Welcome to Issue #033 of Zen in the Art of Fighting

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Five Things Worth Sharing

1. One Good Picture: A Coach And Her Team

At the beginning of 2023, I started teaching jiu-jitsu at a local judo and taekwondo gym in the area. A bunch of the guys I teach decided to thrust themselves—ambitiously—into their first jiu-jitsu tournament after about four months of twice-a-week training with me. Bless them.

Teaching this group has been its own adventure, but coaching them live at a competition was a wild ride of its own. Writing this, my voice is still shot from trying to scream over speakers, over other coaches' cues, and over the throngs of fans from the opposing teams.

I have a whole new appreciation for anyone who has ever coached me in a competition and particularly empathize with...

• How impossible it is to be supportive of everyone at all times (e.g. when you have more than one student competing simultaneously).
• How challenging it is to give give good, real-time, actionable direction to someone in the absence of meaningful certainty about their situation (e.g. when I can't see where the person's grip is, so I can't tell my student whether to move in a certain way).
• How you can do your best to prepare people for what they might encounter (based with the grains of salt of your own experience), but you can't fight their fight for them.

I've had my doubts of whether I could stick with teaching jiu-jitsu and whether I've been effective, useful, or remotely good at it. I'll also be the first to admit that teaching jiu-jitsu isn't getting my best thinking or most effort relative to other things going on in my life right now.

But yesterday convinced me that what little I've done so far for this group has been worth it. I'm proud of their willingness to challenge themselves in competition and grateful for how coachable they were. The appreciation a few of them expressed for having me in their corner was very touching, and their excitement to come back to the gym to keep learning—and do whatever competition comes next—only makes me feel more invested and willing to keep rolling with it.

2. Something I'm Writing: A Preview + Interview of Alex Enriquez's Who's Number One Debut for FloGrappling​

After a hiatus of publishing shorter articles on FloGrappling, I pulled together a new piece on Alex Enriquez, a hot prospect in the world of no gi grappling who made her debut at the Who's Number One, one of the leading jiu-jitsu superfight promotions.

If FloGrappling were the kind of outlet that did op-eds, I'd want to write a little bit more about the things that happened around the match. In the grand scheme of the sport, the context of a match can be as interesting as what happens in the match itself. There are a few things I could dig into here regarding "things that happened around the match," but the one I feel most inclined to write about is Alex's post-match statement.

​Alex's post-match statement via Instagram was one of the classier, more professional statements I've heard from athletes in the sport ever since I started formally writing about it in the last year: acknowledging her opponent being better on that day, respecting her opponent for having a really thoughtful game plan, and thanking the promoting organization for the opportunity to be on the card.

This kind of statement from may seem like a small, table-stakes thing, but I believe statements like it are a bigger deal for jiu-jitsu. Relative to other sports, BJJ is nascent in terms of its professionalism, and in my last six years of training, I've noticed that when the sport mixes with social media, it tends to make a quick turn into navel-gazing and incendiary BS (which I differentiate from well-played, strategic trash talk). This phenomenon isn't restricted to the amateur or the elite levels of the sport. It happens across the board.

To see a high-level jiu-jitsu competitor make a statement like an athlete competing in a more professionalized sport is a step forward for jiu-jitsu. To Alex's credit, I think it's way harder to make an authentic-to-you-but-still-professional statement in defeat than in victory.

To Alex's additional credit, she also used the statement to address internet trolls who posted mean remarks questioning her gender in the comments of one of the promotional posts leading up to the fight. Alex is biologically female, but looks boyish due to her haircut and build. Living in a culture war period in which trans athletes in sports is a hot-button issue, no shortage of keyboard warriors pre-fight were quicker to allege that Alex was a man beating up on a woman (and to tear her down) than to appreciate her skill in a highlight reel used to generate buzz for the match. Alex making a statement about her sex and sharing her stance on biological fairness in combat sports isn't the kind of thing she should have had to do, but I applaud her for the courage in having done it.

I'll admit I have some personal bias here: I've trained with Alex for the last year and have a lot of respect for her as a teacher, training partner, and athlete. She leads by example in the gym, extremely humble, patient, and hardworking. She busted her ass in the camp for the debut, and while this one didn't go her way, I have reason to believe she'll come back stronger for it. Her grace and professionalism in the wake of the loss are as respectable as the effort and skill that won her a spot on the card.

3. Something I'm Reading: Bug's cookbooks, over his shoulder, as he contemplates recipes like these to make in his new, long-awaited setup of grill + smoker.

The recipe excerpt below is from Meathead: The Science of Great Barbecue and Grilling. It may be a scientific cookbook, but it has a good sense of humor.

Buy the book for BBQ knowledge, stay for the Muppets drama?

In all seriousness, I've done some homework on the author and his encyclopedic BBQ site, amazingribs.com, is very legit. It makes sense why he was invited to speak at Google about his expertise.

4. Something I'm Listening To: This podcast interview of longtime editor-in-chief of Esquire​, David Granger, which I discovered in one of my favorite newsletters (This Week Paul Likes by Paul Kix).

My favorite story within the interview is the story behind the loud Esquire cover aesthetic of "the wall of type." In a blunt, oversimplified sentence, it started because Daniel Craig, for all his allure and smoldering, looked too boring for the cover.

Craig was set to be on the cover of Esquire in September 2006 as part of a piece about his debut as James Bond. The shoot looked dull, and Granger, Editor-in-Chief, gave the direction to David Curcurito, Esquire's Creative Director, to use the Vietnam War Memorial (of all things) as the inspiration to fill the white space around Craig with sentence-long callouts about the features or concepts within the latest issue of the magazine.

The play with typography, layout, and general experimentation with "the wall of text" cover became one of the defining characteristics of Esquire during the Granger era:

Personally, I find this interesting as someone whose tech product management work now lies in the context of a creative agency: my day to day is with people who care deeply about how you grab attention with words alongside pictures and how you tactically generate something as esoteric as "a signature look." In turn, I have had to learn how you communicate effective direction to a more visual design-oriented (rather than user experience-oriented) creative team. This is very new for me.

More generally, I think it's a great story about the value of experimentation and the unexpected origins of ideas. And Daniel Craig definitely gets the last laugh on being considered "boring" in an ad or on a cover over time. If you ask me, this Belvedere ad may be his best performance to date. ​

5. Something I'm Watching: Succession

At the heavy recommendation of a friend, I've watched the pilot. I liked it, but I am not 110% gripped...yet.

If you're reading this and are a fan of Succession, reply back to tell me why you love it, why you think I might like it, and, if you feel so inclined, inspire me to keep watching for a reason other than relevance at the water cooler or understanding of pop culture memes and references.

That's all I've got for this edition.

See you in two weeks. If you can believe it, it'll be June!

EZ

PS: Tips about Succession aside, I always enjoy a good reply back, no matter what it's about! I especially appreciate notes on what you liked, what you didn't, and how I can make this biweekly missive even better.

PPS: We moved into our new home over the weekend! In case there were any questions about who's living the lushest life in the new house, it's these two in their dog beds.