Morris No Holds Barred

The underlying principle of all fight training is that you train as you will need to fight. This means you must prepare against a specific opponent or psychological/physical/stylistic type within violent and often chaotic fight scenarios/situations on the feet and on the ground that can last from 30 minutes to one hour (in the case of MMA).

Fedor Emelianenko is one of the best fighters in the world when it comes to creating chaos and violence within the fight, sustaining it, and imposing his will and skill upon it. For the entire duration of the fight he violently and unpredictably takes the fight to the opponent and forces him to react to Emelianenko and so make mistakes. This forces Emelianenko's opponents to abandon their original game plans and lets Emelianenko drive the fight in the direction he wants to go.

True, the fighting skills Emelianenko displays in the ring/arena are often far from optimal. But they work. Within such chaotic and violent environments, you simply haven't go tall the information or the time to make the perfect diagnosis or execute the perfect move. You simply do what you have to do, and if it doesn't work, try something else until it does. Emelianenko overwhelms his opponents with his destructive intent. His intent is sufficient to bring about the necessary response within the situation. It doesn't seem to matter where Emelianenko hits his opponent, or with what weapon—just as long as he does hit. The damage comes from the intent.

When training, too many fighters ignore the choas and violence factor within the fight, concentrating more upon the perfecting of moves within relatively calm environments rather than concentrating upon what they are going to have to do within a more hostile environment.

Our primal ancestors survived the everyday challenges of environments far more hostile than our own. The process of evolution has provided us with a facility by which we are able to daily experience intense periods of mental and physical stress and (provided we see these experiences as a challge and rise to the occasion), our body's 'system' fights back and we become mentally and physically stronger than we were before.

As a martial artist, the trick is to find or devise ways of stressing or overloading the system that replicate those same psychological, physiological/physical, technical, tactical and strategic demands that will be made upon us by a specific opponent or psychological/physical/stylistic type.

Neiztche said, 'that which does not kill me makes me stronger.' The challenge for me as a trainer is to find or devise ways of overloading the neuromuscular system/structure, both specific to fighting itself as well as the facilitation and strengthening of the neuromusculoskeletal system/structure without killing or seriously injuring those whom I train.

If Fedor Emelianenko personifies violence and chaos, then Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira is the enduring calm within the storm, patiently waiting to thread the needle.

You have to have the presence of mind to be ever-opportunistic. And the only way you can acquire that presence of mind, apart from the experience of the competitive arena/streetfight, is by replicating on the training mat the storm you envisage will take place in the ring.

Your workouts should be more challenging than the fight you envisage will take place. Psychologically, physiologically/physically, technically, tactical/strategically you should be training to take on a specific opponent or psychological/physical stylistic type, and you should be pushing yourself past what is merely necessary, so that when the fight actually happens, you've already been there, and beyond, in your training.

The problem lies in finding a way to engage in such punishing workouts at full power and intensity without somebody ending up seriously injured, or without your suffering the debilitatng effects of overtraining.

Collectively your workouts need to address, in both specific and non-specific ways, the competitive mindset, mental and physical toughness, functional strength, speed, agility, core stability, reactive power, dynamic balance, flexibility, hand/foot/eye coordination, body/weapon conditioning, fundamental skills, key offensive/defensive/counteroffensive moves, tactics, strategies, stratagems and ring craft necessary to take on a specific opponent or psychological/physical/stylistic type within the fight scenarios/situations you anticipate will take place between you.

In order to overwhelm your opponent for 30 minutes or more you have to overload the system within your workouts in ways that are specific to what you are going to have to do, as well as in ways that will replicate the psychological and physiological/physical demands that will be made upon the system within the fight. The key word here being specific.

Don't give your opponent the opportunity to evaluate the situation, make the perfect diagnosis or execute the perfect move. But most of all, don't expect to be given an equal opportunity.

Zero in on the head and where ever it is, from any range, angle, and position and with any weapon, try relentlessly and with violent intent to destroy it. This approach will also provide you with the opportunity to attack secondary targets with strikes, locks and chokes.

Some guys have got the mental and physical toughness, skills and conditioning to become top fighters but lack two of the most important ingredients of all: killer instinct, and pride.

When you watch them fight, they seem to be going through the motions of some fight ritual. Even in the figurative sense, they are not trying to kill the other guy. They don't see the fight in terms of a life or death situation. They don't seem to be fighting for anything, anybody, or even themselves.

You have to train as you will need to fight. And just as important, you have to fight as you have trained. Some guys train like tigers and then fight like pussies.

Training isn't a replacement for fighting, it's an emotional, mental and physical preparation for it. It's a test where you compete with your sparring and training partners, and yourself.

If you haven't been there in your training, you're going to be in serious trouble coming up against somebody who has.

A good way to familiarize the fighter with fundamental movement patterns as well as the fundamental skills of MMA is to incorporate them into a 15-20 minute dynamic warm-up, with and/or without a training partner.

Better to choose patterns of movement and skills that are representative of those you are going to need in the fight and which facilitate the neuromusculoskeletal structure for action, than to engage in static stretching that bears no resemblance to any fundamental pattern or skill I know of, and which, rather than facilitating the system/structure for action (i.e., prepare it to carry out specific tasks) in my experience actually have the reverse effect. The warm-up should be mentally and physically attuning you to the intensity, purpose and duration of the training session or actual fight you are about to engage in. Like cooling-down exercises and cold baths, static stretches have their function, but they belong at the end of the session, not the beginning.

The best way I know of getting a sense of what is required to be an effective fighter is to watch fight and training videos of the very best fighters within Pride and the UFC in action. And then after long analysis, I use the information gleaned from this footage to support, modify, or even abandon an existing fighting or training concept/principle, or to create new ones. I am more likely to be influenced by what I see fighters actually doing in the ring than by what they do in training, as in my experience the training methods of many fighters do not actually facilitate their success.

When preparing for any fight, the first thing you have to ensure is that you reduce the possible ways by which you might lose. An important part of this is having a competitive mindset so that even in the worst case scenario/situation you will rise to the challenge of the moment and eventually find a way of winning in the end. Mental and physical toughness will enable you to remain focused on the immediate task at hand and ultimate goal, even when taking a beating and totally exhausted. Finally, you must have a solid defence within those phases of the fight you anticipate your opponent will be the strongest.

If your opponent can't effectively strike you on the feet, clinch with you, take you down, ground and pound or make you submit, then you remove the anxiety of losing. This gives you greater confidence to take the fight to your opponent and force him to react to you and make mistakes. You want him fighting according to your game plan rather than the other way around.

A great way of emotionally and physically both expressing violent and destructive intent and conditioning the mind, cardiovascular system, and muscles to sustain such violence is to take a suitably weighted medicine ball and rapidly, repeatedly and explosively power it into the ground from a semi-crouched position with total body power. Catch it on the rebound and repeat for thirty seconds to one minute, have a brief rest (let's say 10 seconds) and then repeat the process or choose another explosive exercise, until you have completed 5 minutes of explosive work. Other ways are: to smash the ball into a wall overhead fashion or at various angles; to throw it at the wall from the feet, knees, or various supine positions; to take a pickaxe handle and stand on the rim of a truck tire and smash it down explosively, as many times in 30 seconds or a minute as you can.

By using a tool, you are able to get a handle (so to speak) on the violent destructive intent and total body action so necessary when striking with your natural tools, because you have removed the fear of injury. All you have to do then is to transfer the emotional and physical explosion to striking an opponent, or bag/pads.

See how much work you can do in 30 minutes in the anaerobic zone. Not how much you can do in 3 hours, say, in the more comfortable aerobic zone. Train as you will need to fight. This means your training must be highly specific. I'd rather see someone working at the highest sustainable pace he can in situational drilling or conditional fighting, or on the pads and bag, for 30 minutes than at a lower pace for longer.

It takes a great deal of mental and physical toughness, focus and competitive determination to engage in challenging and often punishing high-intensity workouts (specific/non-specific) for 30 minutes.

Anaerobic threshold training means performing fixed or variable work (specific or non-specific) at your maximal sustainable pace for, say, 30 minutes (i.e., 6 X 5 minute rounds), or breaking that 30 minute period down into intervals (e.g., 15 minutes X 2 or 5 minutes X 3, etc. all the way down to even a great many 10 second bursts) with suitable recovery periods between each interval. Generally speaking, the shorter the intervals the greater the intensity of the work, and the shorter the recovery time the better. The purpose of anaerobic threshold training is to make your body more effectively use oxygen and clear lactic acid during sustained high-intensity work by progressively overloading the heart, lungs, vascular and anaerobic energy-producing systems so that, through the phenomenon of overcompensation they become more efficient than they were before.

The trick with anaerobic threshold training is to work just inside the anaerobic zone, where you are producing lactic acid. The downside is dealing with the effects of the production of lactic acid and carbon dioxide. The upside, once you have emotionally, mentally and physiologically adjusted to its demands, is that you will be able to take the fight to the opponent at a pace, intensity and duration he will be unable to sustain unless his training can match your own. You need to push yourself more intensely and longer in training than your opponent ever will.

After watching the fights, fight training methods and promotional videos of some of the world's top MMA fighters, I am often left with a sense of the disparity between how they train or are promoted and how they actually fight. This is especially true of Tito Ortiz. As part of his 12-week build up to fighting Randy Couture, he was running up hills towing guys on bikes and engaging in punishing 8 hour gym workouts day in and day out. But he hadn't a clue how to deal with Couture at any level of Couture's game, let alone impose his own on the fight.

So many MMA guys have got so caught up in the training and the achieving of the obligatory body beautiful that it sometimes seems they have forgotten why they are training—namely, to fight a specific opponent on a specific night.

There is so much fight footage on Couture, and after watching Couture's wins, losses and draws you don't have to be particularly smart to figure out threasons why he has lost or the fight went to a decision. It's equally simple to compare the strengths and weaknesses of Couture's fighting attributes to your own and then design a game plan that will reduce his chances of winning and increase your own. I suppose where you need the smarts is when designing a training program to support that game plan, particuarly with regards to developing a solid defence. If Couture can't effectively close with you, dump and ground and pound you, or maneuver you to the fence on the feet or on the ground, pin you there and then proceed to maul and ground and pound you, then he can't beat you. By removing the anxiety of losing, you gain the confidence to then take the fight to Couture and force him to react to you and make mistakes. You can now make him fight within your area of expertise and according to your game plan, and not the other way around.

Remember, you train as you will need to fight and have the discipline to fight as you have trained. That's where you really do have to hand it to Couture. Even though he has a pretty limited game, by having anticipated what his opponent might do on the training mat he has full confidence in being able to methodically implement the various stages of his game plan. He really has taken that old adage, 'know your enemy' to heart.

Because an MMA fight can last 15 or 30 minutes, adding on a few rounds for good luck, your workouts (both specific and non-specific) should be between 30-45 minutes (occasionally an hour, tops) of fixed variable or mixed work.

Better to concentrate the work to be performed intensely into 30 to 45 minutes with an all-out effort or in high-intensity intervals than to spread it out over two to three hours. Long sessions are for gaining familiarity with the nuances of a move, for example. But newly learned fighting skills, like mental and physical attributes, have to be strengthened and tested within more challenging and punishing training environments.

That is not to say your workouts can't last for two hours or more. When you include a dynamic warm-up, technical work, recovery exercises, etc. they often do.

The main thing is a part of the overall session should include 30 to 45 minutes or even an hour of high intensity work; e.g., two 30 minute periods with some lighter training in between. As a general rule I like to allocate the more non-specific work to the mornings and fight-specific work to the evenings, not forgetting to put a power nap of 60-90 minutes in between.

Remember, it's the quality of the work you do, not the quantity. You should be looking to spend less time in the gym, not more.

Being able to read and decisively respond to the implication of your opponent's body language before he can effectively execute a move is an important faculty to have as a fighter. That's why any technical or situational drilling by which this faculty to read cues is initially acquired must be performed in real fight time and intensity. Anything less than this and you will be learning to read and respond to the wrong cue.

You have to be emotionally, mentaly and physically attuned to doing work in a storm and not in calmer waters.

As a MMA fighter you have to be able to evaluate the situation and plan ahead in consideration of the strengths and weaknesses of your opponent's game relative to your own, and at the same time instinctively and decisively respond to the immediate task at hand. It's rather like driving a car: you're steering, accelerating, shifting gears and checking your mirrors while always scanning ahead to evaluate what might happen next. In the worst case, you have to do all this whilst taking a beating; and in the best, whilst giving one—but in either case, you will almost certainly be in physical pain and near total physical exhaustion. Whatever the competitive mindset, mental and physical toughness, aerobic capacity, strength, speed, agility, core stability, reactive power, dynamic balance, flexibility, hand/foot/eye coordination/timing, body/weapon conditioning, fundamental skills, key offensive/defensive/counteroffensive moves on the feet and on the ground, tactics, strategies, stratagems, and ring craft required to become a successful MMA fighter, the one thing for certain is that it has to be tested within competitive, challenging, punishing workouts on the training mat or in the gym before you ever enter a ring or an arena. Indeed, such fighting attributes and abilities are the product of competitive, challenging and punishing workouts on the mat and in the gym. They are an inevitable consequence of experiencing realistic fight scenarios.

There is a strong possibility, particularly as you rise in the ranks, that your fights will be fought for the full 15 or 25 minutes in the anaerobic zone, irrespective of whether you are fighting a standup fighter (open or closed), ground and pound or submission specialist, or someone proficient in all phases of the fight. It would therefore seem logical to keep that anaerobic zone in mind when devising all of your training. This applies to the training of all those attributes I keep listing (strength, speed, etc.) as well as those drills, conditional and playfighting methods, and workouts on fight equipment (pads, long heavy bag, lift/ground and pound bag, strike ball, etc.)

Workouts, though they should be more challenging than the actual fight, should not become a replacement for fighting. Too many guys get caught up in working out but often forget why they are doing it.

Most professional atheletes, particularly those in heavy contact sports, are never completely injury-free, nor without their fair share of personal problems and obstacles to overcome outside the gym. They just grit their teeth and get on with what they have to do in the ring/arena, on the pitch or in the gym.

There are those, however, who are always looking for reasons why they shouldn't fight or train, not for reasons why they should.

Red zone is a theoretical zone which, if your opponent inadvertently strays into it, you can’t miss, and vice versa. Much of the fight is about being aware of this zone and controlling it in some way by maneuvering your opponent or yourself into this zone without him realizing it.

If you are outside of this zone, your opponent has to make a compensatory adjustment to position or movement in order to close with you, and vice versa. This gives you time to initate or retaliate with a response.

If you are inside this zone and fail to anticipate what might happen next, it is already too late. You have already been hit, tied up, or taken down.

When you are inside the red zone it’s more about anticipating what will happen next, rather than seeing and reacting to what’s already happening. Whereas when you are outside the red zone it’s more about seeing and reacting to what’s happening rather than anticipating.

I suppose I first got a sense of red zone when watching a lioness stalk zebras. With the lioness in sight but at a distance where the zebras knew they could escape, the zebras were quite content to carry on munching. But when they lost sight of her in the long grass, for one of them it was inevitably too late.

The lioness had used cover to sneak up on her prey and get into its red zone. As a fighter, you can also use covers, distractions, alignments, and superior speed to get into your opponent’s red zone without him knowing it..

The way I align my body I am able to hit and intercept my opponent sooner rather than later.

By being distracted, losing concentration, being in bad position, having a poor sense of time/distance appreciation, or by having the reaction time and speed of a sloth, some guys didn’t realize they were in my red zone (killing zone) when standing six to ten feet away from me. Whilst others have been dumb enough to insult and challenge me when standing a couple of inches from my face, where they were impossible to miss.

Red zone is not something you can measure with a ruler; it’s not really a physical space. It’s the sense of an opportunity, an awareness of the moment that is inadvertently given to me by my opponent or created by me, when I instinctively know I can’t miss, whether he’s in my face or ten feet away. Like dynamic balance, timing, distance appreciation, it’s a sense that you develop by experience.

Having a heightened sense of time, timing, distance appreciation, ability to read body cues, lightning-fast reflexes, anticipation of what might happen next, proven skills and the courage to act decisively on very little information are abilities that are never more important than when taking on someone with a knife or similar lethal weapon.

Having a sense of time and lightning-fast reflexes allows you to take the fight to the opponent and instantly and decisively respond to how he is reacting to you, or wait and counter any move he makes like lightning.

When I refer to having a heightened sense of time, I mean being able to sense the intervals of time within a move, or between two moves. It is by being able to sense the periods of time within the development of a move and the changes between them that you can pounce upon the opportunities he gives you (provided you have lightning reflexes and know how to act decisively). In the same way, you can avoid giving him those opportunities.

Having a highly developed sense of time is a faculty often associated with high levels of dopamine (striatum and substantia nigra areas of the brain), a neurochemical often found in high levels in extreme sportsmen, drummers, and people with low impulse control such as those suffering from Tourette’s Syndrome.

Having a heightened sense of time, along with heightened proprioceptive senses, not only allows you to impose a counter-time upon your opponent’s moves, but also allows you to sense the development time of the intervals from joint to joint within a move, sequential and simultaneous. You can also sense the contact time period of the foot with the ground or hand with the target, etc., and thereby begin the process of addressing the force time or impulse against the ground and the target that are so necessary in being able to move rapidly across the ground and to develop a destructive force in your strikes.

I suppose it’s a little bit like a Formula One racing driver being able to sit on the tail of the car in front at speeds in excess of 100mph, whilst someone with less of a sense of time/reactions will be anxious at a distance of a couple of car lengths behind the car in front whilst doing 30 mph.

With a heightened sense of time, I never have any problems entering to strike, clinch or take down my opponent, whilst he has a lot of problems attempting to do the same.

Developing a sense of time allows you to synchronize with the underlying rhythm of your opponent’s movement and, most importantly, syncopate upon him.

Syncopating upon the rhythm of your opponent’s moves essentially means being able to put an insertion or emphasis of movement at an unexpected place.

One way of getting an initial sense of syncopation is to listen to uptempo African, Latin, and Indian music. Brazilian music has Afro-Latin beats, but while the syncopated beats are OK for submission wrestling, the tempos are usually far too slow for the faster and more explosive game of MMA.

Most people train and fight in synchrony. Very few seem to understand how to create a counter-rhythm, either to their opponent’s rhythm or to their own.

By having a heightened sense of the interval of time within a movement process and between processes you can insert a move or moves within a move or between two moves at any time. The greater your sense of time, the more you can see and do in less time.

I’ve tried to teach many people the concepts and principles of syncopation through my rationale and specially devised training drills. Those who have the most trouble learning them are invariably from karate backgrounds. The military, regulated rhythms encouraged through karate practices have mentally and physically prejudiced them against being able to fight and train in broken time.

Equally, because they had trained to fight in regular rhythms, it was always very easy to predict the rhythm of their attacks, defenses and countertime. Fighting is about being unpredictable, not only with regards to what you are going to do and where, but also when.

You must be able to create or follow an established rhythm, and then break it at a point or points where it is least expected.

From my observation, the vast majority of martial artists fight and train like they work: in regular and often low-tempo rhythms. They have failed to see the importance of being able to fight and train at higher tempos and in broken time.

It's important not to spoonfeed the technicalities of a move for a given situation, but instead to create situations that stimulate a response to take place. Because no two situations are ever exactly the same, you have to adapt to the situation at hand. What usually happens in martial arts classes is that the situation is rearranged so as to facilitate the execution of a learned move. This is why everything I do is effectively the opposite of most other martial arts instruction.

Learn to entrust yourself to the wisdom of the body. Allow it to adapt those inherent reflex and bequeathed behavioural patterns to the situation, rather than relying upon the sterotypical moves of a trainer or master. These are moves that only work witihin a controlled environment and not a chaotic one.

Movement should have the feel of 'a series of catastrophes narrowly averted' and not a series of changing static equilibria. Movement should be stimulus-oriented, with its details entrusted to the unconscious mind to process, rather like how, when slipping upon ice, you somehow manage to land safely upon your feet. You could never consciously deliberate how to recover from such a slip.

The reason why, at 62, I can move the way I do is that not only do I know how to move at an instinctive level, but also, because I understand the factors that influence movement, I am able to specifically address and refine them.

All human motor skills are inseparable from those inherent reflex and behavioural patterns of the structure that supports them and the environment that defines them. Training should therefore address both the facilitation of those patterns and their adaptation to specific fight scenarios and situations, on the feet and on the ground.

When I watch athletes of whatever description going through their strength, speed, agility, core-stability, reactive power and dynamic balance exercises and drills, they often seem to be just going through the motions. They don't seem to have grasped the 'why' of what they are doing--they don't seem to be aware of what they are trying to achieve. One of the problems is that the trainer/coach hasn't provided them with a visual example of what he needs to be achieved, either by his example or video footage, or else he hasn't created a competitive enough environment in which the desired attribute will be improved upon.

Having superior strength is great, but like any attribute it must be functional to the demands of the fight and not trained at the expense of other attributes, such as speed, agility, core stability, reactive power, dynamic balance, timing, distance appreciation, hand/foot/eye coordination, spacial orientation, lightning-fast reflexes, visual orientation, etc.

I am a great believer in rapid fire, what I call 'Uzi mentality', rather than the firing of single shots as if using an antiquated cannon.

The problem with rapid fire is that the shots are often performed with the shoulder and arm alone and are seldom initiated through the action of the entire body.

Being able to rapidly punch at all angles and ranges and being able to 'half-beat' or up the tempo and rapidly adjust your feet when a grappler tries to close the distance is extremely important if you don't want to be taken down.

You must make it seem to a grappler that he is trying to enter a rapidly, randomly revolving door where position is constantly changing from forward to back, side to side, around, etc.

Once the neuromusculoskeletal system has adapted to a work load, it requires new stimuli to overload it. And by way of the phenomenon of overcompensation, it will then come back stronger than it was before.

When you train solo you have to force yourself out of the comfortable aerobic zone and into the anaerobic zone, whilst when you train with a partner or under the supervision of a trainer, when you begin to slack off, they need to push you to your limits.

You have to get used to missing the target, as well as landing shots that are ineffective. The fact that you miss or your blows have no obvious effect should not discourage you from continuing to throw multiple shots, and the last thing you want to do is try to conserve your energy and wait for the right moment to release your killer punch.

If you go looking for a big punch, knee, kick, or finish against an experienced fighter, the only person to go down will be you.

Ensure that every shot is thrown with bad intent and there is always another shot loaded and ready, if you get lucky, to capitalize on the effects of the first.

The heavy bag has always been one of my favourite tools for developing speed, strength and skills endurance.

The important thing about working the bag is that you transfer your fighting skills to the bag, and not the bag skills to the fight. Remember, the bag represents a man; but first you need experience of a man before you can ever work on a bag as such.

When a lot of guys train the heavy bag, they pace themselves, rather than going all out using intervals of 10-60 seconds for 5 or 7 rounds with 30-60 second rests between rounds. So that the bag workout becomes aerobic, instead of anaerobic as the fight will be.

When you hit the heavy bag, remember you don't have to displace the whole of his body or his head, but just suddenly and explosively displace just a part of it, or his brain.

Think of the brain being an egg in a box, then think of ways how you can destroy the egg.

When you hit the bag, it's important to think what you are trying to do to your opponent's leg, liver, or head, whilst at the same time not losing your awareness of what he might be trying to do to you.

When working the heavy bag, by forming an impression of what I want to do to a man, it takes a little trial and error to translate that impression into those internally generated forces that cause the specific effect I am looking for; e.g., knock him out, drop him with a liver shot, cripple his lead leg or crush his balls.

When a lot of guys hit the heavy bag, they try to displace it, so that it's swinging all over the place. The better way is this: before hitting the bag, visually sense the effect you want to cause upon your opponent, and then transfer that effect on to the bag. For example, the best way to knock him out is to violently shake the hemispheres of the brain against the skull, or rotate them about the brainsteam/reticular activating system, and the best way of dropping him with a liver shot is to hit slightly upward in a tearing fashion, whilst when kicking the leg, try to violently crush the muscle of his leg between your shin and his femur at a slightly downward angle.

A good idea is to introduce some other anaerobic work whilst working the bag, for example, jumping over a bar. Ricky Hatton does this.

Rope climbing or competitive towel pulls with a training partner(s) are great ways of developing pulling strength.

Shadow fighting is a great way of warming up. It's also good at the end of a tough session, focusing on trying to keep some semblance of form whilst exhausted.

You look as you feel and feel how you look. In other words, don't look like a loser, and ten to one you won't feel like one.

On the basis that fundamental patterns are the foundation of all human motor skills, it would seem logical to start with walking. Walking is a great way of sensing and developing that necessary interconnection of the body with the ground, upon which striking skills, particularly in the open position, depend.

It was from my father that I first got the idea of using my entire body to produce a more propulsive step when walking. Indeed, one of his tips to my increase my awareness of a total body action was to walk with my hands in my pockets and open my palms on my thighs so as to engage my shoulders. I was later to add to this the active movement of my head over the posted foot so as to increase the pressure and traction against the ground.

When I was at Bourne Hill House I walked betwen 4-6 miles at a time, depending on which route I took around the property, and with every step I walked through the dynamics and tactics of a move. On a rough calculation, that's between 7,000 and 10,000 moves a walk, which, over 20 years, is a lot of moves.

Walking is a great way of not only developing an interconnection of the body with the ground, but also, practiced on a busy street, it helps you develop the timing for evasive footwork and body action. Something I also used to do in Japan was to rehearse in my mind's eye the timing of the release of my shots on hoards of approaching people.

When I got an indoor cycle, I transferred the idea of 'walking a move' to riding the bike. Like walking, the bike is a useful tool for strengthening the interconnections of the body and working on a move or number of moves about or through the axes of the body, by posting the head over the foot and effectively cycling with one leg. It is in this way that I have developed my low round kick and punching power. Indeed, the claw-like punches I favour are the product of sitting on the floor behind the bike and doing spinning intervals or higher resistance work.

You need to condition your mind and body for fighting whilst at the same time acquiring those necessary fighting skills, tactics, strategies and ring (or street) craft to fight with.

There is a tendency in training to overemphasize those areas where you are the strongest at the expense of strengthening those areas where you are weakest. A good strategic fighter will exploit this.

It is a good idea to research how and why a particular fighter lost, won, or drew and then factor that information into the devising of a game plan and training program to support it. In this way you will be able to deal more effectively with different stylistic types (standup, ground and pound, submission), as well as mixed stylists.

There is no one way of fighting, training, or performing a skill that will satisfy the needs of all fighters. Everybody is different, and the fighter needs more to understand the principles and concepts of fighting and training or a given skill so he can adapt them to his needs, rather than those of a trainer or the master of a tradition.

I recently watched Randy Couture striking the heavy bag on video, during what was described as an anaerobic workout. He might be a great MMA fighter, but he would be a better one if somebody taught him how to strike.

The trick with striking is aligning so as to hit your opponent with maximal force at angles he least expects and at which he is unable to cover, escape, or ride the transference of force into his body or leg without putting himself into a worse position for the next shot.

A lot of guys produce what I call a passive follow-through when they are striking, rather than an accelerating one. Usually this is because they have developed the shot over too long a range and they effectively end up reaching for the target and dragging the body after the shot. They don't now how to explosively strike long or short from any angle using the entire body to transfer its momentum to the hand, elbow, foot, knee, etc., or use the startle reflex particularly when striking at shorter ranges.

Naturally, if you have conditioned the mind and body in the right way, you will be able to do what you have to do in the ring, arena or street more effectively.

Not only do you need to be mentally and physically tough, determined and conditioned, but above all you need functional and proven skills. It's no good becoming the most superbly conditioned athlete in the world if you haven't mastered the fundamentals of fighting.

Whilst it is important to remember that defence is everything, you also have to remember to work on your defence with different stylistic types in mind, and not just within your area of expertise or specialty.

A great way of addressing different stylistic types within training--for the first round of conditional fighting or playfighting, have your sparring partner fight in the manner of, say, a standup fighter like Lidell or Silva, and in the next round in the manner of a ground and pounder like Couture, and so on, until you have learnt to deal with different standup, ground and pound, and submission fighters. It goes without saying that there are many variations on this approach.

Know your strengths and weaknesses relative to your next opponent's, and remember: whilst it is important to work on your strengths, it is more important to work on your weaknesses. If you are fighting a strategic fighter, then you know for sure he knows what they are and he'll be working on them, too...

Better to exhaust yourself in gym training or on the mat and realize your limitations than to realize them in a fight.

With regards to gum shields, it's a good idea to eventually do all your training with your gum shield in. After all, that's how you are going to fight.

You don't need a load of fancy equipment to devise a workout with the fight in mind. Learn to improvise with what you have got or can make up. And don't forget, you can do a lot of strength, speed, agility, work without equipment. In my book, it's better to improvise with whatever fight or gym training equipment you have or can make up than to go to a gym that has it all laid on for you if that means that you get used to having a 'crutch' and not taking responsibility for your own training. The motivation of having to do things for yourself is going to get you further than expecting everything to be prepared for you.

A heavy ground and pound bag can more or less provide you with a full conditioning workout, provided, of course, you know how and why you use it different ways.

The essence of fighting is both being unpredictable, and being able to deal with the unexpected.

Then it would seem logical to factor these two elements into your training. Otherwise, training just becomes another safe, daily routine in which you can predict with almost absolute certainty what, when, where, how, for how long, and at what intensity you are going to do next. That's why training, like fighting, has to be personalized. You are not a clone. You're doing your own thing, not anybody else's. A thousand 'martial artists' moving in unison has nothing to do with fighting but everything to do with the regimentation of behaviour; in other words, brainwashing.

In order that, when the shit hits the fan, you are not running around like a headless chicken, you have to become accustomed to working within chaotic environments. All too many martial artists train within regulated environments from which chaos is kept to a minimum, and it is therefore somewhat easier not only to carry out specific work, but also to predict what will happen next. However, in a fight in the true sense of the term, those forces and their effects acting upon you are impossible to predict before they occur. Therefore, they have to be acted upon, relative to the implication of their cues, as they are occurring. Equally, any compensatory adjustments in position and movement occurring within such hostile environments are often far from optimal. In other words, within the environment of the fight, sthere is no such thing as the perfect move.

Many fight training routines are too systemized and organized. They haven't taken into account the chaos factor. MMA fight training, in this respect, though quite different, say, to karate or tae kwon do training, is in danger of becoming equally routine. Remember, you train as you will need to fight. And the fight isn't what you want it to be, it simply is. The more you are able to emotionally, mentally, physiologically and physically change in response to its shifting parameters, or initiate such shifts, then the more successful you are likely to be.

'Getting in the zone' means you must look and feel as if you are going to play a very fast and explosive game, nad not a game of chess.

Short duration, high-intensity work specific to what you will need to do within the fight, taking into account those mental and physiological demands that will be made on you, is better than engaging in long, drawn-out, boring workouts in which everybody looks like they are training on Valium.

What you have to remember is that an MMA fight is not going to be fought at low tempo/intensity, at a regular rhythm, or within only one phase (standup open/closed positions or on the ground). Therefore in training you have to replicate in both specific and non-specific ways the high tempo, high intentisy, broken rhythm, specialized work you will have to initiate or respond to within a fight that can last anything up to 30 minutes against a specific opponent. In many ways, training has to be as chaotic as the fight and not some well-ordered routine.

Everybody gets comfortable doing 10 or this, 20 seconds of that in an ordered and prescribed way. What both you and your sparring/training partners or trainer have to do is make sure that the training doesn’t become routine, like daily work.

Unlike any other combative sport, the variables within a MMA fight are constantly changing, and therefore your training has to reflect the rapidly and randomly changing demands that will be made upon you, psychologically, physiologically and physically.

A good way to understand what I mean with regards to replicating the fight within training is to ride an indoor cycle wihlst watching a MMA fight on dvd, and as the intensity/tempo/rhythm and duration of the work on the feet and ground in the open and closed positions changes, replicate these changes on the bike by, say, spinning, or cranking up the resistance. And remember, you can also sit on the ground behind the bike and work the pedals.

If you just fight, there is no guarantee that you are going to hit those scenarios and situations you are going to need to rehearse your responses to at full power, or with a particular opponent or stylistic type in mind.

The other problem with conventional sparring is that if you go all out for a set of 5 or 6 minute rounds, somebody is going to get hurt; whilst if you go too light, it's not representative of the fight you are going to have to fight and therefore a complete waste of time. There has to be a better way, and I've found it.

I've found a way of making the key moves you need to learn and the scenarios and situations you will need to address against a specific opponent or stylistic type highly competitive, whilst at the same time reducing the chances of serious injury.

The essential principle of my method is breaking the fight down into snapshots representative of those scenarios and situations you anticipate will take place against your next opponent/stylistic type, and determining those moves and countermoves that proved to be effective against him (reference fight footage, etc.). Next you have to rehearse those moves, scenarios and situations within technical and situational drilling, conditional fighting and play fighting with your next opponent/stylistic type in mind. You do this first at low intensity/tempo to gain familiarity with the moves, and then at increasingly high intensity and tempo so as to capture the reality of the fight.

By breaking the fight down into snapshot impressions, you can then apply the principle of high intensity interval training to each scenario/situation over a 30-45 minute period (e.g. 6 X 5 mins rounds or 9 X 5 minute rounds) with a sparring partner who is replicating the stylistic type of your next opponent. In this way you will gain an instinctive familiarity with the stituations/scenarios and those skills, tactics and strategies required within them--not to mention the necessary mindset, conditioning, etc.

Remember, when you put all the snapshots together, they are then representative of the fight you envisage you will need to fight against a particular opponent or stylistic type.

Lots of martial artists pace themselves over, say, a three hour workout. Better, in my book, to concentrate the work more specifically and intensely, into one hour.

Yes, I used to do eight to ten hours a day, six days a week when training in Japan and for a number of years following my return. But when I discovered high intensity interval training in the mid-Seventies, my perception of training changed.

What I like about Emelianenko is that he has a single-minded purpose and that is to relentlessly attack his opponent with the intent of destroying him, from the beginning of the fight to whenever it ends. Fedor Emelianenko has taken fighting to th enext level, and his personal style of fighting should be applauded and emulated by today's MMA fighters and indeed by all those involved in unarmed combat. But that's never going to happen, in that many of today's MMA fighters, much like their non-professional counterparts within the pseudo-martial arts, have become far too concerned with 'good form' and their physical appearance, etc., than with what they need to do to their opponent. Let's face it: Emelianenko is not cast in the mould of 'Mr. Adonis' but nevertheless is extremely strong, explosively fast, and as anaerobically fit as anyone I've ever seen. Nor does he have picture book 'form', but what he does works. Whilst any fancier move wouldn't, within the chaos he creates around him.

One of the other things I like about Emelianenko is that he doesn't (as so many MMA fighters do) play body chess, and quickly punishes anybody who does. Also, he is seldom in the same place twice, meaning he is always changing his position, which makes it difficult for his opponents to set up attacks, defenses, or coutners against him, whilst he himself is able to attack, counter and defend from any position. Emelianenko, particularly if you are a young fighter, is the one you should be currently trying to emulate, particularly the ferocity of the pace he works at, rather than falling for those slicker types.

Sometimes, rather than trying to find ways of strengthening every single move you know, instead look for ways of strengthening those fundamental movement patterns that are the foundation of all human motor skills.

Many MMA fighters and other martial artists I have demonstrated the power of my strikes to in the past have had great difficulty in comprehending, much less replicating, how I am able to violently shake/oscillate or startle/jump/shift my entire body in various ways so as to support any given skill and so produce the kind of destructive force that I do.

Rapidly repeating multiple strikes over a very short distance for say 10-15 seconds or 20-60 seconds for a total of about 5 minutes whislt holding light dumbbells not only has the practical value of being able to overwhelm your opponent with destructive strikes (rather like attacking him with a chain saw instead of an axe), but it's also a great way of imprinting a needed response as an engram upon those more frontal areas of the brain where it is stored for instant recall. It's also a great way of increasing the dynamic speed and reactive power of those muscles involved in the action as well as developing muscular endurance.

The shorter the interval of time (hence the need for a sense of time) between the eccentric loading phases of a move and the concentric unleashing phases, the greater the number of fast twitch motor units recruited to overcome the 'load'.

The more rapidly this process is repeated for any given move, the greater not only your dynamic speed and reactive power, but also the endurance of those muscles involved in the move.

The problem with plyometric exercises is that the vast majority are performed within planes of motion and ranges that are not representative of the planes of motion and ranges required of a fight.

Take a rubber band and stretch it and release one end of it almost simultaneously and take note of the release. Then stretch it to take out the slack by pulling one hand away from the other (either hand) and then suddenly stretch one hand again and almost simultaneously release the rubber band, and take note of the release. Finally, take the rubber band and take out the stretch by stretching both hands away from each other and then suddenly stretch your two hands away from each other and almost simultaneously release one end and like before, take note of the release. I think you'll agree the last method was the most powerful.

On the basis of which it would seem logical that if we want to stretch the serial elastic component of muslce and subsequently those spindles embedded within the muscle fibre, we should try to adopt the last method of stretching the muscles of the body; i.e., first taking out the slack, then finding a way of rapidly double-stretching it.

You stretch tension, not slackness; in other words, the muscles you are seeking to rapidly stretch, say in the back swing prior to striking a ball with a bat, and which are responsible for the forward motion of the bat, are already undergoing their contraction whilst the stretch is taking place.

Because you don't want to telegraph the shot, you have to find ways, both dynamic and tactical, by which to stretch those muscles responsible for the release, or incorporate the startle reflex, as when you hear a loud noise; i.e., a sudden shifting of the body weight so as to support the angle of penetration of the strike.

Using the startle reflex allows me to perform destructive strikes over very short ranges from any angle and with no telegraphing of my intent to strike.

The muscle spindles respond to the rate of the change of length (phasic response) and the final length (tonic response) of the muscle fibres in which they are embedded, thereby facilitating, for example, the explosive response of striking a ball or the more dampening response of catching one.

Without the facility of being able to preset the reactive sensitivity of the muscle spindle in response to the implication of a cue, we would always be too late in what is effectively a feedback system.

By rehearsing what we need to do and how we might go about doing it both in our mind's eye and with our kinesthetic sense, we determine the order and magnitude of motor unit recruitment.

The myotatic reflex is a natural process and we must seek to include it in all our movement responses in natural ways. All movement could be said to be a summation of the myotatic reflexes.

Once you understand how to heighten the reactive sensitivity of the muscle spindle, you can effectively wind up the entire body internally (rather than, like the pitcher of a ball, externally). Indeed, when Richard La Plante asked me what I meant by refinement, my answer was that I'd simply taken the processes involved in throwing a rock with destructive intent, and internalized them.

I have refined the process of eccentric and concentric contraction (load and unload) to the point where it's hardly perceptible to my opponent or an onlooker, a refinement which enables me to strike from very short ranges.

If you take a ball, the more explosively you throw it against the ground or wall, the more explosively it will come back. I not only learned to do that with my body in various ways externally, but also to some degree, internally as well.

The more rapidly that those muscles involved within the action are stretched, the more rapidly the muscle spindles embedded within them are stretched. Not only does this increase the restitution of the serial elastic component of the muscle, but also it increases recruitment of fast twitch motor units involved in the action to overcome the 'load.'

Having a sense of the interval of time allows you to reduce the time of the cycle between the eccentric and concentric phases of a dynamic movement pattern.

One way to reduce the interval of time between eccentric phases and concentric phases of those motor events taking place (sequentially or simultaneously) within any given move is first to preset the reflex sensitivity of those muscle spindles involved in the move by forming within your mind's eye the destructive effect you are seeking to cause and the kinesthetic representation of those internally generated forces which you need to produce in order to do so. And then set yourself to rapidly repeat the required movement process as many times as you can say in 30 seconds. Pause for ten seconds and then repeat the process until you have done 5 minutes of very intense work.

It it the imagining of what you need to cause or prevent and a kinesthetic representation of those forces by which to do so, as well as the rapid repetition of the movement process, that eventually will enable you to heighten the reactive sensitivity of the muscle spindle so that in response to a cue, even the slightest stretch, or no stretch at all, will elicit a powerful myotatic reflex.

A mistake many MMA fighters make when using plyometrics to improve their dynamic speed and reactive power is that the planes and ranges of motion they are training in are not representative of those they are going to need to fight in, either on the feet in the open and closed positions, or on the ground. That doesn't mean that there aren't going to be marked improvments in their striking, lifting and clearing powers--there will be. But if they learned to apply the principles of plyometrics more specifically to what they are going to need to do in a fight rather than just doing a 'plyometric exercise' they'd see even greater improvement.

I have a number of fight-specific plyometric routines, both for standup and the ground, using light dumbbells, which I use explosively, rapidly and repeatedly over very short distances and for say 10-15 seconds (PC energy system) or 20-60 seconds (lactic acid system) in ways that resemble a specific move or phrase I will need to use in a fight against a specific opponent I have in mind, or a stylistic type. Because of the rapidity at which I use the dumbbells I try to see how many arm drags or strikes, for example, I can do in 10 seconds. The rapid changes in direction of both the limb and the body to support the action at various levels in various planes and ranges greatly enhances the dynamic speed, reactive power and muscular endurance of the entire body for fighting.

I will do this kind of work for 30 minutes (6 X 5 minute rounds). During the rounds I either do specific standup or ground work, or vary the work between the two. I never put the dumbbells down. I then rest for 1 minute after the first 5 minutes and repeat the process for another five rounds.

The body and limbs have very powerful oscillatory ranges of motion. Once you discover what they are, you can then set about strengthening them through a more concentrated form of plyometric training.

When I'm referring to your next opponent, it's pretty obvious what that means. And when I refer to a 'stylistic type' I'm referring to someone whom you can reference by way of video footage, as an example of a type of fighter. So for examples of standup open, closed, ground & pound or submission, you'd look at guys like Chuck Lidell, Randy Couture, or Antonio Noguiera. In this way, even if you're not actively fighting on the circuit, you can still train as though you are. You could do a whole three week training cycle with one of these guys or a similar type in mind, or mix your workouts as if you're fighting a whole variety of them, so as to become more multidimensional. Most people when they train don't have an enemy in mind. This is the way you train with somebody in mind. Collect all the information on that person, and organize your training accordingly. You're developing a strategic/tactical brain. And you're working competitively with somebody in mind, so when it comes to producing that last effort on an exercise, it's not just for the sake of producing an effort, it's because in your mind your opponent is also somewhere training to beat you. You've got to raise your game to beat this guy.

You don't necessarily have to put his picture on the wall to motivate yourself, but you do have to imprint that person in your mind's eye. So whenever you're hitting the bag, pads, your sparring partner during conditional training, he's your enemy. For the day, week, month, whatever.

What you have to remember when devising a fight training program is that everything within it must be specific to what offensively, defensively and counteroffensively you are going to need to be able to do within a fight against a specific opponent or stylistic type as well as to those psychological, physiological and physical demands that are going to be made upon you. Whilst it is somehwat obvious as to what fundamental skills, key moves, tactics, strategies and ring craft you are going to need to work against a specific opponent or type, it isn't all that obvious how to go about achieving the necessary level of aerobic/anaerobic fitness, strength, speed, agility, core stability, reactive power, hand/foot/eye coordination and body/weapon conditioning to fight at the highest level of MMA, for example, Pride and the UFC.

Often the solution to aerobic/anaerobic fitness, strength, speed, agility, core stability, reactive power etc. training is to borrow exercises and routines from other sports. The problem with that is that all too often these exercises and routines are specific to the psychological, physiological and physical requirements of a highly specialized sport, and not to MMA. Whilst a clean and jerk and snatch might be great ways of developing the explosive potential of the three power chains of the body (legs, trunk, chest/shoulders/arms), as a fighter I don't have to explosively lift my opponent from the ground to above my head, in two efforts or one. I simply have to break his root and dump him as quickly as possible and ground and pound him into unconsciousness. Indeed, the greater the elevation of the lift (and a high lift is encouraged within Greco-Roman), the more opportunities he has to counter the dump or prepare for it.

Equally, I don't have the time or the certainty to create momentum with my entire body and then transfer it into a single release in the same way a javelin thrower or shot putter might, nor do I require the same kind of speed and agility as a rugby or soccer player. Not to mention run a 100 meter race! My race happens over only a meter or so and is never run for the same direction or at the same level.

The truth is, everything I do as a fighter, compared to other sports, is greatly reduced, both in time and in the ranges over which I will need to do work. Equally, the planes of motion I have to work within are often are often determined by very awkward positions, and bear little or no resemblance to those planes of motion used in other sports. And my work rate is not comparable to any other sport, either. All of this begs the question, why train like a rugby player, or whoever, if you're ultimately preparing to fight in MMA? And the probable answer is, 'because I haven't figured out how to train for MMA specifically.'

That doesn't mean you shouldn't incorporate exercises such as the clean and jerk and snatch into your training program in order to improve the three power chains of the body--you should. But instead of using a bar and plates, try useing a heavy loose sandbag, say between 50-100 lbs, or a water ball to more accurately replicate the lifting of a man.

Equally, don't work in fixed reps and sets. Instead, do as many reps as you can in say 10-30 seconds. Take an active rest (i.e., doing a motion drill) for say ten seconds and then repeat the work (specific, non-specific, fixed or variable) for 3-5 minutes. Take a passive rest for 1 minute (interval between rounds) and repeat the work again until you've covered 20-30 minutes.

When training there is always the tendency to overconcentrate upon your strengths relative to your next opponent's weaknesses rather than your weaknesses relative to his strengths.

Defence is everything. But the only way you are ever going to achieve it is if your sparring partners can actually replicate the types of attacks and counterattacks you might have to face against a specific opponent or type. If they can't, then you're going to have a problem when you have to face the real thing.

The problem for a lot of martial artists is because they haven't a clue how to effectively perform the key moves of other combative oarts or sports, they can't build effective defences and offensive moves against such moves. Ask the majority of karate guys, even the master, to replicate the moves of a boxer, Muay Thai fighter, Greco/Freestyle wrestler or submission wrestler, etc., and all you're going to get is some pseudo nonsense. The only way you are going to know how to deal with your enemy is if you know how to replicate the way he fights in your training. Fighting your own kind is only good for fighting your own kind. that's why you need a more multidimensional approach to training; i.e., MMA.

When shadow fighting it's important to work within areas that are representative of the ring or arena you are going to have to fight in, with respect to dimensions, surfaces, etc.

The most difficult part of shadow fighting is to trick the mind into acting and reacting as if your next opponent is standing right in front of you. In other words, not only do you actually feel you are breaking your opponent's ribs, but also feel him attempting to break yours.

When shadow fighting, you must try to replicate those emotional, psychological, physiological, physical, technical, tactical and strategic demands that will be made upon you by a specific opponent or stylistic type within every possible fight scenario/situation.

Because all opponents' strengths and weaknesses relative to your own are always going to be different, not to mention the different scenarios and situations, you can't shadow fight every envisaged opponent in the same one-dimensional way. That's why karate kata, etc., is a nonsense.

Don't confuse shadow fighting with shadow drilling. Shadow drilling is where, solo, you work on the key reflex/inherent patterns, biomechanics, tactics and breathing that contribute to the successful application of a skill within a situation.

Shadow fighting should be performed at a high tempo and intensity, with rhythms of exchange that resemble an actual fight. Five, six, or seven-minute rounds of high tempo/intensity shadow fighting should be an anaerobic workout, not an aerobic one.

To add an extra dimension to shadow fighting, try wearing a weighted vest or carrying light dumbbells for the entire duration of the five minute round. rest a minute and repeat the process for another 4 or 5 rounds.

Another interesting way of performing shadow fighting is to fight the first round with a stand-up open fighter in mind, the second with a stand-up closed, the third with a ground and pounder, the fourth with a submission specialist and the fifth with a fighter of mixed skills. (This principle is also applicable to situational drilling, conditional fighting and playfighting). In this way, you will quickly develop a more multi-dimensional game.

When shadow fighting it's important to remember to always do so with your next opponent in mind (or a particular stylistic type--standup open or closed, ground & pound, submission or mixed). don't just move around standing up or on the ground with no rhyme or reason. You must emotionally, mentally and physically play out those fight scenarios and situations on the feet and ground that are both advantageous to your oponent/disadvantageous to yourself, and vice versa, that you have anticipated in your mind's eye will take place between you. In other words, as in situational drilling and conditional fighting, you have to fight from the perspective of your strengths and weaknesses relative to those of your next opponent or chosen stylistic type.

Naturally in the beginning you will find it difficult to retain the exact imagery of the scenario and situation and what (from the perspective of the strengths and weaknesses of your game) you have to cause or prevent happening within it. but persistence will pay off and you will eventually be able to fight the fight in your mind's eye. Not forgetting, of course, to always be ready to deal with his next move after you counter his, as well as have your own next move lined up if he counters yours.

A word of warning: don't perform this kind of shadow fighting in front of a mirror. In other words, shadow fighting is a way of tactically and strategically preparing for a specific opponent or stylistic type, it is not about getting some psychological gratification from watching yourself posing.

Understanding how the animal, including man, interacts with the ground, gravity, the surrounding environment, the species it shares it with (including its own) and those factors that are influential upon this interaction has given me that all-important edge on many of my contemporaries.

By way of this pressing against that which is beneath us, we move by reversed muscular action and the earth doesn't (perceptibly, that is).

The next time you go for a walk, experiment with ways that are barely perceptible by which you can increase the impulses of force generated by the entire body into the ground.

Most martial artists are unquestioningly obedient. They never ask that most important question: why am I doing this? But having said that, even if they did, in the majority of cases they would be given a load of bullshit.

Like I've written before, a total commitment to achieving a goal is a little like bacon and eggs, in that the pig's committed to the plate; the chicken isn't. All too many martial artists haven't the courage to commit their lives to the practice and research of the martial arts. They just sit around laying eggs, invariably rotten ones, which their followers somehow manage to swallow whole.

Having an understandind of the inherent reflex and bequeathed behavioural patterns which are the foundation of all fundamental skills doesn't guarantee you success as a fighter, but it helps.

Aristotle wote, 'The animal that moves makes its change of position by pressing against that which is beneath it.' For nearly 40 years I have researched those factors, both internal and external, that are influential on organizing this pressing, and by which the animal (including Man) in response to a stimulus reflexively prevents collapse and equally reflexively makes those rapid, random changes in position, direction and speed upon which its survival depends, whether it is the predator or the prey.

When I'm trying to pass on the principles and concepts of my fighting and training methods, it's pretty obvious that many of those present just want to get on with learning moves. Let's face it: anybody can learn a move. But it's the fundamentals that give the move substance, and without a firm grasp of the fundamentals whatever move you have learnt will be only superficial.

Having a firm grasp of the fundamentals of MMA and being up to date with the continually changing game of MMA is essential for both fighter and trainer alike.

A great way of developing a more multidimensional game as opposed to focusing your gam eon a specific stylistic type is to allocate each round within fight drilling, conditional fighting and play fighting to learning to tactically and strategically deal with different stylistic types. I.e., round one, standup open; round two, standup closed; round three, takedown/ground & pound; round 4 takedown submission; round 5; ones with mixed skills

So your first sparring partner tactically and strategically fights as Chuck Lidell for a round; your second for round two as Wanderlei Silva, a clinch and knee specialist, and so on.

A lot of MMA fighters overconcentrate on developing strength, speed, agility, etc. in planes of movement that are not functional for fighting. Subsequently they are often unable to break out of those planes of motion they have strengthened in training, when fighting.

From my experience and observation, if as a martial artist you overconcentrate upon strength training, there is a tendency to try to resolve all fight situations using strength. You'll try to move a rock with your body when you could be using a simple lever. Whatever strength you have trained must be used to gain a biomechanical advantage in a tactical way. And nine times out of ten, fight situations call for movement responses that are completely dissimilar to those you have strengthened doing the bench, deadlift, squat, etc. But being familiar with only traditional planes of movement, even though you're outside of those planes, you attempt to solve the problem with brute force and not with the application of force in the right way.

Avoid choosing sports specific exercises that are too complex, as this tends to lower the temp. Choose exercises that are not only functional but simple and natural so that you can focus upon what you need to do and not how to do it.

Remember sometimes the effect you are seeking to cause is external and sometimes internal. For example, an external effect is breaking somebody's leg with a round kick, with consideration of tactical issues. An internal effect is the organization of those forces necessary to do so, such as joint angular changes in alignment, sequence, rate and timing, as well as the mental imagery and its emotional content. It's important to know what that effect is when you begin an exercise. You can't just expect some arbitrary thing called 'chi' to solve all your problems.

When I'm fighting, I've got nothing but the fight on my mind. When I'm training, I work both externally and internally. In order for the impression of needed response to work on an unconscious level, you need to consciously know what factors are influential upon this organization. You have to feed the information in; it's garbage in, garbage out. That's why I say, you can't refine what you can't define, no matter how much you practice by trial and error. You have to analyze your mistakes critically. It's a scientific process, although it doesn't have to be a science.

Next time you do pull-ups, try using a single or double towel draped over the bar or even a beam. Or, instead of doing cleans with a bar, do shoulder cleans with a heavy sack of sand. Or using the same sack of sand, do box step-ups or lunges. The possibilities with a sack of sand are endless.

The only way you are ever going to possess the strength of five men is if that area of your brain, which is often the reserve of psychopaths, is triggered by an emergency situation. Or, if you learn to trick the brain to respond as if you were in an emergency situation.

From my experience, those who have the biggest problem with moving in a natural, dynamic way (not to mention tactically) are those within karate or from karate backgrounds. Which is not surprising, considering that karate’s robotic, isolated movement patterns are contradictory to being able to use the body as a dynamic, changing, reflex whole: as one part reflexively zigs, another zags. It is the reflexive loading and unloading (reloading) cycle that makes rapid repetition of a move possible. One of the ways of determining whether the tactical and natural dynamics of a move are right is to see if you can rapidly and explosively repeat it over and over again, or randomly and instantly introduce another move without having to continually reset for every move.

Remember, the muscle spindle’s reactive sensitivity in response to the implication of a cue can be set by what effect you need to cause or prevent within a situation. Even the slightest stretch or no stretch at all can elicit a summation of myotatic responses throughout the entire body so as to produce not only an explosive move or an evasive/absorbing one, but also to do so in a way that maintains the dynamic balance upon which all functional movement depends.

In a system that relies upon feedback, without such a mechanism you would always be too late in your response; hence the need to be able to read the implication of the smallest cue, so as to preset the magnitude of the response. This is why realistic cue drills are so important.

Movement is the translation within the integrated action of the CNS of emotions, thoughts, and sensations (intero, extero, and proprioceptive) into those neural impulses that convert chemically stored energy in the muscles into biomechanical work.

For fast footwork drills, be aware that ladder drills and the like force you to confine your movements within a regular pattern on the ground. Instead, use the ‘leaves in the park’ method; i.e., mark the gym floor with chalk marks in an irregular pattern and then try to hit them with your feet whilst rapidly moving forward.

Overconcentrating on good form during an exercise can take away from just getting on and doing it.

When you isolate muscle groups during strength, speed, etc. training, there is a tendency to respond in a similar way when fighting, rather than with the entire body.

Being able to manoeuvre your opponent into the worst possible positions on the feet and on the ground whilst remaining in the best position yourself might be the ideal. But the reality is that you are going to have to work out of the worse possible positions, particularly against an experienced opponent.

For every move there is a counter, and for every counter a counter. The lesson is to always be able to offensively, defensively and counteroffensively instantaneously develop other moves out of your last move, or his.

By the time of your fight (or even engaging in a particularly challenging and punishing workout) you must already psychologically, physiologically, and physically have zoned into what you are going to be required to do. Waiting to get your second wind during the fight is probably going to be too late. That preparation should have been done in the dressing room.

Warming up at low tempo might be OK for submission fighting, but not for the faster and slippier game of MMA.

Interestingly, I never have to warm up. I always seem to be psychologically, physiologically and physically zoned in to act or react instantly to the slightest sign of danger. But that’s me.

To be able to keep your conditioning workout interesting and challenging, you have to have a large number of strength, speed and agility exercises at your disposal, which you can creatively organize in different ways.

Don’t engage in exercises for their own sake, but for the purpose of improving your fighting ability.

Remember, what I teach is an approach to fight training. It’s a method, not a system. I’m not spoonfeeding fighting routines, but by providing fighters with that necessary rationale, I can give them the confidence and motivation to design their own training programmes.

Because no two individuals share exactly the same strengths and weaknesses relative to those of their next opponent, no two workouts should be exactly the same. For example, if you took a group of trainees and assessed their strengths and weaknesses relative to, say, those of Chuck Lidell, then you’d find that each had a different ‘profile’. Therefore, the preparations appropriate to each member of the group would be different to each other, even though they were all (theoretically) preparing to face Chuck Lidell.

Relying on somebody spoonfeeding you a routine takes away from your process of examining your own strengths and weaknesses relative to your next opponent and determining why you would need to address something like, say, foot speed as well as how you are going to go about addressing it in specific and non-specific ways. Equally, relying on somebody to tell you that your footwork’s lousy means that you aren’t continually evaluating your own performance. And you should be.

You must be constantly looking for new ways, both specific and non-specific, to raise your mental and physical toughness and determination to succeed. If you aren’t mentally and physically tough and determined, you won’t be able to focus on the immediate task at hand, act decisively, and find a way of winning. You must be able to function effectively when in a bad situation and near to exhaustion. That’s what toughness is all about.

Your mental and physical toughness and determination must be specific to fighting. People who sail around the world and climb mountains are tough as well, but fighting toughness is specific to fighting.

It is important to remember not only to train skills, strength, speed, agility, etc. when you are fresh, but also when you are dog-tired. Whilst it is possible that you could win the fight in the opening seconds of the first round or without having to break a sweat, it is unlikely, particularly against a determined and experienced fighter who is going to push you to (and in all probability beyond) your limits. So therefore, always assume the worst and be able to perform optimally in all areas for a full 15 minutes (3 X 5 minute rounds) or 30 minutes (6 X 5 minutes). Or more.

Any overemphasis on self-monitoring of form, fatigue, pain, etc. often takes away form focusing upon that which you have to do.

Commitment is a little like bacon and eggs. The pig’s committed to the plate; the chicken isn’t. Unfortunately, within the martial arts there are just too many chickens. And many of the ‘pigs’ have totally committed themselves to following the wrong master or going the wrong way.

Although you always need to persist and drive yourself, I’ve found that once you have taken that first committed step in the right direction—i.e., towards self-reliance and not reliance on some master—everything thereafter seems to fall into place.

All too may within the martial arts simply don’t want to play any active role in determining their destiny. It seems they prefer to remain passive whilst some so-called master determines the unfolding of their lives.

The martial arts should be the personal journey that comes with the daily practice of trial and error, the occasional accident, observation and research, and most importantly a critical evaluation of everything you experience. The martial arts should not be about following some master up his hierarchial ladder of self-delusion, or some other master down some dark, unlit road to nowhere.

Every day I redefine this thing we call the martial arts. I continually examine it, take it apart and put it back together to get to the reality of it, rather than as many do, perpetuating the myth.

Irrespective of the ups and downs of life’s circumstances, I have never lost the resolve to become the very best at what I do. And if that means having to deliberately set myself apart from the rest of the martial arts community, so be it. But if I hadn’t done so, do you really think I’d know what I know and be able to do what I do now at 63? Wake up.

When I see the resolve of those who have been dealt a terrible blow, either at birth or by way of a terrible accident, yet still they manage to play their hand for all it’s worth and become the very best that their potential will allow them to become in their chosen field, I can’t help feeling humbled by what they have achieved with far less going for them than I. I don’t find much inspiration within the martial arts, but there are plenty of inspiring people in the world.

Training with different psychological, physical and stylistic types in mind is not only important in combative sense, but it will also keep your workouts challenging and you’ll avoid boredom. The worst thing you can do is to stick to the same stylistic, tactical and strategic approach to fighting, and engage in the same fight training program day in and day out. One way I know that forces you to adapt your game and training methods to different psychological, physical and stylistic types is to set a period of say 21 to 30 days. During this time, you train with one individual in mind, somebody on whom there is a lot of fight footage. At the end of the training period, you change to a different person and repeat the process.

Don’t aimlessly go through the fighting, drilling, conditional fighting and playfighting methods and specific/non-specific conditioning exercises. Have some opponent in mind and know the reason why you are doing what you are doing. Otherwise how will you ever know when you have achieved what you set out to do—or failed?

Circuit training is a great way of achieving all around fitness and adding variety to your strength, speed, agility, etc. workout.

The objective of circuit training is so that you can sustain optimal strength, speed, agaility, core stability, reactive power, skill etc. for 15 to 30 minutes or more.

The strength, speed, agility, core stability, etc. exercises within the circuit can be specific, non-specific, or mixed. One round of the circuit should be around 5 minutes, the time of a round, whilst the total time of the work should be about 30 minutes (6 x 5 min. rounds).

A good way to determine a high tempo for each station is to see how many reps of an exercise you can perform in 30 seconds rather than setting numbers (i.e., 10 reps per station). Then move on to the next station. Ten stations would give you five minutes of very intense variable work; i.e., one round. This is a process which can be repeated for as many rounds as you like. You could also change the type of work to be performed each round.

Start your circuit training with some simple high-tempo work such as short explosive sprints, skipping, running on the spot whilst punching with light dumbbells, stair sprints, etc. In this way you will not only set a high work rate to follow, but you will also create an energy deficit right from the start. This is just what might occur in a fight, and if you want to survive those first couple of minutes, you must be accustomed to beginning at a very high rate.

Totally focus upon the task to be performed, whether in the context of fighting or exercise, and don’t try to consciously fulfil the requirements of a movement pattern.

Try to choose patterns of movement within your exercises that resemble the planes of movement you are going to fight with.

Also choose exercises that are simple rather than complex, so that you can perform the work at a high tempo.

By choosing simple, uncomplicated, short-duration exercises to perform at a high tempo during circuit training, you will quickly learn to do quality work whilst in the anaerobic zone, without having to worry too much about your form. Anything that distracts you away from the task you immediately need to address, such as monitoring of form, breathing, etc., takes away from focusing upon what you have to do.

Circuit training is a great way of addressing specific and non-specific or variable strength, speed, agility, core-stability, reactive power, and skill work within a group. Because you have to set up a number of stations to do circuit training, ten can train as easily as one during the same time period.

To ensure that you overload the system, always do about 1/3 more than you need. So instead of doing five rounds, do a couple extra: say 7.

Fight training is roughly broken down into technical \ FIGHT drilling (simple, mirror, and situational), conditional fighting and play-fighting. During a given workout you can focus on any of these specifically, or combine them.

Whilst the total time spent in the gym might be 2-3 hours, remember that this is not 2-3 hours of intense work. It would include, for example, a dynamic warm-up, some technical drilling, conditional fighting etc., and a cool-down workout, plus suitable rests between the different workouts.

All your training, whether it’s specific or non-specific, must be more mentally, physiologically and physically demanding than the hardest fight you envisage you will ever have to fight.

You might work within the more comfortable aerobic zone whilst becoming familiar with fight scenarios and situations on the feet and on the ground and the probable and possible offensive, defensive and counteroffensive responses you might use against a stylistic type within such scenarios and situations. But you quickly have to move on to being able to do specific work within the mentally and physically punishing anaerobic zone. In other words, just as a diver might work team procedures in the clear, calm waters of a swimming pool, he has to at some point adapt those procedures to a more realistic working environment: say, the rougher and murkier waters of the North Sea.

You must always be seeking to make whatever strength, speed, agility, core stability, reactive power, dynamic balance, hand/foot/eye coordination work you are engaging in more specific to the demands of the fight you are going to have to fight against a specific opponent or psychological/physical/stylistic type.

A simple and effective way of addressing conditioning is to add strength, speed, agility, core stability, reactive power exercises both specific and non-specific to a 30 minute jog (i.e., 6x5 minute rounds). Of course you could do this outdoors, but the better way, I think, is to do this form of conditioning around the mat area in the form of ‘Follow the Leader.’ For example, select one person to start the process. He jogs for a variable period of no longer than 30 seconds (in other words, periods of time that reflect the natural pauses in activity during the fight) following which he calls out an exercise—say for example, hand-stand press ups. Everybody attempts to do as many press-ups (or whatever the nominated exercise) within 30 secs. Then the class starts jogging again and the next person in line calls out a new exercise—say hip heist, and the class try to do as many hip heists as they can. Naturally the more knowledgeable in the class is with regards to specific and non-specific strength, speed, etc. exercises, the more interesting and challenging the thirty-minute period is going to me.

A couple of more points: when you’re jogging, don’t jog ‘flat.’ The jog represents those moments between the action on the feet, so stay on your toes and alert. Also, vary the jogging period so that it represents more accurately those variable pauses between the action during the fight.

Another way is for the trainer to call out the exercises, and to keep everybody guessing, vary the exercise time from 10-60 seconds, as well as the rest period (0-30 seconds) between exercises.

From my experience and observation, the vast majority of martial artists (with the exception of professional fighters) don’t know how to train for a fight. They don’t have anybody in mind when they train, other than some vague representation of somebody they might one day encounter upon the streets. Even professional fighters when not preparing for their next fight rarely train with anybody in mind between fights.

The old adage ‘know your enemy’ is often used by martial artists but is rarely applied within their training.

A professional fighter knows who he is next going to fight and when, and after studying the strengths and weaknesses of his next opponent’s game relative to his own, he can devise a training program that supports the way he will need to fight. The plan is constructed so that if things don’t go according to plan he doesn’t lose and if they do, then it increases his chances of winning.

Your average martial artist never knows in advance who he may one day meet upon the street or when such an encounter will take place. Nor does he know what fight scenarios and situations he is most likely to find himself in. And so he doesn’t devise a training program with somebody specific in mind. He just trains and somehow hopes that his one-size-fits-all approach to training will take care of fighting different psychological, physical and stylistic types.

The best way I know of preparing for the different psychological, physical, and stylistic types as well as the scenarios and situations you might one day find yourself in against a challenger in an arena/ring, gym/dojo, or upon the streets, is to select 10 of the world’s best fighters from Pride or the UFC. Pick guys on whom there is a lot of fight footage and who are notable for their stand-up, ground and pound, submission, or mixed skills. And then, after selecting one of them, study his fights to find out why he won, lost, or the fight went to a decision. Now you can determine the ways you will need to defensively fight in order to prevent him from winning, and those offensive and counteroffensive ways by which he can be beaten. You then devise a training program that will support such a game plan. It must address in both specific and non-specific ways that predatory instinct/competitive mindset, mental and physical toughness, anaerobic fitness, strength, speed, agility, core stability, reactive power, dynamic balance, hand/foot/eye coordination, timing, body/weapon tempering, fundamental skills, key moves, strategies, tactics and ring craft necessary to take on such an opponent.

Even though such a fight isn’t going to take place, you can still use your sparring and training partners and fight and gym equipment to train as if it were. Even to the point of setting a date to taper off and peak your performance by. At the end of the training cycle, you take a couple of days off and then start the whole process over again with a different opponent in mind.

Remember: defense is everything, particularly within the phases of the fight that favour your opponent. If you can develop strong, specific defense then you remove the anxiety of losing and gain greater confidence to take the fight to your opponent. You want to force him to react to you and make mistakes and fight according to your game plan, within your area of expertise, and not the other way around.

I’d suggest working in 21-30 day cycles of 4 to 5 days’ training a week. Do 30-60 minutes in the morning for anaerobic fitness, strength, speed, agility, core stability, reactive power, dynamic balance, hand/foot/eye coordination, timing, and body/weapon tempering work, and in the evening 90 mins to 2 hours of fight training; i.e., technical and situational drilling and conditional and playfighting.

By training in this way, or variations of it, you will soon learn to adapt your game to different stylistic types, whether on the competitive mat, or street.

I’d also suggest you train through the year in 21 to 30 day cycles. So that by concentrating on various aspects of your game during this period, particularly if you are a professional fighter, you will always be ready to take a fight on short notice and peak your performance in time. In other words, because you have already prepared with different psychological/physical/stylistic types in mind, you’re not going to have a problem adapting your game to your next opponent, no matter who that might be.

Whilst running at your maximal sustainable pace on a treadmill or indoor cycle for 30-45 minutes or engaging in 30-45 minutes of hill runs or stair climbs carrying a backpack are great ways of achieving and testing your mental and physical toughness, determination, and anaerobic fitness in non specific ways, you must remember that such achievements only serve as a foundation for the more specific work of fight training to come. It should never be imagined that they are a replacement of those mental and physical abilities need to fight with. You only get those by fighting.

I mentioned earlier in the notebook about watching a dvd of Tito Ortiz pulling some guy on a bike up a hill and engaging in other punishing non-specific workouts in the gym as part of his 12-week preparation to taking on Randy Couture (he lost), I couldn’t help thinking that he should have concentrated more during his preparation on devising a game plan and supportive training program that would first ensure that he couldn’t be beaten by Couture, and which would provide him with the opportunities to exploit couture’s obvious weakness on the feet in the open position.

But what did Ortiz do? He tried to take Couture on and beat him at his own game. Even if it was envisioned as a possibility by Ortiz, during the fight it quickly became clear that it was not going to be a probability. Ortiz should have had a ‘Plan B’. But if he did, he didn’t have the discipline to follow it.

Pulling guys up hills on bikes might be a great way of achieving mental and physical toughness and anaerobic fitness, but it does nothing to enhance your striking power, timing, or all-important footwork essential to keeping you away from people like Couture. Chuck Lidell (who has as of this writing beaten Couture) understands that.

Whilst marathon workouts 8 hours a day 6 days a week have produced some great fighters, I believe shorter and more intense and more sport-specific workouts will produce greater ones.

It seems the Protestant work ethic might have found its way into the gymnasium. God isn’t going to punish you if you fail to put in 8 to 10 hours a day 6 days a week in the gym!

Remember, the tempo of submission wrestling is not the same as MMA. So if you’re an MMA fighter, don’t train at the slow tempo of submission wrestling. Up the tempo. A lot of MMA fighters don’t seem to be able to get out of second gear. Indeed, some of them seem to be training on Valium!

Whatever mental and physical torture I might be putting you through, I’ve already experienced it in one form or another. And no matter what you may think, I’m not asking the impossible of you. I’m simply looking for ways of revealing to you something about yourself that you didn’t know, and hopefully thereby giving you greater confidence to act decisively in challenging situations.

The way I train you is just like my writings: constructive, even when it seems to be destructive.

When finding myself in a dangerous or challenging situation, depending on the level or immediacy of the danger/challenge, I have either instinctively, intuitively or rationally responded to it. Some situations are requiring of great cunning and lateral thinking, whilst others require great daring or physical violence. There is no one mindset that fits all situations. Even compassion is a component of a fighter's mindset, just as ruthlessness is. There's nothing simple about fighting mindset.

It's not simple, but it needs to be analyzed in order to address it within training scenarios and situations. Undoubtedly there are many similarities between the mindsets of a frontline professional soldier, test or fighter pilot, firefighter, extreme sportsman, professional boxer/Muay Thai/MMA fighter, and even hardened criminals when finding themselves in a dangerous/challenging situation. But there are equally many differences, not only between these various professions, but also amongst individuals within them. Mindset, like everything else, is an individual recipe. It's made up of recognizable components, though.

All the same, a professional soldier finding himself in an emergency outside of his profession is likely to be more competant at carrying out procedures under pressure--even though they might not be familiar to him--than someone with no experience of an emergency at all. Training that takes into account the essential components of emergency response is the key to consistency in performance.

Sure, a mother might be able to take a car off a child, but she hasn't trained for that. And as far as we as martial artists are concerned, consistency is the key. Being able to deal, at an instinctive/intuitive or rational level with emergency situations, within our training. The training must challenge and test those instints and hunches as well as your ability to think under pressure. Otherwise it's theoretical.

That's why we keep coming back to the same point: the training must accurately reflect the reality. A soldier's simulations represent the battlefield. A firefighter's represent a burning building. In both cases, if they get their procedures wrong, they can get hurt, even fatally, in training. And you have to take that training as close to the reality as you can, without killing the guy. This is how he becomes prepared, emotionally, mentally and physically, to deal with the real thing. And it's no different with fighting.

The more actual experience of that reality you have, the more you can feed not only into the design of the training, but also your own imagination when training. That's what visualization is. Where the training might be failing in reality (poor training partner, for example, or no training partner and only a bag!) your imagination can fill in the gaps. But only if it has a reality base to it! Otherwise, that imagination could be influenced by a kung fu movie--or any other misconception.

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Our brains, like our physiology and movement patterns, have been adapted through natural selection to survive in far more hostile environments than our present one. The trick is to challenge the individual, emotionally, mentally, physiologically, physically, technically, tactically and strategically in training specific to what they will need to do. Without killing them!

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An important component of mindset for any dangerous situation is being able to constantly monitor the surrounding environment, or your adversary, for those cues that are pertinent to danger and opportunity. Through your life experiences or training you must be able to decisively act or react upon the implication of these cues. Survival depends on such responses.

Equally, your mindset must also monitor your own internal responses: pain, exhaustion, fear, anxiety, etc. You must even monitor your own mind, to determine whether you are in the right mindset for the level of arousal required of the situation. You may need to step it up or down a gear.

The Fighters Notebook

all contributions much appreciated