rid of them, and not try to rationalize their existence. I would've seen this as an opportunity to become mentally tougher than most of the people that I trained with because I would've learned that I could take an butt-kicking earlier in my grappling career, putting me in a position to be able to give one a lot sooner!

That's what I would've done...and eventually did. But I went through years of self-imposed mental torture before I finally stopped running from myself and my YPBs. And when I stopped running and realized that they weren't as tough as I thought, that's when I stopped getting "punked" and started kicking my mat bully's butt and made them avoid me!

What are you going to do about your mat bully? Make them avoid you fo

Imagine you're having a great day and on your way to class to train. You've been looking forward to training all day and can hardly contain yourself. As you're warming up on the mat, you think of all the things you need to work on during and after class and your head is focused on having a good training session when suddenly...BAM!...he walks onto the mat and starts to warm up.

There he is...your very own mat bully! The young punk bully (YPB) that makes your life on the mat a living hell! The one person that takes all the fun out of grappling because of the way he beats you across the ring every sparring session. The one person that your instructor always put you with to train; the person if he only had time to give one butt whipping, it's got your name on it! The one person that no matter how hard you try (or think you try) to change the match outcome, it's always the same. You get the crap beaten out of you!

So as you start to get that nervous feeling in your stomach and find it hard to swallow, you start thinking about how this training session is going to be just like the others and your good feeling about training goes away. Now your mat attitude sucks, you're mentally defeated and just want to get the beating over with so that you can go home and try to forget another OG butt-kicking at the hands of your favorite YPB!

I'm sure a lot of us don't have to imagine too hard or long about this scenario because most of us have lived it. I know that I have lived it personally and I remember the feelings that came with the experience. During my early years (1996-2003), I had several encounters with young punk mat bullies where I was getting "punked" on the mat and I couldn't stop it because I didn't know what to do. I didn't know how to tell my instructor and teammates that I didn't like getting my butt kicked and was "mentally soft" on the mat.

So, what did I do? I did what all mat wimps do, I ran from the problem. If my YPB showed up for class, I would suddenly have to leave class early or tell the instructor that I had an "injury" and needed to sit out from sparring or go with some less aggressive teammates. I even went as far as to talk with my YPB to find out what training days he trained so that I could coordinate my schedule around his to make sure we weren't in the gym on the same days!

At the time, it sounded clever on my part, but it wasn't clever at all. It was just the act of a weak, timid, and very insecure grappler running from a situation that was an excellent opportunity to deal with a problem head-on and learn from it. If I knew back then what I know now (I think that's a lyric from a song), I wouldn't have taken myself so seriously in the ego department. I wouldn't have wanted to see myself as this grappler that was happy with being "the hammer", but a real punk when it came to being "the nail!" I would've used that time as an opportunity to expose my mat mental weaknesses, brought them to the surface, gotten rid of them, and not try to rationalize their existence. I would've seen this as an opportunity to become mentally tougher than most of the people that I trained with because I would've learned that I could take an butt-kicking earlier in my grappling career, putting me in a position to be able to give one a lot sooner!

That's what I would've done...and eventually did. But I went through years of self-imposed mental torture before I finally stopped running from myself and my YPBs. And when I stopped running and realized that they weren't as tough as I thought, that's when I stopped getting "punked" and started kicking my mat bully's butt and made them avoid me!

What are you going to do about your mat bully? Make them avoid you for

it's got your name on it! The one person that no matter how hard you try (or think you try) to change the match outcome, it's always the same. You get the crap beaten out of you!

So as you start to get that nervous feeling in your stomach and find it hard to swallow, you start thinking about how this training session is going to be just like the others and your good feeling about training goes away. Now your mat attitude sucks, you're mentally defeated and just want to get the beating over with so that you can go home and try to forget another OG butt-kicking at the hands of your favorite YPB!

I'm sure a lot of us don't have to imagine too hard or long about this scenario because most of us have lived it. I know that I have lived it personally and I remember the feelings that came with the experience. During my early years (1996-2003), I had several encounters with young punk mat bullies where I was getting "punked" on the mat and I couldn't stop it because I didn't know what to do. I didn't know how to tell my instructor and teammates that I didn't like getting my butt kicked and was "mentally soft" on the mat.

So, what did I do? I did what all mat wimps do, I ran from the problem. If my YPB showed up for class, I would suddenly have to leave class early or tell the instructor that I had an "injury" and needed to sit out from sparring or go with some less aggressive teammates. I even went as far as to talk with my YPB to find out what training days he trained so that I could coordinate my schedule around his to make sure we weren't in the gym on the same days!

At the time, it sounded clever on my part, but it wasn't clever at all. It was just the act of a weak, timid, and very insecure grappler running from a situation that was an excellent opportunity to deal with a problem head-on and learn from it. If I knew back then what I know now (I think that's a lyric from a song), I wouldn't have taken myself so seriously in the ego department. I wouldn't have wanted to see myself as this grappler that was happy with being "the hammer", but a real punk when it came to being "the nail!" I would've used that time as an opportunity to expose my mat mental weaknesses, brought them to the surface, gotten rid of them, and not try to rationalize their existence. I would've seen this as an opportunity to become mentally tougher than most of the people that I trained with because I would've learned that I could take an butt-kicking earlier in my grappling career, putting me in a position to be able to give one a lot sooner!

That's what I would've done...and eventually did. But I went through years of self-imposed mental torture before I finally stopped running from myself and my YPBs. And when I stopped running and realized that they weren't as tough as I thought, that's when I stopped getting "punked" and started kicking my mat bully's butt and made them avoid me!

What are you going to do about your mat bully? Make them avoid you fo

it personally and I remember the feelings that came with the experience. During my early years (1996-2003), I had several encounters with young punk mat bullies where I was getting "punked" on the mat and I couldn't stop it because I didn't know what to do. I didn't know how to tell my instructor and teammates that I didn't like getting my butt kicked and was "mentally soft" on the mat.

So, what did I do? I did what all mat wimps do, I ran from the problem. If my YPB showed up for class, I would suddenly have to leave class early or tell the instructor that I had an "injury" and needed to sit out from sparring or go with some less aggressive teammates. I even went as far as to talk with my YPB to find out what training days he trained so that I could coordinate my schedule around his to make sure we weren't in the gym on the same days!

At the time, it sounded clever on my part, but it wasn't clever at all. It was just the act of a weak, timid, and very insecure grappler running from a situation that was an excellent opportunity to deal with a problem head-on and learn from it. If I knew back then what I know now (I think that's a lyric from a song), I wouldn't have taken myself so seriously in the ego department. I wouldn't have wanted to see myself as this grappler that was happy with being "the hammer", but a real punk when it came to being "the nail!" I would've used that time as an opportunity to expose my mat mental weaknesses, brought them to the surface, gotten rid of them, and not try to rationalize their existence. I would've seen this as an opportunity to become mentally tougher than most of the people that I trained with because I would've learned that I could take an butt-kicking earlier in my grappling career, putting me in a position to be able to give one a lot sooner!

That's what I would've done...and eventually did. But I went through years of self-imposed mental torture before I finally stopped running from myself and my YPBs. And when I stopped running and realized that they weren't as tough as I thought, that's when I stopped getting "punked" and started kicking my mat bully's butt and made them avoid me!

What are you going to do about your mat bully? Make them avoid you fo

so that I could coordinate my schedule around his to make sure we weren't in the gym on the same days!

At the time, it sounded clever on my part, but it wasn't clever at all. It was just the act of a weak, timid, and very insecure grappler running from a situation that was an excellent opportunity to deal with a problem head-on and learn from it. If I knew back then what I know now (I think that's a lyric from a song), I wouldn't have taken myself so seriously in the ego department. I wouldn't have wanted to see myself as this grappler that was happy with being "the hammer", but a real punk when it came to being "the nail!" I would've used that time as an opportunity to expose my mat mental weaknesses, brought them to the surface, gotten rid of them, and not try to rationalize their existence. I would've seen this as an opportunity to become mentally tougher than most of the people that I trained with because I would've learned that I could take an butt-kicking earlier in my grappling career, putting me in a position to be able to give one a lot sooner!

That's what I would've done...and eventually did. But I went through years of self-imposed mental torture before I finally stopped running from myself and my YPBs. And when I stopped running and realized that they weren't as tough as I thought, that's when I stopped getting "punked" and started kicking my mat bully's butt and made them avoid me!

What are you going to do about your mat bully? Make them avoid you fo

rid of them, and not try to rationalize their existence. I would've seen this as an opportunity to become mentally tougher than most of the people that I trained with because I would've learned that I could take an butt-kicking earlier in my grappling career, putting me in a position to be able to give one a lot sooner!

That's what I would've done...and eventually did. But I went through years of self-imposed mental torture before I finally stopped running from myself and my YPBs. And when I stopped running and realized that they weren't as tough as I thought, that's when I stopped getting "punked" and started kicking my mat bully's butt and made them avoid me!

What are you going to do about your mat bully? Make them avoid you for a change or keep getting "punked?"