My many faces

Collection of poetry reveals how emotions can heal pain Emotions: The Beginning of Turmoil by Romeo Barnes is the first in a poetry series that explores how creative expression can mend lives SUITLAND, Md.–Emotions: The Beginning of Turmoil by Romeo Barnes is a poetry collection that celebrates the healing power writing can have when dealing with the difficulties in life. Romeo Barnes was born with cerebral palsy. One dark night, when he was contemplating suicide, he began to write poems about his pain, and it was then he realized he has a creative voice and something to offer the world. This collection, Emotions: The Beginning of Turmoil, is what Barnes calls “the deepest release of his thoughts and feelings.” In poem after poem, Barnes explores how people can only be who and what they are, and to deny it is to face more difficulties in life. Using his life experiences as fodder for the poems, Barnes’ writing offers sage advice. Acting happy when you are sad can affect your well- be

Muscle Memory... its a term every athlete knows and has a love-hate relationship with. Muscle memory simply means your body can perform the said action with you having to think about it. Its like tieing your shoe you just do it. Drilling allows techniques to become automatic and require next to no effort, that's why we love it. But it requires drilling that's why we hate. Let's face it, no basketball player wants to do 500 suicides in defensive posture. However, if you do it it'll make sure your back pedal and side step are on point. The same applies to Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu sparring is the fun part so we all want to do it. However, only sparring=bad technique i know my technique was off the first three months I was training with Maguilla; I knew it was because of my two years and eight months not training. But not drilling didnt help. I must say I'm learning to love it. In my opinion its the best way to warm up because you break a sweat and refine technique at the sa

Earlier this week it was announced that I will be promoted to Blue Belt as of Saturday.The announcement made me reflect upon the realization of my current stage in life. When I first went to Maguilla BJJ my previous training had my head big I went from training with one of the top teams in the Mid-Alantic region to a much lesser-known team as far as names and publicity go. So didn't attempt to submit other white belts in sparring the way I should have. Instead, I chose to teach them what I know. This led to really bad sparring session in which I learned nothing. I have only had 1 full year of mat time. Due to having to find a new school I took two years and eight months off and pretty much lived on Youtube watching big tournaments and scences from instructionals to decide which ones I actually wanted to purchase. The point is you can prepare mentally as much as you want but nothing beats doing it, and more importantly, doing it whole-heartedly. That said, I have a new mindset that