Grounded Ramblings of a Veteran Grappler
Beyond Technique: Mastering the Mechanics and Mindset of Martial Arts.
Grounded Ramblings: BJJ & Mindset
Season 1
Chapter 1. Why Staying a Beginner Forever Makes You Better, And How I Do It.There is a moment before every shift and before every class where everything goes quiet. Uniform on the chair. Gi folded…
Chapter 1 Cop, Black Belt, and Survival Stories: What Law Enforcement Taught Me.It is a strange thing to reinvent yourself at 40. Most men are buying sports cars or settling into the long, comfortable slide…
Chapter 1:The Running Away That Becomes Running Toward Moving to Australia at 30: Why I Had to Rebuild My Life.In early 1999, I did what broken people sometimes do: I ran. My first wife had…
Chapter 1: Reporting for Duty This is about my Army Training, Portuguese Discipline and the Lifetime Impact in my life.It was 1991. The world was changing, but in Portugal, some things were still the same.…
You can spend years training Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. You can spend thousands of dollars. You can travel across the world chasing academies. And still end up nowhere, learning nothing, because you are learning the wrong…
White belt days Chapter 1 From Bare-Knuckle Fights to BJJ: Why I Changed Everything.I was never afraid of standing and trading punches or kicks, there’s a rush to feeling light on your feet and untoucheable.…
A Note on This Series Before we dive in, I want to be clear about why I'm sharing these stories. This blog series exists to educate, motivate, and inspire through my own lived experience. Over…
First Contact: UMMA Days My first real brush with Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu came at Ultimate Mixed Martial Arts in Heathmont, where the main syllabus was old-school Goju Ryu Karate with plenty of kata to keep…
I became utterly committed to it. Belts climbed, katas multiplied, and I genuinely believed I'd found my martial arts home. The philosophy was solid, the structure was clear, and there was something deeply satisfying about…
Intro Van Damme Inspired Me to Train Past 50. Growing up, my weekend evenings were never about clubs or crowds. They were about mission-driven pilgrimages to the neighbourhood video store. Those aisles, stacked floor to…