Tag: MMA

  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 […]