My match against Wilson Reis.
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
Mental Training For MMA.
Everyone understands that MMA fighters these days aren't one dimensional hobbyists trying to make some extra cash for the holidays or impress their friends, they are serious athletes, at least, at the highest level. Fighters these days can box, kick box, wrestle, throw you on your head with some Judo trips and some can even bend your limbs every-which-way with high level Brazilian Jiu Jitsu as well as lift small German cars with their world class strength and conditioning, thanks to their coaches help. However, there's something missing from the previous statement. One would ask what could possibly be missing? That list does encompasses every part of MMA. Yes, it does cover every part of MMA's physical game, but you're leaving out the most important part, the head. The mental game. It's been said over and over in sports, at least at the elite level, 90% of competition is mental. Why on earth are so many fighters leaving that out of their training regiment? If someone was to tell you that 9 minutes of a 10 minute fight would be kickboxing and the last minute would be Jiu Jitsu how would you prepare for that fight? I'm assuming you would probably train about 90% kickboxing and about 10% Jiu Jitsu give or take a few percentile. Well, it shouldn't be different for your brain. Having a strong mental game going into a fight, or any competition for that matter, will only make you better. Even if you think you're already mentally strong, it will do wonders to practice it and get better. If you're a good wrestler you still wrestle right?
Mental preparation should begin at least one-to-two months prior to your fight. When your training camp begins, your mental camp should begin. You need to make sure that you're training with a camp that you believe is good and will be able to get you ready in all aspects of your fight. If you aren't 100 percent confident in your training partners and coaches, you will have negative thoughts bombarding you telling you "you're not ready for the fight" and you will not perform to the best of your potential. A false sense of confidence is better than a real sense of skill. What I mean is that if you take a person that isn't really that great in the technical aspects of the sport, but they come to fight/compete and don't let the nerves dictate their performance, will do better than a skilled person that doesn't compete well as he/she doubts themselves and lets nerves sabotage the competition. Confidence is key and you will hear that repeatedly throughout this article.
You need to have a realistic idea as to where you measure against other people in your camp. Are you doing well or submitting/beating other top level guys in your gym? If so, you should be confident in yourself and your skills. If you can measure your abilities with those that have had success in your sport, it's a great way to build confidence.
Training could be one of the greatest confidence boosters out there. Make sure you're in top physical condition. The confidence of knowing that you have done everything in your power during training camp and have given it 100 percent will make your confidence soar. Are you sharp at all of your skills? Is your conditioning great? If so, what is there to worry about? You've done everything in your power to succeed and that is all you can do. If you know you can go the full fight without getting tired there's no reason to be nervous and you can throw everything in your arsenal at your opponent without the fear of being fatigued.
Bad nerves kill cardio...and careers. When you start to think about your fight, and the butterflies come into your stomach (dropping it as if you had just gone down a steep hill unexpectedly), don't try to think about something else. Embrace the butterflies. It's excitement. That's why your involved in MMA/competition. It's exciting. Enjoy it. However, don't let it dictate you. When you feel those butterflies, take a deep breath and tell yourself it's going to be fun. Everyone gets those butterflies. You just need to harness them and accept them as excitement and a good thing, not fear and a bad thing. Which brings us to visualization.
Visualization has long been a part of mental preparation in sports. One of the best ways to mimic a physical act that you can't physically perform constantly is by visualization. There are multiple studies that show visualization can actually have a positive effect on muscle memory and muscle repair and building. Again, visualization needs to be going on for weeks and months, not just a few days before your fight. Imagine that you are going to walk into a room and give an important speech that the whole world will see. You are just as nervous as if you were going to walk into a cage and fight someone. Now, imagine that you have given two hundred speeches to the world and it's almost a daily occurrence. You wouldn't be very nervous at all! You would go in to the speech exuding confidence and the speech would go off without a hitch. It's the same thing for the fight. You need to do that single fight hundreds of times before you're not really nervous any more. Of course, you can't actually do that so you need to bring visualization to the table. You need to visualize the entire day of your fight over and over again, so when the day actually comes, it's nothing new to you. You've done this a hundred times now and you already know the outcome of the fight! You're Bill Murray and you're living in Groundhog Day!
Here is a sample for Visualization leading up to the fight:
"Imagine yourself waking up fight day and getting something to eat. What are you going to eat for breakfast on your fight day? You eat it and are hanging out throughout the day.
What are you going to do to waste time? Are you going to watch movies or play video games? Are you going to go for a walk and get some siteseeing in? Well, whatever it is, visualize it.
Okay, now it's time to pack your bag to start your journey to the arena. You're starting to get those butterflies just thinking about it at this point and need to take a deep breath and relax. Remember, you love this stuff! You've arrived at the the Venue and you’re checking out the cage. It's probably not completely finished as you’re there at 4:30 pm and your fight doesn't start til 8pm. You won't be going up to fight until close to 10 or 11 pm. It's now time for the rules meeting. Your ref is going over all the legal and illegal moves.
You say to yourself "Of course that's legal/illegal. Doesn't everyone know all this by now?" Some JV trainer that probably owns a Karate Mcdojo is asking ridiculous hypothetical scenarios keeping everyone in the meeting longer than they need to be. The meeting is finally over and you are in your dressing room. There are probably 5-10 other people in the room with you making it hard to warm up. You are sitting there bored, listening to some idiot with a 2-5 record, who was brought in to lose by the promoter, talk about how he is the best fighter in the world and how he has 50 kickboxing fights.
It's time to start warming up. Take a deep breathe again. Relax. Enjoy the butterflies. You're hitting mitts and rolling around on the carpet as there is most likely not a mat in you’re room. You have a good sweat going and your getting yourself in your mental zone. You’re going to win. You know this. The fight before yours just went out so you are next. You're hoping for a quick fight so you can hurry up and get out there. Your chomping at the bit. Of course, the fight goes to a decision and takes as long as humanly possible to completely finish. Okay, you're up.
They call your name. You hear your entrance music. Your walk to the cage is beginning. You dance a little during your walk. You throw some fast punches in the air. You notice random people in the crowd as you walk toward the cage. There's a ton of little kids and Tapout-wearing teens that are reaching for you to slap their hands as you walk by them. You take note of the guy in the first row with unusually big teeth and his girlfriend with a low-cut shirt on. The ref comes up to you and asks if you have your cup and mouthpiece. Your trainer is taking off your clothes and telling you ‘good luck’. He puts Vaseline on your face. The ref tells him to wipe some of it off. You enter the cage wearing nothing but your shorts. It's cold in there. You feel naked. You turn to your corner man as he starts to give you last-minute instructions. You notice a friend of yours in the crowd screaming like a drunken maniac.
They are announcing your opponent now and it seems to take him forever to get his clothes off and get into the cage. Okay, he's in. The announcer starts to give the details of the fight. "In the red corner, weighing in at one-hundred seventy-one pounds!" "Yea, yea, yea, shut up already", you say to the announcer in your head. Breath. Relax. This is fun for you. The ref brings you two to the middle of the cage for some worthless last words and has you and your opponent touch gloves. The bell rings. You’re ready.
Your hand is raised and there isn't a feeling on the earth that can match what you're feeling right now. Your so tired you can barely stand, but you won and your thanking your corner men and everyone around you. Your in Heaven. This is why you fight."
Ah, the power of positive thinking. Your mind is its own worst enemy. It wants you to fail so it can say, "I told you so". Every time a negative thought comes in to your head, say stop. Literally, say the word STOP! You don't have to say it out loud, but say it. Stop those negative thoughts from having a voice. Don't even entertain them or whatever they have to say. Say "stop" and immediately recite positive things to yourself like, "I'm good", "I'm prepared for this fight", "My skills are great", "My BJJ is great". Those types of positive reinforcement will let you fully understand how good you are. And you are good. If you weren't good you wouldn't be given the opportunity to be testing it on the level that you are. You are good at what you do. You know that, so why do you question it and listen to that negative voice in your head that says otherwise?
Enjoy the nerves, you are good and you have every right to be confident in yourself. Believe you are going to win. If you honestly don't believe you are going to win, why did you take the fight/competition? Go play tennis or golf or something else. If you don't think you’re truly trained enough, train longer. You need to have every bit of confidence in yourself as your training partners and coaches do. If they didn't think the fight was a good idea, they would advise you not to take it and tell you that you aren’t ready. If they didn't do that, you should find new coaches and training partners.
So, now you're training camp is off to a good start and you are using visualization and positive thinking daily. Yes, daily! It's a great start. There are a lot of other things you can do to mentally prepare your for your fight. If the ability is there, you can employ the help of a professional. I'm sure your giving your trainer 10-20 percent, why not fork a little out to meet with a sport psychologist? Even if you don't plan on seeing him/her weekly, one or two times is better than none. You can also go to a local book store and choose from numerous titles that focus on mental preparation for sports.
Good luck.
Mental preparation should begin at least one-to-two months prior to your fight. When your training camp begins, your mental camp should begin. You need to make sure that you're training with a camp that you believe is good and will be able to get you ready in all aspects of your fight. If you aren't 100 percent confident in your training partners and coaches, you will have negative thoughts bombarding you telling you "you're not ready for the fight" and you will not perform to the best of your potential. A false sense of confidence is better than a real sense of skill. What I mean is that if you take a person that isn't really that great in the technical aspects of the sport, but they come to fight/compete and don't let the nerves dictate their performance, will do better than a skilled person that doesn't compete well as he/she doubts themselves and lets nerves sabotage the competition. Confidence is key and you will hear that repeatedly throughout this article.
You need to have a realistic idea as to where you measure against other people in your camp. Are you doing well or submitting/beating other top level guys in your gym? If so, you should be confident in yourself and your skills. If you can measure your abilities with those that have had success in your sport, it's a great way to build confidence.
Training could be one of the greatest confidence boosters out there. Make sure you're in top physical condition. The confidence of knowing that you have done everything in your power during training camp and have given it 100 percent will make your confidence soar. Are you sharp at all of your skills? Is your conditioning great? If so, what is there to worry about? You've done everything in your power to succeed and that is all you can do. If you know you can go the full fight without getting tired there's no reason to be nervous and you can throw everything in your arsenal at your opponent without the fear of being fatigued.
Bad nerves kill cardio...and careers. When you start to think about your fight, and the butterflies come into your stomach (dropping it as if you had just gone down a steep hill unexpectedly), don't try to think about something else. Embrace the butterflies. It's excitement. That's why your involved in MMA/competition. It's exciting. Enjoy it. However, don't let it dictate you. When you feel those butterflies, take a deep breath and tell yourself it's going to be fun. Everyone gets those butterflies. You just need to harness them and accept them as excitement and a good thing, not fear and a bad thing. Which brings us to visualization.
Visualization has long been a part of mental preparation in sports. One of the best ways to mimic a physical act that you can't physically perform constantly is by visualization. There are multiple studies that show visualization can actually have a positive effect on muscle memory and muscle repair and building. Again, visualization needs to be going on for weeks and months, not just a few days before your fight. Imagine that you are going to walk into a room and give an important speech that the whole world will see. You are just as nervous as if you were going to walk into a cage and fight someone. Now, imagine that you have given two hundred speeches to the world and it's almost a daily occurrence. You wouldn't be very nervous at all! You would go in to the speech exuding confidence and the speech would go off without a hitch. It's the same thing for the fight. You need to do that single fight hundreds of times before you're not really nervous any more. Of course, you can't actually do that so you need to bring visualization to the table. You need to visualize the entire day of your fight over and over again, so when the day actually comes, it's nothing new to you. You've done this a hundred times now and you already know the outcome of the fight! You're Bill Murray and you're living in Groundhog Day!
Here is a sample for Visualization leading up to the fight:
"Imagine yourself waking up fight day and getting something to eat. What are you going to eat for breakfast on your fight day? You eat it and are hanging out throughout the day.
What are you going to do to waste time? Are you going to watch movies or play video games? Are you going to go for a walk and get some siteseeing in? Well, whatever it is, visualize it.
Okay, now it's time to pack your bag to start your journey to the arena. You're starting to get those butterflies just thinking about it at this point and need to take a deep breath and relax. Remember, you love this stuff! You've arrived at the the Venue and you’re checking out the cage. It's probably not completely finished as you’re there at 4:30 pm and your fight doesn't start til 8pm. You won't be going up to fight until close to 10 or 11 pm. It's now time for the rules meeting. Your ref is going over all the legal and illegal moves.
You say to yourself "Of course that's legal/illegal. Doesn't everyone know all this by now?" Some JV trainer that probably owns a Karate Mcdojo is asking ridiculous hypothetical scenarios keeping everyone in the meeting longer than they need to be. The meeting is finally over and you are in your dressing room. There are probably 5-10 other people in the room with you making it hard to warm up. You are sitting there bored, listening to some idiot with a 2-5 record, who was brought in to lose by the promoter, talk about how he is the best fighter in the world and how he has 50 kickboxing fights.
It's time to start warming up. Take a deep breathe again. Relax. Enjoy the butterflies. You're hitting mitts and rolling around on the carpet as there is most likely not a mat in you’re room. You have a good sweat going and your getting yourself in your mental zone. You’re going to win. You know this. The fight before yours just went out so you are next. You're hoping for a quick fight so you can hurry up and get out there. Your chomping at the bit. Of course, the fight goes to a decision and takes as long as humanly possible to completely finish. Okay, you're up.
They call your name. You hear your entrance music. Your walk to the cage is beginning. You dance a little during your walk. You throw some fast punches in the air. You notice random people in the crowd as you walk toward the cage. There's a ton of little kids and Tapout-wearing teens that are reaching for you to slap their hands as you walk by them. You take note of the guy in the first row with unusually big teeth and his girlfriend with a low-cut shirt on. The ref comes up to you and asks if you have your cup and mouthpiece. Your trainer is taking off your clothes and telling you ‘good luck’. He puts Vaseline on your face. The ref tells him to wipe some of it off. You enter the cage wearing nothing but your shorts. It's cold in there. You feel naked. You turn to your corner man as he starts to give you last-minute instructions. You notice a friend of yours in the crowd screaming like a drunken maniac.
They are announcing your opponent now and it seems to take him forever to get his clothes off and get into the cage. Okay, he's in. The announcer starts to give the details of the fight. "In the red corner, weighing in at one-hundred seventy-one pounds!" "Yea, yea, yea, shut up already", you say to the announcer in your head. Breath. Relax. This is fun for you. The ref brings you two to the middle of the cage for some worthless last words and has you and your opponent touch gloves. The bell rings. You’re ready.
Your hand is raised and there isn't a feeling on the earth that can match what you're feeling right now. Your so tired you can barely stand, but you won and your thanking your corner men and everyone around you. Your in Heaven. This is why you fight."
Ah, the power of positive thinking. Your mind is its own worst enemy. It wants you to fail so it can say, "I told you so". Every time a negative thought comes in to your head, say stop. Literally, say the word STOP! You don't have to say it out loud, but say it. Stop those negative thoughts from having a voice. Don't even entertain them or whatever they have to say. Say "stop" and immediately recite positive things to yourself like, "I'm good", "I'm prepared for this fight", "My skills are great", "My BJJ is great". Those types of positive reinforcement will let you fully understand how good you are. And you are good. If you weren't good you wouldn't be given the opportunity to be testing it on the level that you are. You are good at what you do. You know that, so why do you question it and listen to that negative voice in your head that says otherwise?
Enjoy the nerves, you are good and you have every right to be confident in yourself. Believe you are going to win. If you honestly don't believe you are going to win, why did you take the fight/competition? Go play tennis or golf or something else. If you don't think you’re truly trained enough, train longer. You need to have every bit of confidence in yourself as your training partners and coaches do. If they didn't think the fight was a good idea, they would advise you not to take it and tell you that you aren’t ready. If they didn't do that, you should find new coaches and training partners.
So, now you're training camp is off to a good start and you are using visualization and positive thinking daily. Yes, daily! It's a great start. There are a lot of other things you can do to mentally prepare your for your fight. If the ability is there, you can employ the help of a professional. I'm sure your giving your trainer 10-20 percent, why not fork a little out to meet with a sport psychologist? Even if you don't plan on seeing him/her weekly, one or two times is better than none. You can also go to a local book store and choose from numerous titles that focus on mental preparation for sports.
Good luck.
Monday, April 5, 2010
Retreat to Coronado Island, Ca for the weekend...
A few weeks ago, March 3rd to be exact, happened to mark the end of my 3rd year of marriage to the lovely angel, I have the pleasant pleasure to call my wife. Unfortunately, for her I am a one-upper when it comes to gifts. It's good when she receives them, but I feel as though sometimes she feels badly as my gifts tend to be a bit more extravagant. I absolutely love to give her the best gifts I can afford and sometimes even manage to acquire those that I can't. So, on this particular occasion of our anniversary, Kindal, in an Ambien induced moment of misjudgment, decided she was going to deliver my gift on the eve prior to the actual day of our marriage, three years to the prior. I unwrapped my gift and to my delight I was the recipient of an electric razor. I honestly, was pleased to have received the gift as I would never spend that much money on such a thing. This wasn't just an ordinary electric razor, this was a $250 smooth face delivering machine. I already had in my possession a razor, but this was by far superior to the $50 razor that took forever to render me a somewhat presentable face.
Kindal had been begging me to get out of town for a bit. She didn't care where, just out. A hotel in Prescott or Sedona for the weekend would have certainly sufficed, however, we had been to Coronado Ca before when my manager at the time let me use his beach home for a week. Now, I certainly couldn't replicate the beach home, but I managed to book us 3 nights at the Glorietta Bay Inn.
I love to see her face light up and when she opened the box of running shoes I gave her it did no such thing. Although, when she opened the card, which by the way, I never give her, and the printout of the tickets and resort fell to the floor, her little face lit up as if she had swallowed a flashlight and it somehow got turned on.
My work was done! I live to make her happy, and I clearly did. She was counting down the minutes and when the time finally came she was more than ready to head to the airport at 7:00a.m. on Thursday.
I started out this trip as I do every trip with two magazines and a cup of coffee. I generally, attempt to purchase a financial magazine as well as some sort of a leisure magazine. Men's Journal is by far the best, and luckily I hadn't read this month's. A candy bar for good measure and before I know it we're in the air. I am usually not too keen on flying, but it was pretty early still and I hadn't quite received my eight hours of sleep so I was quite tired still; too tired to be overly worried of aeronautics and the state of the plane.
The plane landed rather uneventfully and we rushed off to baggage claim. Kindal ran to the info desk to ask whether there was a "Coronado Shuttle" as I waited for my bag (she checked hers). I waited and a handle barred mustache-ier struck up a conversation with me.
"What, are you following us here? You were waiting at the bus stop at the long term parking with us huh?", said the fellow whom we also saw on our plane.
"Yup.", I replied. "Just wait 'til yo get home and were on your front porch."
After a moment of awkwardness as he pondered whether I was joking or not he began, "Oh, we don't live here. Were vacationing. Were staying on the...". At that point everything he began started to bore me significantly and isn't worth the time to write. He began telling me about where he was staying, what he was doing, where he lives back home and any other detail he could include in hopes to impress me with his wealth or whatever he was attempting.
Kindal rejoined us, entered the small talk for a moment and we were off to hail a cab. The info desk said "negative" on the shuttle, but a cab was only $10.
Well, if nothing else, we proved the info desk attendant a liar as the cab with tip was $35. Rather annoying, but what to do?
We pulled up to our former mansion turned Glorietta Bay Inn and it was quite the site. Kindal was very happy as we were checking in I was quite pleased with my choice. The front desk worker gave us directions to our room "go down the hallway, to the right of the stairs then take a left and go outside. After you get outside you will see your room number on the left. Your on the second floor."
We obliged the woman and followed her directions. Upon exiting the main mansion I realized we were in an addition to the hotel built well after the original mansion that resembled any two storied motel in the country. Disappointed was I and began to huff a bit as we approached the room. Kindal reassured me everything was fine...and it was. We opened the room and although small, it was very nice. The room consisted of a king size bed in the middle with a club chair on the left side and a small table on the other side. Opposite the bed was a dresser with a 32" flat panel TV with a DVD player attached. To the left was a work station with a high speed ethernet cable as well as a lamp. Again, small but quaint. It even had a lovely balcony that overlooked the parking lot and some other buildings. Okay, so I'm being a bit ridiculous with that last comment, but it was nice to sit out there for a bit or leave the sliding door open and allow the cool, slightly brisk breeze enter our room and offer us the refreshing, comforting air on our skin.
After a short moment on our comfortable bed we decided we were going to walk the main street and reacquaint ourselves with our beloved island. We took a left out of our room and crossed the street which brought us to "Bino", which had a plethora of crepes on the menu, some hearty and some not so much. We were certain we'd enjoy that eatery prior to our departure.
Walking up and down the quaint "strip" for the lack of a better term, though it is more of a Boardwalk that's not on the ocean we saw many a coffee shop, book store, restaurant, and other quaint shops where one could grab a souvenir for a friend or a paddle board to take in to the frigid waters a few hundred yards away.
After sometime wondering aimlessly we decided it was time to grab something to eat and decided on Miguels Mexican fare. Kindal and I walked through a small courtyard of shops and abruptly came to an outside patio of Miguels which bordered a pool and some sort of lodging quarters of a nearby hotel. Apparently, the cheese sauce served with the chips and salsa is the talk of the town, although, I must admit, was a bit of a let down along with the meal as a whole. The menu looked good and when the food came out I was quite delighted to feast on what lay before me. I ordered the chicken enchiladas, which is what I order at every Mexican restaurant I ever go to, and it was quite bland. It wasn't bad, just not exceptional. I finished both enchiladas and wasn't too stuffed for once and we paid our bill and made our way back to the hotel.
At the hotel we were lounging around for the evening and went to the front desk to rent a DVD, which we were assuming would run $10-$15 as we were in a hotel. Surprisingly, they cost was only $5 and they had a very extensive selection. We didn't see anything we were too interested in so we just hung out in our room and eventually fell asleep with the breeze on us.
When I heard the yelling of an annoying child outside the door as I awoke, needless to say, I was less than pleased. There was this little snot of a kid that managed to bring our vacation from an A+ to an A- all by himself. Everywhere we went at the hotel he was there yelling, screaming and sending thoughts of drowning a small child through my head.
"Mama! Papa! Come in the pool! Come in the pool! I need someone in here!", he would yell while at the pool.
Stomp, stomp, stomp, would his feet make while going up and down the stairs. If I would get away with it I would have lined his family up and slapped the child across his face telling his parents that the child needs one of those at least once a day until he is of legal age.
The next few days consisted of great relaxation as there's just something about the cool ocean breeze that invigorates the soul. We frequented the coffee in the hotel throughout the day as it was some of the best I have ever had at a public establishment. We also rented bikes from a shop across the street which was very affordable: $20 for the whole day. Kayaking was enjoyed on our trip, and although Kindal wasn't too keen on the hard work involved with it I had fun during the wet excursion. Her poor thumbs were quite blistered after the affair.
We ate at Bino, where we had delicious crepes. Kindal had nutella and banana and I had berries with whipped cream. A tasty combination of blueberries, strawberries and red and black berries with a vanilla sauce drizzled atop. The diner was on our list of places to eat at and I went out of my usual ordering and went for a Hawaiian chicken sandwich, that consisted of chicken, teriyaki sauce, swiss cheese, pineapple and pickles. Kindal only ate some mozzarella sticks. We also ate Ice Cream Sundae's that were as good as ever at MooTime Ice Cream. The food was quite good at most places we ventured in to which is a great plus Coronado has over Hawaii. Unless you like spam and Poi, there's not too much in Hawaii for the culinary enthusiast.
The only poor decision we made was spending $25 on candy at Dolce, the candy store that was very high priced and with a bit of a limited selection of candies that Kindal and I would consume.
All in all it was a great weekend. Kindal and I got to spend time together that is all too rare with me going out of town a lot and being so engaged in the gym. Sadly, we hailed a cab, and after I grabbed one last cup of coffee, we were off to the airport to begin our short journey home.
No sooner than we get in line for security at the airport, Kindal nudges me and says, "You're not going to believe who's behind us." To my dismay, I looked back and saw "handle bar stash Joe" behind me. "Are you guys still following us?", he squawked and didn't stop until we got off of our bus dropping us at our car in the parking lot. He told us everything he could possibly have to try and impress us with his trip and his life and general.
Well, back to reality.
Friday, March 26, 2010
If your new here check out the funny archives.
If this is your first time checking out my blog be sure to look at the archived blogs about Don Frye and Joe Riggs as well as my early days in MMA. Fun stories that you will enjoy as well as my blogs for Cage Potato about my time on The Ultimate Fighter.
Thursday, March 25, 2010
Picks for UFC 111.
Here are my picks for this weekends UFC.
Greg Soto vs Matt Riddle: Soto wins this one with his wrestling and GNP.
Rousimar Palhares vs Thomasz Drwal: Palhares wins this by decision or late round sub.
Rodney Wallace vs Jared Hamman: Rodney Wallace wins this in the battle of college football players and wins the best nickname of the night award while he's at it.
Spike Prelims:
Ricardo Almeida vs Matt Brown: Almeida wins this by late sub or decision over a tough and scrappy Brown.
Nate Diaz vs Rory Markham: Markham wins this for the upset.
Fabricio Camoes vs Kurt Pellegrino: Pellegrino wins this by dec with his heavy hands and gnp.
Jim Miller vs Mark Bocek: Jim Miller wins this by decision in a pretty dominant performance.
Ben Saunders vs Jon Fitch: Saunders is going to take the upset in this one as Fitch will try to stand with him and realize it was a poor decision.
Frank Mir vs Shane Carwin: Carwin will win this but it will be the first fight that goes after the 5 minute mark.
GSP vs Dan Hardy: GSP wins this by out striking Hardy ala Thiago Alves fight getting the TKO victor in the 3rd round.
Greg Soto vs Matt Riddle: Soto wins this one with his wrestling and GNP.
Rousimar Palhares vs Thomasz Drwal: Palhares wins this by decision or late round sub.
Rodney Wallace vs Jared Hamman: Rodney Wallace wins this in the battle of college football players and wins the best nickname of the night award while he's at it.
Spike Prelims:
Ricardo Almeida vs Matt Brown: Almeida wins this by late sub or decision over a tough and scrappy Brown.
Nate Diaz vs Rory Markham: Markham wins this for the upset.
Fabricio Camoes vs Kurt Pellegrino: Pellegrino wins this by dec with his heavy hands and gnp.
Jim Miller vs Mark Bocek: Jim Miller wins this by decision in a pretty dominant performance.
Ben Saunders vs Jon Fitch: Saunders is going to take the upset in this one as Fitch will try to stand with him and realize it was a poor decision.
Frank Mir vs Shane Carwin: Carwin will win this but it will be the first fight that goes after the 5 minute mark.
GSP vs Dan Hardy: GSP wins this by out striking Hardy ala Thiago Alves fight getting the TKO victor in the 3rd round.
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Thai Pad work is crappy, but awesome.
It's been sometime since I've worked Thai Pads or for that matter even put hand wraps on and hit a bag. So, our MT instructor Kyle saw me hitting the Thai bag today and offered me some pad work which I reluctantly accepted. I hurt my back a few days ago and didn't know if it was durable enough to undergo a session of Thai Pad work. To my delight it held up just fine and offered me no hinderance. It's especially hard to say no to Kyle who, at the moment, had shin pads, belly pad and thai pads on as he shuffled my way with a goofy grin on his face as if he were up to something. He was.
Now, Kyle is a wealth of knowledge regarding Muay Thai. I envy his form as it looks as if he's filming a Muay Thai instructional with every strike he throws. He's not "johnny slip some punches boxer" over here, but rather Thai style kicks, punches and knees. Very impressive to watch. If someone off of the street were to come in and watch most of the people in any given class work pads and then take a look at Kyle doing the same thing they would immediately distinguish the difference in skill level. There's just something about seeing someone perform their craft very well. Now I don't know much about ballet or figure skating, but when I see the Olympics or a great production of the Nutcracker I can appreciate someone who has perfected their craft. Kyle embodies that while hitting pads. A person ignorant to pugilistic arts would see Kyle hitting thai pads and say to themselves, "that person is good at what he does."
I have never been one to look great on Thai Pads. Put me on some focus mitts and I look like a pro boxer. Put me on Thai Pads and I struggle. A lot. I crumble all too fast. My form is pretty good and I can do a lot of things that most can't, however, the pads cripple my cardio. I think they are the hardest thing in the world to do for an extended period of time. I could spar for ten rounds and do bag work for another ten. Put me on pads with a good holder and I'm spent in four. Even when I was fighting professionally I could do significantly less pad work than sparring. After two round I'm not turning my shoulders on my kicks. After round three I'm sticking my chin in the air while I punch. After round four my feet are off balance and I'm making stupid mistakes.
Speaking with Kyle today I start to think that part of my problem with hitting pads is that I am not very strong and don't naturally hit hard. While sparring I work a lot of speed, timing and most importantly foot work and I think it makes my strikes "seem" harder or crisper than they are. While on pads I can't cheat. If I'm just working a good pace it's different, then of course, I can go a while. I'm talking about the hard pad work. When your holder says, "Give me some power. Lay into these pads with speed and power." I have to strike the pad as hard as I can or my pad holder will look at me like "seriously"? I can't get away with giving 80% and coasting through the rounds. I've never been known for KO power, but one would really realize the comedy of my pillow hands if they were holding mitts for me. I hit those things as hard as I can and the most I get is an inch movement. Seriously, I could wrestle, spar, run or climb mountains with one hand while packs of commie liberals screamed and threw health care policies at me and I would barely break a sweat. One round of Thai Pads and you may need to call an ambulance.
Now, Kyle is a wealth of knowledge regarding Muay Thai. I envy his form as it looks as if he's filming a Muay Thai instructional with every strike he throws. He's not "johnny slip some punches boxer" over here, but rather Thai style kicks, punches and knees. Very impressive to watch. If someone off of the street were to come in and watch most of the people in any given class work pads and then take a look at Kyle doing the same thing they would immediately distinguish the difference in skill level. There's just something about seeing someone perform their craft very well. Now I don't know much about ballet or figure skating, but when I see the Olympics or a great production of the Nutcracker I can appreciate someone who has perfected their craft. Kyle embodies that while hitting pads. A person ignorant to pugilistic arts would see Kyle hitting thai pads and say to themselves, "that person is good at what he does."
I have never been one to look great on Thai Pads. Put me on some focus mitts and I look like a pro boxer. Put me on Thai Pads and I struggle. A lot. I crumble all too fast. My form is pretty good and I can do a lot of things that most can't, however, the pads cripple my cardio. I think they are the hardest thing in the world to do for an extended period of time. I could spar for ten rounds and do bag work for another ten. Put me on pads with a good holder and I'm spent in four. Even when I was fighting professionally I could do significantly less pad work than sparring. After two round I'm not turning my shoulders on my kicks. After round three I'm sticking my chin in the air while I punch. After round four my feet are off balance and I'm making stupid mistakes.
Speaking with Kyle today I start to think that part of my problem with hitting pads is that I am not very strong and don't naturally hit hard. While sparring I work a lot of speed, timing and most importantly foot work and I think it makes my strikes "seem" harder or crisper than they are. While on pads I can't cheat. If I'm just working a good pace it's different, then of course, I can go a while. I'm talking about the hard pad work. When your holder says, "Give me some power. Lay into these pads with speed and power." I have to strike the pad as hard as I can or my pad holder will look at me like "seriously"? I can't get away with giving 80% and coasting through the rounds. I've never been known for KO power, but one would really realize the comedy of my pillow hands if they were holding mitts for me. I hit those things as hard as I can and the most I get is an inch movement. Seriously, I could wrestle, spar, run or climb mountains with one hand while packs of commie liberals screamed and threw health care policies at me and I would barely break a sweat. One round of Thai Pads and you may need to call an ambulance.
Sunday, March 21, 2010
Top talent at Southwest MMA
It was a good day at Southwest MMA yesterday (Sat). We had the always pleasant John Crouch (my coach and instructor as well as friend) and gang down to train at our new facility. With John came Benson (WEC lightweight champ), Vic and Yatti Meza who are always a pleasure to be around, Charlie Brown, Chris Greutzmacher, Chris Zubricki, Andy the Muay Thai coach, Patrick Lopez, Bryan Scrambler and I think a couple others. From our gym there was Jiu Jitsu Dave, Seth Baczynski who just got home from the Ultimate Fighter, Bryan Ko, Ryan Kelly and many others. We even got the rare appearance of seeing Jason Genet, my former manager and manager of most of the pros in the room.
The level of talent was at a new level. From the time I met Benson, Gritz, Charlie, Vic, Yatti, Seth, Ryan and some of the others is amaing to see the progress they have made as fighters. Not only do they look good at each individual aspect of the sport, but they are mixing up stuff so very well and are beginning to look like consimate professionals.
I do have to say the highlight of the day came toward the end of practice as Yaotzin was sparring with another fellow. The other guy was taking a beating pretty badly and as John turned to me asking the name of the guy to offer some advice to him, I replied, "I have no idea, I thought he trained with you". We spent a few minutes asking who knew the guy and everyones response was something like, "Huh? I thought he trained with you guys"? After this went on for a bit I came to the conclussion it was one of the Meza's "cousins" or family members that Yatti wanted to teach a lesson to. I approached Victor and said, "Who's that?"
His response was, "Oh, I don't really know. Yatti knows him better than I do. He lived in Flagstaff but I don't really know him?"
The round was only about 3 minutes in and still had 2 to go and I decided it would be best to reset the timer and yell, "Time! Good job guys."
Everyone saw me do it and kind of started laughing knowing I was just saving the green rookie a beating that wasn't going to go any other way than that.
Turns out Yaotzin knew him a bit and he said he had been training MMA and wanted to spar. He was calling Yaotzin incessintly trying to get him to spar. Yatti decided he would oblige him the day everyone comes to my gym to spar. Thanks Yatti.
Luckily, he wasn't injured and was a very nice guy. I think he may even sign up.
Well, this week I will get the demo started on our second room so we can get kids classes and gi classes started soon. Hopefully, I can get down to the Lab on Friday and get some gi training is too.
I will update with some pics and vids soon.
The level of talent was at a new level. From the time I met Benson, Gritz, Charlie, Vic, Yatti, Seth, Ryan and some of the others is amaing to see the progress they have made as fighters. Not only do they look good at each individual aspect of the sport, but they are mixing up stuff so very well and are beginning to look like consimate professionals.
I do have to say the highlight of the day came toward the end of practice as Yaotzin was sparring with another fellow. The other guy was taking a beating pretty badly and as John turned to me asking the name of the guy to offer some advice to him, I replied, "I have no idea, I thought he trained with you". We spent a few minutes asking who knew the guy and everyones response was something like, "Huh? I thought he trained with you guys"? After this went on for a bit I came to the conclussion it was one of the Meza's "cousins" or family members that Yatti wanted to teach a lesson to. I approached Victor and said, "Who's that?"
His response was, "Oh, I don't really know. Yatti knows him better than I do. He lived in Flagstaff but I don't really know him?"
The round was only about 3 minutes in and still had 2 to go and I decided it would be best to reset the timer and yell, "Time! Good job guys."
Everyone saw me do it and kind of started laughing knowing I was just saving the green rookie a beating that wasn't going to go any other way than that.
Turns out Yaotzin knew him a bit and he said he had been training MMA and wanted to spar. He was calling Yaotzin incessintly trying to get him to spar. Yatti decided he would oblige him the day everyone comes to my gym to spar. Thanks Yatti.
Luckily, he wasn't injured and was a very nice guy. I think he may even sign up.
Well, this week I will get the demo started on our second room so we can get kids classes and gi classes started soon. Hopefully, I can get down to the Lab on Friday and get some gi training is too.
I will update with some pics and vids soon.
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