Sonny Brown

11/04/2026

Aussie Karate: Bob Jones founded Zen Do Kai in 1970 at Melbourne's Elizabeth Street dojo, known as Aussie Karate in the 1980s. It was used to train his legendary Wrecking Crew, a group of tough full-contact bouncers who tested the art, providing nightclub security and bodyguard services for touring rock stars.

25/03/2026

New Podcast episode of The Sonny Brown Breakdown: With the rise of the "Ecological Approach", CLA, and games-based coaching in martial arts circles, I take a deeper dive into the mythology and archetype of play with Michael Phillip of the Third Eye Drops podcast. We dig into the neuroscience of flow states, constraint-led coaching, and why grappling might be the oldest form of play.

The Mythology of Play With Michael PhillipMar 26, 2026I talk to Michael Phillip, host of the long-running philosophy and esoterica podcast Third Eye Drops, where he conducts what he calls “mind melds” with authors, musicians, thinkers, and mystics on topics ranging from Jungian psychology and my...

12/03/2026

I am still the only person in Australia to win an MMA fight and a championship title via a gogoplata submission set up from rubber guard. Eddie Bravo gave me a shoutout; the sequence was featured in his "Mastering the System" series, and for a while, it felt like rubber guard was going to be a significant part of my identity in this sport. I tell you that not to brag, but to make clear that when I say I no longer teach rubber guard, it is not because I never understood it or never made it work. I did. The reasons I walked away from teaching it are more interesting than that.

Why I stopped teaching rubber guard. A look at flexibility, scalability, physical attributes and what actually works in Jiu-Jitsu training.

10/03/2026

I’ve spent years arguing that padwork is overrated. So naturally, I found myself in Tokyo, paying top dollar for a private session with the most expensive padman I could find...

Why fighters love padwork, as I get a session at Vaselius Gym. A look at the psychology of the Padman and what it reveals about how martial artists train.

19/01/2026

Imagine facing an unknown Genki Sudo at a local comp. This wasn’t a major event or a stacked bracket. It was a casual tournament at Chris Brennan’s gym with pizza and drinks for competitors. What followed became one of the most influential grappling clips of the early internet era.

18/01/2026

Judo solved this problem decades ago. Masahiko Kimura uses a simple lapel grip to shut down frames and pass cleanly. Colourised and remastered from an instructional where Kimura was into his 60

16/01/2026

Octopus guard isn’t just stand-ups and back takes. It also connects cleanly into a basic hip bump sweep, If you fail to gain head height, you can end up in turtle or false half. Eduardo Telles built sweep chains from there, plus routes back to underhooks, dogfight, and leg entries. This breakdown wraps the series in Part 5/5.

13/01/2026

Octopus guard creates a reliable stand-up in MMA. Elevate to threaten the sweep, keep your head high, post, and heist your hips out to return to wrestling. This sequence continues in Part 4/5 of the series.

12/01/2026

This is how octopus half guard creates stand-ups under pressure. Half guard defenders usually kill the near-side underhook, which often leaves the far-side underhook available. Swim your near-side arm across, build octopus half, then choose back take or stand-up. This breakdown continues in Part 3/5.