Welcome to the first newsletter from The Roll Report. Thanks for subscribing! Each week we’ll share a short story, some things that we found interesting, and couple things that made us laugh.

Encouragement can come from unlikely sources

Oisin Tong adjusted his purple belt, then pointed at me and said: “Let’s go, old man.” We fist bumped. The young gun wasted no time tackling me. I landed with a thud, and the back of my head bounced off the squishy, white mat. He draped across my body like a wet blanket. I tried to squirm out, but he had me pinned. He scooped my head up, threw his leg under it, and locked the other leg around it, flawlessly executing a triangle choke. I fought the choke for an eternity, which was closer to three seconds, and then tapped out when I started seeing stars.

Brazilian jiu-jitsu is a young person’s game, so when I started training at forty, I was the oldest white belt at the studio. I’d been arrested—twice—for underage drinking before most of my training partners were born. Their cultural references didn’t predate Britney Spears. My ribs ached to the point that I had to prepare to sneeze. My fingers were mangled. My neck hurt constantly. I was ready to quit. But that’s when I learned that Anthony Bourdain—Emmy-award winner, celebrity chef, television star—had taken up jiu-jitsu, and he was fifty-eight. So what was my excuse again?

I followed Bourdain on Instagram, where I learned that our jiu-jitsu journey was similar. We were awarded our first stripes—an intra-belt recognition of progression—within weeks of each other. We were bonded in a brotherhood of combat and being older than our training partners.

I was awarded my blue belt in June 2015. I diligently checked Bourdain’s Instagram account—multiple times a day—for the post of him receiving his blue belt. Finally, two months later, he posted it. I swelled with pride. We’d done it. God dammit, the two codgers had done it.

In a love letter to his new passion, Bourdain addressed the reality of being a jiu-jitsu newbie later in life: “There is no urgency to my training because I’m sure as shit not getting any younger, or more flexible. I’m certainly not getting any faster. And as I head down the highway on my jiu-jitsu journey, the likelihood of the wheels coming off the car grows stronger daily. But I am determined to suck less at this jiu-jitsu thing every day if I can.”

In April 2016, Bourdain competed in his first jiu-jitsu tournament and took gold. I couldn’t believe it. I was trying to muster the courage to sign up for a competition. He motivated me to check my fear and do it, but my lower back vetoed that.

My back pain advanced from an annoyance to debilitating. I chalked it up to hard training sessions with people half my age. Finally, it got so bad that I couldn’t dismiss it anymore. I went to the doctor and was informed that I had to have a disk replaced, the L4-L5 vertebras fused, and a portion of my spine removed that had closed around the spinal cord. This diagnosis opened the floodgates of naysayers; my wife, surgeon, random medical professionals, co-workers, and even strangers suggested I give up jiu-jitsu. In an act of defiance, I managed to train right up to the week I had my surgery; in hindsight, this probably wasn’t the smartest thing to do, but I’d done dumber things, like getting arrested twice for underage drinking.

During my recovery, I followed Bourdain’s progression. He was addicted. He confessed that he picked locations to film his show “Parts Unknown” that would allow him to train at some of the most prestigious jiu-jitsu studios worldwide. He was the only jiu-jitsu fix available to me during those dark days of my exile.

I was back on the mats when I was given the green light to train. There have been difficulties, pain, and more pain, but I continue to train.

In the spring, I received my purple belt. I wear it like a badge of honor because of my age and post-back surgery. I checked Bourdain’s Instagram account daily to monitor his promotion to purple belt. Almost two months to the day after my promotion, news broke that Bourdain had died, reportedly taking his own life. I was devastated.

As I tried to make sense of his death, I realized every lesson he taught me about jiu-jitsu is a metaphor for life: you’ve got to suit up and show up, weather the ups and downs, so you suck less each day. I don’t know why Bourdain took his own life, but I know that he made mine better because of his. If it weren’t for him, I certainly would’ve quit and missed out on earning my black belt, which happened in the summer of 2021. It can’t be overstated the impact Bourdain was in encouraging me to remain on my jiu-jitsu journey.

Now, both black belts, Oisin Tong and I, Chris Long, have created The Roll Report, a weekly grappling newsletter that we hope will, in some small part, encourage others to continue their jiu-jitsu journeys. There are many valuable and worthy stories in Brazilian jiu-jitsu and grappling, and not all involve world-class competitors. Hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, of hobbyists have stories worth telling—and we will tell those stories in The Roll Report. I’ve heard countless stories from other hobbyists that have motivated me to continue suiting up. And let’s be honest, jiu-jitsu is a strange hobby, so we will poke fun at ourselves and the sport we love.

What’s coming up

Here’s what’s coming up in the next few weeks

• A literal rockstar that gave up on music to open his own gym

• Two brothers that opened a gym… without an actual gym

• A couple that moved coasts, twice, in pursuit of their dreams

• A blue belt who quit - we all know one, what are they doing now?

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Memes to get you through the week