Archive for July, 2013

What is the reason that you want to fight? Is it for you, for family, because you think you should or to impress someone?

I am very lucky to have some very talented people in my life, who I have a great deal of respect for. I was talking to one of these people about the session from the blood, sweat and tears blog and was getting their take on the events – Should I have let it happen? Should I have stepped in? Should I protect the guys more? – and so on. This person is in a different field to me so had a great perspective on it. They said “you can’t make their decisions for them, they have to learn what will happen and what they are getting in to.” With the level of respect I have for this person those words just rang so true, then to top it off “they have to be doing it for them, would they do the same thing if there was no audience?” Now that really got me thinking.

When I fought I did it for the challenge, I wanted to know that I could beat that other guy. This is probably why I was such a dick in sparring I just wanted to beat everyone every time. I would’ve been just as happy fighting a guy in an empty gym with a ref and some corner men. There was nothing other than the win that motivated me, even as I went up through the ranks and fought for belts, money and in front of bigger crowds the pure motivation for me was to be better than the other guy.

There were other guys that I fought with that liked all the attention and that seemed to motivate them for their fights, they needed the crowd and people watching. If you need this extrinsic motivation I really believe that you are doing it for the wrong reasons.

When you are fighting you have a team behind you, but it is all about you. You are the only person stepping in to the cage, you are the only one who can win or lose that fight, you are the only one who can push through the pain barrier, the only one who can keep fighting when it gets tough. If you don’t have the intrinsic motivation to get through these times in a fight you are most likely going to loose.

I have seen people take fights because that is what they think they should do, or they get pressure from their trainer. If it is not 100% your decision to fight then you should really look at why you are doing it. If you come up against a guy who has put everything on the line for the fight then you are going to have a rough night, as coming second hurts both physically and mentally. You have to fight for you to test yourself against the other guy, and that has to be the number one motivation.

Gareth Lewis
Head Trainer
Lockdown MMA
www.lockdown.co.nz

As of right now Lockdown has four guys training for fights, and three of which are having their first fight. From my perspective it is very interesting seeing the ‘journey’ that first time fighters go on.

At the moment we are at the point where the guys have had their names in for the fights and their training has really picked up. Then we got some names through for their matches and that is when it all becomes very real and the pressure is on.

When the boys were sparring the other night, the first round was what I would consider normal and then things got interesting. One of our guys is around 83kg and he was up against a 70kg guy and things got heated. It was really interesting from my point of view as the heavier guy really started throwing some big shots and if some of them had landed cleanly it would’ve been a KO. As a trainer I had a very interesting decision to make, do I put the brakes on and tell them to go softer or do I see how they handle the pressure?

At Lockdown I have no problem with hard sparring just as long as they are about the same level and if you land a big shot then you do not go for the second or third shot to put them down. This particular round was very interesting as there was some serious intent for damage, and rightly or wrongly I let it go to see how they would handle it. The lighter guy took some good shots and he was feeling a little down after the round, but as a trainer I saw a guy that took a shot and didn’t back up, that didn’t quit and didn’t complain or look for the easy way out. So when I said to him after the round ‘that was the best I have seen you spar’ he looked at me with a very confused look, but I truly meant it.

Round 2 was the 83kg guy versus our 110kg fighter. Now I am not sure if the ‘big guy’ saw the previous round and didn’t like it or if he just wanted to pick it up. Our 110kg guy is a wrestler with good ground and pound so he just took the 83kg guy down, with gusto, and got to work. As a trainer I was giving the 83kg some advice and to my surprise I got back ‘I am’, ‘I can’t’ and ‘I’m f#@ken trying’. He tried to get up he was caught with a punch that put him squarely on his back. Next came the swearing, throwing of his mouth guard and walking off the mat, and even some tears.
When I went too talked to him about it he said felt so bad for his performance and was embarrassed for how he acted. It took about 5mins before he could even look me in the eye. Overall he felt very ashamed. Now I don’t condone people throwing things and it is not ideal to be in tears at training. However what I see is someone who is so passionate about his performance ,that it is everything to him, and you just know that he will fight to the death. On the flipside those people to tend to put a lot of pressure on themselves so that needs to be kept in check.

For the 83kg guy seeing him have some emotion was really interesting for me as I was a shocker for throwing my toys if training wasn’t going right, but I won a lot more than I lost because it meant so much to me. Therefore I was happy to see the passion and emotion from him. For our 70kg it was great seeing him get put under a bucket load of pressure and just keep walking forward, anyone can fight when they are winning and landing their shots but show me a guy that takes a few and keeps walking forward and that is a fighter.

Did I follow the ‘trainer’ manual that night? Probably not. But I learnt a lot about my fighters that will really help come fight time. I walked away feeling happy that night.

Gareth Lewis
Head MMA Instructor
http://www.Lockdown.co.nz/

At every club there is always a ‘pied piper’ – this is the person who, when they are going to training or a competition, more people seem to show up. These are the same people that when they don’t go it seems that everyone else has a bucket-load of excuses.

For me at wrestling I have a training partner and we are both the same size, over 100kg and 6ft 3in. If one of us isn’t there then the other person doesn’t show as there is no one there our size to wrestle. In a training partner situation there is not much you can do.

However, if the one night that you can’t make training the people in your ‘group’ that you train with don’t turn up either, then you might just be the Pied Piper. This has happened to me many times, and I have never really figured it out. If I go out to train one of the disciplines of MMA, which is encouraged for MMA, I try to make sure that people are going. The people that I contact are the consistant and dedicated guys that want more out of their training. These are the same guys that I expect to be at training without any push, however if they need a lift or any other help I do what I can to get them to training.
This is all good until I have a night when I can’t train and I find out that they are not going. I used to think that this was a coincidence, and that they all have something on the same night as me. However when it happened more than once I was a little disappointed that they were not at training.

Every club has a pied piper and that person must embrace their role and enjoy it. They should also use their ‘pull’ to get more people to more trainings. The more people you have training different skills the better the club will be. Find out who the Pied Pipers are at your club and use their skills to grow the club.

Gareth Lewis
Head MMA Instructor
http://www.Lockdown.co.nz/

After years of use Lockdown MMA has decided to empty the shark tank and move on from it – well, almost.

The origin of the shark tank, for me anyway, came from when I trained in America at Xtreme Couture. In my time there I was part of many shark tanks and on the receiving end of many as well. What is a Shark Tank? There are many variations but they usually involve one person in for a round (3 – 5mins) and they get new opponents at regular intervals, so you are always against a fresh person. They worked well so I thought we should add them to the Lockdown MMA fight preparation plan. The Shark Tank was used many times in our fight preparations over the years.

After every fight the trainers and I have a discussion about the training / fight plans used and how we can improve them. After one fight night I noticed that our guys were fit and skilled but were staying in bad positions too long. This was very confusing for me as Rule #1 at Lockdown MMA is don’t be on your back, Rule #2 is get off your back, and Rule #3 put your opponent on their back. So to see people on their back without any real escape attempts really confused me. Then when we had the next round of fight prep it dawned on me – the cause was the Shark Tank.

What I noticed was that the way we run the shark tanks was teaching the fighters very bad habits. We would have a fighter in for 5 mins, with a new opponent as soon as the fighter got a dominant position. What was happening with this method is that the fighter got negatively rewarded for getting a good position, as every time he got one a new guy would be in there attacking him. Eventually all that happened was that the fighter would be on his back taking a bit of a beating and trying to survive.

Taking a step back and looking at this all we had created were guys that knew how to take a beating. This was the moment I decide to put a hold on the shark tank as it seemed that all they learnt was to not get people on their back and how to survive a beating. Now we have modified the shark tank somewhat. We have the fighter in the middle but have specific drills set up with each of their opponents. These drills are all based on the fight plan we have in mind for the fight, such as takedowns, ground and pound offence and submission defence. They would be for a guy that is a wrestler who uses ground and pound to win. With this method you can use people who are really skilled in one area to make the fighter work harder. For the submission defence drill you can have a pure BJJ guy or a wrestler for the takedowns. This form of specialisation makes the fight training a lot smarter.

Since the change was made at Lockdown the success in the fights has gone up as the fighters go into the fight having only trained their game plan and nothing else. As a fight trainer this was one of the biggest and best changes we have made to our fight preparations. The fight prep is constantly evolving, however, so stay tuned to see what the next development is.

Gareth Lewis
Head MMA Instructor
http://www.Lockdown.co.nz/