Erik Paulson's Greatest Hits

Vídeo-Aula de Vale-Tudo - Academia Budokan (João Ricardo e Johil de Oliv...

THE DNA OF GSP - Official Trailer

The Sit Out Drill

The Business of Fighting

 A Look Inside the UFC's Top-Secret Fighter Contract

BY 

JONATHAN SNOWDEN

 (MMA LEAD WRITER) ON MAY 14, 2013

Clinch Work with Ben "The Badger" Jones

CSW 2013 Camp - Day 1

So weird to see a Kyokushin fighter doing lowkicks not as I learned it, but changed it to not having the wrist stretched, my reason was that I wear shoes and that it also set up trips easy.

Basic Muay Thai Pad Drills: Inside Left Kick Counters

I used to hate math, but later got fascinated by it when I read Rudy Rucker’s book “Mind Tools”, the way he explained the relationship between numbers and geometry, Gödel's incompleteness theorem, changed me on several levels besides gaining new knowledge, see the beauty of mathematics, it had a huge philosophical impact on me. I have a huge interest in patterns as it what has evolved us, to see the connections and discover why specific events happens that has made us the dominant life form, but as everything is a double edged sword, many patterns are constructed that are not related but perceived as related, so I am cautious to assume that when a pattern is visible I should consider about the cause than only a gut feeling, which is based on a recognition of a pattern experienced before, that can save your ass or get you killed.

The number 23 which is by some considered as a special magical number, as many believes that it appears more often in conjunction with tragedies, it is BS and it only proves that if you focus on it that will create a mind searching for that number as a pattern and suddenly see it more often. Curiously what wonders me with the 23 believers and writers of book about the number 23 is that none of them knows that it is the only number that cannot be used to construct a symmetric geometrical structure. I have spent a lot of years researching that, but never did find anyone who knew about that curious mathematical anomaly, I discovered it by reading “Mind Tools”.

I do due to training and teaching AMOK! have a focus on certain numbers 15, 45, 90, 135 (and all of them are divisible with 9 as the common pattern), when teaching about a lot of various subjects as structure as an example, those who knows why I don’t need to write a long explanation, for others who want to know train with someone who knows why those numbers are important. But the number that I see most often is used in most martial arts is 45, which pop up in this instructional video.

Exercise of the Day: FitForChaos Workout 006: Full Body Circuit for MMA Fighters

WRITTEN BY FITFORCHAOS (WWW.YOUTUBE.COM/USER/FITFORCHAOS)

FitForChaos Workout 006: Full Body Circuit for MMA Fighters

I try to incorporate movement from MMA into every workout. This often includes core work, footwork, shadow boxing, punching, heavy lifting or explosive plyo movement.

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I try to incorporate movement from MMA into every workout. This often includes core work, footwork, shadow boxing, punching, heavy lifting or explosive plyo movement.

Following workout is intense and kicked my ass. It includes all basic movements that an MMA fighter goes through in the fight.

-Explosive lifting
-Sprawls
-Upper body strength, core work, static holds and grip
-Wrestling shoots
-Punching bag work

Rules to the workout:
-1 minutes per each exercise movement
-5 minutes total
-3-5 rounds
-1 minute rest between rounds

Exercises:

-1st minute: Kettlebell Snatch into Sprawl
-2nd minute: Pull Ups into Static Hold and Roll
-3rd minute: Ab Hanging Leg Raises
-4th minute: Wrestling Shoots
-5th minute: Bag Work 

CSW Student Levels 6 - 10 - Trailer 2

Southpaw Fighting Techniques: Proof Of Concept

Another great video from Damage Control MMA Having spent half of my life fighting with right lead in empty hand combat styles, and the other last half with a southpaw stance from training with blades and sticks, I can switch and feel comfortable in both stances unarmed, I do it as soon as I feel I get pressured by my opponent and while he has to adjust his plans I don’t feel any need for adjusting anything. That is one of the benefits with being comfortable in both stances, I would always choose the opposite of my opponent to start with as the odds that he has fighting experience against an opponent with stance he has trained less against is higher, better for me worse for him.

One of my all time favourite wrestlers Dan Gable has his right foot in front, as is sure that most wrestlers have trained takedowns 90% against persons with their left foot forward, so he is sure that they will do a crappy takedown and he advocates to go to the side that is the opposite of what most train to defend or attack in training. What struck me most was that his stance is exactly like in AMOK!, and one of my all time favourite MMA gyms in Brazil, Chute Box Academy have a stance that is very close to how we stand, only difference is they don’t keep their feet parallel and are off more than 15°.

I love when the pieces fit together, 2 of my favourite empty hand styles, Chute Box style Muay Thai MMA and wrestling (Catch wrestling). I can adapt it to our training as there are so many similar moves, that only confirms that it has been tested under pressure and works, hence the similarity. I don’t even need to add them as they exist already in AMOK!, but makes it easier for me to instruct newcomers with previous Muay Thai, MMA and wrestling training. All the other styles I have trained and some of them I have been an instructor also helps me to guide people better, if they have trained Wing Chun, FMA, Knock Down Karate, foil/rapier/sabre fencing. I have only added a few things that I always tell that it either is a trick from Catch wrestling, does not come from any system but from self guided discoveries I have made from experiment a lot for countless hours of sparring.

It really feels both good and bad when I discover something new that my body did by itself, that I have never trained but was a flinch response to later discover that it already existed in AMOK!, I feel good as it validates my response but bad as I believed I was the first one to do that technique. I have one which I have never seen in any system, I use it and teach it, I have to show it to Tom Sotis and see if it again is not a novelty. 

Advanced Triangle Choke Details

A powerful triangle choke that works in BJJ, MMA, and submission grappling. From Stephan Kesting's Grapplearts

Muay Thai Four Count

Damage Control MMA online academy The Thai Boxing Association's Muay Thai 4 Count Combination is a versatile and multifaceted combination. It can be used in flow as a fighting combination, or in class as a teaching tool. The Muay Thai 4 Count develops your ability to flow seamlessly from kicking range to straight arm punching range to bent arm punching range and back out into kicking range.

Unstoppable Strength & Conditioning for MMA: The Sandbag Way

From My Mad Methods

Strength and conditioning for Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) is a complicated affair. We have a number of MMA athletes who swear blind that sparring, rolling, and general calisthenics is the only thing that’s needed. Others follow more advanced programs that develop the athletic components of strength, speed, and power. But who’s right?

This is where things get complicated. Before you can really work out how to structure your strength and conditioning program, you need to have a very good understanding of your existing skills and abilities. You’ll also need to know exactly how you fight and how you want to be able to fight - this is a very important point.

MMA is a diverse sport, but perhaps not as diverse as in the early days. The Vale Tudo and original UFC competitions had style versus style - in fact, that was the UFC slogan for a while. It didn’t take too long for people to realize that the strong and powerful athletes who could control opponents did very well, especially after they learned a little bit about Jiu-Jitsu!

MMA is one of those sporting anomalies where strength and conditioning really does make a huge difference. It is possible for poorly conditioned athletes to rely on their superior skill, but it’s also possible for an unskilled but strong and powerful athlete to dominate a weaker opponent. I’ve seen a number of fights where a super powerful athlete has literally picked up their opponent and slammed them to a knockout. This is not to say that skill isn’t a prerequisite for elite performance, but that high level strength and conditioning should be a goal for all MMA athletes.

Utilizing “odd objects” when you step into that cage or ring, you’re stepping into the unknown. As much as you can prepare for MMA competition, we all know that anything can happen when that bell sounds. Your strength and conditioning program should reflect this. It should prepare you for the physical demands of the sport as a whole, but also the unknown nature of competition. We can aim to do this by utilizing training protocols, methodologies, and implements that closely match MMA.

I’m a fan of using odd objects for MMA strength and conditioning - especially sandbags. Your opponent is the ultimate odd object - hard to control, constantly shifting and generally uncooperative! Match the training tools to this and you’ll be a long way to developing some strength and conditioning you can really use.

Sandbag Training for MMA

Just like any regular strength and conditioning program, you need to base your exercises on big, multiple bodypart compound movements, with a big emphasis on power. Why? Because that’s what you’ll be required to do in competition. The sandbag is a great option for developing MMA specific strength, power, and conditioning for a number of reasons:

1) It’s very hard to get a hold of and it really makes you work for each lift. The constantly-shifting center of mass makes most standard exercises infinitely more challenging. It’s the next best thing to trying to hold onto an opponent who doesn’t want to be held onto!

2) The sandbag allows you to experiment with a variety of different grips that have parallels in MMA. A bear hug grip is like holding an opponent in a clinch; the zercher position is like having double-under hooks on an opponent; and gripping onto the material of your sandbag will help with gi-control.

3) The sandbag is about as close as a free-weight will get to replicating an opponent - its size, shape, and center of mass can all be very similar. Try using your sandbag for technique drills rather than just traditional exercises. Practice some side escapes from under a heavy sandbag, some powerful hip-bridges to develop the strength to escape from a mount or some bear hug load carries to build standing control strength.

It’s also important that you include exercises that are multi-planar; defined as an exercise that involves moving in multiple directions. We would normally see plenty of Sagittal Plane (forwards/backwards) exercises in the gym - like sit ups and bench presses. But be sure not to neglect exercises that have you working in the Frontal Plane (side-to-side) and Transverse (rotation). The sandbag will naturally stress you in these planes of motion as you try to work with it.

Strength & Conditioning for MMA: Workout 1: Fight Specific Sandbag Training

A1: Sandbag Thrusters - 3 x 1 minute
A2: Sandbag Shouldering - 3 x 1 minute
A3: Sandbag Floor Press - 3 x 1 Minute
A4: Sandbag Walking Lunges - 3 x 1 minute
A5: Sandbag Zercher Squat - 3 x 1 minute

Total all of your repetitions, rest for 1 minute and then repeat for a total of 3 rounds. Aim to maintain repetitions totals across all 3 rounds.

Strength & Conditioning for MMA: Workout 2: Sandbag & Bodyweight War

A1: 10 Sandbag Bear Hug Squats
A2: 20 Burpees
A3: 10 Sandbag High Pulls
A4: 20 Squats
A5: 10 Sandbag Push Press

As many rounds as possible in 15 minutes.

Strength & Conditioning for MMA: Workout 3: Sandbag Brute Force

A1: 5 Sandbag Cleans
A2: 5 Sandbag Push Jerks
A3: 5 Sandbag Back Squats
Repeat for 3-5 rounds.

Use the biggest sandbag you can handle for this workout.

When training for any competitive environment (even if it’s recreational), your training should be focused on the demands of that sport. Sandbag training is a close match for the demands of MMA so it’s a natural fit.

For more information on sandbag training check out Matt’s new eBook “The Complete Guide To Sandbag Training.” It’s currently available at 50% off retail for My Mad Methods subscribers. Use the coupon code “mmmsandbag50” at: http://fitedia.com/products/the-complete-guide-to-sandbag-training

Contributor Information:

Matt Palfrey is a strength and conditioning specialist, consultant to the healthcare and fitness industry and the author of the Sandbag Fitness Blog - a free resource for those wishing to incorporate sandbag lifting into their strength and conditioning program. The Sandbag Fitness Blog contains information, tips and daily workouts for people to follow. Matt is based in the UK and his current clients include pro MMA athletes, individuals and a number of private sector health and fitness organizations. Find out more. 

Olympic Wrestling Limp Arm with Mark Schultz

Another awesome video from Damage Control MMA, with Olympic Gold Medalist and UFC Veteran Mark Schultz demonstrates the finer points of the Arm Drag that resulted in one of Wrestling's most brutal Double Wrist Lock in recorded history.

Ankle Kick Snap Down

From Damage Control MMA

If you’ve been following our posts for a while you’ve probably been picking up on the theme that if you’re head gets lowered, you’re going to be hating it. On the flip side of the coin, if you can get your opponent to lower his head for you, it’s time to dish out some pain. Simply look at “The #1 Way to Avoid Paralysis and Fatalities in MMA“, and “The Gotch Toe Hold” (I digress towards the end and begin discussing the broken posture) and you’ll begin to see some of the many dangers of having your head lowered, and the advantages of breaking your opponent’s posture for MMA, Submission Grappling, Brazilian Jiu-jitsu and Self Defense situations.
Here CSW Coach Chris Regodon shares a unique trick for coaxing your opponent to break his own posture. Coach Chris uses the bottom of his foot to effect the sweep/kick. But I imagine you could also use the front of your shin on the inside corner of your opponent’s shin. I think it would hurt them more, but what you would potentially give your opponent an angle. But as Guro Inosanto likes to say, every technique is 100% legitimate, just not 100% of the time. Perhaps there are times and places for each.
Be sure to weigh in with your ideas and experiences in the comments below. Then tune in next week for DamageControlMMA’s very first Gi Specific technique!

Brazilian Two on One Sweep

Damage Control MMA is one of my favourite Youtube channels.

A must-read blog post from Coach Tony Torres of Functional Edge MMA.

"Myth-Directions and the Middle Path

Once again I will be sharing and expressing some views on Self Protection, Martial Art, and Combat Sport and on subjects related to the same that have recently surfaced on the "interweb" and caught my attention. In my usual fashion I will list what I see as potential problems then offer some alternatives and solutions.

Conceptualizing Concepts

Many systems, coaches, instructors and arts boast that they don't teach techniques but rather they teach "concepts". Their reasoning is usually that techniques are rigid and dogmatic or unrealistic while concepts are flexible and can be applied more easily under stress. There is one major problem with this; the definition of the word concept: Something conceived in the mind, and abstract or generic idea.

Basically a concept only exists in the mind and, unless you know some Jedi stuff I'm not aware of, a concept will not stop a knife from puncturing your heart or a rapist from taking what he wants.
Teaching concepts to folks who need Self Protection is like you showing up to a mechanic for car trouble and him just pontificating about the modern combustion engine and sending you on your way.

I know that Coaches and Instructors that use what they call a "Concept(s) Based Approach" are not maliciously misleading the public. They may simply be misinformed or misunderstand the meaning of the word. However there are shady characters out there that use the word concept as a gimmick in marketing to a culture less prone to participate in conventional training for self defense.

Principle-ly Speaking

Another term being misrepresented in our community is principles. As in "I teach principles of combat/defense/self-preservation/etc". A principle is a fundamental law or assumption, facts of nature. Self Protection is of such chaotic nature that the only laws we can be certain of in combat are the laws of physics which affect our entire universe. Anything beyond that is mere speculation.

So here is what the innocently misinformed coaches probably mean when they are talking about concepts, and what all conscientious instructors should be actually teaching and talking about instead of concepts...

Strategically Speaking About Directive Doctrine

What most people that advocate "concepts and principles",which we have shown to be quite vague and virtually useless, are really advocating or should be advocating is a self -protection or combat Doctrine, Directive and / or Strategy. Let's break these down.

Doctrine and Directive are closely related and are the basis of Strategy. Doctrine are a set of beliefs, for example, belief in your right to thrive in a healthy and happy environment and to use physical force if necessary to protect that right. This is a Doctrine. I am by no means saying this should be your Doctrine as only an individual can determine that, this is just an example of one.

A Directive starts giving substance to that Doctrine by specifically guiding your thoughts and actions towards a goal. Directives are affected by personal and professional commitments. For example, a person who when, by himself, as a citizen, may be able to reasonably justify running away from certain kinds of danger, may have a different directive when he becomes a police officer and even a different one still if they become a soldier. A Directive is a set of "instructions" and "permissions" that you give yourself about how much and how far you are willing to go to achieve specific self protection outcomes.You can only reach directives after careful introspection. Also in order to determine Doctrine and Directives we must "Know our enemy". We must figure out with which type of violence our personal and / or professional lives will put us in contact. This violence could be social, asocial, domestic, applied professional, received professional, or military, some or all of the above. In any case we must determine a hierarchy of what we are likely to face and create directives accordingly. Most people have not spent the time determining a personal and or professional directive and this may cause hesitation under stress.

A Strategy is a set of broad brush plans in place to deal with the violence we may encounter. For example we may have in place a Strategy of Alertness, Prevention and Avoidance in order to thwart harm that has not yet reached us and a strategy of Survival, Reversal, Engagement and Escape in cases where the contact phase of an assault has already started.

What is really interesting about Doctrine, Directive, and Strategy is that they all occur in our mind. We can discuss them and help our students formulate them but they are still internal.

Tactful About Tactics

And now we get to the meat of the matter, Tactics. About fifteen years ago I remember finding a definition for tactics in a dictionary that I have not been able to find since. What is interesting is that the definition came to lesser use because most of the time people using the word where referring to military, fighting or combat "tactics".
To this day I prefer the neutral definition I found so long ago: Tactics- the Efficient use of movement, a procedure or method of working using expert movement.

Tactics, when trained and executed properly, are the physical manifestation of our Doctrine, Directives, and Strategy. If we have a doctrine that advocates escape but training that emphasizes tactics that keep us engaged with an opponent to continually deliver damage, we should clearly see that our tactics and strategy or directives are in conflict. Time to introspect and see which needs modifying.

In conclusion to this section. Talk to your students less about "Concepts and Principles" and more about developing Doctrine, Directive, Strategy and Tactics. Also when you do this make sure that you are helping the student explore and develop his own, not just imposing yours. Because you and your student will have different Attributes, a subject that I will address in a future blog :-)

War on Warriors

There is entirely too much use of the word Warrior. Lately people have been identifying themselves or others with this word automatically imbuing it, and themselves, with all kinds of positive traits. Read the following definitions carefully and you will see that the term warrior can only be used to truly describe a very small percentage of people and that description does NOT automatically mean that said person is inherently good, noble or honorable. I have interlaced the definitions with all the relevant and critical meanings so that the reader may do some mental subtraction as the meaning of the word becomes narrower.

Warrior: one engaged {involved in activity} or experienced {made skillful or wise through participation} in warfare {military [relating to soldiers or war] operations between enemies}.

Nothing in the definitions above indicates tenaciousness, kindliness, virtue, or any of the numerous other positive traits that are being associated with the term. Those positive traits belong to such humans that choose to develop them and are just qualities of being a good human being not qualities of a warrior.

You can be a good warrior or a terrible one. You can be a noble warrior or an evil one. Stop using the term as a badge of honor, specially if you didnt earn it.

Trademarking Truth About Mucho Macho

Some instructors and coaches, some famous, some not so much, include in their teaching engagements or interactions with students or potential clients, a session at the beginning or end of training that goes something like this: (Standby for cartoonish depiction in 3, 2, 1...)

Statement 1 Out loud or to self- "I can kick anybody's ass here!" 

Statement 2 usually out loud- "Who wants to try to kick my ass?"

Incident 1 Instructor Soundly Kicks ASS of Student who plunked down hard earned cash to learn from him using techniques that he has mastered through years of repetition against half-hearted attacks initiated by said psychologically off-balance student.

Result 1 student who has his ass handed to him, and most of audience, are appropriately impressed and will forever be followers of that "guru".

Result 2 Intelligent people will question validity of social experiment they just witnessed.

Result 3 Student in audience that is daughter, mother, sister is scarred for life knowing that they cant ever hope to defend themselves from a guy like that.

Result 4 Cop in audience scratches his head thinking "What a dick!"

Result 5 Ambulance is called for student injury...or instructor.

The sad part is that I have seen this scenario unveil in various forms. Folks have told me of private lessons that went like that with some World renowned teachers. I have witnessed famous trainers challenge students questions by basically challenging them to a fight or putting them in dangerous but unrealistic scenarios in which said instructors had the cards stacked in their favor.
I have seen instructors sell their system by lining up students and defeating them under rules and circumstances that said students would never find themselves in.

The simple truth is this, your ability to "kick someone's ass" only proves one thing, you kicked that person's ass. It does not mean that your system is the best or that the person should train like you to achieve the same results. 
Love your martial art, combat sport, or self protection method enough so that you continue to practice, develop and evolve but not so much that you are blinded to other avenues and answers that, although they may not be the best for you, they may be useful to those you are trying to help.

If you truly are confident that the skills you have to share will work for yourself and your students, then putting them in a scenario that may cause potential injury and really has no educational value is, at best ignorant and unprofessional, at worst a silly display of macho ego, potentially dangerous and well...unprofessional. 

Be responsible to your students by challenging myths, especially your own, the truth almost always lies somewhere in the middle of extremes. So endeth this rant :-)"

Tony Torres

Clinch 5 - The Sources - Trailer 1

Coming Soon to DVD! Greg Nelson is back with more clinch wisdom, and this time he brings Jacob Volkmann and Saul Mitchell with him. Extremely high level wrestling and MMA style clinching in this one.

CSW 2012 Camp - 4 DVD Set

Erik Paulson, Greg Nelson, Roger Machado, Daniel Sullivan, Nicolas Saignac. 4 1/2 hours of the highest level instruction you have come to expect from CSW!