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Techniques, Tutorials and Gear for BJJ, MMA and Submission Grappling

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Home » Sparring

Sparring

How to Safely Practice Dangerous Leglocks

March 20, 2025 by Stephan Kesting

how to train dangerous leglocks

Q: Given that leglocks are dangerous, how do you train them safely and still have confidence that they will work in a 'live' setting. A: Although ANY submission is potentially dangerous, cranking someone with a heel hook or toehold can not only end the match, it can end your opponent's athletic career. Go here if you don't know what a heel hook is. . If you don't know what a toehold is, … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Health & Nutrition, Training Tagged With: Injuries, Leglocks, Sparring, Submission, Training

How to Flow Roll

January 2, 2025 by Stephan Kesting

How to Flow Roll

If you don't spar then all you're doing is LARPing. Sparring and training against resistance is the secret sauce that makes jiu-jitsu work. Of course you need to do hard sparring once in a while, not every training session needs to be a death roll!! There is a type of BJJ sparring known as 'Flow Rolling' which allows you to train with anyone safely and productively while creating room for … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Training Tagged With: Drills, Jesse Walker, Sparring, Training, Video

How to Develop a Killer Knee Ride in Only 17 minutes

October 3, 2024 by Stephan Kesting

How to Develop a Killer Knee Ride in Only 17 minutes

The knee ride is the most soul-crushing position in all of jiu-jitsu! It puts HUGE pressure on your opponent, which gives you tons of submission opportunities because of all the stupid things he'll do in his desperation to get out. It’s also a tremendously mobile position that allows you to take advantage of his mistakes, jump on submissions, spin to the back, and more. Here’s a FREE … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Grappling Techniques, Self Defense Tagged With: Cal MacDonald, Drills, Knee Mount, Sparring, Video

BJJ Foundations for Apple and Android

March 21, 2024 by Stephan Kesting

BJJ Foundations in App format for iOS and Android

 The best-selling BJJ Foundations instructional is finally available on your phone.  This ground-breaking instructional is the best training guide I've ever seen if you want to do extra training outside of class, structure your sparring to be more productive in class, or even teach a class of your own. In this app module you'll get all the techniques, details, drills and combinations on the … [Read more...]

Filed Under: For Beginners, Grappling Techniques, Training Tagged With: BJJ Foundations, Cal MacDonald, Drills, Grapplearts BJJ Master App, Sparring, Training

The Ultimate Self Defense Championship

August 4, 2023 by Stephan Kesting

The Ultimate Self Defense Championship with Rokas Leo

The Ultimate Self-Defense Championship was a competition in which six martial arts YouTubers competed against each other in seven self-defense challenges to find out what works, what doesn't and who would become the ultimate self-defense champion. The results were shocking, and the entertainment value was off the charts! On episode 388 of The Strenuous Life Podcast I talk with the organizer … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Competition, Podcasts, Self Defense Tagged With: BJJ, Competition, Drills, Interviews, Rokas Leo, Self Defense, Sparring, The Strenuous Life BJJ Podcast with Stephan Kesting

What Is Required for Your BJJ Blue Belt?

November 21, 2022 by Stephan Kesting

What's Required for Blue Belt?

In episode 380 of The Strenuous Life Podcast I talk you through what's generally required to be a competent blue belt, including... The 8 basic positions in jiu-jitsu A 3 phase strategy for beating a bigger person The real purpose of the guard The 2 types of submissions The hierarchy of positions How to stay safe in bad positions...and what to do next. The importance of … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Podcasts, Training Tagged With: Belt, BJJ, Elliott Bayev, Podcast, Positions, Sparring, Strategy, Teaching, The Strenuous Life BJJ Podcast with Stephan Kesting, Training Schedule

Improving BJJ Training Methods, with Pritt Mihkelson

April 20, 2021 by Stephan Kesting

Improving on Outdated BJJ Training Methods with Pritt Mihkelson podcast

Priit is a renowned BJJ black belt who has taught his style of defensive jiu-jitsu to thousands of people through his classes, seminars and instructionals.  He's particularly known for his unusual approach to teaching jiu-jitsu and structuring classes in such a way that people come away from them with the techniques and concepts they can actually use right away.  In episode 321 of The … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Interviews, Podcasts, Training Tagged With: BJJ, Drills, Interviews, Pritt Mihkelson, Sparring, The Strenuous Life BJJ Podcast with Stephan Kesting, Training, Training Modalities

The Cheapest Grappling Mat

August 23, 2020 by Stephan Kesting

I've trained on a lot of different types of mat in my day: wrestling mats, foam core mats, puzzle mats, and rock hard old school Judo straw tatami, just to name a few. And I've also rolled around on a lot of non-matted surfaces including concrete, wood and carpet. (Of all those surfaces, carpet is the WORST by far!!  The carpet burns you can get on your head, back and elbows are … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Training Tagged With: Grappling Mats, Guard Passes, Sparring, Training

My 100 Word BJJ Manifesto

May 29, 2020 by Stephan Kesting

Stephan Kesting's 'Strenuous Life Podcast'

A long time ago I tried to break down my approach to learning BJJ and mastering techniques as succinctly as possible. And here it is in 100 words... I recently did a more detailed breakdown of what I meant by these 100 words on my podcast, so check out the breakdown at the links below... Option 1: Stream the Manifesto Breakdown Here Click on the player below to start the … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Podcasts, Training Tagged With: Sparring, Stephan Kesting, The Mental Aspect, The Strenuous Life BJJ Podcast with Stephan Kesting, Training

Measure Your Training To Improve Your Training

February 21, 2020 by Stephan Kesting

Hexbar Deadlifts and Neck Harness Work

Peter Drucker, the godfather of modern business management, once said, “You can't manage what you can't measure.” Now I don't think that Peter Drucker did Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (or any other form of martial arts) but the idea of measuring things in order to improve them applies to every field of athletic endeavour. So let's look at some concrete ways that we might quantify our training and … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Health & Nutrition, Podcasts, Training Tagged With: Cardio, Nutrition, Sparring, Strength Training, The Strenuous Life BJJ Podcast with Stephan Kesting, Training, Training Modalities, Weightlifting

BJJ Gameplan Development (Podcast)

January 9, 2020 by Stephan Kesting

Stephan_Kesting Instagram Q&A

In this live Q&A I cover a bunch of topics including Gameplan development, What to do about training partners figuring out your game, How to find a good gym, Whether loyalty to your instructor always a good thing, How sparring is the secret sauce of any effective martial art, Taking time off from jiu-jitsu, And more You can stream the audio for today’s episode in the … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Competition, Interviews, Podcasts Tagged With: BJJ, Instagram Q&A, Q&A, Sparring, Teachers, The Mental Aspect, The Strenuous Life BJJ Podcast with Stephan Kesting, Training

The Cheat Code for BJJ Turtle Escapes

November 14, 2019 by Stephan Kesting

BJJ turtle escape

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pmz1ID3VgGU The turtle is a terrible position! Being on all fours is an invitation for your opponent to apply the clock choke, take your back and choke you out, or attack you with other submissions. And if you're talking about an MMA or self defense situation it's even worse.  Now your opponent can elbow, knee and hammerfist you into oblivion without even … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Grappling Techniques Tagged With: BJJ, Escapes, Guard Retention, Half Granby, No Gi, Positions, Rory Van Vliet, Sparring, Turtle Position, Video

BJJ Self Defense Rant

November 12, 2019 by Stephan Kesting

BJJ Self Defense

In this podcast episode I answer a question received on an Instagram Live Q&A about a boxing beating jiu-jitsu in a real streetfight. (Follow me on Instagram @stephan_kesting and maybe a future podcast episode will be devoted to something you asked about!) The question I dive into today is, "What are the the odds that a boxer would beat a BJJ practitioner if all other things - size, … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Podcasts, Self Defense Tagged With: Instagram, MMA, MMA training, Self Defense, Sparring, The Strenuous Life BJJ Podcast with Stephan Kesting

Why You MUST Regularly Calibrate Your Skills Against People Better Than You!

August 15, 2019 by Stephan Kesting

sparring open guard with denis kang

This is a short rant about the dichotomy of individuality in the martial arts. On the one hand you absolutely have to take responsibility for finding techniques and strategies that fit your body, your physical attributes, and your personality. On the other hand if you spend too much time training in a small group without the opportunity to calibrate your skills against people much better … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Podcasts, Training Tagged With: BJJ, Schools, Sparring, The Mental Aspect, The Strenuous Life BJJ Podcast with Stephan Kesting, Training

Situational Sparring and Positional Drilling

April 14, 2019 by Stephan Kesting

situational sparring and positional drilling

Situational sparring and positional drilling is a training method used by virtually every single black belt and high level BJJ competitor. In this type of training you start out in a certain position or situation and define specific end points where you reset and start again. For example, if you were to start in the sitting guard then you might stop if the guy on the bottom gets the sweep or … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Training Tagged With: Drills, Guard Sweeps, Sitting Guard, Sparring, Training, Turtle Position, Video

How to Win Lethwei World Championships,

April 8, 2019 by Stephan Kesting

Patrick Marcil, Lethwei trainer

Today's we're talking about training a fighter to become a world champion in an incredibly intense full contact martial known as Lethwei.  Lethwei is from Burma and looks a bit like Muay Thai with a few crazy additions... First of all, in addition to punches, kicks, elbows, and knees they also allow headbutts... If a fighter gets knocked out their cornermen have two minutes tor resuscitate them … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Miscellaneous, Mixed Martial Arts, Podcasts, Self Defense Tagged With: Conditioning, History, Interviews, Lethwei, MMA, MMA training, Muay Thai, Neck Strengthening, Patrick Marcil, Self Defense, Sparring, The Mental Aspect, The Strenuous Life BJJ Podcast with Stephan Kesting

Don’t Concede the Guard!

April 3, 2019 by Stephan Kesting

Half Guard Pass

I used to make a very specific mistake all up until about purple belt: I would just concede the guard. Conceding the Guard By that I mean that in a competitive roll I would just give my opponent whatever kind of guard he wanted and then go from there. If he wanted to play spider guard, sure, I’d give him spider guard and then try to pass. If he wanted de la Riva I’d give that to him right … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Training Tagged With: BJJ, Butterfly Guard, Closed Guard, Competition, de la Riva Guard, Guard Passes, Roy Harris, Sparring, Spider Guard, Strategy, Training

How to Get Past a Plateau in BJJ

March 22, 2019 by Stephan Kesting

BJJ Training Plateau

When you're training and training and training but just NOT getting any better that's called a 'plateau'. It happens to everyone but it's still an INCREDIBLY frustrating experience. You're out there sweating, straining, and maybe even bleeding on the mats but feel like you're stuck in some kind of rut. Everyone you train with becomes wise to your tricks, and seem to know what you're about to … [Read more...]

Filed Under: For Beginners, Podcasts, Training Tagged With: Plateaus, Sparring, The Mental Aspect, The Strenuous Life BJJ Podcast with Stephan Kesting, Training, Video

Rehab and Prehab for Martial Arts

December 14, 2018 by Stephan Kesting

It was a pleasure to talk with Dr Mark Cheng about injury rehabilitation and rehabilitation today on The Strenuous Life Podcast. Mark has worked with lots of combat athletes in all sorts of martial arts disciplines. He has also trained with some really good instructors, some of which I know personally. Here are just some of the things we cover in this podcast... The process of … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Health & Nutrition, Interviews, Podcasts Tagged With: Dan Inosanto, Injuries, JKD, Kung Fu, Mark Cheng, Martial Arts, MMA training, Rehab, Sparring, Striking, The Mental Aspect, The Strenuous Life BJJ Podcast with Stephan Kesting

Podcast Episode 181: Why is Sparring So Hard? (Audio + Video)

December 8, 2018 by Stephan Kesting

Ritchie Yip is the brains behind The Precision Kickboxing Masterclass, and in this episode he and I sat down to discuss the path to kickboxing mastery. Too many beginners feel great when they're hitting the pads only to have everything fall apart the very first time they spar.  Sparring can be a completely different beast from just drilling technique, and the transition can be incredibly … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Mixed Martial Arts, Podcasts, Self Defense Tagged With: Drills, Martial Arts, MMA training, Ritchie Yip, Sparring, Striking, The Mental Aspect, The Strenuous Life BJJ Podcast with Stephan Kesting, Video

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