The Grapplezilla Podcast

I had the pleasure of having Eduardo Walmory who is no doubt the most interesting Grappler I’ve had the pleasure of speaking within a long time. Eduardo is a BJJ Blackbelt and an Expert Catch Wrestler who resides in Brazil and has a training school called the “Centro de Estudos de Jiu Jitsu e Catch Wrestling”. Having an insane amount of experience in both arts as well as being the cousin of Rodrig...

One of our best episodes yet, I had the pleasure of having Brian Roig of PCI Jiujitsu who is one of the most interesting grapplers and martial artists in the world. Brian is the owner and founder of PCI Jiujitsu as well as the Level Up Grappling Podcast. He is a top tier Catch Wrestling Coach as well as a 3rd degree Blackbelt in BJJ under Chris Haueter. Brian is also has blackbelts in Luta Livre,...

This episode of the Grapplezilla is a short memorial for Calen Paine, the martial arts instructor who had the biggest impact on me, a mentor of mine and a very close friend. Calen Paine passed away and this is just some memories of him, training with him and a final goodbye. Miss you Calen, you really impacted me more than anyone and you were one of a kind. #calenpaine #wisewarriorgym #edmontonmar...

On the episode of the Grapplezilla Podcast, we speak to Roy Newman who is a 3rd degree BJJ Blackbelt and runs Pitbull BJJ in Tel Aviv, Israel. Roy has a great BJJ pedigree, he has fought many times in MMA and is a top level BJJ coach. Here’s his interesting story and we are sure you will love this episode! If you enjoyed this episode of the Grapplezilla Podcast, we invite you to subscribe to our p...

Senegalese Wrestling: The Power, Tradition, and Spirit of West Africa's Iconic Grappling Style! 🇸🇳💪 Discover the rich history, culture, and intense competition of Senegalese Wrestling (Laamb), West Africa's Grappling Style! This ancient combat tradition, deeply rooted in the Senegalese culture, combines raw strength, athleticism, and spirituality. Beyond just physical prowess, Senegalese wrestlin...

On this episode of the Grapplezilla Podcast, I get the opportunity to speak to Andy Campbell who is the owner of Martial Mindset and an absolutely class act! Martial Mindset is a great Instagram, page dedicated to Martial Arts  as well as has presence on YouTube, X and TikTok. We go over many topics such as Andy’s martial arts background as well as a lot on the Martial Arts scene in Scotland as An...

One of the most knowledgeable Strength and Conditioning coaches in the world, Morgan Flaherty has an immense amount of knowledge in Sport’s Science as well as Morgan also has a World Class Wrestling Background, having Wrestled for the US National Greco Roman Team. Morgan is the founder of Mogo Training, a Tier 1 training system that is excellent for all types of athletes and especially for Wrestle...

Watch any major Wrestling competition and you will notice many Wrestlers who switched from other countries national teams to represent a new nation. A great example of this was the fact that many of the Wrestlers that competed in the 2024 Paris Olympics were naturalized citizens and many of them were from Russia and the US. We go over the pros and cons of this issue as it does have an effect on In...

It's been 56 Years that the US Men's Olympic Freestyle Wrestling Team has gotten at least one Gold Medal in each Olympics yet at the 2024 Paris Olympics, the US Men's Olympic Freestyle Wresting Team failed to bring a Gold Home. Here we cover the reasons why and trust us, we dive into the issue. We also speak about the Future of US Wrestling at the Olympics and Internationally as well a...

Isaac Knable is the founder of Invicta Wrestling Academy as well as the founder of both footworktrainer.com and the Stance & Motion App. An extremely accomplished wrestler, Isaac wrestled in the NCAA Division One for Indiana University. On top of being an accomplished wrestler, Isaac is also a world class wrestling coach, coaching young wrestlers at Invicta Wrestling Academy. Isaac is also the...

Chidaoba is one of the most important and interesting Grappling Styles you most likely have never heard of. It has influenced many grappling arts such as Sambo and Judo as well as been the starting point for many Olympic and World Champions in Judo, Wrestling and Sambo. In this episode, we cover all major aspects of Chidoaba and help you understand more about this amazing Folk Wrestling style. If...

Rodrigo Artilheiro is one of the most interesting and complete Grapplers on the planet. Rodrigo has competed at the highest levels in Judo, BJJ and Greco Roman Wrestling as well as is one of the best Krav Maga, Self Defense and Combative instructors in the World. Rodrigo also has a deep history of coaching top MMA fighters like CroCop as well as being a coach on the Ultimate Fighter TV Show. On to...

Wrestling is one of the most important things you can add to your BJJ as we see most modern BJJ and Submission Grappling champions adding wrestling to their BJJ to dominate the competition. In fact after the last ADCC in 2022, it is apparent that the next evolution of BJJ will be the addition of wrestling into Jiu-Jitsu. Wrestling gives so many extra tools to make a person's BJJ so much more e...

Shuai Jiao: The Ancient Chinese Martial Art of Wrestling Welcome to our Grapplezilla's dive into Shuai Jiao, one of the oldest and most revered forms of Chinese martial arts and an absolutely great Grappling style! Shuai Jiao, also known as Chinese wrestling, boasts a rich history that spans thousands of years. It is renowned for its powerful throwing techniques, dynamic footwork, and practica...

Do you want to get better at Takedowns? In this episode we explain some great methods to start improving your takedowns regardless of if you are a Freestyle Wrestler, Greco Roman Wrestler, MMA Fighter, Submission Grappler or BJJ Practitioner. Often the difference between being good at takedowns and great at takedowns is by understanding the drills, tactics and exercises needed to get to the next l...

Freestyle heavyweight wrestling is full of power and strength and a lot of times it is a case of the stronger wrestler dominating a weaker wrestler. Once in a while there is a Heavyweight wrestler who not only is strong as a bear but highly technical as well. Geno Petriashvili is a Georgian elite level Freestyle wrestler competing at the heavyweight division who is strong, technical, resilient, fa...

One of the most underlooked aspects of adding wrestling for MMA and BJJ is the use of Par Terre (Wrestling Groundwork) as when adding wrestling to their fighting skills, most MMA and BJJ fighters only focus on learning the takedowns and takedown defenses of wrestling and not the groundwork. Learning Par Terre has amazing benefits for both MMA and BJJ practitioners as adding Par Terre helps link th...

Dagestan, a small Russian republic of 3.1 million people produces the very best wrestlers in the world. Dagestani Wrestlers have won a tremendous amount of Olympic Wrestling Medals and World Wrestling Championships with their effective style of wrestling. What makes Dagestani wrestling so Effective and why over decades and decades do Dagestani wrestlers still dominate the wrestling world? In this...

One of the absolute best Grappling arts an MMA Fighter can train in is Greco-Roman Wrestling. There have been many dominant Wrestlers in modern MMA and many of the best fighters of all time have come from a Greco Roman Wrestling background. In this Grapplezilla Greco Roman Wrestling for MMA podcast breakdown we discuss several reasons why Greco Roman Wrestling can be high effective for MMA. We cov...

Adding Wrestling to your Self Defense training is one of the best things you could do as a martial artist. There are so many reasons, many of which will surprise you, that you should consider adding Wrestling Training to your Self Defense training. In no way is this episode about Wrestling being the best self defense system, we even cover why it has flaws when it comes to self defense but this vid...

We had the pleasure of having Tom Billinge from WarYoga for our very first Grapplezilla Podcast. Tom is the founder of WarYoga and gives a real inside look into the world of WarYoga, everything from his thoughts on the health benefits of WarYoga, the benefits of WarYoga exercises for grappling arts and a deep dive into the WarYoga philosophy. Hope you guys enjoy listening to this episode as much a...

Bokh is a national sport in Mongolia. Also known as Mongolian Wrestling, Bokh has been practiced for hundreds and hundreds of years since the time of the great Genghis Khan. A truly powerful and amazing Mongolian folk wrestling style, Bokh has been influential in the Mongolian character and has even been highly influential to Mongolian Judo, Mongolian Freestyle and Greco-Roman Wrestling as well as...

Sambo has been one of the most dominant martial arts in MMA and there is a good reason why. There are so many dominant Sambo fighters in MMA’s history that have won the biggest MMA competitions in the world such as the UFC, Pride and more. Such fighters as Khabib Nurmagomedov, Islam Makhachev and Fedor Emelianenko have effectively used Sambo to not only win MMA championships but change the way we...

Many BJJ practitioners are now learning how to wrestle in order to gain an extra edge on the mats. Wrestling Pressure and The Wrestling Pocket is the absolute most important thing that is overlooked when learning wrestling for BJJ. In this episode of the Grapplezilla podcast we talk about how Wrestling’s Pressure & The Wrestling Pocket for BJJ are pivotal to understand and master if you want t...

Brazil is a superpower when it comes to modern grappling arts due to the explosion of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu around the world. Yet there is another grappling art that comes from the jungles of Brazil that is a very effective grappling method known as Luta Livre. Luta Livre is not as well known as BJJ but there still are many famous MMA fighters who practice or came from a Luta Livre background such a...