Breakdown of the High Thai Kick

I like this video analysis of the Thai kick to the head.

Analysis of the high Thai kick

The only thing I'd quibble with is that the counter-rotation of the upper body by swinging the lead arm counter to the direction of the kick is more for balance than torque. My opinion only, but the torque is created by the lead foot stepping out, toes angled out at 45-degrees from the target, and the rotation of the hips into the target.

One other safety point: make sure you pivot on the ball of the supporting foot. If you plant it your knee will blow out a la Jason on the Human Weapon. One of my students did the same thing during a test and it was ugly.

Via: Fight Geek: High Round Kick

The Dark Side of Goals

This month's guest post is by the Fight Geek, a Muay Thai practitioner and fight fan from Down Under who's been one of my favorite reads recently. He's got some strange and exotic training ideas (like Caveman training??). Anyway, read the post in an Aussie accent (as intended), and then check out his site for some great ideas, posts, and fight videos. - Nathan

Introduction
Let me start off by stating the obvious: goals are good—M'kay. I set goals, I develop strategies to reach them, and I feel outstanding when I've accomplished them. But mis-handling goals can get you into serious trouble—particularly when it involves fitness, health or sport: the bread and butter of martial arts. Here's three examples of what I mean . . .

Unrealistic Goals + Impatience =

Johnny was going through a mid-life crisis. He longed for the slender, toned and limber physique of his youth. Not being one to do things by halves, he went out and purchased a complete series of advanced yoga DVDs. Later on that day, his best mate found Johnny dead—lying in front of the TV, with his legs thrust over his head in a contorted plough pose. The only clue to the cause of his death was what he was watching on TV: A scantily-clad blond nymph bending over and touching her toes. Johnny's mate wasn't the smartest of dudes, but it didn't take a rocket scientist to work out what Johnny was up to just before he died . . .

So what does this cautionary tale teach us? Only dogs are anatomically designed to have their heads so close to their balls? Sure, there's that. But more importantly—unrealistic goals combined with an impatient attitude makes a potent cocktail—shunned by the wise and skulled by fools. Women want to be supermodels, men want to be superstars and athletes want to be superheroes. And they want it to happen NOW! Unfortunately genetics and 'the effort required' will prevent 95% of them from ever accomplishing such lofty goals. And many will be lucky to survive their half-arsed attempts at doing so.

The fact is, adopting unrealistic goals and giving in to impatient compulsion will almost certainly lead to failure—a nasty, soul-destroying, "I don't ever want to try again" type of failure. To set realistic goals we must be brutally honest about our own abilities and set our goals accordingly. And we must also recognize that any goal worth achieving will take time. By all means, dream big dreams. But big dreams are best accomplished by setting progressive, realistic goals, that are gradually achieved, over a long period of time.

Confusing Tools and Goals

Luke just joined his local gym. After watching some of the other dudes pushing some serious iron, Luke realized he was a serious wimp. But he had a plan. In the latest copy of Beefcake Development™ magazine he found a solution to his wimpiness in a six-page glossy 'review' of The MEGA-Workout 9000. Its the latest muscle-building equipment accompanied by ten instructional DVDs and a twelve month supply of the ultra-effective, patent-pending MEGA-Workout 9000 supplement—all for the low price of $3999.

It will be his—oh yes—The MEGA-Workout 9000 will be his.

Luke starts saving. He takes on extra hours at work and cuts back on expenses. He cancels his expensive gym membership and starts doing some bodyweight exercises at home—he'll get into the serious training once his Mega-Workout 9000 arrives. After a while he stops working-out completely—he hasn't got the time anymore. And he's too tired after the long hours at work anyway! He's also too busy to prepare his own meals, so he starts to eat out more. Eight months down the track, he wakes up one morning and realizes he's thirty pounds heavier, stressed out of his brain, and feels like s*** (the 'it's-been-waiting-to-come-out-for-a-week' type of s***). He decides to take the money he's saved up and go on a well-deserved holiday . . .

If I had a buck for every person who's done something like this! (I'd probably squander it on redundant training gear—doh!). In today's world it's so easy to confuse the goal of bettering yourself with obsessive purchasing of must-have gear. What's holding you back from achieving the body of your dreams? What's stopping you from winning your next competition or tournament? It's obvious! You haven't got the latest training gear, workout DVD, weight-loss pill or muscle-potion. Money can solve all of your health and fitness problems—if only you had more of it!

No matter how impressive any piece of kit is, it's still only a tool. And the problem with most people isn't a lack of tools, but a lack of motivation to use the tools. Filling up your garage with training equipment isn't a useful goal—it's an avoidance strategy. One that's been promoted by a mass-market culture and uncritically swallowed-whole by most of us. Be harsh when determining what tools you actually need to achieve your goal. And never fall for the old chestnut: "I can't achieve my goals because I haven't got [insert cool product here]." Nine times out of ten there's a way of achieving your goals (or at least getting closer to them) without using the latest and greatest products.

Ignoring the Side-effects of Process

John's finally got the biggest guns at his gym. It's taken him three years, some serious cash, and a s***-load of illegal substances. Sure he's lost his 'unsupportive' girlfriend and his non-gym mates, his arms now have more tracks than a train station, and his ever-growing man-tits are starting turn-on the creepier dudes at the gym. But he's achieved his goal . . .

When a goal becomes so important that you're willing to do ANYTHING to achieve it—you really have got a serious problem on your hands. This kind of mentality has lead many a hard training athlete into a lifestyle of self-abuse, self-deception and ultimately self-hatred: steroid use, dangerous dieting practices, anorexia, bulimia, medication abuse, over-training, faddish training, exercise addiction—they're all collateral damage to those who fall victim to the 'goals at any cost' mentality. When it comes to health, fitness and sport, HOW you achieve your goals is just as important as WHAT goals you achieve.

Conclusion

Poorly chosen goals can often be more destructive than having no goals at all! Some goals are unachievable, some aren't worth achieving, and some can change your life forever (for better or worse). So be careful when setting your goals. Otherwise you could end up a drooling corpse in a compromising position with nothing but your friends deductive-skills to determine how you died. I for one don't want to be remembered as the dude who died trying to orally pleasure himself. How about you?

:)

 

Technorati Tags: Goals,goal setting,training fads,bodybuilding

Don't flinch it's just a Clinch

I know the title doesn't make sense, but I couldn't help myself. Heh.

Anyway, the occasion for this post is to inform my dear readers that we've added a new clinch category! Ta da! There are so many posts  on the clinch that I thought it deserved it's own grouping, and it's now easy for you to find the posts on:

Learning the clinch
The Thai clinch
Defending the clinch
Drilling the clinch
What to do when you achieve the clinch

It's a cinch, try the Clinch! [Again, my apologies!]

THE MMA WEEKLY WRAP UP for 5/12/08

Okay, it's almost Summer time and for fight fans that means lots of events. Every organization is eager to pull us away from the ball game and into some kind of cage or ring. So let's take a quick look at some of the excitement that awaits MMA fans this month... Starting with the biggie...

UFC 84 PREDICTIONS FROM EVERY ONE'S FAVORITE 'FIGHT DIVA'

UFC 84: Ill Will, heads back to the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas on May 24th. Like we mentioned last week, this might not have the most exciting matches of the season, but if Tito Ortiz manages to beat Lyoto Machida there will definitely be some fire works in the octagon. The following trailer will review the main card fights.

As per tradition, here's the beautiful and talented fight-diva-guru Joanne from MMA Girls to give us her predictions for next Saturday.

While I agree with most of her predictions (I'm also rooting for Ortiz, if only to hear what he'll say after the fight), I'm going to disagree with Joanne for the Jardine/Wanderlei Silva fight.

Although I really like and respect Silva's ability and training ethic, I just think that he's going to have a tough time against someone as unorthodox, and let's face it - as crazy- as Keith Jardine. Then again, if Silva throws caution to the wind and just lets loose against Jardine, this could certainly be the most entertaining fight of the night.

CBS PROMOTING GINA CARANO FOR ELITE XC SATURDAY NIGHT FIGHTS

With MMA coming to Prime Time television on Saturday, May 31st, CBS has released the following interview with female mma sensation and headlining fighter, Gina Carano...


CBS execs are probably wise to let Gina do the interviews. Kimbo (Kevin Ferguson) Slice isn't exactly the spokesperson you want for this already controversial sport. To her benefit, Gina is well spoken, smart, pretty, and disarming (everything Kimbo is not... but hey, we love him anyway.)

EXTREMELY LOCAL FIGHT ALERT FOR THE CHICAGO AREA

Okay, now I happen to live about 8 miles from the site of this next event, yet I hadn't heard anything about it until reading CagePotato.com (how humiliating!).

Anyway, Adrenaline MMA (whoever they are) is having a big event at the Sears Center in Hoffman Estates Ill. on June 14th. At this inaugural event, the headlining fight includes a Chicago Police Officer, Mike Russow (9-1) against a "fighting veteran" Jeff Monson (23-7).

Cagepotato.com points out that it's probably a smart to have local talent (cheap) rather than well known outsiders (expensive) competing. While I can see the logic, I have to wonder if it was a good idea to hold the fights outside of the city. Although the Sears Centre is an excellent arena, I can't see people coming out to the suburbs to see a fight.

Also, since even the suburbanites who (like myself) enjoy mixed martial arts don't know about the event, they could have a tough time selling 'nosebleed' tickets for $42.00 ($175.00 ringside!)

Regardless, I hope they do well and still plan to check out the fights.

AFFLICTION FIGHT CARD SHAPING UP TO BE THE 'HIT' OF THE SUMMER

Despite the lawsuits and general hating from the UFC, the Affliction clothing-line-turned-fight-promotion has announced some excellent fight match-ups for their July 19th card.

Included for the event are:

Headliners; Fedor Emelianenko vs. Tim Sylvia

Josh Barnett vs. Pedro Rizzo

Renato Sobral vs. Mike Whitehead

Matt Lindland vs. Fabio Negao

CagePotato.com is also claiming that two other anticipated announcements will include Aleksander Emelianenko vs. Paul Buentello and... get this... Ben Rothwell (former IFL heavyweight) and Andrei Arlovski (former UFC heavyweight champion) !!!

Now all we have to do is hope Randy Couture somehow wins a court battle and enters the ring as well.

THE HOTTEST MMA MEMORABILIA FOUND AT 'ROUND 5'

Speaking of Randy Couture, it was only a matter of time before goofy sports dolls (err... figurines) made it to the world of Combat Sports. Well, thanks to Round 5: World of MMA Champions, they're here...

Sure, they're dopey, but at the low, low price of $16.99, the real question is "How can you afford not to have one?"

They come in four adorable varieties... Randy Couture, Quinton Jackson, Tito Ortiz, and just added, Matt Hughes.

My wife will be so happy that I plan to spend real money on these things. I'll just have to put them up somewhere high, so that my 3 year old daughter can't get to them... maybe the china cabinet.

-"No, honey put those down; you can't play with daddy's dolls... err... figurines!"

Anyway, that's going to do it for this week's edition. Check back again soon as we bring you everything you need to know (and a lot of stuff you don't) about the world of Combat Sports as found on the internet.

Respectfully,

Rick

Technorati Tags: UFC,Tito Ortiz,Lyoto Machida,Wanderlei Silva,Keith Jardine,Gina Carano,Kimbo Slice,Jeff Monson,Fedor Emelianenko,Tim Sylvia,Josh Barnett,Pedro Rizzo,Renato Sobral,Matt Lindland,Ben Rothwell,Andrei Arlovski,Randy Couture,Quinton Jackson,Matt Hughes

Among Friends: Blue Wave TKD

When traveling on business last week, I finally had a chance to meet one of my martial arts blogging peers, Gordon White of Blue Wave Taekwondo in Burlington, Vermont. I became acquainted with Gordon about a year or so ago when he joined the Convocation of Combat Arts. I grew to respect his opinions through his blog and the unpretentious opinions he's shared at CoCA.

Since beginning to write about martial arts , one of the thing's I've long wished to do was actually put faces to the names of my fellow MA bloggers. Meeting Gordon did not disappoint. After circling the block about three times, I realized that door between a couple of other businesses may be the one I was looking for - I decided to park and investigate. I walked up the stairs to the first landing of the nondescript building and realized there were many doors, and none of them said "Blue Wave Taekwondo." I decided to just hold still and be quiet. Still nothing. I went up another floor, around a corner, then heard what I was expecting, sounds of commotion and yelling. Rather ki-ap! I was on the right track!

After going down a hall, I heard an instructor using his "command voice" and then more commotion. I was able to catch about half of a tournament team practice that Gordon later told me were some final preparations to go to the nationals. I was impressed! Technique was sharp, intensity was high, and there was a camaraderie built by hours of hardship, sweat, and probably a little blood. I was warmly greeted by Gordon, then introduced to the class, and sat down to watch it all happen. Afterward, several of the competitors took the time to greet me with warmth and respect, a credit to their instructor and their art.

Gordon and I headed over to a local pub that he said had some of the best local brews and good food, too. We shared thoughts and experiences about TKD, self-defense, and martial arts in general, then Gordon gave me encouragement and some great ideas for the Convocation.

Perhaps of interest was Gordon's self-defense encounters being contrary to the oft-stated position that sport Taekwondo teaches you bad habits relative to using your hands. He related that in the couple of times he's "used it," he had no problem using kicks and punches. Granted, punching is rarely used in sport TKD, but it's still trained - and effective.

In summary, Gordon's devotion to his training, quality of teaching, and his obvious results make me happy to meet him, proud to know him, and I would strongly recommend his school to anyone looking for a good TKD education in the area.

Gordon, thanks again for your hospitality, and when I'm in the Burlington area again, will definitely give you a call. Maybe we can get Karrie out there, too.

Please click here to see photos of my visit.

 

Technorati Tags: Blue Wave TKD,Taekwondo,Self-Defense,Punching,Burlington VT