I recently watched an amazing documentary about how Adam Ondra clawed his way up literally the world's toughest climb. After FOUR YEARS of preparation he finally pulled off the hardest, most technical climbing challenge ever mastered, on September 3rd, 2017. There are a lot of lessons in this documentary for BJJ athletes! In fact it'll help you with ANY seemingly impossible athletic … [Read more...]
Grip Training
Strength Training and BJJ with Daniel Strauss, AKA The Raspberry Ape!
Daniel Strauss (aka The Raspberry Ape) is a BJJ black belt under 10x World Champion Roger Gracie. But he's also a very serious advocate of strongman training including the development of crazy levels of grip strength. In today's podcast we start with Daniel's victory over Olympic gold medalist Satoshi Ishii at Polaris 8 and his BJJ competition strategy. View … [Read more...]
New podcast with Travis Stevens, 3 x Judo Olympian, Olympic Silver Medalist, and BJJ Black Belt
In this episode of the Strenuous Life Podcast I go deep with 3 x Judo Olympian and BJJ black belt Travis Stevens. We go DEEP into his training regimen, including Why he does 5 or 6 workouts a day What the strength benchmarks are for effective judo Why mental fatigue is often just as much a limiting factor as physical fatigue How he uses his groundwork skills to force his opponents … [Read more...]
3 Fixes for Sore Fingers in BJJ
So I got a question the other day from someone looking for advice about the pain and inflammation they have in their fingers from training BJJ. I sent them back a super-quick email response with 3 suggestions, but now want to elaborate on my suggestions in hopes that this info will be useful to someone else too. First, here is a video I shot about exactly this … [Read more...]
The Biggest Gi Choke Mistake (And How to Fix It)
How a single 'quick fix' can triple the power of your gi choke attacks Gi chokes are a fundamental and effective strategy in BJJ. Maybe the two best known gi choke are the cross collar choke from guard and the cross collar choke from mount. We'll explore that choke in more detail below, but rest assured that it has been used to submit world class competitors at the highest levels of … [Read more...]
Preventing Achy Elbows (and Getting a Killer Grip)
A lot of grapplers have creaky joints, and tennis elbow and golfer's elbow are just two of the most common overtraining injuries you're likely to encounter at the club. Here's one grappler's solution to his grappling-induced elbow problems. … [Read more...]
Combat Grip
An Article by Rick Walker from www.dieselcrew.com "Whether you are grappling with or without the gi, grip strength is a huge asset for Brazilian jiu-jitsu, submission grappling and mixed martial arts (MMA). … [Read more...]
Gracie Magazine Jiu-Jitsu manual
20 tips to enhance your play If you only read and keep the teachings presented here, you’re not going anywhere with your ground techniques. The following advices – useful in tournaments with gi, grappling, MMA and for the athletes personal evolution – ought to be studied between trainings. … [Read more...]
How To Stop Someone From Passing Your Guard
A reader writes: Hi Stephan, Thank you for the newsletters! I started training BJJ and MMA about 5 months ago - it's been life changing for me. Do you have any tips for keeping someone in your guard and not letting them pass? Sincerely, R.W. ======== My Answer ======== Hi R, First of all, congratulations for jumping into such a challenging and hugely rewarding sport. Most of the … [Read more...]
Killer Grip, and How To Get It!
Stephan's note: this post is one of over 50 lessons in the Beginning BJJ eCourse. Sign up here to get your hands on the rest of the lessons for free. My BJJ coach Marcus Soares believes that a really strong grip is one of the most important physical attributes for a BJJ fighter. … [Read more...]