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?
Are you a dreamer? Or are you for real?
What will you choose?
I want to talk about one thing…
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.
If you know anything about Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, then you’ve heard the name Jean-Jacques Machado. If you haven’t heard the name Machado, then now is the time to start getting educated! Jiu Jitsu is originally a Japanese combat sport, and with the largest population of Japanese outside of Japan living in Brasil, it’s no wonder Jiu-Jitsu developed into Brazilian Jiu Jitsu (BJJ) and also developed new techniques and new competitions.
There are two family names synonymous with BJJ; Gracie and Machado. Jean-Jacques Machado is one of the five Machado brothers, including Carlos, Roger, Rigan and John, renowned for their Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (BJJ) skills. Nephews of BJJ co-founder and Master Carlos Gracie, the brothers learned the martial art from an early age.
All the UFC fans out there should know of Royce Gracie, who competed in the cage against numerous martial arts and fight after fight walked out victorious. BJJ exploded onto the scene surpassing any Boxing, Kickboxing or Thai Boxing interest and BJJ boomed! Now people needed skills not only in their stand up kicking and punching, but also needed to know how to control opponents when taken to the ground. BJJ set new levels of skill requirements for competitions and MMA was born – a league of its own. Competitors now needed to be multi skilled in disciplines, demanding a higher work ethic and higher skill palate.
Jean-Jacques Machado is known for his grappling skills having won every major title in his native country, and then pursuing his career further abroad. Of late he has competed in (Abu Dhabi Combat Club) ADCC Submission Wrestling World Championships in his weight division, a Silver medalist in the open division in 2001 and Super fight Runner up in 2005.
Jean-Jacques Machado has a school in Tarzana, California, and has trained a number of champions; among his students are Eddie Bravo and Joe Rogan (UFC). For those of you wanting to develop your skills in grappling, and cannot make a trip to California soon – we are proud to announce a 3-hour seminar with the international champion and world class instructor, Jean-Jacques Machado. The seminar will be both gi and no gi techniques, and is open to all persons interested.
For more information on Jean-Jacques Machado:
photo credit: f_mafra
Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) is a sport with rules, regulations and a controlled environment – just like any other sport. MMA is a sport which keeps you active, fit, will improve your coordination and build your confidence. Training will contribute to mental wellbeing, teamwork, peer interaction and friendships. It will keep you engaged and focused and create goals to aim for. All positive character building attributes found in all sports. We are human beings, we are competitive. MMA is a competitive sport; practiced in a controlled and age regulated environment.
So often we are afraid of what we don’t understand or what we don’t know.
MMA is a discipline, dedicated to physical training, conditioning and technical skills. Kids are already training boxing and competing in boxing at 12 years old in SA (younger in some states). Again, it is a controlled and regulated sport – especially at this age. MMA follows suite. Boxing: must be 12 years or older to compete; must wear protective head gear; striking to the head and body. MMA: must be 12 years or older to compete; must wear protective head gear; striking to the head, body and legs and grappling on the ground. Under SA MMA rules there is no striking to the head when on the ground. Consider 10 rounds of boxing to 10 rounds of MMA. It could be argued that boxing takes far more punishment to the head.
What is the real issue here? Kids fighting? Encouraging violence? These arguments can be tied to anything – school yard bullying, competitive boxing, competitive netball, YouTube and COD.
Contact and impact from sports is an old recurring argument; it came up when Boxing first came on the scene, what about Ice Hockey, it still comes up with AFL. Contact sport is dangerous but so too is being inactive, gaining weight, and being disengaged.
photo credit: law_keven
I was asked a very interesting question by one of my friends a couple of months ago. How can you train someone to fight in the ring if you haven’t been there yourself? There is definitely no simple answer to this question therefore I will speak from my own experience and hopefully you can take something from it.
I competed in a stick fighting tournament a few years ago and did quite well for a first timer. Leading up to this tournament I trained early mornings and late nights and because I did not want to be under prepared I trained whenever I had any spare time, even if it was for 20 minutes.
Sparring
My sparring partner was a lot bigger than I was and with that came strength to boast. Every time he hit me on top of my head the blow would be so intense that it went through my head guard and left two tiny eggs on my head. As the sparring continued and the beating followed I would eventually cringe from every hit and mentally it wasn’t doing me any good either. I thought long and hard about how to avoid the hits and it struck (pardon the pun) – avoid! That was what I did! Every time my sparring partner would attack using a head strike I decided to bob and weave, and slip the stick. It worked.
Timing
Eventually my timing got better and I was able to avoid his strike every time and counter his attacks. So the lesson I learned here was to analyse the problem and think outside the square.
Two years ago I attended a Will-Machado Brazilian Jujitsu tournament in Melbourne. I had 5 matches to compete but unfortunately I lost to an arm-bar in the 3rd round. This however did not dampen my spirit, in fact losing taught me some valuable lessons that day. My first round was won after I passed my opponent’s guard just as the time ran out but that round left me exhausted. My second opponent was actually similar skill level to mine but my experience won over in the end. My last opponent however was no push over and he tried to manoeuvre me into a flying arm-bar. Losing to him made me realise that I had not spent enough time on the mat grappling because I was always one step behind him. Every time he made a move it took me a split of a second to counter as I was still trying to understand what he was doing.
The next day I did an awesome seminar with Rigan Machado and he taught different finishes from the guard. What I learned from Rigan was how to Keep It Simple Stupid. I came to the tournament hoping to do some fancy and intricate techniques and I forgot about the basics. So leaving Melbourne the next day I was armed with knowledge to strengthen my grappling and the conditioning I would require for the next tournament.
Coaching
So what qualifies me to train someone to fight in the ring? There is one more ingredient that we need to look at before I wrap this up. It is probably the most important lesson I learned from my power-lifting coach – the mental side of training or better known as sport psychology.
As I was approaching the date for my power-lifting meet, I started lifting quite a significant amount of weight. Squatting over 180kg and dead-lifting over 200kg all back breaking exercises which taught me a great deal about discipline of form where slight imperfection could seriously damage my spine.
One month prior to the power-lifting meet my coach taught me to visualise the events that I was competing in. How many steps do I take before I end up on the lifting platform? How many breaths do I take before grasping the bar? How many times do I adjust my feet before I know that I am ready to lift? What kind of music to listen to in between lifts to keep me motivated and engaged? I followed this visualisation technique to the letter and before long I could see myself at the power-lifting meet doing perfect lifts every time with good form.
So once again what qualifies me to train someone to fight in the ring? I understand what an individual needs in preparation for such an event. I know about conditioning, discipline, determination, visualisation, working the basics, winning and losing, and how to think outside the square.
photo credit: andi.vs.zf
I have been grappling for quite some time now but by no means do I stand out in a league of my own. I enjoy the journey that grappling takes me on because every grapple gets me a little closer to understanding control and positioning before I can even think about submission. Years ago when I was first introduced to grappling the only thing that I wanted to do was choke or arm-bar my opponent. Because I had no concept of control and definitely no concept of positioning it was difficult to get a submission unless I could over power my opponent with brute strength. Fortunately, brute strength was rarely on my side, as I am quite a small bodied person and most of my grappling partners out-weigh me – sometimes by 15-20 kg. I had to find another way…
Control & Positioning
In the last few months the concepts of control and positioning and have been the driving force behind my improvement in grappling. It all started when I grappled a 120kg student, who would later become a continuous sparring and grappling partner for me. At that stage I was very fond of the half-guard and wanted to make it my thing, so that whenever I grappled someone they would, at some stage, find themselves in my half-guard from any position.
However, being underneath a heavier guy was not where I wanted to be. My 120kg sparring and grappling partner would teach me a valuable lesson. His size would force me to work out ways to control his body and position myself with better opportunity to counter his attacks and set him up for submissions.
Watching my own students grapple in class takes me back to the early days when I was so eager to submit my opponents without understanding control or position. However, as an instructor I am able to process and impart this information on my students so that they too can improve their control and positioning. I show them enough so that they can put the pieces of the puzzle together and deepen their understanding of grappling.
My grappling journey is constantly evolving whether I am on the mat or off the mat and I owe it to my teachers, students and my 120kg sparring and grappling partner. Thanks Scotty!
photo credit: seba vu
I often get asked “What is the difference between Kickboxing and Thai Boxing?”
While there are many points of difference, culturally, intentionally, and indeed physically I think what most people want to know is in reference to what they will be physically training in our classes. (That said, I am not discussing the difference in the ring sports or point systems. Though some discussions do cross over.)
Kickboxing incorporates a blend of various martial arts, specifically drawing from American boxing and Japanese karate forms. Combined together there are a significant number of different kicks and punches, and punch combinations that are used in Kickboxing. On the other hand, Thai Boxing (Muay Thai) is a little less combined. While Thai Boxers do use punches and kicks, they use very few kicks.
In a Kickboxing class you may learn
> Front Kick
> Side Kick
> Axe Kick
> Hook Kick
> Round Kick and
> Spin Kick
In Thai Boxing you will predominantly learn
> Round Kick (Thai Kick and Switch Kick)
> Front Kick (Teep)
While in Kickboxing you will learn more kicks, in Thai Boxing you will also learn how to use elbows and knees. These are renowned as one of the lethal elements of Thai Boxing. Indeed, elbows and knees are close range combat and therefore when delivered well are lethal. You do not learn elbows and knees in Kickboxing. Also, both styles use back fists and spinning back fists.
Both styles use punches and punch combinations. These will be practiced differently depending on your instructor, club and association.
At Momentum Technique our instructors are trained in both Kickboxing and Thai Boxing with experience in delivering classes that caters to all levels of fitness. Both classes and styles are a great physical work out and both will make you sweat it out! Remember, you don’t have to be fit to come along – you just have to come along and you’ll get fit!
