The Jiu-Jitsu Mindset

Six weeks out from a fight, a new mandatory MRI found two brain tumors. Professor Tosh Cook, a third-degree black belt under Royce Gracie, tells Pete how that pre-fight physical saved his life, then takes us from the 1993 Black Belt magazine ad for UFC 1 to the Gracie Academy in 1997, Royce's ten-man preparation for the 90-minute Sakuraba fight, a fight on four hours' notice, underground cage fights on nightclub floors, Royler Grac...

Professor Matt Baker started working at 14 — washing cars in freezing weather, janitorial work at night, bill collecting, bartending, DJing, selling insurance — usually two or three jobs at once. "Where I started and where things ended up is entirely polar opposite." Jiu-jitsu is what changed it.

Now the founder of TruJitsu in Bakersfield, Matt talks with Pete about why he calls jiu-jitsu Go...

Peter Liciaga grew up a street kid in the South Bronx, where martial arts first became a way to survive. Over the next fifty-six years it became something else entirely — a way to live. In this conversation he and Pete trace a remarkable road: Tang Soo Do, a white belt at 17, ballet and Broadway, Taekwondo in Germany, and finally jiu-jitsu.

Peter also shares the hardest chapter — losing the ...

Professor Elan Walshe thought he had life figured out — a driven career, a beautiful family, and a lifetime of competitive sport, from college football and high-level rugby to sponsored cycling. Then he brought his sons to Gracie Barra San Clemente, watched from the sidelines, and finally stepped on the mat at 37. "I had no idea how off course I was."

Now a black belt and the owner of Gracie Barra...

Professor Heidi Garwood is a clinical social worker and a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt who built her gym around women and kids. In this conversation, she and Pete dig into the mental side of the mats: your three-part brain — thinking, emotional, and survival — and how jiu-jitsu trains you to find your way back to your thinking brain when the pressure hits.

Heidi shares the breath and groun...

Pete Deeley sits down with Professor Ryan Brock of Impact Jiu Jitsu in Hood River, Oregon — a coach who says, plainly, that without jiu-jitsu he'd be dead or in jail. They talk about the tough-love mentor he hated and later thanked, why competition is "pick your own poison" and where the art gets a little culty, the night breaking up a fight taught him what he'd really built, and the anxious kid who went from hi...

Pete Deeley sits down with Professor Steve Ficca of Odin's Halls BJJ in Las Vegas — a coach who found jiu-jitsu after boxing gyms and shuttered wrestling schools and never looked back. They talk about the first thing that never bored him, using the art to drive across the country and see the world, why competition is a tool for growth rather than a paycheck, and the lessons he wants every kid to carry off the ma...

Founder of Budokon Cameron Shayne joins Pete Deeley for a deep conversation on the warrior's mind: why a warrior is not an athlete, why the body only grows from stress, how the self-talk of aging quietly holds us back, and how to judge the source of any advice you're given. A masterclass in the mindset underneath the movement.

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Submission Coffee: https://submissioncoffee.com · My J...

Professor Eli Knight returns to The Jiu Jitsu Mindset, and this time we build the conversation around the hero's journey — the call, the crisis, the near-quit, the mentor, and the message he'd leave behind.

Eli is a Royce Gracie black belt and one of the clearest thinkers working in self-defense jiu-jitsu. He talks here about the loss that pushed him into a taekwondo class as a teenager, the cousi...

Host Pete Deeley talks with Professor Chris about preserving Gracie Jiu-Jitsu—specifically Rickson Gracie's interpretation focused on practical self-defense, common-sense solutions to common attacks, and "invisible jiu-jitsu" principles like connection, base, timing, and control rather than strength or athleticism. Chris explains how self-defense knowledge has been diluted by sport-focused training, why losing t...

Host Pete Deeley welcomes Professor Juanta "Tater" Wolf to discuss building a jiu jitsu life and academy while balancing family and community. Pete shares updates on the My Jiu Jitsu Journey app (including a new weight-loss component) and invites gym owners to carry Submission Coffee. Juanta explains that before jiu jitsu he focused on painting and murals, describing his style as therapeutic, abstract "Afro Cubism," a...

Change, Initiation, and Jiu Jitsu as a Modern Mystery with Professor Jason Hawkins

The host of The Jiu Jitsu Mindset welcomes Professor Jason Hawkins, promotes the My Jiu Jitsu Journey app's new weight-loss component, and mentions Submission Coffee's wholesale program for gym owners. They discuss change as deep transformation rather than habit tweaks, framing growth as transmuting suffering into consciou...

Host Pete Deeley welcomes Coach Levi Frank to The Jiu-Jitsu Mindset, shares updates on Submission Coffee sponsoring the Momentum Martial Arts Competition Team and the ad-free My Jiu Jitsu Journey app, then explores how martial arts transformed Levi's life. Levi explains he lacked confidence before MMA/jiu-jitsu and was influenced by watching UFC, school bullying, and a difficult relationship with his older brother. He...

Host Pete Deeley welcomes back Professor Kenny Kim to discuss when martial arts became a lifelong path for him, starting at age four or five and realizing by high school he wanted a future in martial arts. Kim shares how training helped him overcome racism, bullying, and childhood shyness by building confidence and a desire to lead and teach, even while competing. He describes a major period of disillusionment in his ...

Damien Blotzke on Martial Arts as a Life Pivot, Competition, and Self-Mastery

Host Pete Deeley opens by promoting the Momentum Martial Arts competition team, joking about "submission coffee" as a performance enhancer, and announcing the ad-free My Jiu-Jitsu Journey app with a small monthly fee. He then interviews fighter Damien Blotzke, who says martial arts shaped his identity and gave him tools for lea...

Host Pete Deeley welcomes Professor Mo Gobena to The Jiu-Jitsu Mindset, mentions sponsorship of Momentum Martial Arts Competition Team, Subscription Coffee, and the My Jiu-Jitsu Journey app. Mo shares how martial arts evolved for him from overcoming fear as a kid in dangerous 1990s Las Vegas after his family migrated from Africa, to athletics, and now community at age 40. He describes a formative lesson from hearing t...

Cassidy Roblero ("La Cazadora") on Martial Arts as an Outlet, Competition Mindset, and Building Confidence

On this episode of The Jiu Jitsu Mindset, the host shares updates on the My Jiu Jitsu Journey app (a zero-advertising, subscription-based jujitsu-only platform) and Submission Coffee sponsoring the Momentum Martial Arts Competition Team, then interviews Momentum athlete and coach Cassidy Roblero. Ca...

Professor Carlos Reyes (Splendid Savage) on Jiu-Jitsu, Humility, Self-Defense, and Life Change

Host Pete Deeley welcomes Professor Carlos Reyes ("Splendid Savage") to The Jiu-Jitsu Mindset, promotes the My Jiu-Jitsu Journey social app and Submission coffee, and discusses how jiu-jitsu redirected Reyes' life away from trouble associated with his band years, alongside faith. Reyes describes being drawn in...

Host Pete Deeley welcomes listeners back to The Jiu-Jitsu Mindset, promotes subscription coffee and announces the new app "My Jiu-Jitsu Journey," then interviews Sensei George Rego about his lifelong martial arts path. Rego describes walking into an old, gritty dojo as a child and feeling instantly "at home," drawn to the combination of real physical capability and character, honor, and discipline—echoing Miyamo...