Rickson Gracie recently sat down with our friends at BJJ Hacks and shared his thoughts on Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu competitions, stalling, approaches to training, modern MMA and what training means to him.

If you're in the New England area this weekend you should make plans to join us at the North Woods Escape! Enjoy a long weekend of training, white water rafting, paintball, cookouts, and good old fashioned Maine camping fun!

When we travel for the newsletter it’s always fun to shoot video and learn the new techniques. But a lot of the time the best part of the trip happens off camera. We get to meet new friends, hang out on the mats after training and hear amazing stories, and sometimes share a meal and just enjoy the jiu-jitsu lifestyle.

It’s been two weeks since the 2011 IBJJ Worlds Tournament, and I’ve sat down to write this article 4 or 5 times.  Every time, I get caught up in describing the beautiful submissions and well calculated strategies that were on display in all the belt classes over the course of four days.

Eddie Kone was awarded his black belt from none other than Royler Gracie and is head of the EKBJJ Association that has clubs in the UK, Ireland, Romania and Brazil; as a result of these clubs, Eddie spends a lot of his time travelling to deliver seminars to make sure that his students get the best tuition possible, which in turn sees Eddie travelling the world to hunt down the best teachers on the planet, year in year out.

The Northwest Submission Challenge tournament is being held April 23rd 2011 in Boise, ID.

To maintain your energy level at a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu competition you need to eat. But eating too much, or the wrong things, or at the wrong times is much worse than not eating enough.