Steffen Banta: The Most Decorated BJJ Brown Belt In History | JP Dinnell Podcast 079

Mar 28, 2025

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JP Dinnell sits down with BJJ Black Belt Steffen Banta to talk about his amazing run as a brown belt and what it took to build his championship mindset.

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JP Dinnell is a former U.S. Navy SEAL and now a Leadership Instructor, Speaker and Strategic Advisor with Echelon Front, where he serves as Director of Experiential Leadership Training Programs.

J.P. is also a pro team athlete and spokesperson for Origin Maine and Jocko Fuel, an American clothing and supplement company.

J.P. has a signature Energy Drink flavor “Sour Apple Sniper” with Jocko Fuel. Jeremiah spent nearly a decade in the SEAL Teams with three combat deployments. Sent to the violent terrorist stronghold of Ar Ramadi, Iraq in 2006 with SEAL Team Three’s Task Unit Bruiser, J.P. served as point man, machine gunner, and lead sniper for Delta Platoon opposite the American Sniper, Chris Kyle, who was in Charlie Platoon.

For his leadership and courage under fire, JP was awarded a Silver Star, 2 Bronze Stars with Valor and the Army Commendation Medal with Valor helping Task Unit Bruiser to become the most highly decorated special operations unit of the Iraq War.

He worked closely with SEAL Officers Jocko Willink, his Task Unit Commander, and Leif Babin, and was the driving force on many of the daring combat operations Jocko and Leif wrote about in Extreme Ownership.

Upon his return, J.P. again worked directly for Jocko as a training instructor at Naval Special Warfare Group One Training Detachment, where he orchestrated realistic and challenging training scenarios for Special Operations Urban Combat training and Close Quarters Combat training to better prepare SEAL units for the real-world battlefield. He also served as a Combatives Instructor, Marksmanship Instructor and earned his Master Trainer Specialist qualification while helping Jocko rebuild and enhance these training programs into the highly effective platforms they are today.

J.P. brings exceptional experience and frontline leadership perspective from the winning mindset and culture of Task Unit Bruiser.

00:00:00 Intro 00:02:09 Steffen Banta 00:08:26 Falling in Love with Jiu-Jitsu 00:16:11 Steffen's First Competition 00:23:27 LoneStar Pro Training Center 00:33:43 Most Decorated Brown Belt in BJJ History 01:20:20 Working With Chief Randy Rozzell 01:26:48 Grappling Institute 01:45:10 Mickey and Nate 01:55:39 Questions from Lucas 2:11:03 Steffen's Closing Thoughts