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I just came back from an extreme hernia repair. I’ve had two meniscus repairs and one meniscus removal—all on the right knee. I have turf toe. I have nuggets of cauliflower ear. I can’t throw a football with my right arm because it feels like my elbow will fall...
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Whenever I introduce a new student to Brazilian jiu-jitsu, I gently temper expectations. I try to explain that jiu-jitsu is a long journey. I talk about how the learning curve may feel impossibly steep and I let them know that the nature of experimentation is that they will fail;...
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For many years I believed that jiu-jitsu was a force for good. I believed that jiu-jitsu had changed my life and I believed that the jiu-jitsu community was an open, welcoming place that accepted people from all walks of life. Recently, I learned I was wrong about all of...
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Why Newbies are the Most Important People in the Sport When a new student steps onto the mat for the first time with a sparkling white belt tied incorrectly around his waist, he’s at zero. He has no technical knowledge. No mat sense. No fighting experience. And no real...
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In Guy Ritchie’s 2000 film Snatch, a gangster named Brick Top offers up his definition of nemesis. He says that nemesis means “a righteous infliction of retribution manifested by an appropriate agent.” Even though I loved the film, I never quite understood that part. It wasn’t until I started...
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YOUR GUARD PASS STARTS FROM YOUR BACK WHEN I TEACH JIU-JITSU CLASSES IN PITTSBURGH, THE MOST COMMON QUESTIONS I GET USUALLY REVOLVE AROUND GUARD PASSING. WHAT GUARD PASS IS THE BEST? Which ones should I learn? Why isn’t this pass working? And on and on. The frustration is understandable. Passing the guard...
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The guard is arguably what made jiu-jitsu famous. To the untrained eye, the bottom man is in great danger, but armed with an understanding of the guard, he has the tools to reverse the position or to end the fight right then and there. Royce Gracie put this revelation...
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How much time do you spend on the mat a week? How many of these minutes were focused, deliberate minutes of training? No, really. If you take a 60-minute class, how much time do you spend in the bathroom? How much time do you spend talking instead of drilling?...
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When I was a blue belt, I ran a small University jiu-jitsu club. One fall, we pooled our club budget with our personal funds to fly Matt Kirtley, an Eduardo de Lima black belt and writer behind the long-running Aesopian.com blog, from Florida to Pennsylvania to host a seminar....
I just came back from an extreme hernia repair. I’ve had two meniscus repairs and one meniscus removal—all on the right knee. I have turf toe. I have nuggets of cauliflower ear. I can’t throw a football with my right arm because it feels like my elbow will fall...
Whenever I introduce a new student to Brazilian jiu-jitsu, I gently temper expectations. I try to explain that jiu-jitsu is a long journey. I talk about how the learning curve may feel impossibly steep and I let them know that the nature of experimentation is that they will fail;...
For many years I believed that jiu-jitsu was a force for good. I believed that jiu-jitsu had changed my life and I believed that the jiu-jitsu community was an open, welcoming place that accepted people from all walks of life. Recently, I learned I was wrong about all of...
Why Newbies are the Most Important People in the Sport When a new student steps onto the mat for the first time with a sparkling white belt tied incorrectly around his waist, he’s at zero. He has no technical knowledge. No mat sense. No fighting experience. And no real...
In Guy Ritchie’s 2000 film Snatch, a gangster named Brick Top offers up his definition of nemesis. He says that nemesis means “a righteous infliction of retribution manifested by an appropriate agent.” Even though I loved the film, I never quite understood that part. It wasn’t until I started...
YOUR GUARD PASS STARTS FROM YOUR BACK WHEN I TEACH JIU-JITSU CLASSES IN PITTSBURGH, THE MOST COMMON QUESTIONS I GET USUALLY REVOLVE AROUND GUARD PASSING. WHAT GUARD PASS IS THE BEST? Which ones should I learn? Why isn’t this pass working? And on and on. The frustration is understandable. Passing the guard...
The guard is arguably what made jiu-jitsu famous. To the untrained eye, the bottom man is in great danger, but armed with an understanding of the guard, he has the tools to reverse the position or to end the fight right then and there. Royce Gracie put this revelation...
How much time do you spend on the mat a week? How many of these minutes were focused, deliberate minutes of training? No, really. If you take a 60-minute class, how much time do you spend in the bathroom? How much time do you spend talking instead of drilling?...
When I was a blue belt, I ran a small University jiu-jitsu club. One fall, we pooled our club budget with our personal funds to fly Matt Kirtley, an Eduardo de Lima black belt and writer behind the long-running Aesopian.com blog, from Florida to Pennsylvania to host a seminar....