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. I...
Posted on December 30, 2015
Nelson Puentes
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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? ...
Posted on December 21, 2015
Nelson Puentes
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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...
Posted on December 17, 2015
Nelson Puentes
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With Tobey Maguire doing the podcast rounds for his new movie Pawn Sacrifice, Bobby Fischer is reentering the public conversation. Well, maybe not the general public conversation. Chess isn’t the sexy Cold War sport...
Posted on December 10, 2015
Marshal Carper
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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 alre...
Posted on December 03, 2015
Nelson Puentes
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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 ...
Posted on November 25, 2015
Nelson Puentes
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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 solv...
Posted on November 19, 2015
Nelson Puentes
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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 adv...
Posted on November 12, 2015
Nelson Puentes
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I cleaned out my garage last week, and while that was an adventure in itself, I happened to stumble across an old pair of MMA gloves.
Talk about memories. Wow.
Just about 6 years ago—in 2009—I had my one and only MM...
Posted on November 05, 2015
Nelson Puentes
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I started Inverted Gear in 2012. I never thought in my wildest dreams Inverted Gear would be as successful as it is today. I am still amazed that I can travel to remote places and find people wearing our gis or sc...
Posted on October 29, 2015
Nelson Puentes
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Becoming a black belt world champion may be the loftiest goal one can shoot for in our sport. However, this goal is not for everyone. If this is your current goal, I don’t want to shoot down your dream. This article ...
Posted on October 22, 2015
Nelson Puentes
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Have you heard about open source software? Its core promise is that its source code is freely available to anyone to use or modify. Let’s think about Brazilian jiu-jitsu as software. As I write this article, there is...
Posted on October 15, 2015
Nelson Puentes
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