Mark Hatmaker is the founder of Extreme Self Protection, a research company that compiles, analyzes, and teaches effective unarmed combat methods. He has 23 years of experience in the martial arts, including boxing, wrestling, Jiu-jitsu, and Muay Thai. He is the author of No Holds Barred Fighting. He lives in Knoxville, Tennessee. Doug Werner is the author or coauthor of 15 sport and fitness instructional guides, including the Start-Up Sports series. He lives in San Diego, California.

More No Holds Barred Fighting Killer Submissions

By Mark Hatmaker, Doug Werner

Tracks Publishing

Copyright © 2002 Doug Werner
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-884654-18-3

Contents

Preface,
1 Conditioning,
2 Take a breather,
3 Take it to heart,
4 Killer submission chains,
Resources,
Index,

CHAPTER 1

Conditioning

Sound strategy

Mixed martial artists and combat athletes have always been concerned with training for optimum results. Boxing rings, cages and wrestling mats are harsh venues. Less than optimum training methods reap less than stellar results. The arguments in conditioning are usually those of exercise choices:

Do I lift weights?

Do I work only with my body weight?

Do I cycle?

Do I run stairs?

I won't even pretend to propose an optimum conditioning program (we'll cover that in its entirety in another volume). What I do intend is to spotlight specific principles that you should strive to keep in mind before beginning any conditioning program or formulating one for yourself.

Specificity

The first principle is that of specificity. Specificity refers to patterns of physical movement, physical demands and even comparative environments that transfer favorably to the sport you have chosen to better. For example, if you wish to be a better golfer, it is not necessary to spend two hours in the weight room four days a week or to perform sets of wind sprints. There is no doubt that your condition for these specific activities (weightlifting and wind sprints) would improve, but there would be little if any progress made in your golf game. To improve your game it is advisable to spend more time on the golf course driving, chipping and putting. In other words, you should select a regimen that is specific to your goal.

The same holds true for combat athletes. You must examine every training modality that comes your way to see if it does indeed have any transfers to what your sport is all about. For example, we all know that endurance is required for NHB, but what kind of endurance? The kind found in marathon runners? In speed skaters? In cross-country skiing? The answer is you need the kind of endurance found in NHB athletes. Sports kinesiologists have known for some time that the conditioning demands of one sport are poorly transferred to another. This view was expressed succinctly by UFC veteran Pedro Rizzo who said, "Runners run, swimmers swim, fighters fight."

So, to speak in general terms, the kind of endurance found in NHB would not be that of the Long Slow Distance (LSD) variety associated with long distance running. Logging lots of miles may be detrimental to your training if the fight game is your primary goal. NHB requires more from your anaerobic capacity than it does from your aerobic capacity. Thus your search for supplemental endurance work should be more of the anaerobic variety. Furthermore, that anaerobic training should be comprised of movements that parallel those of your endeavor or better yet be comprised of those actual movements.

Synergism

The next principle to keep in mind while assembling your conditioning toolbox is that of synergy. It is not enough to choose exercises for their specific transfers. It is advisable to stack the regimen in sequences that will allow for greater development. For example, your workout may be comprised of some heavy anaerobic work that will tax your fine motor skills to a particular degree, and yet you intend on working pinpoint combination punching. It would be wise to order your fine motor skill work before any severely taxing work so that you are in possession of all of your resources. You can return to punching after your anaerobic work (good punching drills may actually comprise your anaerobic work), but these punches performed once taxed are more for continued anaerobic and muscular endurance to mimic the later stages of the fight than to fix neuromuscular grooves.

Another example of efficient synergistic stacking is found in our Gladiator Conditioning material. We recommend a pulling group, which is a series of pull-ups, and a grip group, a series of exercises designed to improve grip endurance. To stack them synergistically, we work our grip after the pulling group to prevent our fatigued grip from interfering with the possible gains in the pulling group. It is wise to examine your routine for synergistic stacking. Make sure that one exercise is not interfering with gains in another.

Somatotrophics

This term refers to body-weight resistance work. I am going to take myself out of the line of fire in the debate of weights versus body -weight conditioning. There is plenty of evidence on both sides to make convincing cases for each, although much of the evidence that is cited seems to be of the anecdotal variety and thus precludes its serious consideration in the schism. From a middle ground position I think it is safe to say that the ground floor of your conditioning structure should be the ability to control your own body weight through all ranges of motion. By control, I mean possessing the muscular strength and endurance, as applied through simple calisthenics, to maneuver your body freely in manners similar to your athletic endeavor. Without good control of your own body, it is a stretch to believe that the combat athlete will find within his grasp some of the more advanced combinations and chains that require precise kinesthetic control in all ranges.

With that stated as an argument for a base in body-weight exercises as a foundation for building such control, I see nothing that prohibits the addition of weightlifting to increase the functional strength of the combat athlete. Just be sure that any weight exercise passes the tests for specificity and synergy before its inclusion. Keep in mind that a good argument can be made for simply adding a weight vest and ankle and wrist weights to the somatotrophic base to increase the resistance gradually (in the Milo of Crotona manner) while still essentially performing exercises closer to specific applications.

Efficiency and effectiveness

Efficiency can be defined as getting the job done in an economical manner regarding time consumed. Effectiveness can be defined as getting the job done in a manner that ensures that the right job is getting done. To put these definitions into stark relief, a workout that consists of nothing but crunches and takes only 20 minutes is time efficient. But is it effective for the combat fighter? Of course not. Too many factors would be ignored. Where's the aerobic and anaerobic work? The total body flexibility program? Overall muscular strength and endurance work? On the other hand, a workout consisting of 300 exercises to develop punching power, speed, and endurance is highly effective but the amount of time needed to complete such a regimen is far from efficient.

A good workout will blend the aspects of efficiency and effectiveness so that each exercise is chosen for its effective specific transfers and chosen carefully to not take an exorbitant amount of time. An optimum conditioning regimen is intense, specific and of short duration.

The short duration is vital on two counts. First, the more efficient and effective your workout the more time you have to devote to actual fight training as opposed to just logging longer conditioning hours. Second, by training in a time efficient manner, you are more likely to pursue such a regimen since it does not seem as daunting in time consumption and it...