In episode 427 of The Strenuous Life Podcast I pick the brain of sports psychologist Dr. Haley Perlis, who delves into the competition mindset, developing mental toughness, managing stress, avoiding burnout, the psychology of extreme sports, and how your core values shape your life and sport.

Episode 427 is available right now in audio and video formats here:

Apple Podcasts Spotify Amazon Music Castbox PocketCasts Luminary YouTube All other audio platforms!

For coaching, speaking, and to find out more about Dr Perlis check out her site drhaleyperlus.com and/or her Instagram @drhaleyperlus.

Cheers, Stephan

P.S. To get a glimpse of how martial arts training can help prepare you for dealing with suffering and self-doubt in other aspects of your life, check out my bestselling book, Perseverance, Life and Death in the Subarctic.

The post How to Deal with Doubt and Stress in Competition appeared first on Grapplearts.

Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, the Ultimate Illustrated Guidebook started as an April Fool’s joke and then morphed into a BEAST of a book complete with 967 illustrations.

In episode 424 of The Strenuous Life Podcast I chat with the authors of this awesome new book: renowned BJJ black belt, illustrator and designer Seymour Yang (better known as Meerkatsu) and his partner in crime Graham Barlow (the creator of the Tai Chi Notebook) about the core techniques of BJJ, modern vs traditional jiu-jitsu, and the process of bringing a new book into the world.

You can check this Episode 424 of The Strenuous Life Podcast anywhere you get your podcasts, including

Apple Podcasts Spotify Overcast  Player FM Etc.

Or you can listen to it on the embedded player below…

Check out Meerkatsu’s and Graham’s book here: https://www.meerkatsu.com/product/brazilian-jiu-jitsu-the-ultimate-illustrated-guidebook/

Cheers, Stephan

P.S. And while we’re on the topic of books check out Perseverance, Life and Death in the Subarctic.  While this isn’t a BJJ book specifically, it does contain many of the lessons I learned about endurance, perseverance, and grit on the toughest expedition of my life.

This is a memoir of my toughest solo trip ever, a 42 day solo expedition into the remote Canadian North where I dodged forest fires, stared down bears, and canoed raging rapids completely alone.  Check out “Perseverance, Life and Death in the Subarctic” in hardcover, anywhere you get your books including at the links below:

Perseverance on Amazon.com Perseverance on Barnes and Noble Perseverance on Indigo.ca Any independent bookstore

The post Meerkatsu Draws A BJJ Book! appeared first on Grapplearts.

There’s no way around it, when you first start jiu-jitsu you have to be a bit of a generalist.

You’ve got to learn an escape from side control… an armbar from mount… a sweep from closed guard… a choke from the back… and so on.

What you’re doing with this approach is trying to develop a couple of offensive and defensive options from the top and bottom for each of the major positions on the ground, i.e. guard, side control, knee ride, mount, back, and turtle.

(This approach of filling out your positional matrix on the ground is the topic of my Roadmap for BJJ book, which has been downloaded for free over 100,000 times.)

But eventually, usually around blue or purple belt, it’s best to shift approaches and start becoming a bit more of a specialist.

That DOESN’T mean dedicating your entire life to a position or a technique.

Instead, it means taking a topic (a position, a strategy, or a technique) and going DEEP on it.  Spend about 80% of your disposable training time focused on that topic. 

For that topic, research all your offensive options, all the likely defensive options, and which of those options work best for your body type.

Take advantage of competition footage, asking your instructors for feedback, workshopping with your training partners, studying instructionals, and every other source of information you can think of.

Then you’re going to do a LOT of focused drilling, positional sparring, and targeted games to improve in just that one area.  Then, use your free sparring time to further develop your skills in that one area.

This will help you blast through your plateaus, train with people smaller and less skilled than you, and improve your training partners.

(Even a white belt will get pretty good at armbar defense if all you’re ever going for is armbars and you show him the counters.)

These training blocks can last a week, a month, or even half a year. 

When your progress levels off and your return on training investment diminishes, switch gears, pick a new topic, and repeat.

I’ve used this approach for about 80% of my training these last 30 years in the art. I’m not especially physically gifted, so most of my development can be credited to this approach. 

Some of my areas of » Continue Reading.

The post For Fastest BJJ Improvement Specialise, Don’t Generalize. appeared first on Grapplearts.

The fight-or-flight reflex is always lurking just below the surface. When things get sufficiently stressful, our hormonal system dumps enormous amounts of adrenaline into our bloodstream, and — BOOM — suddenly we’re ready for action.

That adrenaline serves a purpose: it elevates your heart rate, makes you much stronger, more pain tolerant, and able to ignore injury. If you ever have to lift a car off a child, you don’t want to be calm. Instead, you want to be mad, scared, enraged—whatever it takes to get into that adrenaline-soaked state of high arousal to lift the damn car with your bare hands.

But that superhuman strength comes at a cost; as adrenaline floods your system, you lose a significant amount of fine motor control and higher brain function. Take whatever IQ you started with and cut it in half.

Episode 422 of The Strenuous Life Podcast may give you some clues about how to manage that adrenaline intelligently. Check it out on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, all other podcast players, or stream the audio using the player immediately below…

This episode of The Strenuous Life Podcast is an excerpt from the audiobook version of Perseverance, Life and Death in the Subarctic which you can check out anywhere you get books including the links below:

Perseverance on Amazon.com Perseverance on Barnes and Noble Perseverance on Indigo.ca Any independent bookstore

Good luck with your training and all your endeavors

Stephan Kesting

The post Training to Deal with Adrenaline and Emergency Situations appeared first on Grapplearts.

On episode 421 of The Strenuous Life Podcast, I’m joined by three-time IBJJ World medallist James Deirmendjian and elite personal trainer to discuss optimal training methodologies and the science behind strength and conditioning for sport.

We cover hacks to improve recovery, debunk common myths in the Jiu-Jitsu community, and go deep into the need for a more scientific approach to training and nutrition.

You can check it out as Episode 421 of The Strenuous Life Podcast anywhere you get your podcasts, including

Apple Podcasts Spotify Overcast  Player FM Etc.

Or you can stream the audio on this site with this player:

Follow and/or get in touch with James on Instagram (@fight_fit_training)!

Other Resources BJJ Games

BJJ Games, the New Instructional featuring Rob Biernacki

If you want to delve deeper into training methods that maximize results and minimize injuries check out the ground-breaking BJJ Games instructional I did with Rob Biernacki.

BJJ for Old F***s

BJJ for Old ***s – The Guard Passing Game. The newest instructional by Rob Biernacki and Stephan Kesting, available in online and DVD formats here at Grapplearts.com

For more information about the specific techniques and strategies that allow older grapplers to hold their own against young punks check out the two BJJ for Old F***s instructionals.

Perseverance, Life and Death in the Subarctic

Please check out my book, Perseverance, Life and Death in the Subarctic. It’s packed with the resilience lessons I learned while doing a very difficult 42 day solo trip in the Subarctic after a kidney transplant. It’s available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Indigo, or your local bookstore!

Good luck with your training! Stephan Kesting

The post BJJ Training and Conditioning Myths appeared first on Grapplearts.