Short notice fights...

arybvtcw0eolkf

If you just got two weeks notice for a fight, competition, grading how would you prepare in that short time?.

Khannie

14 days isn't a lot. Depends on the type of competition, but if I was asked to fight in two weeks for MT (assuming I already had the requisite skill base), I know I'd be doing a lot of interval training and sleeping.

Depends on whether I need to make the weight as well or not, etc.

Are you fighting in 2 weeks?

spiral

Not much point trying to work on anything new in that short a time before a fight .
Work on your strengths and spend a lot of time on Randori trying to pull off your best throws etc on as many resisting opponents as you can .
Remember to rest a couple of days before hand as well.

arybvtcw0eolkf

spiral wrote:

Not much point trying to work on anything new in that short a time before a fight .
Work on your strengths and spend a lot of time on Randori trying to pull off your best throws etc on as many resisting opponents as you can .
Remember to rest a couple of days before hand as well.

Yup, just checked the IJA website yesterday. Grading in two weeks, I'll have four fights but only need to win two.

Kinda sort notice for me as I'd normally train in Portmarnock where we have lots of randori but for the last few months have been training with another club with hardly any randori but lots of technique so I suspect my fitness levels might have suffered alittle.

I'm inclined to train with Portmarnock again for the next two weeks, up the intensity and hope for the best.

yomchi

No prob to ye Martin

Colm_OReilly

I don't fully know the applicability of this advice but if you get the chance to spar with people you're unfamiliar with do so for the next two weeks as that will force a bigger skill improvement than training with those you're used to.

Also, if you have to fight against unknowns for your grading these act as closer approximations of what you'll be up against on the day.

Colm

Khannie

Is Judo mostly explosive strength? I'm sure Dragan and / or some of the other lifters could give you pointers on that front.

Leo?

Cardio is something you can improve in 2 weeks if your able to jog/run/cycle etc. every day.

cowzerp

Do as much sparring as you can martin and keep the techniques up also-dont worry about learning new 1's though, just improve on the ones you already know-best of luck..ippon all the way!

Roper

Martin if I was given a short amount of time I'd just spar spar spar. Probably wouldn't bother with any conditioning if I had a ready supply of sparring partners. Certianly no strenght-explosive speed work as you can't build that in a fortnight and the time it took would be better spent sparring!

Colm_OReilly

To all the Men's Health readers

You can develop explosive power in a short time. You're training the two short burst energy systems - atp and glycosis. Why wouldn't these adopt to stree like any other system in the human body?

As for speed. If you spent two weeks working your sprinting, do you honestly mean to tell me that your sprint will not have improved at all in those two weeks?

Mairt, if you've the time and energy do some high intensity training, which has an aerobic benefit without any muscular atrophy. If you're into weights, thrusters and pull ups would be a huge benefit.

If not, doing Fiannas, high vertical jumps, burpees, explosive pressups and mixing it in with sprint distance rowing/running it would help.

Just give your body a day or two (depending on how well you recover) before the event. If you're getting twitchy to do something - you're body has recovered.

Here's an article on fight conditioning I found people might like. Click

Hope this helps,
Colm
-Disspelling myths

Roper

Colm_OReilly wrote:

You can develop explosive power in a short time. You're training the two short burst energy systems - atp and glycosis. Why wouldn't these adopt to stree like any other system in the human body?

As for speed. If you spent two weeks working your sprinting, do you honestly mean to tell me that your sprint will not have improved at all in those two weeks?

Are you trying to tell me that 2 weeks would be better spent making speed and explosiveness gains through conditioning rather than sparring? I don't doubt I could improve my speed and condition in a two week period, but enough to outweigh the benefits of sparring? Not in my opinion. I wouldn't run a yard if I had a sparring partner and some mats as an alternative.

Barry
-Standing by his statements
-Not reading Men's Health

Colm_OReilly

Barry,

I'm impressed by the duel tagline. I should have said in addition to sparring conditioning should be done. I disagree with pure skill development as opposed to duel training as much as I disagree wth pure attribute development.

Having said that, skill is the slowest to improve. If Mairt is actively training with the right mindset and environment, his skill won't jump that much in two weeks. It would if he's two new training partners or a new coach but we'll assume he doesn't.

As for sparring wise, it would be best for him, imo, to up to ante in his sparring. Instead of having technical matches he should spar as close to grading standards/intensity as possible. With this focus he'd better prepare himself skill and focus-wise for the task. Shark bait, or worst case scenario training with swapping partners would be the best way to train in the limited time.

Again, adequate rest and diet would also play a part.

Colm
-Always right, seldom understood

Colm_OReilly

Barry,

I'm impressed by the duel tagline. I should have said in addition to sparring conditioning should be done. I disagree with pure skill development as opposed to duel training as much as I disagree wth pure attribute development.

Having said that, skill is the slowest to improve. If Mairt is actively training with the right mindset and environment, his skill won't jump that much in two weeks. It would if he's two new training partners or a new coach but we'll assume he doesn't.

As for sparring wise, it would be best for him, imo, to up to ante in his sparring. Instead of having technical matches he should spar as close to grading standards/intensity as possible. With this focus he'd better prepare himself skill and focus-wise for the task. Shark bait, or worst case scenario training with swapping partners would be the best way to train in the limited time.

Again, adequate rest and diet would also play a part.

Colm
-Always right, seldom understood

spiral

great article

Khannie

Yeah, very good read.

Dragan

I remember getting clipped for saying exactly what is in that article on here about a year ago. Nice to see the word is spreading more and more about exactly what benefits people in the MMA game.

Now then,

Here is my argument for 2 weeks of training.

If you have been training the right way, and eating the right way for a few months in advance of this call up, that is to say actually living like a fighter as oppossed to some guy who does classes and tells his friends how good he is, then your sorted. If not, your screwed. To take a fight at short notice and suceed you need a certain skill set, a certain level of conditioning and a certain mindset to stand any chance of suceeding.

If you have a very weak area then chances are you will lose.

If you have very poor conditioning then chances are you will gas and lose.

If you see taking the fight as being a major problem then your reaching for excuses and you will lose.

For my money, and this argument is based purely on human biology and kinesology there is only so much "technique" you can improve upon within 2 weeks. "Technique" is largely a CNS driven beasty, you’re a learning firing patterns and movements patterns and taking them from concious thought and implement to instinctive implement. The different between those two is who gets knocked out to be honest.

Conditioning however can be worked on a huge amount. I disagree ever so slightly with Colm in regards to developing your expplosive power within two weeks. I think there is a limit to how much someone can add to there force production in that period, but I think they can do wonders for their produced force endurance, that is how many times they can produce maximum force through certain planes in a short time frame with minimal rest.

All in all, I think too much emphasis is being placed on "sparing" vs "conditioning" and an important consideration is that sparring is conditioning, plain and simple. You can set up all kinds of drills etc to work on someones "technique" , power, endurance, conditioning ( I'm picky and maintain there is a difference between endurance and conditioning myself ) etc.

Two weeks or the right food, the right rest and clever training, for a trainee who is willing to put the work in and make the changes they need to make can make a massive difference, plain and simple.

Good article:

A thought: If an acidic load on the body negatively impacts performance and many non-Paleo foods are acidic then is that the reason Paleo is so good for athletes or am I oversimplifying (Paleo cutting out many acidic foods and eating more basic ones)

Dragan

columok wrote:

Good article:

A thought: If an acidic load on the body negatively impacts performance and many non-Paleo foods are acidic then is that the reason Paleo is so good for athletes or am I oversimplifying (Paleo cutting out many acidic foods and eating more basic ones)

In a way you are over simplifying. Sure, many aspects of Paleo are good for athletes, but even the man himself recommends some carbo loading for certain activities and events in "Paleo for Atheltes" so there are some elements of Paleo which while sound in theory simply do not hold up to the argument that some advancements have been good for us.

No doubt, ingesting "basic" foods over acidic ones will have a benefit though.

Roper

Colm_OReilly wrote:

Barry,

I'm impressed by the duel tagline. I should have said in addition to sparring conditioning should be done. I disagree with pure skill development as opposed to duel training as much as I disagree wth pure attribute development.

Who said anything about skills development? Not me, or not I, whichever one of those is correct. In fact, we're broadly agreeing with each other. High intensity sparring, for me, would be the way to go inasmuch as you could. If you didn't have a training partner for a day, then I'd say do some conditioning along the lines of the article you posted. By the way, I have a couple of JC Santana's intocombat DVDs and they're the business for sports specific exercise ideas.

But assuming 14 days to the fight and unlimited access to training partners (and perfect world gym access and employment conditions), I'd do 2 sessions of high intensity sparring for 6 days, take a day off, then 5 days of the same, then two days rest before the event. By high intensity I don't mean savagery, I mean good, intense sparring that won't have you in a jocker.

We used to do a drill similar to shark bait for stand-up events, a fresh fighter every 30 seconds for your round length whose job is to intensly push the action. Your opponent's always fresh, you're always tired. Great drill. Shark bait is the business too.

Barry,
-Holding firm

arybvtcw0eolkf

GUys just to let you know that I'm not ignoring the thread or the advice. Just up to my eyes in work this week, feet have hardly touched the ground.

Thanks for all the advice.

I'll be back here regular in a day or two (pulling a sickie on Friday ).

cowzerp

The other thing people are missing is the point of advising sparring now-im advising it to increase sharpness rather than skills, as if you are sharp you can maximise your skills that you already learned-i would not change conditioning this close to fighting unless it was easing off the intensity, perfect technique, sharpness and fight fitness in these last 2 weeks imo.