The Strenuous Life Podcast With Stephan Kesting / Grapplearts Radio

Stephan Kesting interviews Roxanne Modaferri about the differences between MMA training in Japan and the USA, continuing to improve after 12 years in the sport, snapping a 6 fight losing streak, and what tryouts forThe Ultimate Fighter were really like. Download Stephan Kesting's Roadmap for BJJ book for free at http://www.grapplearts.com/book

Steve Whittier is a cool guy. He manages to combine both thoughtful analyses and controversial opinions into one eloquent package. In this interview we talked about lots of different BJJ and MMA related topics, but the main emphasis and recurring theme was functional drilling and the efficacy of different types of BJJ training methods. http://www.nexusma.com http://www.grapplearts.com

BJJ Black Belts Ritchie Yip and Stephan Kesting have a wide-ranging discussion, centered around tips that BJJ beginners need to know.   Material covered includes: Whether beginners should in their own class or mixed in with more advanced people Things to look for when checking out a new school How to avoid situations where you’re just going to get maliciously rag dolled by senior students How instructors can teach a class of differing levels What the the only real spiritual benefits of martial arts training is How to tell if a martial arts school is run by a complete A-hole Why training with black belts only is a huge mistake What happens when people interested in taking a kickboxing class end up in the jiu-jitsu class by mistake Why learning jiu-jitsu is much harder than learning boxing, and how not to get discouraged during that learning process The most insane idea Stephan has ever had for making a training dummy And much more... For more about Ritchie check out www.infighting.ca For more about Stephan c

Here's a really cool video interview I did with my friend, BJJ blackbelt, renowned coach, and fierce competitor Elliott Bayev.   This interview is special because we break down the steps of building a BJJ gameplan.  We go right from the basic BJJ self defense gameplan, and build up to the intricate strategies used by world class competitors. There are tons of immediately useful takeaways here.  And along the way we also discuss self defense, the role of competition, and the evolution of new techniques and positions in BJJ. If you want to download Elliott's Complete Spider Guard Gameplan Mindmap for free visit http://www.grapplearts.com/spider/

This is a really cool interview with my friend, black belt, and fierce competitor Brandon 'Wolverine' Mullins.  Brandon and I originally worked together to create the highly acclaimed instructional How to Defeat the Bigger, Stronger Opponent Volume 2. In our time together today Brandon and I discuss, Life and death on the seminar circuit, What changes you need to make to your guard to transition from gi to no-gi, How to connect moves together to make a smooth and fluid game, The evolution of jiu-jitsu, including the new positions and strategies that are continuously changing the sport, Why you always need to pushing to improve your position even when you're ahead on points. And much more...

Stephan: I’m here today with my friend,Adam Singer, who runs The HardCore Gym in Athens, Georgia.  He is probably best known for being Forrest Griffin’s MMA coach during the formative years of Forrest’s career. He’s also a jiu-jitsu black belt and has trained tons of fighters.   I’m really looking forward to picking his brain about MMA and jiu-jitsu and the relationship between these things. He’s an outspoken guy, so I’m sure we’ll have a good conversation. So thanks for talking to us today, Adam.   Adam: Hi. It’s a pleasure to be here.   Stephan: So, you're driving around town as we do this interview?   Adam: It's hard for me to find any place where I’m not going to be bothered by people. And so I figured, I’ve got the air-conditioner on in the car and I’m just going to drive around. We have what is called “The Loop”. It’s about 10 miles long and I’m just going to drive around “The Loop” with cruise control on and talk to you.   Stephan:  Okay. Well, hopefully we don’t have the first live car crash on a podc

Stephan Kesting interviews Scott Nelson from On the Mat about the history and evolution of BJJ in North America.  Along the way Scott shares some pretty crazy stories from his travels around the world.

Want to find out how to be a more effective martial arts teacher? Stephan Kesting interviews BJJ black belt Ritchie Yip about the art and science of teaching martial arts.  Lots of tips and tricks for teachers and aspiring instructors in this one!

Stephan talks with 2013 Pan American middlweight champion Clark Gracie about training, competition, growing up Gracie, and yes, that famous picture with the hair and the omoplata.

Stephan interviews John Perretti, the matchmaker for the early UFC and the EFC (Extreme Fighting Championship).  He put together some of the most iconic matches in the UFC before Zuffa took it over in 2001.   In this interview he talks about the rules and weight classes he created for the fledgling sport of Mixed Martial Arts (a term that he is credited with coining), how he found and selected fighters, brain trauma in the combat sports, his disdain for the current state of the UFC, and much more.

Stephan Kesting interviews Rafael Lovato Jr, one of the most successful North American BJJ competitors.  They discuss technique, mindset, training, conditioning, and the keys to being successful in competition.  The full transcript of this interview is available at http://www.grapplearts.com/lovato

Stephan Kesting interviews one of his most influential teachers, 9th degree Kajukenbo black belt and Black Belt Hall of Famer Philip Gelinas. Topics include the evolution of Georges St Pierre, the relevance of BJJ and MMA to self defense, grappling with sticks and knives, and how the martial arts continue to change and adapt in the 21st century.

Want to be an effective martial artist?  Burton Richardson talks about training and performing under pressure in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, MMA, and Full Contact Stickfighting. Plus he shares lessons learned from such martial arts luminaries as Dan Inosanto, the Machados Brothers, Egan and Enson Inoue, Baret Yoshida, Chris Leben, Eric Knauss, Antonio Illustrisimo, and Charuto Verissimo.

Keenan Cornelius is a BJJ phenomenon.  Having won double gold medals at four of the biggest IBJJF tournaments - The World Jiu-Jitsu Championship, Pan-American Championship, European Open Championship, and the Brazilian National Jiu-Jitsu Championship, he's one of the most active, most successful North American competitors on the scene today.   In this interview with Stephan Kesting from www.grapplearts.com, Keenan talks about his training regimen, competition mindset, dealing with nerves, his time at Team Lloyd Irvin, and what he hopes to accomplish in the future. 

Proof that a serious BJJ competitor can still be classy; Roy Dean talks with Stephan Kesting about BJJ, Judo, Aikido, and Path of the Martial Artist. Roy Dean has black belts in kodokan judo and aikikai aikido, japanese jujutsu and Brazilian jiu-jitsu.  He's recognized as a black belt by the international brazilian jiu jitsu federation (IBJJF), with affiliated academies around the world.

How do you go from being the smallest person in the class to a BJJ world champion! This is a really interesting interview with my friend Brandon 'Wolverine' Mullins.  I first polled the Grapplearts.com newsletter readership if they had any questions for Brandon, and boy, did they ever! I sifted and sorted hundreds of emails to pick out the very best questions for for him, and this in-depth interview about competition and training strategies for grapplers is the result. Brandon has worked with Stephan to create 'How to Defeat the Bigger, Stronger Opponent Series 2' available in mobile app and DVD format here: http://www.grapplearts.com/bigger-stronger-series-2/

Vinicius 'Draculino' talks with Stephan Kesting about how surfing beach fights brought him into jiu-jitsu, what it was like training with the top Gracie and Machado fighters in Rio in the 1980's, and how self defense and vale tudo training were incorporated into the classes. He also talks about the early BJJ competition scene, and how BJJ has changed over the last 3 decades. His contributions to the Spider Guard Position, and why he gets more nervous for BJJ competition than for MMA fights. Then they move on to why he thought that many matches at the 2012 Mundials reminded him of two spiders having sex, the rule changes, he'd like to see to make jiu-jitsu competition more exciting, and why he makes even his BJJ world champions do self defense twice a week All in all, it's a merry romp down many BJJ topics, past and present.  

Answers for your BJJ questions!  Stephan takes questions from his newsletter readers in the first ever Q&A Podcast.  Find out how how to taper for competition, what to do when you're getting crushed all the time, what to do when your wrestling coach wants you to stop doing BJJ, and how to remember all these bloody techniques...

Ryan Hall is one of North America's most prolific competitors in BJJ and Submission Grappling.  In this in-depth interview with Stephan Kesting he shares tips on training, competing, the 50-50 guard, the triangle choke, sparring with Marcelo Garcia, the construction of an effective guard game, and so much more!

Want to find out more about the psychology of combat?  Tony Blauer is the head of Blauer Tactical Systems which specializes in close quarter tactics & scenario-based training for law enforcement, military and professional self-defense instructors. We had a great conversation about Crossfit, fear management, adrenaline dumps, and his 'conversion' to BJJ.  And it's all pretty relevant stuff!  Everybody (who's not insane) feels fear, whether we're freaked out about sparring somebody new, entering our first BJJ tournament, fighting MMA, or defending ourselves on the street. And so we should know how to deal with it