Irishman living in Germany | Host of podcast | Dodger of triangles
Way back in 2004, boasting some amateur boxing experience and a fervent appreciation of Mirko Crocop’s highlight reel, I walked into my university MMA club with a mind to try out this new sport that I’d been hearing scattered whispers of on various different message boards and online forums. A handful of classes later, I decided that there was no future in this whole “grappling” business at all, and thus promptly went back to the far more sustainable endeavour of getting punched in the head instead.
Fast forward several years to 2011, and thankfully my curiosity had re-built to the point where I was willing to give it another shot. I’m not quite sure what had changed in the meantime (older, wiser, less inclined to get my brain rattled three times a week?), but this time it really clicked with me, and since then I’ve never looked back.
I’m now a brown belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (BJJ), and have been lucky enough to pick up some experience in other grappling disciplines like Wrestling, Judo, Irish Collar and Elbow, and Icelandic Glima along the way. I’ve had the opportunity to travel to over 50 countries, and had the privilege of training and teaching in many of them, from Kazakhstan to Greenland. I’ve compiled a travel phrasebook in 36 languages for other people who want to travel and train BJJ while on the road. I’m also a member of the Special Advisory Group of UNESCO ICM, an organization that seeks to use martial arts as a vehicle to promote self-development and intercultural awareness among young people.
With “The Hero with a Thousand Holds”, I’m combining my interests in travel, history, and grappling in a project that looks at the culture and practice of folk wrestling styles around the world. Not just the styles themselves, but the people who practice them. Where did they come from? What battles have they lost and won? What gods do they sing to, and on what farflung mountain or in which desert or forest were those words first spoken? In each episode, I seek to illustrate that, no matter how strange those things might initially seem, they’re ultimately all just manifestations of our common human heritage that will be familiar to anyone who’s ever stepped in a wrestling circle.
- Ruadhán MacFadden
[email protected]
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If you’re interested in learning more, here’s an assortment of travel/history/grappling-related articles and blog posts I’ve written, as well as a few interviews I’ve done for various podcasts.
Articles:
- UNESCO ICM: The Hero with a Thousand Holds: Exploring Our Common Grappling Heritage
- Figs and Earl Grey on the Open Steppe
- Firewalking: Hiking the Dientes de Navarino and Training at the Southernmost Academy in the World
- The Caucasian Chalk Circle
- Building the BJJ Travel Phrasebook
Interviews:
- BJJ Globetrotters Pirate Radio | A Phone Call from the Arctic to the Caribbean with Ruadhán MacFadden
- Mat Tricks | Ruadhán MacFadden Visits Kazakhstan to Climb Mountains and Train with Genghis Khan’s Descendants
- Mat Tricks | Ruadhán MacFadden Travels the World to Fight Polar Bears and Train Jiu-Jitsu
- Because Jitsu | A Chat with Drew Weatherhead
- Reddit AMA on r/BJJ
- The Sonny Brown Breakdown | The Husky History of Folk Wrestling Styles & The Hero With a Thousand Holds with Ruadhán MacFadden