The Academy Has A New Home!!! 18 Ashmont St. Portland

After a more than a decade in the Riverside location…. We’ve finally upgraded to an even nicer spot.

18 Ashmont St. Portland.

More open space. More S&C options.

More garage doors.

It’s so nice.

We look forward to staring this new chapter with all of you.

See you on the mats.

Jay & Mandy

Product Review: Knucklebone

If you do BJJ….. hand strength and dexterity are a really important asset. There’s a TON of gear out there to help you develop it. 

Even if you have all the hand strength and dexterity you need…. Your hands are probably sore as shit…. Like ALL the time. Every strength and conditioning equipment supplier has a section on hand strength and recovery. It’s THAT important. 

I just wrote an article on a really cool set meditation beads called Komboloi. While falling down that rabbit hole I discovered a company called Aroundsquare (AO2) some of the coolest rehab/prehab/recovery equipment I’ve found in a while. Thing is….. They aren’t marketing it like that. They’re calling them “skill toys”. But… What I see are super high quality hand conditioning gear. They have a few really interesting things that fit this same idea. But…. the one I want to focus on are their Knucklebone. 

The Kbone is essentially a dumbbell for your fingers! 

Here’s a video of it in use. There are a million tutorials on their youtube channel.

They have different sizes and weights so you can make progressions as you get stronger, or to meet different training goals, or hand size. They have tutorials on different patterns. I’ve tested these out with different athletes at our academy. And they all agree….. Their hands feel healthier, stronger, and less painful overall. The arthritis in my hands has become noticeably less painful. And, I’ve hit a few PR’s in hand strength events in the Strongman work I’ve been doing!

Now….. These benefits make sense. Hell…. They LOOK like dumbbells for fuck sake. But….. I’ve discovered there are some unexpected effects these things can have. 

Just like with the Komboloi….. They’re having a huge effect on my screen time. I am on screens like 75% less than before I found AO2. And…. That is a HUGE unexpected benefit. The Knucklebones are quiet. So… I can use them really inconspicuously like waiting in line for coffee or something out in public. Komboloi are kinda noisy and obvious. But these…. Most don’t even notice them in my hand. I an WAAAAY less likely to mindless scroll with a Kbone on me. And reduced screen time has a TON of positive effects.

I have Physical, and Occupational Therapists looking at AO2’s gear for application in their work. Hell….. I’m even seeing studies on their benefits for people dealing with PTSD, and Anxiety. It’s becoming clear that these things are so much more than just “toys”. 

Combat Sports Athletes. Strength Athletes. Rock Climbers. Musicians. Students.I’m encouraging basically everyone to check AO2 out. Whether your are focusing on your hand strength/health…. Or trying to reduce screen time….. Or manage stress/anxiety…. AO2 has the gear. The Knucklebones are my favorite thing they make at this time. But ALL their gear has the same effect on the hands and brain. Just pick the gear that speaks to you the most. The one you will actually use will be the most effective in the long run. 

(For a limited time, the promo code THEACADEMY will get you a 10% discount on any product at aroundsquare.)

WTF is a Komboloi? (breath-work revisited)

Yeah…. I know this is supposed to be a BJJ blog. But breath-work/mindfulness/meditation, has been part of martial arts since the beginning of martial arts. So….. It’s totally related. Deal with it. 

In the last article article about breath control. In it…. I suggested using Mala Beads to count your breath during mindfulness or meditation. I made a statement in that article that every culture in the world had some form of it. Rosaries, Prayer Ropes, Tasbih,  etc….. And that sent me down a rabbit hole of looking at each culture's versions looking for universality. And, I did see a lot of similarities. 

But….. 

Then I found the Greek Komboloi. 

Komboloi are the Greek version of mindfulness/prayer beads. But….. unlike almost every other culture’s version…. They have always been entirely secular. They have no affiliation with any religious entity at all. This is appealing to me. I believe in the benefits of mindfulness without needing to attach magical properties to the practice. So…. It’s history fits my ethos. Just like the Mala beads from my article….. I use the beads for the functional purpose of counting breaths in my meditation practice. 

But…. The Komboloi have another really interesting feature.

The traditional version has a lot of extra cord in the design.

This allows the beads to be swung and “flipped”.

The best way to describe it is that it’s reminiscent of flipping a “butterfly” knife.

That was a thing I spent HOURS doing as a kid. So it spoke to me immediately. It felt natural as soon as I picked it up. I looked online and found people doing “tricks”, and interesting patterns with them. And I was captivated playing my homemade set of Komboloi. This led me to a really amazing discovery. This “time passing” aspect of the beads has cut my screen time way down. Apparently…… A large portion of my looking at a screen is just boredom. Mindless time passing. And given another option….. I apparently will take it. In the last few weeks I’ve had my Komboloi in my hand instead of my phone a HUGE percentage of time. Yes I’ll still use my phone when I actually want to connect. But mindless scrolling…. That has given way to playing the Komboloi.

Now….. All this is well and good. But…. You can’t use something you don’t have on you. And….. I really don’t like the feel of even more shit stuffed in my pocket. I had gotten used to the feel and look of Mala beads on my wrist. But really wanted the playable aspect of the Komboloi. Enter…..  Aroundsquare. 

I stumbled upon an amazing company called Aroundsquare. They make what they refer to as Skill Toys. All these different devices that can be played and mastered. They are very big in the “Begleri” community. The Begleri is the skill toy that developed from the Komboloi. People focused on the skillful play aspect and got away from counting the breath. This led to a single string with just a bead (or two) on the ends. Studying up on the Komboloi and it’s derivatives landed me at AO2. But they make more than just Begleri. They make loads of cool stuff. I’m testing a ton of their gear as we speak. But… I’m sticking to Komboloi in this article. 

I started talking to Matt Hiebert, AO2’s owner about making a “wearable” version of the Komboloi. And in a moment of synchronicity…. He showed me a prototype he had already been working on!!! A Mala/Komboloi “hybrid”. There’s a Lock bead where the “guru/priest” bead would be. 

This lets you cinch it up and wear them like a set of Mala beads. Or….. Slide it out and play it like a traditional Komboloi set.

This is the perfect combination of form and function.

He agreed to market test the idea and make a beta run to see if anyone is into it. Following his design, I rigged up a set on my own to test out. 

For me….. It’s perfect. Wearing it keeps my meditation practice in my mind and available 24/7. It also gives me a skill based mindfulness practice right at my fingertips that cuts my screen time down dramatically. And….. It looks badass to boot!!! Most of AO2’s gear is a super clean, minimalist, metal aesthetic. The pictured pair is Titanium. Their gear is ART! 

Anyway…. That’s it. My story of how I got into the Komboloi. And why you should too! If you’re interested in the wearable version…. Check out ao2worldwide.com and keep an eye out for their one of a kind komboloi design. They should be coming out soon.

Breathe

Last time I talked about fixing your face. And I said the next thing was fixing your breath, and your thoughts. These two steps are actually tied together. The answer to your brain IS your breath. I wouldn’t be alive today if I hadn’t learned to control my mind. I was a  really fucked up kid. Severe emotional issues. Been to jail. Been hospitalized. When I was really young, I thought I was the hulk because, I could feel the anger start and then I would “come to” and realize I had flipped out. I hurt myself. I hurt people. No one thought I would make it. I didn’t think I would make it. Then…. I learned how to control my breathing. It changed everything. 

For decades I’ve been telling people this. And I get a version of the same response. “How is taking oxygen in supposed to change anything?”. They’re usually incredulous when they say it. And I get it….. When the shrink in the hospital told me that…. I wanted to fucking kill them. Not hyperbole….. I would turn over a table and start swinging and get put in the “quiet room” again. The thought that some bullshit like breathing could do ANYTHING for my burned out husk of a life was infuriating. I hated that answer. But…. Every hospital. Every doctor. Every mentor. Every Budhhist text. Every Stoic text. Every coach. Every martial art. EVERY FUCKING ONE was like…. Kid…. You gotta control your breath. And…. When I finally listened. It all changed. 

So before I tell you how to do it….. We gotta overcome the first objection. 

How can this be real….. How the fuck is this supposed to work? Here are some ways. And none of them involve hippy shit. 

• Daily Practice: Any daily goal oriented practice can have a massive positive effect on mentality. Breathing is literally the lowest buy in activity. You will be doing it anyway. It doesn’t even need a decision to “do”. You just need to decide to “attend” to it. But setting a “daily practice” (regardless of what it is) and sticking to it has been proven to have effects on health disproportionate to actual activity and its direct benefits. A daily practice of any kind will fill this bill. Why NOT make it something this easy and beneficial. 

• Shifting Out Of “Fight Or Flight”: Slowing your breathing can shift the body out of Sympathetic Nervous System activation and into Parasympathetic Nervous System activation. This can impact health in a couple of ways: 

  • It can reduce chronic SNS activation, and overall stress levels. 

  • It can give you an answer for an acute activation of the SNS. Being able to intentionally deactivate the SNS, and activate the PNS is a potentially life saving skill for some with mental health issues. And of great benefit to anyone in a tense line of work. First responders. Military. Pro athletes. Any high stress, performance oriented, line of work can benefit from being able to choose which system is in play to which degree, and at what time. I know that I am only still alive because at the choice point…. I could breath and slow down and not just give into the current and be pulled into oblivion. 

• Thought control: To do this practice you have to focus on the task. And because it is a very repetitive, non skilled, no risk, task…. Your brain will try to automate it fast. And you will notice tons of other thoughts trying to steal your attention. This is a very deep practice. It sounds like “yeah…. Just focus” but it’s more than that. Just like there are two different nervous system activations you’re mastering shifting through….. There are two other systems you’re trying to master. Cognitive, and Automated. Your brain is ALWAYS trying to save operational processing space in your mind, by pushing shit off of the cognitive list and into automated list. It is one of our necessary functions. The problem with this for people struggling, are that some thoughts become automated and feel “beyond your control”. They become these super destructive, distracting things. They can create all these waves of emotions that crash over us,and just like waves, drown us. And these thoughts just hammer you. To be able to count your breath you are realistically, using focus to prevent a thought pattern (counting) from slipping into automation. And because focus requires exclusion, you’re practicing not letting automated thoughts (temporarily) access your processing space. THIS is the hidden value. Not counting breathing. Who the fuck cares about counting fucking breaths. That in itself is just pointless. But…… Being able to assert control over which list a thought is on….. That is a fucking survival skill. When an automated thought that doesn’t serve me but still tries to push into my brain….. I know that I can use focus to take it off the automated list. I can put my attention on it and reprogram it. And once reprogrammed….. Let my brain push it back into automated but in a way I designed. A way that serves me. And….. When this is not possible…. And the thought refuses be reprogrammed….. I know that when it screams for space in my head I AT LEAST have the skill to focus on... A task to use the minds natural selective attention during concentration to give me a break from the horrible thought till it passes. And it WILL pass. Bring me to the next point. 

• Emotional Control: Emotions are like weather, and your mind is like your house…. They pass over your house…. But they are not your house. Emotions can be amazing. And you can choose to open up the windows, or go sit out on the porch and enjoy the weather. Or….. You can go inside and ride out the blizzard. You can choose to experience them. Or…. Choose to let them pass. The problem is for us…. That our thoughts and our emotions are connected. There’s a feedback loop that happens. Thoughts can create emotions, and emotions can create thoughts. Which…. Is both the problem….. AND the answer. We can have a random thought, a memory of a bad event…. And that memory will generate an emotion. And that is fine….. It’s like weather coming. But then that emotion will generate another thought and that brings another emotion and so on and so on… until we’ve been sucked out of our house and are dying in a blizzard. So….. What the fuck do you do? When you have the thought you can’t help it. They just pop up when there’s processing space available. The emotion is tied to it so now it’s there. The weather has now happened. The next step is to control your thoughts. If the secondary thoughts and emotions don’t get a hold of you……. You can ride out a storm inside the house. But every thought that grabs you…. Drags you farther and farther out into the storm. You can’t “control” your emotions. They WILL occur. You can only not let them control you. And to do that…. You MUST be able to control your thoughts and which nervous system you’re operating in. Bad thoughts, will kick you into SNS, slam an emotion into you and start to generate more thoughts and the cycle starts. You have to recognize it, and do your breathing. This keeps you from tipping into SNS, and helps keep the secondary thoughts from taking hold. This lets you ride out the weather that is happening to your house until it passes. And it will pass. Everything changes. But that’s another discussion. Just know that it does. 

So…. Those are some explanations as to WHY you should learn to control your breath. Explanations that don’t sound like some hippy woo woo bullshit. 

So…. Now we’re left with the question…. 

How? 

There are literally hundreds of different types of breathing practices. And I can only tell you about the two that I do. I think that all the practices are just variations on a theme and that all meditation, mindfulness, prayer, breath work, are ALL just trying to get to the same place. But…. These are the ones I do. 

1- Emergency/Tactical: 

    This is the one I learned first. And the one that had the greatest impact on me. Anyone that’s ever fought or competed at a high level for us will recognize this one. Anyone that has had me help them with deep emotional trouble will recognize this. “Inhale, and swallow it”. Yeah…. That sounds stupid. Who cares. It works. Inhale as deep as you can (won’t be much as you’re in an emergency/fight/sporting event and are breathing stupid hard). Inhale as deep as you can and swallow it. Hold….. Hold as long as you can. And then….. Let it go. Do not try to slow it down. Do not try to regulate it. You waste more energy “trying” to control it. Don’t fight with it.…... LET. IT. GO. Yes….. That’s also what you are doing emotionally. Focus on the task. Shifting down the SNS. Letting go of the emotions, and thoughts. Not just the breath. But…. at that moment. None of that matters. Only the breath. After about 2-3 of those cycles….. You will feel different. Not woo woo fairy farts and rainbows feel different. Physiologically shifted. Heart rate lowered. Breath rate lowered. Stress hormones lowered. Oxygen saturation changed. This is not some bullshit “feeling” nonsense. This is real. You’ve changed something. At that point…. You can either stay at the more appropriate arousal level for the event at hand. Or….. Now that you’ve gotten yourself out of the tailspin…. Do the work that remains to slow ALL the way down. 

2- Daily Practice: This one…. Is much harder for me. I KNOW a lot of the deeper benefits are in the DAILY practice.  And yet….. I still struggle to get myself to do it. I maybe get in about 2-3 days a week. I started wearing mala beads from time to time as a reminder to do the work. And that helps. If they’re on my wrist I tend to get it done. But…. I don’t always wear them, as anything that wasn’t in the 80’s punk rock/hardcore scene doesn’t feel natural to me. But…. I digress….. Counting your breathing out: 

There are five million different daily practices. But the one that I have always gravitated towards was “box” breathing. Counting the phases of a breath. Inhale 1 2 3- Hold 1 2 3, Exhale 1 2 3, Hold 1 2 3. That is one cycle. Now….. How long do you do this for or how many cycles? Some people count the cycles and I think that’s fucking impossible so i threw that one out the window.  But, if you don’t do that…. You do gotta have some way to measure. Obvious answer…. Timer. Done. Set a timer. Do your work. There are other ways to mark time. Some people use music. Tape over= session over. I know people that have done a stick of incense. And then…. There are beads. Technically…. That’s not time it’s cycles. But whatever. I like using beads for a number of reasons. 

• Low tech. I always choose simple, low tech. 

• Successive approximation. Some people find this daily practice incredibly hard. I did/do. But you can start with literally one fucking bead. Start one bead from the end. Just do one fucking breath. And tomorrow…. Or next week. Start two beads away. After a while…. You are doing long stretches. I’m working on a small set of mala beads. 27 beads (traditionally). Takes about 6 minutes. And for me…. That’s a fucking accomplishment. 108 beads is the traditional full size mala, and that would be like 20 minutes. I’d love to be able to do that. But…… I’m just trying to get the 6 minutes solid first. Baby steps. I would likely just do the small mala more times before I got and carried a larger mala. But….. That goes back to simplicity. 

• Gives me something tactile to do. Another step in the process. In, hold, out, hold, take a bead, repeat. Something about it feels “right”. 

Truth is….. What manner you give yourself for tracking time doesn’t really matter. As long as the way works, and feels like it’s helpful to the process, or at the very least doesn’t take away from it. Just find a way you like and do it. 

And that’s the last note…. Just do the practice. Yeah….. You should set up a nice quiet place. Sit or lay comfortably so there’s not more thoughts fighting for space. Set yourself up for success. Hell….. We’ve always had a “meditation” area in the house made for this. Even then…… I STILL find it hard to do. So….. don’t hang up on perfect. Just do the damn thing. I’ve done my breathing while driving on the highway (don’t close your eyes). I’ve done it sitting in an airport on a layover (totally closed my eyes). You don’t NEED some special set up. It’s just fucking breathing. Don’t make complexity your excuse to not do it. 

That’s it. 

You fixed your face. Now master your breathing.

FIX YOUR FACE!!!

Anyone that has ever hear me coach has heard me yelling this.
Your face. Your breathing. Your thoughts. In that order. You can't fight for shit if your thoughts are haywire. You can't think if your breathing is crazy. You can't even begin the idea of controlling ANYTHING if you can't even control your face. The muscles that make facial expressions don't help you breathe or concentrate. That's a CHOICE. You're CHOOSING to make that face. Maybe it's a vent cause everything feels horrible. And we gotta fix that. Because it shouldn't be horrible. You shouldn't be past your limit. We train to increase your limit so you can be comfortable in the process. You shouldn't need a vent.
Even when it does suck.....
You can't fucking vent.
It's a fucking disease. An addiction.
Every time you reach for that fucking blankey to make it feel better, you're strengthening that choice. And that brings us to the next even worse reason you do it.
HABIT.
Making a fucking whingey baby pout face has just become a fucking habit. You literally aren't even aware you are doing it. Hell.... You aren't really even suffering to the point it's leaking out. It's just a habit to act fucking weak. And that makes me want to vomit when I see it.
Your face is not connected to any of that! I can't stimulate ANY point on a cadaver below the neck and make it make that fucking face. It IS NOT necessary. It is a choice. Don't let that choice happen. And for fuck sake don't make that choice so much you give it permission to happen without your consent.
Fix your face.
It all starts there.
If you don't have THAT you don't have anything.
Give it the attention it deserves.
Face. Then.... Breathing. Then Thoughts.
We can tackle the rest later.
But for now.....
Fix your fucking face.