Interesting comment on Olympic wrestler's training from Steve Maxwell

[fa_jing]

I vic'd this from DragonDoor:

"I just returned from the World free style wrestling championships at Madison Square Garden.It was an Olympic qualifier and was totally sold out. The fans were very knowledgeable and appreciated the action. This next Olympics will only allow 20 wrestlers per weight class. There is only one more quallifier to be held. The tournament was really good and well run. I had a chance to interview the Russian coach and two Irani world champions on their training. The Russians definetly use a lot of kettlebell training for their wrestlers. The Irani's use the traditions of the Zurkhanee(House of Power) in their preparation. Everyone is really keen on rope climbing. The Irani national coach said that his athletes will climb a 10 meter rope 30 times with no feet in a single training! That is phenominal strength/endurance for the entire upper body, particularly the gripping muscles. The Russians are really into rope climbing as well. All groups of wrestlers that I questioned shun the weights for much of the year in favor of body weight conditioning exercises. These were the elite of the elite and most compete for much of the year. The Republic of Georgia took the team title with the USA and Iran tied for second.Russia was forth.The US had no gold medals in the mens division, Russia had two.
It was a very exciting and enjoyable weekend. "

[Ford Prefect]

Dunno if I'd believe something posted by some random guy at dragondoor. I've heard a lot of different routines from a lot of different olympians and olympic gold medal winners. (Schultze, Jackson, Angle, Kerelin, etc)

[fa_jing]

"some random guy" = Steve Maxwell = 2 time BJJ World Champion (won in Brazil), only USA guy to do so.

[Ford Prefect]

I know who Steve is. I also know he (and his wife) has a financial interest in kettlebell training especially amung submission grapplers who want to mimick his success on the mat. Russian champs using kettlebell training sounds like a great way to premote it. I'll take this with a grain of salt until I see some independent corroberation.

[fa_jing]

What I thought was interesting was the bodyweight conditioning, and the lack of free weight training.

[Ford Prefect]

I dunno. Maybe I'm biased against anything like this. I've seen numerous programs from numerous athletes and coaches, I've spoken with numerous athletes and coaches, I've trained with numerous and coaches. The amount of approaches I've seen are as numerous as the people I met expousing them. The one thing that all of them had in common was an extreme level of discipline, desire, and dedication to their chosen sport.

This type of stuff doesn't impress me. Sorry for hi-jacking the thread.

[fa_jing]

You have some excellent points, Ford. I'm concerned about the people who say "well if such-and-such a method was really effective, they'd be using it in the NFL or UFC, etc." We can't forget the law of specificity, but supplementary training can take many forms.

[Ford Prefect]

I hear ya. If I ever bring up professional trainers on here it's usually to make fun of the "stances strengthen your joints better than anything else" crowd. ;) I'm obviously a big believer in supplementary training and will not hesitate to admit that very little is known about strength-training carry over to athletics.

[IronFist]

Ford said:
I hear ya. If I ever bring up professional trainers on here it's usually to make fun of the "stances strengthen your joints better than anything else" crowd. I'm obviously a big believer in supplementary training and will not hesitate to admit that very little is known about strength-training carry over to athletics.

Dude, didn't you know that stances strengthen you tendons better than anything else? Martial artists move with their tendons and never use any muscle. Ever. It's all tendon strength. Horse stancing for 30 minutes = squatting 800lbs.
:rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes:
Duh.

[Ford Prefect]

I know. I'm just in denial. Back to practicing my scooping the moon from the sea floor.