Todd Richards

Iconic Vs Fundamental: What do we actually teach new students? I am back to finally having some time and energy to write again, but now I am going to do that thing we all learned in like 5th grade for writing essays where we define a word to establish our premise. And that word is Fundamental, which of course refers to the core, foundational base of a system or concept. It describes something that is essential, primary, and of central importance upon which other elements depend. So what does...

With all of the news that has come out in the Jiu-Jitsu community this last week. Thing that keeps coming up in my mind is that WE need to do better. MEN in the Jiu-Jitsu community need to do better at calling out this sort of behavior and stepping in to stop it. MEN need to take responsibility for their actions and the actions of other MEN that make this sport less safe. We need to do better about barring these people from our community. People do so much harm, make a non-appology, disappear...

Getting SMASHED sucks especially in Jiu-jitsu. A common thing that happens with newer practitioners is that it also introduces a panic response. This response can make you struggle to escape from the bottom in ways that leave you vulnerable to many submissions. Learning to be calm under pressure is an essential skill in Jiu-jitsu. Dealing with the claustrophobic effect of being on the bottom can be very difficult. For many practitioners it can be a large block to their success in learning how...