Correspondent Larry joins Kip to discuss a BJJEE article regarding competition, and why some practitioners do better than others. There are a lot of different factors including your gym, your drive and motivation, how you roll, your partners, who you're competing against, the rules... you get the point. There is a lot! Larry shares his experience in competition, including going to suplex city against a man reminiscent of the Mountain from Game of Thrones, and Kip explains why he has no desire...

Kip and Producer Austin, filling in for Paul, discuss an article detailing the five bad habits you should avoid while training in Jiu-Jitsu. These are simple, yet notorious things that every practitioner is guilty of doing. Training on only one side? Yeah, us too, don't worry. Kip even added a sixth bad habit! Looking at you white belts... They also run through some questions from BJJ Everything, the gift that keeps giving from Facebook. What to tell a 15-year-old beginning in Jiu-Jitsu, how...

The boys talk about an article that debates gi vs. no-gi in terms of self-defense, and what type of training is more practical in real-life situations. They tie it into statistics out of Marietta, Georgia that show police officers who had trained in Jiu-Jitsu were less likely to injure themselves, and citizens when making an arrest. Plus our favorite group on the internet, BJJ Everything, had some great questions about training after a vasectomy, waiting to roll when you've gotten a tattoo...

The boys talk about if martial arts can slow the aging process. They discussed why some martial arts may be better suited to this, as well as if you’re in the right BJJ culture to foster the anti aging benefits Jiu Jitsu may offer. We mostly agreed that while there are tons of benefits to BJJ, the anti aging one comes down to the kind of training and environment your particular gym has to offer. If every roll is to the death (so to speak) and people have zero regard for your health, then...

The boys talk about a video titled “Jiu Jitsu wasn’t created for small people”.... or some such thing. At first glance it was clickbait and we didn’t want to read it. But alas, we needed fodder for the show so we did just that. Turns out it was mostly clickbait, but the article did have a couple of valid points. Namely, Jiu Jitsu was invented so you could beat people who don’t know Jiu Jitsu, and if you’re small and learn BJJ with big people it’s gonna suck at first. We dig into all...

The boys talk about the unfortunate foible of bragging about tapping people in the gym. This is the epitome of NOT leaving your ego at the door! Let’s just start out by saying that if you’re a white belt and you tap out a purple belt....you really didn’t. We understand that it seems like maybe you got the best of someone and that may feel good. That was just someone being nice to you. Take that for what it is and move on. What you don’t want is a bunch of upper belts absolutely...

The boys talk about (argue about) the need for strength training for BJJ. Basically, this show was simply done to make Kip mad because he lost a bet and hates the idea of clangin and bangin. Long and short of it is Paul thinks working out is good in the fact that it helps you build resistance to injury and bad if you’re a beginner and think you need it to be good in Jiu Jitsu. Kip just hates everything to do with weights and strength.

The boys (Paulie and Austin this time) go over some questions from the BJJ community from the Facebook page BJJ Everything. This page turned out to be a treasure trove of fun and interesting questions from mostly newer Jiu Jitsu practitioners. The questions varied from awkward situations about the stinky person to awkward situations when someone lost their cool in class and got kicked out for a time. And it wouldn’t be complete without the “how do I handle these injuries” questions....

The boys talk about how and why....and when you should roll passively or aggressively in your BJJ classes. Paulie asked Kroyler if maybe he was being too lackadaisical in all his rolls and to maybe turn the answer into a pro tip. After a good mocking, he got just that... Kroyler goes through why rolling like it’s the world's finals match every time is a recipe for disaster, as well as why you’re not doing yourself many more favors by flow rolling every time. There are pros and cons to...

The boys talk about things you can and should do to make others want to train. We’d go so far as to say it’s your responsibility to be the person who makes new people want to keep coming back even though they think this sport may not be for them. By that we mean they’re bad at it....as we all were. Even if you happen to be the proverbial “wallflower”, you can still be the person who makes someone else feel like they’re actually cared about in the gym. We all know what it feels like to...

The boys talk about a litany of thing that you should know before you start your first BJJ class. Paul Elliot from simplebjj.com wrote up a great article that should be required reading for anyone who decides to make Jiu Jitsu their new hobby. A couple weeks ago we talked about the proper use of mat enforcers. The main premise ended up being, don’t beat someone up who simply doesn’t know any better...no matter how good it feels to do so. The proper way to give your academy a proper...

The boys talk about why you may not in fact be the incredible ground shark you make yourself out to be on all of your Instagram posts. We’re really glad that BJJ has given you a newfound skill and the confidence to go with it. We acknowledge the fact that you can now make new people coming in the gym feel as silly and inept at fighting as you first did when you signed up. This is a great and fun aspect of the gentle art. But...sometimes that feeling can go to your head. We’ve all...

The boys talk about how, when, and why we should use enforcers in the gym. At first glance it would seem simple. You see someone going too hard and you implement pain upon them as a lesson. In reality, it is much more nuanced than that. You may well be just encouraging a culture of jerks because now they just think rolling hard is the way things are done. This is due to a lack of communication and it’s counterproductive to say the least. The other thing we unintentionally do is come...

The boys talk about how and when it may be appropriate to use some power in Jiu Jitsu. Paul Elliot answered a listener question about whether or not it’s ever appropriate to use strength while rolling. Paul goes on to ask very poignant questions about what his Jiu Jitsu might look like without using any strength and the answer is something we can all relate to....at least in the early days of our journey. Basically it looks like garbage.... So we use athleticism to make up for lack of...

The boys talk about why it’s going to be ok even though you feel like Jiu Jitsu might not be for you after your first few classes. BJJ is as overwhelming a sport/art as they get. Pair that with the fact that probably everyone in your new gym can maul you easily and it’s easy to find reasons to quit. We’re here to tell you that it will in fact get better....much better. You just need to take a breath, slow down and figure things out one technique at a time. Before you know it, you’ll be...

The boys talk about the age old question in Jiu Jitsu: should you compete at least one time in Jiu Jitsu to test your skills? Paul Elliot from simplebjj.com answers this question quite eloquently in the flickchat app. We, of course, ruined what he was so precisely trying to say. While there may be many very good reasons why it would be very beneficial to you, it’s also not a necessity to get really good at BJJ. In fact, there are just as many reasons why you probably shouldn’t compete....

The boys talk about things you can implement to get faster gains in your Jiu Jitsu. They read an article from pitchhero.com about how to get better at any sport and it mostly applied to BJJ, albeit it got a bit redundant. Depending on just how locked down you are during Covid, and whether or not you have someone to train with at home you can start these today. If you only follow one piece of advice I’d recommend getting private lessons. Doing that with a really good coach, no matter what...

The boys talk about why it’s important to roll with less experienced Jiu Jitsu practitioners to help with both your own goals as well as theirs. Joe Rogan famously stated that if you want to get better at Jiu Jitsu you have to choke the f*ck outta blue belts. Basically you need to be able to try the moves your trying to get proficient at on people who know how to grapple, but can’t yet stop everything you’re trying to do. If all we do is roll with people at our level or higher it’s going...

The boys talk about perfect Jiu-Jitsu and if it’s really even possible (or worth it) to strive for. When you are learning a new technique you want to do it as perfectly as possible so you don’t train in bad habits. When you roll, however, a bunch of things happen and that perfection can be seen as just thrown out the window. So, what kind of perfect should we strive for in both drilling and live rolling? When is it “good enough”? Should we let perfect become the enemy of good and stop...

The boys talk about some of the reasons why we find Jiu Jitsu so absolutely addicting. Paulie found an article from Psychology Today about BJJ and the reason we become so addicted. It started out promising; but as usual delved into WTF territory. Aside from the obvious fun and challenging part of it, there appears to be a soup of fun chemicals that go off in our brain when we roll around on the ground with people. Go figure. We sort of try and steer the conversation to why you should...

The boys talk about an email they received about someone having a real hard time rolling against a guy who is very strong but doesn’t have any technique. This type of person generally just holds you down and smashes you with no inclination or ability to get you to tap. Many people that are newer find this extremely frustrating. We get it. We’ve all been there. But we give some feedback on why this is actually a good thing and why you should appreciate it....so long as you’re not being...

The boys talk about how development of an ego in Jiu Jitsu can happen despite the “leave your ego at the door” mantra we all hear about.

The boys read an article title “improve your Jiu Jitsu by rolling with handicaps”. Clearly this headline needed some clarification so we happily obliged by decimating the entire article on the show.

The boys talk about struggles with kids in Jiu Jitsu. This stems from a listener question about what her kid is going through in their particular school. This was followed by a debate between Paulie and another listener. Paulie took the questions to Kroyler who gave his two cents in a pro tip.

The boys talk about things you should do before deciding to give up BJJ for good.