Archive for June, 2012
Black Hole
When you are training hard at MMA you need all the people around you to have the same attitude otherwise it will take the edge off training for you, for them, and everyone around them. Their negative attitude acts like a black hole that sucks up all the positive energy from the mat.
Every fight gym has seen the guy that comes in with bad body language, usually arms folded, and gives a look when given instructions. Usually theses people either learn how to act from the other members of the gym or they quit. Every now and then they survive through the training and bust out their ?energy? when it is least needed.
If there are small numbers at a training session then this seems to be a perfect time for the black hole of negative energy to appear. They don?t want to stick around for the entire session as they have better things to do, or they feel that the people at the session are not up to their level. This usually means that they train long enough to make the point that they are better than the others on the mat then act like it is a waste of their time and then they leave. The other option is if the numbers are low and everyone on the mat is better than them, or to save face everyone is bigger and stronger, instead of risking the possibility of getting beaten they come up with reasons why they can?t be bothered staying and how they have to leave early.
When they are up against people that they can beat they are unbeatable and make sure that they let everyone know that they can beat them. This includes holding positions on new people and not letting them out, as well as making sure when you demonstrate a new move to a new guy that they hurt them – otherwise how else will they know how good they are?
If these people stay on the mat what usually happens is that the ?good? guys want to whoop his ass which causes the ?black hole? to take their frustration out on the new people. The new people end up hating them as they get a hiding every time they train with Mr Negative. If you have done your maths this Energy is contagious – if you have a group of positive people great things can happen, sadly all it takes is one or two negative people and they can throw a big spanner in the works. When people are training for fight they need positive energy around them as often as possible, negative energy does not have a place at the fight gym and it is up to everyone to make sure that it does not infect the mat.
Gareth Lewis
Head MMA Instructor
Defeat v Failure
It is the nature of MMA that you will not stay undefeated. As far as I am aware no one has retired with a title undefeated. Losing sucks, that is for sure, but a defeat is fine but a failure is not and that determines your career.
In my opinion, a failure is when you are fighting against someone who you can beat, and for whatever reason you 100% believe that you would win no matter what. So you train for the fight but not with that fear that a better opponent gives you and you go into the fight with no concerns at all. Your opponent on the other hand has trained like a demon and knows that he has to be at his best to beat you. Come fight night you are against someone who is less skilled but has more hunger and wants it more. Once you have found out that this guy will not go away you are in for a long night. Chances are in this situation you will come second. That is a failure, you were not 100% mentally and come in under done and you failed to perform at your level.
In MMA, there is another way to fail as well. Let?s say that you are a top grappler and have won your previous fights with submissions. In this fight you know that you can tap them out so you want to win with striking, then if striking doesn?t go as well then you will take them down and tap them out. The fight starts and you are working your strikes, they are better at striking but you keep the fight standing. Round 2 comes around and your opponent has grown in confidence and is one round up, you get a little more desperate with your strikes making you an easier target for counter punches and you lose round 2. Time for the final round, their confidence is sky high as you attempt the take down, which they stuff, and finally in the last minute you get them to the ground. In the last minute you are fatigued, they are slippery with sweat and you cannot get the submission. You lose, this is a failure as you did not use your skills to win.
A defeat can happen to anyone, you are up against your equal or someone who is better. You know that you have to train hard and fight hard to get a win and there is not one thought in your head that this fight will be easy. When you get in to face your opponent you are at your absolute best, both mentally and physically, you fight as hard as you can but the night belongs to the other guy. On the flip side you are at your best and you get caught in a sub or with a big shot, which can happen to anyone. If you turned up at your best and gave it your best and it was just that the other guy was better on the night then yes you lost but you can live with that.
The hardest fights to prepare for are the ones when it seems that everyone is telling you that you will win, that is the best and quickest way to take the mental edge of your fighter. Ask any fighter and they will tell you their best fight was one that they fought at a higher level that they have ever reached before. To reach a higher level you usually have to go up against someone better so you have to find that ?next? level to compete. There is never ending list of top fighters getting beaten by under dogs. If you do not give it 100% or learn something from the fight then that is a failure, if you give it all and come up short then it is a defeat.
Gareth Lewis
Head MMA Instructor
Quick Finish
Every now and then we have question and answer sessions at Lockdown MMA. This is where people can ask specific questions about a technical issue that they are having a problem with. Most people ask for a defence for a submission or more options for takedowns, just the usual. Every now and then you get ?once I get to this position, what is a quick finish??. Where I hear that question the first thing that goes through my mind is that they do not know what they are doing.
Don?t get me wrong, I do know that there are quick finishes out there and they often happen in fights. However I would say that you do not set up a quick finish you just take an opportunity that presents itself. To take an opportunity takes a lot, and I mean a lot, of skill and timing. You need to have repped that move hundreds and hundreds of times, so many times that you need to know exactly what you need to make that move happen and how to fix it if things are going wrong and what to do about them. It is a move that you do without thinking as soon as you see your signal, whatever that may be, then your body knows what to do.
The people that usually ask how to get the quick finish do not have the skill to stay in dominant positions against opponents – this means what they are really asking is for a quick way to beat someone who is whooping your ass. Of all the quick finishes I have ever seen a very high percentage comes from the fighter who is more skilled. Yes there is the lucky punch and yes there is the lucky move but in general the more skilled fighter will be the one more likely to get a quick finish.
If we take things to extremes if y0u had to compete against Robert Drysdale in a BJJ match then the chances of you getting a quick submission is slim, however he would have a great chance of making you tap in the first minute, in fact you would do very well to last even two minutes. Same thing with striking – jump in the ring against Tyson and see if you get a quick finish. With wrestling pinning a good wrestler is rather tricky let alone doing it quickly.
The quick finish does not mean that the fight has to be over quickly, it is more that the fight is over suddenly, almost out of nowhere. The quick finish means that you have to pick up the signals that your opponent is giving you, such as wobbly leg to get the KO. To pick these signals up you need to have experience and skills that you can?t learn, that is why most people go to decision, getting the finish is difficult.
Therefore don?t go looking for the quick finish, as it is something that will either happen or not and you definitely will not see it if you go hunting for it. On the flip side if you don?t keep your eyes open for it then you will also never see it. At the end of the day it is better to have more skill than the ability to finish quickly – this will get you more success in the long run.
Gareth Lewis
Head MMA Instructor
Just a Little Thing
When I was in America training I spent a lot of time watching the top guys and tried to pick up the little things that they were doing that I wasn?t. They have two arms and legs so what were they doing to make them more effective – what was I missing?
I noticed something when I was watching one of the the top guys going through the ringer, which is also known as a shark tank. When gassed he would focus on keeping his strikes long and sharp. First time I saw him do this I thought it seemed like a good idea then the more I thought about it the more sense it made.
When you are fighting and you are in the last round with your lungs on fire, and your limbs are heavy and un-responsive it doesn?t take a big punch to put you on your ass. Even during pad work you notice when you are tired that shots affect you more than you would expect. Therefore it makes sense that when training to focus on keeping your punches long as when you are gassed as it is human nature to try and save energy by keeping your punches a little shorter. If you ever want to see evidence of this just keep an eye out when you have your next striking session and watch what everyone does in the last round on the pads and see how close they get before they punch.
If your opponent has been training like most people with short punches as they get tired then think of the advantage you would have by keeping your punches long as you get fatigued. When your opponent is gassed all it takes is a sharp punch on the button to end the fight. The big heavy slow punches are easier to see and defend, it is the sharp punches that do the real damage. With keeping your punches long and sharp it is giving you the best chance to end the fight in the last round or two.
After going through all the pay off of keeping long and sharp when tired, that was obviously the focus of my striking sessions from then on. In theory it seems easy but I can tell you that it is very hard to keep these two things going when fatigued and every muscle in your body is looking for the easy option and your mind had to override natural instinct in order to keep your punches long and sharp, the benefits are worth it and that I can promise you.
Gareth Lewis
Head MMA Instructor