“Competition Jiu Jitsu represents only 30% of real Jiu-Jitsu. Without the other 70%, which includes standup self-defense, defensive striking and clinching skills and an efficient vale-tudo guard, practitioners cannot develop the confidence to walk the streets knowing that they can survive a possible confrontation.” This quote is from one Jiu Jitsu legend, Rickson Gracie. What Rickson is saying is that to be a well rounded Jiu Jitsu practitioner, you need to know everything about the sport. You can’t expect to defend yourself successfully on the street if you only know what is legal in competition; you need to know everything else the sport can teach. Jiu Jitsu can be easily be broken down into what is more effective in certain situations like if you’re at the Abu Dhabi’s or on the street. This ability that Jiu Jitsu has to mold to any aspect you find yourself in is what makes it such a great tool. On the street you don’t necessarily want to pull guard and look for a sweep or submission because if you are inexperienced or miss it the other person can swing away at your body or even slam you into the ground. Alternatively if you are competing, guard is a position that is used to sweep to other positions or even submit because you cannot hit or slam. When you know what moves work in which situation, and when those moves have been mastered you are at the
peak of the sport.

Heroes, every sport has them and they give its participants something to aspire to. Basketball has Michael Jordan and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Baseball has Babe Ruth, Hank Aaron and Joe DiMaggio. Football has Jim Thorpe, Payton Manning and Tom Brady. Jiu Jitsu isn’t any different. You have the
Gracies, the Machados, Romereo “Jacare” Cavalcanti, Pedro Sauer, and Andre Galvao. These people give Jiu Jitsu practitioners something to look up to and they are also people to learn from. Jiu Jitsu is a sport that is always maturing and evolving, and with this constant evolution these heroes are there to be on the frontlines of developing, learning, and teaching these new moves to everyone else. Unlike other sports, Jiu Jitsu can be taught to almost anyone and it isn’t a game of who is the fittest or the strongest, it is about who can learn the moves and who practices them the most. These heroes may have come
from humble roots like many of us, which give us the dreams of one day being able to follow in their footsteps. As a white belt myself I have had the thought cross my mind of when I will be done with this sport. In baseball, football and basketball you can only go so far until you reached the pinnacle of your
performance, then you have to quit. I finally realized Jiu Jitsu is unlike them in that way and our heroes prove it. You can think you’re at the top of everything but with a new generation coming up you need to practice and help evolve the sport. It needs to become more than a sport, it needs to be a lifestyle.

I finally attended my first NAGA and I have to say it was an awesome learning experience. I definitely felt very tested going up against people I have never rolled with before and trying to figure them out while getting the jump on them too. As much as I didn’t want to, Paul Kunkle made me sign up to do a
No-Gi match as a warm-up. I’m very glad he pushed me to do it because I ended up taking third in my division. Without that push I would have been cold coming into my Gi matches and I also would have been beyond nervous. Coming in at the beginning I can honestly say I was shaking as I saw how many
people were there to watch and compete. When I went into compete in the Gi matches I was more than calm, I felt familiar, like I was at home. After the end of my matches I emerged with second place after only losing by points to the guy who took first. All in all it was one of the best experiences of my life and
I was proud to represent Reflex Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. I hope to do it again and be able to go with the same people I went with, Jason Moore, Paul Kunkle and Niles Billig. They gave me the support I needed and did amazing in their own divisions. I have to say I am very proud to be a part of a gym like Reflex not only because of the great instructors, but because of the brotherhood.

Since I have began Jiu Jitsu at Reflex I have never understood why some people don’t want to tap out. Tapping out is the best learning experience you can have in Jiu Jitsu. You get to stop the match and even ask a question on what you did wrong. I have rolled with many people who didn’t want to tap and it actually is a horrible decision for them. I’ve had chokes set in deep and submissions locked up and watch the person still do their best to resist. Watching someone’s face turn purple isn’t a pleasant sight, along with hearing  joints pop. When training, I like to give those submissions up if they won’t tap because of the risk of injury. I feel horrible knowing I hurt someone who is there to help me get better and I am also there to help them get better. With Jiu Jitsu, you have to let pride go and step on to the mat with a clear and free mind. Coming on the mat with anger and the mindset not to get tapped out is harmful. Pride is nothing when your elbow is bending the wrong way. The time it takes to recover isn’t worth the injury. You need to learn to be humble and submissive when the time calls for it. This is what it’s about. Control your mind and the body will follow. One quote from Helio Gracie sticks out in my mind when talking about this. It says “Jiu Jitsu is like a philosophy. It helps me learn how to face life.” Just like in Jiu Jitsu, sometimes you need to know when you’re beaten to find out how to not let it happen again.

Baseball, Basketball and Football, all the sports I played growing up. I never saw myself pursuing any of these sports past High School. I was kicked off of the baseball team my senior year, sick of being injured in basketball and had next to no interest in football. Playing these sports were justified in my
mind as strictly exercise so I didn’t go crazy sitting on my couch. I never really found something to hold my interest like Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. It began as something I loved to do the second I got into training at Reflex Jiu Jitsu. In the beginning before Reflex I started grappling with some people and slowly learned the basics from there. After that I met one person who went to Reflex and rolled with him. He beat me pretty badly every time we rolled. Since I became better than my friends I wanted to step my game up. From my first day in Reflex I felt accepted. Soon it was like coming to see my second family and when I left to go home for the summer it was hard to know I wouldn’t be able to see these people and expand my knowledge in the art. When I’m not at Jiu Jitsu I do a lot to keep myself thinking about it. From YouTube videos to reading books I want to make sure I am completely involved in it. It became a part of
me, like a family member or a part of my body. My family at first had no idea what I did. After hearing 100 times that what I do is too dangerous, they finally gained the knowledge I taught to them and slowly began to understand everything. Making Jiu Jitsu a part of my life helped make me a more involved
person in many ways along with helping me with my time and stress management. Jiu Jitsu gave me something to look forward to and share with other people. It not only was an art, it became a lifestyle for me.

Stress, everyone experiences it and only some can overcome it. It can lead to heart disease, high blood pressure, and even strokes. I know for a fact when I get stressed the only thing I can do to get rid of it is Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. As a college student stress is almost a daily factor for me. When the deadline for a
paper comes up or I have a large test to worry about I go to Reflex to get out some of my stress. Jiu Jitsu is perfect for stress relief in that it forces you to calm down. To roll you need to let go of what has got you bogged down and flow using your learned techniques and not use your anger that you get from
being stressed. When you are forced to calm down you begin to learn how to control your rolls and not let the fact that you are in a bad position scare you or make you freak out. Learning self control and something that could possibly help you in day to day life is a major plus. Jiu Jitsu can even help you
when you’re not even remotely stressed. It helps improve your physical fitness and gives you a hobby. These reasons are just some of the many that make me stay with Jiu Jitsu. It is a sport to grow very attached to and help you with real life situations whether it’s a fight or coping with a stressor. To conclude I would like to quote Rickson Gracie: “Where there’s discomfort, there’s fear. In these very tough positions, you’re in a little piece of hell. And through this daily suffering, you learn to survive in these situations. You have to find comfort in uncomfortable situations. You have to be able to live in your worst nightmare. Jiu-jitsu puts you completely in the moment where you must have complete focus on finding a solution to the problem. This trains the mind to build that focus, to increase your awareness, your capacity to solve problems. Sometimes, you don’t have to win. You cannot win. But that has nothing to do with losing.”

I love when people ask me if I’m involved in anything athletic at college. This simple question means I get to tell more people about my favorite sport, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. The reaction I normally get from
people is, “What is Brazilian Jiu Jitsu? Is it like karate?” This question has been posed to me over and over, and the best answer I can come up with is either relating it to the UFC or High School Wrestling. Even with these relations, Jiu Jitsu is much more complex than most people can understand in a brief
discussion. Recently I had to create an informative speech for my Public Speaking class, lasting only 6-8 minutes. My professor stressed that we have no more than 3 main topics for our time constraints. The first speech idea that popped into my mind was to give people the history of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. This idea soon became a flop after finding out no one in the class had heard of Jiu Jitsu or even heard of some practitioners. After realizing everyone’s lack of knowledge I decided to use the one question that has always bothered me as inspiration, “What is Brazilian Jiu Jitsu?” From my fair knowledge of Brazilian
Jiu Jitsu, I knew from the start it would be hard to narrow down 3 main points and feel like I informed everyone enough to make myself satisfied. So I decided to skip positions and submissions because the time it would take me to describe every main one even the slightest would take me all day. The only
things I could think of to give a very basic outline would be discussing the gi, the belt rankings and basic IBJJF rules. I ended up taking way too long to describe why the gi is used and its street uses along with the belt rankings and how they are achieved. Then I stumbled my way on to the very basic rules and
realized I was way over my time limit and had to end abruptly by telling them where I train at Reflex Jiu Jitsu and asking if there were any questions. After 11 minutes and 55 seconds I realized what I had first thought, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu is too complex for a short college speech. After asking around the class
and asking my professor his honest opinion on the speech they told me it was the most passionate and interesting speech they had heard all year. As much as I think I didn’t tell them, I gave them something to be curious about and to identify me by.

Reflex Jiu Jitsu has been known to Stray away from the ever so terrible saying, “training in a Bubble”.  That phrase refers to academies that are closed minded, believe their teaching methods are the only way to learn, keep secrets from their students, and never cross train with different partners or academies.  We have made it a goal ever since our academy opened to never fall victim to that practice.  Gracie Brazilian Jiu Jitsu is always evolving.  So we constantly take action to expand our knowledge for ourselves and our students.  Reflex Jiu Jitsu will always welcome visitors from other academies that are willing to train with us.  Instructors and students of Reflex have been known to travel to other academies as well.  Just recently a trip was made out to Pittsburgh, PA.  The trip was inspired by Chad Sicari.  Chad is a purple belt instructor/part owner at Highground Jiu Jitsu (www.highgroundbjj.com).  He visited Reflex Jiu Jitsu a couple of months ago and shared some of his knowledge/philosophies with us.  So the instructors at Reflex decided that a trip up to his academy was a great chance to roll (sparr) with him and his students.  It was a great learning experience for all of us.  Chad also made the trip unforgettable by supplying us with food, shelter, and entertainment for the entire trip. While being in Pittsburgh we also took the time to stop and train at the local Renzo Gracie Academy (www.renzograciepittsburgh.com).  The Renzo school in Pittsburgh is ran by Black belt instructor Warren Stout.  Warren let us train for free and lead us through a great class with all of his well trained students.  This wasn’t the first trip and won’t be the last.  We have traveled to such academies in the past such as Tony Passos in Virginia, Northeastern Jiu Jitsu in Swoyersville, PA and of course our affiliate school Scranton MMA (www.scrantonmma.com).  New ideas from visiting other academies and staying opened minded with visitors from other academies has kept Reflex Jiu Jitsu evolving along with the rest of the Jiu Jitsu community.   So when traveling for a vacation, business trip, or family/friends always try and train at a local academy in the area to learn something new or roll with some new partners.  Never stop the good nature of Gracie Brazilian Jiu Jitsu from spreading. osssss

With the popularity of Mixed Martial Arts on the rise, many people are getting introduced to No-Gi Jiu Jitsu through witnessing many practitioners submit their opponents with long practiced techniques. These people who are interested in this begin to seek out No-Gi grappling schools in hopes of learning these skills. What they do not know is that many of the top submission experts usually train Gi Jiu Jitsu over No-Gi. One Reason that Gi Jiu Jitsu is preferred is that the strongest man doesn’t always win; it can be the smaller, sometimes weaker opponent that achieves victory. This is possible through knowledge and constant drilling of techniques to help one achieve dominant positions and gain submissions. With No-Gi Jiu Jitsu, technique can sometimes be out-muscled, where Gi Jiu Jitsu relies on technique instead of muscle. One reason being, that the grips force someone to use their learned moves instead of powering through everything. From a self defense standpoint this is extremely helpful. If you get attacked on the street you can use the Gi grips on your attacker if they have any type of shirt on. Anything with sleeves can be gripped and you can use collar chokes just the same. At Reflex Jiu Jitsu, Gi Jiu Jitsu is primary for many reasons, including these. The ability to use technique over muscle and its self defense aspects make Gi Jiu Jitsu the best thing to train to prepare yourself for either a career in MMA or to take on whatever life can throw at you.