New Year - New Training

[BenRichards35]

Ben Richards is excited right now, i have found a gym in glasgow that does mixed martial arts training! After the new year this ballsy stud is gonna be learning muay thai, jiu jitsu, wrestling, boxing as well as working on strength and conditioning. Put all that together with a good weight programme you will soon see a deadly Ben Richards, fitter, stronger more dangerous than you have ever seen before. Roll on 2010 so i can get started in this ballsy persuit cah'man!
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Im the Goddamn Butcher of Bakersfield!

Uplink, underground, uplink underground. You guys dont shaddup im gunna uplink yir ass, the you'll be underground!

[Daz666]

MMA is ballsy, I know coz I used to do it, exactly!!!

Due to some shit that happened earlier in the year I stopped going to the gym for a few months, but after new year I'll be back there again... Also, if I can get a job sometime in 2010 then I fully intend on going back to MMA... Not only is MMA ballsy, it's fun too!!
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You think dis is the real Daz666? It is!!!!

"Goddamn Daz666, you are one ballsy stud!" - Holzfeuer

[BenRichards35]

hey daz did you go straight into ballsy MMA training or did you work the disciplines first, im gonna do the muay thai, wrestling, jiu jitsu and boxing individualy for several months before starting the mma foundamentals, did you do the same? i start mon the 4th, im fuckin seriously pumped and cant wait.
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Im the Goddamn Butcher of Bakersfield!

Uplink, underground, uplink underground. You guys dont shaddup im gunna uplink yir ass, the you'll be underground!

[Der_Barrakuda]

Congratulations! I've been doing Muay Thai since May! Since then I've lost 30 pounds of marshmallow and I'm all lean muscle now and my cardio is off the charts. I also take personal lessons once a week from a world champion from Thailand. After I became discplined in the gym I then created a disciplined diet which accounts for a lot of the marshamallow loss. My gym offers all of the things your gym offers but let me tell you, realistically you probably won't have enough time in the week for more than two disciplines. The plan I try to follow is Muay Thai on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, Upper body weights on Tuesday, and on Thursday I go in and do squats and deadlifts. Sometimes I also do the boxing class on Tuesday or Thursday after lifting weights. The difference between boxing and Muay Thai is that in boxing you bob and weave to avoid strikes. If you do that in Muay Thai you'll get kneed in the face. In Muay Thai you stand up-right and just lean back to dodge strikes. Also, in boxing, you do that little hopping dance, which is absouletely brutal, and boxers do that shit non stop for 15 rounds! On Saturdays they offer a one hour Cross Fit class but I haven't done it for months. I always go in an hour before class starts and warm up and practice by myself. By the time class starts my hand wraps are already on and I'm stretched out and ready to go. That's also the time that I can get at the trainers to ask them questions.

I'm going to begin training next week for a half marathon that Toten Adler and I are running at the end of March. I wouldn't be doing something like this if it weren't for the discipline I learned in Muay Thai. A half marathon is of course a walk in the park for Toten. He's done several full marathons, triathlons, and he's swam from Alcatraz to shore twice.

Some of my goals for 2010 are to get much stronger at the bench press, squats, dead lifts, and pull ups/chin ups... all the very basic (but best) exercises.

If you've never done boxing or kick boxing before then I can give you some advices that will save you some time in the learning process. Number one. Relax. If you're tense than your strikes just won't work. The most difficult thing for me to do is to relax when I throw a Muay Thai round kick. Pretend your leg isn't there and make it jelly. Just think about snapping your hip around. Some people are more natural at this than others. I've had a hard time with this. I also need to work on smoothly switching my stance so I can throw a kick with my rear leg. When you're in the clinch, spread your legs and your knees will be much better. When you throw regular knees, step forward, get on the ball of your foot, push your hips forward, and try to lean back as far as you can without hurting your back. Of course, with knees and push kicks keep your guard up. I don't think push kicks are hard, I can easily move a 250 pound bag. Snap your jabs and crosses quickly like you're a cobra. Quickly bring your fists back to guard otherwise you'll get popped in the face. Don't get frustrated with upper cuts and hooks. They take time. Upper cuts just feel weird (especially with your front hand). It's all about turning your hip and twisting your leg. Hooks, I hurt myself on all the time. I must not keep my wrist straight so I'm striking at a weird angle. I've learned that my most powerful punch is the Chuck Liddell rear overhand. It has so much more power than a regular cross. I'm not taking about a hay maker. I mean a cross punch you throw with an arch. Elbows aren't hard either. Step into them and throw your arm in an arch and keep your hand close to the chest. You don't need to exaggerate your upper body. You don't need to turn that much. If you graze the pad with your elbow then hopefully that was someone's eye and you cut them. If you land solid on the pad then hopefully that was someone's chin and you put them to sleep. If at first your wrists and knuckles and fingers hurt. Don't worry. There is nothing you can do about this but let time heal them. Your hands aren't used to the impact of hitting pads and bags so you just have to let them get conditioned. Also, of course, you want to punch with your two big pointy knuckles. It's the strongest part of your hand. Even though you have big gloves on, you want to be striking with your hand at that particular angle. Now. Get ready to jump rope. A lot of rope. And. FEEL THE BURN!!!
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I eat skulls

[Daz666]

Personally I went to the gym for a while first to do weights and cardio etc, but after that I went straight into MMA, I never concentrated on the different styles seperately...

I'd give some advices about different strikes and stuff but Barakuda already covered that with some fantastic advices right there... I'll just say a couple of things he didn't mention...

Barrakuda is correct about the wrists and hands hurting at first. I used to punch bags, pads, and allsorts of things with bare hands, no wraps or gloves at all and at first it would hurt a lot, all the skin would come off my knuckles and everything, but after a while when you get batter at striking and your hands get more conditioned this will stop.

Barrakuda didn't mention this so I will... If you're gonna throw a roundhouse kick to the legs or body, kick with your shin, not your foot, then it's like hitting your opponent with a goddamn baseball bat right there!!! If you can hit them in the head with your shin too that's cool but it takes a while of practice to get that felxibilty...

I also used to condition my shins by hitting them with metal bars and glass bottles... I started off doing it softly at first then over time did it harder... It hurts but it works.

Also, if ya gonna knee someone then try to lock ya hands around the back of their neck and pull their head down, then when ya spring up and throw the knee into their face it has maximum effect.

I was told by my trainers that my ju jitsu was excellent and that I had a natural ability at it, I could do things I'd never even seen or been taught... And coz of my size my strikes are damaging too, I just had some troubles with fancy stuffs like tornado kicks and stuff, pretty much anything that involved spinning LOL
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You think dis is the real Daz666? It is!!!!

"Goddamn Daz666, you are one ballsy stud!" - Holzfeuer

[Der_Barrakuda]

The gym should show you basic techniques such as kicking with your shin instead of your foot, stepping out at 45 degrees with your front foot, keeping your guard up, bringing the other hand back etc... but one thing you'll hear a thousand times that drives me crazy is "turn your hip!" I have such a hard time with this. Now, mentally, I try to really relax, and I step into it, turn my front foot 90 degrees, get on the ball of my foot and pivot around 180, and when my leg is halfway to the target that's when I try to whip my hip a little bit and that seems to help with generating power.

You might want to put on just your hand wraps and gently punch a bag for a while, sometimes in slow motion so you learn how to turn your arm into the punch and land on your two big knuckles. If you dive right into punching with 16 oz gloves on it's easy to forget this. Ideally you want to extend your arms all the way when you punch. The farther your arms extend, the more cork screw power they'll have. Also, it seems like you're kind of supposed to lift your shoulders up when you punch. It's part of the snap.

I didn't want to get into specific techniques of clinching and how to grab the guy and stuff, but a secret I learned is to spread your legs a little. If you keep your legs tightly together like you're trying to guard your nuts then you lose power and balance and all those kinds of things. I don't have a lot of experience yet with working in the clinch but besides being told to cup one glove over the other I was told to actually put your gloves on the back of the guys head (not neck) and to push your forearms into their neck and shoulders. This way you can more easily control them and pull them any direction you want.

By watching UFC it seems like this is what the fighters do mostly which make then Mixed Martial Artists.

Boxing.
All Muay Thai techniques.
Wrestling to take someone down.
Jiu Jitsu for submissions.

And there is the occasional fighter who uses other techniques like Greco Roman stand up wrestling and dirty boxing. But it seems like 90% of the time the fighters are trained in just Muay Thai and Jiujitsu.
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I eat skulls

[BenRichards35]

This is what i love about this goddamn forum, look at all this fantastic advice right there. Im feeling so pumped to get started. iv been wanting to do this for a few years no but couldnt find a gym that did these disciplpines. Im starting all 4 to mainly find my strength. but also with my shift pattern i dont work set days so it will unfortuntaly be different classes i can attend although i will always be able to make at least 2 muay thai, boxing classes and 1 jiu jitsu regardless of my shift. if im pushing pencils on the thurday i miss out on wresting and grappling.

I think that muay thai and wrestling will be my strengths but im looking forward to finding out and building the lean muscle inzo was talking about. I moved house at the start of the year and my gym attendance suffered for it due to travelling and work. excuses aside i gained a bit of weight and my arms, though kept their mass, have became soft. Well until around 10 weeks ago i got my arse in gear. Became more carefull of what i was eating and began a simple weight routine at home to rebuild strength. iv dropped 30lbs on my own and would say i could safely drop 20-30 more to be a healthy weight but aslong as my shape and tone are being restored weight is a number to me at this point. The first couple of weeks at a disciplined eating were hard but once this passed iv been fine. The festive period with drink and all has been tricky. iv managed to break even the last fortnight so im counting that as a win and now back in my disciplined ways though its not alot i know something about.

I hear different stories that its better to eat 6 small meals a day and other say stick to 3 and have high protien snacks. To be hanest all i have really been doing is having a breakfast of either wheatabix or poarridge (oatmeal pretty much), lunch is a fruit box of 3 different fruits and a chicken wrap and dinner im eating around half 5, 6 and not snacking after 7. but the biggest thing which i believe has helped me is eating normal sized portons. i used to stack my plate with food and clear it. now i eat a normal porton and stop eating when i stop enjoying it. not just eating because im bored or have nothing to do and drinking more water because your brain cant differentiate between hunger and thirst.

Add this ballsy new training into the mix your gonna have a lean strong ben richards unloike the bulky son of a bitch of old.

its funny you should mention bench pressing, my weakest excercise, iv started push ups and these things to work on the muscle area. iv found a great 8 week programme but im still working on getting the the starting point level.

I full appreciate you both taking the time to give all the help and good advices you have. il keep you posted how my goddamn training goes!
_________________
Im the Goddamn Butcher of Bakersfield!

Uplink, underground, uplink underground. You guys dont shaddup im gunna uplink yir ass, the you'll be underground!

[BenRichards35]

Goddamn this shit is hard work but fantastic! Only had a couple of wrestling and muay thai classes so far, not had a chance to do the jiu jitsu, will start that next week as well.

The wrestling is goddamn fantastic and a harder workout than is looks, learning drills and techniques and even done a bit of sparring. My strength helped me out for lack of technque but picked up a few single leg takedowns.

the muay thai is has been damn hard work but thoroghly enjoying it, still very early. doing warm up, cardio learning combo's and stretches. some the of the stretching and conditioning drills are awesome and working in muscles i never knew i had. learned the plank which doesn look all that hard but man it gets tough. enjoying learning how to much with a bit of technique and using the good advices given on this site for my leg kick. My righ body kick im finding surprisingly natural though obv room for improvement, playing baseball for so long its important to explode your hip for a good swing, this has helped my pop my hip for a right body kick. infortunately i wasnt a switch hitter so swinging my hip on the other side is no where as near as smooth. but working on the shuffle step back to bring it with a little force.

As much as im looking to improve technque and everything primarily i need improve, cardio, physical fitness and flexability. This my these work outs my pulse is pounding and sweat running im pretty sure it wont be too long before i see a difference in this area. Now im just kicking myself i didnt find this gym sooner!
_________________
Im the Goddamn Butcher of Bakersfield!

Uplink, underground, uplink underground. You guys dont shaddup im gunna uplink yir ass, the you'll be underground!