What to do when you're not getting what you want

by Mike

If you've done the research and found a school you like, everything should be cool. However, there will be a time when you start thinking that you'd like (or need) something that your school isn't providing you, whether it's more intense training, management for a budding fighting career or even just classes in another art you've become interested in. Most often some reflection will show that your unease is actually a symptom that you are in the right place - you're learning a lot, but you want more. Sometimes, it will turn out that you simply need to be more assertive with the management in trying to structure your time there, but it could also be that you're in the wrong place.

If you do get the feeling that there, something missing, consider the following points before deciding whether to stick around or find a new school:

0. What is it that you want?

I don't understand how people who don't know what they want can expect others to know, but it happens disturbingly often. Before moving on, be sure that you know what it is you want and what will satisfy your desire. Failing to do this is a great way to ensure that you only get disappointed.

1. Does your school do what you want it to?

Even if you've gone through and picked a good school, it's entirely possible that you're not in the right spot. Most likely, you got started expecting to get one thing out of your training and as time progressed, you realized that you really want something else.

Instead of thinking, "damn, I should have known better," a more helpful way to think about this is to realize that your experience has given you a better opportunity to understand what it is that you're doing and what you really want out of your training. Now that you have a better idea what you want, you can go on to:

2. Can your school do what you want it to?

That is, are there enough like-minded people around willing to help you with what you want? Whether it's practicing MMA, getting better at your ground game, or working in the healing arts for a bit, your school might not have a dedicated class for that, but it may have enough interest for one.

If you've been there awhile, you'll be able to gauge interest pretty easily. One thing to be aware of is many people have better intentions than follow-through. In this case, you'll need to do some of the legwork yourself, setting up time, clearing getting space, or if need be, buying two pairs of MMA gloves so that when the guy who was all excited strangely never got around to getting his own pair has no excuse.

If you're new, or can't get any firm commitment from your classmates, it might be time to go to the management. Just asking around to see if they know someone at the school who will be able to help you will be a good way for them to see what expectations their students have and how they can be met.

Of course, not every school should be all things to all people - especially when you get into something as time-consuming as martial arts, dividing your attention leads to going nowhere fast. In that case, you'll need to ask yourself:

3. Should your school do what you want it to?

Not every school is going to benefit by throwing up a cage in the corner and buying a truckload of MMA Gloves the same way not every school is going to benefit from bringing in a swami to teach meditation classes. This could be a simple matter of economics, a scheduling issue or a more basic philosophic stance.

4. Do you really need to do [whatever]?

Is your desire to learn something new really going to helpful to you, or are you just interested in changing things up for the sake of changing things up?

5. Will they still love you if you go somewhere else?

The decision to leave your current school is a fairly big one, something that on the surface should be a simple business decision, but between the historic import that loyalty and established relationships gives, it might not be as easy as it seems like it should be.

That said, if your school turns out that it's not doing what you want it to, but rather not doing what you need it to, it might be time to research and find a new place to train.

CC-licensed flickr photo by nicolette wells.

Rules Compendium - Kickboxing, Boxing, MMA, Jiu-Jitsu & More!

by Mike

This is a directory of rules for events where WWNHH? type-folks tend to find themselves competing.

When reviewing the rules, note that it's the responsibility of the fighter and the cornermen and trainers to know, understand and hold to the rules. WWNHH? recommends that during training for a fight, someone act as a referee in order acclimate the competitor to the different pace of the fight when breaks and other directions are involved.

It is imperative that the fighters contact the promoter of the event and obtain and understand a current set of the rules governing the contest. It is possible that state athletic commissions or other entities may have rules that alter (or more likely add to) those below. Any questions about the rules should be clarified with the officials no later than the rules meeting.

MMA

Unified Rules - Note that the unified rules have recently been updated. Though not official, this document from MMAJunkie may prove enlightening.

Illinois Rules

Boxing

Amateur Boxing Contact USA Boxing for details

Association of Boxing Commission Rules

ABC Boxing Female Rules

World Boxing Association Rules (it's a pdf!)

Kickboxing

International Kickboxing Federation (IKF) Muay Thai and IKF General Rules

Federation Internationale de Savate

K-1 Rules

"American" Rules Kickboxing aka Full Contact (IKF) and IKF General Rules
Grappling

International Judo Federation (IJF)

NAGA

Pan-Ams/Mundials aka International Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Federation (IBJJF)

Abu Dhabi Submission Wrestling

Weapons

World Eskirma-Kali-Arnis Federation (WEKAF)

Dog Brothers Scroll down to "magic words."

Glossary: Ooking

Not to be confused with uke.

Ooking is a term wrestlers often use to describe the practice of re-setting yourself right before launching a technique. This could be stepping back before attempting a takedown, stepping forward before attempting a front-leg kick or pulling your hands back before a punch.

A clever opponent will pick up on these cues and be able to counter before the technique is launched - often when you are in a bad spot balance- or position-wise. It is difficult if not impossible to not ook at all, but one wants to make ooking as minimally as possible, or at least learn how to cloak it behind movement.

Aka telegraphing, telling or loading up.

The importance of following gym rules...especially if you're not at your gym

by Mike

We've covered etiquette when visiting a new school before, but the lesson seems to be lost on some people.

Not too long ago, I stopped a guy in the gym who wasn't wearing a gym-logod shirt. More properly, I stopped his buddy, who was a student there and should have known better. This other dude was probably in on a trial pass (our gym doesn't allow day passes nor outside trainers to come in) and so would have been told that rule.

The student played dumb, but agreed to tell his buddy ("just lend him one of yours" I said - it wasn't that big a deal). He promptly didn't tell his buddy and before I could mention it again (some guys really get rubbed the wrong way from violations of this rule and I wanted to make sure we took care of it before one of those guys showed up), one of those guys who really gets rubbed the wrong way from violations of this rule showed up.

Dude made a production of the injustice being done to him yet put on a shirt so fast it was obvious that he knew but flouted the rule.

Why? I don't know. The "you need to wear a gym-branded shirt in lieu of a gi/uniform" causes trouble at every gym I know of that enforces this rule. I've seen more guys pick fights over why they shouldn't have to wear a shirt with a logo on it than anything else.

But I digress.

There's really no excuse for not following rules at the gym, whether it's your own or one you're visiting. Especially one you're visiting. Though the days of dojo-storming are long gone, from the most pragmatic standpoint, you're showing up to a place where there are lots of people who are good at beating people up and who don't know you. That's just about the worst place to try to pick a fight if you ask me.

Then again as Coach Mills used to say, "common sense ain't so common."

For the etiquette-impared, here's a few things to keep in mind about following gym rules:

• Following rules is a sign of respect. This is about the most basic way to put it. Following rules shows that you're a member of the team. Following rules at the gym is not you proclaiming your subjugation to the Illuminati nor are they asking you to kiss anything under the tail and make renunciations of your own good sense.
  
  Rules are for stating things that should be obvious but apparently aren't. Likewise, rules codify behavior and inform you of the expectations of the community. Lists of rules are a good way for you to understand them them quickly get on with things. Sure, there are going to be many more unwritten understandings and unspoken expectations of you, but hey, if you get past the easy stuff, you'll figure the rest out.
  
  
• Rules are for quickly figuring out who can't be bothered and will likely hurt someone.
  
  
• Posted rules are there for a reason. If you have an issue with them, talk to the person who put them up.
  
  The reason for a given rule may have been valid once, but is no longer applicable, or it may have just seemed like a good idea at the time, but rules is rules and remember, you're a guest there.
  
  If you think the rules are stupid and you don't intend to follow them, find someplace else to train.
  
  
• If you are someone's guest, your behavior is a direct reflection on them. You can always leave and never come back, but your buddy doesn't necessarily have that option. He's also likely not going to want to spend the next month apologizing for whatever it is that you did.
  
  
• If you find yourself in violation of a gym rule, apologize, then stop doing it. Putting up a fight or getting snotty is a great way to find yourself getting kicked out.
  
  
• If you break a rule and get bounced for it, don't complain. If you do, and you complain about "them" being whiny bitches, you've likely just pegged yourself and have found a reason why they don't want you around.
  
  
• Just because you see some people (or even everybody) breaking a rule doesn't mean you get to do it too (unless you're specifically told otherwise). Slavoj Zizek has some interesting things to say about this, but we'll get into it at a later time. Needless to say, some people can get away with breaking rules. You're probably not one of them though.
  
  
• Insubordination is just as much a part of advancement as compliance (or something). You didn't hear that from me. Breaking the rules can help bind the group more cohesively than following them. Slavoj Zizek has some interesting thoughts on this subject.
  
  Use your common sense. "But you just said, 'common sense ain't so common.'" Then just put the shirt on and shut up.
  

CC-licensed photo by /<.

Review: Trader Joe's Go Raw Trek Mix - Individual Bags!

by Mike

One-Liner:

It might be a good idea to keep a couple of these in your bag in case you can't grab something to eat either before or especially after class.

Overview:

Trader Joe's Go Raw Trek Mix is a nice little bag of individually wrapped bit of nuts and raisins. The two biggest points about these are that they're already pre-packed for you, so you don't have to do the whole "two ziplock bags and a rubber band" thing to keep a regular bag of trail mix from spilling all over your bag and they don't soak the nuts and fruit in salt and sugar, which makes most trail mix taste like candy.

I like to keep three or four bags of these both in my gym bag and in my man purse. Keeping them in the gym bag has saved me from either starving to death when I get stuck on a particularly slow el train or grabbing some hot dogs while walking around.

The nuts in here are raw, which might save you from having an experience like DeVany.

The more motivated could certainly make their own, but as-is they're inexpensive enough that the extra hassle might not be worth it.

Contains: Raisins, Cashews, Walnuts, Almonds and Filberts (whatever those are).

The Good:

• Nutritional profile isn't bad. No sugar beyond what's in the raisins.
  
  
• Nice individual packets means you can throw them in your bag and keep them from spilling all over/soaking up that sweaty-gym-clothes smell.
  
  
• Break open one of these in front of your classmates and you'll make some new friends.
  

The Bad:

• Sometimes you end up with a bag of almost-all raisins. Ick.
  
  
• Make sure you've got some water to wash these down with otherwise things might get ugly.
  
  
• Kinda hard to open the packs without using a knife or teeth.
  

Recommendation:

So long as you're not allergic to the ingredients and too lazy to make your own, there's some good stuff in here.

Screencap of nutritional info from Fat Secret.

Don't be a nerd - no practicing in public

by Mike

This story about MMA fighter Chris Leben choking a dude unconscious in jail (and not under the conditions that you'd expect) illustrates something important:

You’d think that being a professional fighter might paint a target on his back, but Leben encountered more curiosity from his fellow inmates than anything else. They wanted him to show them some moves. Happy to oblige, he once demonstrated a choke on an inmate while 20 others watched.

“I told the guys it’s a blood choke, so you don’t have to squeeze hard,” he said. “So I was just kind of choking him with one arm while he’s standing up. And I told him just tap when you start to feel like you’re going to pass out. Well, he didn’t tap, and at the time I’m going wow, this guy’s pretty tough, I’m surprised he hasn’t tapped yet. He just drops to the floor in the cell.

“Now I’m standing there with 20 prisoners around and they’re freaking out. This guy’s laying there, snoring like crazy. I’m like ‘it’s all right, it’s all right,’ then I realize they have cameras in here. I’ve just choked this guy out in jail – I could get in trouble for this. I kept telling them, ‘he’s fine, he’s fine,’ and it took this guy a minute to wake up. Finally he woke up and we had a laugh, and luckily I didn’t get in any trouble for it.”

He's also lucky he didn't get hurt the guy or killed by his buddies.

The-important-thing-that-shouldn't-need-to-be-said: Don't be an idiot and be practice your skillz on random people. This isn't necessarily a "your art is sacred and you need to show it the utmost respect" deal so much as it is, "don't be recreationally practicing techniques designed to hurt people on people who don't know what you're doing, let alone what _they're_ doing and under conditions that aren't conducive for safety."

Doing stupid things in public to show off for your friends is bad enough - but at least if the only potential victim is a lamppost, you aren't going to hurt anyone but yourself. Practicing techniques on other people means that if someone gets hurt, it's likely to be someone else.

It's important to remember that martial arts involve a highly developed system of movement, both for getting other people into trouble and yourself out of trouble (i.e. attacks and defense). People who aren't familiar with these principles or techniques will panic and/or move in ways you don't expect, which could mean right into injury.

In the end, it's all about common sense. However, as Coach Mills used to like to say, "common sense ain't so common." Don't be stupid, save your training and practice for the gym and self-defense. Showing off for your buddies is never a good beginning for anything.

CC-licensed photo by konch.

Five tips for training in hot weather

by Mike

Now that summer's basically here, we're treated to girls wearing short skirts, being able to hang out on the beach after dark without freezing and nerds passing out in class because they don't want to have to be the first one to admit that maybe it's a little too hot and they're working a little too hard.

1. Take it easy for a few days! Training when it's 80* out is a lot different than when it's 60* or even 70*, especially after everyone gets worked up, starts sweating and suddenly the mirrors fog up and it's 95*+ in the room. Trying to work at your usual pace will tire you out and increase the risk of injury. Go easy for a few days until you both become acclimated to the new temperature as well as figure out where your limits are.
   
   
2. Drink lots of water! While working when it's hot out, you'll be sweating a lot more than usual, but only able to take in as much water as you can under other circumstances.
   
   To get all scientific, as Berardi notes in the Grappler's Guide to Nutrition, exercising in hot weather makes it possible (easy, even!) to lose more than of 1-2 liters of water in an hour. Considering that he also notes optimal water intake is 1/2 - 1 liter over an hour...you're in trouble!
   
   Keeping a water bottle handy during exercise is therefore a must, as it making sure that you're properly hydrated before starting to work out. What's properly hydrated? I've read anything from drinking 17-20oz one hour prior, to "eh, butch up you nance." Working with Berardi's numbers, 1 liter an hour before should allow you enough time to not only absorb everything but also enough to take a leak so you're not holding an extra couple pounds of water in your bladder by the time you hit the mat. But, as always, experiment.
   
   
3. It's OK to take a break! Even if you've made sure to stay hydrated and have been underworking on purpose, mistakes happen and sometimes you'll find yourself gasping for air and wanting to puke on your partner in the middle of a round. It may be time to take the next round off, or even the rest of the class.
   
   Sitting out for a round is much preferable to half-assing it while risking injury from overheating or just getting clobbered because you're sluggish and sloppy.
   
   For what it's worth, the one or two times that I had to take a knee, the response wasn't, "ha, look at that loser!" but rather, "crap, if Mike's taking a knee, this has to be pretty bad, I best slow down."
   
   
4. Keep your gear clean! The little nasty things that love warm, dark, wet places love summer because those places are warmer and wetter, if not necessarily darker. To decrease the risk of getting some funky thing/passing something funky along or just smelling like a jagoff, make sure to wash your clothes and hang your gloves out to dry properly.
   
   
5. Watch out for your classmates! Around my gym, there seems to be too much machismo when it comes to admitting that you need to take a break. No one wants to seem to be the first person who has to take a knee or otherwise sit out a round, so people have a tendency to work themselves harder than necessary until someone passes out and then suddenly, as if some magic threshold has been reached, everyone's all, "let me time the next round."
   
   As important as it is for you to understand and know where your limits are, it's equally important to watch out for your classmates who may either be too stubborn to quit or genuinely not know their limits. There's as little sense in pushing others into a dangerous situation as their is yourself. That said, it's much more difficult to tell other people that maybe they need to take it easy. Strangely, one of the responses to getting exhausted is to work harder - whether it's to "push" themselves past their barriers or to disguise their exhaustion (or any other reason besides), this is a bad place to be.
   
   "You OK?" is a bad question to ask in this situation as few will admit that they're not OK - the best you can hope for is the infamous, "I think I can do one more." Blunt is usually better in this situation - "dude, you don't look too good, why don't you take this one off?" If you get someone particularly stubborn, you may have no choice but to set the pace yourself and make it nice and slow.
   

For a refresher on what to do if someone passes out, read First Aid For Fighters: Fainting.

CC-licensed photo by Adrian Whelan.

Mailbag! Why is it called the Rear Naked Choke?

by Mike

What's with calling the RNC the "rear naked choke?" It makes Jiu-Jitsu sound...creepy.

As creepy as using the term "rear naked choke" may be, it's likely less frightening than the Portugeuse term mata leao, which translates as "lion killer;" so named because it's theoretically the only way a human can kill a lion with his bare hands.

The term "rear naked choke" itself comes from Judo, where the hadaka jime was one of Kodokan's 12 constriction techniques (where it translates as "naked strangle"). In this case, "naked" was used to mean that the choke could be executed without using the opponent's gi - as one would need to with other chokes like the kata-juji-jime. You could do it if you (and your opponent!?) were naked.

Maybe mata leao isn't so bad after all.

The RNC is also known as the sleeper or the LA choke.

Photo by Degerberg Academy

A Miscellany of Guards

by Mike

We've mentioned the Grapplearts newsletter before. If you're at all interested in grappling, it's a pretty useful tool, especially for beginners. The latest mailing links to a series of articles explaining a number of common guard variations.

Specifically,

• The open guard.
  
  
• The closed guard.
  
  
• And the half guard.

If you're the type that likes cataloguing all the esoterica of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, lists are fun. If you're stuck in your game or keep finding yourself in certain positions, the utility of this is twofold - 1) not only do other people get stuck in similar positions, but they've figured out ways to turn it to their advantage and 2) there's a name for it that you can now use to start searching. It's much better to ask around about escapes from the bottom of the upside-down guard rather than, "you know, when I'm upside down and the other guy puts his crotch in my face and his head in my ass...."

Then again, if you're of the "can I punch him in the face here or not?" mindset, there's probably not much there for you.

CC-licensed flickr photo from rolleh.

4 quick points of gym etiquette

by Mike

1. Don't throw your gear around. Usually when someone gets yelled at for throwing their gear around, they come back with, "but it's boxing gear, it's not going to break." Then the fun starts.
   
   The three most common situations where people throw their gear around are back to their bag, rather than walking it back over and spiking their gloves after working the bags or taking up the ring for a half-hour while shadowboxing and defeating Shadow Wanderlei Silva and when they're upset.
   
   In the first case, throwing your gear around is disrespectful in that it shows the thrower has no regard for what are essentially the tools of their trade. If you treat the things that allow you to practice your art like that, how can you be expected to treat the rest of the facility, not to mention your classmates any better?
   
   In the second case, you just look like a fool. Especially if you follow that up by blowing a snot rocket into the trash (see #4 below).
   
   After someone gets through a sparring session where they're unhappy with their performance, it's not uncommon to see them spike their gear back in the bag. This one gets filed under quit yer bellyachin'.
   
   
2. If you borrow gear, give it back to the person who lent it to you. That is, make sure that they know you're giving it back. Rather than the person who lent you the gear in the first place forgetting that they gave it to you, more common mishaps are a) the borrower putting the gear on the ground and then someone else walking off with the gear, or putting it by the wrong bag and that person not noticing, packing up the gear and leaving before the lender can figure out where his stuff went.
   
   Also, remember to write your name on your gear.
   
   A corollary to this is: if you took it out, put it back. This goes for not only your gear (i.e. don't leave it all over the floor), but for communal equipment. If your gym provides pads, gloves, or anything else for you to use, be sure to put it back where you got it, or in the proper place for things - if there's a drying rack, or etc. for gloves, a rack for pads, etc.
   
   
3. Don't interrupt other's workouts or classes. Even if it just looks like someone is half-heartedly working the bags, it may just be part of their warmup (or cooldown).
   
   As for interrupting classes, never cut through the middle of a class on your way to get to the heavy bags/water fountain/your stuff that you left on the other side of the room. Always try to move along the outside of the mats and remember that people in class have right-of-way (i.e. wait for a break before you start running around).
   
   
4. Keep your bodily fluids to yourself. If you're bleeding, make it not bleed before you start up again. If you're sick, don't come to class. Under no circumstances are you to blow snot rockets into the trashcan or in the shower. Doc Dill thinks that you shouldn't be blowing your nose at all.
   
   

MMA Workout 6/1

by Mike

The Robbie Lawler/Scott Smith fight was, at least around our gym, the most talked-about and exiting fight from the otherwise dismal EliteXC Primetime event. Lawler dominated that fight (in an interesting move, even Smith acknowledged this, mentioning (twice!) in the post-fight interview that had the fight not been called, he likely would have gotten knocked out), using excellent head movement, distancing, angles and cutting the cage off to work some slick boxing skills against Smith.

For his part, Smith hung in there, doing his best to stay in the game - a lesser fighter likely wouldn't have made it out of the first round.

Theme: Be more like Robbie Lawler, less like Scott Smith

Warmup: Individually

The Fun Part:

Head Movement:

• One round of the guy holding the mitts keeping his arm extended and trying to touch the other guy's chin. The other guy would try to evade, using his head movement to avoid being hit while staying at the same relative distance.
  
  
• One round of slipping the jab.
  
  
• Slipping the jab and returning with an overhand right or cross.
  
  
• Fun 5 punch combo:
  
  
1. Slip jab, return with a stepping overhand or cross. This will put you on a strange angle across your opponent and allow you to
   
2. Left hook with pivot to get back to your fighting stance
3. Stepping cross to move you on a larger angle
4. Another left hook with pivot
5. Big cross
   
   
• Above drill to a takedown
  
  
• Baiting a counterpuncher/inactive opponent. Now that we'd learned how to use our angles and head movement to avoid damage/set up other combinations, we wanted to play with timing and trick an otherwise unresponsive opponents into giving us something we could work with. Dipping into our Savate bag of tricks, we started outside of our opponent's range, used a stepping cross to close the distance and give him something to counter. Instead of staying inside, we jumped back with a long range hook and immediately jumped back in with all our weight in another cross. We tried to play with the timing enough to skip half of a beat and get the guy coming in, take his mind off of attacking us with our hook (that is, confuse him and hopefully get him to stop) and then, while he might be expecting us to keep going back, jumped back at him, half-a-beat faster than our other attacks and landed a cross that was very strong.
  
  
• The last cross also put us too close to the opponent for our liking, so it was a simple matter to incorporate the previous drill and make what was essentially a 7-punch combo.
  

Finisher: Since Dangerous has a fight coming up, he stayed on his back and tried to defend against our ground and pound and submission attempts while the three other guys took turns trying to work him over. We went through three 3-minute cycles (total of nine rounds) with 30 sec. in between rounds.

No finisher today since we misjudged our time and had to pack out and get out of a closing gym.

MMA for beginners

by Mike

For anyone who is new to the sport of MMA and managed to catch CBS' primetime showing of EliteXC, I'd like to point something out:

An example of a recent show that was bad in nearly all aspects, including stoppages, quality of matches and overall production values: EliteXC Primetime.

Examples of recent shows that were excellent in nearly all aspects, including stoppages, quality of matches and overall production values: UFC 84, DREAM 2.

I am very amused that when Frank Shamrock was going over the rules of MMA the clip they used to illustrate "no knees to the head of a downed opponent" was Shamrock throwing knees to the back of Renzo Gracie's head.

Spontaneous fun and...having fun

by Mike

Over at his blog, Art DeVany is discussing the import of spontaneous activity in keeping weight off and staying in shape.

His advocacy for "random" (as opposed to regimented and scheduled) activity shouldn't be news to anyone who's read our review of his system. But the interesting thing here is the assertion that spontaneous is the important thing.

"Yeah, yeah, he talks about his neighbors turning into fatasses, but what's that got to do with me, who shows up to the gym like es mi vida?"

I posted a comment which didn't seem to take, but the gist was: my mind somehow read "spontaneous activity" as "spontaneous fun."

Is your training fun? No, really.

Turning martial arts training into a mostly spontaneous activity rather than a part-time job has paid dividends. I've lost some sport-specific skills (in martial arts terms: my timing is way off, my cardio sucks (I think this is dietary more than anything else) and suddenly I'm not as apt to hang in submissions for as long as I might have otherwise been or bang for 10 rounds), but I really haven't lost all that much elsewise. The mental and physical benefits of turning training into fun rather than, well, training have been awesome.

How awesome?

Seeing-the-look-on-Evan-Tanner's-face-when-he-got-back-in-the-Octagon-for-the-first-time-in-almost-two years-awesome.*

Seriously. Try it.

Take a couple months where you show up once or twice a week rather than, "I signed up for unlimited classes and I'm damn well gonna use them." So, you get subbed 45 times in a row by someone who you normally beat nine-out-of-ten. Cool!

You look like a fool in front of a pair of hot new girls who just signed up. How's that different than normal?

What's the difference? What you tell yourself is fun and actually having fun are two different things. "Obviously this is fun despite me managing to turn the adrenaline dump into a post-workout endorphin rush which somehow turned into confusing exhaustion with relaxation" is not a place you want to be, but it seems to be exactly where a lot of people are in their training. It's certainly where I was for years.

It's also where a lot of people get stuck in their training. I can't count how many cool, talented people I've met over the years who were training like they were going to have a vanity organization started around them (aka EliteXC 160# division or the reborn M-1) and ended up quitting after their first break from training - whether it was due to injury, transitory financial hardship or plain ol' life - because it wasn't fun anymore.

I suspect that taking it easy for a few months would have been enough to recharge or otherwise remind them what they liked about training in general.

If you're a pro fighter, or a fighter in training, you won't have the luxury of taking 3-4 months "off." I'm hesitant to use the word "hobbyist," but for the rest of us, changing "training" into "fun" might be one of the best things you could do.

* Tanner's been one of my favorite fighters for a long time. He's like a cross between Robert E. Howard, Jack Kerouac and Farmer Burns. He's got a poet's sense not only of the world and his place in it, but a poet's sense of biting the hand that feeds him. He gives off that, "I'm here for fun moreso than anything else" vibe even more than maineventer-at-that-same-card Dan Henderson. Being there live to feel the mood shift from "who?" to "awesome! I hope he pulls this off" was a singular experience.

He promptly got pnw3d by Okami, but whatyou gonna do?

Public domain photo by the Library of Congress.

How to not get sucked in when you're trying to take it easy

by Mike

I've been out of the gym for awhile, nursing some injuries, but will still pop in every now and then to keep my skills sharp and work with some guys training for a fight. Despite my best efforts to say, "no" and not get involved with sparring, rolling or etc., I sometimes get sucked in and before I know it, what was supposed to be an easy day on the bags involves a pseudo-private lesson, rolling, coaching and teaching a pickup class.

How does one avoid getting agreeing to more than they intended to?

1. Say no. "Hey, wanna spar with us?" "Naw, dude. I don't want to mess my wrist up again." This should be sufficient for most reasonable training partners. I personally find this to be the least effective, but that's because I'm a pushover.
   
   
2. Offer to coach. If saying no doesn't work, you can always offer to help in other ways. "Naw, dude. I did want to point out some stuff to you though, why don't you two spar and I'll corner you?" "Lemme hold the pads for you and I'll show you some things I think will help you."
   
   
3. Show up when your buddies aren't there. Show up earlier or later than open mat times. Stop by after class has already started to work the bags. Go right after work, but before your buddies show up. See what everyone's up to on your off days.
   
   
4. "Forget" your gear. This is the most drastic, but sometimes all that can be done. Show up without your gloves, or your mouthguard or your cup. If you don't have your gear, you shouldn't be sparring anyway.
   

These are just a couple simple, effective ways to get back into the gym without reinjuring yourself or otherwise going to hard before you're ready. Don't disappear for too long though - your skills will drop off a lot quicker than you suspect and it's very likely that people will forget your name and start calling you "Mark."

Things no one ever told you about - how to sit.

by Mike

In Grapplearts' newsletter, Stephen Kesting recently recounted the time that Jean-Jaques Machado gave him advice on, of all things, how to sit:

My arm was straight and my elbow locked out. Jean Jacques told me never to sit like that on the jiu-jitsu mat. He pointed out that if someone behind me, absorbed in their sparring, rolled onto my arm then my elbow would be shattered.

Unfortunately, many gyms have a story about this exact thing happening - someone wasn't paying attention (make that two people - the person sparring and the person sitting) had their arm or leg locked out and...they've got an injury that may or may not ever heal.

Be aware of your surroundings, whether you're rolling, watching, hanging out or even just outside the pit at a Ministry concert.

Drill like you intend to fight

by Mike

The Robson Moura seminar from a couple weeks ago really solidified something that had been kicking around in the back of my head for a while:

People who stay sharp no matter what they're doing are much better than people who simply go through the motions.*

We've previously discussed the desire to be working on something when you're drilling, but staying sharp when you practice your technique seems to be a common denominator among those who are really good.

Even while demonstrating the most basic techniques - techniques he's no doubt drilled thousands, of not tens of thousands of times, Robson always made sure that every aspect was perfect from start to finish; whether it was where he put his foot on the mat, when he shifted his weight, or how he pulled his uke to put him in position, everything was done just so, even when he was describing, coaching or answering questions while he was doing it.

Watching the pro fighters, instructors and the better students around my gym shows that they all have the same behavior. They might be laid back, talking and joking while instructing but when it comes time to perform the technique, everything is sharp, crisp and with intent. The students that don't hang around long enough to make it into pro fighters, instructors or better students are generally slow, sloppy and not paying attention.

I suspect the reason for laziness is because drills are the least-fun part of training for most people. Why spend time jabbing in the air when you could be jabbing into a punch mitt? Why spend time jabbing into a punch mitt when you could be sparring?

Drills are where you build the foundation for the rest of your training, both the physical and mental aspects.

It's dangerous to think that you've mastered a technique and that that mastery means you can leave it as-is and move on to other things. I've had periods in my training where I figured that I'd hit the point of diminishing returns on technique X and why should I bother with drills, I'll just keep it sharp with sparring? Months later, when started drilling it again, I found that not only had my technique gotten sloppy, it had lead to other bad habits that were very difficult to break.

Here's a couple visual examples:

Notice how Eddie Bravo breaks down the uke in this video - it's still nice and sharp. BONUS! Keep watching for the secret to defeating the rubber guard!




Here's me getting armbarred by our Judo correspondent, Gary O'Soto.



Despite this being a drill (and a position he's caught me in many times before), I still gave the escape an honest effort and he did the same with the sub.

Moral of the story: there are only two ways to be sharp: 1. Get sharp 2. Stay sharp. To get sharp, you need to be mindful of the details and work them until you've mastered them. To stay sharp, you need to be mindful of the details and work them so you'll still be mastering them.

Review: Combat Sports Grappling Shin-Instep Guards

by Mike

Combat Sports Grappling Shin-Instep Guard

One Liner:

A necessary tool for MMA guys who like to kick - and not a bad choice for straight-up kickboxers either.

Overview:

The Combat Sports Grappling Shin-instep Guards are designed for MMA fighters who don't want to have to stop in the middle of a round to readjust their shin guards that get moved into all manner of awkward position while rolling.

If they do get moved around, it tends to be from your partner grabbing and pulling on them while you're on the ground. They aren't perfect by any means insofar as staying in place when you're kicking, but are much better than anything else I've tried.

The padding finds a happy medium between taking the sting off of a kick (or check) and keeping you honest about your defense. The padding may be a bit too stiff for casual kickboxers, but should be good for the guys in the gym who complain about having wear shin guards. The only complaint I really have is that the leather can wear through in spots and bleed color onto your opponent's gi pants/shirt. Then again, it is kind of satisfying to see that you landed all those kicks....

My only real complaints about the product is that they can be difficult to take off and keep clean.

Sweating in these somehow seems to make them "sticker" rather than more slippery - this is good, but it can be a chore to get them off once you've gone a couple rounds in them. If you don't "unloop" them first and then make sure you work your heel clear, you end up tugging at them and ripping the neoprene at the bottom of the calf. This ends up making your shin guards looser, which basically defeats the purpose of wearing them. This may seem odd given my complaint about the bottoms being too loose (see "The Bad" below), but, I dunno, I didn't do it.

As far as cleaning - the neoprene backing tends to hold moisture pretty well and it doesn't take anything except a couple training sessions of forgetfulness to end up with a pair of shin guards that smell like you left them in a septic tank. My favorite alcohol and/or vinegar and Febreeze don't seem to help as much as you would hope they would. Putting them in the washer isn't an option, what with the leather front, so be sure you let them dry properly as soon as you get home from training.

Those with skinny legs might be better off going with the regular size - I've got some fairly meaty gams and the larges are cut a bit loose, especially around the ankles. I can only wonder at the behemoths who will need the new x-large size.

The Good:

• Enough padding to protect you while still letting your kicks have a fair amount of oomph. Shielding kicks transfers enough force to keep you honest, but without having to worry about the bumps and bruises that come from taking full-blast kicks.
  
  
• They do a great job of staying put on your legs while you roll. The "even the most intense scrambles" part of their product description isn't entirely accurate, but trying to use any other shin guards while rolling is futile.
  
  
• The padding is such that you get a satisfying "thwack" when you land a kick.

The Bad:

• After you've been wearing these for an extended training session, they can become sweaty and tough to take off.
  
  
• I have no idea how to clean these things and they can get stinky if you don't let them air out properly. Be careful!
  
  
• The pad that covers the "ankle" wears down pretty quickly and gets a little rough. If your partners have sensitive faces, you might feel bad about landing headshots.

Recommendation:

I don't think there's a comparable piece of equipment for MMA training. Tough-guy strikers who don't already have a pair of shin guards that they're in love with would likewise do well to give these a try.

Advanced Swiss/Stability Ball training for Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu

by Mike

We've talked before about the utility of using a Swiss ball for learning balance in BJJ. We generally start our MMA workouts with a couple minutes on the balls and I usually like to do it to warm up before working the bags or while waiting for others to show up.

Once you've gotten the basics from the other video down, you'll be ready to try the hard stuff:



From bumptori.

Photographing Fighters

by Mike

Over at Notes from Ringside, Hywel gives some advice on taking pictures of fighters.

Presumably, this also applies to taking photos with fighters which makes me think that maybe I didn't really break rule #2 (avoid the "fight pose" shot) when I really only had the half-fighter pose going with Robson Moura.


However, nothing beats a pic of Wanderlei Silva playing cornhole.

Post-Seminar Checklist

by Mike

So, you used the seminar checklist and got everything that you needed to before you showed up. 12 hours of seminar and one semi-private later, you've got some bumps, bruises, the hell of a lot of illegible notes and a vastly improved game. What now?

When you get out of the seminar:

• First things first - have a beer. It'll kick start your recovery process. If there are people around who aren't sick of you from spending a weekend trapped in your stinky gi, this is a great time to go out, talk a little bit about what happened, what you learned and all the cool ways you're gonna change up your training.
  
  
• Then, shut the hell up about it. Enough already. Don't even think about bothering your friends that didn't go and/or don't train. No matter how supportive you think they are, a) they don't care and b) they're thinking, "you basically put a part-time job's worth of work into one weekend and spent it hugging dudes?"
  

When you get home:

• Take your gear out to let it air out/go in the wash. You'd be surprised how many times people forget to take their stuff out and only remember right before the next class, realize that they don't have enough time to wash anything and show up smelling like a gi or gloves that were used for 12 hours and then sat in a bag for a week. Wash your clothes!
  
  
• Hop in the bath. Hot water, epsom salts and try not to fall asleep in there. Take it from experience that if you stay in over 20 minutes, the salt creeps in your open pores and you'll be sweating medicinal salts for the next few days.
  
  
• Use your preferred painkillers and anti-inflammatories. As my wrestling coach says:

  When you get home, remember: ice. Or if you're that type, ice and Advil. Or if you're that type, ice, Advil and beer.
  

• Be careful about taking a nap. Falling asleep at six and waking up at 8 is a great way to not be able to fall asleep again that night, which not only takes away some prime recovery time, but also makes you groggy and grumpy the next day.
• Instead, use that time to review your notes. You'd be surprised how easy it is to not only not be able to read your own handwriting, but also to forget all those cryptic abbreviations you used to save time.
  
  
  

  Example of notes taken during a seminar. Note the diagram, which I think might have been copied from the Lesser Key of Solomon and not the representation of how to place your legs in the S-Mount like I intended.
  
  

  The sooner you can get back to your notes and use your memory to fill in the gaps, the better.
  
  
• Practice what you learned. Having the notes is nice and all, but trying to learn anywhere from a couple to a couple dozen techniques in a short time only allows for a couple reps - barely enough to figure out what you need to pay attention to and definitely not enough to get the muscle memory to kick in. If you've got access to others who took the seminar with you, try to get together and compare notes/review everything you worked on.
  

Most importantly:

• Share what you learned. Bring your experience and knowledge back to your gym and your classmates who couldn't attend. Sharing what you know will not only help reinforce what you did, but you'll be raising the game of everyone at your school and in turn that will elevate your game even more.