The Grapple Of Your Eye Show

The Grapple Of Your Eye Show The Grapple of Your Eye is a show that explores the many branches of the grappling tree from wrestling, to Brazilian jiu Jitsu, through to MMA.

🥋 WHY TRAIN TIRED? 🧠🔥When you’re fresh, you can get away with strength, speed and momentum.But when you’re absolutely KN...
21/08/2026

🥋 WHY TRAIN TIRED? 🧠🔥

When you’re fresh, you can get away with strength, speed and momentum.

But when you’re absolutely KNACKERED? That’s when you have to THINK. 👀

Watch as Alex Vankov of Tonbridge SAMBO Club discusses this old-school grappling training philosophy that is simple: hit an exhausting warm-up BEFORE randori or sparring. Once strength starts disappearing, you're forced to concentrate on technique, timing, efficiency and using exactly the amount of power you need.

🧠 And what we often call “muscle memory”? Our guest argues it’s really about the nervous system — repeated practice developing neural patterns that help produce the movements needed for a technique.

The training itself was brutally simple:

🥋 Technical drilling
🔥 Exhausting warm-ups
🤼 Randori & live fighting
💪 Pull-ups, squats & calisthenics
🏋️ Partner-based resistance
🧠 Repetition, repetition, repetition!

As the coaches would say:

“Pointless to lift the bars. Go and lift your opponent.” 😂💪

So what do YOU think?

👇 Does sparring tired force you to become more technical, or is your best learning done while fresh?

Follow for more grappling stories, training philosophy, interviews and history from across Judo, BJJ, Wrestling, Sambo, Sumo and the entire grappling world.



SPARRING SECRETS: Why Training TIRED Could Make Your Grappling Smar...

21/08/2026

🥋 WHY TRAIN TIRED? 🧠🔥

When you’re fresh, you can get away with strength, speed and momentum.

But when you’re absolutely KNACKERED? That’s when you have to THINK. 👀

This old-school grappling training philosophy was simple: hit an exhausting warm-up BEFORE randori or sparring. Once strength starts disappearing, you're forced to concentrate on technique, timing, efficiency and using exactly the amount of power you need.

🧠 And what we often call “muscle memory”? Our guest argues it’s really about the nervous system — repeated practice developing neural patterns that help produce the movements needed for a technique.

The training itself was brutally simple:
🥋 Technical drilling
🔥 Exhausting warm-ups
🤼 Randori & live fighting
💪 Pull-ups, squats & calisthenics
🏋️ Partner-based resistance
🧠 Repetition, repetition, repetition!

As the coaches would say:
“Pointless to lift the bars. Go and lift your opponent.” 😂💪

So what do YOU think?

👇 Does sparring tired force you to become more technical, or is your best learning done while fresh?

Follow for more grappling stories, training philosophy, interviews and history from across Judo, BJJ, Wrestling, Sambo, Sumo and the entire grappling world.

20/08/2026

OUT NOW!

What makes SAMBO one of the most complete and exciting grappling martial arts in the world? And why is the sport now beginning to grow across the UK?

In Episode 88 of The Grapple Of Your Eye Show, Brett Summers sits down with Alex Vankov, SAMBO competitor, coach at Tonbridge SAMBO Club and one of the people helping to develop and promote British SAMBO in Kent (Kent Sambo Association) and across the UK.

Alex’s grappling journey stretches across freestyle wrestling, judo and SAMBO, beginning as a young wrestler growing up in post-Soviet Latvia. With a father heavily involved in grappling and military SAMBO, combat sports became part of Alex’s life from an early age.

 FROM WRESTLER TO SAMBO COACH

Alex reveals what training was really like growing up in the post-Soviet grappling system — demanding sessions, intense conditioning, competition for places and a training philosophy built around learning to execute technique even when exhausted.

After stepping away from serious competition, Alex eventually moved to the UK, became involved in British Judo, and later returned to the grappling world through SAMBO.

19/08/2026

Coming Soon!

What makes SAMBO one of the most complete and exciting grappling martial arts in the world? And why is the sport now beginning to grow across the UK?

In Episode 88 of The Grapple Of Your Eye Show, Brett Summers sits down with Alex Vankov, SAMBO competitor, Tonbridge SAMBO Club coach and one of the people helping to develop and promote British SAMBO in Kent and across the UK.

Alex's grappling journey stretches across freestyle wrestling, judo and SAMBO, beginning as a young wrestler growing up in post-Soviet Latvia. With a father heavily involved in grappling and military SAMBO, combat sports became part of Alex's life from an early age.

17/08/2026

🔥 THE GRAPPLE OF YOUR EYE STORE IS OPEN! 🔥
Grappling isn't just something you train. It's something you live. 🤼‍♂️🥋

Represent The Gospel of Global Grappling with official The Grapple Of Your Eye gear — created for people who love the entire grappling multiverse.

👕 Exclusive T-shirts
🔥 Grappling-inspired designs
🥋 Classic wrestling & submission grappling gear
🧥 Varsity jackets
💪 Designs made BY grapplers, FOR grapplers

Whether your world is BJJ, Catch Wrestling, Judo, Sambo, Sumo, Submission Grappling, MMA or Professional Wrestling, there's something for you.

Every purchase also helps support The Grapple Of Your Eye Show and allows us to keep bringing you interviews, grappling history, forgotten stories and voices from across the global grappling community. ❤️

👁️ WEAR WHAT YOU BELIEVE.
🌎 REPRESENT THE GRAPPLING MULTIVERSE.
🔥 SUPPORT THE SHOW.

👉 Visit THEGRAPPLEOFYOUREYE.COM and check out the store!

16/08/2026

🇬🇧🇯🇵 THE SECRET RISE OF BRITISH SUMO! 🥋🔥

How did Sumo Wrestling in Britain go from just a handful of competitors and TWO clubs to a growing UK combat sport?

Sumo Jack Sullivan takes us back to the grassroots beginnings of British Sumo Wrestling — when Derby was the heart of the sport and pioneering coach Steve Pateman was helping establish sumo in the UK.
Then the movement started to grow… 👇

🥋 Aylesbury became the first club outside Derby
🔥 George Young established a club in Nottingham
💪 Richard Riggs opened another in Barnsley
🏆 Inter-club Sumo Bashos brought competitors together

🇬🇧 The British Sumo Federation began expanding its reach Jack was there on the ground floor of British Sumo's growth, watching a small community begin developing into something much bigger.

From traditional Japanese Sumo to modern British Sumo, Team GB, amateur sumo competition and professional wrestling, the sport continues to find a new audience in the UK.

👀 Did you know Britain had its own growing sumo scene?

💬 Would YOU ever try Sumo Wrestling? Tell us below!

👁️ Follow The Grapple Of Your Eye for more stories from the world of sumo, wrestling, BJJ, judo, sambo, MMA and global grappling.

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