The Sonny Brown Breakdown

In this episode, I talk to Alexander Volkanovski. Alex is the current UFC featherweight champion. We discuss what it was like as an amateur athlete rising through the ranks of Australia to become the UFC champion and how he was able to get valuable training with partners of all different abilities. Also, the mentality he adopted to help drive and motivate him to the top by building resilience and staying adaptable. And what it is like spending training time at City Kickboxing as he gives insight into some training drills and a few fights stories along the way, like the time in Guam where he had to solve the problem of a fighter who was greased up before the bout while in the middle of a fight.

I talk to Adisa Banjoko aka Adisa the Bishop. He is the creator of the Hip Hop Chess Federation, Author of a book titled Bobby, Bruce and the Bronx and host of the Podcast called The Bishop Chronicles. The Hip Hop Chess federation combines the arts of Hip Hop, Chess and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and teaches positive life strategies to at-risk and incarcerated youth. We discuss how he formed the HHCF from an initial encounter in a juvenile detention facility where he found chess helpful to breakdown racial and social barriers, its development where traditionalists in each art were initially sceptical of the members of the other arts. We go over practical examples of how chess, jiu-jitsu and hip hop can be useful metaphors for dealing with life's struggles. Finally, how Adisa recently taught how to overcome creative blocks at a retreat with a Shaolin Monk hosted by the RZA of the Wu-Tang Clan at his house.

In this episode, I talk to Jon Fitch. Jon was the World Series of Fighting Welterweight Champion, Has fought for the UFC title against George St Pierre and also fought for the Bellator title against Rory Macdonald which went to a draw. He has also written an autobiography called Failing Upward/Death by Ego and hosts his podcast called Jon Fitch Knows Nothing. We discuss how he got into fighting and his early wrestling career at University. His thoughts on mindset, masculinity & manhood. And the issue of fighter pay and his antitrust lawsuit against the UFC.

I talk to Greg Nelson, who was the coach for UFC champions Brock Lesnar, Sean Sherk and Rose Namajunas. He is a 4th Degree BJJ Blackbelt, Division 1 Folkstyle Wrestler, All American Gymnast and Muay Thai kickboxer along with multiple other martial arts. We discuss how he creates a positive culture in his gym while utilising visualisation, affirmation and building relationships. How this also contributed to his incredible battle against cancer where after beating it once he overcame a different form of rare nerve cancer which has intrigued medical scientists. And we also discuss technical aspects of coaching and cornering fighters in the cage.

I talk to Brian Ebersole, a veteran of over 70 MMA fights, including a memorable run in the UFC. We discuss his early beginnings in the American scholastic wrestling system and the competitive mindset that helped to produce. The start of his fight career which includes training with American Kickboxing Academy, Frank Shamrock and leading all the way to the UFC and finally, how chaos theory, math and abstract thinking, including fish that getaway, has helped to inform his training and coaching methods

I talk to Bruce Hoyer. He coaches out of a small town in Dakota that has produced 7 UFC fighters and uses innovative teaching strategies including the flipped classroom model of instruction. The flipped classroom is an instructional strategy that has the students study the techniques at home on YouTube and then come into class ready to drill. We discuss his use of this teaching model in-depth, using language learning software and spaced repetition and other innovative uses of technology for teaching BJJ.

I talk to Dr Ian Dunican, a sleep researcher who has worked with elite combat sports athletes at the Australian Institute of Sport on strategies to help optimise sleep, recovery and performance and who is himself a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu practitioner and Ultra-Marathon Runner. We discuss sleep cycles, optimising training load and dealing with night time jitters after a workout and sleep tracking gadgets like the oura ring and whoop device. Finally, why martial artists try and cheat the sleep system and how instead they can sleep in and win.

I talk to Matt Lindland, the head coach of the USA Greco Roman wrestling team, Olympic silver medalist & MMA Pioneer. We discuss his experience coaching wrestlers from a folkstyle background and how to alter their risk-taking intuitions to suit Greco roman. How coaches can simplify their coaching to help their athletes learn more and a lot faster How failure and questioning athletes can help them learn, his time coaching BJ Penn for his MMA fight against GSP and what BJJ can learn from wrestling.

I talk to Brandon McCaghren or B-MAC from 10th Planet Decatur, Alabama. We discuss his start travelling from his home town to train with Eddie Bravo in LA and the value of constraints vs operating in the wild. How the innovative 10th Planet "Hot Box" system and the warm-up routines and patterns have helped it grow and establish itself. Also, building positive club culture and the martial value of tai chi and finally, how to stay inspired as a white belt and the importance of self-discovery.

I talk to Rory from RVV BJJ, who takes a methodical approach to explain the science behind your jiu-jitsu. He explains the critical principle of alignment which breaks down into posture, structure and base. An innovative drilling method known as "*F*YJJ". He also discussed various ways to maximise training time and why beginners should NOT train closed guard. Finally, he explains how low percentage moves and false positives can hinder your training and development and how to solve this problem.

I talk to Andy from School of Grappling. We discuss how systems theory, complexity and chaos can be underlying forces in your grappling training but how misunderstanding systems can be a frequent occurrence in Jiu-Jitsu. Then why attempting to build the perfect, all-encompassing grappling system is doomed to fail before you even begin and how intuition could help to patch the leaks providing you can identify when you are in the all-important pocket of predictability. Also what we can learn from robotics, artificial intelligence, a school of fish, and a flock of birds to help navigate and guide your jiu-jitsu systems. And finally how wanting to help your students too much and expecting them to learn from your own mistakes can counter-intuitively be catastrophic for them.

I talk to Wim Deputter who is Belgium based Black belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. We discuss how Jiu-Jitsu is a principle that means a Boxer could be doing Jiu-Jitsu, but you could be a BJJ player and not be doing Jiu-Jitsu. How Wims "Mirroring Principle" is an algorithm and fundamental movement rule that guides BJJ, MMA, Striking and self-defence situations. How constraints placed on any art will determine what that art can become and how constraining beginners to focus on control and then to allow controlled chaos can be the best way for them to develop. Wim is a life long martial artist also fighting MMA where he amassed a very respectable record of 18 and 4. He has done multiple seminars for the BJJ globetrotters organisation and has four instructionals out with BJJ fanatics that cover his mirroring principle.

I talk to Jake Shannon who is the founder of Scientific Wrestling and The King of Catch Wrestling Tournaments. We discuss how the history of submission grappling can trace its roots back to bored English miners who loved to gamble, how Japanese MMA emerged out of the theatrical and entertainment-driven world of professional Wrestling. The moment a quirky, professional wrestler bested the most famous grappling dynasty in all of fight sports and how that professional wrestling training helped him do it and could still even be used today in your own training practice. Jake has also authored the best selling book 'Say, Uncle!: Catch-As-Catch-Can Wrestling and the Roots of Ultimate Fighting, Pro-Wrestling, & Modern Grappling' and ghostwrote Billy Robinson's memoir titled 'Physical Chess: My Life in Catch-As-Catch-Can Wrestling" and was also the assistant coach to Billy Robinson, 2007 - 2014 and now has two instructions out on BJJ Fanatics covering catch wrestling submissions and takedowns.

I talk to Daniele Bolelli who is a writer, martial artist and a university professor. He is the host of multiple podcasts including the Drunken Daoist podcast and the History on Fire podcast. He has also authored many books such as "On the Warrior's Path: Philosophy, Fighting, and Martial Arts Mythology" and "Not Afraid: On Fear, Heartbreak, Raising a Baby Girl, and Cage Fighting". Here we discuss where a martial arts teacher should find and place the limits of their expertise. How martial arts is perfect for learning the limits of your capability and reaching your potential despite a few broken arms and busted knees, Why the timid sport of soccer has the most violent fanbase of all and why a jack of all trades may be the master of none, but can oftentimes be better than only a master of one.

I talk to Luke Martin from Sydney West Martial Arts. Luke is an instructor I have personally trained with, and for the last few years, he has been pursuing ways of bringing the world-class Danaher grappling system into his gym. Despite being based on the other side of the world, for years he has taken weekly online private lessons with Jason Rau and gives many practical tips on how he has been able to pass along these teachings to his students. He also has a podcast called the Heat locker where he has interviews with Jason Rau and other students of Danaher's from his most recent trip to the Blue Basement in New York City. Show Notes Template This template was created by me, Aaron Dowd, to help Simplecast podcasters made great episode notes. Please share, but leave this link here if you do so that people can read the blog post that linked to this file in the first place. Feel free to customize this template to your liking! Episode Summary What is this episode about? Why should people listen or care? Show Notes: Copy the summary from above and then write some more about the episode. In this episode, we talked about TOPIC 1, TOPIC 2, TOPIC 3. Links Mentioned: Link 1 Link 2 Link 3 Follow Us: Include links to where listeners can find you online: Our Website Twitter Medium Facebook

In this episode, I talk to Andy from the School of Grappling. The School of grappling Instagram and website has many great articles that look at statistics of MMA and ADCC grappling exchanges and how to use systems and heuristics to improve your grappling training. Here we discuss his fascinating ideas about teaching and developing intuition/instincts for grappling.

I talk to Priit Mihkelson of 3D Treening in Estonia. He is a BJJ Black Belt under SBG founder Matt Thornton and has done many seminars for the BJJ Globetrotter organisation. We discuss his unique approach to teaching jiu-jitsu in a style he describes as "Functionalistic Minimalism" which looks at fundamental positions rather than the lock flows we are used to seeing demonstrated.

In this episode I talk to Jahred Dell of ArticulateBJJ.com where he writes excellent articles about the art, sport and lifestyle of Brazilian jiu-jitsu wi and who also happens to be a high school teacher and we discuss his thoughts on the crossovers between teaching a class of high school students and jiu-jitsu students.