Category: Uncategorized
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Folkstyle Wrestling is the Best Martial Art!
Did that get your attention? It’s a bold claim, but we now have approximately 30 years of contemporary, battle-tested data from mixed martial arts to back up this point… The early days of MMA were dominated by Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu fighters, most notably Royce Gracie. Back then, many were eager to declare BJJ as the most effective martial art. But what…
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Strength and Conditioning for the Hybrid Grappler
I type this on the evening of Thanksgiving, wondering if many of our wrestling cohort will be imbued in a tryptophan malaise over the next few days. So I hope this is a timely post–let’s talk strength and conditioning (SC) for the hybrid grappler and/or catch wrestler!!! A disclaimer–studies on the specific biomechanics of wrestling…
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Has the Guard Ruined Jiu-Jitsu as a Martial Art?
Practicing a ground-based martial art without being proficient at the ability to get the fight to the ground is absurd. And yet, many practitioners of Brazilian jiu-jitsu spend a disproportionate amount of their time intentionally training from their backs. From my personal experience, I’d estimate that about 2/3 of what I was taught as a…
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Wrestle the Gap!!!
Wrestling, humankind’s oldest and most basic form of recreational combat, traces its origins back to the dawn of civilization. Carvings and drawings estimated to be between 15,000 and 20,000 years old, found in caves in southern Europe, illustrate wrestlers in hold and leverage positions. Sumerians cast wrestlers in bold relief on stone slabs at least…
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An Elegy for Failure
Failure is unavoidable. And fear of failure can sometimes be a great motivator. But that fear can be a double-edged sword. The fear of failing a test or class, being left behind in school, or not making it in the professional world has left far too many people suffering from anxiety and depresssion. If failure…
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Grappling with Neurodiversity–More Thoughts
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a complex condition to understand, in my opinion. That said, the pervading symptoms are a little easier to discern, like difficulty making eye contact or showing empathy, i.e., social and communicative skills frequently impaired in those of us with ASD. I’ve written previously about the lessons from ecological psychology that…
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Ramblings on Backbends, Yoga, and Grappling…
Two of my most interminable obsessions are grappling and yoga, and maybe while risking self-motivated reasoning, I’ve been exploring whether these distinct disciplines are cognate with one another. Spoiler alert–I believe they are…😉 An immediate connection…versions of wrestling have existed for thousands of years (catch, folkstyle, judo, BJJ, etc.), as has yoga (hatha, kundalini, astanga,…
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Repetition is NOT the Mother of Skill!!!
…or father, or grandparent, but maybe it’s the second cousin twice removed?…All kidding and tropes aside, consider the claim in the title above and ask yourself how you would define skill in movement and sports, and particularly grappling. The following are two of my critical principles, which I’ve learned from training, competing, and coaching jiu-jitsu…
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What Most Jiu-Jitsu Schools Are Doing Wrong
OK–if you’ve read our previous blogs, or maybe you’ve had grappling experience outside of the standard Brazilian jiu-jitsu curriculum–you might already appreciate my earlier points on the problems with this art. For starters, training in the gi and the emphasis on fighting from one’s back–to the point where a combatant/athlete’s takedown and control abilities suffer–are…
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Grappling with Neurodiversity
Everyone’s brain operates differently. For the average individual, brain functions and overall behaviors are expected to meet measures of growth created by our immediate family, schools, communities, and society at-large. For those who veer either slightly, or significantly, outside of these expected trajectories, their brain functions could be classified as ‘neurodivergent’. Neurodivergent is a non-medical…
Horsetooth Hybrid Grappling Club 