Jiu-jitsu is often on my mind, but it is just one aspect of my life. When I read, I prefer philosophy over fantasy, political over fiction. As I read, I naturally test and apply concepts to areas not necessarily intended by the text. The Bible, Marcus Aurelius, Augustine, Hayek, the Art of War. . . […]

Every fundamentals student wants to learn how to submit people, or how to escape from submissions. After all, submissions end the fight, match, or sparring. You are also told that you should be a submission oriented grappler. At every turn, we are introduced to classes and technique videos that revolve around submissions and escapes from […]

I wrote last year about the impact that a week of training with Henry Akins made on me. Since then, I have been to several more of his seminars and I will be doing another week-long session with him in Costa Rica in a few months. Over the last year I have used elements of […]

I recently went on vacation, and like most of my vacations, I took a gi with me so I could get some training in. I was going on a backpacking trip in Alaska and I was able to attend a noon class at Gracie Barra Alaska both before and after my trip out of Anchorage. […]

When I look at you, all I see is muscle, bone, and brain. I don’t see gender, I don’t see race, I don’t see your morals, vices, or sins. You have strengths to maximize and weaknesses to minimize. If you practice jiu-jitsu, you are awesome to me. If you want to learn from me, I’ll […]

It’s possible to learn more by being submitted than by being the submitter. This may seem counter-intuitive to fundamentals students, since so much time is spent learning how to submit people and it is the final goal of jiu-jitsu. It’s natural to assume that repping out submissions against resisting opponents is the best way to […]

Last September, I had a laundry mishap, and turned my purple belt into a brown belt. I’m pleased to announce my purple belt has been retired, and I’ve earned a real brown belt. I think my black belt, Jordan Damon, has been watching too many creative promotion videos on Youtube. He maintained a facade of […]

There’s been a lot of talk lately about sport jiu-jitsu and self defense jiu-jitsu. It’s easy to find an opinion that tells you what you want to hear. Some will tell you a good sport jiu-jitsu student is good enough for any normal street altercation. Others say that your jiu-jitsu isn’t complete without self defense […]

Jiu-Jitsu makes everything better, so why not combine it with a wedding ceremony? Last week I was asked to officiate a marriage between two blue belts who fell in love at the academy. I was also given free license to run the ceremony however I wanted. This proved to be an irresistible concept, so with […]