Craig Jones, Nicky Rod (Nick Rodriguez) and Nicky Ryan: Founders/leaders of B-Team Jiu Jitsu in Austin, Texas, elite no-gi grapplers who split from John Danaher's 'Donaher Death Squad.' Craig Jones is a two-time ADCC silver medalist and coach; Nicky Rod is also a two-time ADCC silver medalist; Nicky Ryan is Gordon Ryan's younger brother.
What this episode covers
Lex Fridman talks with three B-Team Jiu Jitsu founders about how the legendary Danaher Death Squad fractured and why they followed Nicky Ryan to form B-Team in Austin. The conversation is heavy on irreverent humor as they break down the ongoing rivalry and trash talk with Gordon Ryan, including the greasing and steroid accusations from a recent EBI match. Craig Jones recounts coaching Alexander Volkanovski against Islam Makhachev and what makes Dagestani fighters and Volkanovski so dominant. They get into training philosophy: constraint-based learning, positional sparring, the value of NOT warming up, injury and overtraining, ego, and how to coach hobbyists. Lighter tangents cover how they'd fight a bear, lion or kangaroo, street-fight strategy, and Texas mutual-combat law.
The guest's own work
Just Stand Up
Craig Jones
“we were so confident I was like you know what why don't we put this thing out a month before the fight”— Craig Jones
Power Bottom: An Inclusive Modern Approach to the Guard
Craig Jones
“people talk about Power Bottom again hilarious title but they say it's a really good instructional”— host
Also referenced (named, not recommended)
The Bugapedia (buggy choke instructional)
Gordon Ryan
“is there an instructional on the way from you on the j-rod actually my little brother has one oh yeah for real”— Nicky Rod
Red Dead Redemption
Rockstar Games
“I kind of admire that but I've also been playing Red Dead Redemption recently so I've like internalized the cowboy”— Lex Fridman
Cocaine Bear
Elizabeth Banks
“juicy cocaine Bear the movie that's coming out I saw the trailer it looks good yeah yeah”— Craig Jones
Apocalypse Now
Francis Ford Coppola
“I like to think of Puerto Rico as Apocalypse Now John Donahue as Colonel Kurtz things go very weird in the jungle”— Craig Jones
The Godfather
Francis Ford Coppola
“there's this Godfather quote that I wrote down obviously rewatched it from Don Corleone Vito Corleone the strength of a family”— Lex Fridman
Titanic
James Cameron
“The Notebook I try to avoid those but it's actually I lie actually Titanic the last part of a difficult wake up”— Nicky Rod
Big reveals from this episode
- Craig admits his early game was 'basically a rip-off version' of the DDS leglock system after watching Eddie Cummings.
- Nicky Ryan describes John Danaher as a father figure and how the split separated him from his brother Gordon for almost two years.
- Nicky Ryan reveals he and Gordon hated each other after the split but Gordon recently reached out and the animosity is cooling.
- Craig calls steroid use 'cheating for sure whether they test for it or not,' while joking he uses 'all of the steroids.'
- Nicky Rod explains he publicly called Gordon a steroid user only as a rebuttal after Gordon accused him of greasing in their EBI match.
- Craig argues Charles Oliveira would beat Islam Makhachev in a pure submission-grappling match.
- Nicky Rod competed at ADCC on a fully torn ACL, only getting the MRI after the event because 'ignorance is bliss.'
- Lex says he's 'internalized the cowboy' from playing Red Dead Redemption while discussing Texas mutual combat.
Worth remembering
- Nicky Rod is still a no-stripe brown belt despite beating black belts, because B-Team grades on knowledge, not competition results.
- Nicky Rod rehearses his exact warm-up for weeks so competition day feels like 'another Tuesday.'
- Craig deliberately does NO visualization or warm-up: 'there's no warm-ups on the street.'
- The 'buggy choke' (popularized by the Ruotolos) works by threatening embarrassment, making the top player abandon a dominant position.
- At ADCC there is no drug testing; Craig jokes they 'test to make sure we're on steroids' so the show looks good.
- Craig champions constraint-based learning: give beginners a problem first, then the technique, so they have an 'aha moment.'
- What makes Volkanovski special, per Craig, is an unbreakable gas tank and willpower rather than raw skill.
- Craig claims a strong correlation: the people who spend the most time warming up are the most often injured.
- Mount and turtle positional sparring is described as the most psychologically grueling training because of constant emotional ups and downs.
- In an aside they debate that grizzly bears 'gas out' and get bored within 20 seconds, like a weak cardio gas tank.