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 […]

Lately I’ve had conversations with some Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu white belt students about belt ranks. They’ve all been legitimate questions, and they usually run along the lines of: What do you think the toughest belt is in BJJ? What about the funnest belt? I feel totally stuck at white/blue/purple belt. What do I do? How’d you […]

Yesterday I was on bjjfanatics.com, and I read this cool article titled BJJ for the Small Guys. It rang true with me because I hover around 145lbs. Thus my ‘cross to bear’ in my grappling career has been simply not being particularly big or strong. When I first started training, I sure had my share […]

I’m the kind of person who wants the best version of whatever it is he’s aiming for. When I was a little kid, I could always tell the difference between Special K cereal and its knockoff competitors, so only the true Special K sufficed! When it came time for me to get my first car, […]

If you bring up Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu or “submission wrestling” at the water cooler, your listeners are going to have many different (and many false) impressions of what you’re talking about. They could imagine something like this suplex to flying armbar by Demetrius Johnson. But what you could be trying to communicate is something along the […]

When I was in college, I remember my favorite professor describing the creative writing process: “It’s hard to be simple, but it doesn’t have to be.” I think that’s true of any walk of life. Over-complicating things seems to come natural to us, and the first things we forget are the basics. That’s a lesson […]

. . . and honestly, even if you’re not an officer, a solid knowledge of grappling fundamentals can turn stressful situations into routine ones. Check out this recent video in which an officer tries to break-up a fight between two young men (one of whom is definitely under the influence of something). As you’ll see, […]

Ask any martial artist worth his or her salt, and they’ll tell you that it’s imperative for police officers to learn and regularly practice a solid martial art. This isn’t due to bias and preference; it’s due to the simple nature of what happens when a suspect resists arrest and, quite simply, puts you in […]

I used to hate nutritional advice articles. But then again, that was when I was in my early 20’s and I was worried about the fat-content of peanuts and walnuts. In other words, I was a white belt in basic nutrition because I considered it a hassle to deal with (i.e. why should I “fix” […]

  Over the past couple days, one of the little, viral stories that began circulating through the internet was that of a man being assaulted by a mountain lion and then using a headlock to break the animal’s neck. Here, KSBY News reported that former NCAA wrestler Robin Olson had been hiking outside of a […]