Life is expressed through motion and our jiu-jitsu should reflect that. In Brazilian jiu-jitsu, the best time to attack or sweep is when our opponent is moving to escape or pass and the best time to escape or pass is when our opponent is trying to attack or sweep. Movement creates opportunities. The goal of…
Tag: learning
Embodying the Art
“In order to understand the true essence of martial arts, you must have the rest of your life, your relationships, your money, and your health, in balance.” — Joe Sheya Ideally, martial arts teach us about more than just fighting. They teach us about all aspects of human interaction, from relational etiquette to posture, balance,…
Growth Requires Caring
Apathy guarantees atrophy. There is no such thing as standing still. There is no true idle mode. We are either actively learning, growing, and improving or we are physically, intellectually, and spiritually regressing, i.e. dying. The surest way to ensure our early demise in some aspect of our life, aside from intentional self sabotage, is…
Randori: Failure as a Path to Rapid Learning & Growth
Failure is an essential component to rapid learning and growth. It is often said that martial arts which incorporate live, resistance-based, freestyle sparring (randori) create more effective martial artists more quickly than those that do not. Why is that? Simply put, people who regularly spar with each other fail more often than people who do…
True Confidence Begins with Humility
“That’s the funny thing about confidence: the incorrect amount of it and nothing will ever happen.” —Robert Downey Jr. True confidence requires humility. Humility is the ability to see ourselves objectively, as we are, and to accept and embrace what we see, the good and the bad. Humility keeps us from straying too far into…