It’s been a while since the last episode, but trust me—this one’s worth the wait.

This is part one of a two-part conversation. The full, uncut version (around 3 hours) is up on YouTube.

Dan Lukehart is a third-degree BJJ black belt under Beneil Dariush, owner of Brea Jiu-Jitsu in California, and co-owner of IBJJFRankings.com. He’s known for his deep understanding of IBJJF rules, his old-school training logs, and his detailed athlete breakdowns.

Dan also coaches Nolan Stuart, who—in his first year as a black belt—won the IBJJF Pan Ams and placed second at both the Brazilian Nationals and the Worlds, losing only to Eric Munis, the current #1 pound-for-pound black belt.

Part two dives more into athlete development and building competitive teams.

There’s a slight echo on my voice in this episode due to a speaker issue—it won’t happen again. Thanks for listening!

The Irish Open has come and gone, the biggest day in the calendar year in the Irish Brazilian JiuJitsu community. I assume this will be the first of two episodes on this topic because I would welcome people getting in touch to let me know what they thought of the whole thing.

Since recording this episode I was also contacted by a couple of people regarding the registrations etc, I did talk about it on the air but maybe I need to go and look a little bit more in depth into some things. I'll have to think about it.

Personally speaking, and you'll hear me say it. I thought it was the best one in a couple of years and I'm very happy with how it went but we do talk about "times gone by" about how nostalgia is a very potent thing, and it's purchasing powering is very strong too.

That's included mainly at the start, when you realise what you might have been missing out on or what has happened in the past.

Reminder, to keep an eye on the instagram for what may or may not be a t-shirt release happening very very soon.

We've kicked off episodes with some wild topics before, but I didn’t think the 100-year-old plans for a Metro in Dublin — complete with a hub at Dublin Airport — would come up this soon.

After a three-week hiatus, I’m back following a run at the IBJJF Masters Europeans, the Rome Spring Open, and a short holiday in France.

This is one of two episodes dropping this week. I wanted to get something out before the Irish Open — no doubt — but didn’t want to cram everything into one episode. That would’ve meant bouncing between two competitions, slightly annoying weight cuts, and everything coming up this weekend at the Irish Open.