Feb 12
Right out the gate, let me give you a warning. A lot of time will be spent focusing on the travel portion of the story. Consider yourself warned. Let’s begin. I booked my flight two weeks before the Montreal trials, and at that late date, the options were quite slim. So I ended up picking …
Nov 05
I had a plan. It was simple and elegant. It just didn’t work out the way that I wanted it to. Oh, no no no, I’m not talking about the tournament yet. We’ll get there, but first we’re going to go a little further back in time to that Friday night. I arrived in Los …
Oct 28
One of my definite goals is to go back to Abu Dhabi and return victorious. Now that I’m a brown belt, the challenges to achieving that goal have shifted. In some ways, it has become easier, and in others, it’s quite more difficult. The Challenge I had a seven man division of brown and black …
Sep 30
The dust has settled, and the 2012 No-Gi Pan has concluded. I had three goals going into the tournament. I accomplished one of them, but it was the lynchpin. All else depended on success in that one area. Simply put, success there was a must. What It All Depended On Several weeks ago, I decided …
Sep 16
Many times, and in many ways, it has been said that in life there will always be things that are outside of your control but what matters is how you choose to respond. The whole Altanta Open experience reinforced this lesson for me. One of the Cards I Was Dealt Two weeks ago, I got …
Aug 03
I am curious. I want to see what will happen if I compete at a lower weight class. I’ve always been in the heaviest division where weight disparities are a fact of life. So I’ve never had any practical experience with weight cutting or any worries about my weight at all. It would be easy …
Jun 17
Over the last six months, I’ve competed at six tournaments. Three of them were considered grand slams, two were Abu Dhabi trials, and one was a local tournament. Each time, I took lessons away from the event. Sometimes, it happened beforehand, but often it was afterward. Now I’m just going to go back and attempt …
May 20
Considering the nature of this site, the focus will be on Brazilian Jiu-jitsu competition, but the concepts can be applied across the spectrum. I’m going to highlight some of the benefits you can attain if you just go out there, compete, and do it often. Improves Your Ability to Maintain Calm in Adverse Situations Now …
Mar 13
There were four tickets to Abu Dhabi out of North America that I could have won. I made every effort to succeed at three of the trials, and I would have tried for the fourth too. Unfortunately, I hear that it’s not quite possible to be in two places at once. Damn…. Anyway, let’s focus …
Mar 05
Some time has past since my last attempt to win the opportunity to compete in Abu Dhabi again, but I am still committed to the goal. So far I’ve competed in San Antonio and just recently I was in Montreal in pursuit of the same goal. The trip up to Canada was relatively uneventful except …
Feb 19
Within the next few months, there is a short list of tournaments that I really want to win. So I’ve been focused on two things in order to succeed. First of all, preparing myself mentally and physically so that I can perform to the best of my ability, and secondly, just physically getting to the …
Jan 30
Originally, this tournament was scheduled for November 5-6 in 2011. Even from the very beginning though, details were hard to track down. Soon enough, it was clear that the NY Trials just would not happen on that date. For a time, I would often surf the web, hoping to find some information here and there, …
Jan 30
When it comes to competition, I have a blueprint for the major tournaments that I want to do in 2012. On that list, the IBJJF Europeans is on the very first line. Now the main obstacle that stood in my path was financial, and it is entirely probable that I wouldn’t have made it if …
Dec 04
Earlier this year, I won the trip to go to Abu Dhabi for the 2011 World Pro Tournament. It was a incredible experience, but I didn’t accomplish what I wanted to accomplish. I competed in three different divisions while I was there, and each time I ran into the same obstacle. His name was Luke …
Oct 15
The No-Gi Pan was the first IBJJF tournament I ever competed in. The year was 2008, and I was a white belt at the time. There were no white belt divisions though, so I went in as a blue belt. In the first match, I lost. I got taken down in the first few seconds …
