Softwork DVD

[FooFighter]

I have not been here for awhile and I hope everyone here had a wonderful new year and I personally wish all of you the best this new year. I wanted to share with you some of the benefits and experience I had with Coach Scott Sonnon and people from that community. I have been radically changed from Coach Sonnon's teaching and even more so after the softwork seminar. If you guys are interested, the softwork seminar is now available on DVD.

To keep you updated with what has happened to me over the last couple of months, I have very busy at work at New York Sports Clubs, been training for my Circular Strength Training certification in April, and have been working RMAX materials. I even started Combat Sambo last December because I wanted go deeper with my CST and RMAX materials. I am still surprised how much I improved as a martial artist using RMAX materials and hope I can be of some service to anyone here. Oh yeah, I am working on my CST website and will have video clips of me demostrating some of my skills such as 100 reps of a Clubbell combinational routine. Hopefully my website will up by April.

So how is your MA practice doing? We in the past have written so much about our attribute training but we rarely write about our competition or technical practice. Let change the focus on our MA skills and competition development instead of speaking about how strong we are or how much we can deadlift or bench. We all know that attritubes is necessary, but how much time do you do into technical or competition?

[Serpent]

Man, FooFighter just sounds like a cult member every time he posts now. Did Sonnon supply Kool Aid at the seminars?

[Toby]

Originally posted by FooFighter
So how is your MA practice doing? We in the past have written so much about our attribute training but we rarely write about our competition or technical practice. Let change the focus on our MA skills and competition development instead of speaking about how strong we are or how much we can deadlift or bench. We all know that attritubes is necessary, but how much time do you do into technical or competition? Every since I 1st came here this has been more a fitness and health forum than a MA-specific training methods forum. People tend to discuss skills more in the main forum or their respective art forum, although the signal-to-noise ratio is pretty low.

[FooFighter]

Serpent:

Nah, Coach Sonnon didnt serve any cool aid to me or anyone at the seminar to my knowledge. He isnt my master or my god. He is definitely a great coach and a friend. I am not ashame to honor and respect any teacher or person who has made an impact on my life. I have been fortunate to have many wonderful teachers and role models in my life. I didnt mean to appear dogmatic or zealous about Coach Sonnon and his methodology. I am sorry if you felt this from my past treads and certainly it was not my intention. I am here to simply communicate my recent changes and my current convictions about optimal human performance in the martial arts. I also want to add many people here used many methods from different famous strength conditioning gurus but very few have directly been coached by them and I have been fortunate that I didnt learn through the gurus' books or videos alone.

Toby,

I see your point. I wondered how many hours do people here spent in overall MA training.

[Toby]

Originally posted by FooFighter
I see your point. I wondered how many hours do people here spent in overall MA training. Not enough :). Never enough. But I've gotta balance family and study (and shortly work) with MA and fitness. FWIW I do something (fitness or MA) every day except Saturday (formal rest day, although I often end up doing something) and most days both morning and night. It's never enough though.

[Vash]

Appx 176 min lifting/week

Appx 210 min technique

Not counting MA classes.

[FooFighter]

Vash,

3.4 hours in attritube training and 3.4 hours of technical training very good, brother. May I ask what is your MA? How do you train for your techniques? I look forward in reading your insight.

[Ford Prefect]

So deadlifts and bench presses have no carry over to athletic performance? Good to know.

[Vash]

Originally posted by FooFighter
Vash,

3.4 hours in attritube training and 3.4 hours of technical training very good, brother. May I ask what is your MA? How do you train for your techniques? I look forward in reading your insight.

I study Isshinryu Karate. My main technical training vehical right now is solo forms (kata) practice, as my schedule has been keeping me from working with a partner. I also work technical drills, footwork drills, and bagwork. I've found that, through focusing on my forms, I've been able to carry over recognizable karate technique into actual sparring.

+ Deadlifts roxors. bench suxors, only because it hurts my shoulders. For just about everyone though, it seems to be great.

[FooFighter]

Ford Prefect, Who wrote that deadlifts and bench presses have no carry over to athletic performance?

[Ford Prefect]

Let change the focus on our MA skills and competition development instead of speaking about how strong we are or how much we can deadlift or bench.

In my mind, all the focus on various aspects of strength training, energy system work, flexability, etc is talking about competition development and enhancement of performance of martial art technique. Anything beyond general preparation for general tasks should be brought to the corresponding forum.

[FooFighter]

Ford,

I never wrote that that deadlifts and bench presses have no carry over to athletic performance. I would agree with you that "various aspects of strength training, energy system work, flexability, etc is talking about competition development and enhancement of performance of martial art technique," but this assumes that people here are Martial artists, doing MA techniques, or MA competitions.

For example, in the past, I have met personal trainers or fitness buffs who claimed to be "martial artists". When I ask them to tell me their MA background, their workouts, and current MA training, I was surprised by their answer. 90% attritube training (whether or not it was martial specific is debatable), 10% or less of specific
MA training or MA competition. When I objected to their definition of a martial artist or martial arts training, they said what you wrote or similar. "As long I training in developing my strength or whatever, I'm still practicing my martial tao." Give me a break. It is like saying as long as I jump rope, run, and etc without punching, I am a boxer. In my mind, a boxer is someone who trains like a boxer, someone who has fought under real boxing conditions, and someone who has been coached by an expert. A boxer is never a bodybuilder, powerlifter, or fitness buff pretending to be a boxer. I know not all martial artists are fighters and some are attracted to other aspects but there is at least some sort of martial training, right?

All I am asking now is what are people doing besides Benching, Deadlifting; etc here? Not that benching, deadlifting, etc are nonfunctional training for the "practicing" martial artists. I would like to know how people balance their MA training from their strength conditioning?

[fa_jing]

hey - I don't think I ever "was" a Martial Artist, even when it was my main form of physical cultivation. I'm just a regular human being with natural defenses and I spent some time developing them. Life is busy and I can't always give the same focus to all my endeavors. Lately, in a time/energy crunch, I've just been focusing on upping my 1RMs in a number of compound lifts. I've gotten away from stretching even, doing just enough to avoid injury. I like to do the 1st form of Wing Chun or parts of it sometimes, for the "Qi gong/yoga" benefit. Sometimes I do TKD stretch kicks. S'bout it.

[Ford Prefect]

So you regularly visit a large number of gyms to talk to their trainers or meet many different "fitness buffs" in real life where not only does it come up in regular conversation that they are into fitness but it also comes up that they are into martial arts? Sounds more anectdotal than an actual true story.

Anyhoo... Anything other than general preparation as in attribute devlopment and basic kicking, punching, and footwork will be specific to a system. That's what I was saying. You go into an MA convention and ask the best way to beat somebody, and you'll get a 1,000 differents. Hence my point of only talking generalities on this forum to avoid such clutter and allow people seeking answers from specific styles to visit those forums for those activity-specific training methods.

Also in the real world, people have lives. They have jobs, they have families, and they have responsibilities. These things generally don't coincide with the schedule of the local martial arts studio. Not everybody has the space to practice forms/techniques or hang a heavy bag at home, so the only training they can do is when they get out of the house. Since the gym is always open, most people will spend more time their due to the flexability. I think to judge these people based on how much specific training they do is not only narrow-minded, but it's extremely shallow as well. Did you bother finding out the circumstances behind their training breakdown before having such a negative opinion of them?

People will always talk crap. Some guys with say their Navy SEALS. Some guys will say they are important corporate excutives. Yes, some people will even say they are boxers and fighters. Anybody in their right mind would realize this for what it is: insecure people trying to impress and intimidate and NOT people seriously thinking they are MA'ists. You think it's any coincidence that people that lie like this also have extreme dedication to trying to get their body to look better than the other guy or to be stronger than the other guy? I think every MA'ist has met people who say they do MA, but when pressed it's obvious they are BS'ing. To equate them with people seriously saying they practice martial arts is bit unrealistic.

If the question was an honest question, then it's all good. It seemed like a loaded question though and from your response you have already pre-ordained "right" and "wrong" answers. If I have it wrong, then I appologize.

[FooFighter]

Ford,

My question was honest and there was no mal intention behind it. I thought you placed words in my mouth which wasnt true and I had to clear it up.

I was just curious how people here balance their MA with their strength conditioning. I envy those who can balance their hectic nonMA lives with their MA practicel. I wish I could do it all. <wink> Personally, I have found it harder and harder to fit in my MA practice but I do my best. Maybe someone here can help me or motivate me with their experience? Moreover, it would be nice to read more success stories about martial abilities or how their attritube training enhanced their martial abilities or how they made a huge leap in their understanding of MA through training, then reading about how some people have increased so and so reps or weight. I am not "hating" on people's personal accomplishments with certain strength conditioning methodologies, but I would like to read how or if their attritube trainging has made a positive or negative impact on their MA?

I know people have hectic lives and yes I can be a human being and understand why people cant fit MA or even exercise into their daily lives. Remember I am in a business where the general masses in health clubs have a hard enough time to find an hour in a day to do their average joe or jane workouts. I think I have shown much compassion and understanding to those who came to me for help, but I aint no BSers and I have no patience for BSers.

[Ford Prefect]

Well a couple life lessons I've learned:

1) People will always BS. No if's and's or but's. They like people who BS with them and despise people who call their BS. Personally I'd rather not burn bridges or cause somebody to feel bad about themselves. You may need their help in the future.

2) The masses want to believe what "everybody knows". There are upper and lower abs, bodybuilders are the best people to ask for fitness advice, and high reps will cut you up. You challenge this knowledge and many people will either ignore you, laugh at the thought of bodybuilder-x's article being wrong but little old you being right, or anything else. Very few people actually want to know. They just want some positive reinforcement and praise. I've found you need to develop a relationship before you turn the world on its head.

3) Attribute development only goes so far in the grand scheme of things. We are all born with dispositions to activities. All we can do is take our natural abilities and attributes, increase them through hard training, and then maintain those attributes while training specific drills for the sport in question. After a certain point, shaving .1 seconds of your shuttle or 40, adding 5 lbs to your bench, being able to swing a heavier club, etc really will have little impact on your athletic perfomance. There comes a point where the time spent improving your profieciency in a certain task rather than just maintaining it, would be better spent specifically in your sport. The Law of Diminishing Returns...

In reality, most people don't have the luxury of dictating the ratio of training time in the gym to training time on the mat/in the field. It bites, but this will cause MA progress to stagnate or slow. It's just the way things are. At best, constantly push yourself to develop the physical and mental toughness where you can break through mental barriers. This would have the most cross-over to MA training.

Currently, I rarely practice MA. It's not that I'm too busy, it's just that I've found other things that I think are more enjoyable. The mental toughness I've gained from training for and enjoying these activities combined with the perspective I've gained on my martial performance after being away from it for so long has actually made me better than I was when I was training 4-6x week. I don't have the same punching power for sure, but I am a lot more fluid with my movements, confident in my ability to beat the other guy, and less hindered mentally. Some of the guys I drop by and train with now are convinced I'm regularly training some place else. Dunno if that's motivational.

[IronFist]

Originally posted by Ford Prefect
Well a couple life lessons I've learned:
2) The masses want to believe what "everybody knows". There are upper and lower abs, bodybuilders are the best people to ask for fitness advice, and high reps will cut you up. You challenge this knowledge and many people will either ignore you, laugh at the thought of bodybuilder-x's article being wrong but little old you being right, or anything else. Very few people actually want to know. They just want some positive reinforcement and praise. I've found you need to develop a relationship before you turn the world on its head.


Well said.

[FooFighter]

FordPerfect,

Thank you for your insight and honest comments. I really apprenicate it and yes it has motivated me. Once again, you have given me something to think about. I especially liked what you wrote, "I've found you need to develop a relationship before you turn the world on its head." This is an excellent point and something I have forgotten but knew was true inside my heart. Speaking from my own wing chun background with different sifus, I understand why they failed to change hearts or keep sincere students or why they have dismissed so called rotten eggs. It is because they have failed to establish a relationship before turning the world on their heads. One of my personal mission statements will be, as a CST Coach, is to establish a relationship most definitely!!!

Thank You.