Instructionals and Injuries

I’m four months out from getting an ACL reconstruction patellar tendon graft. That means four months ago my knee was cut open so my surgeon could make me a new ACL from a piece of the tendon that holds my kneecap in place. I’m still blown away when I think about it. Modern medicine is miraculous.

Physically I’m on the mend. I’ve started lifting regularly and I’ve been able to put on a lot of good weight. Mentally I’m starting to lose it.

I’m bored. Like really really bored. Objectively my life isn’t boring, but without martial arts to smooth out the edges of the day to day grind I feel like something is missing. At the risk of sounding like a junkie, the rush of training and sparring is hard to replace with any other activity. It’s one activity with built in intense exercise, challenging and practical skill development, and a supportive community to tie it all together. There’s really nothing like it. I don’t have to convince you though, otherwise you probably would have never have found your way here.

Keeping Track of Time off the Mat

While I heal and I’m without all Brazilian jiu-jitsu’s benefits I’m under stimulated. To combat the creep of cosmic apathy I’ve been watching more and more instructionals. This keeps me technically connected to the sport, which is doubly important because I’m working on opening a new gym (more on that later).

Since slipping into the content consumption rabbit hole I’ve realized two things:

1. The disparity in teaching style and ability is almost unbelievable. Some people show a hodgepodge of techniques, others explain why things work, and some seem to simply enjoy speaking to a camera.

2. There’s no good solution to help you retain what you study. Writing down notes is okay, but it’s hard to access and make use of them later.

Right now, I don’t have a solution for the first one and I’m happy to chalk it up to different strokes for different folks. For the second I decided to make a simple database to organize my notes and instructional library. I’ve templatized a free version so you can organize and visualize your instructional notes and make the most of what you’re studying off the mats. Click on the image below to check it out.

I started Open Note Grappling when I began teaching more regularly. I figured it would be a good way to get better at communicating jiujitsu and ultimately make me a better instructor. Since consuming and creating more content I’ve noticed that the way a lot of people teach and train grappling leaves a lot to be desired. There’s a lot of, “This the way we’ve always done it” and “You have to figure this out on your own”. And while tradition and self-discovery are valuable they shouldn’t be the default responses to everything.

Practicing combat sports like Brazilian jiu-jitsu, no gi grappling, and mixed martial arts are already hard enough on their own. We don’t need to make studying and learning them harder. These tools, the rest of my content, and the gym my friends and I are starting all ameliorate the challenges that come with learning how to prevent someone technically superior to you from squishing you.

You definitely still need to get squished from time to time though.