Roberto 'Cyborg' Abreu shares some basics on positining in the half guard for nogi grappling. Cyborg then demonstrates a drill he uses for switching sides in the half guard and for recovering the position if lost. After going through these fundamentals he shows us a nice set up for a straight arm lock.

Eric Williams is a noted celebrity photographer based in Los Angles California. He's been shooting portraits of famous actors, musicians, and sports icons for years. There is a long tradition of fine art portraits of celebrities, but now MMA athletes are receiving the same treatment. Just one more indication that the sport has begun to become mainstream.

Troll Creek Jiu-Jitzsu is a cartoon created by Ola Lanteli. He and his son train together, and this started as a fun project for the two of them. Soon there were drawings of troll jiu-jitsu everywhere and Ola started a training blog for the trolls here.

If you've never heard of the legendary Aesopian BJJ Blog, you either hate Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, or you don't believe in the interwebs. The guys at Aesopian were blogging BJJ long before it was cool. And speaking of cool...

Our friends at Iron Lion asked us to shower with them...

In his final week, Marcelo Garcia shares some modifications that you can make to your butterfly guard if you find yourself getting beaten by stronger or more aggressive players. Sometimes setting your feet on the mat can create problems when your opponent charges in with a lot of speed and power and you can't react fast enough.

Our friend Jesus Carlos (J.C.) recently attended a seminar in Germany with Rolles Gracie and got a chance to sit down with Rolles at a post seminar cookout and ask him some questions. Thanks for sharing J.C. !

In this segment Marcelo Garcia shares a 2 on 1 hook sweep, along with a couple of variations for if you loose your controls on the arm. When grappling nogi, it is much easier to loose the grip controls so it's important to practice this technique with the variations until it becomes second nature. Think of variation number one as a gift from your opponent, but be ready with variation two and three if you find they're not in such a giving mood!

Guest Contributor Nicolas Gregoriades is the founder of the Jiu-Jitsu Brotherhood. He was the first person to be awarded the black belt by the legendary Roger Gracie. He is widely regarded as one of the outstanding jiu-jitsu instructors contributing to the art today. By combining deep conceptual and technical knowledge with a methodical, patient teaching style, Nic ensures all his students learn quickly and enjoyably. Nic has been experimenting with supplementation for many years and shares some of his experience in this article.

Dreams:  Impossibly fragile.  Easily discarded.

In our teens most of us stopped imagining a life of stardom, athletic achievement, or adventure when we decided others were more intelligent or talented or simply had opportunities denied us.  Later, after landing our first real job, the cold weight of responsibility slowly crushed visions of incredible personal success.