Welcome to Bloody Elbow Presents the ‘Open GuardCast Jiu-Jitsu Podcast’, which is a project dedicated to promoting jiu-jitsu professionals. Our guest this week is Kristian Woodmansee.
Welcome to ‘The Open GuardCast Jiu-Jitsu Podcast’, which is a project dedicated to promoting jiu-jitsu professionals. Tune in each week, Wednesdays at 2pm CST, on our ‘Bloody Elbow Presents Podcast Network’, for interviews, current events, and analysis of everything going on in the world of jiu-jitsu and submission grappling!
Your host is Danny O’Donnell. In addition to hosting this podcast, he is an MMA journalist contributing here at Bloody Elbow, as well as at Black Belt Mag. O’Donnell himself is a BJJ black belt who trains at the Marcio Andre Jiu-Jitsu Academy in Phoenix, AZ. Danny is joined by his Co-Host, Jake Watson, who is also a trained BJJ black belt, as well as the Assistant Coach affiliated with the Maracaba BJJ Academy out of Mesa, AZ. Jake is also an occasional commentator for flograppling.com.
We debuted the show recently at ‘Episode 121’, since we are picking up the pod off of Libsyn Directory, as it’s been running awhile now under its own steam. Over time, we will have all previous 120 episodes uploaded into our Bloody Elbow Presents Playlist for the show, for your listening pleasure. O’Donnell’s goal is to turn this podcast into the biggest Jiu-Jitsu Podcast out there and we intend to help him get as far as he can, so be sure to join us and check it out!
/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23264891/Guest_125_KristianWoodmansee_.png)
June M. Williams
Our guest this week is Kristian Woodmansee, Kristian is a black belt under Andre Galvao of Atos Jiu-Jitsu, owner of Logic Jiu-Jitsu in Philadelphia, and a multiple-time gold medal winner at IBJJF Worlds, Pans, and Europeans. In this episode, we focused on making a living from jiu-jitsu, competing and training full time, getting into teaching, sponsorships, and on opening an academy, and much more…
Enjoy the interview!
Q1: Do you want to start out talking about how you originally got started in jiu-jitsu? — At 1:36
Q2: Was there a moment when you were training jiu-jitsu when you thought I’m going to do this full-time, or was it something that happened organically? — At 4:12
Q3: Can you talk about how you ended up at Atos? You trained at some other gyms before ending up in San Diego. Can you talk about that journey? — At 5:40
Q4: Why didn’t you want to teach (when you first arrived at Atos)? Did you feel it was taking away from competing? — At 7:29
Q5: How far into your time at Atos did you start teaching? — At 9:14
Q6: What are some things that you do differently from other instructors that you see teach a lot? — At 10:40
Q7: Do you think the way you teach conceptually is what drives the success of your seminars? — At 12:06
Q8: What advice would you give young black belts who are looking to teach more seminars? — At 13:54
Q9: Did you have prior experience with negotiations, selling, marketing yourself and handling the financial side of the business before setting up seminars, or is that something you learned throughout the setting up seminars process? — At 16:23
Q10: What were some of the things that helped you financially as a competitor, outside of teaching? — At 18:19
Q11: What advice would you give to someone who’s looking for sponsors but maybe they’re going the traditional route looking at gi companies, or just companies that are very well-tied into the jiu-jitsu scene? How do you approach non-jiu-jitsu related businesses? — At 23:20
Q12: Can you talk about the transition from chasing the highest level of the sport as a competitor to opening your academy? Did you make that transition consciously? — At 26:14
Q13: No-gi is really big on the East Coast. When you went to Atos in California was that something you noticed? That gi was bigger on the West Coast and no-gi was bigger on the East Coast? — At 31:18
Q14: Have you been keeping up with ADCC Trials? — At 34:02
Q15: Did you happen to see Gordon Ryan’s post after the Brazilian Trials? — At 35:17
Q16: Mo Jassim is really pushing the sport forward with ADCC. What do you think needs to happen on the gi side to see that same sort of growth? — At 40:14
You can follow Danny on twitter — @DannyOD_BJJ, or instagram — @dannyod_bjj. His co-host, Jake Watson can be found on instagram — @disciple_jiujitsu & @maracaba_bjj. The show’s instagram is @openguardcast, or on Facebook here. This week’s guest, Kristian Woodmansee is on insta @kristianwoodmansee & @logicphilly too.
Be sure to tune in for next week’s show and learn more about the world of jiu-jitsu, on Wednesday, March 2nd, at 2:00pm CST, for Episode 126. Our guest will be Erin Harpe, check her out ahead of time on instagram — @Erin.Harpe.
If you enjoy our shows, give us a shout out in the comments here on Bloody Elbow, or give us a “like”, share & subscribe over on whichever BE Presents Podcast Channel happens to be your listening platform of choice: SoundCloud, YouTube, iTunes & Apple TV, iHeartRadio, Stitcher, Spotify, TuneIn, OverCast, Player FM, & Amazon Music!