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 […]

Big congrats to NJU white belt Steve Vega for taking silver at the NJBJJF Spring Challenge Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu tournament yesterday! Steve fought hard and always had his poker-face on during his matches, never exerting unnecessary energy and always looking to pit the strongest parts of his game against the weakest parts of his opponent’s game. […]

23 year-old Tom Coda is one of our most consistent and dedicated BJJ students, and his hard work paid off exponentially last Sunday at the 2019 IBJJF NY Spring Open tournament in New York, NY. He straight-up won his blue belt no-gi division, and he took silver in his gi division, coming up short in […]

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 […]

At last, Jose Aldo and Conor McGregor are going to fight. The trash-talk, wordplay, and toughguy-drama (mostly fueled by McGregor) is settling down, and this is the quiet before the storm that will go down tonight at UFC 194. Unless one of these guys plays an unexpected takedown game, we’re going to see a brutal […]

Last Saturday, I coached my teammate Rubin Pushpangathan at The Good Fight’s Winter BJJ Open submissions-only tournament. He took 2nd place in white belt gi – a division I love to watch due to its elimination of avant-garde leg-lock games that are typically used to stall. Anyway, with two submission wins, a grueling back-and-forth in […]

If Holly Holm was fighting anyone less than Rhonda Rousey on UFC 193 this Saturday, then the UFC hype-train would have some top-grade coal to burn. I’m not saying that Holm can’t win; her MMA record stands at 9-0, and that’s nothing to scoff at. Some argue that Holm has been fed nothing but tomato […]

The 16th century Japanese swordsman Miyamoto Musashi was the Dan Gable of his day. I’d wager that he was history’s best sports psychologist as well. He relentlessly studied the parallels and symbiotic relationship between martial arts, politics, the arts, and day-to-day life. He’s also the originator of the often-reiterated “Today is victory over yourself of […]

If you haven’t seen Metamoris 4 yet, check out the videos here. There were some awesome exchanges throughout the entire event. UFC star Chael Sonnen looked very tough to sweep and submit, but all it takes is one mistake against someone like Andre Galvao and it’s all over. Saulo Ribeiro and Rodrigo “Comprido” Medeiros was one of my […]

I want to thank everyone from the NJ United family for getting together Friday night and making it an unforgettable evening. We had a great turnout of about 50 of our students, parents, friends, and family members meeting up at the American Legion in Woodland Park.   Words can’t describe how happy and proud I […]