BE EAGER, NOT EXPECTANT WEEK OF 2/17/25 Be eager, not expectant. You may often find that the moments you expect to be your greatest acts of glory may be the most humbling experiences. And, conversely, facing challenges that you fear may humiliate you will sometimes be the vehicle through which you display your greatest […]
GO AS FAR AS YOU CAN SEE WEEK OF 2/10/25 “Go as far as you can see; when you get there, you’ll be able to see farther.” – Thomas Carlyle In my experience, at every stage of my martial arts journey (including now), I’ve always been frustrated with the inability to see the end […]
THE RED CORNER NEWS AND UPDATES FROM THE NORTH STAR ACADEMY OF MIXED MARTIAL ARTS WEEK OF NOVEMBER 25th, 2024 Happy Monday Team! Apologies for taking the week off last Monday. Unfortunately I fell ill for one reason or another and found myself flirting with nearly a 105 degree fever on Sunday, so much […]
TO MOVE FORWARD, SOMETIMES YOU MUST NOT MOVE AT ALL WEEK OF 11/25/24 Quick one for you today. And somewhat topical (at least for me, that is). To move forward, sometimes you must not move at all. That is to say, the formula for progress is as follows: Stress + Recovery = Adaptation/Growth We […]
THE RED CORNER NEWS AND UPDATES FROM THE NORTH STAR ACADEMY OF MIXED MARTIAL ARTS WEEK OF NOVEMBER 11th, 2024 Happy Monday Team! We had a great time at the Tap Cancer Out Charity BJJ tournament this past week. Congrats to our athletes that medaled: Johnny Janick, Dashaun Kimp, Marc Ocasio, Jay Hilario, Kelsey […]
MONDAY MINDSET: SADDLE UP, COWBOY! WEEK OF 11/11/24 Got a more pragmatic one for you today. By no means am I a sports psychologist or an expert in the field of performance optimization, but I do have a ton of experience as both a coach and and athlete and I’ve seen some things over […]
THE RED CORNER NEWS AND UPDATES FROM THE NORTH STAR ACADEMY OF MIXED MARTIAL ARTS WEEK OF NOVEMBER 4th, 2024 Happy Monday Team! 2024 has been a total whirlwind so far, and it’s been rare that I’ve been able to do my “Sunday Work” (i.e. updating the blog, writing the Monday Mindset, and so […]
MONDAY MINDSET: YOU HAVE TO GET STARTED BEFORE YOU CAN FINISH WEEK OF 11/04/24 You can’t win gold in the race if you don’t queue up at the starting line. But we’re always so focused on the “gold medals” of whatever activity we’re interested in that we often never even lace up our shoes […]
THE RED CORNER NEWS AND UPDATES FROM THE NORTH STAR ACADEMY OF MIXED MARTIAL ARTS WEEK OF OCTOBER 7th, 2024 Happy Monday Team! We are fresh off the heels of a successful outing at Grappling Industries this past weekend. North Star fielded a small team of three, but with big results. Ryan DeRoberties goes […]
THE RED CORNER NEWS AND UPDATES FROM THE NORTH STAR ACADEMY OF MIXED MARTIAL ARTS WEEK OF SEPTEMBER 30th, 2024 Happy Monday Team! Full disclosure, I often write these on Sunday as if I were writing them Monday morning 🙂 I am currently in terminal 4 in LAX awaiting our return flight to Philadelphia after […]
THE RED CORNER NEWS AND UPDATES FROM THE NORTH STAR ACADEMY OF MIXED MARTIAL ARTS WEEK OF SEPTEMBER 23rd, 2024 Happy Monday Team! Was able to take a quick hop down to Florida to see some family this weekend, then it’s off to the races again as we head to Los Angeles for a […]
THE RED CORNER NEWS AND UPDATES FROM THE NORTH STAR ACADEMY OF MIXED MARTIAL ARTS WEEK OF SEPTEMBER 16th, 2024 Happy Monday Team! Let’s give a big round of applause to our two athletes, Makhi and Tre, for outstanding performances at Gut Check Championship this past Saturday night. Both athletes exhibited extremely high level […]
THE RED CORNER NEWS AND UPDATES FROM THE NORTH STAR ACADEMY OF MIXED MARTIAL ARTS WEEK OF SEPTEMBER 9th, 2024 Happy Monday Team! With “Summer Vacation” behind us, we have a long unbroken stretch of great weather and great opportunities to train. This is one of my favorite times of year for many reasons, […]
THE RED CORNER NEWS AND UPDATES FROM THE NORTH STAR ACADEMY OF MIXED MARTIAL ARTS WEEK OF SEPTEMBER 2nd, 2024 Happy Monday Team! Reminder that all classes are cancelled today in observance of the holiday. We’ll be back to our regular schedule tomorrow! Labor Day is one of my favorite holidays — sure, the 3 […]
THE RED CORNER NEWS AND UPDATES FROM THE NORTH STAR ACADEMY OF MIXED MARTIAL ARTS WEEK OF AUGUST 26TH, 2024 Happy Monday Team! Coming off a productive, but unfortunate weekend at the WKA tournament. Standout Tim Green worked his tail off in preparation for his entry into the 174lb Open Class division, which featured […]
THE RED CORNER NEWS AND UPDATES FROM THE NORTH STAR ACADEMY OF MIXED MARTIAL ARTS WEEK OF AUGUST 19TH, 2024 Happy Monday Team! I had the pleasure of attending a striking workshop with Kru Bob Perez, owner of Main Street Boxing in Houston, TX. Kru Bob’s accomplishments are extensive in the training world — […]
THE RED CORNER NEWS AND UPDATES FROM THE NORTH STAR ACADEMY OF MIXED MARTIAL ARTS WEEK OF AUGUST 12TH, 2024 Happy Monday Team! This past weekend we brought a small crew to our sister academy, 8 Limbs in West Philadelphia, for a day of friendly, competitive sparring. These events are a great pathway for […]
THE RED CORNER NEWS AND UPDATES FROM THE NORTH STAR ACADEMY OF MIXED MARTIAL ARTS WEEK OF AUGUST 5TH, 2024 Happy Monday Team! Hard to believe, but we are already in August! Where does the time go?? Summer “ends” at the end of the month (but don’t worry, all you crazy people that love […]
THE RED CORNER NEWS AND UPDATES FROM THE NORTH STAR ACADEMY OF MIXED MARTIAL ARTS WEEK OF JULY 29th, 2024 Happy Monday Team! We had a great showing this past weekend at the PBJJF Summer Open just down the road in Bala Cynwyd. Four of our athletes got right to work on the mats […]
THE RED CORNER NEWS AND UPDATES FROM THE NORTH STAR MMA ACADEMY Happy Monday Team! First I want to say THANK YOU to everyone who came out this Saturday for our 7 year anniversary get together. It was super low key, but a ton of fun. As is often the case I usually forget […]
Happy Monday Team! Last week was a great teaser to the beautiful weather (and therefore amazing training conditions) that are right around the corner. As the world and we move into Spring, let’s take a moment to consider the ideas of cycles and rebirth. As a coach I truly believe that progress looks like […]