Every white belt has asked a black belt for help only to hear this annoying answer: “Don’t get there in the first place.” You want to scream “I WOULDN’T BE ASKING IF I COULD’VE AVOIDED IT, NOW WOULD I!?” Still, the answer is true. The solution to most problems is “Avoid it.” But how do you learn to do that? That’s what we’re going to discuss now. (Don’t worry, we’ll also talk about what to do when you can’t.) When looking back on a tough situation you found yourself in sparring, ask yourself: “How did I get here and why? “I was crushed under side control.” Why? “Because they passed my guard.” Why? “Because they grabbed my knees and threw...

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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...

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Hey, Chris Ulbricht from Garden State Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Academy in Red Bank, New Jersey here. I wanted to share with you some thoughts I had on the disadvantages of getting angry and upset during training. I’ve seen new and experienced fall into this trap, and at some point or another we have all (myself definitely included) have been guilty of it. If you want to keep your training productive, you need to keep your cool and stay calm and collected. Getting angry and frustrated on the mats… Blinds you from being in the present moment and learning from the mistakes you made. Being angry is equivalent to being too busy feeling sorry for yourself. Keeping a curious, calm, and positive...

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I’ve been writing about jiu-jitsu for ten years. Along the way, I’ve had a number of grapplers reach out to me for advice. I’m not sure why (I wouldn’t trust me), but the emails and Facebook messages have been relatively consistent with topics ranging from “How can I be a writer?” to “This really terrible thing happened to me; what should I do now?”One of these conversations sticks in my mind.A young student was reeling from a conversation with his instructor. The student had been training hard, and somehow a conversation with the instructor turned to comparing their respective development paths. The instructor said to the student, “You’ll never be better than me.”That’s the story I got anyway. I wasn’t...

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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...

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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...

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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...

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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?),...

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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...

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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...

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