In this episode I speak with Coach Ricky Pachon . A young  coach from Gracie Barra, Bondi Beach, Australia.

Ricky leads a successful youth competition team and is himself an avid competitor on the Australian BJJ/Grappling scene.

Recently a parent of a student of Ricky reached out to me to introduce him. Following several years of employing a high-repetition traditional approach to developing his youth team. Ricky has in recent months been another coach to fall down the ecological rabbit hole.

Ricky's enthusiasm and energy spills out when he talks about coaching and  training and it's clear, despite his age he is well on his way to becoming a high level bjj coach and ambassador for the sport.

Ricky talks about his recent transition to a ecological approach and we discuss the reception of his student and fellow coaches.

You can get in touch with Ricky and follow him on his IG page.

I look forward to watching this passionate coach and his team grow and thrive in the coming years. 

 

This episode is the first of two interviews by Brian Willis of the Excellence in Training Academy.

Brian reached out to both myself and Standard Jiu-jitsu's Greg Souders to talk about our application of Ecological Dynamics to Striking and Grappling respectively.

With Brian's blessing he allowed me to share these interviews here on my podcast, given his interviews (over 350 of them) are available for his subscribers to his online platform.

Brian was a very engaging and great interviewer and both Greg and I were thankful for the opportunity and fun conversations. While neither Greg or I have much insight into law enforcement, Brian similarly is in a constant pursuit of how we can make training more optimal and effective for our domains.

Brian can be found best on his training academy site and at his other online resource site https://winningmindtraining.com/ 

Should any one want to reach Brian directly through the show, please email me at scott@primalmke.com

Danny Hatcher joined me to talk more about ecological dynamics for sport.

Danny is a Podcaster, youtuber, educator, coach and sport scientist from the UK. We connected after I watched his terrific youtube video on Ecological Learning. Among his many endeavors, Danny has spent a lot of time researching in the areas of psychology and learning. This has given him a robust understanding of both the information processing approach of cognitive psychology and the Ecological approach of ecological psychology.

Danny is active on twitter and is well worth and follow. I look forward to him returning in the future as guest to pick his brain again. 

In this episode I welcome on Coach Kabir Bath, founder and owner of Kaboom Jiu-Jitsu in Surrey, British Columbia. 

Kabir is a Raphael Lovato Jr Black belt/affiliate and was a Lovato associate coach of the year 2017.

As Kabir explains in the episode, he recently and abruptly shifted to an ecological approach while abandoning the more typical traditional format for learning and teaching jiu-jitsu.

I can't give enough credit to an already successful and established coach who is not only open to change, but who has done so, so rapidly and radically.

I look forward to watching team Kaboom grow and thrive in the coming months and years.

Ancora Imparo Indeed! 

Today I welcome back Standard Jiu-Jitsu's coach Greg Souders.

Greg and I were chatting about a very recent reddit post aptly named, 'Training at a gym that doesn't teach technique'. The post was specifically posing the question about Standard's training approach and garnered many perspectives and opinions.

Greg, and I decided to talk about the post, some of the comments and record our discussion for an episode. 

As usual the editing and sound quality of the episode is a little rough and unpolished, but I hope the quality of the content makes up for that.

*If myself or Greg in anyway misrepresented anyone's comments on the thread, please feel free to reach out so we can address.

Likewise, I am always open to debate, discussion and pushback. Should anyone want to be a guest on the podcast to have such a debate, please reach out to me on my IG with a DM or contact me by email at scott@primalmke.com

Much love to all that support! Onwards and Upwards!

On this epsiode, I welcome Dr Mike Piekarski aka. @doctor_kickass about to talk about S&C for MMA.

As I discuss with Mike, I've believe that in being so focused on skill development in practice, I've been  guilty of undervaluing the role of S&C, in particular when it comes to competition.

My concern with not cutting into valuable 'learning' time, inevitably had me neglect and deemphasize  the importance of S&C. 

As part of rebalancing  and moving forward with my team. I reached out to Mike for some insight, advice and direction.

Being a BJJ blackbelt, a former MMA fighter and an active Dr of Physical Therapy, Mike seemed to be an obvious choice to invite on for discussion.

I very much enjoyed talking with him, and encourage anyone in the MMA space to give him a follow on IG where he posts most of his content. 

I do plan to have more S&C coaches and scientists on going forward as a part of my rebalancing of training focus. 

Onwards and Upwards! Enjoy the convo with Dr Kickass!

On this episode we delve a little more into the underpinning science of Ecological Dynamics.

I recently read 'Introduction to Ecological Psychology' written by Dr Julia Blau and Dr Jeff Wagman which was a terrific read. The book was just recently published in the summer of 2022. Had this book been available years ago, it might have saved me countless hours of confusion and frustration.

While there is little talk of MMA or Grappling in this episode, it does offer a teaser of the fascinating area of ecological psychology and how we interact  and move in our world.

Our discussion lends support to what many of the guest coaches and academics that have been on the podcast are telling me. That we are complex systems and we must let the body acquire skillful movement solutions trusting it to do what it is designed to do. Solve movement problems.

Dr Blau and Dr Wagman also recently appeared on the Perception Action Podcast to discuss the book.  As mentioned countless times, Dr Gray's podcast is a treasure trove of contemporary sports science and any coach that wants to better understand the human system and how it learns should absolutely subscribe and listen to it. 

Thank you to all who support and listen. And especially all those who took time to talk to me an participate in the discussions. 

Dr. Tom Parry is the founder and owner of Kestrel Performance Psychology. He has a Ph.D. in Human Performance from Indiana University with specializations in Skill Acquisition and Psychology.

​He wears many hats including Professor, Father, Coach and Consultant. These roles have blessed him with a detailed understanding of human behavior from various perspectives and the nuanced nature of performance.

 He has worked with numerous individual athletes, sports teams and businesses to improve their performance and meet their desired outcomes.

Tom joined me to discuss and elaborate on a recent twitter thread he posted recently. It was a thread that really resonated with me and I wanted to find out more.

Tom actively shares and posts content on his twitter page and is well worth a follow!

For 30 years, Coach Greg Nelson has overseen the training and development of thousands of combat sports athletes at his gym The Academy in Minnesota.

Among these fighters and champ that he has helped produce, Brock Lesnar, Kaitlin Young, Brock Larson, Sean Sherk, Dave Menne and Nick Thompson. He is also a regular part of UFC Straw-weight former reigning champ Rose Namajunas team.

Coach Nelson talks about his approach, philosophies and methods that he employs from entry level novice hobbyists all the way up to UFC World Champions.  He talks both about how training and the sport has evolved and changed,  and what attributes and features are remain ever present in High-Level elite performers.

I was happy and reassured to hear that many of principles and approaches that Coach Nelson has employed so successfully, are very much aligned with the broader underpinnings of ecological dynamics.

I particularly appreciated the apparent autonomy and creativity he fosters in his training environment and his approach to ethical and sensible training to promote longevity and skill development.

For more info on Coach Nelson and or the Academy. Visit www.theacademymn.com

You can also hear Coach Greg drop nuggets of fighting wisdom on his own podcast "In the Clinch"

Follow Coach Nelson and his team on IG or Twitter.

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. 

UFC vet and UK MMA pioneer Leigh Remedios returns to chat on the Primal MMA podcast.

Ireland's 'Team Torres' Coach Martin McLaughlin also joined the chat. Martin is diving deep into the Ecological Approach and speaks about how he is implementing the theory and principles of the Eco D practically on the mats.

This was largely an informal chat between the coaches and we shared lots of ideas and challenges we've experienced as we try to get the most out of our training time.

It's apparent that both Martin and Leigh are very progressive coaches and passionate about facilitating their team's development ethically and responsibly.

To reach out to Leigh you can find him on his gym's FB page

To link up with Matthew, you can get him here

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 todd@gunclasses.net

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.

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 todd@gunclasses.net

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.

Cal Jones is both a Judo coach and practitioner from North Wales (UK). He also recently completed his Master Degree in sports science with a thesis on "Representative Learning Design".

Cal is well connected in the skill acquisition community and is a frequent guest on the coaching podcast circuits.

Should you want to reach out or follow Cal, he can be reached on his twitter account @CalJonesJudo

This is the part one of a two part episode where we discuss RLD and its implications for effective practice design for skill development. 

Cal and I also discuss much of the dated and stubbornly held perspectives that are so prevelant in martial arts today.

Cal is an understudy of Keith Davis who is one of the giants and leading researchers in ecological dynamics and skill acquisition.

I look forward to Cal being a returning guest on the show as we had a fun discussion and clicked well. 

My appreciation to him and all my guest who work hard to bring the research and data from the labs to the mats. 

Let's be better at getting better!   Ancora Imparo!

Cal Jones is both a Judo coach and practitioner from North Wales (UK). He also recently completed his Master Degree in sports science with a thesis on "Representative Learning Design".

Cal is well connected in the skill acquisition community and is a frequent guest on the coaching podcast circuits.

Should you want to reach out or follow Cal, he can be reached on his twitter account @CalJonesJudo

This is the part one of a two part episode where we discuss RLD and its implications for effective practice design for skill development. 

Cal and I also discuss much of the dated and stubbornly held perspectives that are so prevelant in martial arts today.

Cal is an understudy of Keith Davis who is one of the giants and leading researchers in ecological dynamics and skill acquisition.

I look forward to Cal being a returning guest on the show as we had a fun discussion and clicked well. 

My appreciation to him and all my guest who work hard to bring the research and data from the labs to the mats. 

Let's be better at getting better!   Ancora Imparo!

In this fascinating and in depth conversation, PDP Editor, Dave Wright hosts International Hockey Coach & Coach Developer at Oxford Brookes University, Danny Newcombe.Danny and Dave discuss a wide range of topics around skill acquisition, constraints based coaching, creating a learning environment, the coaching spectrum and more.

This is a must listen interview with a true innovator and thought leader in coaching.Danny is a Senior Lecturer, Coach Developer and Skill Acquisition Expert at Oxford Brookes University in England. A leading Hockey Coach, Danny is part of the coaching team for the Welsh Men’s team and recently attended the Commonwealth Games in Australia.

Note: The full discussion is available to PDP Members only, click here to watch the Masterclass Discussion now.

Exclusive offer for Podcast listeners: 30 Days Free Active Membership. Visit www.playerdevelopmentproject.com/podcast