There’s a lot of BJJ podcasts out there, so where do you start? And what do you do when you run out of podcasts to listen to (like I always do)? I’ve made a list of the best BJJ podcasts and the best BJJ pocast episodes from more general podcasts that you can listen to for weeks. Enjoy!
BJJ Mental Models
BJJ Mental Models is your guide to a conceptual and intelligent Jiu-Jitsu approach. It’s the world’s most popular Jiu-Jitsu concepts podcast. They’ve served nearly a million downloads across 165 countries.
This is by far the best jiu jitsu podcast in my opinion. The guests are a mix of high level BJJ athletes, coaches, wrestlers, judoka, and also scientists and prominent Redditors. I love almost every episode, so you can pretty much start at the top and work your way down. I particularly like the Wrestling for BJJ episode with Sarah McMann (episode 160) and any episode with Jon Thomas.
The Strenuous Life Podcast with Stephan Kesting
The strenuous life podcast is a great podcast for BJJ enthusiasts of all levels. Stephan Kesting is a black belt in BJJ and a world-renowned instructor. He is the founder of Grapplearts.com, which is one of the most popular BJJ websites on the internet. On his podcast, Stephan interviews some of the world’s top BJJ experts, and provides tips and advice for all grapplers, from BJJ beginners to experts.
Some of the best episodes of The Strenuous Life Podcast include:
- Pressure Testing BJJ Against Knives, Guns and Sticks (with Burton Richardson from JKD Unlimited)
- How to find the high percentage techniques in jiu-jitsu
- Lower the Cost of Failure to Get Better Faster
Sonny Brown Breakdown
The Sonny Brown Breakdown Discusses the Training, Teaching, Health and Education of Grappling & MMA. So it’s not only about BJJ, but it has some killer BJJ episodes. It has episodes with Priit Mihkelson and Steve Kwan, but also has episodes about Judo, Catch Wrestling and Bruce Lee’s philosophy. I consider this one of the best mma and grappling podcasts out there.
Shintaro Higashi Show
The Shintaro Higashi Show is hosted by Shintaro Higashi and his friend Peter Yu. Shintaro is a high level Judoka and dojo owner who also practices BJJ. Most of the episodes are mainly about Judo but also touch upon jiu jitsu.
Chewjitsu
The Chewjitsu podcast is hosted by YouTube celebrity Nick ‘Chewy’ Albin of chewjitsu.net and his co-host BJJ Black Belt and Physical Therapist Dr. Eugene Tsozik. The show covers topics such as Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, MMA, training, diet, supplements, health and injury-prevention, Q&A sessions, and interviews.
I love Chewy. I have to, because I’m an OG in getting one of my questions answered by him on his YouTube channel (see the video below). His answer is spot on btw, this is exactly how I try to compete in BJJ now.
BJJ Fanatics Podcast
The BJJ Fanatics Podcast provides in-depth interviews with the biggest names in BJJ and Grappling! Each episode is designed to help you learn and improve your BJJ on the mats by hearing advice and insight from the best in the game!
This podcast used to be Grappling Central. They have great guests and they usually also discuss a recent instructional DVD they filmed, which is mostly quite interesting.
Lex Fridman
The Lex Fridman podcast is not only about BJJ, but he has some of the best BJJ podcast episodes ever. His episodes with Ryan Hall, Josh Barnett and Chris Haueter are must-listen parts, especially if you’re also interested in the philosophy of martial arts.
Joe Rogan experience
The Joe Rogan Experience is the most famous podcast in the world and it has a lot of BJJ episodes. His episodes with John Danaher, Rickson Gracie and Gordon Ryan are all amazing. He also has many episodes with MMA fighters, such as George St. Pierre, and they always discuss grappling as well.
Roger Gracie podcast
The Roger Gracie podcast is not widely available, I think most episodes are hidden behind a paywall. But, there’s a great episode that you can watch on Youtube with John Danaher. Roger and John are both legends, and John admired Roger very much. They discuss his career and what makes him possibly the greatest grappler of all time.
A Fistful of Collars / WNO Podcast
A fistfull of collars is the previous name of the podcast from FoGrappling. The episodes are now usually called the WNO podcast, but I don’t know if they’ll keep that name when they make content that’s not related to WNO. They also sometimes put out episodes called Grappling Bulletin, so they’re all over the place. Anyway, the guy with the sunglasses is pretty annoying, but they always get high profile guests such as Gordon Ryan, Mikey Musumeci and Craig Jones, so it’s still a good BJJ podcast to keep up with.
The Raspberry Ape podcast
The Raspberry Ape podcast is a podcast hosted by BJJ black belt Daniel Strauss Aka the Raspberry Ape. Every episode he will be getting a new guest on to talk BJJ, training and everything else. I liked episodes 68 to 69 with Darragh O’Conaill, Lachlan Giles and Braulio Estima.
BJJBrick
BJJBrick will be bringing you a weekly podcast about Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, and having “good times” while we do it. They hope to flatten your Jiu-Jitsu learning curve, help you get the most out of your grappling ability, and meet your goals both on and off the mat. They have interviews with some of the top BJJ competitors, articles about BJJ, and some favorite quotes.
I like the episode with Ryan Hall a lot. It touches on his MMA career and BJJ for self defense.
Average Joe Jiu Jitsu
Average Joe Jiu Jitsu is a podcast dedicated to discussions concerning Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, grappling, strength and conditioning and mental preparation for the average enthusiast.
It’s a relatively new podcast still, but they have solid guests. Eli Knight’s episode (episode 22) was interesting to me, as I always like Eli.
The Inside BJJ Podcast
Inside BJJ brings news, interviews, and stories from the world of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, mixed martial arts, UFC, jiu jitsu, strikeforce, wrestling and submission grappling.
They have sick guests, such as Craig Jones and Garry Tonon. This is definitely one of the best BJJ podcasts out there.
The BJJ Mental Coach Podcast With Gustavo Dantas
The BJJ Mental Coach podcast is dedicated to entrepreneurs, small business owners and/or aspiring entrepreneurs, who train jiu-jitsu and want to take their mindset to another level on and off the mat. Every Monday, our guests, who also happen to train in jiu-jitsu, will share with you their failures, their successes, the mindset and habits of successful high-performers, plus provide valuable content on Entrepreneurship, Personal Development & BJJ that will help them during their entrepreneurial journey.
The Jiu Jitsu Dummies Podcast
The Jiu Jitsu Dummies Podcast was conceived by 48 year old Purple Belt Milton Campis who trains in Coral Springs Florida. The goal was to fill the void left by other Jiu Jitsu podcasts; podcasts that left out the viewpoints of newbies, up and comers, women and older players. Stated clearly by Milton, “As I’ve progressed in my Jiu Jitsu journey, I’ve started to listen to more and more BJJ podcasts. I’ve had some frustration with the standard Jiu Jitsu podcast format that interviews some of the more popular Jiu Jitsu tournament competitors and pioneers of the sport, which is great, but I also wanted to hear people just talkin’ Jiu Jitsu like me and my friends when were sitting at a bar having a cold one. I was even more frustrated with podcasts with BJJ or Jiu-Jitsu in their name but very little talk about the sport.”
I Suck at Jiu-Jitsu Show
I Suck At Jiu Jitsu Show is a low key jiu jitsu podcast. Join host Josh McKinney on his quest to suck less at jiu-jitsu. This is another podcast aimed at the everyday BJJ practitioner. Some of the discussions are quite deep, such as the athlete vs artist dichotomy and how to train jiu jitsu forever.
Inside position podcast
Inside Position delivers great stories and insights from the world of BJJ (Brazilian Jiu Jitsu), MMA, and Grappling. Each week Tom Halpin brings you conversations with some of the sport’s biggest names, from world champions and coaches to other legends of the sport.
I love the two episodes with Lachlan Giles about doping in the sport, and the most recent episode with Ethan Crelinsten. Ethan is one of the lesser known athletes of the former Danaher Death Squad and he currently trains with Craig Jones and the B-Team.
Beauty and the Gi
Beauty and the Gi is the BJJ podcast about jiu-jitsu and life from the female perspective. They have a lot of female guests, but they also do a lot of mindset themed episodes that I like. They have a few episodes about goal setting and game plans which I really enjoy.
The Jiu Jitsu Of Life Podcast
The Jiu Jitsu of Life podcast is a biweekly BJJpodcast. Hosts Carter Fisk and Mo Siddiqui introduce a new weekly podcast for Brazilian jiu-jitsu enthusiasts, who are striving to succeed both on and off the mat. Navigate the Jiu-Jitsu of Life with Carter and Mo as they discuss how their mission for the podcast is to help enthusiasts balance their busy lives with their passion for BJJ.
BJJ Goons
In BJJ Goons BJJ superstar Tim “MUSHMASTER” Spriggs and BJJ practitioner / activist / journalist Nico Ball tell the stories of the people of the BJJ and Combat Sports community.
Tim Spriggs is famous for being a WNO winner despite being an amateur. I liked episode 142 about Hip Hop, Chess and Jiu Jitsu.
Beyond Jiu Jitsu
The Beyond Jiu Jitsu podcast is about all things BJJ, sport, life, health, nutrition, media and beyond. Hosted by Adam Childs, Team Alliance BJJ Black Belt under Alliance Head Coach Fabio Gurgel and Kieren Lefevre a BJJ Blue Belt, Personal Trainer, ISSN – Sport Nutrition Specialist, Videographer and Jiu Jitsu Media Influencer.
I particularly like the nutrition episodes. It’s hard to find accurate information about this anywhere else.
Grappling Rewind
Grappling Rewind presents a breakdown and recap of the week’s professional BJJ and grappling events. Every week we recap what has happened in the world of sport Brazilian Jiu-jitsu, and preview the following week’s grappling events. The blog has been somewhat inactive but look out for this one with all the tournaments coming up.
The Matburn podcast
The Matburn podcast is hosted by Keenan Cornelius and Josh Hinger, two famous and successful jiu jitsu competitors. They poke fun at each other a lot and talk about the jiu jitsu scene. I really like the matburn podcast, but Josh and Keenan are very inconsistent. They can go many months in between dropping an episode, which is a shame.
Grounded by Jocko Willink
Grounded is about Jiu Jitsu and Life. Jocko and Echo explore the parallels and real benefits of Jiu Jitsu in all aspects of life. They only made 10 episodes, but they were bangers and evergreen, so I still recommend that you go through them.
