The Jiu Jitsu Laboratory

Looking through blogs recently and came across this.  There's a lot of great Jits content on this blog including this cracking instructional.

There's profiles, reviews and plenty of footage.  Well worth checking out.

Listen up.

I recently realised that when it comes to strength, conditioning and scrapping there are a few guys who I genuinely respect for one reason or another and whose writing I generally trust and seek out.  The benefits of good teaching are not lost on me, my Dad always told me 'learn from my mistakes so you don't have to make your own'.  It's telling that in japanese, 'sensei', often used to mean teacher can be literally translated as 'one who has already travelled the road and can show the way'.  Or something like that.  So, with that said, it's important to find teachers that we can trust to show us the way, especially if we're going to invest valuable resources - not least of which being time - in obtaining their knowledge.

So, without further ado, and at great personal risk of being labelled a nut-hugger, ass-kisser, fanboy, etc. here's Part One in my list of 'Senseis'.

Dan John

The older I get the more Dan John's writing resonates for me.  Sure, the guy tends to ramble a bit and it's not always entirely clear what he's getting at, but when it comes to sensible, balanced advice on training for sports, coaching, older athletes and olympic lifting as well as a different take on life (see Work, Rest, Play, Pray) Coach Dan John is my go to man.  This is a guy who has been down the road and most importantly, is still making that journey as he approaches middle age.  Sure, he's not a fighter, but he knows an awful lot about lifting, getting strong, coaching throwers, improving athletic performance and fitting training in to real life.  When I need motivation, ideas to freshen up training or just some outlines and plans for fitting some training in, I look to Dan.

Jim Wendler

Why Wendler?
1.  He has cool tattoos.
2.  He has a cool beard.
3.  He squatted 1000lbs in his powerlifting days.
4.  He likes the most unlistenable music on the planet (Iron Monkey, Indian,Lord Mantis).
5.  He wrote 5/3/1: The Simplest and Most Effective Training System to Increase Raw Strength.  I had been lifting for nearly 20 years when I read this.  I wish I'd read it 20 years ago.  I now recommend it to anyone wanting to be strong.  All my lifting is based on this.
6.  He wrote this:


Don't fall for that crap that people are peddling on the message boards, in magazines or on TV.
Get your shit in order, and get your training in order.
Start kicking ass, and take out the crap that doesn't matter.
Start doing and believing in the stuff that works, and do it today and forever.
You want science and studies? Fuck you, I've got scars and blood and vomit.
This is a call to arms for some of you. It is for me too.
Stop all the things that make you a pussy and steal your energy.
Get your life back. - Jim Wendler

Nathan Leverton

I thought for a while about putting Nathan in - not because I doubt him, just because I don't want to be a suck-butt.  I have trained on and off with Nathan at Leicester Shootfighters for almost 10 years now.  If I'd been consistent I'd be.... well, better than I am now.  Nathan is friendly, a very good teacher and communicator, intelligent and an extremely good grappler (probably an understatement). But don't just take my word for it...


“I was introduced to and guided through my MMA career by Nathan Leverton. I came to him a few years ago with very little knowledge about MMA and now I fight in the UFC. He is a genuine person who is putting his heart and time into helping me achieve my potential. For all those who wish to learn grappling or any from of MMA, wether it be a beginner or a professional fighter, then Nathan is the man to see. I have not come across better.”

- Andre Winner
UFC Fighter
The Ultimate Fighter Season 9 Finalist

“Nathan Leverton has a deep understanding of submission wrestling and mixed martial arts. this along with his patience and natural teaching ability makes him a great coach. Leicester Shootfighting is a great place for people at any level, from beginner to professional fighter” .

- Dan “The Outlaw” Hardy
UFC Fighter
Cage Warriors World Champion
GCM Cage Force Tournament Finalist

“Nathan is a highly technical and skilled submission wrestler. Added to this he is an excellent instructor with patience and natural teaching ability. He can train anyone at any level from novice to seasoned professional. Anytime I come back to England I make sure to get as much time as possible with Nathan to learn the most up to date and effective moves.”

- James “Lightning” Wilks
UFC Fighter
The Ultimate Fighter Season 9 Winner

“Awesome grappler, great coach, and genuine person, with an open mind to learning, not what it says in the book, but what works.”

- Paul “Semtex” Daley
Former UFC Fighter
Cage Rage Champion
FX3 Champion
EliteXC and MFC veteran.

“Nathan is a great coach and very friendly guy! he knows his stuff and is constantly on the look out to further his knowledge which he is all to keen to share. i learnt a lot from him, and look forward to workin with him again in the future.”

- “Slick” Nick Osipczak
UFC Fighter
The Ultimater Fighter Season 9 UK Team Member

“Nathan’s a good friend and a fantastic coach – his team’s record this year should speak for itself! I always enjoy training with the Leicester shoot guys and girls, and inevitably come away with some crucial pointers to tighten up and improve my game.”

- Rosi Sexton
Top 5 World Ranked Female fighter
Cage Warriors Female World Champion

“Nathan Leverton is not only a brilliant grappler with a great style, he is an amazing teacher that can adapt to his pupils attributes to teach a style that may be very different from his own but much more suitable.”

- Dean Amasinger
The Ultimater Fighter Season 9 UK Team Member

Part Two coming soon...

Zen and the Art of Training

A bit off topic this one but I haven't posted for a while and these thoughts presented themselves.

I've had a very busy and pretty stressful time of late, mostly down to work but just because you're busy at work doesn't mean that all the other stuff - family, school, university - goes away.  And in this context, quite often, training comes at the bottom of the list.  Quite a few people I respect have written about this, the way that we view training as only being of benefit to ourselves and somehow selfish.  Therefore, when we've other obligations, training tends to take a backseat.  This is to ignore the fact that training often makes us better people, either immediately - I become more relaxed - or in the longer term - I am healthier and more able to deal with life's hurdles as well as play with my kids (and grandkids when they come along).  I'm not in to longevity for the sake of it, but I'll take a few extra years if there's some quality of life attached.  I've always been lucky in that my wife has always acknowledged the benefits that training has for me, not least it's role in promoting and maintaining positive mental health.  Because of this she will often point me towards training when she knows I'm having a particularly stressful time.

At the moment, finding the time & energy for training is tough but I'm trying to keep at least a base level of training going.  There is no other way if I really want to fight next year.

I've managed to maintain my regular training at Leicester Shoot and during my last session, after a particularly tiring and stressful day, I came to a realisation that there is a key lesson of Zen that can be found on the mat.  Especially with grappling, you really need to be 'fully there', on the mat, concentrating only on learning, drilling, feeling, trying, playing.  If your mind wanders away from a demonstration or from a drill, let alone from rolling, you won't get full benefit of the session.  I wouldn't goes so far as calling it a form of meditation, that's a phrase that's bandied around far too much.  I would say that it's important to maintain the focus on the moment that Zen teaches and places so much emphasis on.  I'd also say that the process of becoming distratcted and bringing your mind back to concentrate on what's being taught or trained is very much like the process of noticing thoughts and coming back to 'not thinking' that happens more often than not during zazen (meditation).  During my last session I really benefited from being on the mat, racing thoughts from the working day in my brain quieted in order to learn and be an effective training partner.  This, for me, is the Zen of training.

Caveat:  I should say that my Zen practice is no great shakes, and if you've read much of this blog you'll know that my fighting isn't either!

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

Haven't posted for a while and that kinda sums up how my time has been.  I've really struggled to balance work, Uni, family, etc and find time to train.

The Good

I have been able to maintain regular attendance at Leicester Shootfighters, whenever I've been really pushed for time I've prioritised training & learning.  As a result I've managed to improve my boxing a lot.  JD Hylton's tuition is excellent and I find it really easy to improve under his style of teaching.  I feel like my speed, relaxation, movement and technique has all improved.  At present we're body sparring but the option is there to attend a full sparring session to be organised soon.

The Bad

As my technique and my conditioning (sort of) has improved my strength has nose dived.  Seriously.  Wendler always says that as conditioning increases strength will drop.  In my case this is compounded by not training strength with anything approaching regularity or consistency.  The blow to the ego for someone who's lifted for 20 years is desperate.  Which leads me to.....

The Ugly

.....my technique on the lifts which has been absolute shit.  A recent set of presses was so bad, so mu ch leg drive that it was almost a jerk rather than a press.  To solve this I've reduced all my maxes for the upper body lifts so that I can get the work in and progress and get some volume.  I also need to put sled dragging back in to my programme - it seems to help with most things in life.

Anyhoo, on we go. 

Take care of yourself and if you've got any comments let's have 'em.

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.