I attended my first Grapplers Quest almost 9 years ago. It was amazing. Back then, we didn’t have access to the large amounts of high quality footage we have now, so watching high-level BJJ in person was one of the only ways to see what the top competitors were doing. For me, this meant being exposed to passes and sweeps I had never seen. Wilson Reis was fighting that day in the black belt division, and he was using deep half guard. I didn’t know it was deep half guard, but it left a huge impression and made me a fan. Since then, I’ve been lucky enough to train with Wilson. Something funny happens as we progress in jiu-jitsu. We...

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Jiu-jitsu is a strange journey, and while I’ve had that thought before, I usually let it pass. Recently, I was on a flight back from a Globetrotter camp and had far too much time on my hands (which is dangerous, as anyone that knows me while tell you; a bored Nelson will find a way to not be bored). As I sat there, it began to occur to me just how many little discoveries and observations I had made because of jiu-jitsu. Here are some of the things that they don’t tell you about starting jiu-jitsu: You will be more familiar with the terms like ACL, MCL, PCL and AC joint than you wish you were. You will know the...

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Traveling and training can be tough. Finding welcoming places to train can sometimes be challenging, but the real stress can come from trying work out the rest of your logistics: transportation, lodging, and ideas for things to do when you are recovering from a great training session. BJJ camps solve this problem and are becoming very popular as a result. A good camp takes care of accommodations for you, so all you have to worry about is enjoying your time on the mat. Who doesn’t want to travel to cool places, meet awesome people, and gets lots of training in? I have been very fortunate to take part in about 5 of these over the last year. As I type...

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When you’re a kid, it doesn’t take much to determine your favorite time of year. For me, it was December. And since I’m still just a big kid, it still is. There’s Christmas, of course, but there’s also my birthday. It was also the end of the Chilean school year. The only downside: report cards. I dreaded it. I wasn’t a bad student, but when your sister gets straight A’s, it’s hard not to look bad. Even though I haven’t been in any kind of school for a few years, I still can’t help but feel like December is report card time. I look back on the year and think about what I accomplished. If I didn’t meet a goal—and...

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“Tienes que ser persistente,” my mom always said. “You have to be persistent.” She drilled this phrase into my head while I was growing up. Little Nelson having trouble tying his shoes? Keep trying. Math is hard? Keep working. Can’t beat dad in chess? Don’t give up. I heard this phrase repeated to myself and my sister millions of times over the years, and now my mom has started using it on my nephews. As any kid would, I hated this. I assumed that none of my friends had their mother repeating the importance of persistence over and over, so why did I have to keep trying? Couldn’t I just give up and try something else? In October 2011, I was...

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Last Sunday, one of my best friends was promoted to black belt. I was the one to tie the belt around his waist (you can see that here). Dave and I have been friends for over 15 years. He is the first kid I met when I moved from Chile to New Jersey. I was in 8th grade—Mr. Ferguson’s class—and I was assigned the seat behind him. Dave is the guy that explained to me what a first down was when I asked him what those sticks are during a freshman football game. He talked me into joining the wrestling team. And, most importantly, he convinced me to try Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. Dave’s promotion got me thinking about how rare it...

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I have been competing for a long time. I actually signed up for my first tournament before I started training. Yes, you read that correctly. That, in itself, is a story worth reading if you haven’t heard it yet already. Go here to get caught up. My most recent competition was Dec. 6 of 2014, making this weekend a full year since I last stepped onto the competition. I’m not sure what I had expected from stepping away from competition after doing it intensely for 7 years, competing an average of 8 times a year, but it’s been weird. When the New York Open and No-Gi Pans and trips to California become a regular part of your calendar, leaving them...

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I have been running a turkey roll since my first teaching gig as a purple belt—all the way back in 2011. The original school I taught at was a whopping 3 blocks from my parents’ house. Talk about an easy commute, so sneaking in an extra training session before stuffing myself with turkey was a no brainer. And even though my life is dramatically different 4 years later, I am still thankful for it. As I look back, I never thought this simple open mat would come to mean so much to me. I started a tradition at the school, and my friend Dave, who is now the head instructor, has continued it. While it’s true that we use most...

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I have a confession: I was obsessed with Sherlock Holmes growing up. I told my Mom that I wanted to be a detective when I grew up, and I trotted around the house with a magnifying glass looking for mysteries to solve. It turned out there wasn’t much work for a six year-old Chilean Sherlock Holmes, so I never got to pull the trigger on living the full Sherlock Holmes experience, roaming around England, living exciting and mysterious adventures. Until Reilly Bodycomb came along. I first met Reilly at a seminar at 50/50 a few months earlier. A mutual interest in both grappling and Magic: the Gathering (a trading card game) led us to becoming friends very quickly. When Polaris...

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I have spent countless hours packed in a car with my friends Dave, Andrew, Greg, and Will. We drove to seminars, tournaments, and open mats. These trips forged our friendship and were the start of more than a few adventures. As often happens when three grapplers unite around their obsession with jiu-jitsu, we sometimes didn’t make the wisest decisions.One of our greatest hits: We drove to Boston to compete in the Boston Open right before Hurricane Irene hit.This epic adventure took place in August of 2011. I was a purple belt. Dave, Andrew, and Greg were blue belts. We were all living and training in New Jersey at the time. As the tournament grew near, Irene coverage took up more...

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