Tag: MMA

Monday Mindset: Discipline Bridges the Gap I feel like we all know what we should be doing.Eating better, sleeping more, exercising often. It’s not complicated. And yet, most of us are probably not at the level of health and fitness that we’d like to be. Simply put, discipline is the bridge between where we are, and where […]

Happy Monday Team! We had an amazing turnout this Saturday for our Fall PRO/AM Invitational Sparring Meetup.  Over 55 athletes, with over 230 combined bouts, were in attendance from the region’s top competitive gyms.  Getting together for some friendly but hard rounds is what it’s all about! We’re already halfway through September (and the beginning […]

Monday Mindset: Labor Day Today we’ll divert from the usual routine and instead take a moment to honor the members of our community here who are out there getting things done every day.  The first responders, construction workers, truck drivers, and so on.  The people who rarely get the spotlight but keep the wheels of […]

Monday Mindset: Embrace the Chaos Every year we attend the WKAs, it’s a total mess.  And every year we say we’re never coming back. Yet, here we are. (And yes, about 1000 times we said we’re never doing this tournament again but when it was all over we were like “Ok, that wasn’t so bad.. […]

Monday Mindset: Morning Routines Pretty basic, pragmatic one for you this week. What you do upon waking up sets the tone for the day.  Personally, I walk the dog (she’s gotta go!) and reflect on the coming day, take my vitamins (10 capsules), and then do a quick 10 minute stretch routine.  Every day. Why? […]

Happy Monday Team! I greatly appreciate everyone’s understanding this past Wednesday — we had to cancel classes due to a plumbing emergency.  Luckily, we got everything under control before any damage could occur and the emergency repair team managed to fix everything up in its entirety.  Crisis averted! I want to also highlight one of […]

  Happy Monday Team!   It’s going to be pretty smooth sailing these next two weeks until we return to action at the end of the month for the WKA National Kickboxing Championships in Harrington, Delaware.  The distance and tournament format of this event doesn’t make it very spectator friendly, but we’ll keep you posted […]

  Ok, full stop.  Definitely believe in yourself!   With that said, when preparing to engage in something challenging, we can often start to doubt ourselves.  Am I mentally strong enough?  Durable enough?  Do I “have what it takes” to get this job done?   These questions can be hard to answer because, well, there […]

  At the Olympic level, athletes have a massive team working behind the scenes to ensure that their training, time management, and recovery are fully optimized.  These athletes also train and compete full time and often have difficult decisions about where to invest their limited resources of availability and energy.   At that level, by […]

  I often get asked — Why “North Star?”  Guesses range from The Fist of the North Star (an awesome 90’s anime) to something related to my middle name (Baer, for those wondering — the North Star is on the tail of Ursa Minor, the little dipper).   But, nope.  Those are good guesses and would fit […]

  We are often way harder on ourselves than we are on others, don’t you think?  Our inner voice can speak to us in ways we’d never tolerate from someone else.   So this week I have a little tip for you — the next time you have a problem, write it down on paper (or, ya […]

  Happy Monday Team!   Congratulations to all our competitors from this past weekend at Grappling Industries!  Both Dashaun Kimp and Joe Angelo placed first in their respective divisions with clean sweeps of their opponents throughout.   Grant Boyd, Garret Powers, David Cross, Angus Perfect, Kevin Koch, and and Tenzin Wangdak also had strong performances […]

  Because eventually, every round will be become a hard round.   If you walk head first into a challenge, you have already won.  Whether you “win” or “lose” the exchange is secondary.   There are going to be hundreds, if not thousands, of hard rounds between you and whatever your goals are.  You might […]

  Happy Monday Team!   I hope you all had an awesome weekend!  Make sure to mark your calendars for the Six Year Anniversary Party rescheduled for Saturday, July 15th, from 2-5pm!  More details to come but it’s a pretty simple affair 🙂   By the way, yes — we are open as normal today […]

  Happy Monday Team!   Rolled the dice on Saturday’s weather not being up to par and lost that one — after a torrential downpour it actually turned out really nice!  Oh well, that’s how it goes.. there is probably a good “Monday Mindset” topic in there somewhere 🙂   We’re rescheduling our 6 Year […]

“Have you ever noticed that anybody driving slower than you is an idiot, and anyone going faster than you is a maniac?  — George Carlin   Man, that is one of my favorite quotes!  We’ve all been there on the road before, trying to get from Point A to Point B and dealing with the nonsense from everyone else alongside […]

  Happy Monday Team!   Next weekend is our big Six Year Anniversary Party at Attic Brewing Company!  Make sure to join us from 2-5pm (or later, you party animals) in the beer garden.  Friends, family, strangers, interstellar aliens — everyone’s invited!   All attendees will receive a free raffle ticket as well (winners will […]

  Happy Monday Team!   Thank you to all the students and staff who came out on Saturday night to support Coach Tre as he picked up a dominant and exciting win at Gut Check Championships!  As a coach it’s always really fun to see your athletes specifically execute skills that have been rehearsed throughout […]

  The word routine comes from the same origins as route, suggesting a circuit of behavior that leads you back to the beginning so you can start anew.   I think a successful routine does have that element to it: you will always circle back to the beginning to review the fundamentals from a position of greater wisdom and […]

  Happy Monday Tuesday Team!   I hope everyone had a great weekend.  I spent the past few days in the nation’s capital celebrating a family wedding.  No complaints, but I’m ready to get back to the mats tonight and keep things moving forward.   On deck, a number of our students will be participating in the […]

  We often think of ourselves as static, unchanging individuals.  We can internalize failures and believe that certain achievements, feelings, or lifestyles are completely out of our reach.  In short, we see ourselves and much of the world around us set into a state of unchanging permanence.   Obviously, there are some limitations on what […]

  Happy Monday Team!   We are fresh off an exciting weekend of competition, with Timmy Green executing a near flawless performance en route to a big win in the cage on Saturday.   We are right back at it again this coming weekend with Ade Solebo making his competitive debut at Striker’s Cup in […]

  Muay Thai is known as the “Art of 8 Limbs,” referring to the pairs of hands, elbows, knees, and feet that we can use to systematically break down our opponents.   As a competitive fighter, I jokingly referred to Muay Thai as the “Art of 7 Limbs,” as on any given day I’d have […]

  Happy Monday Team!   Apologies about the lateness of last week’s newsletter.  The mass e-mail kept failing to send.  Hopefully you’ll receive this one on time 🙂   It’s FIGHT WEEK for Timmy Green!  Timmy hasn’t been in the cage in over a year, and we are super stoked to see his evolution on […]

  We all have a why — the reason and driving force that motivates us to work hard, be consistent, and work towards our goals.  For some, it might just be to improve our self-confidence and feel safer in our own skin.  For others, to be a competitive athlete.   Whatever your why is, it’s a powerful motivator that […]

  Happy Monday Team!   We had an incredibly successful and busy weekend here, split between two big competitive events.   First, we are proud to introduce the NEW Warrior’s Cup Super Featherweight champion Gianna Vadino!   Friday night in Queens, NY, Gianna won an extremely tough and close fight against a 5x champ en […]

  Happy Monday Team!   We are on the other side of an incredible weekend here at the academy.  Over 60 competitive athletes from 10+ schools converged onto our mats for a full day of 20+ sparring rounds at our PRO/AM Sparring event.   It’s absolutely important to get good at martial arts.  Being an […]

  Happy Monday Team!   We have a ton of cool stuff coming up in the next few weeks!  I’ll detail them below, but before we get into all that, I wanted to take a moment today to introduce an idea that’s been in the works for awhile.   Words have power.  They can (and […]

  Happy Monday Team!   April is shaping to be a competitive and busy month!  Make sure to mark the following dates on your calendar: 4/7 – 4/9: Adjusted Class Schedule due to the Movement Archery Workshop hosted at North Star MMA (details TBA) 4/21: Warrior’s Cup Full Rules Muay Thai in Queens, NY 4/22: Grappling Industries […]

  It’s super easy not to really go for anything.  No risk, no reward, but also no failure.  And there’s something nice about that.   Because what if we fail spectacularly?  What if everyone sees us fail?   Often, it’s not so much the failure itself that causes stress.  It’s failing publicly.   My next door neighbors growing up […]

  “Protect yourself at all times.”   That’s what you hear from the referee before you touch gloves and get after it.  So, what does it mean?   Well, you are responsible for protecting yourself.  You, and you alone.   Despite all the rules, rounds, and presence of the third man, things can (and do) […]

  Happy Monday Team!   It’s FIGHT WEEK!  Gianna’s hard work will come to fruition this Saturday night as she squares off for the USKA Full Rules Muay Thai championship belt.  Gianna is currently #2 in ticket sales, but if you’re not first you’re last 🙂   So let’s make her #1!  You can grab tickets […]

  Happy Monday Team!   Springtime is almost here!  And with it some exciting events at the academy lined up for you.   But first, just a reminder that we are operating on an adjusted schedule for Tuesday and Wednesday of this week.  All other days will be scheduled as normal.  Changes in the daily lineup will be italicized […]

  Happy Monday Team!   Big congrats to our Jr. Samurai alumni and also assistant instructor, Madison, on her clean sweep this weekend at NAGA.  Madison has been significantly maturing as a grappler over the last few months especially, and showcased an intelligent and aggressive style en route to winning both her divisions.  She is, […]

  Quick one for you today.   Often times I have students reach out to me concerned that they are not making progress because they are always exhausted after training.   Conflating exhaustion with a lack of skill, progress, and/or conditioning is a common fallacy, though.   Consider this thought experiment: you are a runner […]

  Happy Monday Team! Yes, we are open today!   Last weekend (2/11) we had a great showing for our “Path to Blue Belt” in-house seminar.  We are considering doing a more regular seminar series so as to take some deep dives into basic, but large, concepts.  What would you like to see?  Let me […]

  Happy Monday Team!   Full disclosure: it’s currently Sunday @ 3pm as I’m writing this (I write these in advance, because “early is on time, on time is late, and late is unacceptable ).  So maybe it’s a super happy Monday, or maybe it’s a super sad Monday.  Either way, I hope you all enjoyed […]

  Happy Monday Team!   We had a great time at the MOC Sparring event at 8 Limbs Academy yesterday in West Philadelphia.  Ken, Tre, and Ade all stepped into the ring and put on a fine showing.   Fighting is a team sport, even though you go out there alone.  Without a strong support […]

  Avoid the “all or nothing” trap when it comes to fitness, health, training, or whatever.   We can all be particularly manipulative to ourselves when we set our standards too high, knowing we can’t achieve them.   It’s almost like we engineer our own failure just to avoid the hard work of actually sticking […]

  Happy Monday Team!   Today starts the debut of our new Striking 101 Curriculum!  While the coaches and I are definitely excited to move forward with our new approach, the reality is that on the mats it won’t be too different 🙂   Before we get into the details of what’s changed, I want […]

  Happy Monday Team!   Hard to believe, but next month is our 6 year anniversary!  I have some crazy stories to tell from the “early years” but believe it or not, we have some ride-or-die students still with us from the get-go.  Big shout out to Jamie Ueberroth, Ken Mosely, Colleen Tozer, Coach Bill, […]

  What better day to discuss service than today, where we celebrate the legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr?   So often in martial arts we only see things through our own self-centered lens.  We come to class to make ourselves better.  We do what we think is best for us.  We prioritize our well […]

  Happy Monday Team!   And, yes, we are open as normal today.  What else would we be doing on a wonderful Monday evening 🙂 ?   Tonight is also the start of a small change in our Striking 101 program.  From here on out, shin guards are required for all Striking 101 classes.   […]

Let’s keep it real today fam. Resolutions are for quitters. The goal is not to commit to a resolution, but rather to reshape your lifestyle. The end of one year, and the beginning of another, create a great symbolic opportunity to address areas of your life that are unfulfilling.  We are inspired to seek out […]

Regardless of your religious or spiritual beliefs, the Christmas holiday is important in the sense that it also marks the Winter Solstice: the turning point between the shortening and lengthening of daylight hours.   As a martial artist, especially one who pursues competitive success or exceptional advancement, you will have cycles of both dark and […]

  Happy Monday Team!   One final push left this year with the holidays, and then we’re officially in 2023 with a wiiiiide open schedule to really get back to business on the mats.   I have two updates for you in this newsletter — first, a quick note about some upcoming changes in 2023, and […]

  Happy Monday Team!   We’re back for another busy week of training here at the academy.   Please note that the academy will be fully closed on Saturday, December 24th.  We will be open as normal on New Year’s Eve (12/31).   Also, for the remainder of the year, all friends and family are welcome […]

  Happy Monday Team!   We had a great seminar on Saturday with Jon Blank.  For those who attended, I hope you picked up some neat little tricks.  I do have a bullet point list of all the techniques and skills we went over — if you want a copy, just let me know! Regarding […]

  Three years ago, almost to the day, I underwent a serious shoulder reconstruction to repair a torn labrum on my left arm.  So today’s Monday Mindset feels appropriate. When you have a chronic, debilitating injury, you rehabilitate it. To re-habilitate is to come back and build new habits, essentially.  To “re-habit.”  To create a […]

  Happy Monday Team! I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving Holiday this past week.  It was a great opportunity to relax, reflect, and rest. We’re moving into a slower season here at the academy.  As such, our curriculum for our intermediate classes will be more relaxed.  If you have any skills, drills, or […]

  When we first start something difficult, it’s like we’re at the base of a giant mountain.  With very little experience or understanding in how to navigate the steep inclines, we start plodding our way upwards.   The journey in the beginning is full of confusion, doubt, discomfort, and occasionally even embarrassment.  But after a […]

  Happy Monday Team!   We continue to have non-stop events lined up over the next few weeks!  Our full event schedule is listed below.   But first, we are hosting Jon “Thor” Blank on Saturday, December 3rd, for a 90 minute workshop on the False Reap and Reverse De La Riva.  These are cutting […]

  Happy Halloween!   Just a reminder that we are running an adjusted schedule tonight.  The lineup is as follows: 6pm All Levels Striking 7pm Touch Sparring (201+) 7:30pm BJJ (gi) Our 5pm youth class is cancelled today.     We had a great turnout Saturday night for our Kick or Treat 2 Happy Hour!  Although […]

  This week’s entry is going to focus less on actual mindset and more on organizing your skills in a way that maximizes their effectiveness.   No skills exist in a vacuum.  A world class jab, for example, can’t simply be spammed non stop successfully.  The jab plays off footwork, feints, power shots, and so […]

  Happy Monday Team!   It’s crazy to think we are already at the end of October, 2022 — and yet, here we are!   We have a bunch of SPOOKY events coming up in the next week, so make sure to come out and get in the spirit with us.   First up, we […]

  Happy Monday Team!   We are back after an arduous but fun and successful outing at Grappling Industries on Saturday.  The team picked up 5 Gold, 1 Silver, and 3 Bronze medals in some highly competitive divisions.  We are back competitively this Saturday with Isis Toledo in a grappling superfight!   This week also brings some […]

  Kind of an appropriate one for today, as I’m traveling about 6,000 miles roundtrip at an altitude of 30,000+ ft — and enjoying the passing scenery below of the entire United States!   One of the biggest paradoxes of martial arts is that everything is both incredibly simple and also incredibly complex at the […]

  What are our routines? The word itself is related to “route,” meaning our routines are the routes we take through our habitual cycles. Humans are creatures of routine.  I remember in college, when we had no assigned seating, that my fellow students and I all generally sat in the same seat each day.  It […]

  Happy Monday Team!   It’s officially October!  Which means we are only weeks away from our second annual “Kick or Treat” fundraising party at Attic Brewing Company!   I’ll have more information available shortly, but make sure to keep Friday, 10/28, open — we’ll have prizes, karaoke, and more 🙂  This event is a […]

  We’ve all been here. First, we think about something we want to accomplish.  Let’s say, starting a martial art. Then, we furiously research the topic and start to plan it out. Finally, we get so overwhelmed by all the information that we get stuck in a cycle of trying to plan out the best […]

  If you really want to have success at what you’re doing, you gotta love it. In the fight game, there are basically two classes of competitors: Amateurs, and Professionals. Amateurs don’t get paid.  They are essentially volunteers. Professionals get paid. That’s the main difference, on paper. This dynamic is a great example of the […]

  Happy Monday Team!   What a weekend!  Friday night saw competitors Brittany Walker and Paul Sims engage on the Ground Zero Grappling stage here in Philadelphia.  Both put in strong performances but did not walk away with wins.  So it goes sometimes!   Saturday we shot up to New York City for Gianna Vadino’s […]

  My two favorite words in the English language. Yes, and No. Yes is usually my first favorite, because it means I’m going to get what I want, or that we are in agreement so we can move forward. No is also super useful.  Now, I may not get what I want, or maybe we […]

  Happy Labor Day team!   I apologize for missing last week’s e-mail — my excuse is legitimate, but terrible: I was somewhere along the western coast of Ireland dodging mountains and sheep 🙂  Internet cafes aren’t much of a thing in Ireland, even in Dublin and Galway.  So, apologies there!   We have an extremely busy […]

  Happy Monday Team!   We’ve been working our tails off this month and I’m excited to wrap it up with a strong showing at the Finisher’s Submission Only Grappling tournament this weekend!   September is shaping up to be a huge month for competition as well — we still have some irons in the […]

  Happy Monday Team!   Heads up that we will be running a modified class schedule the week prior to Labor Day (8/29 – 9/3).  Often, during a week leading up to a holiday, we compress our 101 and 201 classes and loosen our ties a bit.  However, the class times may change a bit […]

As a kid, I once heard that “watched pots never boil,” and I actually believed it.  I realized had never directly observed water coming to a boil, and in my little monkey mind I figured that the act of watching it somehow stalled or negated the boiling process.   Of course, I was a curious […]

  Happy Monday Team!   Just want to send you a quick (and final) reminder that our format for the Striking 201 program has changed a bit.  These changes include: Classes are now 75 minutes long (excluding Thursday boxing).  Free sparring/clinching will continue after the “official” end. Gloves, shinguards, mouthguard, and kneepads are required* Additional […]

Every new thing comes from the destruction of something old.   New, better habits must come at the expense of old bad ones.   So if you are having trouble visualizing yourself achieving a considerable goal, don’t stress about it.  Try a different perspective.   You, as you are, will not be the one achieving that goal.  […]

  Happy Monday Team!   We have a rare break in the action this month with not much confirmed on our calendar.  So let’s double down in training and really focus on the basics!   I have some fun and important news for everyone as well: we have made some changes to our Jiu Jitsu […]

  Happy Monday Team!   Back to work after a packed weekend!   Our Path to Blue Belt workshop was packed — I hope you all got something out of it.  When we go over a comprehensive and exhaustive set of ideas and concepts, it’s unrealistic to absorb everything.  Many of these concepts require multiple […]

  Seeing Progress. Yes, I’m aware that a few weeks ago I wrote a similar e-mail. I’m also aware that I also recently wrote an e-mail about the importance of Redundancy 🙂 So bear with me.  This is important.  Hence the redundancy! I often field e-mails from students (at the academy, and abroad – we […]

  Happy Monday Team!   Got a scorcher of a week on deck, so make sure you are setting yourselves up for success by hydrating like crazy throughout the day!   We have a busy Saturday coming up as well, so we’ve made some small adjustments to our weekend schedule to accommodate it all.  Please […]

  There comes a time in your training career where it feels like you are just not progressing at all. And if it hasn’t happened to you yet, it will. We have to remember that “progress” is a relative term.  Unlike in weightlifting, us martial artists don’t have a quantifiable metric to track (i.e. how […]

  Quick note: I originally wrote this a few years ago, after being a day late on my weekly newsletter (I often pull from the archives for the Monday Mindset section). Typically I have everything done by Sunday evening and scheduled for Monday morning, but yesterday I was out of state visiting family and didn’t […]

  “The path of the Warrior is lifelong, and mastery is often simply staying on the path.” Pop-culture often makes a big deal of “The Warrior Path,” making it seem that the apprentice fighter must walk over coals, survive in the wilderness with just their wits, defeat hordes of faceless enemies, and stand on poles […]

  Feliz Lunes, equipe!   I am writing to you from sunny (very, very sunny) Catalonia, Spain!   Aside from some great BJJ training, it’s basically been hiking, history, beach, and wine.  Can’t complain!  I’ll be back on the mats Friday, June 3rd, ready to go — hopefully I can avoid sunburn over the next […]

  Every year as the weather starts to warm up I give my annual “hygiene chat,” which is basically just a quick guide for you — yes, you — to follow so that we can all get down and dirty on the mats without getting, well, actually dirty 🙂   Before we get to that, big congrats […]

  Happy Monday Team!   Let’s give a big congrats to The Wall himself, Paul Sims, on a stellar performance yesterday at Finishers Sub Only!  Paul swept his division en route to Gold and continues to cement his place in the region as one of the top grapplers.   Reminder — for those interest in […]

The purpose of this exam is twofold: to test your knowledge, and also review the entire curriculum to fill in any blind spots you may experience.  Regular participation in group classes should be sufficient in preparing you for the exam, but additional work is always encouraged. The exam is roughly 80 minutes long.  Participants must […]

The martial arts exist in a state of duality: one side concerned with the fundamental rules of combat, physics, and body mechanics (the “martial”), and the other side being the human expression that operates behind these (the “art”).   Newer students often talk about “styles” or “games” — what game should I be focusing on?  […]

  Hey Team!   We are only six weeks away until the unofficial start of Summer (Memorial Day Weekend) which is seems crazy.  Time is just flying, and yet we are packing each week in with a ton of great training and also a hectic schedule of competitive events.   We have a break from […]

  Picture this.  You’re zooming down a stretch of flat road on your bike, when suddenly you encounter a hill.  It’s steep.  You quickly downshift into first gear, pedal like a madman, and struggle to the peak.   Up top, you shift back to your high gear, and coast down the other side.   Pretty […]

  Happy Monday Team!   We are fresh off another banger of a weekend, and back to the mats for another week of tough practice.  Let’s give a big shout out to Timmy Green on a dominant and educated performance Saturday night at Art of War MMA! As a coach, one of my greatest joys […]

  One of the most common excuses you’ll hear, in almost any circumstance, is that a person cannot “find the time” to do something.   What does that even mean?  Does time trickle inbetween the seat cushions of our couch?  Do we forget it inside the pocket of our winter jacket that’s been stored away […]

  Happy Monday Team!   Spring is in the air!  And with it, the return of combat sports events!   We have a ton of upcoming events on our calendar — make sure to plan accordingly, as tickets/available spots can go quickly.   Just a quick reminder: next Monday (3/14), Professor Phil Migliarese will be […]

Happy Monday Team!   Man, this is gonna be a busy week.. in addition to keeping the flame going on the mats, we have our Five Year Anniversary + UFC Viewing Party this weekend!   Essentially, here’s how it will go:   In the main room, we’ll have a projection screen displaying the UFC Fight Night event.  […]

We’ve all heard that expression, “so-and-so talks the talk, but does he walk the walk?” I’m sure we can all relate to this on some level: we know a few people who talk a big game, but when it comes to delivering on their word (or threats) they are (un)surprisingly a bit lackluster. In fight […]

Happy Monday Team!   I want to first apologize for whatever happened last week that sent the newsletter out like four times.  Technical error?  Or was I just really excited about what was in that e-mail?  Perhaps we will never know..   (It was a technical error!  But I was also excited about that e-mail)    I’m […]

MONDAY MINDSET: THE SWORD YOU SHARPEN IS THE ONE YOU CARRY INTO BATTLE   Although most of us will intuitively understand this, there is absolutely a major difference between understanding and application.   Too often we conflate the visualization of a task with the accomplishment of that task.  On a chemical level, visualizing the completion of a task–say, going to the […]