I have a background in the sport of wrestling in the martial art of Brazilian jiujitsu. With time, I’ve noticed that the two have a contrasting take on the value of technique and strength &[…]
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Author: Eliot Kelly
Observing Japanese manners with O-Hanami
The tradition of Hanami in Japan takes place during the blooming of the cherry blossoms. It is customary to find a place under a row of cherry blossom trees to have a Japanese style picnic[…]
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Preserving harmony in the heat of chaos
Randori or chaos dance, is the judo terminology to describe sparring or rolling. The word written in Japanese, 乱取り, takes two Chinese characters (kanji). The first meaning chaos and the second to take. While in[…]
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Minimalist shoes really do change how you walk and experience life
For about a month I’ve been wearing “minimalist” shoes. Shoes that allow space for my toes to move and a very thin sole. It didn’t seem like much of a transition for me because I[…]
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IBJJF Pans Reflections from a spectator and coach
This last weekend was the IBJJF Pans championships in Irvine, CA hosted by UC Irvine. I love this tournament just because I enjoy the arena, the massive size of the tournament from juvenile division all[…]
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“Life and Jiu Jitsu” Podcast episode #24
I had the opportunity to chat with Gibran on the podcast, “Life, and Jiu Jitsu” a few weeks ago. Thank you for having me! In the podcast we talked about: ADCC trials & Championships EDH[…]
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IBJJF SF Open Reflection: Working as a referee
I’ve been on the injury list so I had to take a step back from training and competing for the IBJJF SF Open. It’s always a learning experience for me when I work as a[…]
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Training Tips: Drilling for repetition or drilling for quality
When you drill there are two distinct ways to drill. 1: PRECISION 2: REPETITION There is a mix of both involved, but it’s good to emphasize one or the other and know what it is[…]
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Peak Performance: Perception, deception, and memory
I was watching some video of my competitions from last year on flograppling.com It’s great to have a website that films most tournaments and almost every single competition I participate in. In watching my matches,[…]
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Japanese Q&A: Where does しまった come from?
A student asked if しまった (the English equivalent for “oh shit”) is the past tense Ta-form of the word しまう. In lesson 18 of the Japanese textbook Genki, the grammar point Te-form + しまう in[…]
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