Inverted Gear Blog
Tag: Nelson Puentes
Inverting Gear: How our Backpacks are Designed
It came time to design some backpacks for Inverted Gear, it took a long time to get my ideas together, and to narrow it down to 3 designs. Our rolltop bag is the first of these designs.
Free Instructional Treasure Trove
In the spirit of the generosity that has spread across our community over recent days, we wanted to make sure you had access to our library of instructionals.
A note to our fans (about big changes)
We just rebooted our inventory and made a bunch of behind the scenes changes to make things better for Panda Nation.
Big Panda Swinging
I started my BJJ career at 190 pounds, and I put weight on over the years, moving from middle heavy, to heavy, to super heavy, and now back down to middle heavy. I have always been on the big side of the room when it came to pairing up for as long as I can remember. But for years, some of my best training partners were much smaller than me. They were in the featherweight or lightweight divisions. Fast forward: my wife is 120 pounds and one of my most technical black belts I have in my immediate surrounding, so how do you train with people much smaller than you? What rules should you follow? Concede the bottom position. If...
7 Days of Panda Christmas
Gifts and Deals for Panda Nation Panda Nation has given us so much support over the years, and we are beyond grateful for what you have done for our family and for the jiu-jitsu community. Every Black Friday season, we have a tradition of big discounts, and we’re keeping that going this year with some products discounted as much as 50%.But we are going beyond sales this year and want to give you 7 gifts for the 7 days of Panda Christmas. Two of these gifts are instructionals from Reilly Bodycomb and Jon Calestine that are brand new and only available during this sale.If you buy from us between now and Cyber Monday, you get all 7 gifts. Here is...
Smaller Circles
When my mom tells me the story of my time in kindergarten, first there’s the mandatory prelude of the battle to get me into the building. As soon as we parked, I would turn into a spider monkey and get a hold of anything that would keep me in the vehicle. I was not big fan of the whole schooling thing it turns out.Another story she loves to tell is how I would get an classroom activity to draw as many circles as I could on a sheet a paper. My first attempt was to draw one giant circle the size of the sheet of paper and turn it in. When I was told I needed to try again and...
Dad-Level Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu
My life has gone through a lot of changes in the last few months, becoming a dad being the biggest one. Looking back at the amount of hours I have spent on the mat this year, it is a fraction of years prior. I have been averaging two BJJ sessions a week when I used to train more in a week than I now do in a month. Somehow, though, I feel I am in the best shape I have been in a long time. So here is what has been working for me: More no-gi training with no-gi specialists after years of heavy gi training Cardio work on a rower, ski erg, and bike erg Ongoing mobility training and exercises...
The Panda Workweek
The other day someone asked me what I did before Inverted Gear. This caught me by surprise, it’s been a while since I thought about the time before all my energy was devoted to selling uniforms with a silly upside-down panda on them. This got me thinking about why I started the company and how my vision has changed over the years.Before I started Inverted Gear, I taught BJJ and had a part time job at my instructor’s painting company. I was there for about a year, and I learned so much about business during this time. But I wanted to create something of my own, and this is when the gi idea came along. The driving force for me,...
Tips for a Kickass Comeback
Time off the mats does not need to be time wasted. Nelson tells the story of how a few surprises (like the early arrival of his son) took him out of training for 3 months, but he found a way to make the most of it. Good inspiration if you're currently sidelined.
Ending Referee's Decisions: It's Time for the IBJJF Rules to Change
No one is happy when the outcome of a close match is left up to a referee's decision. How can the IBJJF update its rules to give us clear winners? Nelson shares his recommendations in his latest blog post.