A few weeks ago I was talking with my friend Christian Graugart to coordinate details about a BJJ Globetrotter camp in Italy, on the Island of Sardinia. I was looking forward to some sun and to working on my surfing skills. As is typical for Christian, he had a completely different idea. “I am taking a group of guys to Greenland, you should totally come,” he said. “I'll get you to wrestle a polar bear. It will be great for your brand.” I’m not sure if Christian knows that pandas are different from polar bears, but the invitation struck a chord anyway. I have been somewhat fascinated by Greenland and Iceland since I learned about early settlements in that region...

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As I type this, I am sitting on a plane on my way to Greenland for a BJJ Globetrotter camp. Since there are no direct flights from the U.S., Hillary and I flew into Reykjavik, Iceland yesterday and had a little over 24 hours to kill during a layover. We had been talking about traveling to Reykjavik for a while now, so when Christian Graugart messaged me about coming to Greenland to train I was super excited. I had just renewed my passport and was itching to get new stamps on it, and I saw an excuse to stop off in Iceland along the way.  We arrived at our hotel around 8 am and ate some amazing hotel breakfast. I love...

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When I work with newer students, I often hear some variation of the question “How do I develop my style?” or “What should I specialize in?” This seems to be a natural progression in jiu-jitsu learning. After a few weeks on the mat, we pick up on the fact that upper belts tend to build their own unique games. We might not understand the mechanics or the strategic importance of one technique or style over another, but we recognize that this black belt always does this submission while this other black belt is always looking for this one type of guard. From there, reaching the conclusion that you should have your own style or your own game is not a...

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In the mix of big tournaments taking place, like the Abu Dhabi Pro the week prior and the Eddie Bravo Invitational taking place the same day, you may not have heard about a very special tournament: Tap Cancer Out. Hillary and I spent our Saturday in Stratford, CT. at their tenth event and their fifth in Stratford. This is the longest running TCO tournament and has become the biggest attracting over 450 competitors and raising over $100,000, shattering their goal of $80,000.Inverted Gear has been a TCO sponsor since 2012. I met Jon Thomas, the mastermind behind the organization, when I ordered a shirt and a few patches so I could wear them at the New York Open. My mom...

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Every white belt has asked a black belt for help only to hear this annoying answer: “Don’t get there in the first place.” You want to scream “I WOULDN’T BE ASKING IF I COULD’VE AVOIDED IT, NOW WOULD I!?” Still, the answer is true. The solution to most problems is “Avoid it.” But how do you learn to do that? That’s what we’re going to discuss now. (Don’t worry, we’ll also talk about what to do when you can’t.) When looking back on a tough situation you found yourself in sparring, ask yourself: “How did I get here and why? “I was crushed under side control.” Why? “Because they passed my guard.” Why? “Because they grabbed my knees and threw...

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When you’re born and raised in Chile, Pablo Neruda is kind of a big deal. Wikipedia describes Neruda as a “poet-diplomat,” but for kids in Chile he was a staple of early childhood reading. If you live and Chile and can read, your nose gets buried in Neruda’s writing. My earliest memory of Neruda—and I’m sure I was exposed to him much earlier—is reading silly poems about soups and poems about socks in second grade. This is probably along the lines of Where the Sidewalk Ends for Americans, but Neruda is much more of a cultural icon than Shel Silverstein, and he did a lot more than poetry. One Neruda quote has stuck with me over the years: “A child...

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Hey, Chris Ulbricht from Garden State Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Academy in Red Bank, New Jersey here. I wanted to share with you some thoughts I had on the disadvantages of getting angry and upset during training. I’ve seen new and experienced fall into this trap, and at some point or another we have all (myself definitely included) have been guilty of it. If you want to keep your training productive, you need to keep your cool and stay calm and collected. Getting angry and frustrated on the mats… Blinds you from being in the present moment and learning from the mistakes you made. Being angry is equivalent to being too busy feeling sorry for yourself. Keeping a curious, calm, and positive...

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I’ve been writing about jiu-jitsu for ten years. Along the way, I’ve had a number of grapplers reach out to me for advice. I’m not sure why (I wouldn’t trust me), but the emails and Facebook messages have been relatively consistent with topics ranging from “How can I be a writer?” to “This really terrible thing happened to me; what should I do now?”One of these conversations sticks in my mind.A young student was reeling from a conversation with his instructor. The student had been training hard, and somehow a conversation with the instructor turned to comparing their respective development paths. The instructor said to the student, “You’ll never be better than me.”That’s the story I got anyway. I wasn’t...

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I got my black two years ago, and I’m making it a tradition to write about what I’ve learned each year as a black belt. I’m amazed at how much I learned and improved over the last year, but I am even more surprised at how little I have actually trained. This is probably the least I’ve been on the mat since I first started jiu-jitsu. Between traveling, life, and business I still train about 5 times a week, but gone are the days where I log multiple double sessions in a week.Some observations: I still love BJJ. I am still thoroughly fascinated by it, but since I am not competing I just can’t justify a reason to maintain my...

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Polaris 3 took place this weekend, and while I watched it live, I don’t think I would have been able to miss it even if I had wanted to. My Facebook and Twitter feeds were blowing up with all kinds of post about the event. R/BJJ had a mega-post and about twenty other post about the event. While most of the conversations were positive—great action during matches, slick transitions, and a Stockton Slap heard ‘round the world—a few negatives like lack of submissions in the main card, camera work, and the replay delay occupied a surprisingly large portion of the discussion. The event as a whole renewed debates about whether or not there’s enough community support for such events, whether...

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