Over the last 10 or so years I have been very fortunate to meet some of the Worlds most gifted and talented Martial Artists. I have been even more fortunate to train with these people, learn from them and become friends with them.
During this period my training routines have been heavily influenced by the likes of Peter Consterdine, Herol “Bomber” Graham, Eddie Stokes and of course Grand Master Rick Moneymaker.
These training methods have enabled me to improve much quicker than previously in all areas of my Martial Arts. Just because I am well known for Pressure Points does not mean that I do not train in other areas as well!
I always thought I trained fairly hard till I trained with Peter Consterdine. It was then that I realised I needed to up my training regime considerably. Thanks for that Peter! Still not forgiven you! I must say that Peter Consterdine has been an absolute inspiration to me in many ways. I consider myself very fortunate to have met and trained with such a genuine person as Peter. A true Martial Artist in every sense of the word and one of the hardest and smartest trainers you will ever see!
Grand Master Rick Moneymaker introduced me to principle based training as opposed to technique based. Rick totally transformed my Martial Arts. Rick Moneymaker was and is an inspiration to me like you could not believe. Always totally honest, brutally honest sometimes! One of the Worlds greatest ever Martial Artists and a real friend.
Herol Graham showed me what it is like to train fitness and conditioning at World Class level! What a quantum leap that is! Body sparring for one round with Herol is like doing 10 rounds with anyone else, believe me! I still have nightmares from those sessions. Especially the 2 hour non stop skipping sessions, when I thought it would just be 6 or 7 rounds to get warm!
How do these people get so fit and conditioned without spending 8 hours a day training? What makes their training so different to what most of us do or most of us did?
The answer lies in how they train. Not just the sheer effort and willpower they bring to the table, not just training very hard, but training very hard and very smart.
The ideal way to train is to make your training specific to the tasks required. A pure Boxer for example does not need to gain massive flexibility in the legs, does not need to train kicks, locks, grappling etc. His training has to be geared around doing up to 12 x 3 minute rounds of non stop action.
He needs to be supremely fit, able to keep going for long periods of time, able to make sudden very fast, explosive, powerful movements in blitzes and all the time be conditioned enough to absorb blows. He needs to keep his concentration at all time highs for three minutes at a time and to be able to recover from near exhaustion back to ready to fight in just 60 seconds! Then keep doing that for 11 more rounds!
So, how do we as Martial Artists adjust our training routines to get every last ounce of benefit from every second we train? Train Smart!
