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Meet Derrick Garza of Dark Clan Fight Lab

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Today we’d like to introduce you to Derrick Garza.

Hi Derrick, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
My name is Derrick Garza, and I am the owner of Dark Clan Fight Lab, a mixed martial arts gym located in Austin, TX. I have been practicing jiu-jitsu for over 20 years and am currently ranked the 2nd Degree Black Belt in the art. Originally from Corpus Christi, TX, I was working various jobs and doing freelance Graphic Design through my 20’s. I started jiu-jitsu in 2001 and had taught at various schools in Corpus Christi, Houston, and Austin. After living in Austin for two years, I found myself at the head of a jiu-jitsu program for a large MMA facility in 2013. I worked there for almost five years when it suddenly announced that it would be closing. We had amassed a large following and community for the people of East Austin, and within the span of a few weeks, we would have nowhere to house them. Being a vocal part of the community and the head of the program, it seemed as if support was immediately thrown my way when the idea of starting a school was introduced. I took the lead and dove into the unknown world of being an entrepreneur. It would take me learning new skills and experience some of the hardest challenges professionally and personally I had yet to face to eventually make it work. After almost two decades of dreaming of having my own school, I was thrilled to finally open its doors in 2018. We hosted classes six days a week and housed a dance group on the day we were closed. Our newfound school has steadily gained traction in the short amount of time it has existed. In 2020, we were presented with the challenge of surviving a pandemic, and the business has been severely impacted in multiple ways. Nevertheless, we have found creative ways to endure, and it is a testament to the positivity of our establishment that our community continues to support us. I am happy to say that Dark Clan Fight Lab has completed three solid years as a business.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall, and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
The biggest challenges I faced as a new entrepreneur were limited resources and having no road map. While I had dreams of one day having my own gym, the timing of actually having to pursue my own school was unexpected. At moments, I felt lost in guiding a large community onto a new facility headed by myself. I found myself having to learn brand new skills while also maintaining an air of positivity – in other words, I was incredibly stressed at times but needed to be a light in uncertain waters for my community. It was extremely challenging to transition from being solely a jiu-jitsu instructor and leading a single program to become the owner and manager of a brand new facility. I was used to solely taking care of passing along the art of jiu-jitsu to suddenly having unanticipated tasks such as customer service, marketing and design, social media management, finances, event planning, daily class and employee scheduling, legal considerations, and so many things that I would not have anticipated or accounted for. Along with having a conservative budget to make the business work, it seemed to sleep, time, and energy were resources that I was in shortage of.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about Dark Clan Fight Lab?
Dark Clan Fight Lab is a mixed martial arts gym. Currently, we offer Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and kickboxing in the area’s largest martial arts gym. Along with being the owner, I am a 2nd Degree Black Belt and the head instructor of the jiu-jitsu program. I bring over 20 years of teaching experience to the mat, which has allowed me to hone my skill for providing the most important information and techniques of the art to a wide range of students, from beginner to professional competitors. Additionally, we have several other instructors who have been teaching for years and bring an enthusiasm that keeps our students coming back. Dark Clan Fight Lab is unique from the other gyms in the Austin area because of the style of martial art that is taught and the community. I have always been a believer that jiu-jitsu or kickboxing should be taken from a self-defense perspective – applicable in many situations outside of strictly sports pursuits. While we definitely have some mat sharks that compete on a regular basis, our students come from a variety of backgrounds and are looking to martial arts for exercise, self-defense, learning, and novelty. We welcome all types of practitioners and give them the tools to achieve their individual goals. Our sense of community draws a crowd even from other gyms. Prior to the pandemic, we frequently hosted UFC watch parties, potlucks, bar hops, and random fun. I feel that my gym offers a welcoming learning environment for anyone from seasoned competitors to hobbyists to learn martial arts in the most efficient way possible. I am most proud of my brand because of the above mentioned reasons, I truly cannot say enough about how happy I am to cultivate and help flourish the community that is around me. I am also very proud of the aesthetic I have introduced to the martial art community in Austin. Because I worked previously as a graphic designer and have been a long time martial arts practitioner, I was able to create and merge those seemingly unrelated areas of work into a coherent brand and gym. The logo is simple yet powerful. The brand itself is taken from the themes of the samurai culture, so the logo, marketing, and website are sleek and easy to use or even enjoyable from an aesthetic perspective. I bring this to all areas of representation of the brand – social media, promotional events, clothing, etc. It is not boastful and never will be. I believe this is another reason people come and they stay – just like the logo/brand – they can stay calmly confident that they have the skills to protect themselves, win at competitions, be confident in other areas of their life because of their practice and there are no need for bragging or overdrawing attention.

Is there anything else you’d like to share with our readers?
Jiu-Jitsu is primarily a grappling art that employs chokes and strangles, joint locks, throws and strikes. Attaining a black belt in jiu-jitsu takes about ten years, on average. I earned mine in 11 years and have been a black belt for almost nine years. – I am a single father to a son, now 21. As a primary parent, I juggled raising a child while pursuing a black belt and opening a gym. – After the first gym that I was working at closed down and before I opened the DCFL, I teamed up with Zilker Brewing Company to do a weekly event in their backroom named “Dark Clan Brew-Jitsu.” It was a play on the words “Jiu-Jitsu” and “Brewing.” It consisted of 3 hour open training session and a couple of beers. To this day, it was one the most popular events that involved jiu-jitsu in the Austin area and gave people an idea of what Dark Clan Fight Lab would be about. – Initially, I moved to Austin to try my hand at stand-up comedy. I did a handful of sets throughout Austin but eventually had less time because of jiu-jitsu. I still wanted to pursue creative outlets, which led me to start a podcast appropriately titled “The Light of Darkness.”

Pricing:

  • Introductory Offer (jiu jitsu & kickboxing) of $99 for the first month
  • Kickboxing (only) $75 per month

Contact Info:

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