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To Win or Learn? Competing Commitments
All students oscillate between being the hammer and the nail. Idealistically, we aim to be the hammer any time we choose against anyone we choose, but few ever arrive in that place without strain.
When we are the nail, it often feels like we are desperately fighting to survive, which makes it difficult to build technical […]
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Do you need Jiu Jitsu anymore?
The last year and a half has been a slog.
Ask anyone who owns a brick-and-mortar business that depends on patrons to walk through their doors and they’ll tell you it was a year of dragging a dead horse toward a fake horizon. And while dragging a dead horse around for a year, the sun kept […]
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A highly unconventional lesson on closed guard
If I had to sum up the past 12 months in a word, that word would be transition. Neck deep in the uncertainties of the pandemic, we were all stuck in one place wanting to be in another, like beleaguered passengers in some crowded airport terminal. Many BJJ players found themselves in a state of […]
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10 Ways to Accelerate Your BJJ Growth
I can’t think of a more edifying moment in my Jiu Jitsu life than this one. I was talking to Emily on the phone in the aftermath of the Atlanta Open, where, for the first time, I managed to get onto the podium at an IBJJF event. My performance produced some mixed feelings: relief that […]
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6 Ways to Break Out of Your BJJ Slump
It’s a common problem. It emerges as a gray, drab shadow that zaps the joy out of your most delightful hours of the week. Whereas you once couldn’t wait to hit the mats daily — sometimes multiple times — you now drag your feet heading into class.
At my worst, I even shed some tears of […]
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The Struggle of Being a BJJ Student
Learning Brazilian Jiu Jitsu can feel like stepping into quicksand. Every move you make only pulls you in deeper. Perhaps that’s why it’s continued to hold my interest after all these years. It wasn’t a planned affair and I had no expectations for it when I began as a BJJ student, but here I am […]
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What Are We Fighting For Anyway?
Bodies thrashing, twisted limbs, sweat squishing, desperate gasps for air.
This is the chaos of live training. It doesn’t sound appealing, and it’s not pleasurable as it’s happening. So why do we continue to fight?
Most of us can say why we chose this sport. Common reasons include getting into better shape, making new friends, exploring a […]
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How to Bring the Best Version of Yourself to Competition
By: Joe Hannan
The man who would try to break my arm made idle conversation in the bullpen. He wasn’t nervous, but rather was sizing me up. Conducting recon. Scrutinizing what I knew and what I didn’t know about Jiu Jitsu and how he could use the knowledge to break me. He walked with the assured […]
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5 Principles for Growth in BJJ
By: Emily Kwok
Before we breakdown some of the growth principles that have been helpful in my BJJ, let’s just clear the air here and demystify what the word ‘principle’ means in this context. All too often people will nod their heads when you mention, ‘Do you understand this principle?’ when they really have no flipping […]
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Are You a BJJ Control Freak or a Fatalist?
By: Joe Hannan
At its core, jiu jitsu is about imposing your will on another human. Your goal is to gain an advantageous position and put them in some type of submission hold. This can have some interesting psychological implications.
A work project has me thinking a lot about the psychological concept of locus of control. Generally […]
