Swiss ball fab five routine

Dave "The Bell Ringer" Cooper

Dave @ Hostile Territory 7 dec 2010

Dave "The Bell Ringer"

Dave being introduced to S.A.I.D Circuits as part of his training.

Brief look

EMAC Basic Circuit

Wolfpack training session

New Partnership

We at K8 bells are proud to announce our new partnership with Edinburgh Martial Arts College and The Wolf Pack professional fight team, K8 will be providing all the strength and conditioning training for the fight team and college fighters.

The college is host to a great and distinguished stable of fighters from up and coming to the old and bold.



Kevin "Krazy Wolf" Baldwin

◦WKA Scotland National Coach
◦Head coach of Edinburgh Wolf Pack
◦British COMBAT League Champion
◦2x WPKA World Bronze Medalist
◦WAKO Golden Gloves (Italy) Bronze Medalist
◦2x WAKO Midlands Silver Medalist
◦WAKO Midlands Team Challenge Champion




Natasha "Rayne" Walker

◦5x WKA World Champion (Semi & Light Contact)
◦2x WAKO World Silver Medalist (Semi & Light Contact)
◦WKA World Silver Medalist (Semi Contact)
◦WUMA European Grand Champion (Semi Contact)
◦2x WUMA European Champion (Semi & Light Contact)
◦13x British/UK Champion (WAKO/Combat/CIMAC/WUMA)
◦23x Scottish Champion (WKA/WAKO/IAKSA/WPKA/WUMA)
◦CIMAC World Cup Champion in Semi Contact, Light Contact and Chinese Forms
◦CIMAC Grand Champion in Semi Contact
◦Assistant Coach of Edinburgh Wolf Pack




Ronnie "The Shark" Clark

◦WKA World Full Contact Champion
◦Scottish Full Contact Champion
◦WKA British Full Contact Champion
◦WAKO British Full Contact Champion
◦5 Nations Full Contact Champion
◦International TIMA Full Contact Champion
◦Cimac World Cup Full Contact Champion
◦Head Coach of Wolf Pack Full Contact Squad
◦Senior Coach of Edinburgh Wolf Pack



Please visit their site at www.emaconline.co.uk for information regarding all training and seminars at the college.

We will keep you updated with the training and fighters on a regular basis.

Which kind of Warrior are you?

It's hard as an athlete in any sport to fit in one box, you may think that your the best you can be, a coach tells you differently a poor result in a competition may confirm the coaches analysis and opinion.

It's not about the result or category we fit, it's how we deal with the criticism, the defeat, the poor result in the days, weeks, months after the event. Some athletes learn from it,some dont and never recover.

Look at GSP after his defeat to Matt Serra to this day it still plays on his mind and he learnt from that fight, never doubt or underestimate your opponents will or capabilities and since has been undefeated.

To discover what type of athlete you are, read the four categoris below adapted from the HAGAKURE written by Tsunetomo Yamamoto one of the greatest Samurai's to ever live.

Type 1- Alert-Alert- Those that are quick on the uptake when told to do something. These warriors are few in number.

Type 2- Dull-Alert- Those who do not clearly understand at first and take their time to put anything learned into practice, once they do they execute it splendidly.

Type 3- Alert-Dull- Those when told to do something act with the greatest intentions, but take a long time to execute and learn.

Type 4 - Dull-Dull- These warriors are in the majority!

So it's simple you need to be type 1 or type 2 to ensure that you and your coach get the best from your training, and competitions.

If your not best you get there now!

Swim Training Pool intro (session 1)

 

You may have read the first two instalments of Swim Training for fighters. Hopefully you have put the circuits or swim sets into practice.

This session shows session 10 of The Hurt Locker programme as Ross calls it!

High Intensity Training intertwined with SAID Principles in order to prepare the body for the onslaught of conditioning and combat.

 

The video has been condensed to fit the circuit in, give it a go!




 

Brian Fernie MMA CSCC

Swim Training for Fighters (Part 2)

Swim Training for Fighters (Part 2)

In part 1, we covered the basic pool applications that most coaches/fighters conduct when using pool time, although there should have been a few that may have been new to you.
In part 2 we are looking at the art of swimming for conditioning and how it can best serve a fighter concentrating on the stroke and pull variations, we will look at kick variations next time.

Swimming offers a variety of conditioning aspects

• Strength
• Endurance
• Flexibility
• Aerobic
• Anaerobic
• Rehabilitation


The above is a general list but as an athlete how can you use it, well being able to swim is a bonus even if it is as we say in swimming “untidy” in your strokes, however if you are a weak swimmer you can still use this magnificent form of training.

Equipment for a normal pool session

Goggles, kick float, pull buoy, hand paddles, sponge with belt (1 metre thin rope attached to either end) fist gloves, fins.
The list is not a necessity however will help you, but most drills use your body weight in the absence of kit.
One thing you should also take is a bottle of water, if you’re swimming at the right intensity you will sweat and dehydrate in the pool, something a lot of swimmers forget or ignore.


Let’s look at the various strokes


• Front Crawl – the fastest of all strokes
• Butterfly- the daddy and ultimate power stroke
• Back Crawl- fast stroke and allows the muscles to work in reverse
• Breast stroke- technical and fast and uses most major muscle groups

You may not be able to do all these strokes but if you can it would be a great arsenal of conditioning tools to put in your box.

For the main part we will predominantly use front crawl in the sets which you will later see in this blog, however you can use any stroke you wish as we wont be doing swim rest times and such like, as swimmers use when conducting training.


The aim of the sets is to keep it simple, and effective other aspects of swim training can be added at a later stage if required.


In order to progress your conditioning in the pool, you need to use drills, which are a way of overloading and using muscles groups functionally to develop all aspects.
Yes if you swim 60 lengths every day doing one stroke you will get fitter but not necessarily stronger or improve your technique, in fact most recreational swimmers use the wrong technique during a stroke causing them to expend too much energy sapping their strength.


Drills for each stroke vary but unless we are going to get majorly technical we can split the drills into three main categories Stroke,Pull and Kick.

Stroke- basically the whole body is used as normal when swimming ; however certain aspects of the stroke are focused on such as water polo drill, Tap drill.

Pull- quite simple we only use our arms to propel ourselves through the body, slight variations may be pull and drag where we attach something to the legs and as we pull through the water and drag it behind us (sponge for example)

Kick- we only use our legs to propel through the water using kick floats as aids or resistance, if you don’t have a float use your water bottle, fins also help with kick sets as they propel us faster but the main aim is to improve ankle flexibility and promote drive from the hips not the knees (a common fault in new swimmers).


Stroke and Pull Variations

Basic- Keep your legs closed and only use your arms to propel yourself, this takes discipline as you get tired you will want to use your legs, it is also a hard pull drill as the legs sink in the water, making you pull harder as they offer a drag effect by pulling the hips down. You can use a piece of tyre inner tube around the ankles to stop you kicking or buy ankle swim strap which is up to date and looks cooler!


Pull Buoy - By placing a pull buoy between our legs close to our crotch, we allow the body to remain horizontal in the water; this allows us to be streamlined making the stroke faster but not necessarily easier.


Fists- using one of the above pulls when swimming keep your hands clenched in a fist, this ensures more drag in the water as you pull back the arm in the underwater phase.


Hand Paddles- same basic pull or full stroke can be used, however the hand paddles allow a greater area to be covered when pulling in the under water phase, allowing greater purchase in the water to propel you forward and also ensures that better technique is used, e.g using all the back muscles in the stroke rather than just the shoulders, you will feel it if its done incorrectly.


Fist Gloves- much the same as hand paddles however the gloves prevent overuse injuries on the shoulders to a degree, be careful however as to much use will mean your fingers stay open when conducting the stroke meaning incorrect technique = more energy expenditure.


Water Polo- this is the stroke used by as the name suggests water polo players and adapted as a drill by triathletes the world over, the front crawl is conducted with the chin on the surface of the water, looking straight ahead and swimming shorter faster strokes with the arms, this is necessary as the hips dip and the legs cause a drag effect owing to the head position. This drill will promote good use of the major back muscles and doubles up as a hard kick set as you have to kick harder to propel yourself.


One arm drill- simply put we only use one arm when conducting the stroke, the other can be placed alongside the body or held out to the front, for a fighter this will place emphasis on the deltoids, lats and traps, as we wont be focusing on the technique aspect of this drill, your kick will increase in order to propel you.


Hypoxic-without oxygen! A set distance is swum with the swimmer only being allowed a certain number of breaths in a length, for example a bi lateral breather may be given
4 x 100 F/C 10, 8, 6, 4, 2
Swim 4, 100’s (metres) breathing every 10 strokes on the first 100 8 on the second and so on.

Now we have covered the basics lets look at swim sets which can improve your cardio, strength, speed, flexibility. The sets have been simplified with regards to the terminology used for example as a fighter do we need to know swim at OBLAT! Levels.


Session 1
Distance 1800m

Warm Up
200m front crawl

Set 1
4 x 100m front crawl sprint, 1 min rest each 100
10 x 50 sprint front crawl 30m rest each fifty

Set 2
20x 25 front crawl sprints 15 seconds rest each sprint

Cool down
200m own choice


Session 2

Distance 2,800

Warm Up
200m front crawl
200m breast stroke

Set 1
1000m (continuous) front crawl hypoxic @ first 500 on evens 10,8,6,4,2 change every 100
Second 500 on odd’s 11,9,7,5,3 change every 100

Set 2
1200 front crawl drills
@ 200 pull 200 fists
200 water polo 200 hand paddles
400 single arm change each fifty
(Fifty right then fifty left repeat till 400 complete)

Warm Down
200 own choice

Session 3

Distance dependant on warm up distance achieved

Warm Up
T10 swim ten minutes non stop counting your lengths.

Session 1
2x50 FC 20secs rest each fifty
2x100 FC 30secs rest each 100
2x 200 FC 1 min rest each 200
1x 400 FC 2 min rest after 400

Session 2
Repeat above starting at 400.

Warm down
200m own choice


If you are unable to conduct a full swim session chose one part of it and complete the next part next time your at the pool, you can break down the session into fragments as long as you complete the sets.

This topic is vast and varied and is endless in the various types of drills and swim sets one can do, some coaches and fighters may be wary of this form or type of training, you only have to look at swimmers and see how conditioned they are, remember we are not using this to be swim fit, we are using it as a tool to increase us overall as a fighter.




Brian Fernie MMA-CSCC

Swim Training for Fighters (Part 1)

Swimming for conditioning is little used, little known or incorrectly used by most fighters and coaches.

Not that they the coaches don’t have a plan, or goal but a lot of coaches take standard gym work into the pool and stay at one end, doing partner carries and jump squats, all great stuff but if they really understood the benefits of swimming they could put together a swim specific programme from circuits to aerobic, anaerobic and endurance sets.

Swimming is a great exercise and will increase lung capacity if used properly by a fighter which obviously has benefits in the ring in relation to hydrogen conditioning, swimming also puts 25lb of pressure on the whole body when swimming and is also a weightless form of fitness.

Obviously the benefits can only be reaped if the fighter can swim and is comfortable in a pool environment. The exercises below can be changed at anytime and are only a suggestion.

There are many swimming aids out there from paddles to pull buoys and all can be utilised, however one of the easiest and cheapest is to wear a t-shirt and extra swim shorts during training for extra drag, however caution should be exercised and only use this extra drag every few weeks. If you don’t your body will adapt and you will require more and more clothing for drag.

Pool Circuits are probably the easiest to start with and understood so below are a few circuits to start of with.

Circuit 1
You will require access to swimming widths (deep end) for this circuit and require two mats one at either side for certain exercises, ensure a warm up is conducted prior to the start.

Swim 10 widths front crawl as fast as you can.

Pull yourself out the pool and do twenty press ups, slide into the pool swim a width underwater on the opposite side conduct nineteen press ups, then repeat until you have completed the set.

On completion swim 10 widths front crawl again then conduct double leg v sits as above on completion repeat the process and conduct double squat thrusts

Circuit
10 widths front crawl sprint
Press ups 20 -1 swimming a width underneath taking 1 press up off each side
10 widths front crawl sprint
Double leg v sits 20-1 swimming a width underneath taking 1 V sit off each side
10 widths front crawl sprint
Double leg squat thrusts 20-1- swimming a width underneath taking one squat thrust off each width

Rest is up to an individual between the sets but no longer than a minute.


Circuit 2
As above but run between width’s, this can be done in the shallow end or at the deep end if using the deep end use an aqua jogger which is a blue support belt which goes around the waist and is normally used for rehabilitation work in the pool.

Circuit 3
As above but swim lengths and only one front crawl sprint length is required between the exercises

Circuit four

Make sure you have a partner for this set.
Both sprint from the shallow end until the deep end starts then back ten times.
Partner 1 piggy backs number two for ten sprints above then change
Partner 1 sprint’s same distance backwards for 4
Partner 2 squat jumps until partner 1 finishes (head under water back straight bum touching heels then explode upwards)
Swap over
1 minute rest repeat once more


Circuit 5
Partner squat jumps 30 seconds on 15 rest for 3 minutes
Swap over
Band punches standing with shoulders under water partner 2 holding band at rear for extra tension
30 seconds on 15 rest for three minutes (no bands use aqua dumbbells)
Swap over
Front crawl sprints* 30 seconds on and 15 rest for 3 minutes
Partner holds your ankles whilst you swim hard for 30 seconds on front crawl
Swap Over
Rest 1 minute repeat

Again the above are a suggestion however I feel these are the better exercises a fighter should be using in the pool for conditioning, as the lungs need to be overloaded in order to increase oxygen up take.

The last circuit should only be used with fighters who are competent in the water and are able to swim at a reasonable standard.

Deep end access will be required
The fighter treads water with their hands for two minutes, then feet for two minutes hands in the air.

The fighter then has their hands placed together behind their back using an elastic band, he then sinks to the bottom of the pool as soon as his feet touch the bottom he explodes to the surface sucks in a breath of air and submerges again, complete this for five reps.

If the band breaks the fighter starts again, for a more advanced workout tie the legs with an elastic band as well.

This drill develops the CV system and allows the fighter to go hypoxic as the hydrogen will start to soar through the body.

Give them a go and see how you get on, we have tried to minimise the amount of kit required, if you have no bands or aqua dumbbells two pull buoys will suffice for a start.

Next time we will look at swim sets to develop the fighter and add additional training to their arsenal.

If you try them please get back to us and leave a comment.

Brian Fernie MMA-CSCC