Inverted Gear Blog
Tag: Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu
My White Belt Wonder Years
Marshal recounts his awkward years as a white belt, putting the journey toward proficiency in perspective.
Breaking Down Techniques: Reverse Engineering in BJJ
Being able to reverse engineer a technique gives you deeper understanding of it and helps you develop counters. Matt explains how to adopt this critical mindset in his latest blog post.
Earn Your Black Belt from YouTube in 5 Easy Steps
In this week’s panda blog, Marshal provides a guide for going deep on your own self-instruction and why doing so is good for you and your team.
Meet the Pandas – The Mighty Mexican Combat Wrestler - Javier Palomo
Javier Palomo is as dedicated as they come, and his decorated competition history reflects that. Daniel Bertina has the interview.
Fight the Funk: Health and Hygiene for BJJ
Staying clean and healthy is fundamental to a good training experience. This guide will make sure you don't miss mat time due to stinky gear or itchy rashes.
Drilling with Chaos
In this blog post, Marshal talks about how gradually introducing chaos into your drilling can help you bridge the gap between practicing a move on an unresisting partner and applying it during a live roll.
The Fundamental Principles of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu
Matt goes back to basic basics in this week's blog post about the bedrock concepts of BJJ. This is a must-read for new white belts.
Find a Reality-Check Friend: How to Avoid the Trap of Believing Our Own Hype
There is a scene in the underrated film Pop Star: Never Stop Never Stopping in which beleaguered former boy bander and current solo star Conner4Real starts to question the motives of the people around him. He worries he is surrounded by yes-men, and to find out whom he can truly trust, he constructs a delicious little test. (Note there are some NSFW language and situations in this clip.) He learns his childhood friend Owen is the only person around him whom he can trust to tell him the truth. Everyone else is just guessing what he wants to hear so they can stay in his good graces and keep their spot on the gravy train. The Conner4Real dynamic happens everywhere,...
Building a Healthy Jiu-Jitsu Team
In many sports, the idea of a team is a clean-cut concept of shared success and responsibility. If you are on a soccer team, every player has to work together to win a game. That means communication, support, and collaboration. Each player is a part of a whole, and if a team loses a game, some breakdown in teamwork is often to blame.For sports where athletes compete as individuals, such as wrestling, the idea of a team is still present, though its application is different. The individual competes alone. She can’t pass the ball to another player or blame the fullbacks for being out of position if the game goes wrong. Instead, the role of the team is to help...
6 Years at Black Belt
Matt hit the six year milestone as a black belt this year. What has changed over that time?