When talking about inspirational athletes, one of the names that gets mentioned most often is basketball legend Michael Jordan. I recently came across some good reviews of his latest book Driven from Within and was curious to learn more about the man and what made him tick.

Well, first of all it is a great looking book. There are pretty much pictures on every page, making it a cool coffee table book to have around when friends are visiting. It is also a quick read, as it is mostly short commentaries from himself and nine of the people closest to him, including his mother, Delores, his agent, David Falk, the designer of 14 of his 20 sneakers, Tinker Hatfield, his college coach, Dean Smith, and Howard White, his first friend at Nike.

It is as much a book about Jordan´s driving forces as it is about how he built the Jordan brand together with Nike. If you have zero interest in brand building half of the book will be lost on you as it is filled with pictures, commentaries and sketches on his famous athletic shoes, the Air Jordans.

That said, I got a lot out of it for the short time it took me to read the book. I got lots of great tidbits out of the book.

The book is all about committing to something and sticking to it.

“Players who practice hard when no one is paying attention generally play well when everyone is watching”, and, “There are no short cuts. I have always believed in leading with action, not words”.

More on Be Like Mike!

So, I figured I´d start off the techniques on this site as is appropriate - focusing on the basics. What I will post is the techniques required for the coveted first belt in BJJ, the blue belt, in what was the organization MMA Alliance in Scandinavia 2001.

Demonstrating the techniques is Leo Negão in the white gi. Me, Fredrik Wiberg, am assisting him in the blue gi.

Enjoy!

Bend your legs and step outside your opponent´s lead leg. Grab behind his knees and put the side of your head against his stomach.

More on Double Leg Takedown

Now this is scary!!

Recently came across some pretty disturbing material about the exploding obesity trend in the U.S. between 1985 and 2005. While I am not a big fan of the BMI, I believe the trend still would be the same if we used different ways of measuring obesity.

Now Sweden, where I live, isn´t anywhere close to as bad. But we are quickly catching up. I work as a business controller at a major Swedish hospital. Given this overwhelming trend we just won´t be able to finance public health care just through taxes in a couple of years if this trend can´t be stopped.

To get an understanding of just how bad the situation is, check out this quick Powerpoint slide show.

If you haven´t seen The Secret yet, you definitely should. It´s a great presentation of the law of attraction. This isn´t anything new to those who have read Napoleon Hill, Brian Tracy or any of the other classics in that genre. But it is always good to see it presented to you in many different formats, to soak your brain in positive messages until you finally get it.

Well, the law of attraction isn´t the complete answer to getting what you want out of life. Now there is a great new movie coming out that talks about the law of action and the value of mentorship.

Pass It On features former heavyweight world champion boxers Evander Holyfield and Ken Norton, as well as some of the world’s most successful entrepreneurs and personal development gurus. People like Ruben Gonzalez, Brian Tracy, John Assaraf, Chris Weidner, Howard Putnam, Ona Brown, David Corbin, David Dean, Ed Foreman, Les Brown, Niurka, Michelle Humphrey, Steve “Stealth” Miller, John Abdo, Bill Walsh, Kimberly Mac, David Weisman, Dennis Prager, Jim Bunch, Artimus Limpert, Charlie “Tremendous” Jones, Dr. Zonnya, Elaine Hendrix and Dennis Waitley. Now that is an all-star line-up!

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Movie is set to be released in April 2007…

The European BJJ championships was held last weekend - on january 27th and 28th in Lisboa, Portugal. And the guys from my academy and our swedish affiliates travelled down to test out our stuff. Now a bunch of the best guys like Peter Blackwell and Arben Latifi couldn´t compete, but the guys that did gave a great showing.

Overall the swedish Brasa guys placed as the second best team in the adult division, and as the best team in the master & senior division. Congrats to all the guys that went.

Special shoutouts to new blackbelt Waldo Zapata who won the blackbelt master meio pesado division. Also to Mikael Kretz for taking the bronze in the blackbelt master medio division. Mikael and me have been training together for 21 years, passing through jujitsu to JKD/Kali/Muay Thai to BJJ.

Other standouts were brazilian Alan Nascimento, who is teaching at one of the Brasa schools in Sweden. Alan won the black belt medio division.

Results here

Just getting this page started. Check back regularly, and I´m sure you will find something interesting. Mostly it will be about the Crazy Monkey Defense Program, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and all things related. Stuff like conditioning, diet, mental training and bringing the lessons from the training to your everyday life.

Also planning on adding a bunch of techniques regularly. Mostly by me, but maybe also by some of my teachers and friends.

Stay tuned!

/Fredrik