Dan Manasoiu and Greg Souders streamed their lengthy debate on ecological training methods, and it was a pretty long conversation in the end. Clocking in at a little over two hours, the two men had plenty of time to cover any ground they wanted to and get their respective points across. Tom DeBlass was also present for the first hour of the debate, although he had to leave halfway through with Manasoiu and Souders still in deep disagreement. The debate itself was a pretty unusual idea and it’s something that doesn’t come around very often in Jiu-Jitsu, but Manasoiu issued the challenge and Souders answered.
The two men were coming at the discussion from completely different perspectives, as their roles within the Jiu-Jitsu world couldn’t be further apart. Souders has exclusively worked as a coach and he’s been able to guide some high-level competitors at Standard Jiu-Jitsu, like Alex Nguyen and Deandre Corbe. He doesn’t have a particularly big team training under him compared to major affiliations like ATOS or 10th Planet, but he’s managed to get some good results regardless. He attributes that success to Ecological training methods, an approach that has been gaining in popularity in recent years with Souders as it’s biggest proponent.
Manasoiu on the other hand isn’t a coach at all, but he has spent several years training under one of the most successful coaches of his generation; John Danaher. His expertise comes from being one of the top competitors in the world, something that he has proven on the mats several times over. His biggest accomplishment came just under a year ago when he won a bronze medal in the over 99kg division of ADCC 2024. He still has plenty of years left in his competitive career to improve on that finish too, and will likely continue to be a frequent fixture at ADCC.
The full debate on ecological training methods between Dan Manasoiu and Greg Souders was uploaded to the official YouTube channel of Brandon McCaghren:
