Episode 8, my favourite numbers. Why do you ask? No problem, I'll answer it.

Another Week, ANOTHER E-MAIL. What a pleasure.

The e-mailler poses (kind of) a two-part question and ultimately concludes they may not have asked a question at all, but I still do my best to make an attempt at an answer.

We are going to have "The Last Dance" this Sunday as there's another big NoGi Europeans training session happening in Newry.

And in completely unrelated content to JiuJitsu, I take note of some of my algorithm changes on social media. It's relating to terminally ill people, so feel free to tune out a little bit early.

Good luck.

I've grouped off Three different areas, with a variety of points in each for what is important when you are heading off to compete in JiuJitsu somewhere.

Getting There , Acclimitasion, and Exposure.

or

GTAE for short of course.

There's a lot of variables, and depending on where you are going to these things might not apply. Just some things I have experienced and I would recommend to keep in mind if you are heading off to compete either as a group, or solo.

Thanks to ChatGPT for the cover art, we will work on that.

I got an e-mail during the week that influences a large part of this weeks episode. Comes from someone who felt a particular problem or reluctance to want to continue with JiuJitsu as they attempt to re-learn several fundamentals.

It sprawled off into a much wider disucssion and thought process, so thank you very much listener for the e-mail.

I've also marked this episode as explicit because I'm pretty sure I cursed once or twice by mistake. Sorry to any young ears who might have caught a stray.

I also go the other way on a very popular hot take, the market is not over saturated at all. I actually don't think there are ENOUGH podcasts in the world.

We had brilliant training last Sunday and then I followed it up with one of my worst sessions in years. The sea saw of going up and down at different parts when you are preparing for a tournament is normal. Hopefully I'm able to normalise it here a little bit.

A little chat about how prep + performance can be two different things entirely, as well as the fact how some people can just switch it on when it matters most.

and in nothing more than sheer luck, when recording and preparing this episode i stumbled upon a great clip of an interview with Anthony Joshua, where by fluke he echoes the thoughts in this podcast. Lovely stuff.

On this episode, we run over my predictions vs outcomes. from last weeks ADCC Ireland. Some observations from The Shamrock Cup on Sunday, as well as a couple of figures and sums from other tournaments for us to ponder over for a future episode.

Also, in a small social media clip from last weekend, elite black belt Tainan Dalpra suggested "sooner than later" his coaches Rafa + Gui Mendes might return to competition... if that was to happen i let you know how I would like to see it.

Feeling like you are not improving as quick as you would like is a very common feeling in Brazilian JiuJitsu. Maybe what you are valuing as the main metric of your own improvement could be changed? Or perhaps you're putting too much stock on one particular outcome in terms of your sparring.

Grapple Kings happened last weekend too, we have a little chat about that as well as me attempting to predict 20 people i think are going to medal this weekend at ADCC Ireland.

@andrewmcgahon on Instagram if you would like to suggest any topics or disucssion for future episodes. remember to share with your training partners and. try introduce someone new to the podcast this week.

On Sunday the 25th of August myself and Jean Luca Maltese hosted a training day for higher belts and those competing in the NoGi Europeans. We had a great turn out and a great days training.

On this episode, I go over some of the elements we thought were most important and our reasons for wanting to host these type of training sessions, as well as the benefit and experience I've had from training this way.

I also look at the one glaring example that's been staring us in the face since 1997, about the benefit of a good rivalry towards your own development.

Actually starting out in JiuJitsu can be a very hard thing, we have heard plenty of reasons that stopped people from training once they took the step to begin. Here's a couple of things that you could do to help ease the barrier of entry, maybe do a little bit of research before you start and once you get going, things that can help being a good training partner!