Radhnoti
10-17-2005, 06:29 PM
Went to a great "private lesson" today, myself and a good friend made a one and a half hour or so trip to Knoxville to visit Mark Hatmaker. He's a MMA type who made his "focus"...and really his whole program meshes together very nicely...the Western arts of boxing and "old school" wrestling. My title for this thread comes from a comment he made about we two moving well toward being "old school hookers", or wrestlers. Drew you right in didn't it? :p
We were there from 8:15 AM or so until 1 PM, and I really picked up a lot. I have a LITTLE bit of ground experience from years ago, my friend had zero. In an hours time he was easily my equal on the ground (I used to just beat him like a drum), the rest of the day was just an exponential increase in knowledge.
We started out with around an hour and a half of boxing...it was demanding and tiring, but basically quite similar to the information he had in his book, "Savage Strikes". I was glad to get his feedback on how we were doing. For example,I wasn't bringing back my guard far enough after the second part of a jab, cross, lead hook, rear uppercut combo. A few rounds with the focus mits and one solid "correction" across the cheek drove that particular lesson home very well...thanks Mark. :D Numerous other corrections (placement of elbows/forearms, when to "juke and jive", etc.) made me glad we asked for the assessment, I feel a lot more solid with "boxing style" punching and combos now. He was very technical, but kept it interesting.
The next three and a half hours was...really a lot of fun. We hit the groundwork portion of his curriculum. He said this was really more complex (actually I believe his term was "scientific" than most things we'd been exposed to) and that did seem to be the case. He sat us down before EVERY drill and explained the unlying principles behind whatever we were doing, which was just fantastic. He gave us a real understanding of WHY we were doing what we were doing before we got started, then he worked with us and observed every motion, making sure we had it. Soon after he would set us up with different mostly freeform drills that would start at point A and end at B, encouraging us to take the principles he'd shown us and get creative. The depth of his knowledge and research was obvious, and I think he showed himself to be a dedicated scholar and fighter in his chosen field.
Needless to say, I hope to find the time and funds to train with him again. Meanwhile, I'm probably going to order another book or two from Paladin Press via Amazon. I'd encourage anyone interested to check out his stuff, or if you happen to live close by set up a class. For me, it was well worth the time, energy and funds.
We were there from 8:15 AM or so until 1 PM, and I really picked up a lot. I have a LITTLE bit of ground experience from years ago, my friend had zero. In an hours time he was easily my equal on the ground (I used to just beat him like a drum), the rest of the day was just an exponential increase in knowledge.
We started out with around an hour and a half of boxing...it was demanding and tiring, but basically quite similar to the information he had in his book, "Savage Strikes". I was glad to get his feedback on how we were doing. For example,I wasn't bringing back my guard far enough after the second part of a jab, cross, lead hook, rear uppercut combo. A few rounds with the focus mits and one solid "correction" across the cheek drove that particular lesson home very well...thanks Mark. :D Numerous other corrections (placement of elbows/forearms, when to "juke and jive", etc.) made me glad we asked for the assessment, I feel a lot more solid with "boxing style" punching and combos now. He was very technical, but kept it interesting.
The next three and a half hours was...really a lot of fun. We hit the groundwork portion of his curriculum. He said this was really more complex (actually I believe his term was "scientific" than most things we'd been exposed to) and that did seem to be the case. He sat us down before EVERY drill and explained the unlying principles behind whatever we were doing, which was just fantastic. He gave us a real understanding of WHY we were doing what we were doing before we got started, then he worked with us and observed every motion, making sure we had it. Soon after he would set us up with different mostly freeform drills that would start at point A and end at B, encouraging us to take the principles he'd shown us and get creative. The depth of his knowledge and research was obvious, and I think he showed himself to be a dedicated scholar and fighter in his chosen field.
Needless to say, I hope to find the time and funds to train with him again. Meanwhile, I'm probably going to order another book or two from Paladin Press via Amazon. I'd encourage anyone interested to check out his stuff, or if you happen to live close by set up a class. For me, it was well worth the time, energy and funds.