Inverted Gear Blog
Tag: Nelson Puentes
Tap Cancer Out: The Panda Connection
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...
The Poetry of Jiu-Jitsu
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...
Observations from a Two-Year Black Belt
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...
Reflections on Polaris 3
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...
Refereeing Observations: Battle Cries and Verbal Taps
I have been refereeing on and off since I was a purple belt. I probably average about one tournament per year. My wife Hillary and I met at a tournament when she was refereeing, but that's a story for another time (but still a really good story). Anyway, Hillary and I spent this weekend in Virginia refereeing a local tournament. We were originally planning on heading out to California for Pans, but we had been traveling a lot the last few months and decided against getting back on another flight. When one of our referee friends reached out and asked us to come down to Virginia and ref, we saw it as a good excuse to visit some friends without...
Plug into the Jiu-Jitsu Network
When I went to college, I was told the connections that I would make there would last me a lifetime. I never really made any connections in college, though. I was commuting the whole time and was always rushing off campus to make it to jiu-jitsu classes on time. Over the last 9 years I have made an incredible amount of connections through jiu-jitsu—from training partners to instructors, to people I have competed against, even people that refereed those matches. Jiu-jitsu has put me in touch with people I would have never met otherwise and has made my life much richer because of it. I have met a surprising amount of PhDs in math, Army generals, all kinds of law...
To Our Fans: Thank You
I started Inverted Gear four years ago. Yesterday, our 19th gi shipment landed in the United States. Four years ago, I could never imagine being where we are today. I wasn’t even sure I could sell our first 100 gis, let alone ever have a need for another shipping container full of merchandise. For that I thank you. Thank you for choosing Inverted Gear. Thank you for recommending us to your friends. Your kind words in the gym and on social media have been instrumental in our growth. We have done very little advertising yet have succeeded in selling out of every batch we order. And we can’t thank you enough. The gi landscape has changed a lot since we...
4 Tips for Learning Portuguese
Sometimes, the Brazilian part of BJJ can become a barrier. The language barrier, more than once over the years, left me hearing Portuguese and wishing I spoke the language. I get confused for a Brazilian pretty often: dark skin, dark hair, speaks English with an accent and practices BJJ? Has to be Brazilian. It wasn’t until I was a purple belt that I actually started studying it. While I am not writing a book in Portuguese anytime soon, I can hold short conversations now, specially if they involve BJJ, asking for directions, or ordering food. I understand learning Portuguese may not seem that important for most BJJ players, but it comes in handy more than you think. I originally became...
Confessions of a Takedown Addict
My name is Nelson, and I love takedowns. Don’t get me wrong: I love guard passing and sweeps as much as the next jiu-jitsu guy, but I there is a special place on my heart for takedowns, especially big throws. I have competed in Wrestling (high school level) and judo, but this weekend I finally competed in sambo. Competing in sambo has been on my bucket list for a long time. I have been telling myself I would jump on a tournament for years now but never pulled the trigger. This weekend, I was at a camp run by my friend Reilly Bodycomb, and on the last day of camp he held a small in house tournament. I was out...
Ten Years Without Reaping: Time to Reevaluate
The term “cruzada de perna” was added to the CBJJ rulebook in 2006. It is eventually translated into “knee reaping,” entering just about every BJJ players vocabulary not much time later. The rule change trickled down from the IBJJF, which at the time was the only major host of world-class tournaments before they expanded to host “opens” all over the world in smaller regional formats. Many grapplers today were not around when you could go for a footlock and not worry if your foot crossed over the knee reaping line. Knee reaping has been around for almost ten years at this point, and I believe this one change has had a great impact on the sport than any other action...