OK , not so much hot tips ,more like common sense nuggets from the master of extreme violence and impenetrable rambling. This is primarily aimed at the MMA crowd ,but the principles written herein apply just as well to self defence situations. Enjoy. Steve Morris Fight Training Notebook An informal collection of notes and short essays on training. 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). • Your moves have to have emotional content without you becoming emotional. • 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'' got all 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. • Nietzsche 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. •
