Nathan Nababan, Winner, MMA Down Under 2011, Momentum Technique Fight Team
What does it take for you to become a fighter or train like a fighter?
Are you considering stepping into the ring or cage? Do you think about it? Do you dream about it? The thoughts of stepping into a ring or cage has plagued many of us at some time, the thoughts of being called a professional fighter, having hoards of people calling out your name as you enter the arena, and having a nice shiny belt around your waist as you are crowned winner can make us feel pretty warm and fuzzy on the inside. And so it should! Because at that point you have a raised self-esteem, possibly a chiseled body, a money earning career, pictures of you splashed across magazines and billboards, signing autographs, doing television commercials for multi-nationals, and living the dream! It sounds great, doesn’t it?
That is the dream.
The reality is more like this…
Spending long hours at the gym on the heavy bag and focus mitts, doing boring repetitive, but essential drills. Sporting a black eye and bloody nose, the odd back strain, sore shoulders, sore elbows, headaches. You slip your hand inside your gloves still wet with sweat from last night’s session. Other people will be sweating on you, coaches yelling at you demanding more from you. Your social life – limited, even non-existent. Think of the sacrifices you have to make, and so will your family and friends. The mental frustrations of injuries and setbacks. The anxiety, fear and excitement of the competition, of your opponent, of losing, winning riding through your body like a never ending roller coaster. Troublesome questions that enters and occupy your mind, what if you let your club down and your coaches, the shame of looking bad in front of your family and friends. What if you win, what will that change? Your ego, status, career, respect from your peers? Will training still be a struggle thereafter…
That is the reality.
Only a very small percentage of us will choose the life of a fighter, and choose it powerfully enough to make it come alive. Very few people will have the willpower, discipline and drive required to train like a professional fighter. Very few people will rise up against the demands and challenges of professional fighting and even less have that level of commitment to start the training and continue training for as long as it takes them.
Make no mistake. It will be hard.
Long hours.
Boring repetitions.
Be prepared for setbacks.
They will happen.
When will you be stopped?
After one day, one week, one month?
What will stop you?
Tired?
Bored?
Sore?
Once you choose to train like a fighter, and choose it powerfully with no excuses, you are not only convincing yourself that THIS IS WHAT YOU WANT but you are also committing yourself to THIS IS IT!
This is what YOU WANT.
This is what YOU WILL DO.
This is what YOU HAVE CHOSEN.
Whatever it takes!
From here on you take control of that little voice in your head that says “you can’t” and “you won’t” and “you are not…” even the most committed fighters out there battle daily to control that voice in their head. What sets them apart from the rest of us is they know how to push through it and tell the little voice to “*#@! off” and they get on with their training.
So, do you still think you have what it takes to step into a ring or a cage? Can you handle long boring repetitious hours at the gym? Can you train and manage injuries? Are you willing to sacrifice time with your friends and family? Can you handle the coach yelling at you and asking you for one more repetition, when you have nothing left?
To become a fighter is not a given right. It is not a skill handed down from a line of warriors. It is not based on a specific look, body type or body shape. It has nothing to do with being physically strong? To become a fighter is all about attitude. Your attitude to your choices, your life, your training, your discipline and your dream. How badly do you want it?
Last year I had the pleasure of training fight team for our very first BJJ no – gi competition, right here in Adelaide. Amongst the students who entered this competition was Yianni. Yianni was quite fit but had barely scratched the surface in regards to grappling. Understandably, he had concerns regarding his lack of experience in grappling and thought that he would be at a disadvantage, especially as his opponents would be grapplers who had spent hours on the mat training their art.
We are not a BJJ club, instead we train MMA, so our time is also spent working on stand up and other skills allowed in MMA and not in BJJ. Not only did we have to concentrate our skills, but also learn new grappling rules.
I understood exactly where Yianni was coming from and the fact that Yianni only had four weeks to prepare I needed to make sure that everything I taught him would improve on his strengths and mask his weaknesses. There was absolutely no time to play with fancy or ‘flavour of the month’ techniques.
What Yianni needed in his grappling repertoire was well trained controlling skills that would keep him on top of his opponent, an impenetrable defence against any attacks, and how to gain and maintain positional advantage.
For a whole month Yianni trained to improve his grappling with conditioning exercises that I specifically designed for him in order to make his body more limber and grappling fit and his grappling impentetrable with drills to maintain that positional advantage.
Yianni also trained continuous repetitions of every position in top circuit. He trained just one escape and one sweep from the bottom, and trained it not shy of a hundred repetitions! When Yianni was tired and could do no more – the rounds started again.
Following this, Yianni would grapple other students and whatever technique he drilled that night he was told to apply it in his grappling. If he could not effectively apply it to his grappling we would go back to drilling the technique over and over again.
To his credit Yianni did one thing that most fighters and competitors fail to do. Aside from putting in a tremendous effort in the one month prior to the competition Yianni came to training everyday with an empty cup. What I mean by empty cup; Yianni had no expectations of what he SHOULD be doing and instead he just did what I told him to do. He trusted me, his coach and he trusted his training.
On the day, it all came together. Yianni did it only what we trained, and when on the mat, whatever tactics I told him to do, he did. He went into each bout with no expectations of what technique he was going to pull off and how it would happen. He went in, ready to control his opponent, and listen to whatever coaching his coach gave. For me, it was like playing a video game, I would call it out, Yianni would listen, compute and apply. No questions, no lag, he just did it. And walked out with a GOLD medal.
To chase means that you are trying to hit your opponent while he/she is moving around. To pin is to corner your opponent and blitz him/her with multiple punches.
What happens when they move around?
Regardless of whether your opponent is moving backwards away from your hits or defensively moving around, circling side to side, they are in control of their surrounding (be it a ring or a cage etc). They have the space to move into in order to avoid your punch and its impact. You are chasing them around to try and lay a hit on them.
As always, it is very important that you have your hands up and punch with good form, but especially when chasing. At this time, your opponent is not thinking about where to move to (remember they have a freedom of movement) but instead they will be looking for an opportunity and opening to hit you back. If your hands drop at any time while chasing, expect a response from your opponent!
What happens when they are pinned?
When you pin your opponent, it means they cannot effectively get away from your punches. By pinning them you will now pressure them to find a way out. Their mind now is not free to think about an opportunity to hit you back, but preoccupied with how to get themselves out. Blitzing them (continuous punches) will put even more pressure onto them and force them to think of escaping and defending against your hits, rather than looking for an opportunity to hit back.
What does that mean for you?
With your opponents mind currently preoccupied, it means that during the blitz you can afford to sacrifice your form, for a short period of time, in order to lay more consecutive punches. In this instance you will gain speed, but lose the security of your form. The ability to gauge how long to blitz, thus how long you can compromising your form is an important skill a fighter needs to develop and learn.
Watching Belfort take on Akiyama in UFC 133 and win by absolutely dominating the fight made me wonder what happened to Akiyama? Pre fight interviews had Akiyama who is a Judo black belt speaking about how he will fight Belfort. Basically he laid out his game plan. Akiyama looked composed as he walked up to the octagon and respectfully bowed to the crowd. He looked relaxed and seemed to have everything sorted out just like he said in the interview. Akiyama might have had butterflies prior to the fight but he fooled everyone including myself with his cool demeanor.
So what went wrong? What happened to Akiyama?
Belfort entered the octagon on a high. He was pumped and not only did he look positive but showed it physically in his body language. Then the fight started and Akiyama still looked like he would bring the fight to Belfort. I waited, and waited for this to happen. Waiting in anticipation…but he never did. Akiyama failed to fire up. Straight away his hands were dropping, looking tired, as if he had already gone 10 rounds!
It seems that there were too many things that Akiyama needed to work on in order to cement a victory. There was nothing he could now do to diminish Belfort’s already beaming positive alpha male attitude. His window of opportunity had left him. What had he been training?
This fight was a tremendous task for Akiyama but unfortunately he did not rise to the occasion. Akiyama seemed to step into the octagon already on a low, and his body language showed this. Belfort saw the weakness in Akiyama’s psyche and seized the opportunity resulting in a TKO!
Belfort’s mentality on the other hand, reminded me of a survival fight – the fighter who cares for nothing and will do everything to beat the crap out of you in order to succeed. How do you beat someone like that? That mental strength and the ‘will’ to win? You need to match the arrogance and regain the initiative. You have to get that arrogant voice in your head to talk you up and over your opponent, and once push comes to shove bring out the big guns; unleash! It would have been a bloody fight had Akiyama fired up because Belfort would have stopped at nothing…the survivor mind set. Belfort clearly dictated the fight from beginning to the end.
What can we learn from Akiyama?
Work on everything before, during and after your training. Not just your physical conditioning. Mentally focus on what you are going to achieve rather than blindly committing to training. Train both perfect and imperfect situations. Train the unexpected, train when you are tired and when you are losing – so you know what it really feels like when it really happens. Train your mind for all situations; understand all the elements of fight training; the physical, and the mental human psyche.
