Dec 20 2010

Pull Your Way to a Championship

Category: Jiu-Jitsu,MMA,muay Thai,Strength Training,Strongman,Uncategorized,Wrestling — Rob @ 5:51 PM

It was that dreaded time in the school year that many of us went through as kids.  The physical fitness test in Phys Ed class.  Now I loved gym class playing all the different types of fun games competing with all the jocks who, after high school really did not end up doing much after their “great” high school athletic career.  Actually senior year I was given the award for the highest average for four years in physical education.  That and four years of college netted me a communications degree, should have really thought out my career back then.

Back to the physical fitness test, the most dreaded part of the test for me was how many pull-ups the student could get out.  Now I really sucked at pull-ups most of the time not getting to many of them out.  Back then it really did not dawn on me what a pull-up would do for me in the future but now I know why it was on the test.  That is because the damn exercise makes you strong and who does not want to be strong.  I think those physical fitness tests scared a whole generation away from doing pull-ups because when you walk into a gym most of the time you see people using the Lat pulldown machine because it is easy.  But like the old saying goes anything in life worth having should be difficult to get, and that goes for a strong back.

When it comes down to it the pull-up is one of the best exercises that a MMA or grappling athlete can do.  In MMA, jiu-jitsu and wrestling having a strong back which assists you in a lot of the pulling motions associated with the sports can help lead you to victory.  In the clinch having a strong back can lead to more powerful punches as well as being dominate in the clinch.  On the ground being able to control your opponents posture in the guard uses a lot of pulling movement to keep the opponent close.

This brings me to my next video. Pull-ups also help with grip strength.  Now those that do Judo or jiu-jitsu you can use your gi thrown over the pull-up bar to do pull-ups.  That will make the move more sport specific.  Now what I have done was I went out to Home Depot and picked up some straps, that along with some PVC pipe that was lying around the house I made homemade pull-up grips handles.  This is a fairly simple thing to make, for any of you who know me you know I can’t build stuff and I even did this.  With the wider grip handles you will see how much not only your grip improves but as well as your strength in your posterior chain.

Train Hard! Train Smart!

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Dec 08 2010

Interview with GSP about Training

Category: Boxing,Conditioning,Jiu-Jitsu,Mental Training,MMA,muay Thai,Power Training,Quickness,Strength Training,Striking/Stand-up,UFC,Uncategorized,Wrestling — Rob @ 8:31 PM

Like with all weeks leading up to the big UFC cards I am on the prowl for some good training video’s from the fighters that are on the card.  I have been on the lookout for some good George St. Pierre training video but instead came across a great interview done for UFC.com.

Since I am out to help many of those trying to break into the sport or those looking to get to the next level I pulled a few key points from this interview that will help with your fighting career.  When you want to be great at something you look to the best and figure out what they are doing and how they prepare, Take the knowledge you gain from these top notch people and then tailor it to you.

In this interview with GSP for his upcoming fight against Josh Koscheck he talks about using the knowledge he gained and putting it all together.  There are a couple of important messages to take from this interview.  One was getting out of your comfort zone.  Many fighters continue to train with the same team and with the same training ideas fight in and fight out.  This may work for a while but eventually it will fail a fighter.  The more often you take yourself out of comfort zone the more likely you will succeed in a fight.  In a fight there is no comfort zone so the more you are used to being out of it in general the better fighter and person you will become.

Another important point I picked out is all the different people he trains with.  This gives him an advantage because he is now a wealth of knowledge and he knows how to put it all together.  GSP invests in himself and his pursuit for greatness.   This investment in himself has made him the dominant fighter he is today.  So if you are an amateur trying to make it or you are trying to get to the next level in your career, then make the investment and watch how successful you will become.

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Dec 04 2010

Defend Yourself

Category: MMA,muay Thai,reaction time,Striking/Stand-up,Uncategorized — Rob @ 8:40 AM

When defending the body in Muay Thai and MMA, there are many times when you need to keep it short and simple. That’s when you call on the inward deflection and body block.

Part of the techniques I like to refer to as “Short hand Muay Thai”, These techniques are short simple and to the point. They are primarily used against the Teep(Thrust kick), Tdae(Round kick) and Kao Drong(Straight knee).

The Inside Deflection, or shucking as I affectionately refer to it(I spent time on the farm when I was younger!), is a quick snappy movement used against straight attacks such as the Teep and Kao Drong.

Keep your palms against your head, extend your elbows straight out just a bit, as your opponents weapon comes near striking range twist at the waist, snapping your forearm inward and striking the side of the leg with your elbow, you not only disrupt your opponents flow and cause it damage, you have also set yourself up for the perfect counter!

The Body Block is also a quick movement used specifically against The Tdae(Round kicks) aimed at the body.

As the kick swings toward your body pull your arm tight against your body and your hand tight against your head, turn slightly into the kick to take some of the momentum away. now immediately follow up with an attacking movement and your good to go!

Remember, when you have to keep it short and snappy the key is to follow up immediately after the defensive movement!

Godspeed my friends, Kru Juice of the Muayman Alliance!

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Nov 26 2010

Muay Thai Shield

Category: MMA,muay Thai,Striking/Stand-up,UFC,Uncategorized — Rob @ 8:40 AM

When someone swings a thunderous round kick at you in Muay Thai or MMA, what do you do?
You shield!
Raise your palms to your temples, this both guards your head and prevents you from being pulled into a clinch. Arms come out just to the outside of your leg, creating a roof like effect, so as to cause your opponents kick to roll off, like rain off a roof.

Your leg comes up on a 45-degree angle relative to your opponent, waist high in practice, shin facing straight out with the knee, toes point up. Your shin faces out as a barrier against the kick, pointing outward on a 45 because that’s the angle the kick is coming in from waist high because you should always practice high; if you can go high you can always go low!

Toes up. I know this has garnered much controversy, however it’s based on biology. If the toes are pointed down, then you are using a set of muscles that pull your defending leg toward your supporting leg; conversely, if you raise your toes you are using a set of muscles that pull your leg away from your supporting leg.

Last of all, Make sure you don’t bend over as you defend, or you are going to eat a knee followed by a second course of canvas for dessert!

Brought to you courtesy of Kru Juice of The Muayman Alliance!

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Nov 22 2010

MMA Reaction Drill

Category: Agility,Boxing,Jiu-Jitsu,MMA,muay Thai,reaction time,Uncategorized — Rob @ 9:00 AM

Reaction time in sport can be the determining factor in winning or losing.  Split seconds and the reactions of the athletes in those moments have made many champions in all sports including MMA.  Hell reaction time won me a few touch football games back in my younger days.  Hey even the time I flipped over my handle bars going down a hill my reaction time was necessary as I need to find a way quickly not to let my head smash into the pavement.  If that were today I really would not have needed to learn how to fall cause I would have my mandatory helmet, kneepads and elbow pads to protect me.

I have been incorporating some gymnastics into my training and seeing how it transfers to combat sports.   While doing some of these drills I found that my equilibrium as well as my kinesthetic awareness was a little off after performing forward rolls and cartwheels.  After watching some MMA fights and seeing that some of the fighters end up rolling around in a scramble just to come up and get rocked I decided to add a dimension of fighting to the gymnastic drills.  In the Brock Lesner, Cain Velesquez fight you saw Lesner get rocked a bit and do a backward roll into the cage.  As he came up you could see that he was uncertain of what to do.  This drill may help aid in that kind of fighting situation.

Now you will need another person to really get the reaction time training as well in this drill.  The second person will call out punch combinations as you come up to your feet after performing the specific gymnastic move.  The key is some simple punch and kick combo’s.  The reason behind this is because in a fight the basics are the most important especially when you are tired and or rocked from a punch.  Remember do not have the combinations predetermined.  As you will see in this video I will mess up one combo a bunch of times.  Do the same combo until you get it right so the basic become second nature.  Plus these are some good outtakes, watch as I almost crash into my daughter. Another key is to have the partner call out the combo either as you are getting up or in the last rep of the specific gymnastic move you have chosen to do.  Go give these a try and see how you improve in kinesthetic awareness as well as reaction time.

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Nov 16 2010

Teep Kick for MMA

Category: MMA,muay Thai,Power Training,Quickness,Strength Training,Strongman,Uncategorized — Rob @ 6:49 AM

The teep is a varied weapon able to defend and attack interchangeably. There are four main types of teep, also called a thrust or push kick, which we will go over briefly here.

Lead Teep: The lead teep is used primarily for defence and as a feeler, similar to a jab or a straight lead punch. bring your leg straight up slightly bent, remaining on the balls of your feet as to keep forward momentum; otherwise you push yourself back as you push your opponent away. Keeping your hands up to defend your face, as you kick out, push your hips into it.

Rear Teep: This is your battering ram, it’s mostly used for offence and can actually generate more power. Performed in the same manner, just using the rear leg rather then the lead equals extra power!

Long lean: the long lean is utilized when the opponent is just out of range because it gives you another 6 to 12 inches. It can be used with the lead or rear foot. As the opponent comes in range of the long lean, you initiate the kick the same as you would for the standard teep, however, you drop the hand on the same side as the one your kicking from,keep the opposite hand tucked into your chin for protection, lean back just a bit as you thrust your hip into the kick and pivot on the supporting leg; staying on the balls of your feet.

In Muay Thai Long Lean is used to keep an opponenet outside of your “Yard”, or the area just outside of kicking range. “The Yard” is the actual kicking range, and when you are in your stance it’s often referred to as being in your “House”. You will hear these terms and many more when talking about ranges and strategies.
Godspeed from Kru Juice of the Muayman Alliance!

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Nov 13 2010

Training with Rocks

Category: Conditioning,Jiu-Jitsu,MMA,muay Thai,Power Training,Strength Training,Striking/Stand-up,Strongman,Uncategorized — Rob @ 8:29 PM

Thursday I had the day off from work, now I knew I was going to go train jiu-jitsu and muay Thai at night but I really wanted to get a strength session going in the morning.  I had been planning this session all week, and I knew exactly what I was going to do.

Now my backyard is not the biggest backyard you will ever see but it would work just fine for what I was attempting to do.  A while back I was cleaning out the back of the garage so they could install a fence in my yard.  There beside the pot of gold I found some pretty big rocks.  I knew one day that these rocks would put me to the test in training I just did not know how.

Well I figured out a great way for one of these rocks to test me.  So I headed behind the garage and rolled this bad boy out into the backyard.  Now I am a really crappy judge on weight, I was thinking this rock weighed about 60-70 pounds but in fact when I brought out the scale and nearly broke it I found that it weighed in at about 125-130 pounds.  The wife did not seem to happy when I told her I almost broke the scale.

After a brief warm-up this is what I did.  I brought out my sled threw on a thirty-five pound plate and attached it me.  I picked up the rock, which I thought weighed 70 pounds and did two laps around my backyard with it.  I repeated this for six sets.  After doing the first set, which was about 50 yards total, I felt as if I rolled with someone in a jiu-jitsu class.  My heart rate was up and my muscles were fatigued.  This was my first time doing this training session so next time I will add some more weight to the sled to increase the intensity.

After the rock carry I used the same weight on the sled, I attached these wide grip pull up handles to the sled and did 6 sets of explosive rows.  As I pulled the weight across my backyard I used my entire body to assist in the pull.    Squatting down slightly and then exploding backwards.  I was feeling my legs burning but the rock carries had more to do with that than the explosive rows.

To finish off the session I grab the two 35 pound plates and did overhead carries for 15 yards then did 5 presses and walked back the other way with the plates overhead.

This concluded my training session in the yard.  So why am I telling you this.  Look around your yard find some heavy stuff and put together some type of training with it.  Take what you have and go to the next level and stop making excuses that you can’t get it done.  Train Hard! Train Smart!

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Nov 11 2010

Counter Punching Drills

Category: Boxing,MMA,muay Thai,reaction time,Uncategorized — Rob @ 10:25 PM

The counter punch is a great way to make an opponent pay for brining the offense. In another great article and video by Wilson Pitts he shows some drills to become an effective counter puncher which could be key in the combat sports of MMA and boxing. Don’t forget to visit Wilson’s website! Enjoy the article and video and keep training hard!

Many MMA fighters come straight in, swinging, and get countered. Because of the way they stand up & charge in they eat the counter punch. When you take a punch as you move forward it multiplies the impact.This is not a good idea.

Let’s talk about how to fight a counter puncher. Most but not all counter punches are hooks, if you walk in standing straight up and miss a punch or a combination you put yourself in range for the hook. So, the rule is you “counter a counter puncher.” You make them go first but mess up their timing and make them miss. When you feint you freeze them and then you control the distance with your feet. Eddy Fuch said at the longer range “a right hand counters a left hook every time.”

Take a look at the 15th round of the first Hedgemon Lewis/Jose Napoles [12-14 -1971 Forum, Inglewood, California] fight to see a clinic on all the ways Fuch taught to counter a left hook counter puncher. Hedgemon Lewis was a very good boxer who lacked punching power. He was trained by Eddie Fuch after a successful amateur career. He never quite cracked the top of the professional game because of his lack of power. This was his first attempt to win the title and he executed the fight plan that Fuch designed for him that consisted of jabbing and moving side to side, then turning Napoles when he tried to charge forward and neutralizing Napoles’left hook every way possible. He came closer to winning it in this fight than in his two other shots at the welterweight title.

Napoles was one of the greatest counter punchers of all time. Lewis was physically inferior to Napoles and if he had stood in front of him and fed him leads Napoles would have knocked him out. This is a good fight to study because Lewis has a fight plan devised by Fuch and he sticks to it and applies the tactics and successfully neutralizes Napoles superior punching power through much of the fight. If you are only going to watch one round, watch the last one.

The boxing sayings that apply are “Make em miss, make em pay” and “turn them and keep them from setting.” Head movement and broken rhythm throws off the counter puncher’s timing making them alternately swing and miss or hold back the shot. The great ones could control the opponent’s punches with feints and movement, thus making the opponent look like he wasn’t trying because he could never get set and throw his punches the way he had practiced.

How do you fight a counter puncher?

1. Don’t feed them a lead & walk in

2. Use a counter jab wisely

3. Use feints and head movement

4. Control the distance with your feet

5. Turn them because ”A bull can’t charge in a circle”

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Nov 08 2010

MMA Agility Part 2

Category: Agility,Conditioning,Jiu-Jitsu,MMA,muay Thai,reaction time,Strength Training,Uncategorized — Rob @ 8:19 PM

In a MMA fight a fighter must be aware of where his body is at all times.   We have seen many fights won in a scramble and the fighter who has been able to control their body the best has usually been the one that has come out on top.  In my coaching I have been working on finding new ways to work what is called kinesthetic awareness.  A few months ago I posted a video with Martin Rooney discussing the use of gymnastics to increase kinesthetic awareness.  In that video Rooney shows us three gymnastic movements that will help improve this critical component in combat sports.

Another thing that I have been working on in my coaching laboratory is combining two components of athleticism while training.  Obvious many of you know about combining strength sessions with power and or conditioning within a training session.  What I have been doing is combining gymnastic movements within agility drills.  Here is what I am doing in my coaching.  I start off with basic agility drills such as a box drill and have the fighter perform the drill.  This gets the fighter using his body the right way. After completing 3-4 sets of the standard drill I then add some new move into the drill.  Using basic gymnastic movements like forward rolls and cartwheels help with kinesthetic awareness within the drill.  Finally I also add a MMA specific movement into the drill, like a punch combo, a knee or a defensive move.  I have found that this is helping the athletic ability of the fighters and as the sport evolve’s athletic fighters will be taking over the MMA world.  So give the drill below a try.  Train Hard! Train Smart!

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Nov 06 2010

Muay Thai Roundhouse Kick

Category: MMA,muay Thai,Striking/Stand-up,UFC,Uncategorized — Rob @ 6:15 PM

The round kick, or Tdae as they say in Thai, is one of the more powerful moves in the martial arts. Most people liken the Tdae to a bat, being swung by a home run icon! However, it is often more like a mace, not quite as stiff as swinging a bat, a bit more flexible, being able to change direction midstream.

Never forget to pay attention to your footing, when you go to throw the kick, step out on a 45 degree angle, staying on the balls of your feet; don’t ever let your heel drag, it slows your momentum and can potentially cause injury to your knees.

If the kick is targeted above the waist: Throw the same arm back as the leg you are kicking with, opposite arm covers in front of the same shoulder as the arm you threw back, creating the first line of defense by guarding the face; staying high on the balls of your feet and straightening the supporting leg.If targeting below the waist: The arm that was being thrown back goes straight out in front of your face as you corkscrew down by bending at the knee, staying on the balls of your feet.

In Muay Thai and MMA, the round kick is an essential weapon, without which your arsenal is far from complete. If you don’t believe me watch any UFC, Pride, WEC or Bellator event and you will see it employed time and again, either devastatingly or sometimes even in a KO!!

Brought to you from Kru Juice of the Muayman Alliance! Godspeed!

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