Archive for August, 2014

Doing the same thing against the same people leads to the same amount of improvement in your game as hitting your head against a brick wall. Most people train at clubs that do not have that many skilled people so you are working against the same people session after session and it just does not make sense doing the same things to the same people expecting improvement.

Don’t get me wrong, I am all for going up against the best in your club and seeing if you can match or beat them, however if they beat you 49 times out of 50, is it worthwhile trying the same things against them night after night? Assume the best person on the mat is fantastic at takedown defence and you are very skilled at BJJ, since you can’t get them to the ground your advantage is taken away, so you have a glorified boxing match. If you have better ground than that guy but can’t get him to the ground or keep him there, then what are either of you gaining from with boxing with sprawls? Would it not be better for you to start inside their guard so they get to work a skill that that they don’t get to use often and you can really make them work on the ground.

You can do this with anyone on the club, if you are better then start off in bad spots, or work positions that you are not great at. For me I have a striking background which allows me to control distance, and then my wrestling allows me to avoid takedowns or defend and then counter them. Once I am on top I usually stay there. Is keeping top position something that I should practice over and over and over again, and keep dominating people, or should I work some other skills like my GnP defence or escapes from my back, defence against the cage wall, etc?

On some nights at training we all have quiet nights, and it just does not make sense to me to do the same things with the same people over and over again. Try some different skills against the same people – in effect ask different questions and see what happens to your skill set.

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

When you watch one of the many UFC events you will see that there is a change with the introduction of the fighters, which really does show what matters in the sport these days.
As a fighter is getting their final prep before stepping in the cage a graphic comes up on the screen. A little while back these things would say things like NCAA Div 1 wrestler, BJJ Brown Belt, Dutch Kickboxing champion or whatever the fighter brought in to the cage. This was a hangover from the early UFC’s where it was karate v kickboxing, wrestling v boxing and so on.

As the sport has progressed MMA has become it’s own entity that people train for specifically. Gone are the days that people train things separately. Young people start training MMA as their first martial art and are well rounded without having any specialised skills.

The stats that come up on the screen now are 52% takedown success, won 4 of last 5 fights, 3 first round finishes. This is quite a massive thing for me, as for years and years it was all about the top wrestler, BJJ black belt or boxing / kickboxing champion going head to head. Now it just does not matter – even though a fighter has not done any official BJJ training and has no actual rank they still hold their own against a much better grappler in the cage as they have learnt enough to keep position and not get submitted. The same occurs with wrestling, people are so good at keeping distance and picking up the level change quickly that wrestling is expected from any decent MMA fighter. It takes to absolute elite level person to show dominance in any one area.
This is great for MMA as it has really become it’s own sport and it just does not matter what you have done before if you have not trained MMA. Today’s MMA fighters train all areas all of the time, their transitions from position to position and level to level is so good that you need to have drilled them over and over to keep up. Then on top of this they are great at making you pay – you go for a level change to get a takedown, then defend the takedown and give you a few shots for good measure. On the ground if you try and escape a submission they counter / defend it and then either improve their position or give you some GnP as a reminder to ‘behave’.

MMA is the strongest martial art out there and anyone who disagrees should have a session with a MMA fighter and see how they go. It is great that people are starting to train MMA without the individual parts and it really shows how the strong the sport really is.

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

At every kickboxing, boxing, BJJ, wrestling and MMA club there is someone who is the top dog and they have the ability to hurt everyone at the club and it is their responsibility not to.

I have seen this happen many times, someone from another club comes in to train and they want to prove a point and go too hard. They are just stamping their authority – the whole alpha male thing. This can be more entertaining than dangerous. However this is when things get interesting – when the more skilled guy feels disrespected and goes in for the kill. The poor guy on the receiving end does not know what they have done and takes a beating.

In general when a person in intimidated by a more skill opponent they tense up and it comes across as aggression and you can feel the tension in the punches. This causes the skilled guy to pick up the pace and teach the less experienced guy a ‘lesson’.

In an ideal world (rules which I should follow myself) the more experienced guy lets them know that they are going a bit hard and that they should relax. The key to this is to make sure that the experienced guy stays relaxed and shows them the correct level for sparring. This way one person learns the right level and the other does not get a hiding. However if the less experienced guy keeps going too hard and you want to put them in their place you have options. You can use defence to make sure they don’t land a good shot and by making them miss with the odd counter usually calms them down. You can shut them down by ring / cage position and then give them a talking to at the end of the round to remind of the right level for sparring. That is how it is done in the ‘perfect world’.
The dangerous way, which I must say I have been guilty of, is when you prove the point or ‘calm them down’ by hitting them. The way I do it is through a body shot to the liver as this has no lasting effects and it calms them down real quick. However the downside is that you have now taught an aggressive guy a lesson by hitting them hard, what do you think is going to happen next you spar? They are not going to take it easy next time, you have got yourself a vicious cycle.

In my head, and I am not saying that this is right, but by doing a body shot the guy would get back to their feet and no harm done. If you take their head off with a big punch or kick and drop them then they have concussion and weeks off training.
This means that if you have the skill to take someone out then you shouldn’t do it dangerously. It can be really hard if someone who has limited skill coming at you hard not to take them out, but you have to realise that there are only a handful of people in your gym whose defence is up to your offence and any one below this level deserves your protection. Even in BJJ and wrestling there are ways to put someone in their place with our slamming their head through the mat (wrestling) or popping an elbow (BJJ).

Keep in mind that if the best in club unleashed their best every night then you would not have many people in the club as everyone would either be injured or scared or both, causing them to miss training. Accidents happen in training but you if you are good enough to injure people (on purpose) then it is up to you to protect your team mates.

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