The Strenuous Life Podcast with Stephan Kesting

This is an important episode because it's all about managing the adrenaline dump and the fight or flight reflex. Shane Fazen from Fight Tips and I talk about what fight or flight feels like, what you can expect in your first few competitions, how to use adrenaline to your advantage, exactly how to use visualisation and meditation to lower your heart rate, stay calm, and actually fight the way you train.

If you compete or are interested in self defense don't miss this episode.

Find out more about Shane Fazen at http://fighttips.com

Download my free video guide for learning BJJ for iOS and Android devices at https://www.grapplearts.com/roadmap

And if you found this episode useful please give the podcast a rating and/or a review - that type of support is really helping!

How do you know when to attack? It's actually pretty simple math!!

In this episode I share the "what's the score" concept that I learned from Rob Biernacki.

At any given point in time both you and your opponent have a score, determined from your base, posture and structure. The relative score tells you whether an attack will succeed or fail. This is a very useful idea and it will allow you to create and recognise opportunities for your sweeps, submissions and guard passes!

Videos referred to in this podcast include

The Three Most Critical Concepts in Jiu-Jitsu

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j5RaxEV9fx8

and

My New Favourite Triangle Choke Setup

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yB2A-hAv04A

In this short rant I talk about 3 or 4 training methods you can use when sparring someone significantly smaller than you so that you BOTH come out winners! These methods also apply, to some degree, to sparring people who are less experienced and not as good as you are. Training time is a limited commodity wo you really want to maximise what you get out of your sparring sessions!

David Brown has spent many decades studying and teaching martial arts, including Muay Thai and Wing Chun. He's also a clinical neuropsychologist which gives him a unique insight into the mindset at work within martial arts cults. Then we also went down some major rabbit holes, including the science of sticking people's brains into scanners and the elimination of disease through new genetic technologies. I hope you like this one as much as I did!

You can find out more about David's school in San Antonio, Texas, at totalconfidencemartialarts.com

In a self defense situation you have to have a high level of environmental awareness to keep track of multiple attackers, improvised weapons, escape routes, etc. Today I'm joined by classical Japanese Jujutsu practitioner Alex Kask to talk about how this important aspect can be incorporated into your training. We also talk about gun grappling, multiple-opponent MMA, 'dirty' fighting techniques like eye gouging and biting, and more!

In other relevant news, check out the brand new Grapplearts instructional called The Self Defense Guard at https://www.grapplearts.com/selfdefenseguard. In this organised and detailed course BJJ black belt Ellliott Bayev and I will show you how to correctly use the BJJ closed guard to stay safe in a situation where someone is trying to punch your teeth down your throat!

If you're doing any kind of martial art - be it BJJ, MMA, Kickboxing, Taekwondo or whatever - then your game needs to evolve every decade to accommodate the changes in your body. I got this from the legendary Dan Inosanto who started training at age 11 and is still practising martial arts in his 80's.

A little trip down memory lane today. In my twenties I did an 82 day, 1600 mile solo canoe trip across the Canadian north. This is an account of the last 3 days of that journey, traveling along the dangerous shore of Hudson Bay.

The written form of this account is available here: https://www.grapplearts.com/belugas-bears-and-an-offshore-tide-on-hudson-bay/# and the Blood, Sweat and Sparta piece I refer to early in this episode is available here: https://www.grapplearts.com/blood-sweat-and-sparta/

And finally, download my new BJJ app guys because it has seven and a half hours of free black belt instruction in it!!! iOS and Android links here: https://www.grapplearts.com/grapplearts-bjj-master-app/

Sparring for the first time is always a shock, but especially for traditional martial artists who may have spent years perfecting their techniques in the air or against a compliant partner just to watch it all fall apart against real resistance. No sparring, no miracles folks!

A lot of listeners know that http://www.grapplearts.com is my main site, but did you know that I also have a second, self defense oriented site?

Check it out at http://www.selfdefensetutorials.com for more self defense tips, training videos, etc!

I really enjoyed this conversation with Rokas Leonavicius, the European Aikido instructor who became famous on Youtube trying to make his aikido functional against resisting opponents. Find out about his journey into Aikido, BJJ, Aikido and Boxing in this fascinating episode.

Can you still train if you have an injured knee? Well, it depends... Here are some solutions, tips and tricks for dealing with a bum knee in a BJJ or grappling setting.