Competition Motivation

The Carlson Gracie guys are organising a UK Masters & Seniors Tournament which I think is a great idea and one that I would like to support if I remain relatively injury free, healthy and more importantly whether I can get motivated.

My problem now seems to be with my motivation, why is it so hard to get motivated to compete these days. Various factors make up the competitive experience so I’ve analysed each one to see where the problem may lie.

Dieting for a tourney can be tough if you are unrealistic in your weight goal, I am naturally around 73kg so I could compete comfortably in the lightweight without any weight management and is only a small step down to featherweight so that is not a problem. An occasional diet is pretty cool anyway for shedding those pounds that creep on.

Extra cardio or conditioning for the tournament? No, the best training for a competitive match is to have as many competitive matches that you can in your gym in my opinion. Extra training means extra Judo and extra Jiu Jitsu which is a pleasure (usually) not a chore.

What about resources, time and money? Well I am working full time again now but with a little effort and some scheduling I can get 3 or 4 X Jiu Jitsu and 1 X weight training session per week which is sufficient for me, gone are the days when I could train every day.

Is cost a factor? A lot of people cite cost as being one of the reasons why they don’t compete and in some cases it’s true but in other cases I feel it is just another excuse. Especially the guys that complain that £30 is a lot of money to enter a tourney but would spend at least double this on a night out! It’s all about priorities.

Is it nerves? I doubt it, if I get to feel nervous at all which I don’t usually do then I remind myself that I am here by choice, that this is my hobby and is no different to having a game of squash or football and the result has no real world consequences, it’s not like I will lose then die!

Maybe the fear of losing? Losing holds no fear for me at all and I really can’t understand how people can be afraid of losing unless you define yourself as a person by how many matches you have won or what belt you are or some other such nonsense. You have to accept that in a sporting contest there is a 50/50 chance you will lose but they are the same odds of you winning too. When you accept this there is no pressure.

Add into the mix that there are some really good brown belts my weight in the UK, guys that have competed and won all over, losing to one of those would be no disgrace anyway.

Haueter always says that when you are preparing for a competition or a match, train as if it is the most important thing ever and then on the day detach yourself from the result. Train your ass off, do your best and move on. If you win, cool but if not, no big deal.

My friend Leo Kirby, 2 X Pan Ams champ, NAGA gi & no gi champ, books a restaurant for the night of the tourney and whether he wins or loses (although he hasn’t lost for years) he follows the same ritual, go out and celebrate. You have done the hard part now reward yourself.

There is also the argument “if you are doing what you truly love to do, have you ever lost?”

Have I lost the competitive drive? This could be a part of it but I still love to go to new places and competitively roll with new faces, it keeps everything fresh. I have another trip booked that will take me into a completely new environment where I haven’t trained before and really relish the challenge of taking on all the new sparring partners.

So could it be the competition environment itself? This could also be a reason; the long days sure are a pain in the ass. If you have waited a long time to compete can sap your enthusiasm a little especially if you have other guys to coach and sort out too but I guess this is all part of the process and needs to be experienced.

So what the hell is it? Writing this I have thought of all the competitions I have been to and what the problem of my lack of motivation may be and I may have the answer. Maybe it is my longevity in competitive combat sports, I have trained for a little over 20 years and began competing within 6 months of starting my first style.

I started fairly late (22 years old) in the martial arts world and am not naturally a fighter so have had to push myself to compete every step of the way. I set myself a goal of having 50 matches in a variety of styles that gave me the necessary experience to pass on to my students and to provide a little inspiration showing that if I can do, they can do it.

For me, competing was always about beating myself. If I can deal with the voice inside my head telling me that I am going to lose or be embarrassed in front of everyone and still get onto the mats then I have won. I remember John Machado saying that “he doesn’t mind losing to someone else but he would never lose to himself”

Well, the target of 50 came and went so I slowed down with the competitions (injuries helped too) and in retrospect, which was probably the beginning of the end. I guess 20 years of preparing for and competing would test anyone’s motivation.

Saying this, I still hope to see you at the UK Masters And Seniors.

Why Aren’t You A Black Belt?

>How many times have I been asked this question? It all started with “why aren’t you a purple belt?” and went from there.

I’ll explain why not....................

1998 brought me into contact with my coach Chris Haueter and trained with him whenever possible when after a couple of years, my wife and I were both awarded our blue belts (Jan 2001 I think). With Chris’s blessing we opened a class where I took the role of coach whilst Helen mainly just trained, this making the big difference as I was to find out later.

Built up a great club and hooked up with SBG Pres Matt Thornton which worked out great because not only being a very knowledgeable and cool guy, was also a student of Haueter’s so we were on the same page regarding training so to speak. After a few visits Matt promoted some of our guys which became the norm, eventually 3 of them being promoted to purple belt whilst I was still a blue, these being Pete Guest, Varqa and Helen, all of them very well deserved purple belts in my opinion.

I then started to have discussions and telephone conversations with various people from outside my gym, that went something like this:

Person: I hear (Pete, Varqa, Helen) got purple belt

Me: Yes they did

Person: Are you a purple belt

Me: No I’m blue

Person: How does that work then?

Me: How does what work?

Person: With them being higher grades than you, who’s going to take the classes?

Me: I will continue to teach class, I taught these guys so I am maybe doing a good job.

Person: It just might look a bit funny if you are taking class and there are higher grades than you training.

Me: I doubt anyone will care.

Fast forward to 2008 and more than a few people have asked “are you a black belt” and when I answer they follow up with “how come Helen is then”

My stock answer is that she is better than I am. Whilst I have always done the gym coach route she has always trained hard and sparred with everyone. That is why she is better than I (and I am a better coach) because that is what we have mainly done over the years respectively. Would I trade places? Not on your life, the amount of satisfaction I have had from coaching is far better than achieving any belt.

One time in the USA at the Machado Academy Helen rolled for an hour straight with 2 outstanding female black belts in Cindy Omatsu and Felicia Oh, only getting caught once in an hour. Could I do that?

She also had an awesome sparring match with Megumi Fuji at our gym where neither lady subbed the other.

On top of that she is 50kg and will train with anyone, the closest guy in weight at our gym is still 68/70kg which is a massive +40% body weight difference. Imagine if everyone in the gym was way stronger than you and everyone outweighed you by at least 40% of your bodyweight, how would you do every session.

She exemplifies Jiu Jitsu, the smaller guy beating the bigger guy and that is why Helen is a black belt!!

As for me...................the short answer is I’m just not ready yet.

The Champions IV - Return Of The Chicken Legs.............

The ups and downs of MMA were in full force for me on Saturday, where to begin?

When guys from our gym want to compete, whether it is MMA, sub grappling or Jiu Jitsu, I have 3 criteria.

1. Make sure you turn up, if you say you are going to do it, then do it, no excuses.
   
2. Make weight, there is no excuse for not making weight.
   
3. Do the best you can and try to enjoy and learn from your experiences.
   

So Jonny Smith, Andy Krlic and Andy Lanes all turn up as they say they would so off to Bradford we go. We arrive in good spirits, see some old faces when we arrive at the venue then go to weigh in.

All 3 guys make weight easily so that is 2 out of 3 on my list satisfied although I am always on edge until I know that our opponents have arrived. My edginess was not necessary as all the opponents turned up and made weight. I am now a happy man knowing that as soon as we get through the rules meeting we will be going out to eat.

Rules meeting and pre-fight interviews out of the way we head off to the Asda to stock up on food. The fighters, who were all starving by this point picked various foods to gorge (I may have been included in the gorging I don't remember now) then back to the hotel.

As we are sat eating I noticed Andy Krlic devouring exceedingly pink chicken, I commented how a good vet could have got the chicken back on its feet but he was hungry so ate it anyway. I put that to the back of my mind and continued getting some down time before the medicals.

Then it started...........Andy felt bad and began his toilet inspired shuttle runs, each time feeling worse and worse.

Went to the medicals with Andy still feeling bad, Jonny went first everything ok, resting pulse 60. Andy Lanes next, everything ok, resting pulse 72 (the guys are nervous so the pulse will be up a little) Andy Krlic gets on the stool, pulse 107!! He asks what the resting pulse rate will be and they replied that it was his resting pulse rate. Normally having a resting pulse rate of low 50s, something seems wrong.

Then the nausea starts. Damn, this guy is due to fight in the 2nd match and I'm doubting that he will live that long.

So the runner comes up for us and we are on our way down to the ring with Jonny, I see Andy attempting a warm up with Ben but clearly he was not up to it.

Jonny climbs into the ring and calmly waits for his opponent Daniel Bowes from Team Akurei to make his way down and join him in the ring. We don't know anything about Daniel so the game plan was to work around Jonny's strengths and take the fight to him. Jonny had been training some big pick ups so was looking for an early slam to get the crowd going. The fight started with both guys landing some shots, Jonny moved into clinch eating an uppercut on the way in but picked his opponent up, got the slam that he wanted and started to work his ground game. Both guys ended up back on their feet where Daniel started to shoot that Jonny sprawled out of and reversed it into another big slam. This time working knees on the ground to soften up the opponent before transitioning to mount. Jonny worked patiently towards Rickson position where he transitioned into taking the back and sunk in a rear naked choke for the win.

Great fight to start things off, both young guys deserve a lot of credit.

I had momentarily forgotten about Andy but true to his word he wanted to fulfil #1 by doing what he said he was going to do, that was he came to fight. Having watched his opponent, James Anderson, against Caged Steel fighter Phil Hoban we had devised a pretty solid game plan that I was convinced would give us the 'W' only I hadn't counted on Andy being sick. All through the first round he was implementing his game plan just with no power, he was going through the moves but unable to truly unload even when he caught James in his favourite achilles lock position he had no strength to finalise and ended up with one of those both-going-for-footlock moments. End of round one, Andy with a 10-9.

As he came back to the corner he was really in no state to continue and we should have thrown in the towel but he had come to fight. As round 2 wore on Andy got worse and James got the better of things landing some shots and taking it to the ground, at one stage James had a point taken off so by my reckoning if Andy could hold on to the end of the round he would win by j/d. Andy was now mounted and was desperatelt trying to defend and with a final burst of energy attempted to escape but fell right into a guillotine with only 30 seconds remaining and had to submit.

I mean no disrespect to James or his team (who I am friends with) but that wasn't the real Andy who was in the ring that night and I, for one, would like to see a re-match.

Our last fighter for the evening would be Andy Lanes who after only 6 months of training was to take on the tough Peter Rejdovjan. Based on Peter's last fight against Billy Glossop we thought he was going to come out like a steam train but came out a little cautious instead. After a feeling out process Andy Lanes threw the first combination that Peter counted with a thudding leg kick. Using that as the trigger point Andy Lanes stepped in for a single leg to try take the fight to the floor. Peter managed to catch Andy Lanes in a guillotine but he kept trying to take the guy down. Remembering the drills we had been doing for the past month, as Peter went to sit back into guard, Andy tried to block off the legs and pass on the way down. He almost had it but didn't complete the pass as Peter readjusted his grip and sunk the guillotine tight leaving Andy Lanes no option but to tap. Although disappointed with his first outing, he will be back. Congrats to Peter he took the chance very well.

In conclusion, a real rollercoaster day, one guy won in the first round, one guy lost in the first round and one guy lost in the Asda...............

My youtube channel

http://www.youtube.com/user/DarrenCurrie

Osteophytes

After suffering with my knee (as well as just about everything else) over the years, my faith that I would just heal naturally finally waned and I finally took the plunge and went to get it looked at.

I had a problem with a very sore spot on the front of the knee that felt like an electric shock every time I knelt on it which, as you know in Jiu Jitsu, is very common.

One such time I tried to alleviate the pain by rolling the knee sideways and injured inside the knee too. Turns out to be a Grade II MCL tear with some underlying bursitis which is going to keep me out of training for a while.

The main problem though is the osteophyte or bone spur. The physio told me that the injury I sustained initially is very common amongst young athletes, I can only assume that he thinks I am young and athletic, he is a very shrewd guy.

Or possibly meant that I sustained it when I was young and was forced to play rugby at school, I distinctly remember being kicked on the front of the knee that caused some trauma and eventually has lead me to where I am now.

I had fully intended to compete at the Europeans in Portugal this past weekend and have missed the opportunity because of the injury; I only hope that I can get in a few competitive matches this year before something else stops my fun.

Do yourself a favour, the next time you are injured get it treated properly.

The Helicopter Pass

Synergy and the anatomy of a game plan

“Synergy - The potential ability for individuals to be more successful working together than on their own”

Saturday 22nd November 2008 saw the culmination of months of hard work in the form of Andy Krlic’s foray into the world of MMA @ The Champions III show in Bradford.

Knowing he would be facing unbeaten fighter Paul Durber from Caged Steel, a guy who can hit hard as witnessed by his KO victory in his first outing then followed with a submission victory in his last fight after using his striking to good avail, Andy’s match perfectly demonstrated good preparation, the execution of a good game plan, good team work and a whole lot of heart.

It all started months ago with the match being agreed upon (which is weird in itself as Paul is a great guy and we have a good relationship with Caged Steel, me and Neil go waaaaaaaaaay back)

Paul was going to be a good test for Andy as Paul is bigger, stronger and can bang so we need to start right at the beginning and make sure everything is in place to give Andy the best chance of winning possible.

We assembled a good team to help Andy through all ranges, Andy sought out a good boxing coach to work his hands, had personal trainer Gaz Vause build a sick conditioning regime, whilst Pete Hill, Ben Mallows, Rob Lawlor and I took care of the sparring, clinch and ground.

Assessing Paul’s attributes and likely game plan we started working the counter game plan to help put us where we needed to be, we felt this would be the clinch game. Right from day 1, everything was geared around clinch as I feel that the key to MMA is clinch range. If you are mainly a striker you need clinch and takedown defence to keep you on your feet, if you are mainly a grappler you need clinch to take the fight to ground. A simple strategy that is so often overlooked in my opinion.

I anticipated that Paul’s team would be telling him to watch out for Andy to shoot, break the clinch and take the fight to his comfort zone, his striking, so we worked on an upper body clinch game where Andy could get the takedown inside rather than shooting from the outside.

Also paying close attention to the very real possibility of a guillotine, Paul has long limbs and a height advantage so if Andy is not careful he could get caught. The guillotine defence and takedowns from the guillotine were drilled until they no longer represented a threat, if one came we would use it to our advantage.

So as you know, then the hours and hours of drilling began, implementing our A game and working a few “what if” scenarios along the way. The work was really paying off as Andy was feeling more and more comfortable all the time.

Rob helped develop Andy’s ‘box to clinch’ game, really conceptualising it even putting it down in writing so Andy had it with him all the time, to constantly read and get into his psyche until it was second nature.

Taking a little time away from our gym he decided to go to the Quannum Training Camp weekend to get a little extra help from the Butlins, who are quality MMA coaches in their own right. Andy came back with a few more tricks in his bag of boxing to clinch; anything that helps is always gratefully accepted.

Fast forward to fight day, Andy made weight easily (there’s a story behind that too, maybe another time) then got some down time to focus on the task ahead.

Onto the worst bit of any competition, the waiting and the anticipation. So we are in the dressing room, waiting, watching other guys go down to the fight area and come back up either elated or dejected, just waiting for our turn. Spenna wraps Andy’s hands real well, we warm up, Andy gets a massage then a last minute talk, keep him calm, keep him focussed and don’t expend any unnecessary energy now. I try to convince Ben to carry Andy down to the ring but …………..

Some guys like to get really pumped up, really aggressive but I feel that can be counter productive, I would much rather see our fighter calm and collected but each to their own.

Finally the runner is here and we are on next.

We get to the entrance and wait for our music, it didn’t come, damn they are playing the wrong song. Oh well, lets get in and get it over with, we didn’t come for the music. We get into the ring first and wait for the opponent, an eternity later the crowd roars and Paul is making his way to the ring, now it’s very real.

The crowd are singing and chanting for the “Durbanator”, I have to remind Andy of Leo’s Law number 7 “Keep out the white noise” Don’t listen to how popular he is, how many supporters he has, just let it go. Andy remains calm.

Paul and his team face us from the other side of the ring, surreal to see guys that I sometimes train with and always friends with looking back across. Paul looks huge, way bigger and stronger than Andy. I hope the game plan is good enough!!

After a few last words of encouragement and reminding Andy of plan A, hands up, chin down, he meets Paul in the middle of the ring and it’s on.

A tentative start as both guys throw out some jabs then the inevitable clinch happens, Andy fighting to stay close and Paul trying to make some distance to strike with both guys having some success in a back and forth battle. Paul lands a couple of hard shots, Andy replies with a couple of his own as he works back to upper body clinch.

The round was getting into the later stages when Paul, using his height advantage, reached around Andy’s neck to take a guillotine as they went to ground. Andy pulled his head free, passed guard and took mount. From there he threw down some shots, keeping his position despite my best efforts screaming at Andy to take an arm as there was only 20 seconds left to go but he didn’t hear me over the crowd which was deafening. End of round 1.

Close round, too close from my point of view, depending on the judge, it could go either way. We need to stamp some authority on round 2.

Round 2 starts off as round 1 did, Paul throws some shots, a nice leg kick, then goes straight to clinch again. Both guys now start to turn on the pressure, Paul, again with the height advantage, reached around for the guillotine as they went to ground. For the second time, Andy pulled his head free, passed guard and took mount. This time he was close enough to hear me shouting for the Americana which he took, getting the submission win half way through the second round.

A really good match and, as I thought, was a real test for Andy. He was understandably concerned about taking a shot from the MMA gloves but he passed the test admirably because Paul does hit hard and landed some clean shots.

Down to the bar for Andy to get a celebratory Coke (although other cola beverages are available) then out to watch the final couple of matches, finally being able to relax a little and enjoy the rest of the evening, especially Helen pointing out to a guy that just got subbed that he really isn’t a good grappler despite what he thought and Pete Hill..….well, Pete is just Pete and is really funny.

In conclusion, this game is hard and you should only enter into a match if you seriously want to test yourself, be prepared to make sacrifices, all the bases have to be covered, your weight management has to be disciplined and your all round game has to be tight. Get yourself a good team, structure a good plan and stick to it. Oh, and be prepared to get hit. Hard.

The key to the success, in my opinion, is the psychology that we used every step of the way. It’s true to say that the mental aspect of a fight is the most important to master but that would take a whole other article to explain.


As a footnote, I would just like to add that I really like Paul, he is an ‘older’ guy willing to fight whoever in the ring or cage, just doing what he wants to do and for that we salute you. So many people make excuses about how they would do it if only [insert your favourite excuse] but he is in there and win lose or draw, you can bet he will be in there for as long as he possibly can.

Combat Base Group Training Day - details

18th January 2009 at Caged Steel

Starts at 12:00pm, finishes round 4:00pm

Only £5.00 entry fee minimum (see below)


This is the first in what will hopefully be a regular session to get everyone in our group training together, whether you want to train gi, no gi, mma, wrestling, striking or whatever.

Whether you want to train on the mats, in the ring or in the cage there will be someone who will train with you without any ego or hidden agenda, it will be a friendly environment because it is only open to our group so be sensible, be a good training partner and train hard.

There will be a 20 minute workshop in every hour segment so:

12:00 to 1:00 will be workshop 1 plus free training & sparring
1:00 to 2:00 will be workshop 2 plus free training & sparring
2:00 to 3:00 will be workshop 3 plus free training & sparring
3:00 to 4:00 will be workshop 4 plus free training & sparring

The workshop coaches and material are still to be confirmed but I assure you that there will be someone who you have never trained with before teaching in a way that may be a little different to what you are used to, which is of benefit to everyone, it’s always great to have a different perspective on things.


Now the serious stuff, we have decided that some of the entry fee for the day will be donated to either a young girl who goes to the school where Andy K is a teacher (honest, he is a teacher) who was recently diagnosed with leukaemia and who’s family are having a hard time or we will make a donation to kids cancer charity Candlelighters who I have done fund raising for before and are a very worthwhile charity.

We are only asking for £5 entry fee to train for 4 hours so if you wish to donate a little more we will be having a collection on the day too. To raise more money we may have an auction or a raffle or something, any ideas?

We are due to start at 12:00pm and finish at 4:00pm but you don’t have to stay for the entire session, just turn up when you want, stay as long as you want then leave when you want, as long as you come through to support us that is all that matters.

We have some really talented people in our group, some great coaches and some great facilities but we are not really utilising them all. We all get caught up in our own little worlds sometimes so let’s all open up, support each other and make these days a real success.

DC

MERRY CHRISTMAS

Just a quick note to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and to thank everyone for their friendship and support over the last 12 months.

Long may it continue.

No New Students In January

Please note that we won't be taking any new students in the month of January, if you are not registered with us already you won't be able to train for that month.

Please do NOT just turn up at the gym as you will NOT be able to train.

If you want to email combatbase@hotmail.com and leave me your contact details then I will inform you when we are accepting new students again.

Apologies for any inconvenience.