My many faces

Everyone's buzzing about it. The brown belt absolute final. Short and sweet version: I agree with the referee. Here's why: When cameras are on and you are getting paid, you must entertain. Now that isn't to say the fight wasn't actually entertaining, it was very entertaining just not in the traditional sense. Anyone who knows me knows I'm a huge fan of TCGs(Trading Card Games), so I will use that that premise to explain what I mean. Watch two competitors with the same game is to BJJ what a mirror match is to any TCG. You know exactly what your opponent will do, the winner will be the person who alters their gameplan just enough to give them an advantage. Such as, dragging the arm to arm bar or come to the top instead of dragging the leg and taking the 50/50 position as you would usually. Not only that, but the grip placement and angles you use will be vastly different. Watching a mirror match is interesting because it gives you a chance to study these intricate dif...

These last 2 years has been pretty crazy for me. Here's a quick recap for those who haven't been following September 2010, I go into hospital for a surgery that has been routine for the past 11 years, a baclofen pump replacement. It happens every 5 to 7(depending on your pump's battery). I had the 7-year battery. I woke up from the surgery with insane back pain. Now you must understand, I suffer from neuromuscular scoliosis, so if there is anyone who knows about back pain its me, because I deal with it every single day. Needless to say, when I woke up and couldn't stand the pain from simply lying on my back I knew something was wrong. They sent me home the next day and two days following that my incision opened. After countless ER visits and re-admissions to the hospital for infection we finally decided to abandon the idea of a new pump installation altogether. Fast forward Feb 2011 I finally start training again and in December of 2011 I received my black belt. They sa...

As you know(if you've followed this blog) I have a YouTube channel. Every discussion video will be posted here just as the previous two have been. However, competition videos will not. Currently, there are no competition videos up, but to be the first to view them when they do go up you need to subscribe to my YouTube. You can do that here:

Truthfully, this would probably go over better as a YouTube video, but I figured that I haven't actually written on this blog in a while, so this is a good excuse to do just that. As the title states, I'm going to talk about being gay in the sport of BJJ. The thing that stopped me from posting this in the past was I didn't want to beat a dead horse. After all, this topic has been done talked about many times over in the BJJ community, but never from perspective(to my knowledge) of someone who was openly gay and active in the BJJ community. I'm that guy. So I will list questions I get both inside and outside the BJJ community as the answers are for the most part exactly the same. 1) What do I do if I suspect my training partner is gay? Answer: Ask him/her. It really is that easy. However, the manner in which this question is asked is really important. You know your training partner, so handle the situation accordingly(privately is always best regardless of the method o...

Two of my favorite fighters of all-time are featured in this fight from the very first BJJ World Championship back in 1996. Check out Roleta using inverted guard and turtle guard almost in an interchangeable manner through the fight.