 STAMINA
STRENGTH
SPEED
SCIENCE
STRATEGY
SUPPLENESS
They are in no set order or listed in importance. You may
place more of an emphasis on one of the categories as a direct expression
or your fighting attitude or psychological make-up.
1) Stamina
Boy! Is this an important training area? I have personally seen more guys
drop out of training over the last 28-29 years through lack of stamina
than any other single cause. Fighting for real is dammed hard work, as
is an altercation on the street, which goes on past 30 seconds (most untrained
guys in a street brawl can usually last about 30 seconds before they hit
the wall).
Stamina is all about developing cardio vascular endurance. It is the staying
power during the fight, to keep going when every muscle in your body is
crying out for you to quit.
About seventeen years ago, I had the opportunity to test myself on a particular
course. Fortunately I was privy to some inside information beforehand,
so I new more or less what to expect from the program. I was physically
trained and prepared anyway, because I had been running everyday and training
in various fighting arts for years.
When I saw some of the other guys on the course, my first impressions
were one of amazement! 'Just look at the size of some of these 'Gorillas',
I remember thinking. I felt overwhelmed by some of their physical size
and muscular definition, especially when they took off their shirts in
the changing room in a display of 'Sylvester-ism' and intimidation for
us more puny specimens. Any way to cut the story short they were not as
tough as they thought they were, being some of the first to quit. The
point I'm trying to make is that although they were dedicated athletes
in their own right, their training was specific to the strength category;
they had comparatively little stamina, which this course demanded in abundance.
Training for stamina takes commitment and constant training, as it takes
a long time to build up and then maintain; if you lay off for a while
it depletes faster than the ozone layer. There are a number of activities,
which will promote stamina (cardio vascular fitness) some of the more
common are as follows, running, cycling and swimming. I myself run six
days a week and often take my bike to and from the office.
However, the best way to develop elite stamina is by running, which is
the superlative for achieving the cardio vascular endurance, which we
require to perform at top level.
In future articles I will endeavour to expose you to my training secrets,
and how to run!………Yes there is a lot behind running properly.
Fortunately for me, I have been able to run and train with some of the
best runners there are, which encourages you to constantly improve.
The good thing about running is that you can train any time any place
any where, so wherever I found myself in the world, even if I had no one
to grapple with, or no bags to hit, I could still run and keep up my stamina
for fighting.
I can hear lots of you out there saying well I can't run because of my
knees, or my back etc, well bollocks guys, you can run if you really want.
I have known people with one leg or foot and still get out and stick in
the miles.
Think on this for a moment, the biggest step in running is the first one
out of your front door.
Once you get past that you're on your way. Don't feel self-conscious,
what you perceive and what in reality, other people perceive is a completely
different thing. It will feel strange at first, you will feel awkward,
your step will feel laboured, and you might even trip up when your legs
get tired and drag. Work through it, we have all been there at some stage.
By the way, only run in appropriate running shoes, cross trainers are
not designed for pounding the streets. Bye a copy of Running Magazine
to procure your shoes. You can get a decent pair for around £50.
I always buy mine in the sales when they get rid of the older models,
which is every other month. As far as I'm concerned, they are for running,
not as a posing fashion accessory.
Just as a little deviation, I thought you might like this story. When
I was out in the Middle East I used to run lot of races. One such race
was in Eastern Saudi Arabia, not far from the US air base. The race was
a 10 K, a distance that I was suited to and always did well in. Anyway,
during the race I got into some bumping and barging with this Arab guy
from Yemen, as we raced for a superior position in the leading pack. This
eventually turned a bit nasty, and he started to throw some punches (pussy
punches I hasten to add), things being as they are I dragged him out of
the race to the side of the road and had a good fight. Obviously, things
went my way, and it was a bit one sided, however I showed him the errors
of his ways and rejoined the race, working my way back up the field, and
still managed to finish third.
Overall it was a good day, I had come third in a big race and had a good
fight. Both my hobbies were tested under pressure, good job I had first-rate
stamina!
2) Strength
I often hear martial artists proclaiming that you don't need strength
and technique will always win through. Well I'm sorry to tell you that
this statement is very erroneous. When you get into the mêlée
and chaos of a fight strength will surely tell, and habitually brings
out the winner.
By the way, I'm not referring to muscle man strength here; I am in fact
being specific meaning 'functional strength'.
By functional I mean strength, which is specifically related to the activity,
strength that will enhance your performance considerably. Grapplers are
some of the strongest athletes there are; look back to the old time grapplers
like Karl Gotch or Farmer Burns for inspiration. Both these guys had functional
strength, which they both recommended as prerequisite to being a good
grappler.
To use weights or not use weights, that is the question? Some schools
of thought recommend the use of weights for strength training. I have
used loose weights on and off over the years, and you can surely benefit
enormously from their potential.
My original teacher of Judo / Jiu-Jitsu, Norman Grundy from Scarborough,
advocated the use of weights, (he was a former amateur Mr Universe and
Adonis of the North Champion) so I guess he new a bit about swinging the
metal about. Saying that, he would always tell us that bodybuilding and
weight training for strength were two entirely different subject areas.
Personally, now I tend to use my own body weight for strength conditioning,
its good fun. The old time wrestlers got strong this way.
Twenty odd years ago I remember doing strange exercises with Norman, which
at the time seemed like sheer torture. I didn't realise then just how
useful these types of exercises were. I remember Norman telling me that
he acquired the exercises from Kenshiro Abe, (who in the fifties and sixties
was the top trainer in Judo / Jiu-jitsu and Aikido) We would do squats,
cat push-ups, bridging, going round the gym on all fours, reverse push-ups
and crab-ups, to name but a few. (This is supported in Don Draegers book
on Judo training methods, re-published 1999 Tuttle). Matt Furey has a
good book out called Combat Conditioning, which details similar exercises.
Get hold of both copies, they are good books.
In conclusion, whichever way you choose, weights or body exercises, or
a combination of both, the bottom line is you must integrate strength
training into your supplemental training program.
3) Speed
So up to now we have discussed stamina and strength, the next important
area is speed. Speed is the essence of fighting. To have vigorous speed
you first must have an exceptionally good stamina base (cardio vascular
endurance) then you must have a first-class degree of functional strength.
(Speed x Strength = Power), and power is what we are really looking for
in street fighting.
To have speed you have to think speed. When you practice in the gym, drills
sparing etc, look to introduce speed at every opportunity. The only advice
I can give you at this stage is to train for speed, and yet more speed,
and sustain speed.
Scientific tests can be made to establish just what fraction of a second
it takes a person to respond to a stimulus, either, audio, visual or tactile.
This then starts to divide speed up into Sub-components, i.e., physical
speed, perceptual speed, reactive speed etc, (Isolate each division and
work on it)
One thing is for sure; there is a specific relationship between stamina
and speed.
You do not need to be told that when you're tired, it is practically impossible
for you to move at great speed. With diminishing stamina (oomph) there
is a depletion of speed.
This of course suggests that thought should be given to those training
methods, which will develop increased stamina and sub sequential energy
levels.
All top fighters posses dynamic power. They have the speed to move quickly,
to shoot in on an opponent like a dog leaving a trap, or to strike with
a tremendous punch. In addition, all this has to be under the stress of
a real altercation with all the adrenaline and extraneous forces acting
upon us.
The real consummate street fighter moves around like an alley cat, lightly,
easily, relaxed, waiting for the time to come when his relaxed supple
muscles spring into action in a microsecond.
This is one of the secrets (besides stamina and functional strength) of
real functional fighting speed.
In part, two of this article I shall be presenting discussions on Science,
Strategy and Suppleness.
So for this issue, run hard, train hard, think speed, and as always...
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