We recently began working with our friends at Grapple Science; the first sport specific nutrition business to emerge to support the rapidly growing grappling community.  Here’s a quick interview with the founders, so you can learn more about the mission and vision of Grapple Science.  Definitely check them out at www.grapplescience.com or on social media @grapplescience.

What is Grapple Science?

Grapple Science is a sports nutrition brand for combat athletes.

What are your backgrounds and what prompted the development of this brand?

We are a group of grapplers with a long history of developing performance products for elite athletes and general wellness.

• John was the CEO of leading performance drink company Kill Cliff for nearly 5 years. Kill Cliff is best known for its collaborations with Joe Rogan, Cameron Hanes, and Israel Adesanya, as well as its title sponsorship of the MMA team, called the Kill Cliff Fight Club. John was a high school wrestler, Navy SEAL, also boxed on his SEAL Team’s boxing team, and is a BJJ Blackbelt from Jacare and Leo Nogueira at Alliance HQ in Atlanta GA.

• GW was the cofounder of Kill Cliff and is a second degree Blackbelt under Roberto Traven.  He was an avid BJJ competitor winning over 40 gold medals including Master Worlds twice and the Pan Ams 7 times among other IBJJF tournament’s. He started his grappling experience as a high school wrestler which led to BJJ and also years of strength and conditioning training.  He led Kill Cliff’s early expansion into CrossFit and BJJ sponsoring the Crossfit Games and building a Pro sponsored BJJ team which included athletes like Lucas Lepri and Mackenzie Dern. GW is still currently coaching BJJ and Crossfit at Team Octopus in Atlanta.

• Steve is a world renown content creator with clients like Red Bull and Patagonia. His background is in extreme adventure sports, where he was a sponsored rock climber for years. He is the owner and operator of Camp Vertex in Trinidad Texas, a top tier performance camp that combines BJJ training instructed by world champions with firearms training by Navy SEALs. Steve trains under Pedro Rocha where he recently received his blue belt.

We created Grapple Science to design sport specific products for grapplers and combat athletes to help stave off fatigue.  At its core, Grapple Science is a system for fatigue management that seeks to prolong the period by which athletes can perform at their highest output levels. With a large amount of time collectively in combat athletics, we got tired of the lack of nutritional products designed for our sport so we started our own brand.

Our goal is to reinvest in the community and to help improve the health, wellness, and longevity of grappling athletes with products that help them stay engaged and perform in this sport.

How is it different from other supplement companies?

Grapple Science is a system designed to optimize sport specific performance and recovery. It emerged authentically from athletes who are journeymen in the sport, and who selfishly want to create products that will help them compete for another 20 years.  Unlike traditional supplement companies, Grapple Science pulls from both endurance athletics and bodybuilding / strength performance supplements to create bespoke products capable of improving work capacity, stamina and endurance over a prolonged period.

What is Grapple Science Cognition?

Cognition is a formula to improve cognitive performance. It provides non-stimulant energy, fights mental fatigue, gives you focus, improves recall and reaction time, and helps you punch through the brain fog. Just like your muscles, the brain needs the right nutrients to function at peak performance. Cognition supplies a powerful dose of vitamins with compounds shown to improve mental acuity and endurance while also enhancing your mood state to maximize your training time.

Why is the first Grapple Science product a cognitive enhancer?

Winning the mental game is the most important aspect of sports performance.  During BUD/S (the training program for Navy SEALs), the majority of candidates fail training because the crack mentally.  They lose focus, they get fatigued, and ultimately get weak and quit training. These unsuccessful candidates are physically top tier athletes; however, when they break mentally they fail.

The brain is also the most overlooked part of the anatomy when it comes to sports nutrition.  We wanted to attack this problem first.  Grappling requires athletes to persevere under extreme duress and discomfort.  Cognition helps athletes stave off fatigue, make quick decisions, and stay sharp.

How does Grapple Science Cognition fit into my current supplement stack?

With Grapple Science Cognition, you can reduce your caffeine intake substantially and get off the vicious cycle of energy drinks. Cognition provides a boost to mental energy without the side effects of caffeine, like increased heart rate, blood pressure, dehydration, and crash.

The majority of products on the market today contain stimulants, which may seem great at first, but they will lead to rapid decline in grappling performance.  You may initially get a boost of power, but you will lack the endurance to perform at a high level over an enduring period.

In order to excel, you need calm, focused energy. That’s what Cognition provides.  Cognition can replace pre-workouts as its ingredients stimulate blood flow and nitric oxide production.  Finally, Cognition is unique in the nootropic category in that it also enhances mood and mind-body connection by restoring dopamine levels.  This, alongside of cutting edge ingredients like NooLVL, makes it a superior choice for grapplers.

How will Cognition help you become a better combat athlete?

Cognition will give you calm energy for performance. It will improve your focus and retention of techniques in class, training and competition. It will give you the mental endurance to stay at high level longer as you compete, and it will improve you mood and motivation, helping you get up and go on that days that you feel lazy, weak, or just don’t want to train. Here’s a little bit more about how Cognition delivers a performance boost.

Mood —> Cognition improves your mood state. You will enjoy a higher quality training experience and train more often. This will improve your game.

• L-Dopa increases your dopamine levels which improves your mood and helps with mind-body connection

• Lion’s Mane has been shown to reduce anxiety and depressive symptoms

• Alpha-GPC improves mood by increasing dopamine release

Focus —> Cognition helps you be present in the moment and stay focused. You will get more out of your training when you are able to clear your mind and focus on learning.

• NooLVL and Lion’s Mane increase blood flow to the brain supporting memory, focus, and clarity, helping punch through the brain fog and stay in the moment.
• Alpha-GPC increases chemicals in the brain that are important for memory and learning functions.
• Huperzine A helps you with memory and recall. It is widely known for its neuroprotective qualities.

Energy —> Cognition provides you with incredible non-stimulant energy with customers claiming that it lasts 8-12 hours. This will help you train longer or stack in multiple training sessions per day. Also, you will sleep better without the trailing impact of caffeine, which will aid in your recovery.

• Vitamin B-12 helps your body convert the food you eat into glucose which increases your energy levels
• NooLVL (studied on gamers) increases your energy level, stimulates nitric oxide production and helps keep you going under intense cognitive demand
• Alpha GPC has been shown to increase power output in athletes, in addition to its neuroprotective and mood enhancing properties.

What can customers expect next from Grapple Science?

We have some incredibly unique products under development that complement Cognition and support the overall health, wellness, and performance of grappling athletes. Grappling has become a lifestyle and community.  People who begin training tend to stick around for a long time. We want to create products that support the lifecycle of grapplers to help improve performance and protect joints while helping build and maintain lean muscle mass. To that end, we have a hydration product in development that is unlike anything available on the market today. We also have a rapid recovery product on the market that will help the body manage the physical stress that comes with this sport.

How can people get Grapple Science?

Our product is available on our website www.grapplescience.com and we are beginning to sell at academies across the county as well. You can use the code FUJI20 to enjoy a first time customer discount of 20% off on anything on our website. Likewise, we have a program running with Fuji right now where you can try a 3 day sample pack for $1. Here are the links to Cognition and the sampler deal.

https://grapplescience.com/products/cognition

https://grapplescience.com/products/fuji-grapple-science

Thank you!