Love him or hate him, Tom DeBlass is one of the more vocal members of the Brazilian Jiu Jitsu community and often wears his heart on his sleeve. As a result, it’s not too surprising to see the release of his autobiographical book, How You Bear It: Triumph and Resilience in life.
According to the man himself, he described the book as “This is the story of my life, and I get extremely personal. How I have dealt with obstacles and tragedy, including deep depressions. I have no doubt that you will enjoy it, and probably be surprised to read all that you read.”
And based on the Amazon description, DeBlass goes into detail about his tough childhood, which included a father battling addiction, bullying, and his own battles with depression and suicide. This book isn’t just based on his personal life though, and also discusses his triumphs too – including his professional MMA career, ADCC run, and general success in the martial arts world.
Overall, it’s quite rare and unusual for such a high profile BJJ practitioner to speak so openly and honestly about such personal issues. With this said, it’s probably a bit different compared to your typical BJJ book.
How You Bear It is out on Kindle on November 16th and can be ordered here.
