Fighter

Welcome back to yet another installment of BJJ Academy Dreams, where I give you valuable insight into what it takes to start and run a successful academy of your own. If you’re been training long enough, you’ve already started dreaming of the possibility of making your passion – jiu-jitsu – your career.

As exciting as the idea is, it can also be daunting. Where do you even start? Will you be successful? What do you do if [insert random fear here]?

For nearly 16 years, I’ve trained at and visited hundreds of different academies, all over the world. I’ve taken note about what works and what doesn’t. I’ve created this multi-part series called “BJJ Academy Dreams” to give you tips and ideas that will help your academy thrive… so you can share your passion for jiu-jitsu to others.

In this episode, we'll be covering how to manage your financial situation to ensure that your doors stay open for the long run. 

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Brazilian jiu-jitsu is arguably one of the fastest growing sports in the world. Every year, more and more people are finding themselves drawn to the mat… This is especially the case with the female population.

Where once it was relatively uncommon to see a woman on the mat in the vast majority of academies, now it is more uncommon not  to see a woman on the mat. We are certainly still a minority, but becoming less so with every passing year.

As such, major jiu-jitsu brands can no longer ignore the demand for products tailored specifically for the female body. The days of being forced to wear misfitting men’s BJJ gis and no-gi gear, because that’s all that’s there was, is long behind us. That’s not to say that some of us don’t still wear the men’s cuts – I personally love a good youth boy’s rashie – but we now have options. 

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When you start learning Brazilian jiu-jitsu, it easy to become overwhelmed by the sheer number of techniques that make up the arsenal of a BJJ practitioner. There are so many. And each offers its own entries, modifications and finishes, as well as its own unique benefits and drawbacks.

And can we talk about all those names?? A single technique can have two to three different names, depending on which affiliation you train under or which style you practice. It’s daunting – but not impossible – to get them all straight.

In this series, I’ll provide you a 101 guide to the most common – and uncommon – jiu-jitsu techniques. We’ll cover a basic understanding of the techniques, common positions and ways in which they are executed, as well as tips to help you get the desired result, 60% of the time every time.

First up: the D’Arce Choke submission.

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There is a wide range of martial arts that fall under the term “grappling”, all of which share deep and primal origins in the natural human propensity for hand-to-hand combat. Heck, you could even argue that it goes even deeper than that. Watch any animal in play or competition over mates and you’ll see some variation of grappling.

However, the various grappling arts as we know them – as modern humans practice them – encompass a diverse range of disciplines that focus on controlling one’s opponent. While they share many common characterizes, there are still differences that set them apart from each other. Each grappling art has their own unique set of principles, training methodologies, and applications.

In this blog, we give you a “cheat sheet” of some of the more well-known ones...

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We’ve all seen it. That crumpled, malformed mass of various shapes and sizes hanging off the sides of the heads of fighters of all types. The dreaded – or beloved, depending on your personal stance – cauliflower ear.

In the grappling worlds of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, wrestling, and MMA, cauliflower ear as ubiquitous as Craig Jones’ trolling of Gordon Ryan. It’s everywhere. Some love it and some hate it. Some athletes wear it as a badge of honor (and some weirdos even actively seek it), while others dread it and do everything they can to avoid it.

But what exactly is cauliflower ear, and why does it happen? We’ve got answers...

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