Brian McLaughlin tells the story of being a frail chess club member in high school to becoming a professional MMA fighter. He also talks about the early days of BJJ in NY, being a TUF season 8 cast member and his competition rivalry with Ryan Hall. Click “Read More” for show notes! SHOW NOTES:
- Origins
- Growing up small in a tough neighborhood
- His first day of “South American Ground Karate” (BJJ)
- Being humbled by a female practitioner
- Managing nerves and inner doubts
- His passion for chess
- Pursuing Jiu-Jitsu knowledge in the early US scene
- The struggle never ends
- Cross training Wrestling
- Leaving your base style behind when learning a new one
- Ask questions and take notes!
- Takedowns and pinning
- Demian Maia
- “Training room champions”
- Khabib Nurmagomedov
- Russians
- Gymnastics for grappling
- David Karchmer
- His grappling rivalry with Ryan Hall
- Rivalries in Jiu-Jitsu
- The Pummel
- Kids have no filter
- His path to becoming a teacher
- Pitfalls of academy ownership
- The most important students a teacher has
- Learntograpple.com
- Rose Gracie doesn’t play!
- Goals for the future