A Look Back At Year One

May 1, 2020

jeff.shaw News No comments

One year ago today, we opened our new academy in downtown Bellingham. If you’re reading this, you joined us at some point in the last year — so thank you for that. Thank you for sharing a host of great memories from the first 365 days, and thank you for sticking with us during the current closure. It’s been an incredible season. In just our first year as an academy we’ve: * Hosted seminars by people we love and admire, such as Dominyka Obelenyte, Dave Camarillo, Felicia Oh, Seph Smith, Jake Whitfield, Cody Maltais, Pete McGregor, D’Juan Owens, Jeff Glover, Read more »

How to Fail Correctly

February 12, 2020

jeff.shaw Goals 3 comments

One of toughest things to do — in life or in jiujitsu — is to fail properly. But wait! I hear you say: If we’re failing, aren’t we, by definition, doing it wrong? Not at all: Failure is a part of everything, and the way we react to failure determines everything. Jiujitsu is powerful because it is utterly unforgiving of the little myths our minds tend to create. During my first ever jiujitsu sparring session, I assumed my high school wrestling background would make me relatively safe from non-wrestlers’ takedowns. A few years later, I assumed I was safe from Read more »

How Do We Know Jiu-Jitsu Works?

August 15, 2018

jeff.shaw Intro to BJJ No comments

Jiu-jitsu is science, not magic.

What is science, and why is it distinct from magic (however magical scientific findings might seem)? The scientific method is based on observable reality, where you experiment, observe the results, develop an understanding which you refine over time, and repeat. Magical thinking is the opposite: you draw conclusions that you can’t prove. I ate ice cream for lunch, and then it rained later: I should eat ice cream when the garden needs watering. Or, as we hear all too often in the context of martial arts: my system is so deadly we can’t spar, or I’d hurt you.

What’s the best way to determine whether a fighting system is effective? Science. Take a practitioner of that system. Put them in a controlled environment (i.e., a cage) where there are very few variables (i.e. rules), see what happens, and then repeat over and over.

The early Ultimate Fighting Championships were an extended experiment, and a very valuable one.

Goals for Jiu-Jitsu: A Modest Proposal About Abundance

May 28, 2018

jeff.shaw Goals One comment

I just want everybody to train jiu-jitsu. Everybody, everywhere.

That’s unrealistic, right? Sure, but every goal should start out unreasonable. If you start by telling yourself you’ll be happy with a 30 percent successful outcome, you’ll hit a lot of targets, but you’ll also shortchange your potential a fair bit.

Sure, it’s impossible to convince every single person I meet to train jiu-jitsu with a 100 percent success rate. Let’s talk about a tinier success rate, then — let’s say that rate is one percent.

Imagine your community is a mid–size city, somewhere between the average American town population of 20,000 and, say, 100,000. Think of between 2,000 and 10,000 people actively doing jiu-jitsu just in the town where you live. How many gyms could that support? How many Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu tournament competitions, MMA fights, superfight events, seminars? How many fun community events that also inspire people to train?

We Believe

February 20, 2018

jeff.shaw Our Principles No comments

We believe that jiujitsu is for everyone. Not everyone has the same goals or the same ceiling, but everyone can improve their life by training. We believe in constant improvement. Everyone in your life knows something that you don’t. Every person on the mat can help you get better at something. We believe in being good training partners. Your training partner is the most important person in the gym. Train so both people get something out of the class. We believe in training hard and training smart. If we never spar hard, we don’t get all the benefits jiujitsu offers Read more »

About the Logo

January 26, 2018

jeff.shaw Our Principles No comments

We wanted a logo that reflected the art we practice, the place we’re in, and how we feel about training. (Plus, it had to look cool). The artist and designer Zita Voros did this logo for us: The triangle has been a consistent symbol of Brazilian jiu-jitsu throughout the years. Here in Bellingham we also live in the shadow of Mount Baker, an active volcano, so the logo doubles as a mountain with fire inside — an ode to Koma Kulshan. Besides, we’ve always been fond of this quotation from the Roman philosopher Plutarch: “The mind is not a vessel Read more »