The BJJ Mental Coach Podcast with Gustavo Dantas

Welcome episode 113. I'm your host, Gustavo Dantas and today we have Larry Glines. Larry is a black belt under Robert Drysdale; he owns and operates The Fountain of Youth (FOYA) BJJ Academy located in St. Augustine, Florida. Larry talked about his transition from being a successful burned-out businessman with his plumbing business to a jiu-jitsu academy owner,  He also shared his early days i...

Welcome to episode 112 I'm your host Gustavo Dantas and today we have the third-degree black belt and IBJJF Adult World No-Gi Champion James Puoplolo. He is the owner and head instructor at SKBJJ in Oregon. It was a great conversation, James talked about his early days competing, teaching and training with his jiu-jitsu mentor Rafael Lovato. He shared his journey of teaching math to Middle school...

Welcome to episode 111, I'm your host Gustavo Dantas, and today we have jiu-jitsu black belt Diego Almeida. Diego is the owner and head instructor at Seeds 13 Jiu-Jitsu Academy in San Angelo, TX. He shared his early days in Brazil and how jiu-jitsu gave him direction as a teenager. He also taked about the beginning of his journey in the United States, and when I asked him about a message that he l...

Welcome to episode 110 I'm your host Gustavo Dantas and today we have Daniel Camarillo. Daniel is a 3rd degree black belt in Judo and a 4th degree black belt in jiu-jitsu. Daniel is the owner and head instructor at Camarillo Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu located in Bakersfield, California. He shared about his early experiences competing in Judo; he started competing at the age 6, and how he talks with the p...

Welcome to episode 109, today we have 3x Time Judo Olympian Travis Stevens. Travis is a judo & jiu-jitsu black belt and the owner of Fuji Gym in Wakefield, Massachusetts. Travis shared a little bit of his Judo competition journey and his competition mindset that took him to win the silver medal at the Rio Olympic Games in 2016. When I asked Travis about some of the biggest lessons he learned f...

Welcome to episode 108 I'm your host Gustavo Dantas and today we have the fourth-degree black belt James Foster. James is the owner of Foster Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu in Kent, Washington. He shared his martial arts journey, some of his competition experiences, by the way, James is a 3x Black Belt Master World Champion. James is heavily involved with awareness campaigns and nonprofit organizations such...

Welcome to episode 107 I'm your host Gustavo Dantas and today we have Clifford Starks, a former UFC and Bellator Fighter and a purple belt in jiu-jitsu He talked about his wrestling and MMA career, and my takeaway from the interview was when I asked him about his mindset towards entrepreneurship when he stopped fighting. His answer inspired me to title this episode "Put your reps in". After the in...

Thomas Cronin is the owner of Carlson Gracie Temecula in California and an active competitor in the Black Belt masters division. Earlier this year he won the 2020 IBJJF European Championship.   He talked about his choice of changing careers to work full time with jiu-jitsu, he also spoke about his struggles with balancing life and work and the lessons he learned from his previous business tha...

Welcome to episode 105, I'm your host Gustavo Dantas and today we have Steve Snyder. He a 3rd degree black belt under Robson Moura and currently owns and operates Tiger Rock Martial Arts in High Point, North Carolina. He shared the early days of his entrepreneurial career, implementing crosstraining in the 90's and my takeaway from the interview came when he talked about Work-Life balance, which i...

Today we have the 5th Degree Black belt Bruno Bastos. Bruno owns and operates Bastos BJJ and Fitness in Midland, Texas. It's really cool to have Bruno here since he is one of my best personal friends and I know his story very well. He is the most experienced competitor that I know. He has been competing, literally, non-stop for 30 years. He talked about the importance of being well prepared for to...

Welcome to episode 101, I'm your host Gustavo Dantas and today we have the 7th-degree black belt in judo Jimmy Pedro. Jimmy is a four-time U.S. Olympian and has won two Bronze Medals, one in 1996 the other in 2004. Jimmy owns and operates Pedro's Judo Center in Wakefield, Mass. and is the President of Fuji Mats and Vice President of Hatashita/Fuji Sports.   It was a great interview with many...

Welcome to episode 100 of the BJJ Mental Coach Podcast, I'm your host Gustavo Dantas and I would like to give a shout out to all hardcore listeners who listened to all one hundred episodes. As a matter of fact, I would love to hear your feedback with your top three episodes in the past two years. Just send me a message on instagram @gustavodantasbjj. And today, we have JP Dinnell. JP is a blue bel...

Gustavo Dantas Thoughts (GDT) #5 It's not what happens to you, it's what you do about it. Let's talk about your mindset during this pandemic. I'm going to share with you four critical thoughts that I took into consideration during this time to apply in my life, and hopefully, you can apply in yours. Enjoy! Gustavo Dantas www.jiujitsutribe.org  Itunes –  https://tinyurl.com/y45kymp4 Googl...

Welcome to episode 98 I'm your host Gustavo Dantas and today we have jiu-jitsu Black Belt Kaleb Plank. Kaleb is the co-owner of Inferno Martial Arts in Arkansas, which currently has three locations. My takeaway from the interview came when he talked about modeling excellence, which inspired me to title this episode "Success leaves clues", which is a quote from the motivational speaker Tony Robbins...

GD Thoughts #4 - "A happy fighter is a dangerous fighter." Do you agree with this statement? For those who are not aware, I've been interviewing competitors and coaches in English and Portuguese on my INSTAGRAM @gustavodantasbjj. This week I had the opportunity to chat with the young rising star Roberto Jimenez, who is only 19 years, and already has wins over names like the current IBJJF 2020 Euro...

Welcome to episode 97 I'm your host Gustavo Dantas and today we have the greatest American jiu-jitsu competitor of all-time, the fourth-degree black belt, Rafael Lovato. Rafael is an IBJJF Black Belt World Champion Gi & No-Gi and currently, he is the Bellator Middleweight Champion of the World. He is also the full-time owner, operator, and head instructor of Lovato's Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and Mi...

Welcome to episode 96 I'm your host Gustavo Dantas and today we have the 4th-degree black belt and co-founder of the Soul Fighter Jiu-Jitsu Associations, Bruno "Tank" Mendes. He talked about the early days training in Brazil and eventually, his decision to move to the US to re-start his family's life. My takeaway from the interview came when we talked about staying in your comfort zone, which insp...

Welcome to episode 95. I'm your host Gustavo Dantas, and today we have Relson Gracie's 4th-degree black belt Nathan Zigler. He has owned Gracie Arizona for over twenty years, besides being the owner of Cooperhead CrossFit. Nathan shared how organic was his process of making a living with jiu-jitsu. He just wanted to teach, and he didn't plan on having a jiu-jitsu business. However, his classes gre...

Welcome to episode 94, I'm your host Gustavo Dantas and today we have the black belt David Hamilton. He is a graduate of the University of Georgia who has had a long and extensive career as an entrepreneur that has included owning a property management business, a real estate investor, and currently owns and operates an insurance agency.   He talked about the importance of embracing the proce...

Welcome to episode 93, I'm your host Gustavo Dantas and today we have the fourth-degree black belt Alberto Crane. Alberto is a veteran of the UFC and former King of the Cage Champion, and he is the owner of Legacy BJJ in Burbank, California. He shared about his competition career, the importance of creating systems in business, and my takeaway from the interview came when I asked him the best advi...

Welcome to episode 92 I'm your host Gustavo Dantas and today we have Bill Jones. Bill is a 2nd-degree black belt and the owner of Top Level Martial Arts in Cuyahoga Falls, OH. He is a veteran of the United States Army who left a successful career at a Fortune 500 company to pursue his passion for teaching jiu-jitsu. At the beginning of the interview, I asked him when was the moment that he had the...

To compete or not to compete? If you have competed before, most likely, you have noticed that you have more focus and discipline with your training and your diet when you are getting ready for competitions. It's a no brainer that helps with the process of developing and refining your jiu-jitsu game. For those who have never competed before, they may ask: "That's it? Refine my game? What else?...