Welcome back for another episode of the Level Up Grappling Podcast! In this episode Ed discusses with Coach Bryan about the journey to earning a black belt and what it means to earn it. Ed started his grappling journey from scratch when joining PCIJJ and as a white belt with no stripes, he wants to undertand what he can expect, but the journey the black belt isn't so straight forward in the grappling arts as it may be in other "mainstream" martial arts. This is fun and meaningful conversation and we hope you are able to reflect on your journey.

In honor of Memorial Day, Ed and Coach Bryan would like to express their gratitude for all those who serve, have served, and have gone before us in service to our country.

We've got another FANTASTIC guest for you on this episode. The First Lady of Jiujitsu - Melissa Haueter! Melissa Haueter is the wife of Master Chris Haueter one of the original Dirty Dozen. Melissa goes into her jiujitsu journey, how her struggles turned into empowerment, and shares about Combat Base. We hear from Melissa about her perspectives on women in the grappling arts and how that has impacted her and how she impacts others. It's a wonderful episode and as always full of fun, rawness, and at times offensive - you're going to love it.

A quick note: We apologize for some of the audio quality as we were having some technical issues getting this episode recorded! We're learning!

To learn more about Melissa Haueter follow her on IG @melissahaueter. For more information on training with Melissa and/or Chris Haueter check out Combat Base! Don't forget to follow us on IG @levelup_grappling!

Happy Mother's Day Melissa Haueter and to all our grappling moms!

On this episode of Level Up Grappling we have our first guest - 3x Masters NoGi World Champion and former Gaudiya Vaisnava monk - Mr. Steve Silvers! Coach Bryan and Steve have a wonderful conversation about Steve's grappling journey and other fascinating topics like superstitions and sweaty gis. This is part one of two of this awesome conversation on jiujitsu, submission grappling, and everything else in between. So make sure you're subscribed to catch the second part!

You can find Steve Silvers on Instagram @thegaudiyaguardpuller. DM him for information about his high-performance leadership training!

Also, follow us on IG @levelup_grappling!