Send us a text Learning to Fight Podcast — Conversations in Combat Skill After a year-long hiatus, the Primal MMA Coaching Podcast is back—Rebranded, and refocused as the Learning to Fight Podcast: Conversations in Combat Skill. Your hosts are: Adam Singer — Co-owner and head coach at SBG Athens, BJJ black belt, long-time MMA coach, with years of developing novice to elite level fighters. Student of Matt Thornton and SBG's philosophy of 'aliveness'. Scott Sievewright — Co-Owner at Primal MKE,...
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Send us a text Learning to Fight Podcast — Conversations in Combat Skill After a year-long hiatus, the Primal MMA Coaching Podcast is back—Rebranded, and refocused as the Learning to Fight Podcast: Conversations in Combat Skill. Your hosts are: Adam Singer — Co-owner and head coach at SBG Athens, BJJ black belt, long-time MMA coach, with years of developing novice to elite level fighters. Student of Matt Thornton and SBG's philosophy of 'aliveness'. Scott Sievewright — Co-Owner at Primal MKE,...
Send us a text Learning to Fight Podcast — Conversations in Combat Skill After a year-long hiatus, the Primal MMA Coaching Podcast is back—Rebranded, and refocused as the Learning to Fight Podcast: Conversations in Combat Skill. Your hosts are: Adam Singer — Co-owner and head coach at SBG Athens, BJJ black belt, long-time MMA coach, with years of developing novice to elite level fighters. Student of Matt Thornton and SBG's philosophy of 'aliveness'. Scott Sievewright — Co-Owner at Primal MKE,...
Send us a text Learning to Fight Podcast — Conversations in Combat Skill After a year-long hiatus, the Primal MMA Coaching Podcast is back—Rebranded, and refocused as the Learning to Fight Podcast: Conversations in Combat Skill. Your hosts are: Adam Singer — Co-owner and head coach at SBG Athens, BJJ black belt, long-time MMA coach, with years of developing novice to elite level fighters. Student of Matt Thornton and SBG's philosophy of 'aliveness'. Scott Sievewright — Co-Owner at Primal MKE,...
Send us a text Learning to Fight Podcast — Conversations in Combat Skill After a year-long hiatus, the Primal MMA Coaching Podcast is back—Rebranded, and refocused as the Learning to Fight Podcast: Conversations in Combat Skill. Your hosts are: Adam Singer — Co-owner and head coach at SBG Athens, BJJ black belt, long-time MMA coach, with years of developing novice to elite level fighters. Student of Matt Thornton and SBG's philosophy of 'aliveness'. Scott Sievewright — Co-Owner at Primal MKE...
Send us a textIn this episode, I’m joined by Andy from the School of Grappling, a coach and physicist whose analytical approach to no-gi grappling and wrestling has made him a respected figure in the sport. We discuss the science behind skill development, biomechanics, and training methods that align with the ecological approach. As the podcast nears its conclusion, I’m grateful to have one of my dream guests on the show. Tune in for a deep dive into the art and science of grappling! Catch mo...
Send us a text In this episode of the Primal MMA Coaching Podcast, I sit down with Dr. Laura Cuijpers, an assistant professor at the University of Groningen, to explore the emotional and psychological aspects of martial arts training. We dive into Dr. Laura's work on agency, resilience, and the application of the ecological approach in self-defense, with a particular focus on women's self-defense. We discuss the challenges of moving away from choreographed methods and the importance of i...
Send us a textToday I welcome Sonny Sahota from Praxis Gym in Canada. Sonny, a judo black belt and manager of Kensington Judo Club in Vancouver, shares his insights on integrating Ecological Dynamics and the Active Inference Framework (AIF) into martial arts coaching. Sony introduces some of the tenets these approaches, discussing how they inform skill acquisition, practice design, and the balance between training under fatigue and maintaining motor learning. Sonny highlights the importance o...
Send us a textCoach Rob Cole joins me today to talk coaching within an ecological dynamics framework.Rob is a long time mixed martial artist, globetrotters BJJ coach and a regular coach at Ascension Athletics in Connecticut.
Send us a textGray Thomas joins me today to talk about the Ecological Psychology side of ecological dynamics. Gray is a PhD student at the university of Connecticut where he studies and researches Ecological Psychology. I enjoyed my chat with Gray and learn more about eco psych. The ecological approach really hangs on the theory of direct perception. Gray took some time today to talk about this and it's implication for sport and movement. As plugged in the intro. Some more resources wor...
Send us a textToday's chat was with Pittsburgh Pirate's coach John BakerJohn is a former MLB player and current performance and skills coach alongside Andy Bass in the Pirates Baseball organization. Also a BJJ purple belt, Ecological dynamics advocate and MMA fan. We had a fun chat covering all things eco, baseball and combat sports.
Send us a textThe boys from emergence are back to discuss their recently accepted and published paper on "Applying an ecological dynamics framework to mixed martial arts training". This paper followed their previous publication from 2023 "(Re)conceptualizing movement behavior in sport as a problem-solving activity".Both of these papers were supported and co-authored by Professor Keith Davids himself a titan in the skill acquisition community and a pioneer of ecological dynamic. SB...
Send us a textIn this episode I talk with Coach James de Lacey of Sweet Science of Fighting.While most discussions on the podcast have been biased toward the perceptual half of the perception-action loop. Coach James talks about how we can support the action side through science informed exercise programming. While James doesn't offer a specific program for combat athletes, he does give valuable insight and his opinions on where the best bang for the buck comes with regards to S&C for fig...
Send us a textToday I talk with Dr Andy Bass. Andy is a researcher, educator, former pro baseball player and is currently a performance coach with the Pittsburgh Pirates. Andy talks about both the mental side and motor learning side of skill development. How the two can be separate but also generally integrate. I have linked several episodes that Andy features on in the podcast description, and would recommend you check them out if what Andy talks about today interests you. Slappin Glass...
Send us a textToday I chat with Irish National Kickboxing Coach Jon Mackey about the role of training tools in striking sports. We'll explore whether these tools actually support skill acquisition and debunk some of the popular training gimmicks that are flooding social media.Coach Mackey brings not only an extensive coaching experience, but his academic perspective as a PhD is skill acq candidate. Jon gives his thoughts on the effectiveness of tools like noodles, ladders, flashing ligh...
Send us a textToday I welcome Kit Dale and Greg Souders on to the show.Kit is well know in the jiu-jitsu world for his rapid development in the sport and his achievements at high level no-gi grappling in a short few years. An advocate of 'learning through trial and error and one that has been preaching the anti-drilling message for years' it seemed fitting that I get him on to talk with Greg Souders.Greg himself has emerged as a leading advocate of the ecological approach and in doing so, bro...
Send us a textToday, I chat with Noah Shaffner from the Standard Jiu-Jitsu Grappling Team, mentored by Greg Souders. Unlike my usual guests who are coaches or academics, Noah stands out as a student who has embraced the ecological approach to skill development. Despite being only 17, his insights into the sport and its methodologies are profound. While many might assume he's echoing Coach Souders, Noah showcases a unique understanding. He's definitely one to watch in the sport's future.After ...
Send us a textToday I talk with Coach Rory Singer. Rory is the younger brother of Coach Adam Singer and together they have run and coached MMA in Athens Georgia for several Decades. Rory is an UFC Vet and lifelong martial artist.In this convo we spoke about the expectations we have for new students entering the sport and particularly those who have the aspirations to fight at a high level. We talk about gym culture, duty of care for fighter and of course our philosophies of aliveness an...
Send us a textEmergence founder, NFL skills coach and MMA superfan Shawn Myszka joined me to discuss Strickland's win over Adesanya last week.As stated during intro. Must of this analysis is somewhat speculative given we are not privy to the innerworkings of both fighter's camps, preparation and day to day training methodologies.
Send us a textToday I am chatting with Ed Ingamells. (Aka the Partybear). Ed is a black belt and coach at the Institute of Grappling in North London, UK.As a former Neuroscience PhD student, Ed has a deep understanding of cognitive psychology. Ed talks about his shift in recent years to a more ecological approach and how ecological psychology and direct perception make more sense to him from a skill development and motor-learning perspective. If you enjoyed the convo you can find other podcas...
Send us a textToday I am joined by Coach Josh Root from Gravitas Martial Arts in Arkansas. Josh has recently re-visited an Eco D approach to grappling after initially abandoning it due to uncertainty.With a deeper understanding and support from Standard's Greg Souder's, Coach Josh is not looking back and has been all in on the approach. Enjoying some early success he is starting to get his team on board and trusting the practice design.Josh talks about his switch from a highly prescriptive an...
Send us a text Learning to Fight Podcast — Conversations in Combat Skill After a year-long hiatus, the Primal MMA Coaching Podcast is back—Rebranded, and refocused as the Learning to Fight Podcast: Conversations in Combat Skill. Your hosts are: Adam Singer — Co-owner and head coach at SBG Athens, BJJ black belt, long-time MMA coach, with years of developing novice to elite level fighters. Student of Matt Thornton and SBG's philosophy of 'aliveness'. Scott Sievewright — Co-Owner at Primal MKE,...
