Age?

44-year old Jörg Lothmann proves age ain't nuthin but a number at his MMA debut.

Get the kids involved

I know this is a touchy subject for some but for me this is easy. Find a good martial arts school or MMA gym and put your kids in it. I can totally attribute my demeanor and lessons in discipline to taking Taekwondo when I was a kid. Cities across this country are cutting funding for after school programs leaving kids to find something to do with their idle hands. There has been a rise in crimes committed by kids and teens as well as a rise in gang memberships. Bullying has become an epidemic so serious that teenagers are committing suicide to cope with the problem. Childhood obesity is out of control in this country. The uneducated might believe that putting kids in martial arts promotes violence but in fact it does just the opposite. Martial arts promotes principles of discipline, respect, hard work, and health. In fact, what i've come to learn is that the more you learn how to fight the less you actually want to fight. Not only that but after a while you begin to exude confidence that can be seen in your posture, heard in your voice and noticed even in your walk. Usually, bullies will stay away from the confident type and if that doesn't work at least they will know how to protect themselves.
Martial arts can be a single parent's best friend. You can almost guarantee that your child will be safe at the local MMA gym. At the very least kids will be safer than they are out in the streets hanging with their buddies after school. In our world of fast food, video games and extreme excess martial arts are a great way to keep kids active and keep the fat off. The lessons learned will carry throughout the lives of these kids all the way to adulthood. So don't hesitate to shop around for a good martial arts or MMA gym and let the good times roll. You might actually get some peace and quiet at home as well.

Fight Prep: Pads with Jex Fontaine

I'm working hard to make corrections and have been blessed enough to work with another world class fighter(shout out to Sarah Z.). Hope you enjoy!

Why I bow and why you don't have to.

Ok so I don't expect you to bow to me if you are not a martial artist but I will always give a slight bow even if I am just meeting you. Its something that i've been doing since Taekwondo in my childhood years. In my mind its a sign of respect and humility. I am a gentle hearted warrior and I choose to offer myself first as a human being with compassion and respect. There have been few times i've not offered a bow upon greeting and usually those aren't good times. I also have the belief that anyone that trains like a warrior should receive due respect before and after competition. Many of the new breed of fighters especially those coming into MMA have a background in boxing or maybe wrestling, they traditionally don't bow so I don't expect them to.
In Zen Buddhism the practitioners bow 1080 times throughout a day. Though it is commonly used in Asia bowing isn't restricted to Asian countries. Bowing has traditionally been a part of European culture as a symbol of respect or gratitude. In the Christian, Jewish, Hindu, and Islamic religions bowing is a commonly used show of acknowledgment of faith. I don't expect everyone to bow but if you think it's ridiculous that others do it or have the nerve to say ignorant things like "we're not in China", look around you as there may be more people showing you respect than you're showing them. Peace and Blessings all(yes i'm bowing right now).

Published with Blogger-droid v1.7.4

What do you do with the monster?

So after the eight weeks of training hard grueling hours and the hard fought victory what do you do with the monster you created? Lets get some real understanding about fighting, if you didn't create a monster while training then you probably didn't train hard enough. You have to touch something primal to even want to compete in fighting another person. There is definitely something different about a person after they finish training camp and I do believe whatever is built up inside a fighter is hard to let go of even after the fight is done. During that eight week training camp fighters deprive themselves of their normal social activity, commonly eaten foods, often training away from home, and even sex. The combination of these things adds to the aggressive nature of the fighter, over time building to a boil to be unleashed on fight night.
What happens when the fight is over? There are often reports of over the years of fighters getting in to fights on the street, in their own social circles as well as with their spouse. This isn't relegated to fighting, this problem crosses sports boundaries into professional football, basketball, hockey, and I imagine a few rugby players have had some bad run ins as well. Once you gear up for the competition how do you bring yourself back down to a normal level? Some athletes do other sports, i.e. Nick Diaz competes in triathlons. I think the best way to deal with the beast you created is to refocus the energy into something else. Find another sport, a hobby, burn some of that energy doing some physically draining activities like crossfit, climbing , or even rowing. After the combat is done and you still feel that energy simmering inside, do something with it even if that means taking a long vacation in which you do nothing. Don't allow it to get the best of you.

Where's your head at?

You often hear the phrase in most sports that "this game is 90% mental". Doesn't really matter what sport you throw in there most will agree that without great mental focus and concentration it's almost impossible to compete at a high level in any sport. Very few people are so extraordinary that they just have this built in, most of us have to learn different techniques and really work on keeping our concentration sharp. I myself have on occasion used mantras, not sure why I did but I would look in the mirror and repeat the same thing over and over again. I stared at myself said over and over again that I was going to knock out my opponent before I did it. I believed it after I said it so many times I never thought about losing. Now mantras aren't for everybody, again still not sure why I use them but they work for me so i'm not stopping.
Maybe for you it's meditation. Sitting legs crossed concentrating only on your breathing and allowing the thoughts to come and go. I feel like this is a great way to center yourself and I know of a lot of successful fighters that meditate daily. It's also a good way to learn to control emotions which can get away from even the best fighter during combat.Prior to fights you can always see fighters sitting quietly listening to music. Some are pumping themselves up and others are calming themselves down but all are trying to find the best place in their head for the upcoming battle.
Some seek out a sports psychologist to help weave through the muck when training for a fight or even after a loss to help recover mentally and emotionally. Sometimes a set of unbiased ears to listen to thoughts about an upcoming event or past one can shed new light on those thoughts and keep you a little more centered.
Getting centered is very important. You'll often hear me tell people i'm training to, "find it...find it" especially in between rounds where its necessary to slow down your breathing and heart rate in order to refocus your brain and make adjustments for the next round. You must find what keeps you grounded because when you lose control you lose technique, power, balance, you start to leave yourself open to take unnecessary punishment and an almost positively a loss on your record.
Its the same in life as it is in combat, keep a cool head because "cool heads prevail"!

"The Spider"