Grief changes over time. It is brutal and brings you to your knees over and over. Nothing cures grief. The loss just integrates into your life and becomes true. Often in death and loss people turn to their spiritual practice for solace and answers to cure their grief somehow. After […]
Brazilian Jiu Jitsu is growing in popularity, and for good reason. The self-defense, health benefits, and friendships formed on the mats— the list of benefits could go on and on! While this sport has been male-dominated for quite some time, women are finding their ways to the mats in […]
Any jiujiteira who’s had a difficult weight cut knows that it can wreak havoc on your physical, mental, and emotional state, which can have a huge impact at competition time. As a person who struggled with eating disorders, I shouldn’t have cut weight for competition to begin with. However, I […]
I was just halfway through the tournament from hell. Earlier that morning I was pumping myself up for victory, knowing this tournament would prepare me for my first super fight the following month. Yet, here I was, losing match after match in my division with my gas tank at […]
We all know in 2020, many gyms and personal training schedules were impacted because of COVID. If you took time off from training, perhaps you’ve experienced (or are experiencing) the “COVID blues.” You enjoy jiu jitsu and miss your time on the mats, yet circumstances have kept you from training […]
Long before starting BJJ, I did karate in a small dojo on the upper west side of Manhattan. My instructor at the time was well known (in karate, anyway) and our Friday night sparring class was where all the champions were- big black belt men with dark eyes, quietly taping […]
Inclusivity and valuing human diversity is a growing movement. There are many examples of people who are working hard to ensure that anyone–of any religious practice, personal value, gender identity, sexual preference, or political view–is truly included in jiu-jitsu and beyond. However, there are still times that people are […]
As a BJJ practitioner, I always try to convince all my girlfriends to try out jiu-jitsu. Aside from being a great form of exercise, I think it is an incredibly beneficial skill set for all women to have. However, my attempts are often met with a plethora of reservations that […]
Ironically, I didn’t fully comprehend how amazing yoga is for BJJ practitioners until I was no longer training BJJ. When I started my yoga teacher training, I hadn’t trained BJJ regularly for about four years. However, as I continued to learn about the kinesthetics of yoga and how the […]
It is easy to get caught up in what everyone else is doing. Someone at your academy receives a stripe faster than you did. You go to a tournament and your competitor from last year is a completely new rank. It’s easy to put a time period to a […]