Whether in a movie or a cartoon of some sort, you’ve probably seen a Rube Goldberg machine without knowing its Wikipedia definition, which is: “a machine intentionally designed to perform a simple task in an indirect and overcomplicated fashion.” A picture is worth a thousand words, so check out this guy’s hat on the right. […]

I teach a lot of “BJJ 101” classes – Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu classes designed for people newer to jiu-jitsu, yet important for upper belts as well. After all, you’re only as good as your basics! However, I find that a lot of white belts (and even some blue belts) have yet to get a grasp on […]

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 […]

. . . is because you can train on your own, without any special equipment! With just a minimal amount of striking knowledge, you can sharpen and grow that knowledge on your own via shadowboxing. Now some people may feel self-conscious about punching and kicking the air, without equipment or a partner. But really, if […]

This morning, I watched this rather interesting video from Youtube celebrity Chewjitsu. In recent history, he’s become something of a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu counselor and e-therapist. He’s definitely good at what he does, and I think that’s partially because he answers questions while at the same time pointing his listeners in the direction of more important […]

In my last blog entry, I discussed the art of teaching Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu to young children, although I really only dealt with the tip of the iceberg. Yes, there’s a balance between discipline and play, and achieving it is critical to keep children coming back for more than one class. Discipline for the sake of […]

I have great respect for parents who regularly bring their young children in to our academy to train Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. As a teacher of children’s martial arts, I’ve learned to be constantly aware of what type of instruction is right for what child at what point in time. In my early years of teaching, I […]

One day, while hanging out with some training partners, I found myself in a debate about what the most fun Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu belt-rank is. Even the no-gi men and women got in on this. Some purple belts said that they imagined the black belt to be the most fun. That’s ideally when you become the […]

Since I started working at NJ United MMA, I’ve seen some people sign-up for Muay Thai memberships while having almost no exercise experience at all. God bless those individuals – it takes guts to go from nothing and straight into a contact martial art like Muay Thai, even if you don’t elect to spar! However, […]

The above question was put forth to me years ago by a young man who had just taken his first classes in Muay Thai and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. He was being partially sarcastic – although new to things, he knew enough to perceive that learning the nuances of a martial art cannot be 100% accomplished through […]