Words of Encouragement
“Dude, remember that I beat you now. Because in 3 months I won’t be able to anymore.”
That’s the best thing I’ve ever heard after getting my ass handed to me. I was sparring with someone, and he told me this right after the round ended. I’m not some sort of MMA prodigy or even close. I have strength and size on the guy, but cannot leverage it properly. He also sees me training regularly, so he knows it’s just a matter of time.
I’d like to say that this didn’t really affect me, that I would have trained exactly as hard if he told me I’d never win, or if he said nothing at all. That validation is irrelevant. But that would be a lie. I started taking more classes, and qualifying to take new ones. Starting next week, my schedule will look like this:
2-3 sessions Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu
2-3 Muay Thai
2 MMA
2 Wrestling
3 Strength training
A big part of it is rebound from not playing sports at all in youth and adolescence. No Little League, no high school football. I started weight training when I was like 20, but had nothing to apply it to except itself. Now that I have an athletic focus, I’m probably being a little obsessive because I want to see what I can do with it. What my limits are, where my body breaks down.
So in 3 months, I may still throw like a girl, but I’ll be able to kick you pretty hard if you tell me so.
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
No Ross/Cross-training?
Ross’s stuff is great, but I decided to go for pure strength training (think Rippetoe/Starr) to rebuild the base I used to have. Or at least maintain what I have now.
What do you do for recovery?
My own schedule runs 6 days a week. 1 to 2 technical sessions a day and 2 days of Ross and 3 of Weight. Saturday I only have technical work and Sundays are free. It takes a toll. Nice Muay Thai bruise
I don’t do anything special for recovery, mostly just foam rolling and contrast showers, sauna/pool if I have time. Mobility exercises too, to hopefully solve a hip issue I’m having.
I studied martial arts for eight years, until that, school, and other extracurricular activities intended to help me get into college became too much for me to balance. I was young, and was never at the level nor had the independence to so seriously supplement my training with additional work-outs… despite that, however, reading your enthusiasm for this sport brings back so many memories of the hours and hours I spent in my dojo.
Any sort of martial arts, be it traditional Okinawan Kenpo or MMA, has such a profound influence on one’s attitude and character development. I hope you are staying as committed now as you were when you wrote this post… if your experience is anything like mine was, this could be one of the best things that will ever happen to you.
Your life sounds just like mine. No team sports in high school. Didn’t start lifting til my 20’s after getting in a car accident but found theres no
point in lifting aside from aesthetics and reaching your strength potential so started muay thai/boxing and gave up lifting to focus on sharpening technique.
After two years just had my first pro-am muay thai bout and realize the summit is a lot farther then most people whove never done competitive fighting will ever even dream. Only difference between them and us is the will and heart to get there.
Keep with it. Something I constantly tell myself when I think i’ve reached my limit. There’s always more you can do if you can still stand up on your own two feet and realize a month ago i could barely pull off some of the stuff i’m doing now
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