fargo Nationals.
Riley: I love it. I love it. I, what's your, uh, your favorite food?
Ivan Ivanov: My [02:01:00] favorite food, I like the American
most. Yes, I will never turn a good quality, you know, steak, uh, like salmon protein guy. I like pasta too, you know. I like, I'm sushi. it, you know, name it all. And I like fruits, vegetables and stuff like that. Just mostly appropriate food for, for athletes, for coaches.
Um, I love donuts too, don't eat it much.
Riley: don't eat those much. What is the scariest.
Ivan Ivanov: the donuts super trend. Mel, the donuts too, but you don't wanna overdo
Riley: You don't have to work out longer just to overcome your donuts, huh? I love it. What's the scariest moment of your life?
Ivan Ivanov: Oh, I had few, few scary moments. Uh, I, I'm, I was scared after, but I, I didn't think much. One, one of them, [02:02:00] I recently think few times. One time my dad almost cut my head with, um, with a ax. We we're going, we're in the woods and we're chopping, we're we're Bulgaria. I was, I was little. I wasn't even a sports school. I was like 11 or so. And, uh, he, he's knocking these trees down and he gave me, make me a little ax so I can cut the brunches. And I was chopping at one brunch and my dad came and said, Ivan this is very simple. I'll show you the technique here and you can cut it with one, one hit it's just, let me pass me ax. And, and I passed my ax and I, I stayed like this on the side. And my dad, the tree is here and my dad hit the tree and the ax bounced.
The, the, the actual, it cuts the brunch like a. Like cheese and the ax bounces on the [02:03:00] actual tree and goes, and I'm right here behind him almost a little bit. He doesn't see me. the ax went like this. Imagine I had a very thick hair. I can't, I don't have a photo to show you. I actually, I have one over there. And, and the hair went up and I said, dad, you see what he did? You waved my hair, dad, you waved my hair. And my dad is looking what? And my grandpa and my grandma, what did you, what did you, what did you do? You almost killed the kid. Let's get outta here. And my dad and my grandpa, like
and we all packed and we, it was the, it was the middle of the day we all left that place. And, and this, this comes to my mind very often. You know, I just thought about this the other day. I probably, I mean, I had some other scary stuff, but, um, know, nothing else was wor, I mean, I [02:04:00] was nothing scared more than, uh, dealing with life. I, this, that, but this, this, I said, wow, this could be, could be really, really bad, you know?
Riley: Yeah,
Ivan Ivanov: yeah, that was
one of it, you know. But my, my family, they, they left immediately and that's, it didn't continue working for the day. God saved
Riley: Yes
sir.
Ivan Ivanov: us all, you
Riley: What is, what is your favorite book of all time?
Ivan Ivanov: I don't read much books. Um, I read the book for like heroes who I really like. I like, like some of my athletes, my colleagues, like my friend Steve Frazier, like my, my former assistant coach, Jim Greenwald, Adam Wheeler, all of these guys who wrote their books and give, I read their books and few other people that, I have some great coaches around the world, you [02:05:00] know, Dan Gable and all.
He's some great, so all of these books are interesting. I'm not a big reader guy. I like to watch and learn and study. Um, unfortunately, yes, I'm, this is who I am. I don't read. It would be great to read, but I am, I'm mostly focused on what specifically I need in my education.
Riley: about, about people you admire, huh?
Ivan Ivanov: Yes, exactly, exactly.
Riley: Great.
Ivan Ivanov: People who I admire.
Riley: Yvonne, tell me what's next From here, man. Where? Where? What are you doing next?
Ivan Ivanov: same thing. Um, keep being creative with, with surplus. Try to bring new innovations, uh, new upgrades in our product line, in our education. That's my responsibility to the company. Um, along with that, those [02:06:00] kids who are training for performance and, and, and want to get to the, to the next level, especially at the Olympic style, because that's mostly, it's my, my direction, you know, my, my area performance for coaching, Olympic style of resting.
I'm there to, to help more kids reach their goals until they're with me. 'cause after 18, I don't have funding to keep them here, offer them something. But I give, I at least, I give them a good momentum to be, um, recognized for, um, to be a, a good recruits for, for some, uh, high level college programs. And, and, and maybe there's some programs now they, they practice Greg racing and they offer scholarships in the country.
So that's why I'm mostly at this time, this stage of my life. Keep, keep doing the same thing. And um, and just when I turn around every year, I have to see [02:07:00] innovations. I have to see progress in these areas. Then, then I have peace that I've been effective and I feel, I feel productive. I feel, I feel happy what I'm doing,
Riley: Beautiful. tell me this, where can you, where can you be found?
Ivan Ivanov: where I can be found
surplus.com, S-U-P-L-E s.com or surplus wrestling club.com is for the club.
Just a local, the local we have, we have a,
a small, all decent, decent wrestling club. I mean, about 60 to 80 kids go throughout club through the year. And this year we've been doing very well. We had three national champs this year.
Riley: Amazing. Amazing, man. Well, listen, um, we'll, uh, paste all your social media stuff in the description of the episode when it, when it airs, so you'll [02:08:00] have people be able to find you there also, um. man, this has been a blast. I, I could talk to you for another hour. Easy. Probably two more. Um, but we, we probably need to wrap this thing up.
I know you got other things to do today. And, um, Yvonne, I just appreciate you coming on, man. It's been fantastic.
Ivan Ivanov: Awesome. Thank you very much, Riley for, um, for this interview. It was a easy, uh, communication with you because, um, yeah, I, you said the conversation was going nice and smooth because you asked me things that, um, that are more my style of talking. You know, I, I had some people asking me, you know, some, some things they, they start a conversation or one thing they start asking me about getting into politics or anything like that, and all this stuff that I just, it wasn't for me.
And, um, I can go very fast with my [02:09:00] interview, you know, but, but with you, things going very, very, very nice and smooth. And I would like to welcome you and, and invite you to visit our, um, our center here in Boise and, uh, spend some time with you, um, when you have a chance.
Riley: Oh, man, I would love that so much. So I'll get ahold of you and we'll do that. That, that would be amazing. Amazing.
Ivan Ivanov: Great.
Riley: Ivan, go in your salt, my friend.
Ivan Ivanov: Thank you.
[02:10:00]