Good Enough to Get Hurt
This essay was first published in The Bittersweet Science published by University of Chicago Press. People will tell you that fear and pain are the worst things you have to deal with in life, but this is wrong. Fear is energy. Fear can sharpen you, and people even get addicted to it. Pain also…
Great Masters of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu
On November 12, 1993 Hélio Gracie watches from the crowd as Royce, the youngest of his seven sons, jogs to a steel cage at the head of a long line of family members. As they pass, Hélio meets his son’s eyes, his leonine gaze steeling the young man’s courage. If Hélio, has an ounce of…
The Principles of Effective Punching
The principles of effective punching are: deception, weight transference, and placement. Ideally a blow will utilize all three but any one of them is enough to create a punch that will knock the average man unconscious. If a man is expecting to get hit, if he can see the punch coming and steel himself to…
The Jab
The knowledge that you can knock a man out with one punch, that however far behind you fall in the fight you can pull it out with one shot can be dangerous in a fighter. It can lead to passivity in the early rounds and letting a match slip away. The Jab is different. The…
