During my days of managing an MMA academy, I’ve spoken with plenty of first-time students about their apprehensions to starting their training. Of course, these concerns sometimes have to do with how friendly the other students are, how much a membership package will cost, etc. But I find that once a student has decided in […]

If you have a minute and forty-four seconds to spare, check out this fight from UFC Fight Night 161 last Saturday. Not only is it a quick and entertaining fight, but it’s a great lesson for those among you who are interested in taking up martial arts. It’s important for you to train what I’d […]

Check out this recent security cam footage of a woman using Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu self-defense basics against an attacker with a knife! This incident occurred last month in Brazil, and it demonstrates the unpredictability and unglamorous nature of how self-defense scenarios occur. The video is interspersed with footage of a detailed breakdown of the situation by […]

I started my Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu training in 2003, the same year that Quentin Tarantino’s movie Kill Bill came out. I was a lot younger then. Martial arts action movies and fighting video games held way more motivational influence over me than they do now. I saw them mainly as entertainment, but now and then, I’d […]

Recently, a Facebook friend of mine jokingly shared this National Post article entitled “Dodgeball isn’t just problematic, it’s an unethical tool of ‘oppression’” by Joseph Brean. The basic gist of Brean’s article is that competition is “unhelpful to the development of kind and gentle children,” and that the struggles of victory and defeat are not […]

The NJU crew sure has been working very smart, hard, and consistently lately, and they proved it last Saturday at the Grappling Industries tournament in Paterson, NJ! In Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu culture, It’s been said in many ways that participating in a tournament is the equivalent of four months of regular training. But then again, you […]

While it’s natural to be discouraged sometimes, some of us have it a lot worse. That’s because clinical, chronic depression is more than just being “discouraged” sometimes. Its causes can be numerous, but it can also be as hard to get rid of as it is nebulous – in other words, people with depression aren’t […]

I am not a parent. I don’t know what fatherhood is like firsthand, but I regularly teach kids and teens Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu here at NJU. When talking with the parents of our young students, I’ve joked that I do know what parenting is like . . . for the 45-minute class period, of course! So […]

Nowadays, you can find celebrity endorsements for just about anything. But the vast majority of the time, celebs are simply being paid to advertise a product. So now that Grammy-nominated singer and actress Demi Lovato is loving every minute of being a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu blue belt, she’s also been bringing a lot of attention to […]

In my last blog entry, I discussed how the Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu lifestyle combats depression by setting the body AND the mind in motion. BJJ is called “human chess” for a reason. When you’re present in the moment of a drill or a sparring match, and when you know there’s a way for you to win […]