The Strenuous Life Podcast with Stephan Kesting

Rory Van Vliet and I go deep into the 12 most important concepts to make your guard very hard to pass. Counterintuitively these concepts will also help your guard passing, because now you'll understand what your opponent is doing to try and stop your pass. Grab our Guard Retention Formula in DVD, online streaming, and app form at https://www.grapplearts.com/guardretetention

There's an old saying that goes… "Don't do what's best for you. Instead do what's worst for your opponent." There's a lot of truth there. In a competition your odds of victory go way up if you can prevent your opponent doing the things that he is best at. Optimal Sparring Strategy Rolling in training is different from rolling in competition. In training, during sparring, you actually WANT to spend at least some time in your sparring partner's strongest areas. This way you can get the highest quality training possible. This is especially true if you're bigger or better than the other guy. You WANT to let him into the game so that you can get a good training session in and learn something. So figure out what any given sparring partner is really good at and occasionally let them do it to you! Here's a concrete example… A few days ago I sparred with someone who was 50 lbs lighter than me. Had I just passed his guard and played crush the bug for the rest of the session this would have been good for my ego but bad for my jiu-jitsu. Instead we stayed and played in an area where he is strong – the lasso spider guard – for almost the whole training session. Every time I passed his guard (or he swept me) we would stop and reset back in his lasso guard. The net result of this training was that my training partner got to develop his game against a bigger and reasonably skilled opponent, and I got to work on a somewhat underdeveloped aspect of my game (I've been working no gi a lot and so I needed to blow the dust off of my defences to all these gi-based entanglements). There are competitive elements to training, but training is not competition and competition is not training. Tapping a lighter or a less experienced player out 35 times in a 5 minute match does neither of you any good. The goal of training is to get better. By purposely allowing your training partners to use their best positions and techniques while sparring allows you to feel, experience, and struggle against the highest level jiu-jitsu available to you. That will make you better. Ego is the Enemy Of course life will be easier if you spend all your time doing only things that you're good at.But are you actually going to learn anything new that way? Ego is the enemy. Succumb to it and you'll get injured, burnt out, and get better much slower. Ginni Rometty, the first female CEO of IBM, said, "Growth and comfort do not coexist." Which is a more succinct way of stating that there is no comfort in the growth zone and no growth in the comfort zone. Sometimes it comes down to a question of looking good or getting good. And sometimes you've got to look stupid to get better. Stephan P.S. Check out The Guard Retention Formula in App, DVD, and Online Streaming format at https://www.grapplearts.com/guardretention

A deep dive into designing and running MMA fight camps, how to mix striking with wrestling and jiu-jitsu, conditioning for fights, and much more with Greg Nelson. Greg has trained many MMA and UFC fighters including Brock Lesnar, Dave Menne, Sean Sherk and Thug Rose Namajunas. I really enjoyed this conversation and I think you will too! Grab my free downloadable guide to learning BJJ fast at https://www.grapplearts.com/book Check out the huge archive of techniques and detailed training tips at https://www.grapplearts.com/articles/ ----------------------------------- Grab the "Grapplearts BJJ Master App" with more than 500 minutes of free black belt instruction here: iPhone and iPad: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/bjj-master-app-by-grapplearts/id1308072068 Android phones and tablets: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.grappleartcontainer ----------------------------------- Here are some of my social media links... Tiktok (NEW): https://vm.tiktok.com/QQDSBt Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stephan_kesting Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/grapplearts Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/stephankesting Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/stephankesting ----------------------------------- And, most importantly, good luck with your training! Stephan

Here are the 5 most important skills you can learn from BJJ that'll keep you safer in real confrontations against bigger, stronger, and adrenalized opponents! Download this rant as an illustrated PDF for free at https://selfdefensetutorials.com/get-free-self-defense-tips-by-email/

In this Q&A I cover gameplan development, what to do about training partners figuring out your game, how to find a good gym, whether loyalty to your instructor always a good thing, how sparring is the secret sauce of any effective martial art, and taking time off from jiu-jitsu! These questions came from an Instagram Live session I did. Follow me on Instagram @stephan_kesting or click here: https://www.instagram.com/stephan_kesting/ And while I have your attention, here are some of my other social media links... Tiktok (NEW): https://vm.tiktok.com/QQDSBt Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/grapplearts Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/stephankesting Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/stephankesting Good luck with your training! Stephan Some of the highlights I recent

Rory is a corrections officer with a ton of experience in other branches of law enforcement. He's also a very skilled BJJ black belt at Island Top Team under Rob Biernacki. In this chat we go into depth about how BJJ can be applied in law enforcement situations as well as talking about Rory's latest BJJ instructional, The Guard Retention Formula, which you can find out more about at https://www.grapplearts.com/guardretention. If you've read down this far then you're probably a fan of the podcast. And if that's the case can I ask you for a rating or a review of The Strenuous Life Podcast on whichever platform you use to consume your content? I can't emphasize enough how much that helps. And if you're looking for more from me and my guests then please check out some of my other social media links... Tiktok (NEW): https://vm.tiktok.com/QQDSBt Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stephan_kesting Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/grapplearts Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/stephankesting Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/stephankesting Finally, as always, good luck with your training! Stephan Kesting

Sticking points and plateaus are inevitable if you train - here are 3 strategies you can use to smash on through to the other side in 2020. Have a great Christmas and New Year's! Stephan

A fun conversation with BJJ black belt Thomas Lisboa about why testing yourself occasionally in competition gives you things that you just can't get from regular training, how Brazilian black belts use their skills on the mat to emigrate to North America, how to develop your weakest positions, why even advanced students should attend the beginner's class, and much more. If you enjoy the podcast then a rating or a review would be super-useful! If you're not sick of me yet then here are some of my social media links... Tiktok (NEW): https://vm.tiktok.com/QQDSBt Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stephan_kesting Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/grapplearts Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/stephankesting Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/stephankesting And, most importantly, good luck with your training! Stephan

The guard is the most important position in BJJ, and if you understand the multiple ranges and range battles that occur within this position then your ability to both pass the guard and defend against guard passes will improve exponentially. In this episode Rory Van Vliet explains the different ranges within guard and how you can use them to your advantage. If you found this useful then check out The Guard Retention Formula at https://www.grapplearts.com/guardretention Also if you get the chance please rate, review, or pass this podcast on to friends. That kind of stuff really helps! Cheers, Stephan

The days of learning from just one instructor if you're a serious martial artist are over. Nowadays you need at least four different coaches... Check out my latest BJJ instructional, The Guard Retention Formula, at https://www.grapplearts.com/guardretention