Category: Osagame
The Cheerful Assassin
One of the women in our club is, honest to God, just about the nicest person you would ever want to meet. She’s kind, considerate, and caring. She is also unfailingly pleasant (and the curator of insanely good snacks, like wasabi Kit Kats —- sweet and spicy and crunchy all together). Chatting with her or…
How You Roll is Who You Are
There’s a feeling in the grappling community that we reveal something about ourselves by how we grapple; that our style of fighting is a reflection of something about ourselves and our character. How we fight, is bound up with how we live. I think there’s something true about that. Broadly speaking (VERY broadly speaking) there…
Learning Your Name
There’s a story that pops up from time to time on the grappling boards, Valerie Worthington tells a version of it here. It goes something like this: ‘ I was a white belt and tried to be friendly with other people at the academy but no one wanted to learn my name. In fact, one…
Paralympic Judoka
I competed in Jiu Jitsu for the first time at 51. The woman who beat me was 20. And wow, did she ever beat me. Squished me like a bug. But I felt great, I felt like a real winner. And I felt like a winner because I went into that fight knowing I was…
Teaching is Learning
In my regular life I’m a Math teacher. I teach everything from Geometry to Calculus, and I’ve been doing it for 20 years. I’ve used a LOT of different techniques to teach. I’ve used Skill and Drill, Intellectual Scavenger Hunts, Puzzles & Games. I’ve used cooperative learning; Think, Pair, Share, Shoulder Partners, Group Projects. You…
What’s with all the Turtles?
If you just walked into Osagame off the street you might notice a little more than just a awesome Mat room, some serviceable bathrooms and a bunch of cubbies. You might also notice lots and lots of turtles. You might see turtle sculptures made of wood, ceramic and clay. You might see stuffed animal turtles…
Conditioning Doesn’t Suck
No, it doesn’t suck It’s actually pretty fabulous As I was reading Ray’s post, Conditioning Sucks, I kept thinking how I disagree. I LOVE LOVE LOVE the gym. I could be there for hours. When I was seriously bodybuilding leg day often took 2 – 3 hours. I was preparing to write a counterpost in…
Conditioning Sucks
I know that conditioning and strength training is important to be as good as you can be. I know that it’s important to be as good as I can be, and I did a lot when I was competing regularly. But I really don’t like doing a lot of outside conditioning. I just don’t. For…
Stones in the River
I had a really bad knee injury in March of 2012. Then surgery. Then rehab, rehab rehab. When they first told me it would take a year to get back to the mat I didn’t believe them. I thought maybe they were exaggerating. But here’s the thing about doctors —- they go to medical school…
Getting Heavy
Almost exactly 6 years physicists discovered the Higgs-Boson particle, which had been predicted but not proven, and that is awesome. The Higgs-Boson particle is what gives us mass, which is what gives us weight. And ‘us’ is a big word here. By ‘us,’ I mean all tangible and theoretically tangible things. People, notebooks, mats, that…
