THE BASICS
Today’s guest is Travis Stevens, who is a Travis Stevens is a judoka and Brazilian jiu-jitsu practitioner from the United States who competed in the 2008, 2012, and 2016 Summer Olympics. He competes in the men’s half-middleweight division. On August 9, 2016, Stevens became the third American male judoka to win a silver medal in the Olympics. He recently used his mindset and understanding of ground fighting, movement, alignment and control, to obtain his BJJ black belt in an incredible 18 Months!
In this interview, we discuss topics like his story, BJJ, skill development, fixing problems created during inferior training, analysis of opponents, where most people go wrong and most importantly, how you can get better at BJJ the quickest.
LISTEN HERE
WHAT WE COVER
In this interview, we discuss gems like:
- Who he is
- What was he like as a child
- How a three-time Olympian selected Judo by accident
- Did his travel and competing experience change him as a person
- How he analyses his opponents and plans for his competitions
- What helped him go from 5th place to 2nd place
- Why he likes being the underdog and his mindset to competing
- What helped him get his black belt in record time
- How do we develop the relevant physical capability to get better at BJJ
- Mindset fixes
- Where do most people go wrong in BJJ?
- How to learn improve quicker and learn complicated movements in easier and more positive ways
- Why you need to know the end goal and your why, why you need to be proactive rather than reactive
- How to control your opponent tomanoeuvre them into the setup you want them to be
- Work capacity and recovery methods
- Goals he would set with people at different belt levels
- The wrong mindset people to have when training
- His goals in life
- Is cross-training suitable for most BJJ practitioners ?
- How has he approached becoming a business man
- What he would like you to take from this interview
SOME THINGS TO REFLECT ON
In this interview, a lot of jewels of self-improvement are discussed. Some of these and their associated thoughts include:
- Just because something happens by accident, doesn’t always make it always a problem. With hard work, and adapting the situation to your focus and mindset and you can make it a true success.
- Travel as much as you can, visit other places, experience other cultures, interact with people from other cultures. Open your mind to other ways of looking at life, at problems and you will be surprised by how creative your brain can be to life’s problems.
- Competition doesn’t always show who is the true best of the best
- Don’t focus on being the best … focus on becoming more consistent. Be happy, be healthy and do your job. Remove all the stupid pressures you put on yourself. Show up on time, make weight and give it your all. That’s all you need to do.
- Hold others to the standard that you will hold yourself to. Look after yourself – you can’t love others until you love yourself. If others aren’t providing what you need, move on. Find what you need to succeed.
- Most people fail to get their black belt as they do not have the physical ability to do the moves.
- Become an expert in using your own resources. You need to learn how to use your body to work, how to feel and understand the moves.
- You need to learn how to complete the moves properly. If you can’t talk out the move completely then you don’t know the move. Drilling incomplete movements makes incorrect learned behavior. Learn it right, by drilling it right, practice it right, learn it right.
- If you don’t have the muscle to make and control the pattern and the movement, then you won’t succeed. You need to strengthen the pattern after learning the pattern, so it will work when we roll live.
- Get your heart rate high, and get it right. Even when tired. Burn it into your system but correctly. Learn to do it right even when you are tired.
- Trust in the process, keep doing the right thing and keep working hard. You might get caught and subbed, but as long as your thinking is sound, you will always get better.
- Work on your stabilizer muscles, as they are the most important muscles to hold and control an opponent. You do need a base level of strength but 85% of your training should be from training on the mats.
- Decide what you want in life and go for it. Find people in your life who want to help you achieve your goals.
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