I’m Matt Kirtley aka Aesopian, a BJJ black belt. My writings:
- Prescience and OODA Loops: Navigating the Chaos of Grappling
- The Fundamental Principles of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu
- The White Belt Struggle: How to Push Through It
- Concept-Based Learning in BJJ
- Plant-Based Diet Basics for Vegan Grapplers
- Stop Falling for “One Weird Trick” – 7 Good Habits to Build Instead
- The Four BJJ Archetypes – Which Are You?
- Challenging the Traditional Methods of Teaching Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu
- How to Return to BJJ After a Long Break
- Fight the Funk: Health and Hygiene for BJJ
- The Right and Wrong Way to Think About Belts
- The Right Approach to Earning Your Blue Belt
- Breaking Down Techniques: Reverse Engineering in BJJ
- What to Do When Your Progress Stalls Out
- How Mistakes Define Your Jiu-Jitsu
- Accelerate Your Learning by Turning Drills into Games
- Get More Gains Out of Open Mat
- 10,000 Hours is Not a Magic Number
- The Four Stages of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu
- How to Maximize Learning Potential Every Class
- The “Thinking 99 Moves Ahead” Myth
- Real Learning is Not All Smiles
- The Balancing of Opposites
- The Four Stages of Learning
- My Personal Code of Ethics as an Instructor
- Adding Unorthodox Techniques to Your Game
- My Rules as an Instructor
- You Learn Even on the Bad Days
- Building Your Gameplan Around Combo Attacks
- How to Fully Develop Your Grappling Gameplan
- Surviving the First Year of BJJ: A Crash Course for White Belts
- 10 Ways to Improve Your BJJ While Off the Mats
- The Four Corners of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu
- Are You Playing to Win or to Just Not Lose?
- Are You in a Jiu-Jitsu Cult?