A fight’s a sprint, not a marathon.  But most people train at medium-to-low tempos, and as a result fights in the ring and cage are often paced by the fighters in accordance with their comfort level.  On the street, a fight may kick off very fast but for various reasons the intensity usually isn’t sustained.

One of the best things you can do for yourself is to be the guy who can control the tempo.  It’s one of the few factors that you actually can control about a fight, and many people don’t take advantage of that.  If you can work at higher rates than your opponent for a sustained period, then you’re going to cause him trouble.  But this ability must be trained in the gym, and if you can train your anaerobic system and your rate coding system (which is neural) for high intensity sustained effort at the same time that you train your fundamental skills, then you’re going to be streets ahead of guys who separate their cardio work from their skill training.  It’s also important to have a training method that teaches you to remain cognant and in mental control during the storm.

I’ve put together a very simple training method which will give you the foundation for working at high intensity.  I’ve married the old Olympic punch-out to the Tabata protocol and I work this in very specific ways for a whole range of puproses, many of which aren’t obvious. It’s a solo, personal practice that initially looks like an anaerobic exercise but addresses a number of key elements that will improve your performance in training and fighting.  It’s extremely challenging on many levels, but the payoffs are commensurate.

I teach this training method to everyone who comes to me, whether in private lessons, group sessions, to fighters or to those concerned with personal protection.  It’s also the most important part of my own training. In this video I break it all down for you.  I’ll explain how to do it, why to do it, what to focus on when you’re doing it, how to make it progressively more effective in different ways, and how it will translate to sparring and fighting.

Some additional topics discussed in context of the Tabata punch-out are

Working on a particular part of your movement without actually removing it from the working system.

Using the eye so that you get ‘speed with glare’ (a Uechi-ryu concept)

Using vocalisation for core stability at high speed

Dempsey’s falling step

The triplanar pendulum system

Including eye saccades

Variations on the basic punch-out

Neural, mechanical, tactical and physiological fine points and tips

Adaptations and variations in full-spectrum fight training