Everyman BJJ

Episode 9 - February 23, 2020 - The Fight and the Fury

The rematch between Tyson Fury and Deonta Wilder proved to be a total mismatch, and Fury’s commanding performance raises a larger question: What adjustments should a combat sports athlete make when facing an opponent for a second or third time? Will a similar version of our opponent show up in the sequel and what adjustments are you going to make? How daring and dramatic are you willing to be with your technical and strategic adjustments? 

In their most recent and thought-provoking episode, Everyman BJJ team takes aim at those inquiries and explores the bold decisions that transformed Fury into a brilliant outlier in the boxing ring last week. 

Kyle Dake, a freestyle wrestling world champion who won four NCAA titles in college, has said that a big part of his success is owed to his ability to constantly adapt mid-match. So we think these adjustments are crucial to any fighter or grappler’s growth and evolution. 

The Everyman BJJ trio also explores other tantalizing topics, including: 

-- Do you like each one of your training partners? Is it a bad thing if you don’t? 

-- Everyman’s Noah Green loves the mat grind -- but not necessarily the busted lip and knee-to-the-face he absorbed last week during jits practice (at the hands of a white belt!!!). 

-- Everyman’s Frank Forza sheds light on the “little nasties” techniques that top BJJ players use to win. Does technique truly conquer all, as many claim? Or does inflicting pain and misery on the mat deserve a lot more credit for opening up the submission? What are examples of some of the hidden, little-known details that elite champions like Roger Gracie and Marcelo Garcia use -- but will never be pointed out if you buy their instructional video or attend one of their seminars? 

-- We probe the rapid-fire, split-second Mind of Mikey -- Mikey Musumeci -- and how he’s able to impose his non-stop attacking style on almost every opponent. What makes Mikey so difficult to stop? 

-- Noah, a voracious reader who is happily married to a Ph.D. student, lists some of the BJJ archetypes he has created. 

-- Training the subconscious mind vs. the conscious mind -- we explore. 

-- The art of “getting lost in the moment” and “in the zone,” and WHEN YOUR TRAINING PARTNER BREAKS YOUR NOSE

Everyman BJJ shoots new videos every Sunday — catch us live-streaming conversations every Sunday at 1:30 pm Pacific Standard Time/4:30 EST. 

Email questions, comments and compliments to: [email protected]

Show Notes – Episode 8 – February 16, 2020

Aside from getting married, every year tens of thousands of Americans legally change their names -- from celebrities hungry to cash in on their image, to immigrants seeking to simplify their names, to ordinary folk who unfortunately share a name with faraway dictators. The Everyman BJJ crew are certified suckers for thought-provoking and improvisational conversation (no matter the topic) and the universally provocative questions of “Why do people change their names?” and “How might your birth name affect your personality and identity?” are explored here in Episode 8. 

Everyman’s Noah Green, a Manhattan-based accounting wizard and Renzo Gracie Academy blue belt, is cranking out 12- and 15-hour work days at the height of audit season. Being limited to training only once or twice a week makes it hard for “Mean Green” to legally choke his training partners, a cheap thrill that helps him emotionally ventilate and mentally sanitize. Noah managed to train BJJ once last week and recounts the story of an undersized white belt who “just beat me up.” 

What qualifies as too defensive in jiu jitsu? How can we better strike the right balance between being offensive and defensive on the mats? 

Noah poses those questions to Everyman’s Frank Forza and Jordan With, sparking a fascinating discussion about when to be aggressive or passive on the mat. Frank alludes to his conversations with BJJ legends who have told him -- to his surprise -- how much they respect and admire great defensive fighters as well. 

We talk about the difference between “intelligently defending” and “fear-based defending.” Jordan passionately weighs in with his convictions regarding fighting-to-win-on-points vs. fighting-to-win-via-submission. 

Frank, creator of “MindJitsu” and also an ultra-experienced nutritional guru, starts off with a little motivational speech and offers his take on the fast-rising Carnivore Diet craze. 

Noah answers the question, “When is Renzo teaching class at his academy?” and invokes Shakespeare while explaining the birth and considerations that factored into him deliberately choosing “Everyman BJJ” as a brand. 

Everyman BJJ shoots new videos every Sunday — catch us live-streaming conversations every Sunday at 1:30 pm Pacific Standard Time/4:30 EST. 

Email questions, comments and compliments to: [email protected]

About the Everyman BJJ team: 

Frank Curreri Forza is a 3x IBJJF Masters World Champion, two-time TEDx speaker, and longtime journalist/writer/editor who has worked for the Ultimate Fighting Championship, The Salt Lake Tribune, Las Vegas Review-Journal and appeared in other prominent media outlets. He is a Baltimore native and University of Maryland graduate who lives in Las Vegas. 

Noah is a bit of a renaissance man. A Texan by birth, US Marine for life, husband, father, avid fan of Joe Rogan, Malcolm Gladwell, and Franklin Delano Roosevelt. He’s been an NYC-based student of Renzo Gracie since 2009 (off and on due to injuries, work, life) and has been a blue belt since October 2015. He lived in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil for a while and speaks Brazilian Portuguese and Spanish. His passions are for the study and acquisition of expert performance (Anders Ericsson), Brazilian food and culture, and data science. His BJJ goal is to compete and medal at each belt along his journey. The day job is as a financial executive in NYC.

Jordan Wirth is a well-decorated grappler known for his unorthodox style and “Always Go For the Finish” mentality. He is one of the instructors at 10th Planet Jiu Jitsu and Legacy Martial Arts in Henderson, Nev.

Show Notes - Episode 7 - February 9, 2020

The coronavirus is generating worldwide headlines and striking fear into the hearts of many. What does that mean for the jiu-jitsu, wrestling, MMA and combat sports community? At what point would the coronavirus start discouraging a lot of combat sports athletes and practitioners from going to training and swapping sweat with strangers on the mats?  

At the moment, there are relatively few cases of coronavirus in fight-producer powerhouses such as the U.S., Brazil, Russia, Australia and Canada. But what if the coronavirus spread to 500 people in your community, or infected thousands of people near you... would that scare you so much that you might avoid martial arts training for weeks or even months? Even if you did train amid multiplying coronavirus cases, what modifications would you make to your training and/or post-training routines?  

In episode 7 of Everyman BJJ, we discuss the threat of the coronavirus to grapplers and the larger concerns of staying safe on the mats – particularly as it pertains to cultivating good hygiene habits and doing our best to prevent skin and staph infections.  

The Everyman BJJ crew explores how many grapplers and fighters train five or six days a week, on mats that – even at gyms that clean them often – even the cleanest mats during an intense practice session can become cesspools of fungi, bacteria, viruses and pathogens. And yet elite grapplers and fighters tend to be far healthier than the Average Joe or Jane. Elite grapplers tend to get sick a lot less than most people, despite often being intimately exposed to lots of bacteria, fungi, sweat, abrasions, cuts and even other people’s blood on occasion. What is going on there? If being exposed to viruses, pathogens, flu, fungi and bacteria is supposed to increase our risk of getting sick, then why aren’t more elite combat sports athletes sick all of the time?  

Everyman BJJ’s Noah Green has been playfully dubbed “The Shaquille O’Neal of Sweating in BJJ Circles.” Noah is a burly, intellectual Neanderthal, so he sweats A LOT and also happens to be a hygiene fanatic who moonlights as part of the Staph Police at his academy. Noah shares his G-rated Anthony Bourdain standing-in-line-to-get-a-shower story and how, during a recent jits training session, Noah watched in horror as a drop of his sweat fell in super slow-motion and landed squarely in the eye of his training partner.  

In terms of staph and skin infection risk, is gi or no-gi training safer for the athlete’s skin? We offer our perspective (based on anecdotes and experience, not science). We also recount training in rooms so hot that the walls sweat, too! Jordan Wirth and Frank Forza recall the many days of “Slip-and-slide" training and days where athletes (either knowingly or unknowingly) trained with teammates who had a skin infection such as ringworm and lived to tell about it.  

We ponder how Andrew Yang, a little-known candidate for U.S. President, publicly made a comment to the effect of, ‘Police Officers should be purple belts.” The Everyman BJJ crew offers their take on that idea and Frank also tells the story of how former UFC owners Frank and Lorenzo Fertitta flew to Louisiana nearly two decades ago and had the vision, the instincts – independent of scientific data – to see the sport’s potential and how big it could become.  

Join us in watching this lively episode and, if you like what you’re seeing, please like and share our videos on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. 

Everyman BJJ shoots new videos every Sunday — catch us live-streaming conversations every Sunday at 1:30 pm Pacific Standard Time/4:30 EST. 

Email questions, comments and compliments to: [email protected]

Show Notes - Episode 6 - February 2, 2020

When the Gracies and other Brazilians imported Jiu Jitsu to the U.S., a powerful piece of Portuguese slang arrived with them.  

If you’re serious about training BJJ then you’re probably familiar with a disparaging term, a not-so-subtle insult, hurled at students who leave one team for a rival academy. The word: “Creonte.” 

It is an attack on the departed student’s character, a jab at his honor. Calling someone a creonte implies that the defector is disloyal, a traitor.  

In Episode 6 of Everyman BJJ’s video series, we explore the concept of creonte and how loyalty is a two-way street: How can BJJ instructors show loyalty to their students and vice-versa? Where do you draw the line as to what constitutes loyalty and what does not? 

When should a student consider switching academies?  

Has the perception of students who switched academies changed over the years, or is the creonte stigma as prevalent as ever?  

Frank Forza, Noah Green and Jordan Wirth consider many different sides and angles surrounding the issue.  

Trying to make sense of it all, Noah, a BJJ blue belt at the Renzo Gracie Academy in Manhattan, invokes and endorses the book “Tribe” by actor Sebastian Junger. 

Once upon a time, 15-20 years ago, BJJ instructors could largely dictate the rules and terms with a “My-way-or-the-highway" attitude. That “I demand loyalty or I will not teach you” approach worked wonderfully back when there were relatively few academies in major cities. Today, however, the explosion of BJJ and rapid proliferation of BJJ black belts has changed the narrative. Students today often have a plethora of academies to choose from and we’ve seen a massive shift where many BJJ athletes cross-train at different gyms (even in their home city, not just when they travel).  

What does all this cross-training mean for today’s competitive BJJ athlete? What are the advantages and potential disadvantages of jumping around to different schools?  

How comfortable are you training with someone today, knowing you might be competing against them in the next few months or later this year?  

How much videotape of an opponent should you study?  

Jordan weighs in and Frank recounts what former UFC champion Randy Couture once told him about how he prepared for his cage fights (hint: Couture believed that if you studied your opponents too much, and too closely to a fight, this could happen____).  

If you’re training with someone you might be competing against down the road, should you hold back?  

Is it cool, is it ethical, to train regularly at two or three different academies in your area?  

The Everyman BJJ team discuss how the lines can get blurred and there are many moving pieces to consider in these kinds of scenarios.  

Join us as Frank, Noah and Jordan dive in for a candid 90-minute discussion on a topic that never gets old in the BJJ community, a topic that continues to be as controversial and provocative as ever, even 19 years after Frank first started training the so-called “Gentle Art.”  

Everyman BJJ shoots new videos every Sunday — catch us live-streaming conversations every Sunday at 1:30 pm Pacific Standard Time/4:30 EST. 

Email questions, comments and compliments to: [email protected]

About the Everyman BJJ team: 

Frank Curreri Forza is a 3x IBJJF Masters World Champion, two-time TEDx speaker, and longtime journalist/writer/editor who has worked for the Ultimate Fighting Championship, The Salt Lake Tribune, Las Vegas Review-Journal and appeared in other prominent media outlets. He is a Baltimor

Show Notes - Episode 5 - January 26, 2020

In Episode 5, the Everyman BJJ team marvels as 137-pound wunderkind Mikey Musumeci battles goliaths at the 2020 IBJJF European Championships. We also discuss the jedi in Mikey’s ear, the great Caio Terra. But first we express shock and sorrow at the sudden loss of NBA legend Kobe Bryant, his 13-year-old daughter Gianna, and seven others after a tragic helicopter crash in Calabassas, Calif, this past weekend. 

Whoever you are, whatever your situation -- whether combat sports athlete, MMA aficionado, entrepreneur, NBA fan or couch potato -- you might appreciate how Kobe Bryant transcended sport with his lofty standards of excellence, class and grace. In the same vain as combat sports icons such as Anderson Silva, Muhammad Ali, Marcelo Garcia, Roger Gracie and Cael Sanderson -- Kobe Bryant moved smoothly and effortlessly on the court. As the great ones often do, he made it look easy. A gentleman off the court, Kobe delighted in dominance on it, and the lessons of his extraordinary passion and professionalism stretch well beyond the basketball court. 

Kobe is being mourned and celebrated around the world, nowhere more emphatically than in Southern California, where he led the Los Angeles Lakers to five NBA titles. SoCal also happens to be the mecca of BJJ outside of Brazil thanks to the migration of top-shelf BJJ icons such as Rickson and Rorion Gracie, Rigan and Jean Jacques Machado, Carlos Gracie Jr., Andre Galvao, Saulo Ribeiro, and Rafael and Guilherme Mendes, among many others. You can make a very compelling case that this first wave of BJJ migrants was driven not only by robust economic opportunities, but also because many Brazilians favor beach and tropical climates that most resemble warmer conditions of cities in their homeland such as Rio de Janeiro.

Our tribute to Kobe echoes throughout the entire video as we entertain the amazing exploits of American phenom Mikey Musumeci, unquestionably the greatest expression of American gi jiu jitsu in history. 

We also discuss Vinny Magalhaes, BJJ black belt extraordinaire -- why you should follow him, why he might be the most underrated and under-appreciated no-gi grappler in the world, and the epic Vinny Magalhaes video that everyone should watch. 

To cap things off, we ponder Podcast titan Joe Rogan’s public criticism of ESPN’s bombastic marquee talent Stephen A. Smith. Was Joe spot on when he questioned Stephen A’s fight IQ and credibility when commentating on big-league MMA? Is Joe dissatisfied and might he consider leaving the broadcast booth to focus more on comedy tours, podcast episodes and other adventures? The Everyman BJJ crew explores all that and more during this action-packed 90-minute episode.

About the Everyman BJJ team: 

Frank Curreri Forza is a 3x IBJJF Masters World Champion, two-time TEDx speaker, and longtime journalist/writer/editor who has worked for the Ultimate Fighting Championship, The Salt Lake Tribune, Las Vegas Review-Journal and appeared in other prominent media outlets. He is a Baltimore native and University of Maryland graduate who lives in Las Vegas. 

Noah is a bit of a renaissance man. Texan by birth, US Marine for life, husband, father, and fan of Joe Rogan, Malcolm Gladwell, and Franklin Delano Roosevelt.  He’s been an NYC based student of Renzo Gracie since 2009 (off and on due to injuries, work, life) and has been a blue belt since October 2015. He lived in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil for a while and speaks Brazilian Portuguese and Spanish.  His passions are for the study and acquisition of expert performance (Anders Ericsson), Brazilian food and culture, and data science. His BJJ goal is to compete and medal at each belt along his journey. The day job is as a financial executive in NYC.

Show Notes – Episode 4 – January 19, 2020

What do you tell a fighter who is sleepwalking through a fight, has likely lost every round, and is about to enter the final round?

How do you control the fight-or-flight response, the overreactions and wasted nervous energy and fear that sabotage your performances in training and competition?

How do you learn to channel energy that general society regards as negative such as anger, aggression and hostility?

In this fun and fast-paced episode, the Everyman BJJ trio takes aim at questions that shadow many combat sports athletes. They also discuss:

The brilliant simplicity of the legendary Leo Vieira;

What does Jiu Jitsu mean to you in terms of therapy, life education, sport, healthy lifestyle and beyond?;

How Brazil’s Diego Ferreira, a BJJ black belt wizard coming off a huge win over former UFC champ Anthony Pettis, is starting to look like the second coming of Demian Maia (but with even better hands);

How Jiu Jitsu academies tend to self police themselves and manage diversity much better than societal institutions that often heavily rely on political correctness, laws and regulations to try and integrate diverse demographics;

Everyman BJJ’s Noah Green attempts to define “The Savage,” a word that is complimentary to some, cold-hearted to others;

The frenetic, high-anxiety fighting style of Holly Holm (which usually ends up being  highly effective for the 38-year-old former world champion);

The fighters of Brazilian bloodline who literally fight like their dinner depends on the outcome, as if “There is no Plan B” for them. 

 About the Everyman BJJ team: 

Frank Curreri Forza is a 3x IBJJF Masters World Champion, two-time TEDx speaker, and longtime journalist/writer/editor who has worked for the Ultimate Fighting Championship, The Salt Lake Tribune, Las Vegas Review-Journal and appeared in other prominent media outlets. He is a Baltimore native and University of Maryland graduate who lives in Las Vegas. 

Noah Green is a financial executive who has worked for prominent firms on Wall Street and beyond. 

Jordan Wirth is a well-decorated grappler known for his unorthodox style and “Always Go For the Finish” mentality. He is one of the instructors at 10th Planet Jiu Jitsu and Legacy Martial Arts in Henderson, Nev.

Show Notes – Episode 3 – January 12, 2020

You’ve probably noticed the Golden Age of Girl Power that is sweeping through the modern world. A massive wave of trailblazing pioneers such as Ronda Rousey, Miesha Tate, Amanda Nunes, Bia Mesquita and Helen Maroulis are shattering stereotypes and forcing us to rethink how physically powerful and athletically ferocious a female can be. More and more, both on YouTube and at your local gym, we’re seeing girls and women turning heads with impressive feats of power, speed and bravery. The typical male is surely noticing the ever-growing number of women who can punch harder than him, perform more pullups than him, and can tap him out (and also bruise his ego!) during a Jiu Jitsu training session. 

The Everyman BJJ crew -- Frank Forza (Drysdale BJJ black belt), Jordan Wirth (10th Planet Jiu Jitsu brown belt) and Noah Green (Renzo Gracie Academy blue belt) -- huddle for this week’s podcast to discuss the skyrocketing evolution and explosion of female buttkicking in MMA, BJJ, wrestling and beyond. 

We take a deeper dive into this booming phenomenon and tackle questions that include: 

What is fueling the female empowerment movement in the combat sports? 

How have BJJ, MMA and wrestling training options improved and changed for females over the past 15 years? 

The role of ego on the mat and the almost-universal fear among men and boys who are terrified by the prospect of, “What if I lose to a girl!?” 

Millions of parents every day worry about their kids being bullied in school. It is a huge problem, an epidemic, in our country, and we advocate how a growing number of parents see BJJ, wrestling and MMA training as a potent antidote to bullying. 

We also passionately weigh in on another meaty topic: The Fine Art of Tapping in Training. 

What does it mean to be an “Intelligent Tapper?” 

What is a good tap and what do beginners especially need to be aware of? 

How can a BJJ player better protect themselves and their training partners on the mat? 

What is the mindset during training? (Frank, one of the first 3,000 BJJ black belts in the world), reveals his Top 3 Rules for when he steps on the mat and the most common mistake that beginners make when tapping. 

During which scenarios is a verbal tap superior to a tap via physical gesture? 

Also -- why you might want to think twice about buying a car with a stick shift! 

How much responsibility do the BJJ and MMA academy instructors bear for creating the tapping protocols and injury-prevention culture among their student-athletes? 

There is definitely an etiquette and art to tapping and its crucial for BJJ players, especially since roughly 99% of the adult practitioners work a day job and the last thing they need is a significant injury that could mentally distract them and potentially disrupt their financial life. 

We deliver all that and more on today’s podcast, and if you like what we’re building, we invite you to share it with friends who might enjoy it, too. 

About the Everyman BJJ team: 

Frank Curreri Forza is a 3x IBJJF Masters World Champion, two-time TEDx speaker, and longtime journalist/writer/editor who has worked for the Ultimate Fighting Championship, The Salt Lake Tribune, Las Vegas Review-Journal and appeared in other prominent media outlets. He is a Baltimore native and University of Maryland graduate who lives in Las Vegas. 

Noah is a bit of a renaissance man. Texan by birth, US Marine for life, husband, father, and fan of Joe Rogan, Malcolm Gladwell, and Fran

Show Notes – Episode 2 – December 22, 2019

How much money are some of BJJ’s top champions and coaches making?

UFC 246: Conor McGregor vs. Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone, who takes it and why?

Trash talk in the martial arts: Should we blame American fans (more than promoters) for being such a sucker time and again for trash-talking and bad behavior (while grossly underappreciating humble yet brilliant technicians like Demetrious Johnson)?

The well-connected, fast-rising crew at Everyman BJJ tackle those topics and more in their second episode. 

Captured in their conversation:

Jordan Wirth, a brown belt in the 10th Planet Jiu Jitsu system who comprises one-third of the dynamic Everyman trio, opens up about his struggles with “confidence issues.”

Frank Forza discusses what jumpstarted his wrestling career and later his journey to BJJ black belt (hint: Frank’s reasons for training as a teen are similar to those of Georges St. Pierre and Conor McGregor).

Noah Green, an accountant with Big League Wall Street experience and BJJ blue belt at the famed Renzo Gracie Academy in Manhattan, recalls the time when he was in the U.S. Marines Corps and granted emergency leave to be with his dying father.

Jordan, who specializes in No-Gi Submission Grappling, reveals his favorite submission to hit when trapped in an opponent’s closed guard, and also relives how fascinated he was when he first discovered Eddie Bravo’s unique Rubber Guard System at 15 years young.

Frank and Noah talk life philosophy and wrestling with fears and doubts that often haunt people’s subconscious minds for decades, into their mid-40s. 

How do you FINALLY defeat that negative and pessimistic inner voice that keeps telling you, “You’re not good enough”? How can you finally, after all these years and now middle-aged… how do you finally break through psychologically and achieve more of your full potential?

We know that people love their pets -- often times more than other humans -- so some might appreciate Jordan’s dog making a surprise cameo appearance near the end of the video. 

This podcast also features Frank, Noah and Jordan offering a closer window into what motivates them, as well as their personal and professional arcs

About the Everyman BJJ team: 

Frank Curreri Forza is a 3x IBJJF Masters World Champion, two-time TEDx speaker, and longtime journalist/writer/editor who has worked for the Ultimate Fighting Championship, The Salt Lake Tribune, Las Vegas Review-Journal and appeared in other prominent media outlets. He is a Baltimore native and University of Maryland graduate who lives in Las Vegas. 

Noah is a bit of a renaissance man. Texan by birth, US Marine for life, husband, father, and fan of Joe Rogan, Malcolm Gladwell, and Franklin Delano Roosevelt.  He’s been an NYC based student of Renzo Gracie since 2009 (off and on due to injuries, work, life) and has been a blue belt since October 2015. He lived in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil for a while and speaks Brazilian Portuguese and Spanish.  His passions are for the study and acquisition of expert performance (Anders Ericsson), Brazilian food and culture, and data science. His BJJ goal is to compete and medal at each belt along his journey. The day job is as a financial executive in NYC.

Jordan Wirth is a well-decorated grappler known for his unorthodox style and “Always Go For the Finish” mentality. He is one of the instructors at 10th Planet Jiu Jitsu and Legacy Martial Arts in Henderson, Nev.