This is a special double episode with two of England’s most successful JiuJitsu competitors, Trevor Birmingham and Liam Corrigan. Many of the guests from combat sports we have had on the show have stressed the importance of competing to enhance your progress in the game. Having recently started competing myself, I thought a podcast on the subject may be useful to anyone currently competing or thinking about testing themselves in the near future.

Trevor Birmingham has been a successful competitor for over 30 years. Having begun in Judo were he enjoyed success at home and abroad, he then moved onto another rewarding spell representing Britain in Sport JiuJitsu. However, it is in Brazilian JiuJitsu that Trev is currently enjoying the most successful period of his career. In the past three years he has won gold at blue, purple and brown belt and graced the podium in nine different countries. Most recently he collected silver at the Master International in Rio after infamously being disqualified for celebrating his 7-0 win in the final with a flip. In this episode we talk about dealing with nerves, conditioning for competition and Trev talks us though his warm up routine before stepping onto the mats, plus of course we have to discuss that flip!

Liam Corrigan is a relentless competitor, resulting in him winning countless medals over the past eight years, including 26 golds. His grappling career may have been even more fruitful had he not simultaneously juggled fighting in amateur MMA, where he amassed a 12-2 record, picking up four title belts along the way. Liam has competed in several countries and even quit his job to spend weeks travelling America and Brazil training and competing, which led to him fulfilling a lifetime ambition of writing a book on his experiences. We discuss how to work out your A game and when to start concentrating on it and mental preparation for the event. Liam also gives us his top three tips on competing plus shares his knowledge on combining travelling, training and competing in some of JiuJitsu biggest shows.

If you want to know more about Trevor Birmingham check out his page at www.trev-bjj.net.  You can watch the controversial ‘flip’ final here.

For more on Liam check out his site http://liambermudacorrigan.com.  His book, Finding Bermuda, is available through this Amazon link:

Thanks to Leicester Shootfighters for supporting the podcast.  If you want to come and train with myself and Liam then all the details are on the website.