What It’s Like Rolling With Jocko Willink

John Gretton “Jocko” Willink is a well known figure in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. The Dean Lister black belt is a retired Navy SEAL and owner of Victory MMA and Fitness in San Diego, California. The years he’s dedicated to BJJ are really showing now that his gym has grown to include some slick grapplers trained by Willink from the start. Joe Rogan recently hosted another former Navy SEAL Trevor Thompson on his podcast, The Joe Rogan Experience, where both Rogan and Thompson compared their experiences rolling with the man that Rogan often describes as a “hairless gorilla”.

In the above video, Rogan goes on to explain that Willink once managed to actually break someone’s neck through the sheer force of one of his chokes. When Trevor Thompson explained that he weighs around 165 lbs, Rogan’s first instinct was to tell him simply not to roll with Willink. “It was like I was wrestling around with a sweaty piece of mahogany” described Thompson, to which Rogan replied: “Yeah, big guys that are skilled. That’s so humiliating, when you roll with a big guy that’s skillful.” And he’s definitely not wrong, with Willink standing at around 230 lbs of lean muscle and with a savage ground game, you’d have to be Mikey Musumeci just to even stand a chance.

Willink is widely known for his belief in the power of self-discipline and his incredible dedication to everything he does. Those of you that follow him on Instagram will no doubt be familiar with the photos of his watch when he gets up for his first training session of the day, usually between 4 and 5 am. This is just one of the many things that anybody can take from Jocko Willink and something that serves as a genuine inspiration, or reminder of much more you might be capable of.

Jocko Willink

Alex Lindsey

Alex Lindsey is the managing editor here at Grappling Insider. Originally starting training in MMA in 2008, injuries and university slowed progress until he decided to put on a gi for the first time back in 2015.

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