Training to Fight!
OK, so you've been going to your Muay Thai classes for 2 or 3 nights a week for the last 6 months. You understand all your basics pretty well, and are confident with your combinations and with your sparring. You decide to take this to the next level...
The first thing is that a fighter should have a MINIMUM of 6 weeks notice (meaning 6 weeks of training) before any bout. Recently, I passed up on the opportunity for my students to enter a competition because there was only 4 weeks notice. Sorry, 6 weeks notice or we're not coming...
If you plan to fight, or are considering it, you must be ready to devote every day of your life for 6 full weeks to training. Well, actually six days each week.
First, from day 1 until a few days before the fight, you should run EVERY SINGLE DAY! Even on your one day off, you should run. For the first 2 weeks, you should be jogging for distance. Devote at least 40 min's each day to roadwork. After the first two weeks, then start alternating between jogging for distance and running wind sprints. When I used to run my sprints, I'd run approx 30-40 yards sprinting, then I would turn around and run back slowly to cool down, then turn around and sprint again. I would repeat this about 5 times my first time out, then gradually increase the repetitions until I was between 15-20. Lay off the sprints, and cut the distance on the jogging the last week, as you want your body to recuperate before you enter the ring.
Spend about 20 min's a day jumping rope.
For the first week or so, the workouts should steadily pick up pace. You should workout by rounds, and your workouts should be at the minimum of 2 hours. For the first two weeks, increase the rounds of shadowboxing, padwork, and heavy bag work from your normal workout.
For example, my class presently works out like this: (3 hour allotted time frame)
10 min's rope stretching (takes about 5-10 minutes) footwork and medicine ball drills (approx 2-5 rounds, varying) pushups sit-ups/crunches 3 rounds shadowboxing 10+ rounds of partner drills with Thai pads and Heavy bag work 30 minutes (approx.) of instruction in new techniques neck wrestling (the last hour of class is reserved for students to work on what they feel they need extra practice on, and I "mingle")
We have one sparring class each week, on Saturdays...
Depending on the day, many of the drills are shortened, or dropped, based on the "group" need.
If I were to adjust this for fighters, it would be:
20 min's rope stretch footwork and medicine ball drills (3-5 rounds varying) pushups sit-ups/crunches 5 rounds shadowboxing 10+ rounds of Thai pad, heavy bag, speed bag, and double-end ball drills 20 minutes of neck wrestling
*sparring would take place at least twice a week*
Important note on sparring. It is of utmost importance that you train to prevent injury. Sparring should NOT be done full contact or full competition rules. Separate sparring into elements such as boxing, kicking, or clinching. You can mix the three in different combinations of sparring as long as you maintain control of the fighters, making sure that they are striking lightly. Sparring partners should wear full protective gear: Headgear, mouthpiece, 16 oz. gloves, elbow pads (if available use lacrosse pads), chest protector, shinpads, and groin protection.
As training goes on, the first two weeks as mentioned are a build up to what I listed above, gradually increasing intensity so that from 3-5 weeks the fighter is training as hard as possible. The last week of training should really taper off to a few rounds shadowboxing, pad drills, NO SPARRING and light jogging.
The last 2-3 days of training should consist of really light jogging and a couple of rounds of shadowboxing. Nothing else. You must spend the last week letting the body recuperate, hence why the big drop off in training. However, you must "keep the motor running", which is why you at least do something each day.
REMEMBER: running, weight training, and such are the fighters responsibility to do outside of class time. I do not recommend cross training with another martial art while training to fight. I personally cross trained by Mountain Biking when I was fighting.
By contrast, when Thais train to fight, they do all of the above TWICE a day. The get up in the AM to run as a group then train. They gather again and do it all over again in the evening.
How not to Flinch, Blink or Turn Away
You see it in a lot of students who are just beginning to freefight in Muay Thai. They are scared and aren't sure what they are doing. When a punch or kick comes at them, they react -- they flinch, cover their head, blink their eyes, and sometimes even turn their back. You can almost hear the internal dialogue, "On no. Here it comes. I'm going to get hurt."
Freefighting is at first very uncomfortable. This type of reaction is natural -- an instinctive response in an effort to defend yourself.
The result, however, is that the student is put at a momentary disadvantage since this type of reaction creates an opening an opponent can exploit. In competition the student might lose a point, but on the street this type of reaction can put him or her in real jeopardy.
If you blink you lose sight of an opponent momentarily. Vision is also disorientated during a flinch as everything becomes a blur of movement. And if you turn away, everything is exposed.
So what can you do? Actually there is a lot you can do, and answers fall into several general categories. You can retrain your reflexes, re-orient your attitude and learn how boost your visual skills.
Retraining The Reflexive Body
First you should gradually learn how to confront and deal with attacks - something that will reduce your fear and teach you how to control the natural instincts to run, flinch, blink or turn away.
One way to do this is through various drills. They go a long way to allow you to eliminate your fear in a safe environment.
One of the best drills is to use a pad (often on a handle) to simulate various attacks -- straight punches and hooks to the head, body shots and various types of kicks. Try to keep a proper fighting position, hands up, and move -- shift position, duck under hooks, and shift your head to the side of a punch (known as slipping a punch) while blocking it with your hand or forearm. Gradually you will become more comfortable with being attacked and the pace can be increased. The pace of the practice attack should always push you a little beyond where you feel comfortable. This forces you to improve.
Later, actual punches and kicks can be introduced -- at first done slowly and over time increased in speed and power. While you may just be defensive at first, after a while you will learn to also take the offensive. Be careful to use protective equipment unless you are practicing this drill in slow motion.
On an advanced level a similar activity entails actually allowing soft punches to land. If you are more advanced you can allow harder punches. Through this method you will learn how to take a punch, how to tighten up or move to eliminate its effects and this will reduce the fear factor by reducing perception of possible pain. Avoid any actual hits to the head, however. This is dangerous.
The Mental Switch To Offense
Most beginners focus on defense and not getting hurt. Mentally they are defensive and physically they are hesitant. They are waiting to get hit or hurt, and when anything comes near them they jump in anticipation.
Try to reorientate your thinking to one of offense, not defense. Mental focus will change from avoidance of getting hit to a focus on attack. You will begin to look for an opening and your dialogue will change too: "Good, here comes an attack I can respond to." Fear is reduced because attention has shifted elsewhere.
Visual Reorientation
Another method to reduce flinching, blinking and turning away is to be able to re-educate how you use and control your eyes.
To reduce blinking you can control the muscles of the eyelid.
Many mistakenly try to hold their eyelids open to stop blinking, but this doesn't work because blinking is done with the muscles that close the lids, not open them.
Thus to stop or reduce the tendency to blink, slightly narrow your eyes, thus bringing conscious control over the muscles used in blinking. Have a partner punch to either side of your head, or jab toward you face but at a distance that contact won't be made. Practice controlling your blink reaction. Keep your eyes narrowed, observing everything, but not focusing on anything.
One way to help control flinching is to minimize the surprise of an opponent's actions. Visually this can be done in two ways. At the start of freefighting, or when action has momentarily ceased, I teach my students to look into their opponents' eyes but also perceive their whole body -- at least at the beginning.
The eyes will indicate when your opponent is about to attack. So practice picking up signals from your opponents' eyes. They provide great forewarning.
When there is action during freefighting you can also use your vision to reduce the potential surprise of an opponent's second or third technique. Do not focus on the attack itself, for if you look at it, it will fill your visual field and block your perception of what's following. Instead you should look past any attack for what is coming next. This gives you more time to react since you will pick up attacks as they are launched, not as they are about to land. This give you time to react.
Blink Reaction Drill
A drill we use is what we call Uppercut, Uppercut, Hook, Hook. (OK, not a very imaginative name...)
Each fighter wears headgear and gloves. You crowd against one another and alternate throwing 4 punches. Fighter ?1 throws two uppercuts to the body (shovel punches) and then two hooks to the shoulders. Then fighter ?2 immediately counters with the same. Each fighter defends by crowding the other fighter and blocking the hooks with elbows and "fanning" the hooks while rolling with the punches.
Even though these punches aren't aimed at the face, this really helps people get used to taking a hit without flinching.
