Links
Apr
20
Litmus Test and The Octo Shirt
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. . I think the Atwood-Octo shirt might be a smash hit. “Why?” you ask, because my sixteen year old daughter asked for one. My picky, American Eagle-wearing, persnickety teenager asked for one. That’s big. The Octo shirt has passed the litmus test, the one indicator of coolness—the American teenager. I wore this shirt to [...]
Apr
19
Octopus Gone Wild
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Matt Strack (Pedro Sauer black belt, owner of Soma Academy, and all around awesome dude) sent me this video. After watching this I know that the octopus is the right symbol for West Side. Octopus=West Side Academy, enjoy.
Apr
18
Jiu-Jitsu Delegates
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. . I encourage students from my school to visit and train at other gyms. I think it’s important. Even in my own gym, the instructors that teach at West Side vary in their attitudes and teaching styles—I like that. I’m not afraid of losing students to other gyms. I do worry about my own [...]
Apr
16
Giving Things Away is Tough
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Trust: there’s not a lot of it in the world. This week we had a parent/student meeting for the High School Jiu-Jitsu After School Program we are starting next week at West Side. The turn out was great, but I did have some skeptical parents. Parents, who after the meeting pulled me aside and asked, [...]
Apr
14
Atwood Octo and the Skulltopus
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Finally the logos are being finalized for West Side (what a pain in the butt). What I do like about going through the process of choosing and developing a logo is that it forces you to look at your school, to look at your instructors and students, to look at your parents and yourself. It’s [...]
Apr
13
Go Octopus!
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Who says the octopus is not dangerous to man? This poor guy got a tentacle slapped upside his head–I told you the octopus was bad. I saw a strand of red kelp drifting by. I noticed a line of white suckers running along it. Next something heavy dumped on my head. Another tentacle with delicate [...]
Apr
10
Jump then Fly
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. . . If you’re going to start something that is risky, like starting a jiu-jitsu school, after all your dreaming and analyzing and researching sooner or later you must jump. You must take that leap into the unknown. Close your eyes and have courage, leap. I jumped about eight years ago, but what I’ve [...]
Apr
9
Jiu-Jitsu Saves
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Sometimes I wonder what I would be doing without jiu-jitsu. I see people on the street or working in a cubicle or shooting hoops and I think “Your life would be so much better if you trained in jiu-jitsu.” Yeah, I know it’s weird, but I feel sorry for them. So, I’m going to go [...]
Apr
8
HSJJ Parent Meeting
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April 13th is the official parent meeting for West Side’s High School Jiu-Jitsu after school program. I’m excited. I was digging through some old photos and I found some pictures from the very first HSJJ class I started in 2002. I think jiu-jitsu is the perfect medium to help kids not only find out who [...]
Apr
7
The Jiu-Jitsu Dog
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When I was growing up in California I never had the chance to own a dog—my family lived in reduced-housing apartments—no pets allowed. Much to my mom’s dismay, I did have a few snakes; they weren’t, however, a dog. Man’s best friend doesn’t eat rats and shed its skin. It’s hard to teach a snake [...]
