I prefer watching on YT, but I downloaded the podcast app just to write you guys a 5 star review. I listen to a few BJJ podcasts, but yours is my fav!! Keep it going fellas!! Review: “These guys have the perfect balance of entertaining playful jokes & real helpful BJJ info!”

I go to a small gym and occasionally at open mat it’s just me and a black or brown belt. These times usually turn into free private lessons which are absolute gold

I feel like the best thing to do is just go to the regular class, and then find a brown/black belt that would invest in you and spend an extra 10-20 minutes with you after the session is over to drop a quick gold nugget or two on any questions you have. There's a black belt at my gym that's been showing me some little tips after almost every class, and it's to the point now to where they are the ones coming up to me saying first, "Hey man, I got something new for you today!" These black belts are wanting to teach and find new prospects in, but if they graciously give you their time, you gotta take care of them too. Take them out to dinner, get them a Visa gift card or something once in awhile to show your appreciation for them. You'll save money on privates, and you'll actually have a deeper bond with your upper belt. We are so close now that he made sure to make it to my tournament and coach me and saw me win my first gold medal as a white belt. I'll forever be grateful to him.

As a long time purple belt 😅 and practitioner of various arts. I would tell people to 1)be more intentional 2) try out whatever moves someone teaches you in live rolls 3) expect to be tapped, if you aren’t being tapped it’s because you aren’t ceding any positions. So there’s no experimentation going on. There’s more things and some specific to individual needs. But those are my general tips. I never did private lessons. But they seem to be useful if you need a tweek for something very specific.

I set aside a few $$ to do some private lessons with the senior BB. I think they are valuable, but not magic. I've done two so far. #1 helped me map out a technical path to achieve some of my offense goals. After, I did find opportunities to use what I learned, but ran into some difficulties I couldn't overcome. #2 reviewed #1, asked for more details how to setup what I was taught, drilled this a little. Asked about defending #1, showed me, drilled both together. These were about a month apart. I probably won't do one every month, maybe more later this year.

thank you for keep the videos coming our way! cheers from Brazil !!

As a new guy, I love that I can go to any class, roll with any person, and if I have a question they will teach me a new angle. Plus, most people don't ask questions. But I do. So it basically turns into my private lesson during the instructional portion.

Nice content fellas, JT said something at about 29:00 about analysing footage and then having pretty succinct questions to ask, I reckon that's usually all people need. Or at least people who are willing to do the work to change their mind. I reckon most people just don't pay attention, don't listen, don't think about Jiu Jitsu as a whole, don't think about their own Jiu Jitsu, and are paying someone else to do the work. With all the content out there and smartphone cameras to film your rolls, it is so easy to identify mistakes and fix mistakes. I can't remember the exact quote, but it was from a coach he said something like, I don't make people better I help people who are trying to be better. What JT said at 29:00 shows someone who is trying to be better, paying for a private would be very low on my list of things that indicate someone is trying to be better. Also, why does Joey look all warm and nice and JT looks like he just got back from the underworld?

As someone who teaches privates for Sambo I wanted to give some insight for the person buying the private how to get the most out of me. Come in with dedicated questions or I’m also open to you messaging me what you want to work on so I can come in with a plan and skip the intro portion. For complete beginners I teach them from the ground up same as anyone else starting with break falls. The next tip is at your next practice implement what we worked on in sparring. Don’t come back and say it didn’t work without attempting it. If you don’t at least try I feel like you wasted your money. Duo privates are also better because I can see what is going on rather than trying to feel every detail of a throw while I am in mid air.

A thought on the new thumbnails - I feel like the current style doesn't fit the identity of the podcast. Clicking on it for the first time I would not find the content I would be expecting, which alienates part of the clicking audience (and the correct audience might not click). Personally I would consider the main strength/draw to be this warm/witty/charismatic BJJ gym bro energy, and while extensive knowledge might be a part of it, I'm guessing that a larger part of the audience tunes in for (and should continue to be lured with) the former and not the latter. Thus, two faces with a simplistic caveman font topic might play better into the gym vibe/brotherhood feel - there's still outlines, fonts, shorter topics in the thumbnail, strong face emotions and so forth. In my humble opinion. Oss!

Pete was and is a BJJ intellectual. Maybe you didn't take to his way of teaching like I and countless others have. Pete has an exceptional way of teaching. Many of Petes best guys that he trained through to Blue, Purple, Brown and Black left the club and created clubs themselves then quikly stopped crediting Pete with training them. Other students let him down by not applying themselves due to whatever personal reasons. Many students became the best in Australasia while Mick Wilson became Australia's first world champion. Daniel Cherubin trained from an early age with Pete, from beginner to Blackbelt. Daniel trained from 12 to his mid/late 20s with Pete or around these ages. Pete is the least appreciated contributor to the growth and spread of Bjj world wide. The first federation of bjj outside of Brazil was in Australia, not America or any place else. Pete was over in Brazil training bjj years before the first ufc. What was the year the UFC had it's 30th year anniversary and in what year did Pete's club have it's 30th year anniversary? Pete was on the Mats with his Students everyday, 5 dsys a week minimum for over 25 years and closer to 30. He once told me that he couldn't take his students money if he wasn't on the mats training and working with his students each day. Many of his contemporaries of the time were travelling the country and the world doing all sorts of general self defence seminars. Roger Gracie and many other legends like Renzo share memories with Pete from childhood, teen years and 20's. I couldn't disagree more with your assessment of Pete's ability to articulate and convey technique to his students. I respect your dedication to your training in general and focus in life James, I consider myself along with Mick, one of your first two real mates you made on the Mats. I hope your achieving all you've applied yourself to James, your one of the good guys.

"It's like talking Buddhism with Buddha" And they say BJJ is like a religion...