On September 21st, I married the love of my life. Amber is a gift that I did not think I would ever receive. I always assumed my future was to be found in the woods alone, quietly living among the trees with ample reading material. I’m pleased to say I was wrong. The psychological significance of the day was overwhelming. During the ceremony, the officiate — my dear friend, Murph — had us turn toward the crowd as he asked them if they would support us in this endeavor. To be facing so many loved ones was powerful. All the shared experiences, conversations, joys and struggles, to look out at es ..read more

To all the young students who competed this weekend, I am proud of each and every one of you. You showed great effort and persistence while competing, humility in victory and grace in defeat. It was an emotional day for most of us. I was most proud that you when you met adversity, when things were not going your way, you pushed forward. I did not see a single student quit amid the challenges they were facing. This was the greatest victory of the day, and the most valuable part of the experience: just like in Jiu Jitsu, when life presents us with challenges, we keep pushing forward. You each al ..read more

I wrote On Jiu Jitsu in the winter of 2017, a book about how Jiu Jitsu impacts our character and the process by which that development transcends across the entirety of our humanity. The readership since publication reveals what I have long thought: that our community has little desire for any further written instructions on the application of techniques. Our instructors and YouTube more than meet that need. What we want—what we tacitly seek—is an explicit narrative of what Jiu Jitsu is in the context of our lives. On Jiu Jitsu has been my most read book and has the least to do with the actual ..read more