Epi 272 Grow Your Local Jiu-Jitsu

Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu is growing all over the world for many reasons. We want to make sure the Jiu-Jitsu at your school and local community is growing to the best of its ability. This episode is aimed toward the students who can help grow BJJ. This is not an episode of business ideas for gym owners, although they should share this with their students, and glean ideas from it.

We talk about:

  • The benefits of having a school
  • Helping introduce the school to new people
  • Asking questions to new students
  • Tips for remembering new names
  • Getting your friends to try BJJ
  • Talking to people about Jiu-Jitsu
  • How you describe BJJ
  • Helping your team out on social media
  • The Fuji Tournament in Wichita
  • Working with other BJJ schools
  • Supporting local seminars at different schools
  • How a BJJ school can do community events

Links:

  • Marune App for BJJ, social connections, and tracking your training

Quote of the week: “Knowledge rests not upon truth alone, but upon error also.” Carl Gustav Jung

Article of the week: Never Again “Just a Girl” (Why I train Jiu Jitsu)

Your-First-Year-Of-BJJ-artwork-1199

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Catch us next week for another episode of The BjjBrick Podcast

The BjjBrick Podcast is in iTunesStitcher radio, and Google Play Music for Andriod

Welcome to Jiu-Jitsu :)

Awkward is never how I like to feel.  I can remember 15 years ago when I interviewed for my first position with my current employer.  I was feeling confident when I pulled up to the building.  As I entered the building, I was not prepared for the feeling of awkwardness.  I did not know where the receptionist desk was located, and no one would make eye contact with me.  Finally, after what felt like an eternity (mostly likely was 5 seconds) a smiling face greeted me and asked if I was here for the interview.  She walked me to the elevator and even pulled some lint off my suit coat.  She was a big reason I got hired a few days later.  She made me feel comfortable and confident going into my interview.  If she was not working that day, I may have never received the job offer.  I would have gone into my interview feeling awkward and it would have showed during my interview.

This reminds me of what I have seen in Jiu Jitsu.  A prospective student enters a school and would like some information about the classes.  I have seen instances where no one will even acknowledge the prospective student.  This person will feel unwelcome, will not join the school and may never join the Jiu Jitsu revolution.  I have talked to people about this situation and the one thing I hear is the owner or instructor did not do a good job of welcoming the new student.

I would pose the question is it only the instructor or owners job to welcome new students and grow your gym?  I do not think so.  I feel that students of the gym should also be taking a proactive approach to welcome everyone into the gym.  Jiu Jitsu is a team sport and to grow our gym requires a team effort.  Notice how I said “our” gym.  When we join a Jiu Jitsu gym, we should be joining a team, a family, a collective group of individuals that all are striving for the same ends results.  We want to learn and get better at Jiu Jitsu. By having a growing and progressive gym, we will have more opportunities to learn in terms of number of classes and training partners.

So next time you see a new student walk into the gym, why not be the first person to extend a handshake, offer a smile and say welcome to the gym, my name is Gary, what is yours?

Gary

Epi 271 Black Belt Competitor and Coach Fabiana Borges

This week we have an interview with Fabiana Borges. You will find Fabiana sharing her 20 years of grappling experience at Gracie Barra San Antonio Texas.

We talk about:

  • Her competition history
  • How she trains on a busy schedule
  • Keeping a weekly schedule
  • Doing crossfit for BJJ
  • Tips for takedowns
  • Avoiding injuries
  • Eating healthy most of the time
  • Starting and running her own school
  • Growing women’s jiu-jitsu
  • Running a business as a team

Links:

Quote of the week: “If ignorant both of your enemy and yourself, you are certain to be in peril.” Sun Tzu, The Art of War

Article of the week: Eight Health and Fitness Benefits of Jiu-Jitsu

Your-First-Year-Of-BJJ-artwork-1199

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Catch us next week for another episode of The BjjBrick Podcast

The BjjBrick Podcast is in iTunesStitcher radio, and Google Play Music for Andriod

Epi 270 How BJJ and A Good Friend Saved Evan Robinson

This week we have an interview with Evan Robinson. Evan credits his friend Joe Vanbrackle and Jiu-Jitsu as playing a major role in turning his life around. You will find this interview to be extremely motivating, Evan’s passion and energy are contagious.

We talk about:

  • The positive effects of BJJ on his life
  • Training jiu-jitsu in prison
  • Setting and meeting difficult goals
  • The influence of Joe Vanbrackle
  • Helping troubled kids with BJJ
  • Opening his own gym
  • Future goals of helping people with Jiu-Jitsu

Links:

Quote of the week: The Saga of Grettir the Strong: “A tale is but half told when only one person tells it.”

Article of the week: 4 Unexpected Lessons You’ll Learn In A BJJ Gym

Your-First-Year-Of-BJJ-artwork-1199

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Catch us next week for another episode of The BjjBrick Podcast

The BjjBrick Podcast is in iTunesStitcher radio, and Google Play Music for Andriod

Epi 269 Sports Nutrition with Katie Elliott

This week we have Katie Elliott. Katie is a registered dietitian with a specialty in sports nutrition. We cover a wide range of topics designed to help you perform better on the mat.

We talk about:

  • Olympic distance triathlons
  • How your diet can affect weight cutting
  • Intermittent fasting and jiu-jitsu
  • How to experiment with your diet
  • Using the App Marune to track your BJJ training
  • Nutrition to get the most out of a training day
  • Using sports drinks
  • Keys to staying hydrated
  • Doing fitness testing
  • Recovery nutrition

Links:

Quote of the week: “People seldom improve when they have no other model but themselves to copy after.” Oliver Goldsmith

Article of the week: Never Underestimate the Value of The Comfort Zone

Your-First-Year-Of-BJJ-artwork-1199

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Catch us next week for another episode of The BjjBrick Podcast

The BjjBrick Podcast is in iTunesStitcher radio, and Google Play Music for Andriod

Never Underestimate the Value of The Comfort Zone

It’s often said, “growth takes place outside of your comfort zone”. While that is true, the implication is often that outside your comfort zone is the only place growth happens, and that’s not true at all.

Studies indicate that children do better in school when they come from a stable home, grow up primarily in the same community (as opposed to moving around), have an extended family network, live in a community with a low crime rate, etc. In other words, they flourish where they feel comfortable or safe, e.g. their comfort zones. People who work for companies that are stable and well managed with decent compensation that show appreciation to their employees and offer opportunity for advancement are generally happy and productive at work. Why? In part, because they are working from their comfort zone. Do children and adults also experience growth when the step out of their comfort zones? I think the answer certainly is yes, but in order to step out of their comfort zones, they must have a comfort zone to begin with.

I am proposing that jiu jitsu is probably not unlike other areas in life and that we benefit from having a comfort zone and operating a good deal of the time from there. Finding a home gym where you are comfortable and cultivating a good relationship with your teammates, then developing your “A” game, are a few crucial components to creating your comfort zone. A comfort zone in jiu jitsu would be one where you feel comfortable trying new things and failing. In your comfort zone you can expose your weaknesses and work on solving problems.

Even when you challenge yourself to step outside your comfort zone you can do it from within your comfort zone or take your comfort zone with you. Whoa…. Let me try to make sense of that. If you’ve been doing jiu jitsu for a while and have decided, it’s time to step outside your comfort zone and enter a competition you could just sign up for the next competition whether anyone from your team was going or not. It would make more sense though, to sign up for a competition that your school was going to as a team. You would be exposing your self to the rigors of competition intensity training while training with your teammates, you would be going through the weigh in process and finding your brackets and the correct mat with your teammates, you would have your coach or another teammate in your corner, you would have your team with you to support you if you lose and celebrate with you if you win, etc. etc. If you’re going to re-invent your game and try some things that are completely new, wouldn’t it be easier to do that with your favorite teammates in an environment where there was no pressure to be “winning” rounds?

In closing, I wouldn’t suggest that you take the one or the other approach, but that you would seek a healthy balance of both. Cultivate a great training environment that would be your comfort zone and then stretch the limits as needed and as appropriate.

Train hard. Train smart. Get better.

Joe

Epi 268 BjjBrick Extra Jeff Westfall

This episode we have an interview with Jeff Westfall.

We talk about:

  • His start in martial arts
  • Early Jiu-Jitsu in the USA
  • The Martial Brain Podcast
  • The concept of thinking outside of the box
  • The power of continuing education
  • Survivorship bias
  • Closed guard tips
  • Getting out of side control tips and ideas

Links:

Tip: Pulling workouts help develop muscles to add pressure to your game.

Question: The question involves taking private lessons from different instructors

Your-First-Year-Of-BJJ-artwork-1199

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Catch us next week for another episode of The BjjBrick Podcast

The BjjBrick Podcast is in iTunesStitcher radio, and Google Play Music for Andriod

Epi 267 Joel Bouhey Talks Falcon Guard and Reverse Triangle

This week we have an interview with Luis Heredia Black Belt Joel Bouhey. You will find Joel training and teaching his innovative style in Maui.

 

We talk about:

  • Training BJJ in Oregan and Hawaii
  • Making the transition to full time training
  • Changing your focus while training
  • Training BJJ for MMA
  • BJJ for self defense
  • The development of new techniques
  • What is the falcon guard
  • The reverse triangle
  • Tips for training BJJ while traveling
  • Tips for competing while traveling

Links:

Quote of the week: “Sooner or later, those who win are those who think they can.” Paul Tournier

Article of the week: How to Measure Success in a Jiu-Jitsu Competition

Your-First-Year-Of-BJJ-artwork-1199

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Catch us next week for another episode of The BjjBrick Podcast

The BjjBrick Podcast is in iTunesStitcher radio, and Google Play Music for Andriod