The Grappling Monthly Podcast

Test Your Game | Prof. Harlan Berk on The Grappling Monthly Podcast

In this episode of The Grappling Monthly Podcast, we sit down in San Diego with Captain Harlan Berk to talk about 25 years in Brazilian jiu-jitsu, the evolution of the San Diego grappling scene, open mat culture, competition, teaching, longevity, and what it means to keep learning after decades on the mat.   Harlan started training in 2001, when the jiu-jitsu community in San Diego was much smaller and black belts were far less common. Since then, he has trained through injuries, chronic pain, competition, teaching, business loss, and the changing culture of the sport.   This conversation covers the practical side of staying in jiu-jitsu for the long term: learning from anyone, visiting other academies, testing your technique outside your own room, simplifying instruction, managing recovery after hard training, and adjusting your goals as the body changes.   We also talk about the overlap between fishing and jiu-jitsu, the growth of San Diego as a grappling hub, Masters competition, leg locks, gi vs no gi, the importance of open mats, and why longevity requires both competitiveness and honesty.   Topics covered include:   • Starting jiu-jitsu in 2001 • Early San Diego jiu-jitsu culture • Training through arthritis and fibromyalgia • Learning from lower belts and different lineages • Why open mats matter • Teaching simply and avoiding information overload • Competition mindset for Masters athletes • Leg locks, rule sets, and injury risk • Recovery, cool downs, and nervous system regulation • Fishing, patience, and jiu-jitsu • Staying competitive as you age • Where to train in San Diego Grappling Monthly is an independent editorial media brand covering the culture, people, and business of Brazilian jiu-jitsu and the grappling arts. Based in Los Angeles, the brand produces in-depth conversations with the coaches, gym owners, competitors, and practitioners shaping the sport. The Grappling Monthly Podcast is the flagship property. A weekly long-form interview series hosted by Sébastien Maniatopoulos, a BJJ black belt establishing roots in the Southern California grappling community. The brand's editorial focus is on the human stories behind the art: how academies are built, how practitioners evolve, how the culture of jiu-jitsu intersects with identity, business, and community. Grappling Monthly publishes across YouTube, Instagram, Substack, and major podcast platforms. Subscribe and turn on notifications. IG and TikTok: @grapplingmonthly For sponsorships and collaborations: grapplingmonthly@gmail.com

Balance Is Key | Professor Monika Cingel-Toth on Jiu-Jitsu, Longevity, Women's BJJ, and Training Without Ego

Professora Monika joins The Grappling Monthly Podcast to discuss building a jiu-jitsu practice around learning, movement, and longevity. Monika began training after first trying Muay Thai in Hollywood, where watching the jiu-jitsu class from the sidelines eventually turned into stepping onto the mat herself. More than ten years later, she is a Brazilian jiu-jitsu instructor, TACFIT coach, and fascia stretch practitioner based in Burbank. In this episode, Monika discusses why she never felt the need to compete in jiu-jitsu, why she never chased belts, and how her approach to training has changed over time. She explains the importance of choosing training partners carefully, managing ego, staying consistent, and supporting jiu-jitsu with mobility, strength and conditioning, breathing, and recovery work. We also discuss teaching women’s jiu-jitsu at Legacy Burbank, why drilling still matters, the limitations and usefulness of ecological training approaches, and how teaching exposed gaps in her own knowledge while making her a better practitioner. For anyone interested in starting jiu-jitsu later in life, returning after time away, or finding a way to train without sacrificing their body, this conversation offers a practical perspective on making the sport sustainable. In this episode: * Starting Brazilian jiu-jitsu with no martial arts background * Training at Club Beta and later joining Legacy Burbank * Why Monika never pursued jiu-jitsu competition * Training for longevity instead of chasing belts * How TACFIT supports mobility, grip strength and recovery * Choosing training partners and avoiding unnecessary injury * Teaching women’s jiu-jitsu classes * Drilling, fundamentals and ecological training * Why teaching improves your own jiu-jitsu * Starting jiu-jitsu later in life * Managing ego and avoiding burnout * Breathing, composure and staying calm under pressure Train with Professora Monika: Women’s Jiu-Jitsu at Legacy Burbank Thursday at 6:30 PM Saturday at 9:00 AM TACFIT Classes Monday, Wednesday and Thursday at 9:00 AM Fascia stretching sessions available through Revive Stretch Performance in Burbank. Follow Grappling Monthly for conversations about the people, business and culture of grappling. YouTube: @grapplingmonthly Instagram: @grapplingmonthly TikTok: @grapplingmonthly #BrazilianJiuJitsu #BJJ #WomensBJJ #JiuJitsuTraining #GrapplingMonthly

From Shizuoka to the World: How Shoya Ishiguro built a career in BJJ before the market existed in Japan

Professor Shoya Ishiguro is Japan's top black belt competitors and a fixture at the highest levels of IBJJF competition. He joins the podcast in Los Angeles, where he has been training for three weeks ahead of the IBJJF World Championship, preparing for rematches with rivals Diego "Pato" Oliveira and Rerisson alongside coach Isaac Doederlein. The conversation covers ground that goes well beyond competition. Shoya started jiu-jitsu at 12 in Shizuoka, at a time when most people in Japan had never heard of the sport. His father brought him to the gym hoping he would become an MMA fighter, a generation raised on Pride and Sakuraba. Shoya chose jiu-jitsu instead, and stayed with it for seventeen years through a period when there was no real market for full-time athletes in Japan. He trained, taught, and waited for the sport to grow into something that could sustain a career. It did. The episode gets into what high-level preparation looks like without a dedicated personal coach, how Shoya studies his own mistakes during and after sparring, why he added strength and conditioning only recently and what changed when he did, and what his mindset is in the seconds before a match begins. He talks about the cultural thread that runs between Japanese martial arts and Brazilian jiu-jitsu, a connection he says Brazilian practitioners often feel more clearly than Japanese ones do today. There is also a conversation about fatherhood, about the difference between how classes run in Tokyo versus Shizuoka versus Los Angeles, about why he tells every student to compete, and about what he actually wants to show Pato the next time they meet on the mat. Shoya teaches at Arta BJJ in Minato-ku, Tokyo, near Tokyo Tower. If you are visiting Japan and want to train, visit: https://arta-hiroo.com/ [https://arta-hiroo.com/] or reach out on Instagram at: www.instagram.com/shoya_artabjj [http://www.instagram.com/@shoya_artabjj]   About Grappling Monthly Grappling Monthly is an independent editorial media brand covering the culture, people, and business of Brazilian jiu-jitsu and the grappling arts. Based in Los Angeles, the brand produces in-depth conversations with the coaches, gym owners, competitors, and practitioners shaping the sport. The Grappling Monthly Podcast is the flagship property. A weekly long-form interview series hosted by Sébastien Maniatopoulos, a BJJ black belt establishing roots in the Southern California grappling community. The brand's editorial focus is on the human stories behind the art: how academies are built, how practitioners evolve, how the culture of jiu-jitsu intersects with identity, business, and community. Grappling Monthly publishes across YouTube, Instagram, Substack, and major podcast platforms. Subscribe and turn on notifications. IG and TikTok: @grapplingmonthly For sponsorships and collaborations: grapplingmonthly@gmail.com

Like A Phoenix, Reborn | Prof. Tayane Porfìrio of Alliance Jiu-Jitsu Huntington Beach

Tayane Porfírio joins The Grappling Monthly Podcast at Alliance Jiu Jitsu in Huntington Beach for a conversation about her start in Brazil, the Alliance competition team, winning early, returning to high-level competition after years away, motherhood, mental health, teaching, women’s jiu-jitsu, and the pressure of competing at the highest level. Tayane is a multiple-time world champion and one of the most accomplished competitors in women’s jiu-jitsu. In this episode, she talks about starting jiu-jitsu as a teenager, earning her first major opportunity through competition, moving into the Alliance athlete house, training mostly with men, and eventually building a professional life through the sport. The conversation also covers her return to competition after a difficult chapter in her career, how becoming a mother changed the way she thinks about competing, why mental preparation now matters more to her than changing her jiu-jitsu, and why she approaches every match as 50/50, no matter how many times she has faced the opponent before. We also discuss women’s jiu-jitsu, athlete identity, social media, teaching kids, abuse of power in martial arts, and what healthy academy structures should consider as the sport continues to grow.   Guest: Tayane Porfírio Academy: Alliance Jiu Jitsu, Huntington Beach Instagram: @tayaneporfiriobjj Topics covered: * Starting jiu-jitsu in Brazil * Winning early and traveling for competition * Alliance, sponsorship, and the athlete house * Training mostly with men * Returning to competition after years away * Motherhood and mental health * Preparing for Worlds * Why every match starts at 50/50 * Women’s jiu-jitsu and competition culture * Social media and athlete identity * Safety, boundaries, and academy responsibility * Teaching kids and becoming more technical * Rapid-fire questions * How to learn from Tayane Follow Grappling Monthly: YouTube: @grapplingmonthly Instagram: @grapplingmonthly TikTok: @grapplingmonthly Substack: Grappling Monthly   #jiujitsu #bjj #brazilianjiujitsu #grappling #alliancejiujitsu #tayanePorfirio #womensjiujitsu #bjjpodcast #grapplingmonthly

What Women's No-Gi Jiu-Jitsu Looked Like Before Anyone Was Watching | Prof. Lila Smadja-Cruz 10th Planet Pasadena

Professor Lila Smadja-Cruz is a second degree black belt from 10th Planet under Eddie Bravo. She started at the Bomb Squad in West Hollywood doing Muay Thai at fourteen, watched Eddie Bravo and a group of no-gi practitioners take over the mat after her class, and thought she would never do that. She eventually did. She never left. In this conversation, Smadja-Cruz traces the full arc: from Muay Thai at Legends MMA to her first jiu-jitsu competition at NAGA, from EBI 5 against Talita Alencar to EBI 12, the first all-female EBI card, where she submitted her first opponent in nineteen seconds and made it to the semis against a then-unknown eighteen-year-old named Erin Blanchfield. She talks about the Japan Quintet — cherry blossom season, a handmade medal from Sakuraba, an all-10th Planet women's team and what it meant to compete on that stage before any of it was considered history. Prof. Lila also shares tales from the competition arena, and talks about the anxiety that made her body physically shut down before Muay Thai fights, twice, before she ever set foot in a ring. How jiu-jitsu gave her a different relationship with those same nerves, not by eliminating them, but by giving her a context where she could push through rather than freeze. The second half of the conversation shifts to 10th Planet Pasadena. the school she and Professor Erik "Compella" Cruz opened in 2017, the same week they returned from their honeymoon. What it means to build a gym around community rather than performance. The LA fires and what happened when half the membership lost their homes. How a school's culture is set entirely from the top, and what happens when it isn't. The kids program, the toxic parent dynamic, and why she thinks losing in front of other people is one of the most important things a child can learn to do. Prof. Lila also runs Femvasion, an all-female camp taught by 10th Planet black belt women. Their fourth camp is June 5–7, 2026 This episode was recorded at 10th Planet Pasadena.   Sponsors: Interested in sponsoring The Grappling Monthly Podcast? Email: grapplingmonthly@gmail.com [grapplingmonthly@gmail.com]   Follow Grappling Monthly * Instagram: www.instagram.com/@grapplingmonthly [http://www.instagram.com/@grapplingmonthly] * YouTube: www.youtube.com/@grapplingmonthly [http://www.youtube.com/@grapplingmonthly]  * Website: http://grapplingmonthly.com [http://grapplingmonthly.com]  #bjj #jiujitsu #grappling #brazilianjiujitsu #nogi #ibjjf #grapplingmonthly #martialarts #bjjpodcast #losangeles   About Grappling Monthly Grappling Monthly is an independent editorial media brand covering the culture, people, and business of Brazilian jiu-jitsu and the grappling arts. Based in Los Angeles, the brand produces in-depth conversations with the coaches, gym owners, competitors, and practitioners shaping the sport. The Grappling Monthly Podcast is the flagship property. A weekly long-form interview series hosted by Sébastien Maniatopoulos, a BJJ black belt establishing roots in the Southern California grappling community. The brand's editorial focus is on the human stories behind the art: how academies are built, how practitioners evolve, how the culture of jiu-jitsu intersects with identity, business, and community.