Insight Part 2

Q: How many psychotherapists does it take to change a lightbulb?

A: One. But first the lightbulb must be motivated to change.

It's an old joke but one that rang true for me as a substance misuse worker (Drug Counsellor). I lost count of the number of times I heard colleagues talk about clients “....you see he's just not motivated to change, there's nothing I can do to help him.” Perhaps I even rolled the same hackneyed line out myself when frustrated with the lack of progress a client was making. I don't believe it any more if I ever did.

What's this got to do with reflections on my recent(ish) experience of competing?

Motivation.

Once I'd competed I had a real sense of there being no need for, and therefore no point to training, watching my diet, working on conditioning. After all, I'd done what I set out to do, I'd even won my fight and lost a significant (20lbs+) amount of weight in the process. I was a bit lost.

It was amazing to realise that I'm a person who needs an end goal to aim for, or if not needs then benefits from having a target. That's the first point I want to make. It would be easy and clichéd to talk about this as having been a journey and having discovered new things along the way, but it would also be true. I found out:

1. That I can benefit from setting goals if...
2. ...they're real and
3. ...meaningful and
4. ...I actually CARE about achieving them.

So much has been written about goal setting that I'm not going to rehash it all here and contribute to the 95% of psychobabble that passes for goal setting advice. My experience was that having a goal I cared about and could conceivably achieve gave me the motivation to hurt, ache, eat a lot of fish and greens and drag my sorry backside on to the mat or in to the gym five nights a week for three months. But that wasn't the only thing that kept me going.

People did. Firstly, I told people what I was trying to do – at work, at home, at the gym. When you tell a lot of people whose opinion you respect about your goal you'd better deliver. When Nathan (Head Coach) at the gym found out what I was aiming for he talked to me about it and when asked said, yes, it was possible. That was important. Someone else believed I could do it. Other more experienced fighters at the gym also helped with training, especially sparring, and never intimated that it wasn't worth training me, especially guys like Jake Constantinou who had his own fight in Japan to prepare for but still spent time with the beginner amateurs. Finally, John and Rob who were competing in their first MMA competition were great training partners and motivators. I hope I served them the same.

The final group of people who provided motivation were the faceless forum members on T-Nation and Ross Training. Not only did I get some really positive and encouraging comments on my training log but whenever I felt like sitting a session out or taking it a bit easy or not hitting a number of reps I'd think of what I'd be putting in my log. What would it look like if I didn't post any training or if what I did post was weak. Shallow, maybe, but helpful all the same.

Outside of people, I've always found motivation in the writing of others. I've written about them before but whenever I need a literary shot in the arm I go to:

• Dan John Strength, conditioning, athleticism, rambling, eccentricity.
• Jim Wendler Strength, conditioning, misanthropy, Drone/Grind/Dark metal.
• Marshall D. Carper Cauliflower Chronicles easily bears repeated reading and inspires.
• Sam Sheridan Fighter's Heart and Fighter's mind are required reading

It's not just about the information contained in these authors' books, it's that the stories they tell inspire. Quality information does not necessarily an inspiring read make. The story and the writing have to be good.

Finally, I'm a sucker for documentaries. When they're good (cast + story + direction + quality) I can draw a lot of motivation from them, specifically:

• Strong (Joe DeFranco)
  
  
  
  
• Choke (Rickson Gracie)
  
  
  
  
• Rites of Passage (Bobby Razak)
• UFC all access series.
  
  
  
  
• Destiny (Kostya Tszyu)
• Legacy (Renzo Gracie)

I'm sure there's more that I'm forgetting but you get the idea.

To summarize, for me to ensure my motivation it is important to: 

1. Have a goal - achievable, realistic, worthwhile, specific.
2. Be surrounded by the right people.
3. Know what inspires and use it - preventatively and reactively.

I know that I'm working on all three again, when I've got a goal I'll let you know.

I could write more on this and maybe I will in future, but for now Good Luck and Godspeed!

Job Done

Leicester Shoot Crew, from third from front left: John, me, Rob, Nayan, Levo, Daywalker

And so the journey comes to an end.

Last Sunday I was part of a four man team from Leicester Shootfighters that competed in the Combudo Amateur MMA tournament in Milton Keynes. Those of you who've followed the blog up to this point will know that this is the culmination of seventeen months of training, the last two being significantly tougher through the addition of sparring sessions in to my training schedule.

The fight itself seemed to be over in a flash and conducted at a lightning pace, though how much of that was due to my emotional/mental state – I don't remember much of it in any detail - and how much to the actual pace of the fight... In one light it seems crazy to have trained for even the last two months for 3 minutes of scrapping but in hindsight I know that I would have liked to have done more rolling, sparring and conditioning work in preparation to compete, that it would've made me able to do better than I did. Ah, hindsight, the only truly exact science...

The Friday two days prior to Combudo I weighed just under 96kg on the scales that I have been using since January. On the day of the competition I weighed in at 98kg. I knew I was pretty much bang in the middle of the 90 – 100kg with little chance of being over or under so I didn't attempt to cut any weight and ate pretty much whatever I felt like. I was far more concerned with running out of energy due to getting my diet wrong than with hitting any target weight.

As is the norm for me, my opponent was at least four inches taller than me and went off at a blistering pace utilising his reach advantage to land what felt like plenty of strikes. I was struggling to get my punches and kicks off first and grabbed a knee on a couple of occasions without managing to finish a takedown. Finally, realising that I wasn't going to win the fight standing I fully committed to a shot and a (single? Double-leg?) takedown. Rather than try to finish it by pivoting or going to the corner, I drove through taking him to the mat on his back. It's difficult to recall much detail but essentially I passed guard to the side and, despite Leicester Shoot Head Coach Nathan Leverton telling me to improve my position, maintained side control in spite of my opponent's best efforts to escape, and laid in to some ground 'n' pound. Not pretty, but it got the job done and got my the decision win. Looking back I would've liked to have moved to mount but on the couple of occasions that I tried I felt like I was losing the dominant position. As it was I moved between north-south and side control as well as switching hand positions to maintain control. If I showed any grappling skill it was through the maintenance of the dominant position.

As an aside, as I was working to stay in side control a female supporter of my opponent was shouting 'he's got nothing!'. This riled me a bit and I have to admit put a bit of spite behind my punches as well as drawing a little chat from me to my opponent(!).

The whole experience taught me a lot and in the next post I'll reflect on what I learnt. One thing I do know, this part of the journey may be over but I think there's further I'd like to travel....

Dean Lister Seminar at Leicester Shootfighters

This Wednesday I had the privilege of training with The Boogeyman himself – Dean Lister. Dean has given a seminar at Leicester Shootfighters previously but I was fairly new back to training so didn't feel confident attending, so glad I did this time.

Dean set the tone for the session as soon as he came in, getting on the mat and shaking the hand of everyone on the mat, and the mat was packed. Taking us through a warm-up that he promised wouldn't be hours of running, Dean focused on a quick jog round the mat before some tumbling and then a shrimping drill for which he first demonstrated correct technique and some details that make a difference when hip escaping. He also used the drill as an opportunity to provide correction or coaching for those needing it.

The seminar moved on apace but Dean's coaching style makes it easy to pick things up. There's a fine line between not showing a technique, drill, etc. enough and showing it too much – For me, Dean gets it just right and is able to illustrate his point through experiential anecdotes. After all, whether it's ADCC, PrideFC, UFC, KOTC, whatever, he's been there and probably has a story to tell. Anyway, Dean showed some interesting side control positions and attacks. Starting with shoulder pressure in to the downed man's face(!) that turns his head away from you (can't see what you're doing) and it makes it difficult for him to turn in to the top man to effect an escape. From the control position the far hand/arm is freed up to attack the leg by grabbing it. As the guy on the bottom tries to flatten down it leaves him open to a pass to mount.

Dean showed another crazy detail from side mount - basically changing hand position in order that you exert pressure with your thumb in to the soft part of the bottom guy's shoulder blade. It's such a small difference and it sounds like nothing but it hurts. A lot. Especially combined with the shoulder pressure in to the head. Dean showed another pass from here that involved putting your head on the mat to the far side of the bottom man. All really easily learnt but seemingly very effective.

At the request of Nathan Leverton Dean showed some stuff from the over-under guard pass position including an entry in to a footlock position (Dean asked that those with cameras & phones didn't splash this all over the internet!) and a kneebar with the legs when the pass is stuffed. Essentially it involves figure-fouring the leg with your own and using them as a fulcrum. It takes a little manoeuvring to find the the right leverages but when it's on, it's on.

We moved to learning the 'armless triangle', i.e. the triangle choke that doesn't require you to have your opponent's arm trapped. Now, try as we might neither I, nor my training partner John, could make this work – our legs and arms were just too short! We called Dean over to get some help and he stopped the class to show us all what we could do in this situation – the Fatboy Triangle. This is a variation that does require trapping the arm but doesn't need the legs locked in the figure four. The legs are kept locked at the ankles whilst the head is pulled down, the legs pulled in and the heels down....simultaneously. Dean explained that this choke/crank takes quite a lot of energy and that if you don't get it I the first 8 seconds you need to think about transitioning to something else. Having experienced the choke/crank first hand I can attest to the effectiveness. Oh, and it's called the Fatboy as it's used by a training partner of Dean's who is a ringer for Shrek! (allegedly).

The final thing that Dean showed us was a Kimura variation shown below. Again, the details make all the difference.

This seminar was awesome, Dean's a fantastic coach and and entertaining one at that. All the things he showed were easily picked up and his coaching style allowed me to retain pretty much everything that I learnt over the 2+ hours. Nathan and Rob keep bringing fantastic coaches to Leicester Shootfighters for seminars, a great way to learn some new stuff from another source. I'll be keeping an eye out for other seminars in the new year and if The Boogeyman is planning a return , I'll be one of the first to put my name down.

Circuitry

Last week I arranged things so that I could get to a grappling session followed by striking training (Good training economy) at Leicester Shootfighters. True to form I got stuck in traffic on my way from work to the gym with no chance of arriving in time for the grappling session. I really wanted to get to the grappling class as I'd been re-reading Marshall D Carper's excellent 'Cauliflower Chronicles' and realised that the violent allure of MMA often distracts me from my Jits. Rather than let my frustration get the better of me and become anger (see last post for details!) I decided to just get to the gym and make the most of the session that I could get to.

Following a good session on kicking, Mark, a training partner asked me if I was staying on for the fitness/conditioning session. To be honest, I told him, I didn't think that I'd last the course....however I watched part of the warm up and decided to go for it.

We spent some time moving down the mat in various ways, chosen ourselves – cartwheels, bearcrawls, boxing footwork, lunges, etc. Then moved on to the meat of the session, circuits. The circuit consists of six stations each with two exercises. Each exercise is done for one minute, rest thirty seconds, then perform the second exercise for one minute before moving on to the next station. This week's circuits consisted of:
Bagwork + pressups with one hand on a floor bag.
Medball slams + bobbing and weaving along a length of elastic at head height.
Partner crunch medball passes + plank.
Burpees + Mountain-climbers (This hurt)
Dumbell shadow boxing + sit-through/hip heist drill.
Powerbag squats + calf raises.

When I look at this now it seems fairly benign but when I was in it, it was painful. I found that it was a lot more difficult than the circuits I've set for myself and maybe this is due to a few things – familiarity of exercises and order of exercises, going for a minute as opposed to 30 – 45 seconds and being in a group/partner environment in which I'm bound to push myself harder than if I'm training on my own. We finished with a nice stretching & relaxation session led by JD Hylton. As it stands I think I'll be going back to the fitness sessions, apparently the circuits can get much, much harder.....

Frustrating times....

When I'm thinking about what to write here it sometimes seems that all I talk about it how tough it is to find time to train, how injuries stop me training, how things get in the way - moaning basically.  Don't misunderstand, I don't think that I've got things bad, there are guys and gals out there fitting training and competing in wherever they can, the net's full of tales of getting up at 5am to train, or slotting training in around work and life as a single parent.

I guess that what makes the topic of frustration really pertinent to this blog is that trying to be a husband, father, employee, son, student, etc. whilst trying to improve one's chances of being able to fight in 12 - 18 months and not be a complete embarassment...... well, it shows that this really is a young, single man's game.  Now, I'm not saying that I wish I didn't have the responsibilities of being a father, a partner, having a relatively senior job and living parents.  No, what I'm saying is that in the scheme of things, family and the security of a good job are more important than training.  

I love training and there's no doubt that it really supports good mental health, but my kids won't be young forever and time spent with them is incalcuably precious.  I'm reminded of a recent conversation with a a chap at the gym.  He was telling me how his ex-partner won't let him see his kids and that training was a way of relieving the stress and anger that that causes him.  Taken in light of this guy's situation I'll take parent's evenings, school functions and being Dad's Taxi Service any day of the week.

So, what prompted this post?  Following a two-week lay off due to the gym being closed plus a shitty week at work I was really in need of getting to training at Leicester Shoot - there's only so much you can do at home on your own right?  I planned meticulously around family commitments, squared it with my boss to finish work a bit earlier and.......traffic, traffic, traffic.....thwarted every mile of the way!  I work about 30 miles from the gym (I live about 40 from work) so there's plenty of potential to get caught in a snarl up.  After an hour and a half in the car I gave up and arrived home in a stinker (though I really was trying not to take it out on anyone else).

This reminded my of something Jim Wendler said in an interview:

Why would you sacrifice this one life that you have for just training? Everybody has their
own set of gifts, and those things can develop or change over time. But if you're always on
Blast mode in the gym, everything else just gets thrown to the side. Sometimes, you need to
step back and take notice of other things; especially the people who've helped you the most,
and matter the most.
Wherever you are, that's where you should be. So if you're at work, be at work. If you're at
home, be at home. If you're with your buddy, be there for him. In other words, don't constantly be thinking about training when you're at the park
with your kid: If you have a bad day at the gym, don't take it out on your wife or your kid.
They didn't have anything to do with it. It's a fucking squat.

Seems like pretty sage advice, and not a little Zen either(!) but that's for another post.  I guess what I've learnt is that if I'm to achieve my goal I've got to make it happen, just not at the expense of everything else that's going on.  I've got a loving family that I need and that needs me, and they understand that I need to train in order to be who I, and they, need me to be.  It's a long haul not a sprint, and life won't end just because I can't get to a training session.

Okay, got it out of my system.  Finally, I wanted to link to some videos of the Leicester Shoot boys in action at a recent amateur event.  Lukasz in particular did a great job.  Trained with him a few times and he's a nice guy and a beast.  

Until next time.....

Scramblog

Just wanted to post up a link to the Scramblog.  I love  the style that Scramble have made their own, really fresh with a Japanese flavour.  Aside from selling cool clothing and fightwear the site also has an excellent blog.

Most recently there's been an excellent article about the practice of strength and conditioning periodisation and how it can be implemented by combat athletes.  There is a lot of periodisation information out there but what marks this article out is the accessible style and the real-world-implementation that the author William Wayland lays out for the reader.  Essentially periodisation is a way to organise training in order to progress an athlete's strength and conditioning in order to prepare, usually, for a specific event.  Wayland explains a fight specific method of periodisation, dispensing with as much of the jargon as possible in favour of making the information as accessible and implementable as possible.

Anyway, it's an excellent read and well worth checking out here.  Wayland's own page is also worth checking.

Catching up...

Time for a quick round up to get the blog back on track...

Up to June I had been pleased with my progress. I'd maintained a consistent pattern of training at Leicester Shoot and felt that I was improving. The conditioning still had a long way to go but even that was getting better. The came June, and with it massive work stress requiring extra attention, family members in hospital, an injured shin, a skin infection in the other shin and now finally a nasty gash in the previously injured shin! (Walked in to a broken sheet of glass). All-in-all this has led to me missing 3 – 4 weeks of training and feeling not a little pissed off.

Still, it's a case of train what you can, when you can. I can't deadlift but I can press, clean & use the trapbar. I can't grapple or kick with my left leg but I can box and kick with the right. When I've been pressed for time I haven't stressed about what I'm not doing, just found ways to get some work in – 15 mins of barbell complexes for example.

My last session at Leicester Shoot was an MMA sparring class. It's difficult for me to get to these as I need to look after my youngest on this evening so this was the first I'd been to in a while. Anyway, it was a testing session, building up from drills to limited sparring and then in to less limited for 3 minute rounds. By the time we'd finished I needed to sit for 15 minutes before leaving the gym, and I still looked like this....

 Boxing tonight, on we go....

PS I know I keep saying it but I really am going to try to update more often and add content.

Circuits

I've long been a fan of fight/skill specific circuits as a way of improving conditioning and power endurance for combat sports.  YouTube has hundreds of examples of the circuits used by pro and amateur fighters alike.

The idea of course is to simulate the type of exertion specific to fighting through the performance of exercises that place similar demands on the athlete, over the same period of time for which they will be fighting.  In this respect exercise selection is crucial, as is equipment.

IHP who worked with Jeff Monson and ATT have used this approach with success.

One of the great things about circuits is that you can switch them up and experiment with different exercises, durations and the equipment used which helps to stave off boredom as wells as ensuring that adaption is avoided, whilst stressing and conditioning the necessary aspects of the body and system.  You can perform a set number of reps or as many as possible within a time frame.

Recently I decided to collate all the circuits I've used over the years - I've detailed them below.

3 min run
Band Rotations	Superset with	Sandbag Clean & Press
Recline Pull		Dumbell Snatch
5 x 10 sec sprints

In this circuit perform the superset exercises for 10 reps.  Where going to one side (rotations) or using one arm (snatch) go for 10 each arm.

Run	1 Minute
Box	1 Minute
Knees	1 Minute
Dummy Lift	10 Reps
Heavybag Kicks	20 each side
Band Pull	20 each side
Sprawl	10 Reps

In the circuit above, set a time to beat - I like 6mins,

Landmine Press and Band Pull	10 Each Arm
Band Twist	10 Each Side
Dummy Lift	10 Reps
Landmine Twist	10 Reps
Band Lunge	10 Each Legs
Recline Pull	8 Reps
Hanging Leg Raises	10 Reps
Sprawl	10 Reps

Deadlift	6 Reps
Dumbell Press	6 Reps Each Arm
Dumbell Swing	6 Reps Each Arm
Sandbag Row	6 Reps
Sandbag Squat (bag on shoulder)	6 Reps Each Shoulder

40 seconds of each back to back

Heavybag punch

Sprawl

Sandbag shoulder

Sit through

Dummy ground 'n' pound

Dummy lift

Plank

Resistance band shoot

Sandbag bearhug

Heavybag punch

With all of these I tend to go through 2 - 3 'rounds' with minimal break to ensure that I get a good blast.
Anyway, next time you're bored or stuck for conditioning ideas, try one of these.  You can thank me later.

Training, training and more training...

Some great training recently at Leicester MMA. Last month's stand up training concentrated on clinch range fighting. The last few sessions were spent working the underhook and thai plum in order to strike. The classes were taken by Nathan Leverton and his usual attention to the details that can be the difference between a technique's success or failure was again in evidence. Nathan spent time ensuring that the basics of each position and the ability to establish dominant control was developed and drilled – pummelling for the underhook and establishing and maintaining inside control with the plum as well as the underhook – before adding in punches and knees.

During the last session, even though we were only drilling, my training partner and I experienced the crescendo effect, whereby the intensity of the drill spirals upwards until you're almost sparing. All the coaches at Leicester Shoot expend a lot of energy reminding classes of the need to relax, slow down and learn. It's a lesson we could all learn occasionally.

This month we're going to be working on guard – playing and passing, I'm especially looking forward to the passing work. Anyway, aside from MMA training, I've been able to fit in two strength sessions each week alongside some conditioning work. The conditioning has included strongman medley, sled pulling and bag work. Strength-wise I'm continuing to stick with 5/3/1.

More to post I the next few days, take care.

Little and Large

As a short, heavier man I'm always interested in how shorter fighters deal with taller opponents, anyone that I fight is likely to be much taller than me.
Jeff Monson is an example of a fighter who, due to being short and having a shorter reach than most of those at his weight, has to close the distance a great deal during his fights.  If you watch his fight with Daniel Cormier Monson struggled to effectively close the distance to strike, clinch or get the takedown.  When you consider that Cormier is only a few inches taller than Monson you can only imagine the difficulties that Jeff had with the six-foot-eight Tim Sylvia who's nearly a foot taller!

Randy Couture, though nowhere near as short as Monson, also had to solve the conundrum of Sylvia's size at UFC 68. 

In a classic fight Couture used a lead inside leg kick to close the distance, unbalance and distract Sylvia before launching a big overhand right that took his opponent off his feet and to the canvas.  Although he couldn't finish the fight, Couture controlled and dominated the fight taking the Heavyweight Championship from Sylvia where Monson and Andre Arlovski failed.

Since I first saw this fight back in 2007 I've trained this combo though I've yet to have an opportunity to try it on a live opponent.  More importantly, it's a great example of being able to draw an idea from a real-life fight and incorporate it in your training.  Key to this, though, is not choosing a fighter who is very attribute based, simply, someone who does things that others can't - Anderson Silva, Jon Jones, BJ Penn, Shinya Aoki.  Pick the skill, learn it, drill it, use it.

The Whizzer

Last week's submission grappling training centred around The Whizzer, again taught by Nathan Leverton.  Maybe I was tired after work or not quite recovered from a bout of cold virus, but I had real difficulty getting hold of this technique and keeping it in my head.  Don't misunderstand - I've worked Whizzers in the past, but the transitions to other positions & submissions just wouldn't stick in my mind.  Oh well.
There was a lot in this lesson:

• Head position
• Wrist control
• Peeling the wrist off
• Transitioning from collar tie, underhook.
• Transitioning to headlock/snapdown
• The Marcelotine (!)
• The Anaconda choke 

The Marcelotine was new to me and a real eye opener- literally - as the choke comes on quickly and particularly hard against the windpipe.  Nasty.

I'd studied the Anaconda previously but still managed to completely mess it up on my first attempt.


I've decided to keep a kind of training journal that records details of the training at Leicester MMA.  This is not a diary type journal but more a way of ensuring that I remeber things through the act of writing them down.  I can also revisit my notes, like a kind of revision, so that I can try to cement techniques and key details in my mind.  I'll let you know how this goes.


More posts soon, lots to write up from the last week.....

Training at Leicester MMA

I've not been able to put as much work in this week as I'd hoped – lots of family stuff going on in addition to work. However, I have made a big step forward by returning to Leicester Shootfighters. My first session was submission grappling focusing on side control. The session was taught by Liam Corrigan an Assistant Coach with a fine pedigree in grappling and MMA competition.

On entering the gym I was amazed to see a large class, much larger than the classes were last time I attended, taking part in a boxing class run by JD Hylton. The energy level of the participants was impressive and all seemed to be getting to grips with JD's instruction pretty easily, Many stayed on the mat for the submission grappling class.

After a comprehensive warm-up Liam took us through a selection of bridging and shrimping drills. These are key skills in grappling & I remember Nathan Leverton saying many moons ago, that anyone who wants to be remotely proficient on the mat needs to have these skills down (I'm paraphrasing here). There was obviously a good mix of skill on the mat and a range of ages, whilst I wasn't the oldest I was certainly at that end of the spectrum. We then moved on to a good look at utilising side control, maintaining position, switching control to respond to opponent moving. Moving on, Liam took the class through positioning for head and arm triangle choke during which he showed some details that really make a difference with regard to getting or missing the choke – excellent stuff. Finally, we went through moving to North-South and taking the armbar from mount.

It was a great reintroduction to submission grappling and Liam's teaching has stayed in my brain which can only mean it was good.

This week I'm planning on going to a MMA striking class and a grappling class.

Watch this space.