Fight Geek

No More Crunches

I don't like crunches (which makes me a heretic in Muay Thai circles).

Here's an excerpt from Alwayn Cosgrove's Blog that I found the other month on the topic . . .

And when it comes to abdominal workouts, I urge you to discard crunches, and hack them from your program because they are unessential.

In fact, the truth about abdominal crunches is that they are useless, ineffective, and even damaging to your spine.

The latter fact is covered in great detail by Dr. Stuart McGill in his book, "Ultimate Low Back Fitness & Performance". His research will shock you (and the scare the bejesus out of you) if you are one of those gym-rats who spends 30 minutes on abdominal crunching type movements.

I found out crunches are useless the hard way, spending ten minutes per day doing crunches to no avail while in my 3rd year of University. They didn't do anything for my abs that my regular workouts of squatting, deadlifting, hockey, and soccer couldn't do.

Inspiring Basketballer

Fighting & Kids

As regular readers would know, I don't think kids should have a large chunk of their childhood taken up with training. In my opinion, kids need time to be kids. But I grew up in a wealthy country, where training for sport is considered a leisure activity. Whereas poor families from developing nations see sport in a very different light.

I saw this clip over at Rosstraining the other day. He was outlining the positive aspects associated with training. And I agree with many of his points. But I still think the negatives, out-weigh the positives when it comes to kids training 'full-time' like this.

For every kid that 'succeeds', I can't help feeling for the hundreds who don't—for the kids that end up with eating disorders because of the excessive focus on 'making weight'; for the kids that are indoctrinated into a 'winning is everything' mentality and lose despite their best efforts; for the kids that are socially awkward and become pariahs within the training camp because they just don't fit in.

When training becomes a necessary condition for success in life, particularly at such an early age, it has the potential to crush those who are unable to handle it's demands.

Training Partners

I've been a fan of Zach Even Esh for a while. He's done a lot to promote underground conditioning around the interweb. Check out his Underground Strength Coach website.

In this clip, Zach talks about the importance of training partners and good music. I've written about training partners in the past, so I'm obviously in total agreement: get a good training partner, or train alone :)

I also agree on the necessity for good tunes during a workout. However, I'd sooner tip warm sloppy excrement into my ear canal than listen to the meow-meow disco-fest his clients were enjoying —but that's just me :)

The Make-over

Training in Thailand

The first 'technique' lesson I learned on my Thailand trip concerned my style of fighting. A number of the trainers at Tiger Muay Thai said I needed to utilize a style that was better suited to my natural attributes and skill-set—well, actually they were much blunter than that :)

The trainers liked my skill level when it came to individual techniques (ie. I've got good kicks, good punches, etc.), they just didn't like the way I was trying to use them . . .

Bottom-line: I needed a muay thai style make-over!

My Australian coach (Coach Spanky) tried very hard to turn me into a fast, fleet-footed, in/out kind of fighter. I appreciated his effort, but looking back, it was never going to happen. Whilst that style of fighting is quite suitable for a young 52 kg jack-rabbit, it's a poor match for an old 72 kg tank :)

At any rate, my Thai coach (Master Max) showed me a simple 'stand-up' style of fighting that I really like. So the main changes are as follows . . .

• Instead of continual in and out fighting, I just go in and stay in.

• Instead of moving around my opponent, I move forward.

• Instead of evasive movement defense, I block or parry then strike or throw.

• Instead of continual combinations, I use single power strikes and a few basic combinations.

I love the simplicity of it. It probably won't get me fighting at Lumpinee stadium in a hurry, but it's a style that 'fits' and as long as I have solid conditioning it should serve me well.

Amazing Woman

Via Hood Workout.

Head Space

Training in Thailand

There's a great post over at Rmax International called, Mind Armour: Building a Mind to Match the Body. The post emphasizes the importance of a fighter's psychological state during a fight. Here are a few quotes that I found particularly helpful (my emphasis added). . .

[What's the primary reason people lose fights?]  “From my experience, most fights are won and lost in the mind. Most fighters come prepared physically and technically, it’s the mental and emotional part where they defeat themselves.”

[Randy Couture said] “The psychological aspect of the fight game accounts for 80% of our success”.

To whatever extent a fighter is distracted from the exact and specific moment of what is happening in the ring/cage at that very instant they are operating below par. Being worried, surprised, afraid, distracted by the enormity of the event, personal issues, fear of loosing/looking stupid/getting hurt, etc. will contribute to a crack in the mental armor.

When a fighter suffers a loss in the ring, or a poor performance in sparring etc. more often than not the coach or the fighter puts it down to inadequate conditioning or poor technique (at least that's been my experience).

The fighter starts to think to himself, "If only I was faster, fitter, stronger etc." And the coach starts barking, "you need to turn your kick in more, keep your guard up, move faster etc." But these issues are rarely the cause of a bad performance.  It's usually the mind that screws things up (the poor technique and loss of conditioning that are often evident in a poor performance are just consequences of a bad head, and not the actual root problems).

My time in Thailand helped me re-establish a strong belief in my own technical abilities and conditioning—I'm good enough and fit enough to compete and do well (even at my ancient age). The coaching staff at Tiger Muay Thai really helped in this regard. It was so encouraging to have a couple of ex-Lumpinee champs take me aside and tell me my technique was good—that I didn't need to focus on getting faster, kicking harder or keeping my guard up etc. What I needed to do was 'relax',  'believe in myself' and the rest would follow. In other words, I needed 'to get my head right' in order to see the technical and conditioning assets I've all ready attained actually start to work for me.

That's not to say I don't need to improve my technique or conditioning, obviously I do. But for the level I'm at (an eternal rookie) and for the things I want to achieve in muay thai (train hard and enjoy the odd fight in the ring), I just need to keep my head in a good space, and make sure when I do fight I don't let anything or anybody push my head into a bad space.

MMA for Kids

Oscar Diaz In Critical Condition

See yesterday's post.

Traumatic Brain Injury Treatment

I'm always snooping around the 'net trying to find the latest news on head trauma treatment. I figure it's something fighters are (or at least, should!) be interested in. You do want to limit the long-term damage of taking smacks to the head, right? The first section of this clip raised some interesting potential treatments for head-trauma that could perhaps be relevant for fighters down the track (notably fish-oil and progesterone).

Just to be clear, I'm not suggesting fighters should go out and experiment with these treatments (do you really think a guy who calls himself 'the 404 of spank' should be the dude you get medical advice from??).  But if proven effective, popping fish-oil tablets pre-fight and a birth-control pill post-fight sounds like a cheap and easy protocol to implement.  

In the future, If progesterone is proven to limit the long-term effects of head trauma, I can see a shit-tonne of mma, boxer and martial artist dudes going to their local doctors and asking to go on the pill.  I find that amusing :)