11min chapter

The Everyday Jiu Jitsu Podcast cover image

The Everyday Jiu Jitsu Podcast Ep 11: Optimizing Learning with Greg Souders

The Everyday Jiu Jitsu Podcast

CHAPTER

Breath Control in Jiu-Jitsu

This chapter explores the significance of breath in jiu-jitsu, discussing its use as a tool to induce panic and affect an opponent's breathing. The speakers share their practices of Wim Hof breathing and cold showers, as well as their opinions on studying and watching grappling.

00:00
Speaker 2
Nice. So anything mean got it? No, no, I've
Speaker 1
you know, like, you know, I would actually working with a breathing coach, your guys who's teaching me about breath work. And he said something really interesting because I'm obsessed with foundational things. And he said, there's nothing more foundation on the breath. Your body will prioritize that over all other systems. And it's the last thing you have. So like, if you're trapped in a coffin and you're alive and you have to stimulate yourself and try to survive or you try to do anything, the only thing you can rely on is your breath. And so I like that idea. So if when I'm out here sparring, I ask myself, we can't punch, right? We can't we can't, you know, when doing a pure grappling environment. So how can I induce panic and pain and I can how can I how can I beat them with something that isn't like a lever based and it's affecting their breathing?
Speaker 2
Do you do Wim Hof breathing? Do
Speaker 1
you practice that? I did a portion of that for a while. Yeah. But I mean, yeah, I mean, I enjoyed it for the for the time span that I did it for but keeping
Speaker 2
it as a daily ritual a little bit tough. You do ice baths or cold showers or anything like that?
Speaker 1
I cold shower every single morning. Like it's the point where I'm sort of like obsessed with it. Like me too. I got up late the other day. I get up. I get up like six o'clock. I usually get around six o'clock in the morning. I day started and I I kind of like was late a little bit. I had my clothes on about to walk out the door and I think, now fuck that. I took my clothes back off. But in the cold shower, then got my day started. Like I have to do it now. I'm like completely addicted to it. Me too. How like how
Speaker 2
often a week or how many times or how much time do a week do you study or watch grappling? Every
Speaker 1
day. How
Speaker 2
much time?
Speaker 1
Yeah, it depends. Sometimes I'll be here for an hour, sometimes 20 minutes, sometimes three hours really depends on kind of what mood I'm in and what I'm looking at. Since I watch so much footage, it's hard to find footage, they knew footage or new things that I want to look at. If I don't have anything to watch, I always go back to like this one grappler that I really like to look a watch a lot is a freestyle wrestler from the 90s in early 2000s name is Bovisar Saitia. And I'm obsessed with the way he grapples. And so I consume his footage like I probably watched every match that's available on YouTube.
Speaker 2
Favorite guard? Most effective connections most effective seated open seated open. Okay. Now to or back. Now.
Speaker 3
Inside
Speaker 2
or outside heel hook?
Speaker 1
Inside.
Speaker 2
What is your favorite grappler to watch?
Speaker 3
Bovisar Saitia. What
Speaker 2
is your favorite grappler to or favorite grappler to learn from? Same guy.
Speaker 3
Bovisar. He's the
Speaker 2
best graph I've ever seen. And he's a wrestler you say.
Speaker 1
He's international. He's a freestyle wrestler. Yep.
Speaker 2
What's your least favorite grappler to watch? Or do you
Speaker 3
have one? God, any of the Brazilians? Anything in
Speaker 2
the gear, right?
Speaker 1
No, no, Brazilians, period. Do you have
Speaker 2
one that you like can't stand watching?
Speaker 1
I'm not kidding. Like it's like when I see their name, I'm going to watch this match.
Speaker 3
Yeah, no, I just
Speaker 1
stay there. I don't like how they their culture. I can see their culture in their movement and I don't
Speaker 2
like it. Well, I there is something to be said like Dan her refers to it as Brazilian flair, but I look at it as kind of like kind of like spazzing out from the top. I find a lot of a lot of Brazilians grapple like this.
Speaker 1
There's too much bravado. There's too too much trying not to lose. There's too much physicality for physicality sake. Like there's no there's the nuances are just not there. Now there have historically been some that I absolutely love like the guys from announced tend to be a little bit. I prefer the guys from now. It's like like Jock Ray back in the day. I just I'm not cooking enough. Yeah, he's awesome. Yeah. And I think it's because they have more of a like a slow pace culture. They're they're more like get up every day and go do the same thing. Something else to do and that usually produces a tougher person physically in psychological I don't know. I just the men else guys I liked back in the day, but yeah, I just I don't think they're progressing at the rate that the rest of the world's progressing. So I just I'm not I'm not interested
Speaker 2
in them. All right, let's say Greg, you have the ability to make a dream match. What is it? Who's who's fighting? Do you have to be a
Speaker 1
core big against anybody?
Speaker 2
Okay. Yeah. What is your favorite food?
Speaker 1
I had this fight with somebody the other day. Dude, I'm a you guys will probably know because when you hear my podcast, you get fuck Greg Souders, which I assume everyone should have and ultimately think but I'm a super boring guy. I don't really do anything else but this. And so I'm like they're everything else in my life kind of sucks. So I don't only have a favorite food, but if I had to pick one because I was actually arguing with someone about this today, I like milkshakes. Like milkshakes, man. Do you eat it? I don't yeah, go ahead. I don't drink them often or if at all, but when I do, I
Speaker 2
love it. You don't really have like an intense pleasure of food. Oh,
Speaker 1
no, man, because like I used to train so much like I went so many years with only eating what I had to so I could get through training and I throw up very easily if I eat food too close to training. My stomach doesn't handle food well in your training. So I have to I literally have like a three to four window before training that I can eat anything. Like even if I drink a juice, it has to be like two hours before training. My stomach has to be empty when I'm rolling. So I guess it's always been like that since I was 19 years old. So I don't know, I've just kind of and I center everything in my life around Jiu Jitsu. So if it doesn't make my Jiu Jitsu better, it doesn't make my training better. I tend to avoid it.
Speaker 2
You like a Saif?
Speaker 1
Not not necessarily. No, I
Speaker 2
never get it when I go to the tournaments ever. Yeah. If you go anywhere in the world, where would you go? I'm on a vacation. You're like, I don't want to leave the gym. I don't
Speaker 1
I didn't take a vacation for like seven years. I taught seven seven days a week for like five or seven years. I got like for an extended period of time. I don't remember exact time, but first one on a vacation, I had a panic attack first day I got there and I called my assistant instructor and he's like, do you show out? I'm like, not man. I called him like three or four times a day. Now, what's happening to Jim? Who came in? How are the guys? You know, what are you training? So yeah, dude, I don't like to go anywhere. I like to stay here.
Speaker 2
You have pets? Have
Speaker 1
a dog. Yes. His name is Omar. Kind of doggy. He's Staffordshire Terrier Pitbull. He's blue. Nice.
Speaker 2
Kind of car. Do you drive? Yeah.
Speaker 1
2023 Toyota Supra.
Speaker 2
Nice. Who do you think is going to beat Gordon Ryan?
Speaker 1
Yeah, really anybody. Gordon Ryan is going to like age out. I think he'll probably make it pretty far. But all it takes is another big guy is willing to do what he does. I think that right now he's in a special place because his coach is the best coach in the world and he has the best information in the world. And he's lucky enough that all these big guys that are his size are coming to train with him. And all that combined is just was perfect to put him in the place that he's in now. So once we get a few more schools to start doing that same thing, I think it'll be from one of those schools that that will happen. I don't think it. I mean, I don't think there's anybody now that's going to
Speaker 2
do it. Nobody in the current landscape you think has has the ability to beat him. I mean,
Speaker 1
no, I mean, I mean, if you're going to beat Gordon, you're going to have to beat him by criteria or you're going to have to catch him. You're going to have to catch him with something. Maybe he's got like an injured foot, but you're not going to pass his guard and hold him down and strike him like that's not going to happen. So, I mean, it'll happen as he gets older, I think, and with a more well-trained grappler, we'll get him eventually. But right now I don't see anybody that's going to do that. No one that comes to my radar right now
Speaker 2
anyway. Buggy chokes. Do you like them?
Speaker 1
I don't use them, but they're hilarious men. Noah is obsessed with them. Like he does them from everywhere. Like just he goes out of his way to get it.
Speaker 2
Yeah, I got caught in a tournament a couple of weeks ago by this giant, giant guy. And I was, he gave me a side body lock and I'm like, oh, thank you. And I took the body lock. Boom. Buggy choke. First time I've ever got caught with it. Yeah. Dude, it was fucking brutal. And this guy is like, he was just able to wrap his body around me. And I was just, I was in there for like a minute just suffering. And I was about to go to sleep and I tapped out. But man, they're I've
Speaker 1
been bugging twice and they were both by children.
Speaker 2
You don't teach kids, right? You don't have kids program? No,
Speaker 1
no, I'm sorry. We caught 13 majors. I just called him. Right. But at
Speaker 2
your gym, you don't have a kids program?
Speaker 1
No, no, I used to. So I ended my, I ended my kids program after COVID. So once the restrictions were let up and I was able to tell the public my school was open because we didn't close. We stayed open. We just locked the doors every night. But once they were like, Hey, you know, you can be open again. I just didn't want to restart the kids program. There's a lot of emotional reasons I didn't, you know, like I had taught kids forever. The first time I ever taught games based teaching was actually with children. I was given a five to seven year old program when I was in Bluebelt. And that was the first time I ever heard of anything that was like that. And it was actually teaching games for understanding. It was a book that I read. And my first day of class, I started teaching kids games. So teaching kids through games. So yeah, I like teaching kids. I just, I don't have the emotional energy for it. And it's not where I want to go with my coaching career right now. So I decided to cut the program.
Speaker 2
Maybe one day you have an up and comer who's willing to teach the program. And you don't have to do it.
Speaker 1
Yeah. Yeah. So like, I want to try to get some of my full timers to make some money here at the school. So we've been playing with the idea of getting one of the younger guys to take it on. But I'm also, I'm not a type in the rest of my life, but in my gym, I am. So I like things to be run well. And I like people to be on time and focused and ready to go. So not until I have a person that's going to be willing to be like that and take the program personally and responsibly. Will I let that happen?
Speaker 3
So
Speaker 2
who's the most influential person in your Jiu Jitsu career?
Speaker 1
In my career? Fuck.
Speaker 3
I would just
Speaker 1
say there's three. There's three that have really been the most influential for me. And it was Lloyd Ervin, Ryan Holland, John Dennar.
Speaker 2
So you did. Okay. So have you gone through times in your career where you like, you did study instructionals and you were like, Oh, this is something that I, because he hasn't put out instructional until recently. So but there have been. Yeah, I was obsessed. I
Speaker 1
was obsessed. Like, so when the first day I ever tried Jiu Jitsu, I went to Barnes and Noble afterwards, and I went to like the martial arts section and every book that said the word Jiu Jitsu wanted, I bought it. I'm the type that likes to consume everything that's around me when I first do an activity. I like to learn as much about it as I can. And I don't care what the source is. So I'll just keep consuming information till I start developing an understanding of it. So when I first started, it was all tournament DVDs and Jiu Jitsu D's. I think my collection of Jiu Jitsu D's is 250 around 250 Jiu Jitsu DVDs, all the way leading up until 2008 or 2009 was probably the last one that I bought. Yeah, I was obsessed. I just I watched and I read everything. I when grappling magazine is still a thing I would go every week and get or whatever what the frequency that was released for us. I go and get it. I did I consumed everything. Nice.

Get the Snipd
podcast app

Unlock the knowledge in podcasts with the podcast player of the future.
App store bannerPlay store banner

AI-powered
podcast player

Listen to all your favourite podcasts with AI-powered features

AI-powered
podcast player

Listen to all your favourite podcasts with AI-powered features

Discover
highlights

Listen to the best highlights from the podcasts you love and dive into the full episode

Discover
highlights

Listen to the best highlights from the podcasts you love and dive into the full episode

Save any
moment

Hear something you like? Tap your headphones to save it with AI-generated key takeaways

Save any
moment

Hear something you like? Tap your headphones to save it with AI-generated key takeaways

Share
& Export

Send highlights to Twitter, WhatsApp or export them to Notion, Readwise & more

Share
& Export

Send highlights to Twitter, WhatsApp or export them to Notion, Readwise & more

AI-powered
podcast player

Listen to all your favourite podcasts with AI-powered features

AI-powered
podcast player

Listen to all your favourite podcasts with AI-powered features

Discover
highlights

Listen to the best highlights from the podcasts you love and dive into the full episode

Discover
highlights

Listen to the best highlights from the podcasts you love and dive into the full episode