The Primal MMA Coaching Podcast

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In this episode, I talk with Coach Greg Souders of Standard Jiu-Jitsu , Rockville MD (Maryland).
Greg is a black belt who founded Standard Jui-Jitsu several years back following many years of training and competing with Team Llyod Irvin. A product of the high repetition and traditional development approach, Greg largely abandoned the conventional ways in favor of a more ecological approach to skill development.
This episode was recorded with Greg in person when I visited his gym (nicknamed the Black Temple). After a couple of days training there, it was apparent how incredibly well developed his team are and how engaging and high quality the training is. Greg's team have a unique way of communicating their understanding of the sport and interacting with each other.
Greg for me, is a coach's coach and really seems to be a trailblazer for the growing ecological minded schools out there.
Should anyone want to get in touch (I recommend they do). He is reachable on his social media links here. IG and Facebook and of course via his website
I look forward to seeing Greg's name being tossed around in the discussion of up and coming progressive and high-level coaches. If his team keeps developing at the same rate, I imagine this won't take long!

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Todd Fossey is the founder of and Chief Instructor at Integrative Defense Strategies in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Today he accepted my invite to chat with me about managing anxiety and arousal in training and competiton, and how getting the right levels can help promote learning, skill development and performance.
Todd has been in the sport coaching and motor-learning space for several decades, add to that movie producer, trained psychotherapist and high performance consultant and it's clear he has lived a very interesting a full life thus far.
Todd is also both a coach and a student of highly regarded MMA coach Greg Nelson of the "Academy' in MN where trains grappling and bjj. Todd has also built a firearms training and education business that combines gun handling with modern practical MMA techniques and skills.
Should you want to follow up or reach out to Todd you can contact him via his FB page, or email [email protected]
You can also check out his website and his youtube page where he shares a ton of content about firearm training and personal saftey and protection skills.

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Today my guest is my friend and fellow podcaster Josh Peacock.
Josh is the host of the Combat Learning Podcast and a fellow advocate of an ecological approach to combat sports training.
A real student of the science of skill development, teaching methodologies and the history of combat sports, Josh is also a 4th degree TKD coach/practitioner and more recently a student of BJJ and submission grappling.
In this episode Josh and I discuss some of the common pushbacks and arguments we hear against the ecological approach and how they may not be entirely fair or honest.
With increasing attention being turned towards this methodology we thought a discussion about some ingrained biases and assumptions might help those who themselves are somewhere in the transition phase towards this kind of training.
Hopefully discussions like these can better help newer EcoD enthusiasts to be better prepared when presenting a case for change.
While it's Josh's first appearace on the podcast, he and I speak regularly and are fairly well aligned. His podcast is really excellent and well worth a listen if you have not already done so!
Josh has a Facebook group called the Combat Learning Community which is also worth checking out and getting involved with the discussion.

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I finally snagged the boys from Emergence to come and talk to me about MMA.
I have been following Shawn Myszka AKA @movementmiyagi since coming across his youtube channel several years ago. Shawn is an NFL skill coach and movement consultant, co-founder of Emergentmvmt.com, regular podcast and skill conference presenter and co-author of the recently published paper "Applying an ecological approach to practice design in American Football".
His biz partner Tyler Yearby also a co-author of the same article and is an educator and speaker on sport science and skill-development for American Football.
Both Tyler and Shawn are regular guests on Rob Gray's Perception Action Podcast and are considered to be well informed and passionate advocates of the ecological approach to sport. They also somewhat uniquely straddle both the academic and on-field coaching spaces which arm them both with a deep theoretical and practical knowledge and understanding.
Be sure to follow them both and stay tuned for their soon to be launched Patreon community which will be a fantastic resource and information sharing space for progressive coaches and sports academics alike.
Should you wish to get in touch with either Shawn or Tyler, they are very receptive and helpful and best reached on twitter or at their website. (See names above for links).
I was very grateful for their time and consider them coming on as another scalp, as this duo were on my original shortlist of wanted guests when I started the Podcast a few years back.

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I finally snagged him! After months of pestering, Professor Rob Gray joined me to chat and answer some of my questions on skill development in martial arts.
Rob is a giant in the skill acquisition space, and his voice has become all too familiar to me after spending much of my last few years working through his huge catalogue of podcasts of his show 'The Perception Action Podcast" .
Rob is an Associate Professor of Human Systems Engineering at Arizona State University and recently published and released his book MOVE .
While Rob's podcast is very technical and academic, he has delivered in his book a wonderfully concise and digestible summary of how we learn and acquire movement skills.
Rob's outreach and coach educational resources have profoundly shaped and influenced my perspectives and understanding of skill acquisition which spills over into all aspects of my life.
Life is movement.... Why not be better at it!
In a rush to make the most out of the opportunity I tried to squeeze a lot in this 60 min slot. So this episode moves quick and covers a lot. But he's been busy on the podcast tour these last months. So if you are hungry for more. Follow him on twitter @shakeywaits or search for him on your podcast directory.