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Training Etiquette 101
By: Emily Kwok
“The first condition of understanding a foreign country is to smell it.” – Rudyard Kipling
We all know the smell of a ripe BJJ gym.The smell might give us a clue about the school’s cleanliness, frequency of use, or characters at play. It can tell us a lot, but not everything. A school that’s […]
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You Are How You Train
By: Emily Kwok
It’s incredible how much training can reveal about the self.
It creeps up on you slowly after your obsession with training wears off a bit. When you are at ease with the notion of deliberate practice, when the hard work is no longer hard work and it just becomes habit. This is the […]
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Happy
By: Shane McCarthy
Those who practice Jiu Jitsu know it can be an amazing, yet frustrating martial art. The mental and physical benefits are abundant and life-changing, and the physical beatdown and total frustration of learning such a complex art often wear practitioners down.
That dynamic is something I’ve been exploring lately. We choose this art as […]
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My Real Life Juggling Act: Balancing Work, Life and BJJ
By: Emily Kwok
When I think back on 38 years of human existence, l feel that I’ve managed to cultivate an abundant life. I am blessed with a beautiful marriage and family, and have the time and resources to pursue personal interests and passions. I am fulfilled by my work on a multitude of levels and […]
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Faixa Preta
By: Emily Kwok
Faixa Preta: Black Belt
When I began training Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, it was a good while before I’d ever encountered a real live Black Belt and it never occurred to me that I would ever become one or want one. The Black Belt was almost like a god or deity — holy, sacred and […] -
Progress and Purpose: Why do we Train?
By: Emily Kwok
If you asked me (almost) decades ago what I enjoyed about training BJJ and why I was doing it, I would have told you it was because it was different from anything I’d ever done and I liked the workout I got from it. Today, my reasons are largely the same, though I […]
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My Child Won’t Break and Neither Will Yours: The Insight of a BJJ Parent
By: Emily Kwok
This past weekend I got to experience being a mother to a brave little girl who decided she wanted to fight her own battles. A few months ago, one of our instructors approached us about wanting to run a small kids tournament to help familiarize them with sport rules and share a deeper […]
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How Leaders Should Lead
By: Emily Kwok
‘Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power’ – Abraham Lincoln
Reflecting on the 18 going on 19 years I’ve been involved with BJJ, it’s a surreal moment to confront myself with the fact that I’ve been training a long time; like long enough […] -
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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Lessons from Matheus Diniz
By: Joe Hannan
When Matheus Diniz walks into a room, you start thinking he was assembled by an elite team of scientists in some grappling cyborg laboratory. The man was built to lock limbs, compress arteries and apply leverage.
Then Diniz smiles, and what you once thought was a cybernetic organism becomes a playful, gentle world-destroyer […]
