They Are Not That Scary, Give Them A Try! For many of us, the first time we experience a flying submission is in competition. You reach out unassumingly to grab your partners collar and boom. Before you know it, you’re tapping. This isn’t...

In 2017, a mixed martial arts fighter named Xu Xiaodong continually harassed masters of the traditional Chinese martial arts, dismissing them as overly commercialized phonies, challenging them to a no rules fight.  After much taunting by Xiaodong, Wei Lei, a practitioner of the...

We Are All Working Towards Our Goals. Let's Help Each Other Out... IF your BJJ academy feels like a family to you, then you’re in the right place. Many people search their entire lives for the things BJJ can provide. We all feel...

If you train Brazilian JiuJitsu there may be a variety of reasons why. From learning self defense, physical improvement, mental health, or perhaps social reasons. All of the before mentioned reasons to train BJJ are all potential benefits of training in the "gentle...

Defend The Smash!!! Defending smashing guard passes is a whole different beast when compared to standing guard passes. With enough dexterity and hip movement, you can make your standing guard pass defense pretty sophisticated. When it comes to smashing guard passing however, defending...

This weekend, Kasai Pro 4 is going down in New York City, and one of the feature bouts on the card is ADCC Champ Gordon Ryan taking on Kasai 185-pound champion Matheus Diniz. Gordon and Matheus revive the long-standing competitive rivalry between New...

Most people on the mat are doing BJJ recreationally. It's to lose some weight, get some exercise, learn how to defend yourself, or just to stay a part of a community. So, do people need to spar every single class? Or is it...

A lot of BJJ practitioners will cross-train wrestling to help improve their takedowns. What good is your top game if you can't get the fight there, right? While you are working on those important single legs and double legs, you might actually be...

This weekend saw the first North American trials for the 2019 Abu Dhabi Combat Championships, with the champion at each of the five weight classes punching his ticket to the toughest submission grappling tournament on the planet. So, who is in for ADCC's so...

Do Not Get Complacent...And Be An Example Of Good Jiu-Jitsu Practices As a student who has been training for a while it is important to remember that new students will look to how others train. For an academy this can be a great...

When It's Time...It Will Be The Best Thing You Ever Did For Your Children When I first started training jiu jitsu 10 years ago, our academy had kid’s classes three days a week, before the adult classes.  At the time, I thought the...

A Dangerous Guard Is A Powerful Tool Passing the guard without the gi has its own set of concepts that must be adhered to. We commonly see practitioners electing to stand up when choosing their preferred method of getting by the legs. Standing...

For most BJJ schools, sparring can usually mean starting from the knees, or just pulling guard as soon as possible, and working takedowns can be an anxiety-inducing time. Still, Brazilian jiu-jitsu has its roots in judo, and every competitive match starts on its feet,...

For those just beginning in Brazilian jiu-jitsu, sparring can be a really strange position. People are grabbing at you and laying on you really hard, tapping you out at will while you try to do anything. Until you gain a little more comfort...

Wrestling, Grappling, and MMA!  This weekend, at the Professional Fighters League (PFL) 10 event in Washington D.C., Ray Cooper III was able to KO Jake Shields in the first round to advance to their $1 million welterweight tournament. While Cooper put on an...