Month: October 2019

Life Hacks

A little Whiteboard wisdom: you can have everything laid out for you, all the instructions spelled out, even have great instructors showing you the way but, if you are not willing to use all that has been laid out, spelled out, explained and taught to you… Good Luck! I’ve been on both sides of this, still am in some areas. As a coach I show what I know, and what has worked well in the past for others. However, the worker has to do the work, not only that, they have to figure stuff out on their own. I am still trying to do both, the work that I need to do and figure stuff out. Unfortunately, I use the ‘figure stuff out’ excuse to not do some work I need to be doing. Life’s a fight, fight back!

Tar Tactics

Practice Makes Habit? Don’t forget the Combative Martial Arts were originally designed for self defense and fighting. The vast majority of the time you are wrestling, grappling, rolling live…on very forgiving mats. Tar, cement, tile, ice…is not so forgiving. I have lost a fair amount of skin on the tar tackling and actually fighting to control and subdue the less than friendly. In addition to losing skin, your bones bouncing off of cement, tar and tile will wreck your body. How many times have you posted on your head, or your face has slid on the mat? Well, good bye skin on your face. The next time you grapple live think about if you were actually on tar, pebbles, sand and stone. I have a ton of stories and experiences of others and myself having many ‘learning experiences’ that shape the way I grapple. Remember, self defense is a big part of the martial arts experience.

Attack From All Directions

Fun with the son! Two different distinct combos the first was a 1-2 then attack liver, Bob & Weave the hook and follow up with a Cross-Hook-Cross, which brings the hands up. This leaves a hole for the left knee to hit that liver again, followed by 2 elbows and a rear knee (inside 4 count). The second combo is after the 1-2 your opponent drops his head and bulls forward. While retreating and coordinating with his footwork hits 3 uppercuts to bring the head up then followed by a quick stopping Hook-Cross. You have to be able to attack going in all directions and change up your shots given your opponent’s movements and opening. Plus it is just plain awesome to work with @guapoghoul … and making him pay a little for getting out of shape 🤣

Repping The Basics

Working the basics is far more than going through the motions. Being solid in your base and balance, strong in your structure, disciplined with your defense and distance, focused on form… the basics really do form the foundation on which your ultimate growth is built on. In an art like Muay Thai everything is about being able to winning the exchange. That means managing distance, being strong in your overall structure (before, during and after) when you start your training, focus on form, what your hitting with, how your hitting, maintaining a strong defense knowing strikes will be coming back. By really focusing on the details, and repping them out with a real goal of getting ever better, you are conditioning far more than your body. Intense focus and striving to become Good, Better, Best becomes who you are in other areas of your life. Training with intent to be better always is no different than any area of your life.

Never Give Up!

Ups and Downs, good and bad, happy and sad, mountain tops and deep dark valleys, wins and losses, dreams and despair… this is what life is made up of and everyone has to deal with them. If you have to cry, cry hard. If you have to scream, scream loud. If you need to fight, fight with everything you got. If you need help, get the best help you can. But, just NEVER GIVE UP! I can tell you the worst things in my life, which I still have residual effects 16 years after, guess what, I am healthier, happier and have more energy than now than I did a couple years ago. The battles will come and go, some big, many small. Just know you are never alone and NEVER GIVE UP! 

Live & Learn

Mistakes are made, we do dumb stuff, do more than we can handle, ‘good ideas’ backfire, things go wrong…Live and learn! Sometimes the lessons are really painful, they may take a while to figure out. Never allow a fixable problem, a mistake that you can recover from, anything that you can survive to take you out of the fight. Take your lumps and then get up and get after it. Never Give Up!

Son, A Cheap Shot Is A Great Deal

Some feel that certain techniques are “cheap shots.” There was a time when leg locks were ‘cheap’ or when you take a wrist lock… nonsense! Now, in a self defense situation there is no such thing. Context is everything in everything. Whenever I hear someone say, “That was cheap!” I always say, “A cheap shot is a great deal” and smile. Now, don’t be an asshole, or malicious, unless it is necessary, and you better know when it’s necessary. However, when you see an opportunity, take it! Some people don’t want to jump on an opportunity before someone else because they think it’s a ‘cheap shot’. Go back to the asshole rule. If they don’t act and you do that is not a cheap shot and you are not an asshole. So, son, a cheap shot is a great deal. Take’m when you can!

What Is Your Purpose In Grappling?

What is your purpose for your grappling? Pure sport or self defense or to protect a weapon…? Even with each of these areas is your goal to attack and dominate position or defend and survive? Everything matters, and it really matters when everything that matters is at stake.

Push Yourself

Training hard and pushing yourself day in and day out is the secret to being mentally and physically tough. There is no secret pill and no hacks to make things easy. Hard training is hard! You get tired from training and purposefully push yourself to the edge. It builds heart, a tough mind and a willingness to push through perceived limits. But, if you don’t build that heart and you get tired in a fight, your opponent will feel it, see it and keep attacking to break you… and that is bad, bad, bad!

Health – Energy – Attitude – Mindset

I’ve always been active and training, pushing boundaries and testing myself. However, I’ve have never been tested so much as when I was battling cancer. Now, looking back I was training hard but, I was not sleeping enough, wasn’t eating as well as I could have, always on the go burning the candle at both ends and the middle was melting. The same mental and physical toughness that I developed to push my limits to become stronger may have played a part in my eventual cancer. However, that mental and physical toughness allowed me to never give up when I was at my weakest and frailest, crawling through the valley of death. Now, I am still training, but I sleep, eat healthy, do things to develop my energy and well being, focus on health and happiness, live life like I love it, with excitement and enthusiasm. Believe me, everything is easier after fighting for my life and now living a lifestyle to be energized, healthy, happy, have a positive mental outlook with overall well being.