BJJ Fanatics 672: Colton Crawford

Speaker 1: Welcome back to the BJJ Fanatics podcast. I'm your host Ryan Ford. My guest today is a brown belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. He's a founding member and the banjo player for the very successful modern roots band The Dead South. Uh, the band has won several awards and they have a global following, touring all around the world. Ladies and gentlemen, it's my pleasure to be joined today by Colton Crawford. How are you today, Colton? Speaker 2: I'm good, man. How are you doing? Speaker 1: I'm great. I'm great, Colton. I'm so finally, I'm so happy we were finally able to get this interview together, man. You and I've been talking through Instagram for a couple of years now, I think. And uh, and I'm I'm so happy our schedules finally lined up here and we were able to get you on because uh, when when I found out anytime I hear someone outside of our Jiu-Jitsu bubble who's done big things in other areas like music or film or things like that, it's always cool to pick your brain and see how Jiu-Jitsu's impacted your life. And I'm someone that loves music. So, this is a special one for me. So thanks for being here today. Speaker 2: Yeah, of course, man. Thanks for having me. Speaker 1: The question I always like to start with, man. Tell us about where you're from originally and what life was like before you found Jiu-Jitsu. Speaker 2: Sure. Um, I was born in Edmonton, Alberta, in Canada. Um, moved to Saskatchewan, uh, when I was young. Uh, I live in Regina, Saskatchewan right now. Um, I got put into Taekwondo when I was 10 years old or so. And um, it was kind of in that phase of life where you're trying to, parents are putting you in a bunch of stuff to see what sticks and Taekwondo really, really stuck. I loved it. I became kind of obsessed with it as like a kid and a teenager and I did that up until, um, I was growing, I grew up in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan. That's where I started doing Taekwondo and then I moved to Regina, um, uh, for university and I had a couple of guys that I trained Taekwondo with that also did Jiu-Jitsu and they're like, oh, you know, you should come and give this Jiu-Jitsu stuff a shot. And I was a Taekwondo black belt and I thought, oh, you know, I'll I'll go in there and I'll show these Jiu-Jitsu guys what's up, you know, kind of thing. And I remember just getting just absolutely tossed around on my first day and being like, it's like that that famous Danaher quote where he's just kind of like, I just want to know how this works and so to try and become competent in it because it felt like magic tricks, like, you know, so I just became obsessed with Jiu-Jitsu right away and, uh, just kind of been training ever since. So. Speaker 1: That's incredible, man. I can relate. Taekwondo was my first art that I did too when I was like seven years old. And I pursued it pretty seriously as a kid, uh, and I remember one time distinctively. I remember I remember watching a schoolyard fight actually. And uh, and I and one kid threw the other kid to the ground and just sat on his chest and started pummeling him. So I I went to class the next day and told my sensei, I'm like, hey, what what do I do if like a bigger kid throws me on the ground and sits on me? And his answer was kind of like, well, well, you got to use your footwork and make sure that he can't do that. I'm like, yeah, but what what if it does? What if what if that happens to me? He's kind of like, well, you know, he didn't really have he just sort of like a word salad as his answer and I was kind of like, all right, well, noted. I don't don't don't let that happen. Uh, but yeah, but man, so coming from Calgary, man, there's a lot of uh great Jiu-Jitsu and and and grapplers too outside of Jiu-Jitsu that all come from Calgary. You're a kid of the 90s, I assume. You look like you're about my age. Did you grow up watching like pro wrestling and all that stuff? Speaker 2: Not super into wrestling. Uh, my mom hated wrestling, so we never like never really watched it as a kid. Uh, I did get into the UFC though. Um, like around maybe 13, 14, I started watching UFC. Um, so yeah, GSP like, uh, Tito Ortiz, Chuck Liddell era is when I got into it. So, watched a lot of that and I yeah, it was the same sort of thing. It was kind of like, um, watching that and then seeing them go to the ground before you know what's going on, it was kind of just like, oh, what is this like, you know, I don't like watching this ground stuff. I want to see these guys punch each other. But then once you kind of understand it, it's uh, it becomes a lot more a lot more fun to watch the ground stuff. Speaker 1: Absolutely. Yeah. No, the reason I asked if you were into pro wrestling, my my my very earliest reference of Alberta was was there's a handful of professional wrestlers that came from there. So I was just curious if that was uh something you were into. But yeah, so it sounds like it sounds like you were you were into the UFC early on. Uh, did you so you started watching during the, um, like the Tito Ortiz, Chuck Liddell era. When when did you start training? When did you take you when did you decide to like really sign up and commit to Jiu-Jitsu? Uh, was it around that time or was it before that? Speaker 2: Uh, it was a little bit later. Um, yeah, I think it was like '09 or so when I started Jiu-Jitsu. Uh, so I was 19 at the time. Um, yeah, it was when I moved to moved to Regina for university. We did like a little bit of Jiu-Jitsu, um, like after Taekwondo. My uh, my uh, instructor, he would he would go to Regina every now and again and train, learn a little bit of Jiu-Jitsu and then he'd come back and and show us. So we'd like throw the the like blue school mats down after Jiu-Jitsu or after Taekwondo class and we'd he'd like show us, here's like a here's what a rear naked choke is and here's what a triangle. Like none of us had gis or belts or anything like that. So that was kind of my first introduction to it, but I started actually training at like an a real gym and I think it was '09, somewhere around there in Regina. Speaker 1: Very nice, man. What what do you think it was about once you started training Jiu-Jitsu, was there anything in particular that you really gravitated towards? Like, I know Taekwondo doesn't really have any any direct connections with Jiu-Jitsu. So it's you know, you're going from a striking art to a grappling art. So it's not like a wrestler that might gravitate towards, you know, top side pressure control and takedowns and things like that. Was there any position though in Jiu-Jitsu that you felt you did naturally gravitate towards? Speaker 2: Uh, I always liked playing guard for sure. Uh, spider guard was my thing. I was always really small. I was one of the smaller guys in the gym. So being able to get, but I have like I have flexible hips. So being able to get my grips on the on the sleeves and get my feet in the biceps, I felt was always a it was like a good, um, it was just a good game for me and it kind of came naturally to me for some reason. Um, top game took forever. Like it wasn't until purple belt that I started kind of, uh, studying the top game and trying to like apply passing and pressure. I was always more than happy to just be a laying on my back with the spider grips. So, uh, that was kind of the first thing that that drew me in for sure. Speaker 2: Yeah. Speaker 1: Absolutely. Speaker 2: Yeah. Speaker 1: Yeah. Speaker 2: Yeah. Speaker 1: Yeah. Speaker 2: Absolutely. Speaker 1: Yeah. Speaker 2: Yeah. Speaker 1: Yeah. Speaker 2: Yeah. Speaker 1: Yeah. Speaker 2: Yeah. Speaker 1: Yeah. Speaker 2: Yeah. Speaker 1: Yeah. Speaker 2: Yeah. Speaker 1: Yeah. Speaker 2: Yeah. Speaker 1: Yeah. Speaker 2: Yeah. Speaker 1: Yeah. Speaker 2: Yeah. Speaker 1: Yeah. Speaker 2: Yeah. Speaker 1: Yeah. Speaker 2: Yeah. Speaker 1: Yeah. Speaker 2: Yeah. Speaker 1: Yeah. Speaker 2: Yeah. Speaker 1: Yeah. Speaker 2: Yeah. Speaker 1: Yeah. Speaker 2: Yeah. Speaker 1: Yeah. Speaker 2: Yeah. Speaker 1: Yeah. Speaker 2: Yeah. Speaker 1: Yeah. Speaker 2: Yeah. 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