Season 3 Premiere · Oct 6
Two Companies. One Mat.
"You train, and you try to kill each other. You become friends." (placeholder attribution: Smoothcomp co-founder; the quote is confirmed against the final cut before it ships)
Start small. A few short clips will tell you if this is your kind of thing.
Then pick a full episode when one grabs you.
Latest episodes
How Lakea Vargas Trains the 99 Sheep at Combat Sports Academy
Lakea Vargas wore the Team USA judo gi at the 2017 World Championships in Budapest. Today he runs the mat at Combat Sports Academy in Orlando, where 99 percent of the members aren't competing—and that's exactly the point.
How Milad and Ella Moghaddam Built ActiveRange Method From a Basement to 200 Members in Two Years
In this episode, Alex visits ActiveRange Method in Newmarket, Ontario, where husband-and-wife co-founders Milad and Ella Moghaddam combine Pilates, strength training, and individualized assessment inside a small-group format.
How Coach Rich Beaupit Built a 32-Year Martial Arts Academy Around People, Not Numbers
Coach Rich Beaupit has spent 44 years in martial arts and 32 years running Straight Blast Gym Niagara—deliberately capping membership at 150 so he can know every person who walks through his door.
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How Renzo Gracie Niagara Built a BJJ Family Where Members Show Up to Help Each Other Move
Professor Fernando Brazileiro imported Rio de Janeiro's "third place" gym culture to small-town Ontario — and built a BJJ school where twenty members show up to help a teammate move in peak Canadian winter.
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How OB Jiu-Jitsu Collective Went From For-Rent Sign to 100 Members in One Year
Co-founders Alina Grayeske and Andres Cervantes turned a former Ocean Beach theater into a thriving jiu-jitsu community in 53 days—while both still working full-time jobs.
How Two Navy Operators Built TEAMSMMA on Military Precision and Family Culture
Active-duty Naval Special Warfare operators Danny Felix and Bobby Winther built TEAMSMMA in Chula Vista, California—a gym that bridges military combat training and civilian martial arts.
How a Google Maps Search Led Marty Herrick to Open Adayama Jiu Jitsu
In this episode, we visit Adayama Jiu Jitsu in El Cajon, California, where Professor Marty Herrick built a community-first BJJ academy after an out-of-state opportunity fell through—all while working a full-time fintech job.
How Sunny Dojo Turned a COVID-Era Rec Center Into Serra Mesa's Family Dojo
In this episode, we visit Sunny Dojo Martial Arts in Serra Mesa, San Diego, where Professor Clyde and his wife Pamela built a non-competition, family-focused martial arts community from scratch during COVID.
How a Filmmaker and Brown Belt Brought Carlson Gracie Pressure to Hackney
In this episode, we visit Carlson Gracie Hackney for a 7 AM no-gi class with Konrad, a Polish-born brown belt and filmmaker who teaches pressure-based jiu-jitsu in East London.
As soon as we started with the kids program, it was a boom. In eight months, we were reaching 200 students.
Alex Cuevas
Your host
Someone who’s actually on the mat.
Alex started teaching Taekwondo as a teenager. He’s a black belt in it now, and still trains Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.
“We’re stepping out from behind the website to hear your stories and learn what makes a gym thrive.”
Find a gym near you.
56
episodes across
40
cities and 7 countries. Hover a pin for the gyms there, or open an episode straight from the map.
Your gym could be the next one.
Every episode is a real gym and the person who built it, filmed where they teach. If that’s you, tell us how you got here. Alex reads these himself.