Road to Amsterdam. MMA, S&C etc.

[paolo27th]

You answered your own question, I guess. Just have to find better training partners who will challenge you.

Yes, that's part of the plan, but it's pretty difficult as far as the grappling goes. Most of my training on the mats will inevitably happen with less experienced guys.

One thing I'm finding pretty helpful are position drills. In that case even less experienced guys can become pretty decent training partners. For example I was doing "wall walking" drills with a bjj blue belt last Saturday. Now, had we been free-rolling I'd have never let him get to a position where he could wall-walk - and even if I had he'd have probably never thought about it anyways. But starting from that position he actually managed to stand up a few times.

So what I need now is to think of a few more of this type of drills so that I can practice from every position.

 

[ghostwipe]

Yes, that's part of the plan, but it's pretty difficult as far as the grappling goes. Most of my training on the mats will inevitably happen with less experienced guys.

Ever consider finding fairly advanced guys to work on just one aspect where you may be somewhat lacking? (For example, find some judo or wrestling guys to work intensively on takedowns, etc.)

 

[paolo27th]

Again, it'll be easier to find guys that give me problems with striking rather than grappling. Holland isn't very big on the latter. Still I found a couple of but they can't even be bothered to come to the gym so... Actually, I found 3 if you count Gegard Musasi - I wrestled with him but the guy is just too big and strong for me. Actually the wrestling coach himself is pretty good too, especially on the ground he has a vicious top control - on his back he's helpless tho.

Anyways, when I get a car in the near futue I'l start travelling to gyms outside Amsterdam from time to time.

 

[paolo27th]

Thursday: off

Friday:
1 hr kickboxing: combination drills and a little sparring.

Tonight I did my first class in Haarlem. I had a good plan but the guys were tired from the kickboxing class and were hard to control. Actually, this was the worst class I've ever given. I need to get it back together next week before the guys just walk allover me.

Still I showed them all the basic positions and a couple of submissions and they seem to have absorbed those.

 

[paolo27th]

Saturday:

No PKT session today. All the guys were busy. Did the boxing class instead. We did some good work on reaction punching but no sparring. I really like the boxing class tho. It's pretty well structured. I wish I had time to do it more often.

Later I did some deadlifts - for the first time in months. I actually went even heavier than I used to. Did 310 for 4 sets of 3 and then 300 (my usual weight) for another 2 sets. I wildly over did it tho because by evening time I could hardly walk!

Anyways, I need to get myself a pair of decent straps because my home-made stuff didn't work very well.

 

[paolo27th]

Monday:

PKT session. Worked from half guard. I showed the guys a couple of techniques too. Gave them some coaching etc. Also did a couple of rounds from stand-up. I need to work on getting the takedown in the middle of the mats for the grappling tourney.

Later I did2x5 mins of boxing and 2x5mim kickboxing on the bag followed by 20 mins on the ellyptical.That was terrible. I have no balance and no power left - it's also true that my shoulder is still fucked. I wanted to do more bagwork but gave up as it was going all wrong.

 

[paolo27th]

Tuesday:

20 min thai rope skipping

Boxing class: we worked on swerving (sp?) after combinations and coming back with counters. Also did some pretty decent sparring. We finished off with a few sets of bw exercises (that I didn't really feel like doing at this point). Was pretty tired at the end and my shoulder was bothering me but averall it was a good session.

 

[paolo27th]

Wednesday:

PKT session
We had a couple new members who were beginners so I ended up having to show some technique. I don't really like to do that as I don't want to turn this into a class. Anyways, we kept working on half guard and then did a couple rounds of free grappling. Saturday we'll probably do more takedowns, I need a break from half guard before I go mad.

Was going to squat afterwards but I didn't as I was still really tired from last night's boxing. Somehow I no longer feel like pushing through fatigue. When my body says it's enough I prefer to take a break and give it time to recover.

 

[paolo27th]

Thursday:
Off

I had the hare-brained idea of going to the gym today to make up for yesterday's failure to squat. Luckily when I got there I realised I'd forgotten half of my gear. Coupled with the fact that I got angry as soon as I walked in the place and I saw 2 idiots doing idiotic things (it's a long story) it was clear I wasn 't supposed to train today. I just wasn't in it mentally and physically.

It's all good. I need to stop trying to make up for missed workouts. If I miss one I should just let it go. Nothing good could have come from trying to squat heavy today. I'd have missed reps, maybe even hurt myself and then gone home feeling like shit. Plus on Saturday I'd have been too tired to lift again.

Anyways, I think I should make it a habit of taking Thursdays off. After 3 days of hard training I need a break or I'll accumulate too much fatigue to recover on Sundays. So my week will probably look as follows:

Mon: PKT+squats
Tue: Short cardio + Kickboxing + beginners PKT class
Wed: PKT + cardio
Thu: Off
Fri: Same as Tue
Sat: PKT+Deads
Sun: Off

On top of this I'll also need to add 1hr of kickboxing privates that I'll start taking in February. Now all I need to worry about is finding more motivated sparring partners to train with.

 

[paolo27th]

Friday:

25 min alternating between thai skipping and shadow box.
1hr kickboxing class.

PKT beginner class

Not to sure about this place anymore. We're doing less and less sparring and even when we do there are only beginners to train with. I guess Id rather do my second session here on one of the PKT team training days so I don't need to worry about training here in the evening. It's still cool to go over technique drills but I want to know I have the option to spar if I need to - mind you, we should soon start doing stand up sparring at PKT too. Plus the tuesday boxing at the other gym is pretty cool so I may want to do that instead.


Saturday:

PKT session. Worked on single legs an ended with some free grappling. Good turnout today. Even the grappling coach came to have a look and was pretty impressed.

Later I did 3x3 squats with 235 and they really sucked. I between I did 4x8 pullups - finally I can do some upper body work again. Finished off with 3x10 slide-split-squats with 40lbs DB. But I think I'll drop this exercise now. It's not really helping my squat anymore. I'll probably do overhead squats instead.

 

[paolo27th]

Sunday-Monday-Tuesday: off. I was out of the country.

Wednesday: PKT session

Worked on takedowns again and some free grappling.

Later I did 3x5 squats with 220 and they were rubbish. I followed with 3x10 overhead squats with 45lbs - decided to do these instead of slide-split-squats as I keep having problems with keeping my core tight and the SSS are not helping.

Thursday: off

Friday:
30 min of skipping/shadow
1hr kickboxing

Beginners PKT was cancelled as no one turned up. Jeez I really miss Japan now. People here can't seem to be able to do anything that involves some effort. I guess they are into kickboxing because it's easy to take one's aggression and turn it into punches and kicks. MMA however requires an equal amount of discipline to go with the agression. But disciplined people in this country don't have enough respect for combat sports to get into MMA.

I'm thinking to just stop these classes and use the time to train at a serious kickboxing gym. After all my priority is improving my own skills and I already feel like I'm going stale. Plus I should be able to give 100% to coaching if I want this to work and I'm not ready to do that as I still want to fight. We'll try one more time next week but I see very little future in this.

 

[MIDMOBOX]

I wish I had some advice but I really don't. I can understand your frustration in teaching though.

 

[paolo27th]

^^^I guess I could just stop trying to teach them stuff and have them jump around the place while wearing mma gloves. But the problem again is that I think there is much more to MMA than circuit training and I'm not ready to sell out.

Still, how do I make them understand that this is a fight? When people are in bad positions or get tapped they don't seem to think much of it. They don't see the need to try because they probably don't see this as a competition and don't get the same thrill out of it that I did when I began. So how do I bring the competitiveness out of them?

 

[MIDMOBOX]

When you put it into those terms I can at least try to provide some perspective. I'm the least competive person you will ever find in the gym. And at times have been "lazy" with my training. When I was at a MMA gym it wasn't about competing or winning since thats something I never wanted to do. I was just there. Put me in a gi and everything changes but thats another story.

If your students are just there because they want to have fun and talk about how cool they are cause they train teh UFC then there isn't going to be much you can do to change that about some them. You could just cash the checks and go on but most people have a spark inside them. Something they want to do or accomplish. It takes alot to find it in some and in others it shines brightly. your role as a teacher is to find out what these people want from the class and provide it. If your lucky you can find that competive drive in a few then focus your engery on that.


Your trying to balance teaching and training which is always difficult. If you give it time you'll find it.

Not sure if any of this makes sense as what I'm trying to say is sort of abstract to begin with.

 

[Ville Kukkonen]

What gyms you'v been to? I thought amsterdam should have some good mma training, just checking one fightsport magazine that has article about training in holland, its written in 2009, and on 'Mejiro gym' it says that they are starting mma soon, 'Kops gym' should have mma, and those are bigger name gyms, so I assume there should be some competitors, dunno thou the reality.

 

[paolo27th]

Saturday:

PKT session. Worked on back defence and some free grappling. Good work today. People really enjoyed the stuff I showed and actually gave me some trouble by using them. We should also start adding some standup from next week, probably wednesday.

Later I did 5x1 DL with 330 and 5x5 punch presses with 66lbs. I liked the deads especially. My form was much better going for heavier singles that it usually is for triplets - where sometimes my back hurt at the end of training. Will probably keep doing singles. The punch presses on the other hand were not nice at all I had to go much lighter than I used to as my shoulder is still not 100%.

 

[paolo27th]

Monday:

PKT session. Did mostly free grappling.

Later did some squats and 4 sets of pull-ups. I hit 5 clean and easy squats at 245! No back arching, no struggle to get out of the hole and at 12lbs more than last week. The overhead squats I did last week REALLY paid off. Amazing that doing just a few sets with a ridiculous weight such as 40lbs could make such a big difference!

 

[paolo27th]

Tuesday:

40 min ellyptical

Boxing class: some combo practice and lots of sparring.


Thursday:

PKT session: added a few rounds of stand-up today and finished with some free grappling. Overall a good session. Later I tried to do some bag-work but I was done after 1x5 mins. For some reason my biceps are really sore.

Not weights till next week. I have a wrestling tournament next Sunday and somehow need to make 154lbs. I'm 176 now so that's not looking very good.
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[paolo27th]

Friday: off

The heating in my house is broken so I got a cold. I'd rather take a day off today than risk having to take one tomorrow.

Btw, alot of offers for fights are coming through. I may take a break from logging my workouts here if I decide to take one.
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[paolo27th]

Saturday:
PKT session. Very quiet today. I only had 1 more guy so we worked on some technique he was lacking in. We'll work on that some more next week to make sure he's got it down.
Later I did 3x5 min on the bag and it didn't feel too good. My stamina is gone and my balance and feel are non-extstent.


Anyways, I decided I'm not going to take a fight until I find other fighters to train with. It doesn't matter how dedicated or skilled my training partners are, if they are not fighters I can't rely on them because they just have no need to come training if they don't feel like. The last thing I want is to find myself alone in the gym 2 weeks out of my fight!