Inverted Gear Blog
Tag: Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu
What It Means to be a Brown Belt and How to Make Progress Towards Black
In part one of this series, I gave my best advice for newbie white belts and anxious new blue belts. Part two was for blue belts looking to level up to purple and purples figuring out how to keep progressing. Now I finally get to high level purple belts and brown belts on the verge of reaching black belt. As a rank, brown belt can have a very wide spread in what that color represents. Nelson and I talked about this last time we trained together. Every belt can represent different things for different people, but it gets more pronounced the closer you get to black belt. Consider these 3 fictional but common biographies: Brown Belt #1: Started training BJJ as single 20-something, but...
6 Tips for Taking Notes in Jiu-Jitsu
My confession: I have a terrible memory. I carry around a notebook with me at all times. I have a notebook at work and one I keep in my purse. I am constantly writing down tasks I need to complete and errands I need to run. Over the past couple of years, I have started applying this habit in to jiu-jitsu. Admittedly I have not been as consistent with note-taking as I’d like, but when I am diligent, I see the results shine through in my training.In jiu-jitsu, you learn such a wide range of techniques that it can often be intimidating. For many, recalling a technique immediately after it’s shown is a challenge (where does my foot go again?),...
Polaris Pro 3: The Battle for Professional Jiu-Jitsu
The notion of pay-per-view jiu-jitsu is relatively new. Copa Podio and Metamoris were early adopters of the live stream model, and their efforts helped to inspire organizations like Polaris, Budo Videos, IBJJF, Flo Grappling, and the Eddie Bravo Invitational to follow suit. The collective goal is a simple win: Elevate professional jiu-jitsu closer to the height of professional MMA and boxing. If this is successful, the sport as a whole benefits from increased attention, and jiu-jitsu businesses as well as athletes would enjoy additional revenue.Here's the thing. Running a professional grappling organization is really really hard.For starters: The logistics are complex. You have to set up a venue, book athletes and their arrangements, and also coordinate all of the technology...
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...
Getting Through the Blue and Purple Belt Growing Pains
Photo credit to Mike Calimbas. At the end of “Advice for Newbie White Belts and Anxious Blue Belts” I promised a follow-up for higher belts. Here's my advice for you blues and purples who want to keep making progress. Looking back on it, the path through white to blue belt is fairly straightforward: come to class, learn new techniques, drill, spar, call it a night, and repeat. You’ll never get away from this general structure, but as you rise up through the ranks, especially into purple belt, the old routine can feel stale. The progress comes slower. You feel like you’re getting less out of the “here’s today’s technique, now drill it” approach. You may have felt you got more...
A Year of Firsts: My First Ambulance Ride
Last year, on Friday March 13, 2015, I had my very first major injury. I originally wanted to write a small Facebook post to acknowledge the milestone and the people who helped me get through it all, but thinking back to that day there were so many more firsts to remember: my first match at black belt, my first submission only tournament, my first tournament representing a new team, my first time being carried off the mat because I couldn’t walk, my first loss due to injury, my first trip to the ER in an ambulance… Wait—my first trip to the ER! So this time last year, I still did not know what exactly was wrong with my leg except...
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...
Nerd Alert
My childhood leisure time was a montage of Earthbound, Super Mario RPG, Final Fantasy 7, Ultima Online, Halo (16 dudes crammed in a basement playing capture the flag), Pokemon Blue, Pokemon cards, late night Dungeons & Dragons campaigns, and hours upon hours of television, movies and books. I was happiest grinding my way toward a Golden Chocobo or grabbing the rocket launcher on Blood Gulch. All of the other stuff about being a kid—homework, chores, running from bullies—didn’t much matter to me. My hobbies made more sense to me than the “real” world ever did. I could figure out how these fantasy worlds worked, and with a bit of effort, I could become a real force within them. I just...
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...
Advice for Newbie White Belts and Anxious Blue Belts
Advice for White Belts You took the plunge and started jiu-jitsu! Everything is new and wonderful and strange and confusing. Looking back on it, my time as a white belt was probably the most fun. That’s when you’re experiencing so many things for the first time. You get to feel the excitement of seeing the basic techniques with fresh eyes. You won’t fully appreciate it at the time, but those fundamentals are going be the classics you return to again and again for as long as you train. Now is the time to really enjoy learning from trial and error. No one will look down on you for screwing up as a white belt. You may feel pressure to perform,...