So, my blogs haven’t always been in any chronological order but I actually had some big news to share, I got graded to my black belt in March of this year. I know, it’s a pretty big checkpoint in anyone’s BJJ journey and I did promise myself I would do it justice with an in-depth […]
When in Rome….. Always used to use this saying and finally, I have made my way to Italy and got to say it in the city itself!We left Galway mid afternoon with the onset of rain – standard Irish Summer you might say but it was at least warm and we have had some great […]
Manchester. United, City, football, bees, music, culture, history and people. You name it, this city had it. It was an amazing place to visit and so much to see and do……not to mention a lot of different things to eat! My family and I just did a trip over for the weekend to catch in […]
This “10 year challenge” had me rubbing my hands at all the glorious memes online, laughing away as people took it both very seriously and very much tongue in cheek. I saw a post that a friend had made and I was in the photo as well, it made me realize that my first grappling […]
It was a clear black night, a clear white moon, wait, that’s something else! It was actually a crisp Saturday afternoon in Riccarton, November 22, 2014. Jason Koster, the man behind the amazing Survivor Series event that I wrote about a while back, had put together a submission only, open weight grappling event that was […]
Lately when rolling, I have been trying different types of attacks and trying to use them to either setup the submission or attack from the get-go. I was looking at loop chokes which have long time been a favorite starting move for me as they lead into great transitions and the submissions are always there. […]
Hello all, it’s been a while since I did one of these, I have actually been tied up here (figuratively, not literally) doing what we planned – travelling Europe.I have been through Ireland, up the West coast through Sligo up to Belfast, back down through the East coast to Dublin, on to Budapest, train through […]
Survivor Series, one of the pinnacle events of the WWF of yesteryear. It was also the name given to a submission only 5 man grappling event held in little old Christchurch New Zealand. The brain child of the Scott Hamilton doppleganger himself, Jason Koster. It was the first of many things. First time all the […]
With all the moving now done, we settled into Galway. I had already made contact with the fantastic team at Point Blank Submissions in Galway city, Christmas was just over and I joined in for some of their open mat sessions with the crew from Strange Wolves MMA and Point Blank and the level here […]
I was listening to a Steve Maxwell Podcast recently and he talked about Dean Lister, how he’d only met him for a short time but that small meeting had a huge impact on him and the way he approached jiu jitsu. This is also said about Dean Lister by John Danaher, it is amazing how […]
In 2015, I went over to Melbourne on a couple of occasions and had the joy of catching up with my old friend Ashley Taylor. I have known Ash for quite a while now, we did karate together and he was one of the first people to show me any form of vale tudo/ground game […]
In July 2017, I was lucky enough to travel up to Wellington for work to take part in the New World Wine awards, I know it’s a tough job, but someone had to do it! With New Zealand being a small place and probably home to about 4 degrees of separation, I already had family […]
My new album, Bryan Russell Unplugged. Unplugged, packed up and moved to Ireland! So we had finally gotten our Russell family European travel chapter underway. The big move from little old New Zealand all the way over to sunny Galway for my wife to take advantage of a 2 year working Visa and the experience […]
Thailand. Home to Muay thai, Chang beer, Hangover 2 and numerous memes, jokes and inappropriate anecdotes. It is also a beautiful island with so much to explore, culture to experience and adventures to be had. It has so much tradition and they have bred some amazing fighters in the stand-up art of Muay Thai and […]
Lucky for me I have a deal with my wife that when ever we holiday, if I can find a gym, I get to train – and this was her idea (say what!!). So back in early 2016, when my wife and I booked flights to ‘Murica (for a kid free holiday) we planned on […]
My name is Bryan Russell, I was born in the 80’s which is rad in itself, but, I am also a father, a husband, a lifelong martial artist and I have also undergone 5 open heart surgeries. I basically had a crappy heart valve that resulted in having to have both my valves replaced. My […]
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