Craig Jones, Nicky Rod and Nicky Ryan, together with Ethan Crelinsten are founders of the B-Team, a legendary jiu jitsu team based in Austin, TX. Please support this podcast by checking out our sponsors:
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EPISODE LINKS:
B-Team's Instagram: https://instagram.com/bteamjj/
B-Team's YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/bteamjiujitsu
B-Team's Website: https://bteamjj.com/
Craig Jones's Instagram: https://instagram.com/craigjonesbjj/
Nicky Rod's Instagram: https://instagram.com/nickyrod247/
Nicky Ryan's Instagram: https://instagram.com/nickyryanbjj/
Craig Jones's Instructionals: https://bjjfanatics.com/collections/craig-jones
Nicky Rod's Instructionals: https://bjjfanatics.com/collections/instructional-videos/fighter_nick-rodriguez
Nicky Ryan's Instructionals: https://bjjfanatics.com/collections/instructional-videos/fighter_nicky-ryan

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Full episodes playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLrAXtmErZgOdP_8GztsuKi9nrraNbKKp4
Clips playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLrAXtmErZgOeciFP3CBCIEElOJeitOr41

OUTLINE:
0:00 - Introduction
2:21 - B-Team
7:57 - Winning and losing
15:43 - Danaher Death Squad (DDS)
33:13 - Nicky Rod vs Gordon Ryan
49:47 - Steroids
1:04:31 - White belts
1:12:40 - Alexander Volkanovski vs Islam Makhachev
1:32:15 - Greatest MMA fighter of all time
1:34:43 - Dagestani fighters
1:36:00 - Conor McGregor
1:38:39 - Strength training and injuries
1:51:03 - Pre-match ritual
1:57:34 - Toughest match
2:01:25 - Positional training
2:07:59 - Perfect training week
2:10:49 - Overtraining
2:13:08 - Advice for beginners
2:21:17 - Takedowns and submissions
2:26:55 - Ego
2:31:24 - Lion vs bear
2:36:15 - Street fights
2:38:17 - Money and friendship

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Knock them down and then they choke them.

I mean, probably the most annoying 1 was obviously the 1 where I had Gordon Arnby, I was like, tap bro.

I didn't get surgery, I didn't do, essentially any rehab, I just have noise to yell at my left leg.

The surgeon goes, you've got 2 options, surgery, rehab only.

I mean, what could possibly go wrong if you're the world's best grappler, hates you, and you're gently provoking him behind the scenes every day, what I mean?

And you've stolen his brother, held him for ransom.

The last part of a difficult wake up for me is I try to find a sad movie and at least cry about a pound out.

Do you think if you're on steroids you would have finished the joke?

Who knew that the cure to the Dagestani wrestling were the Aussies?

The following is a conversation with Craig Jones, Nicky Rod, and Nicky Ryan, who together with Ethan Crelliston and others make up the B Team, a legendary jiu-jitsu team here in Austin, Texas.

It was formed after the so-called Donahue Death Squad, the team headed by John Donahue split up into New Wave Jiu-Jitsu and B Team Jiu-Jitsu, both located here in Austin, Texas.

There has been a lot of trash talk back and forth, including accusations of greasing and steroid use.

And I, as a practitioner and fan of grappling, Jiu-Jitsu and martial arts in general, I'm here for it.

To see the best grapplers in history, go at it, both on the mat and on Instagram.

I like the people on both teams and train with both.

And I'm really happy to see the exciting, rapid evolution of the sport that these athletes and coaches are catalyzing.

To support it, please check out our sponsors in the description.

And now, dear friends, Here's Craig Jones, Nikki Rod, and Nikki Ryan.

Yep, so we got Nikki Rod here, Brown Bell, two-time ADCC silver medalist.

And I'm Craig Jones, also two-time ADCC silver medalist.

And maybe a little bit more, Your bio says, widely known as the black belt slayer, hails from New Jersey, the land of pizza and biceps.

Yeah, I keep it loaded, you know, keep it on me.

That was a mistake, that was your first mistake.

And you are Nikki, Ryan, what else is there?

All right, so and you're all together part of the leadership of the B team here in Austin.

Let's just get out some introductory questions.

What in general accomplishment of the things you mentioned you're most proud of?

I mean, I'm proud just to not have to work a full-time job, just to get by on the bullshit I've done so far.

When was the first time you made money on a thing you love?

I think maybe in Abu Dhabi where I won $1, 000.

When's the first time you made money on Jiu-Jitsu?

Or what's, actually stepping back, like what's the thing you're most proud of?

I think I'm most proud of is, I mean, for sure 2 80cc silver medals, which hurts because you're so close to getting that gold, but it takes time.

I'm understanding that sport of Jiu-Jitsu takes quite a while to be at the tip top, to be the absolute best.

So, and I'm just being consistent in my training and my craft and I'll get that number 1 spot 1 day.

What failure or loss is the most painful to you?

I don't know, I have a pretty short term memory so my losses I just like, I'll just forget about them.

Yeah, I mean for sure My loss at this past ADCC in the finals, you know, that 1 sunk a bit because I definitely thought I was gonna win.

I mean, like, it takes a while to produce the skills or the reactions more so that you need to have to be, you know, to be that number 1 pound for pound guy.

And you know, pre ADCC I was coming off an injury, so it took me a little bit to find the right mentality and physicality that I needed in order to, you know, get the wins that required gold.

Interesting, You keep saying process, like it takes a while to build up.

So you're not like thinking of a loss like ADCC as like a specific failure.

You're not, you haven't gone long enough in a particular process to being a champ.

Well, I mean, for me, I'm coming, I'm closing in on 5 years of specifically Jiu-Jitsu training.

yeah, it's just, you constantly have these ups and downs in training where like, as long as you stay consistent, you'll have a gradual raise, but you know, it's still, you'll have these peaks and lows and just trying to get better every day.

I'm definitely not where I will be in a few years from now, but I'm striving to get there.

Okay, is that part of the process that you're working through?

I mean, I think a black belt is just based upon how much knowledge you have.

Obviously, like, you know, if you're talking competitive wise, like from when I started, I was able to beat most black belts.

That's just kind of how I was gifted from my wrestling experience.

And you know, the time will come when it's right, but I'm not in a rush at all.

I just kind of take every day for what it is and try to improve upon that.

I mean, I want to give him the black belt.

Are you guys, like us no-gi folks, do you take that seriously?

Or like how much does it come into play into?

Yeah, I mean, it's like Nicky Rod said, you know, it's based off of knowledge, not just, you know, what you do out on the competition mats.

Cause you know, like you said, he had years of wrestling experience and obviously he's very physically gifted.

So we grade based off of the amount of knowledge that you have.

I think teaching is a good measurement of it, like how well you're able to show the moves and really make sure that you have an understanding of what you're doing.

It's like, it's something that takes many years to accomplish and for a lot of people, it's truly meaningful.

It's like it represents a particular step in a journey.

But for you guys, it's almost like different because you've been so focused on competition that I guess if you take it seriously, it is a big step for you too.

Like as martial artists, that's bigger than just being like top of the world competitors, right?

You guys are actually taking it seriously.

That he's a brown belt, and you're taking seriously the rank of black belt, and it's part of your journey.

Think by the time I get a black belt, I'll be no more pound for pound.

I think it'd be pretty nice to accomplish that as a brown belt, and then maybe toss a black belt on top.

What do you guys, do you love winning or hate losing more?

Yeah, but honestly, if I win, I feel more relief than anything rather than excitement and stuff.

I'm like, oh, fuck, thank God that's over.

I hate losing for sure, but I understand that it's necessary to get to where you wanna be.

And then winning is like, I mean, what I think winning is probably the closest you can get to like heroin or something, because I mean, we're on a, like if you have extreme success in a tournament that you've been adamant about training for and competing in for a while, and you end up winning it, I mean, I feel like you're on that high for days at a time afterwards.

You know, because you come from a little bit of a wrestling culture.

1 of the things I really love is at the end of the match when they lose, they just run off.

It's like some mixture of anger and frustration at themselves.

I think sometimes people like freak out on the mat.

And I think that's just to show everybody, like they're acting like they cared a lot.

And really maybe they didn't work enough to get to where they expected to be.

And they lost and then they had this big boost of emotion like after their loss.

But yeah, I mean, you just cry in the mirror and not to everybody else.

What, Have you ever cried watching a movie?

The last part of a difficult wake up for me is I try to find a sad movie and at least cry.

There's other following liquids I could talk to you about, but let's just continue on.

I'm a very competitive person, so I for sure hate losing more than I like winning.

I do think it's something that's kind of held me back over the past few years, because it makes it so that I'm not as active as I should be because it's like, I really hate that feeling of, you know, after a match that you just lost.

So it kind of prevents me from competing.

So it's definitely something I need to work past.

So like, when you think about a competition, the possibility of losing, which is always there in competition, is the thing that like weighs heavy on you in the months and weeks leading up to it?

Yeah, my whole life, my financial stability, everything depends on my ability to go out there and compete and my ability to teach.

So it's a huge hit to the brand if you lose.

So leading up to matches, that's definitely something that's in my mind.

I know you say you guys are like world-class athletes, but for me more like a hobbyist competitor, I compete a lot.

The thing I was, cause I really wanted to win.

The thing I was probably most afraid of was not just losing, but like embarrassing myself.

That was the thing I hated the most about myself in terms of crying in the mirror, is like being too afraid to take risks after I'm up on 2 points or something.

I think you gotta, in competition, sometimes it's good to take the emotion out of it.

It's too easy sometimes to like, think about all my girls in the crowd, and my family's watching, like I wanna win cause they're there.

But at the highest level, if you're emotional at all, no, that's affecting you.

That's tough, especially like leading up to it, when you're on the mat maybe, but leading up to it.

I think it's okay to be emotional prior, like if we know ADCC is coming up, and we have a big match, definitely I'll go out and practice and I'll visualize, I'll put myself in that competition.

That way when it's game time, it's like I've been there a thousand times already.

So not the actual competition, but even leading up to it, like stepping on the mat, all the walk towards it, all that?

All that stuff, I'll do the same exact warmup for weeks on end until my competition day comes.

That way, when I compete, I'm just like, oh, it's another Tuesday at practice.

How do you prepare mentally for a tournament like ADCC?

I push it completely out of my mind, don't even think about it.

Try to avoid any visualization, any rituals, warmups, anything like that.

Block it out until the last second, yeah.

I just go to training to have fun, learn a bit.

So I try to approach competition the exact same way.

I don't warm up at training, do very little warm up for competition.

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B-Team Jiu Jitsu: Craig Jones, Nicky Rod, and Nicky Ryan | Lex Fridman Podcast #363