White Belt Jiu-Jitsu › Contents
Start here
It's being written as one book. Here's the whole thing, in order.
All of this is one book, written a section at a time and published here as it's finished. Fourteen chapters, in the order somebody would actually need them.
Nothing here replaces training with a real instructor. It's for everything around that — the questions you didn't want to interrupt class with, and the things nobody thinks to explain because they learned them too long ago.
For somebody who hasn't started, or has just walked in.
Choosing where to trainBeing written
What to look for, what to ask, and what should worry you on a first visit.
What the belts actually meanBeing written
How long it really takes, what a stripe is, and why comparing yourself never helps.
The spine of the whole thing. If you read one part, read this one.
Learning to relax
Why you gas out, where the nagging injuries come from, and what to do about it before and during a round.
What to think about while you train
Working out what actually went wrong, instead of fixing the last thing that happened.
Everything that decides whether you're still training in five years.
Tapping
The punctual tap — not early, not late — and why upper belts tapping less isn't what you think.
Pain, consciousness and injury
The two systems protecting you, and what's left when either one fails.
Who you roll with
Why skill is safety, how hard to go with whom, and what to say before a round.
Being the partner people want
Drilling with resistance in steps, applying slowly enough to be tapped, and staying under eight.
The only technical part, and deliberately narrow.
Surviving underneathBeing written
Frames, breathing, and what to do when somebody bigger is on top of you.
What to leave alone for nowBeing written
The things to skip in your first year, and what it costs if you don't.
The social rules nobody writes down and everybody is judged by.
Mat etiquetteBeing written
Hygiene, class conduct, and being somebody people want to train with.
Gym lifeBeing written
Bags, frequency, recovery, and warming up on your own.
The part that decides whether you're still doing this in ten years.
Is this normal?Being written
Getting tapped constantly, month three, and feeling like you got worse at six months.
The road to blue beltBeing written
The four stripe checkpoints, worked through in order.
Get these as they're written
One signup, two things: the guide to your first eighteen months as a PDF, and then everything else here as it goes up — one idea at a time, no schedule to keep up with, nothing to buy. Useful whether you tied a white belt on last month or you've been at this ten years.
Send them to me