Clint Davies is an amazing human being. Legally blind since age 2, he is also a 10 time New Zealand national champion who competes against sighted opponents. He also has multiple Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu national championships under his belt and has competed in the world championships. His goal is to be the craziest blind guy you've ever met, and this podcast may just convince you of … [Read more...]
Are You Just Not Getting Any Better? Here are 3 Steps to Bust Your Training Plateau
When you're training hard, hitting a training plateau can be incredibly frustrating. But first of all, let's hit on an important distinction. A training 'slump' and a training 'plateau' are two different things... I go into detail about the differences between slumps and plateaus in this article here, but basically a slump is a relatively short-lived event, one to four weeks long, in … [Read more...]
New Strenuous Life Podcast Episode with 5 x BJJ World Champion Bernardo Faria
I've just released a KILLER new podcast episode with 5 x BJJ World Champion on my Strenuous Life Podcast. (This is episode 086 of the podcast for anyone keeping track.) In this episode we talk about Bernardo's 'kidnapping' in the Philippines two years ago His thoughts on the results of ADCC 2017 The toughest guys he has ever rolled with Whether you can get your BJJ black belt … [Read more...]
The Best Mountaineer in the World and a Brand New Podcast…
I originally started my podcast - then named 'The Grapplearts Radio Podcast' - because I wanted to share some of the amazing conversations I was having with the athletes, competitors and coaches in the BJJ, submission and mixed martial arts space with my audience. The format of this podcast has evolved over the years. For example it now includes Q&A sessions and rants as well as interviews … [Read more...]
Should You Train When You’re Really Tired?
I recently came back from Europe and felt just clobbered by the 9 hour time difference the next day (being wide awake from 2 am onwards didn't help either). But I was really missing jiu-jitsu, so I made sure to get in a training session while stumbling from task to task. Was it an epic workout with 110% intensity? Not so much... It was a very controlled roll, focussing on just a few … [Read more...]
“If I don’t know, I will not allow.”
“If I don’t know, I will not allow.” That's a quote and a guiding principle from Roberto Leitao, a high ranking Luta Livre and Judo practitioner, that was shared with me by my friend Ed Beneville who trained with him. Regardless of whether it's a grip, a setup, a guard position, or an angle, if you don't fully understand what's going on then do everything you can to prevent it. Once you … [Read more...]
Are You Willing to Go Back to White Belt?
Most people training in the martial arts have a goal to achieve the mythical black belt. "When I finally wrap that black belt around my waist", the narrative goes, "THEN life will be good, my wife, kids and dog will all love me, and I'll never look stupid on the mats again." Ummmm, back up just a second... A good black belt frequently has to go back to being a white belt, and deliberately … [Read more...]
How to Choose a BJJ School to Train At
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Em0akAwkjGI I often get emails from people trying to decide where to learn BJJ. They're usually trying to choose between 2 or 3 different schools... Should they train with the purple belt down the street, or the black belt across town? Should they study at the Gracie Barra school, the Atos affiliate, or the 10th planet representative? Should they … [Read more...]
Keep It Simple Stupid When Learning New Techniques
Have you heard of the acronym K.I.S.S? It stands for “Keep It Simple Stupid.” (It was later made politically correct by changing it to “Keep It Short and Simple” but that never really caught on, especially me.) Anyway, K.I.S.S. is a good rule to live by when fighting, sparring and training. You want to simplify as much as possible and not try to keep track of too many things at … [Read more...]
MMA Weight Cutting with UFC Fighter Alan Belcher (And More)
I just released a new interview with UFC star Alan Belcher who has had some of the most exciting, edge-of-your-seat fights in the UFC. In our chat Alan shares lessons learned from 26 MMA fights including… The details of cutting major amounts of weight before an MMA fight His mindset while fighting Rousimar Palhares, one of the dirtiest and scariest fighter in MMA Lifting … [Read more...]
BJJ and Combat Sports Conditioning with Pshemek Drabcynski
I'm thrilled to bring you guys my interview with Pshemek Drabczynski. Pshemek was my very first 'official' BJJ teacher and I learned a ton from him. He's a BJJ black belt, a WKA North American kickboxing champion, and a physical conditioning guru. In this episode we talk about martial arts specific fitness, getting stronger, improving endurance, eating properly preventing injuries, fasting … [Read more...]
A Musician’s Perspective on Studying Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu
By Jeff Marder I’ve been a musician for as long as I can remember, and have been playing professionally for over thirty years. My primary focus is playing keyboards, conducting, and doing electronic music design for Broadway productions, although along the way I’ve also played a lot of jazz, classical, and spent three years in Las Vegas playing keyboards on a Cirque du Soleil … [Read more...]
Eye Gouging, Hair Pulling, and Theodore Roosevelt with Historian Daniele Bolelli
This is definitely one of my very favourite Grapplearts Radio Podcast episodes to date. In it I talk with historian and martial artist Daniele Bolelli. When Daniele isn't training MMA or giving lectures to students he's busy creating episodes of his own podcast, History on Fire, which you should totally check out. Our chat went all over the place, including from the rules (or lack … [Read more...]
2 Easy Guard Passing Strategies
Here's a brand new video I just shot... It covers two quick tweaks that'll make your guard passing game a LOT more powerful, both when you're sparring in class, and also when you're fighting in competition. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4sT533p1VHc Passing the guard of a good player is one of the hardest things to do in BJJ. But here are two strategies to help you... Guard … [Read more...]
Getting Your BJJ Black Belt at Age 62
I hope you'll like this episode of the Grapplearts Radio Podcast! In it I talk with 62 yr old BJJ black belt Rabbi Mordecai Finley (the Wrassling Rabbi) about many topics including... Starting BJJ at a later age and finally getting his black belt at age 62 How to pick the the right jiu-jitsu club Training with sciatica and after a heart attack The horrors of the Eastern … [Read more...]
What to do when you’ve just had a really crappy BJJ class…
Have you ever have an absolutely terrible BJJ class? One of those days where your regular training partners - the guys and girls you're normally neck and neck with - basically had their way with you? Maybe even junior belts passed your guard, took your back, swept you repeatedly, dominated you positionally, and tapped you out again and again? This can be difficult to deal with; … [Read more...]
Blood, Sweat and… Sparta!!!
This may sound a bit weird coming from a guy who runs a grappling site, but I want you to ask yourself a question: why on earth are you spending hours and hours rolling around on the ground with men wearing spandex and/or pajamas? Really… I mean it’s not the easiest of activities. And it’s sweaty and sometimes it’s even painful… Obviously there are self defense benefits to training, but if … [Read more...]
The Key to Getting Better and Tougher
BJJ makes you tougher because it’s a difficult activity that challenges you physically, mentally and emotionally. At first, when you’re getting slaughtered by a 2 stripe white belt, escaping from mount seems impossible. Yet a few years later, fighting your way out of the bottom of mount, passing the guard, and finishing with an armbar is just another day at the office. Over time … [Read more...]
The Training and Competition Strategies of Bernardo Faria
Bernardo Faria is a 5 x BJJ World Champion (and a good friend) so I was very excited to sit down with him and have an in-depth conversation about his competition, training and conditioning routine. The full transcript, audio and video are below on this page, but here's a quick preview of some of the things talked about: Exactly what a world champion's day to day training regimen … [Read more...]
Grapplearts Radio Podcast Episode 40: Stephan Kesting and Ritchie Yip
In the 40th episode of the Grapplearts Radio Podcast Ritchie and I start with a discussion of Darth Vader's lightsabre technique in Rogue One and then go deeply into the topic of paralysis by analysis in jiu-jitsu, teaching technique, the best way to train to get good fast, and many other fun topics. We finish up by talking about areas that we've focussed on in our own training this … [Read more...]