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Archives for Valerie Worthington » Page 2
val worthington, valerie worthington, bjj, mma, brazilian jiu jitsu, grappling

About Valerie Worthington

Valerie Worthington has been moving her body since before she was born, for many reasons and with many outcomes. She really started to pay attention to how, when, and why her body moves when she began training in Brazilian jiu jitsu in 1998. From then on, she became hugely invested in educating herself about how to optimize her body movement for BJJ and how to support it in doing so. She has observed that these endeavors require her to invest herself not only physically, but also mentally, emotionally, and psychologically, fueling a particular interest in the influence on her life of these dimensions of athletic activity.

Valerie has developed as a BJJ practitioner via her own training and competition preparation, teaching and coaching other practitioners, and writing about her life as a jiu jitsu devotee through the lens of her education, personal experiences, and professional background. She holds a bachelor’s degree in English literature from Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire, and a doctorate in educational psychology from Michigan State University. She is a first-degree black belt in BJJ, as well as co-founder and proprietor of Groundswell Grappling Concepts. She trains at Princeton Brazilian Jiu Jitsu in Princeton, New Jersey.

Most recently, Valerie is the author of How to Love a Grappler: A Guide for People Who Love People Who Love Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.

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Valerie Worthington

Fitness

  • The 4 Stages of Acquiring Skill Sets
  • Sciatica and the Sciatic Nerve
  • Foot Beats Face: Mat Awareness and Safety in BJJ
  • 10 Ways to Inject Positivity Into Your BJJ Community
  • Combating Entitlement: You Have a Black Belt In Jiu Jitsu, Not Life
  • How to Train BJJ With a More Experienced Practitioner (Or at Least This One)
  • 5 Skills You Need to Compete Effectively in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu
  • Tough Lessons From My Teacher: Learning to Value Our Learning
  • The 4 Stages of Skill Acquisition
  • Pursuing Your Athletic Passion: Are the Trade-offs Worth It?
  • 3 Important Questions to Help Recalibrate Your Training Focus
  • 5 Outstanding People I’ve Met Thanks to BJJ
  • A New Normal: The Quirks of an Athletic Lifestyle
  • Guilty! 5 BJJ Photo Crimes You Will Recognize
  • How Do You Place a Value on Expertise?
  • Open Your Mind and Say Yes to Your Coach
  • Keep Walking: Using Your Physical Fitness for the Smaller Good
  • The Science of BJJ: How Grappling Makes Its Own Natural Laws
  • 4 Ways Submission Grapplers Can Apply Wrestling Concepts to Their Practice
  • On Not Giving a S%&# About BJJ: Don’t Judge
  • Is Jiu Jitsu for You? You Decide
  • On %$#@ing Up and Then Moving On: The Importance of Perspective in Athletics and Life
  • Are We There Yet? The Role of Anticipation in Training
  • Being Present: How to Give Yourself the Best Present Ever
  • The Dark Teatime of the Roll: When Training Gets Derailed
  • Jiu Jitsu Physics: When Grappling Particles (and Partners) Collide
  • 6 Months Later: How to Be a Force For Good in Grappling and in the World
  • 5 Ways Doing Karaoke Can Benefit Your BJJ Training
  • A Hotter Mess Than I Thought: 5 More Things I Wish I Had Known When I First Started Training BJJ
  • May I Make an Observation? The Benefit of Letting Our Senses Do the Work
  • 5 Things I Wish I Had Known When I First Started Training BJJ
  • Why Just Do It? The Inspirational and Daunting Impact of the Mundial
  • Great Expectations: The Truth about Gender Stereotypes in Grappling
  • Life’s a Journey and Practice, Practice, Practice: Interview with Yoga Instructor Jen Whinnen
  • The Secret Pact of the BJJ Fistbump
  • More Is More: What If We Believe There’s Enough to Go Around?
  • How to Take Useful Notes in BJJ Class
  • Feel Me Flow: Deconstructing “Let’s Just Go Light”
  • Read about Read: Andrew Enters Spartan Ultra Beast Mode
  • It’s Up to Her: Professional Athlete Phaidra Knight Controls Her Destiny
  • A Book Review, Interview, and Conversation with MMA Journalist Brian D’Souza
  • Merging Selves: My Continued Development as a Grappler and Its Larger Meaning
  • The BJJ “Beatdown” – When and How to Smash a Newbie
  • Telltale Signs You’re Dealing with a Grappler
  • How to Own Your Training: A Personal Example
  • Time on the Injured List Is Inevitable: How We Survive It Is a Choice
  • From the Experts: How to Attract and Retain Women in BJJ
  • The 5 Critical Responsibilities of the Grappling Student
  • In The Course of Grappling Events: Certain Unalienable Rights in BJJ
  • Intellectual Property and Citation of Sources: Who “Owns” BJJ?
  • Having It All: How to Cram Training, Working, and Life into Every Day
  • Pushing the Envelope: How Each Generation Builds the BJJ Evolution
  • A Love Letter to Brazilian Jiu Jitsu
  • The Soundtrack of Life: 10 Songs to Grapple By
  • More on Gender and Jiu Jitsu: Why Acting Like a “Man” Might Be a Good Thing
  • Gender and Jiu Jitsu: Helping Men Understand Newbie Women
  • It’s the Art: How an in-the-Moment Decision Continues to Pay Dividends
  • Show Respect to Earn Respect: Prioritize Doing the Right Thing
  • Women’s Grappling Camp: We Come In Peace
  • How Dennis Bermudez Prepares for a UFC Fight
  • Surviving (Socially) the Beginner Phase of BJJ
  • Prioritize and Let Prioritize: Respecting Decisions You May Not Understand
  • The Tips of the Icebergs: Why You Should Thank Your Grappling Coaches and Heroes
  • When It’s NOT All Right to Cry
  • Successive Approximations: What the Berimbolo Taught Me About Learning
  • Letting Go vs. Giving Up: When You Don’t Get What You Want
  • Escalation of Commitment: How We Justify Bad Behavior
  • When Trust Is Broken: How to Pick Up the Pieces
  • Understanding Why I Don’t Like to Accept Help
  • A (Tongue-in-Cheek) Set of Grappler’s New Year’s Resolutions
  • Boys and Big Girls Don’t Cry, Unless They Do
  • 4 Keys for Making and Keeping Your New Year’s Resolution
  • How to Choose the Right BJJ Coach For You
  • I’m Leaving on a Jet Plane, or a Train, or a Boat: 3 Benefits of Traveling for Sports
  • Is That Excellence I Smell? We Need the Funk, Gotta Have That Funk
  • Camp For Grown-Ups: How Grappling Camp Helps Female Athletes
  • Choke: A Movie, a Verb, a Way of Life
  • My Name Is Valerie, And I May Be Sexist (But I’m Working on It)
  • The Warrior Poet in Action: Poet and MMA Fighter Cameron Conaway, Part 2
  • The Development of a Warrior Poet: Poet and MMA Fighter Cameron Conaway, Part 1
  • 8 Things Dogs Can Teach Us About Health and Fitness
  • Revisiting Bruce Lee and Enter the Dragon
  • Opinions Are Like… – 2 Tips for Making the Most of Advice
  • Throwing Caution to the Wind: Overcoming Instincts to Progress Athletically
  • Developing Self-Awareness: A Messy, Ugly, Five-Step Process
  • Duane Stevenson: Coach, Athlete, One Tough Monster
  • FightMetric: Where MMA Meets Statistics
  • 5 Tips for Losing Your Ego When All About You Are Keeping Theirs
  • Caving: My Worst Nightmare Turned Into a Sport
  • Chess Boxing: The Sweet Science Meets the Royal Game
  • 5 Ways Competition Preparation Is Like College
  • Defining Boundaries: How to Enforce Them
  • Defining Boundaries: Money, Relationships & Heroes in the Gym
  • Defining Boundaries: As Athlete, Teammate, and Human
  • Lifting Covered: One Woman’s Experiences of Weightlifting and Islam, Part 2
  • Lifting Covered: One Woman’s Experiences of Weightlifting and Islam, Part 1
  • Parkour vs. Freerunning & How to Choose a Gym: Interview with Traceur Tim Koren, Part 2
  • Getting Started in Parkour: Interview with Traceur Tim Koren, Part 1
  • What Is Parkour? Are You Already Doing It?
  • The Physiology of a Rear Naked Choke, or: What Happens When You Get Choked Out
  • How Parents Can Best Support Their Kids in Athletics
  • Introducing Your Kids to Athletic Activity – What to Look For
  • Consistent Goals, Evolving Headspace: Interview with Wellness Expert Krista Scott-Dixon, Part 2
  • Consistent Goals, Evolving Headspace: Interview with Wellness Expert Krista Scott-Dixon, Part 1
  • Training Muay Thai Women: An Interview with Fighter-Coach Roxy Richardson, Part 2
  • Muay Thai Evolution: An Interview with Fighter-Coach Roxy Richardson, Part 1
  • Camp Is Campy: Why I Love Teaching Women’s Grappling Camp
  • Athlete Journal: Valerie Worthington, Entry 14 – You Think This Story’s Over But It’s Ready to Begin
  • Self-Medicating with Athletic Activity: No Prescription Necessary to Take Things Too Far
  • Athlete Journal: Valerie Worthington, Entry 13 – Back To Love
  • Move Slowly If You Must, But Move
  • Athlete Journal: Valerie Worthington, Entry 12 – Just That
  • Expertly Novice: What Neil Peart Has to Teach Us about BJJ and Life
  • Athlete Journal: Valerie Worthington, Entry 11 – 5 Things I Plan to Do After Worlds
  • A Weekend At The Mundials: As Described By Me
  • Athlete Journal: Valerie Worthington, Entry 10 – Prepare to Feel Unprepared
  • Athlete Journal: Valerie Worthington, Entry 9 – Serenity Is Not Just a Joss Whedon Movie
  • How Did You Do? The Loadedest of Questions
  • Athlete Journal: Valerie Worthington, Entry 8 – The Not-Training Sessions
  • The Hidden Costs of Pursuing a Passion
  • Athlete Journal: Valerie Worthington, Entry 7 – I Got Nothing
  • What’s Your Game Face?
  • Athlete Journal: Valerie Worthington, Entry 6 – Back to Work
  • Athlete Journal: Valerie Worthington, Entry 5 – Losing and Winning and Losing
  • Competing Against a Friend: Balancing Respect and Competition
  • Athlete Journal: Valerie Worthington, Entry 4 – ‘Twas the Week Before the Abu Dhabi World Pro
  • Athlete Journal: Valerie Worthington, Entry 3 – Competus Interruptus and Second Chances
  • Athlete Journal: Valerie Worthington, Entry 2 – My Inner Voice Has a Big Mouth
  • Athlete Journal: Valerie Worthington, Entry 1 – Off to an Inauspicious Start
  • But Enough about You: Follow Me On My Competition Journey
  • Tell Me How It Happened: The Ways People Find BJJ (or It Finds Them)
  • How to Switch BJJ Schools and Not Be a Creonte
  • How to Be Coachable: Advice from Expert Coaches
  • Love on the Mat: The Story of Lisa, Greg, and BJJ
  • An Unabashedly Biased Portrait of UFC Fighter Darren Uyenoyama – Part 2
  • An Unabashedly Biased Portrait of UFC Fighter Darren Uyenoyama – Part 1
  • Celebrities: They Grapple Just Like Us!
  • How to Be a Good Training Partner, Part 2: What to Wear to Grapple
  • To Gi or Not To Gi: Differences Between Gi & No-Gi Grappling
  • 10 Survival Tips for Visiting a New Grappling Academy
  • Owning Your Training, Part 2: Setting Your Own Boundaries
  • Owning Your Training: Why a PhD and BJJ Aren’t So Different
  • Balance for Grapplers & Humans: Using BJJ Techniques to Balance Life
  • Ten Ways to Win Over Your Grappler Friend
  • 4 Ways to Be a Good Training Partner: Getting Started in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu
  • Interview with Guro Marc Denny of the Dog Brothers, Part 2: The Collective
  • Interview with Guro Marc Denny of the Dog Brothers, Part 1: The Individual Experience
  • Women’s Grappling Camp Features Multiple-Time World Champion Guest Instructor
  • Fight the Freeze: Prevention and Treatment of Frostbite
  • Athletic Ability as a Form of Intelligence
  • Polar Bear Clubs Provide a Shock to the System
  • Curling: A Sport for Weekend Warriors and Olympians Alike
  • Being in the Zone: The Flow State in Athletic Endeavors
  • Sleep Apnea: Causes and Treatments
  • Active Release Techniques Aid in Soft Tissue Maintenance
  • Causes and Treatment for Fallen Arches
  • How Can Your Fitness Keep You Safe? Interview with Bodyguard – Miguel DeCoste
  • The Dog Brothers’ Summer Gathering of the Pack
  • What We Know about Handedness
  • What’s That Move Called? A Glossary of MMA Terms
  • Burpees: A “Love” Story
  • Overcoming Loved Ones’ Resistance to Our Lifestyle Improvements

Learn

  • How Our Teammates Can Mirror Our Abilities: Athletic Wisdom from an N’SYNC Alum
  • Help Me! Even If I Say No Thank You – ESPECIALLY Then
  • Own Your Stuff: Intention and Responsibility – The Ultimate Athletic Power Couple
  • How Grapplers Celebrate the Holidays: Pretty Much Nothing Is Sacred
  • 6 Tips for Getting the Most Out of Your Private Lesson
  • How to Hip Escape: A Fundamental BJJ Movement and a Low-Cost Mode of Transportation
  • The Athlete’s Paradox: Feeling Bad to Feel Good
  • Can I Get Your Picture? How to Approach a Sports Celebrity
  • The Accidental Leader: How Doing Your Thing Can Be Just the Thing
  • All Apologies: How Often Is Too Often to Say We’re Sorry?
  • I’m Gonna Need to See Some ID – No, Some Other ID
  • What Successful Athletes (and People) Know: Don’t Get Too Comfortable
  • When You Hurt a Training Partner
  • The Jiu-Jitsu Salieri: Giving Back to BJJ
  • The PanAms: One of the Big Ones (BJJ Tournaments, That Is)
  • Start Small to Learn Big: Learning in Manageable Pieces
  • The Gentle Art of Humility: Ego and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu
  • Jiu-Jitsu? I Do!
  • Preparing for Competition: Psyching up in the Eleventh Hour
  • Befriend Your Body: Say No to Overtraining and Say Thank You to Your Body
  • Jiu-Jitsu Kryptonite: Is It a Real Phenomenon?
  • Insurance for MMA Fighters – It’s Real and It’s Affordable
  • Skin Infections—A Look at the Glamorous Side of Grappling
  • Tips for Choosing a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Academy
  • A Guide for the Novice: Competing in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu
  • Balance for Grapplers & Humans: The Relationships Between Physical & Emotional Balance
  • Applying the Belt System to Life & Success – Are You A White or Black Belt?
  • The Role of Ego in Jiu Jitsu – and Elsewhere
  • Cauliflower Ear: What IS That Stuff?
  • Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Competition-Style: What Happens at a Grappling Tournament
  • Five Books That Have Nothing to Do with Fitness – That Have a Lot to Do with Fitness
  • Keeping Competition Healthy

Reviews

  • Book Review: “Thrive: Finding Happiness the Blue Zones Way” by Dan Buettner
  • Book Review: “Way of the Peaceful Warrior” by Dan Millman
  • Book Review: “The Science of Skinny” by Dee McCaffrey
  • Book Review: “Inside the Box” by TJ Murphy
  • Val Worthington’s Holiday Wish List
  • Book Review: “The Last Headbangers: NFL Football in the Rowdy, Reckless ’70s” by Kevin Cook
  • Book Review: “The Grappler’s Guide to Sports Nutrition” by John Berardi and Michael Fry
  • An MMA Fan Puts It on the Line: Interview with Author Matt Polly
  • Book Review: “The Fighter’s Mind: Inside the Mental Game” by Sam Sheridan
  • Holiday Wish List – Coach Val Worthington
  • Product Review: Defense Soap Shower Gel – The Combat Athlete’s Soap
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