The Strenuous Life Podcast with Stephan Kesting

Stephan Kesting interviews one of his most influential teachers, 9th degree Kajukenbo black belt and Black Belt Hall of Famer Philip Gelinas. Topics include the evolution of Georges St Pierre, the relevance of BJJ and MMA to self defense, grappling with sticks and knives, and how the martial arts continue to change and adapt in the 21st century.

Want to be an effective martial artist? Burton Richardson talks about training and performing under pressure in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, MMA, and Full Contact Stickfighting. Plus he shares lessons learned from such martial arts luminaries as Dan Inosanto, the Machados Brothers, Egan and Enson Inoue, Baret Yoshida, Chris Leben, Eric Knauss, Antonio Illustrisimo, and Charuto Verissimo.

Keenan Cornelius is a BJJ phenomenon. Having won double gold medals at four of the biggest IBJJF tournaments - The World Jiu-Jitsu Championship, Pan-American Championship, European Open Championship, and the Brazilian National Jiu-Jitsu Championship, he's one of the most active, most successful North American competitors on the scene today. In this interview with Stephan Kesting from www.grapplearts.com, Keenan talks about his training regimen, competition mindset, dealing with nerves, his time at Team Lloyd Irvin, and what he hopes to accomplish in the future.

Proof that a serious BJJ competitor can still be classy; Roy Dean talks with Stephan Kesting about BJJ, Judo, Aikido, and Path of the Martial Artist. Roy Dean has black belts in kodokan judo and aikikai aikido, japanese jujutsu and Brazilian jiu-jitsu. He's recognized as a black belt by the international brazilian jiu jitsu federation (IBJJF), with affiliated academies around the world.

How do you go from being the smallest person in the class to a BJJ world champion! This is a really interesting interview with my friend Brandon 'Wolverine' Mullins. I first polled the Grapplearts.com newsletter readership if they had any questions for Brandon, and boy, did they ever! I sifted and sorted hundreds of emails to pick out the very best questions for for him, and this in-depth interview about competition and training strategies for grapplers is the result. Brandon has worked with Stephan to create 'How to Defeat the Bigger, Stronger Opponent Series 2' available in mobile app and DVD format here: http://www.grapplearts.com/bigger-stronger-series-2/

Vinicius 'Draculino' talks with Stephan Kesting about how surfing beach fights brought him into jiu-jitsu, what it was like training with the top Gracie and Machado fighters in Rio in the 1980's, and how self defense and vale tudo training were incorporated into the classes. He also talks about the early BJJ competition scene, and how BJJ has changed over the last 3 decades. His contributions to the Spider Guard Position, and why he gets more nervous for BJJ competition than for MMA fights. Then they move on to why he thought that many matches at the 2012 Mundials reminded him of two spiders having sex, the rule changes, he'd like to see to make jiu-jitsu competition more exciting, and why he makes even his BJJ world champions do self defense twice a week All in all, it's a merry romp down many BJJ topics, past and present.

Answers for your BJJ questions! Stephan takes questions from his newsletter readers in the first ever Q&A Podcast. Find out how how to taper for competition, what to do when you're getting crushed all the time, what to do when your wrestling coach wants you to stop doing BJJ, and how to remember all these bloody techniques...

Ryan Hall is one of North America's most prolific competitors in BJJ and Submission Grappling. In this in-depth interview with Stephan Kesting he shares tips on training, competing, the 50-50 guard, the triangle choke, sparring with Marcelo Garcia, the construction of an effective guard game, and so much more!

Want to find out more about the psychology of combat? Tony Blauer is the head of Blauer Tactical Systems which specializes in close quarter tactics & scenario-based training for law enforcement, military and professional self-defense instructors. We had a great conversation about Crossfit, fear management, adrenaline dumps, and his 'conversion' to BJJ. And it's all pretty relevant stuff! Everybody (who's not insane) feels fear, whether we're freaked out about sparring somebody new, entering our first BJJ tournament, fighting MMA, or defending ourselves on the street. And so we should know how to deal with it

Sarah Kaufmann, the UFC fighter and former Strikeforce champion, talks about training, competing and the role of women in MMA