Episode #167 Rob Biernacki and Stephan Kesting on BJJ for Old F***s – How to Defeat the Younger, More Athletic Opponent

February 7, 2023 Ian Dawson Mackay ALL PODCAST EPISODES, LEVEL UP YOUR SKILLS, LEVEL UP YOUR SPORTS PLAYING, MARTIAL ARTS - FIGHT LIKE A CHAMP! 01:40:44 0 Comments

TODAY's GUEST IS ROB BIERNACKI AND STEPHAN KESTING!

Today’s guests are Rob Biernacki and Stephan Kesting!

They have just brought out an amazing new guide for athletes over 40, a guide that will teach you how to defeat the younger, more athletic opponent – a must buy for all BJJ athletes as the skills, concepts and techniques in here are like a cheat code for BJJ success! 

Your guides in the BJJ for Old F***s instructional are, Rob Biernacki (46) and Stephan Kesting (52), both of whom are very experienced BJJ black belts

Rob Biernacki is a BJJ black belt, and head instructor of Island Top Team. He’s among the forefront of the new wave of BJJ instructors, using sports science, biomechanics, kinesiology and a conceptual approach to the martial arts.

Rob has traveled to train with Marcelo Garcia, Caio Terra, Eddie Cummings, Paul Schreiner, and Henry Akins, Ryan Hall, Dean Lister, Jake McKenzie, Ricardo Liborio, and Charles McCarthy from ATT from whom he received his black belt.

He frequently teaches seminars at academies throughout North America and is sought after for private instruction by other BJJ instructors seeking cutting edge information.

He has also coached high level competitors like BJJ legend Yuri Simoes, Bill Cooper, Kyle Boehm and others to victory in high level competition.

Stephan Kesting is a BJJ black belt who has trained for over 40 years in the martial arts, including many grappling arts like BJJ, sambo, judo, submission wrestling and shoot wrestling.

His Youtube BJJ videos have over 64 million views. He’s produced 36 BJJ instructionals, and has published 3 books on the topic.

Stephan has worked with Rob Biernacki on a number of very successful instructionals including The BJJ Formula, The Modern Leglock Formula, The No Gi de la Riva Formula and The Submission Formula.

The underlying theme of their previous work is scientific and biomechanically-based approach to Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. These instructionals have been described by many as the best, most useful instructionals they had ever seen.

The BJJ for Old F***s instructional will definitely improve your skills, reduce your injuries, and improve your longevity on the mat. And help you tap out lots of young punks. What’s better than that?

Apologies for my mic settings here, my side has a bit of an echo but the quality answers from Stephan and Rob more than make up for that! 

#bjj #martialarts #islandtopteam #grapplearts #grappling #competing #olderathlete #tweakyourapproach #skills #techniques #guardretention #guard #playoffyourback #baseposition #leglocks #bjjconcepts #greatcoaches #rollbetterfeelbettertrainlonger  

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KEY POINTS, Links & Actions

Here are some key points that I would advise you to concentrate on

  • You don’t need to give up on a hobby as you get older, you just need to find a way to make it work for you as you age. 
  • Older athletes struggle to juggle life demands and the ability to maintain a certain level of fitness.
  • The majority of the tools and techniques in this series can be used for all athletes, they are great concepts of BJJ to focus on.
  • Older athletes tend to recover slower than younger athletes, so you need to alter your recovery protocol and game style to adapt.
  • Your game will most likely change every ten years as you change along the way.
  • Older athletes have a tendency to be less strong, less cardiovascular fitness, tighter muscles and less flexibility. 
  • Combinations of movements are great but you need to be realistic. Connect sequences but for beginners, focus more on base passing positions, having a good guard that limits your opponents options etc first before you move onto the fancy looking chain attacks you see on YouTube mostly. 
  • View every training session as a chance to learn and grow, not a battle. Look at what went wrong and learn from it. You are meant to lose in the beginning so you can learn and develop. 
  • Competing as your get older, needs consideration – most older people tend to take competing more serious compared to younger guys as they need to do more to compete while juggling more responsibilities in their life. At Masters level, the people competing are the ones who want to compete. Most times you will be competing against people younger than you, with a disparity in age at most competitions, so look at competitions as a learning experience not a ego boost. 
  • Certain guards and grips will work for older athletes, the guys recommend seated guard and pressure passing. 
  • Older athletes should consider finding a base passing position which shuts down their guard and you can then pass from their without trying to use your athleticism to try and force passing like younger athletes can do and can physically push through without too much damage and pummeling to the body.
  • Some techniques require a lot more physical attributes than others, and they can favor the younger athlete. 
  • Older athletes tend to use a smaller subset of techniques when compared to older athletes rather than different techniques compared to younger athletes. 
  • Recovering from injury can be worse for people over 40, so you need to establish a good self care routine, good nutrition, deep sleep, massages etc, more than a young guy who can just come back with belief in themselves and just an energy drink!
  • Focus on building a skill set to work from a position rather than a chain of movements, look to become ‘good in a position’ rather than being able to do certain movements, that most can barely hit or control in an actual roll but can do it when the training partner isn’t offering any resistance. 
  • It is not an insult to say no to someones offer to roll if you know they always go 100% or too hard etc. If you don’t feel safe, say no, take the rest round as you need to, listen to your body, understand when you need to control things for your own safety. Tap when you don’t feel safe as much as tapping when you are caught in a good position. Tap to keep safe and healthy (regardless if if its a true sub etc or not) rather than only tapping when you can’t escape. 
  • As an older athlete, you should consider additional training to suit your needs like cardio work, weights etc, to keep your muscles, heart etc healthy as you age to avoid the potential traps that a lot of older men fall into. These should help your sporting performance, not your ego eg weight lifting for a healthier body, not to chase PRs which will take away from your recovery etc, and cause you not to improve BJJ. 
  • You need to deny the opponent his grips and to establish his passing position. 
  • The ‘I’m getting older and I’m at my limit’ mindset is terrible, and needs to be lost by all athletes – its a great chance to evolve as you age and appreciate techniques and timing more rather than a time to give up! 
  • All athletes need to learn how to feel safe and be confident in their guard, knowing they can defend and keep safe within the guard and not just be immediately passed. This is a great starting point to know you can go back to this position and work from, rather than focus on the offensive and ‘cool’ passes and subs that the majority of gyms focus on for beginners.
  • Guard play is a great starting position for athletes starting out in BJJ to learn the principles of base, spatial awareness and the like, and it helps avoid people hurting others trying takedowns and the like from standing when they are not aware of movement, base etc. 
  • You need to think about the positions you play as you age – what doesn’t put too much pressure on your neck, your knees etc, you need to look after yourself to train going forward.
  • There is a big difference between working with a lack of understanding and learning rather than working with a lack of confidence in yourself and your ability.  
  • Think about the primary goal for every training session, is to be able to come back to the next training session, to enjoy it and be fit and healthy enough to be able to come back, and develop your skills and health. You are competing against injury and health, not trying to look cool and not tapping. Keep yourself and training partner safe and healthy. Winning is not a key reminder you should focus on.  
  • Instructionals can be a great tool, but you need to actually watch it, and learn from it! It is a great tool to improve with, not a secret method to win without putting in the effort! You still need to put in the work to learn and use it! 
  • Like Bernardo  Faria said, find a move that you can become a specialist in rather than just good at most, find moves that work for you and you can become a god at them, and your game can accelerate as you grow from them.  
  • Older athletes need to ensure they have a deep understanding of underhooks, frame, base etc to ensure they know why they using certain moves, guards etc rather than just knowing the ‘what’ move.
  • There is a macho element in some BJJ places, where when you roll, you roll at full speed and 100% always. Your BJJ journey is your journey, you have the right to pick and choose suitable training wise, and ask to slow things down, take rest rounds etc. As an older athlete, you need to appreciate you won’t be able to go 100% all the time, and need a reality check. However, with honesty and time, you learn how far you can push yourself as an older guy. 
  • Practice is the time you learn, you grow as an athlete, a person and a BJJ practitioner. You need to learn that your training partners are there to grow and learn with, not to try and win against regardless. We are all there to grow and learn, if you break your toys ie training partners, you don’t get to play with them so calm down ‘Andy’! 
  • Judge a technique not on how well it works, but but how bad a situation it leads to when it fails – does a technique cause you to be passed and subbed all the time, then you might want to get rid of it!
  • Assume that you want to ‘experience as much jiu-jitsu in a round as possible’ in a round when you roll, so you learn and grow every session, stop looking at taps as sign of weakness, look at the taps as a chance to learn how to improve your problem solving etc and you can get real time feedback on your current skill level, timing ability etc. 
  • If your gym doesn’t do a proper warm up or cool down after sessions, you can add it into your routine to keep healthy and safe. Just because the class doesn’t stretch, warm up, you can actually add in your own bits that you need before and after class to enable you to get to the next class and be able to live your life in between classes.
  • Avoid trying to follow the lifestyle of health influencers and younger athletes, listen to your body, measure what works in terms of quality of sleep, diet changes etc and use those that work best for you and eliminate the changes that cause problems. No one else is living your life, look at what works for you and use those. 

LEVEL UP Time WITH THIS KEY LESSON!

You don’t need to give up on a hobby as you get older, you just need to find a way to make it work for you as you age. 

With some tweaks, hacks and changes you can level up your BJJ no matter what age you are! 

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About the Author
I’m a podcaster who interviews great examples of people to discuss and highlight the methods, hacks, tips and procedures you can use in your own life to help you develop and better your life. I would definitely not consider myself an expert, so to improve, I ask them and action it in my own life! My personal journey has been marked by awkwardness and awesomeness, OCD and ‘OMG’. I have suffered with depression, shyness, unhappiness and lack of focus and motivation so I know what’s it like to feel lost and hopeless. Back then, I wished I had a podcast to listen to and find actual fixes and concrete action steps and not just unobtainable suggestions and promotion of their products but couldn’t find it … so I made my own!

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