Learning to Fight! Conversations in Combat Skill

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In this episode, I talk with again with Coach Greg Souders of Standard Jiu-Jitsu , Rockville MD (Maryland).

Greg is a black belt who founded Standard Jiu-Jitsu several years back following many years of training and competing with Team Llyod Irvin.  A product of the high repetition and traditional development approach, Greg largely abandoned the conventional ways in favor of a more ecological approach to skill development.

This time, we recorded with Greg in Milwaukee where he came to visit for a day.  Greg was in the area with his team-mate and student, Alex Nguyen, who came to clean up at the Midwest Finishers tournament in Lombard IL, (Where she did so handedly and took home the 115lb female pro-bracket belt and cash).

Today we discuss practice design from a learning vs teaching perspective and Greg's four pillars of good practice.

I. Considering the historical Emergence of  the Grappling arts.
II. Starting with the end in mind.
III. Low to high variability.
IV. Playing the whole game every day.

Greg for me, is a coach's coach and really seems to be a trailblazer for the growing ecological minded schools out there.

Should anyone want to get in touch (I recommend they do). He is reachable on his social media links here. IG and Facebook and of course via his website 

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Andy Lane is a professor and researcher in sports psychology at the University of Wolverhampton UK.  Andy joined me to discuss strategies and methods for developing and building psychological skills in training and competition.

A former boxer with 50 fights, Andy is an advocate for responsible and ethical training/sparring and suggests alternative and effective ways to battle ready and pressure test fighters.

Andy is most active on twitter @andylane27 and also shares content on his youtube channel.

I was introduced to Andy after hearing him talk on the 'Sport Psych Show' podcast with Dan Abrahams. (An excellent podcast worth checking out!)

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Dr. Tom Parry is the founder and owner of Kestrel Performance Psychology. He has a Ph.D. in Human Performance from Indiana University with specializations in Skill Acquisition and Psychology.

​He wears many hats including Professor, Father, Coach and Consultant. These roles have blessed him with a detailed understanding of human behavior from various perspectives and the nuanced nature of performance.

 He has worked with numerous individual athletes, sports teams and businesses to improve their performance and meet their desired outcomes.

Tom joined me to discuss and elaborate on a recent twitter thread he posted recently. It was a thread that really resonated with me and I wanted to find out more.

Tom actively shares and posts content on his twitter page and is well worth a follow!

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In this episode, I talk with Coach Greg Souders of Standard Jiu-Jitsu , Rockville MD (Maryland).

Greg is a black belt who founded Standard Jui-Jitsu several years back following many years of training and competing with Team Llyod Irvin.  A product of the high repetition and traditional development approach, Greg largely abandoned the conventional ways in favor of a more ecological approach to skill development.

This episode was recorded with Greg in person when I visited his gym (nicknamed the Black Temple). After a couple of days training there, it was apparent how incredibly well developed his team are and how engaging and high quality the training is.  Greg's team have a unique way of communicating their understanding of the sport and interacting with each other.

Greg for me, is a coach's coach and really seems to be a trailblazer for the growing ecological minded schools out there.

Should anyone want to get in touch (I recommend they do). He is reachable on his social media links here. IG and Facebook and of course via his website 

I look forward to seeing Greg's name being tossed around in the discussion of up and coming progressive and high-level coaches. If his team keeps developing at the same rate, I imagine this won't take long!

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For 30 years, Coach Greg Nelson has overseen the training and development of thousands of combat sports athletes at his gym The Academy in Minnesota.

Among these fighters and champ that he has helped produce, Brock Lesnar, Kaitlin Young, Brock Larson, Sean Sherk, Dave Menne and Nick Thompson. He is also a regular part of UFC Straw-weight former reigning champ Rose Namajunas team.

Coach Nelson talks about his approach, philosophies and methods that he employs from entry level novice hobbyists all the way up to UFC World Champions.  He talks both about how training and the sport has evolved and changed,  and what attributes and features are remain ever present in High-Level elite performers.

I was happy and reassured to hear that many of principles and approaches that Coach Nelson has employed so successfully, are very much aligned with the broader underpinnings of ecological dynamics.

I particularly appreciated the apparent autonomy and creativity he fosters in his training environment and his approach to ethical and sensible training to promote longevity and skill development.

For more info on Coach Nelson and or the Academy. Visit www.theacademymn.com

You can also hear Coach Greg drop nuggets of fighting wisdom on his own podcast "In the Clinch"

Follow Coach Nelson and his team on IG or Twitter.

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I finally snagged the boys from Emergence to come and talk to me about MMA.

I have been following Shawn Myszka AKA @movementmiyagi since coming across his youtube channel several years ago. Shawn is an NFL skill coach and movement consultant, co-founder of Emergentmvmt.com, regular podcast and skill conference presenter and co-author of the recently published paper "Applying an ecological approach to practice design in American Football".

His biz partner Tyler Yearby also a co-author of the same article and is an educator and speaker on sport science and skill-development for American Football. 

Both Tyler and Shawn are regular guests on Rob Gray's Perception Action Podcast and are considered to be well informed and passionate advocates of the ecological approach to sport. They also somewhat uniquely straddle both the academic and on-field coaching spaces which arm them both with a deep theoretical and practical knowledge and understanding.

Be sure to follow them both and stay tuned for their soon to be launched Patreon community which will be a fantastic resource and information sharing space for progressive coaches and sports academics alike. 

Should you wish to get in touch with either Shawn or Tyler, they are very receptive and helpful and best reached on twitter or at their website. (See names above for links).

I was very grateful for their time and consider them coming on as another scalp, as this duo were on my original shortlist of wanted guests when I started the Podcast a few years back. 

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UFC vet and UK MMA pioneer Leigh Remedios returns to chat on the Primal MMA podcast.

Ireland's 'Team Torres' Coach Martin McLaughlin also joined the chat. Martin is diving deep into the Ecological Approach and speaks about how he is implementing the theory and principles of the Eco D practically on the mats.

This was largely an informal chat between the coaches and we shared lots of ideas and challenges we've experienced as we try to get the most out of our training time.

It's apparent that both Martin and Leigh are very progressive coaches and passionate about facilitating their team's development ethically and responsibly.

To reach out to Leigh you can find him on his gym's FB page

To link up with Matthew, you can get him here

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Todd Fossey is the founder of and Chief Instructor at Integrative Defense Strategies in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Today he accepted my invite to chat with me about managing anxiety and arousal in training and competiton, and how getting the right levels can help promote learning, skill development and performance.

Todd has been in the sport coaching and motor-learning space for several decades, add to that movie producer, trained psychotherapist and high performance consultant and it's clear he has lived a very interesting a full life thus far.

Todd is also both a coach and a student of highly regarded MMA coach Greg Nelson of the "Academy' in MN where trains grappling and bjj. Todd has also built a firearms training and education business that combines gun handling with modern practical MMA techniques and skills.

Should you want to follow up or reach out to Todd you can contact him via his FB page, or email [email protected]

You can also check out his website and his youtube page where he shares a ton of content about firearm training and personal saftey and protection skills.

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Todd Fossey is the founder of and Chief Instructor at Integrative Defense Strategies in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Today he accepted my invite to chat with me about managing anxiety and arousal in training and competiton, and how getting the right levels can help promote learning, skill development and performance.

Todd has been in the sport coaching and motor-learning space for several decades, add to that movie producer, trained psychotherapist and high performance consultant and it's clear he has lived a very interesting a full life thus far.

Todd is also both a coach and a student of highly regarded MMA coach Greg Nelson of the "Academy' in MN where trains grappling and bjj. Todd has also built a firearms training and education business that combines gun handling with modern practical MMA techniques and skills.

Should you want to follow up or reach out to Todd you can contact him via his FB page, or email [email protected]

You can also check out his website and his youtube page where he shares a ton of content about firearm training and personal saftey and protection skills.

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Cal Jones is both a Judo coach and practitioner from North Wales (UK). He also recently completed his Master Degree in sports science with a thesis on "Representative Learning Design".

Cal is well connected in the skill acquisition community and is a frequent guest on the coaching podcast circuits.

Should you want to reach out or follow Cal, he can be reached on his twitter account @CalJonesJudo

This is the part one of a two part episode where we discuss RLD and its implications for effective practice design for skill development. 

Cal and I also discuss much of the dated and stubbornly held perspectives that are so prevelant in martial arts today.

Cal is an understudy of Keith Davis who is one of the giants and leading researchers in ecological dynamics and skill acquisition.

I look forward to Cal being a returning guest on the show as we had a fun discussion and clicked well. 

My appreciation to him and all my guest who work hard to bring the research and data from the labs to the mats. 

Let's be better at getting better!   Ancora Imparo!