10 Books That Will Make You a Better Grappler

Part 1 of 2

More photos from training in Toledo. One day, I’ll have another photo shoot.

I’m a firm believer that reading is the cheat code to living a happier, healthier life. It’s also the cheat code to get better faster at anything that you do.

Ironically, when I was in school a few years ago, I didn’t read anything. I was a “full-time student”, but I was learning slower than ever because the only reading I did was from textbooks that had nothing to do with getting better at anything

Everything changed when I started reading with the goal of improving my skills in mind.

I read with the purpose of learning skills that will make me a better athlete, coach, and writer. I’m a slow reader but a good reader.

However, it isn’t really about how much you read, it’s about the quality of the books that you read.

If you drill 100 different variations of a takedown, that’s not as effective for skill development as drilling the same takedown 100 times.

“I would rather read the best 100 books over and over again until I absorb them rather than read all the books.”—Naval Ravikant

Sounds a lot like this quote by the legendary martial artist, actor, and philosopher Bruce Lee:‎

“I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times.”

These are the 5 books from my reading list that you should check out if you want to get better at Jiu-Jitsu (or anything) faster.