The BJJ Fanatics Podcast

Ryan Ford

Our mission with this podcast is to help YOU grow on the mats! We do this by presenting deep, insightful interviews every week with the best athletes, coaches and legends of BJJ and Grappling. Whether you're looking to expand your knowledge about technique, BJJ culture or the history of the art, every episode is loaded with advice and lessons from the best in the game. The host Ryan Ford conducts each interview in a casual setting, which makes it easy to see the human side of the stars of our sport and get to know their story while also learning more for your own development. New episodes are available every week, and we have over 600 episodes for you to enjoy as well, which is over 800 hours of entertainment and knowledge! We hope you enjoy it!

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20 episodes
Updated June 16
Explicit

Episodes20

Newest first

June 16 · 1 hr 19 min
Fear Inoculation with Demian Maia
Demian Maia discusses performance anxiety in combat sports. He explains how it impacted him early in his career and how he overcame it. He also talks about the love/hate relationship elite athletes can have with their sport due to the pressures of winning.
April 7 · 1 hr 33 min
BJJ Fanatics 673: Jake O'Driscoll
Jake O'Driscoll joins the show to talk about creating a training environment that breeds champions. He talks about the importance of coaches dedicating themselves to studying the game to help their athletes succeed. He also talks about straight ankle locks
March 24 · 1 hr
BJJ Fanatics 673: Alberto Crane
Alberto Crane returns to talk about his life in Jiu-Jitsu since being diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis. He talks about how exploring Neurology has helped him and lessons he's learned. He also talks about the early days of being an American in Brazil!
March 5 · 1 hr 13 min
BJJ Fanatics 672: Colton Crawford
Colton Crawford is a BJJ Brown Belt and the banjo player for the very successful Bluegrass band The Dead South. He talks about learning how to learn and the similarities between pursuing music and Jiu-Jitsu!
February 24 · 1 hr 29 min
BJJ Fanatics 671: Dallas Niles
Dallas Niles returns to talk about teaching and the fact that you do NOT have to be a champion to be an elite instructor. He also talks about heavy metal and getting sick overseas, and the value of simplifying your game.
February 3 · 1 hr 41 min
BJJ Fanatics 670: Michael Heinz
BJJ Black Belt Michael Heinz joins show show to talk about how meditation has impacted his journey in the art. He explains how to use meditation concepts before, during and after training to achieve better results.
January 20 · 1 hr 9 min
BJJ Fanatics 669: Glyn Powditch
Glyn Powditch is a leading voice in Jiu-Jitsu on breathing and breathwork. He explains how something as simple as learning how to manage your breathing during training and competition can have a tremendous impact on your cardio and performance.
January 6 · 1 hr 29 min
BJJ Fanatics 668: Shawn Williams
Shawn Williams joins the show for the first episode of 2026! The topic for this episode is how to coach athletes. Shawn talks about providing relevant information, game-planning, managing nerves and strategy from the coach's chair. He also talks take downs!
Dec 23, 2025 · 1 hr 4 min
BJJ Fanatics 667: Xmas with Kurt
Kurt joins us for the final episode of 2025! We talk about the potential alien craft near Earth, conspiracy theories, and how AI consistently fools Kurt on Instagram. Kurt also takes questions from the listeners and spreads Christmas cheer.
Dec 2, 2025 · 1 hr 45 min
BJJ Fanatics 666: Jeff Curran
Jeff Curran returns to share what its like to start and run a grappling tournament from scratch and life after professional fighting. He also opens up about growing up in poverty and a violent home and how Jiu-Jitsu changed the direction of his life
Nov 18, 2025 · 1 hr 18 min
BJJ Fanatics 665: Roberto Godoi
Roberto Godoi returns to talk about competition for Masters athletes. He covers mindset, conditioning, tactics and conserving energy. He also explains how being "starstruck" when competing against a famous athlete is something to be completely avoided!
Nov 4, 2025 · 1 hr 51 min
BJJ Fanatics 664: Shawn Melanson
Shawn Melanson joins the show to talk about running a gym specifically for competitors, how anxiety has impacted him on and off the mats, and developing take downs. He also shows his impressive reptile collection (check out the video episode on YouTube)
Oct 14, 2025 · 1 hr 19 min
BJJ Fanatics 663: Robert Drysdale
Robert Drysdale joins the show to share his latest research on the history of BJJ. He also discusses the ways that commercialization has helped and hurt the art and his thoughts on professional grappling's influence on the culture and future of BJJ
Oct 1, 2025 · 1 hr 33 min
BJJ Fanatics 662: Chris Wojcik
Chris Wojcik joins the show to talk about goal setting, finding purpose, the value of regret and removing self-doubt from your mind. He also talks about his beginnings as a wrestler, his passion for writing and his recent performance at CJI 2!
Sep 16, 2025 · 1 hr 23 min
BJJ Fanatics 661: Malachy Friedman
Malachy Friedman returns to talk about his recent shift back into coaching high level athletes. He talks about competition mindset, how to gameplan for specific opponents and implementing your game intelligently.
Sep 2, 2025 · 1 hr 33 min
BJJ Fanatics 660: Roy Dean
Roy Dean returns to talk about ego-less training, the balance of ego for competitors and how to process losses in a healthy way. He also details his nomadic teaching lifestyle and talks about his recent trip to Japan, where he trained at the Kodokan!
Aug 19, 2025 · 1 hr 33 min
BJJ Fanatics 659: Kurt Osiander
Kurt is back! In this episode, Kurt responds to lots of questions from the listeners, we talk music and the passing of the legend Ozzy Osbourne, Kurt breaks out his Boston accent and he talks about his desire to start a new cooking show!
Aug 5, 2025 · 1 hr 3 min
BJJ Fanatics 658: Justin Flores
JFlo is back! In this episode he talks about building good habits on your feet. He shares valuable insights for older or injured grapplers that breaks the traditional Wrestling meta; to not fight for positions so hard and yet still be dangerous.
Jul 15, 2025 · 1 hr 13 min
BJJ Fanatics 657: Rick Ellis
Rick Ellis joins the show to discuss Jiu-Jitsu for older guys! He talks about what your goals should be and reframing your mentality as you age on the mats. He also talks about pitfalls to avoid like not regulating your intensity and comparing to others
Jul 1, 2025 · 1 hr 46 min
BJJ Fanatics 656: Renato Canuto
Renato Canuto joins the show fresh off his professional MMA debut! He talks about his experience stepping into the cage, balancing grappling competitions with his MMA training, and gives a detailed breakdown of the 100 men vs a gorilla question!