We live at a strange time, as evidenced with the draconic fine of Nick Diaz for cannabis use when so many of his peers succumb to using steroids. Still some grapplers are openly embracing cannabis as a part of their training & recovery regimen. Those guys will be gathering over the weekend in San Jose for the world’s first Cannathlete Seminar program open to public.

Jake Shields is among the most prominent athletes in attendance. He is a welcome addition on any rooster and particularly the submission only ones in the bjj community. At this even he will be co-hosting one part of the series with 3x Jiu Jitsu World Champion – 10th Planet’s Denny Prokopos. This part will be all about optimizing mental and physical performance with cannabis.

Shields is open to discussing the way he manages competitive nerves through diet and strength conditioning while Prokopos will be sharing a series of breathing, meditation and self-defense exercises in addition to optimizing performance with weed.

Prokopos hit it off immediately with one head of a sponsoring company:

“From the beginning we have shared the same vision, which is, basically: jujitsu, cannabis, health, success, recovery, positive mental attitude — and we want to contribute. We see that cannabis, jujitsu, strength and conditioning, meditation, and yoga — things of those natures and recovery — go hand and hand.”

Denny added, “We want to put something together that is unique, that hasn’t been done, and we think people will like it. This is something that I have been doing for a very long time myself — I am the lab rat on everything for this. I love it; it is my whole lifestyle.”

Shields added:

“It is a big crossover between jujitsu guys, MMA guys and cannabis,” he explained. “I would say half, if not more of the guys smoke, a lot of them not openly. I think more guys feel like they can come out about it now with the climate change” in favor of legalization. “It is a big part of the training for a lot of people. I definitely don’t smoke every day, but sometimes it is a good way to go in there and smoke a little bit and be a little more creative — like sometimes when you are in a big training camp before a competition, it really makes training fun again.”