Mario Sperry Vale Tudo DVD I: Takedowns

Today I am going to review the first video in a series of six from Mario Sperry’s original Vale Tudo (MMA) series.  Though this series is pretty old at this point, it is one of the first places I learned some grappling technique and strategy from.  Mario Sperry is a legend from the grappling world and had a pretty solid MMA career as well (even though he was older).  He trained several MMA legends, including the Nogueira Brothers and Ricardo Arona.

This first video is actually the weakest in the series, not because it’s full of terrible information, it’s just dated at this point.  It’s focus is on securing the takedown.  While some of the strategies used in this video would never be used in today’s MMA world, it still has some good pointers and offers a few worthwhile techniques.  Again, this first video is the only one that doesn’t hold up that well over time, the rest of the series is better.

While some of it is dated, Mario Sperry does offer some great advice that will help anyone secure some takedowns.  Tips like putting your opponents back into a wall, cage, car, etc., so he can’t sprawl back, and using punches to set up your takedowns are still very worthwhile.  This video also ends with a segment on escaping from a standing guillotine (still one of my favorite escapes).

I wouldn’t recommend buying this video by itself, but as part of the series of six videos in the the Vale Tudo series, it’s okay to have.  I’d give this video 2 out of 5 stars.

Fedor: Undisputed King of MMA Review (Part 2)

If you have not read Part 1 of my book review, you may do so here: Fedor: Undisputed King of MMA Review (Part 1)

Picking up where we left off from the clinch, we now move to takedowns and throws.  These are different than wrestling based takedowns most wrestlers are used too.  Fedor is a master of Judo and Sambo.  He shows lots of throws in his book but he also mentions how to set them up with other throws or strikes.  When you combo some of these together it makes them that much harder to stop.  Another good thing about most of these takedowns is that you are left in an advantageous position.  You don’t have to follow someone down to the ground where you can be submitted.  These takedowns usually leave you standing over you opponent, free to reign down strikes.

Next we come to the ground game.  Fedor covers most of the main positions and how to escape them.  Like with the throws, he strings moves together, so if one fails you can immediately move to the next.  This method greatly increases your chance of success.  This is not a grappling only section, he will show you how to pass a guard using strikes to set up a guard pass.

I’ve read a lot of material on MMA, Jiu-jitsu and so on, and these moves are pretty simple yet very effective.  If someone would take the time to drill and perfect all of these techniques and never learned anything else, they would still be a very dangerous and well rounded fighter.  Something else interesting about many of these techniques are that they come from Sambo/Judo instead of Brazilian Jiu-jitsu or wrestling, so many people may not be used to these particular variations.  You might be able to take people at your martial art gym by surprise with some of these.

I highly recommend this book.  You will learn all sorts of interesting variations of moves you have probably never seen, get some philosophy behind why he does things a certain way, and will learn how to string techniques together.  The only real thing missing from this book is some coverage of how Fedor actually trains.  There is no mention of how much he runs, lifts weights, spars, etc.  A conditioning section would have been nice but perhaps we will see some of that in the future.

Fedor: Undisputed King of MMA Review (Part 1)

Today I am going to review the book from the great Fedor Emelianenko.  I have to say, this book is fantastic.  For starters, it’s very well rounded.  From it you will learn a series of striking combinations, clinch techniques and ground fighting techniques.  Not only did Fedor dominate the hardest weight class in all of combat sports for a decade, but he remained humble while doing it.  That is why he is my favorite fighter of all time.

The techniques in this book aren’t overly complicated or fancy, but they work.  The book is broken down into three basic sections: Striking, Clinch, Ground Fighting.  Also, unlike with a lot of other fighter’s books, these are techniques Fedor actually uses.  Learning these techniques will actually allow you to fight with a style similar to how Fedor actually fights.

Striking:  The striking section has some very interesting and unorthodox techniques.  For instance, since most people are trained to lead with a Jab/Cross combo (and everyone is used to defending against it) Fedor uses a Cross/Left Hook intro many times to take his opponents off guard. He also uses hand traps (which are hardly ever used in MMA) to set up his opponents.  You can see this in action in several of his fights, including his extremely dominate performance against Tim Sylvia.  By clearing your opponents lead hand out of the way, it not only takes him off guard and misdirects his attention, but it opens him up for a strike.

The book starts out by showing single punches/kicks and all of their variations (there are multiple variations of even the jab for instance).  After learning the basic mechanics of each punch/kick, Fedor shows how to string them together into combinations.  Each punch sets up your opponent for another strike.  There is a lot of great material here.

After learning to strike from a distance we see how to strike from the clinch.  By being in close and controlling your opponents head and body, you can lead him into your punches, elbows and knees.  Fedor has been very successful in the clinch position during his fights, so learning a few of these combos would be beneficial for any martial artist.

In Part 2 we will cover Throws from the Clinch and Ground Work.

Lyoto Machida officially removed from #1 contender spot

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“When I make a fight, I don’t say a word until everything is signed. I did exactly what I never do. That big media call was the next day and Machida couldn’t be reached and his manager thought he’d take the fight,” “Before this happened he was terrorizing me for a title shot, and then he said four weeks wasn’t enough. But then things start going in another direction. It happened to Rashad Evans. He was out of a fight for a year and a half. Machida is not next in line now. He will need to go fight somebody else first.” -Dana White

In what should come as a surprise to no one, Dana White has gone back on his word once again and has taken away Lyoto Machida’s title shot.  Originally the title shot was promised to the winner of Shogun Rua vs  Brandon Vera, but that didn’t last long.  Dana changed it to whoever performs the best out of Shogun Rua vs Brandon Vera and Lyoto Machida vs Ryan Bader.  Well that winner was Lyoto Machida.

What is amazing about all of this is that Lyoto Machida is being punished for something that wasn’t even his fault.  UFC 151 being canceled has been blamed on everyone except the people really at fault, Dana White and his Zuffa crew.  These guys have been watering down the PPV cards for years and UFC 151 was so bad, that without Jon Jones and Dan Henderson carrying the card by themselves, there wasn’t even one fight on it anyone wanted to see.

If the UFC had been selling lots of tickets they wouldn’t have canceled, with or without Jones, but reports are that they had barely sold any tickets and the event was going to be a huge flop.  So as Dana does, he went on a smear campaign, against Jon Jones, Dan Henderson, Lyoto Machida and anyone else he could try and pass the blame on besides himself.  It is not the fighters fault that Zuffa tried to pass off a garbage card onto the viewers and it back fired on them.  Bashing all of the top guys at Light Heavy Weight isn’t going to help the situation.  I really wish these fighters would start standing up for themselves and realize that they are the ones with all of the power, but they give it to Zuffa all the time.

One good thing out of this is that we might be able to see Lyoto Machida vs Dan Henderson if Henderson heals from his injury in the next few months.  I think that would be a great fight.  I would rather Jon Jones just move up to heavyweight if he beats Vitor Belfort.  Jones is huge and walks around as big as most heavyweights and he has a longer reach.  It would give him a challenge and open up all kinds of new and exciting fights.

New Workout Program: Day 4

If you haven’t read Day 3 yet, you can find it here:  http://ironfitnessonline.com/?p=166

Resistance Training:

Triceps, Shoulders & Abs


Dips (using the total gym, you can also use a chair)

5 sets, Reps 21/27/19/19/27

Shoulder Press – 3 sets, 8 reps

Crunches

5 sets, reps 24/32/23/23/32

Cardio

My cadio was shadow boxing outside.  Similar to when I was hitting my heavy bag during a previous workout, I also was able to train some techniques and strategies at the same time.  It’s also a nice change of pace.  Down the road I will move up to 5 rounds instead of 3 (5 minutes each round).  I will also start wearing my weighted vest to make it harder.

New Workout Program: Day 3

If you haven’t read Day 2 yet, you can find it here:  http://ironfitnessonline.com/?p=147

Resistance Training:

Legs & Neck

Squats (using a Kettlebell for added resistance)

Reps 22/29/20/21/29

Dead Lift – 3 sets, 12 reps

Neck Bridge – 3 sets, 10 reps (this exercise is for grappling, you can replace it with something else, like lunges or toe raise)

Cardio

My cardio was another day of caveman training.  I did mostly different exercises than the last time but still used a mixture of Kettlebells, running, ground & pound on a heavy bag, punching a standing heavy bag and body weight exercises.  You can do pretty much anything you want to, but you need to keep working for the entire 5 minute round, before taking a 1 minute break and repeating for up to 3 rounds.

Andrei Arlovski vs Tim Sylvia 4 Breakdown

Andrei Arlovski (17-9) vs Tim Sylvia (31-7) is an interesting match up to anyone who has been following MMA for more than the last three or four years.  They are two of the top heavyweights the UFC has ever had, and even though they are not at their peaks anymore, they can still be dangerous to anyone.  I really like what ONE FC is doing in Asia.

These fighters have met three times in the past.  The first match easily went to Arlovski when he floored Sylvia and finished him with a leglock.  The second fight looked exactly like the first one, except after dropping Sylvia, Arlovski rushed in to finish with strikes and got caught while being sloppy.  Both of those fights were over very quickly.  The third match went to a decision in a fight that was pretty boring from what I remember.  Neither guy wanted to lose the rubber match and fought very safe.  Sylvia ended up winning the decision (but I remember thinking Arlovski should have won).

This forth fight finds them both in a very different place.  Arlovski has put together a couple of wins, after losing four in a row (all to top heavyweights) and Sylvia has won his last three.  It’s a little hard to tell where they are at right now because their competition hasn’t been the best lately.  Sylvia got KO’d by a couple of guys he should have easily beat and Arlovski has been lacking aggression in his last few fights.

Regardless of Sylvia being 2-1 against Arlovski, I feel Arlovski is the superior fighter.  Arlovski has better stand up and submissions.  His biggest problem is that he doesn’t always defend himself well and his chin is average in a division of hard hitters.  This could be another quick fight if they both come out to make a statement, or a slow fight if they come out not to lose like in the third fight.

I am hoping for an exciting match up and I think that if Arlovski comes out and fights smart he wins this fairly convincingly.  If Arlovski still hasn’t fixed his defense and gets sloppy Sylvia could catch him or if Arlovski comes out and isn’t aggressive at all like in his last couple of fights, Sylvia could use his range to win a decision.  The other thing to take into account is ONE FC uses rules very similar to Pride rules.  If One of these guys drops the other one, I believe they are allowed to use knees or kicks to a grounded opponent.

Dana White Wanting to Sign Fedor vs Brock Lesnar?

Dana White recently asked for fans to make a thread about if they want to see Fedor vs Brock Lesnar. Do you think he was just bored and trolling or is he willing to try and make this happen since ratings haven’t been so hot lately? Both Fedor and Lesnar have retired from MMA but it would be a huge fight and a huge payday for both men.

Anderson Silva: I’ll Be Rooting for Vitor Belfort Against Jon Jones at UFC 152

Quotes from Anderson Silva on Jones vs Belfort:

“It’s difficult, because Jon Jones has a larger-than-normal wingspan and he’s still very young, He’s still in the phase where he’s playing during the fight, really, but he doesn’t have the responsibility of a champion.  He fights with delight, jokingly, striking like I did back in 1930, when I started, Vitor has a great chance to defeat him. The biggest factor for Vitor is to use his explosiveness and his jiu-jitsu, where he is very good. But I think when one of them makes a mistake, the other will end up striking.”

“As a Brazilian, I’ll be rooting for the Brazilian, even though I have a very good friendship with Jon Jones, Whenever I’m with him, I ask him to conduct his career in a different way, because he is very young and is always asking me something. But I’ll be rooting for Brazil, yes. May the best man win, but I’m rooting for Brazil.”

“We’re in different weight classes and there are teammates from Team Nogueira who may face him, we have a code of conduct in our team, and I respect that a lot.”

I wonder if any of this will be enough to make Jon Jones want to fight Anderson now?  Or if Machida loses to Jones again if Anderson would fight him?  It’s a fight people want to see and there is nothing for Anderson at 185lbs anyway.

Rulon Gardner Admits He Turned Down Big Bucks to Fight Fedor

It would have been cool to see Fedor fight Rulon Gardner, both are such respectful honorable guys. Fedor has already beat several Olympic medal winners, it would have been interesting. People think the purses from the UFC are big, the UFC is small time, even now. Pride offered Rulon Gardner 1 million to fight Fedor almost a decade ago.

Tim Sylvia on Arlovski and 3 Fight Deal with One FC

I’m not sure why Tim Sylvia is so obsessed with getting back in the UFC.  If these fighters would realize that they are what’s important, not the organization.  Just go out, fight and win and constantly improve.  In boxing you don’t go to see Don King promotions, you go to see Mike Tyson or Roy Jones Jr.  MMA are just so brainwashed these days they go to see a promotion half the time.

If Frank Mir hadn’t of worked out for Daniel Cormier, at least Sylvia would have been a name guy for him to fight, even if he is past his prime.

New Workout Program: Day 2

If you haven’t read Day 1 yet, you can find it here:  http://ironfitnessonline.com/?p=139

Resistance Training:

Back & Traps

Pull ups (these are done on the total gym, so I am only using about 50% of my body weight, meaning I can do way more than normal).

Reps  12/15/10/10/15/10

Back Row -3 sets, reps 25,20,20 (I will be increasing the weight next time)

Shoulder Shrugs 3 sets, reps 20 (I will be increasing the reps on this exercise as well and will be aiming for the 8-12 range)

Cardio

This cardio routine I will be alternating in with my caveman training.  I did 3 rounds of 5 minutes each, working various combinations and strategies on my heavy bag.  I love this training because it not only gets you into shape, but it’s very sport specific and develops punching power and technique.  This almost doesn’t even feel like exercise as it goes by so quickly.  My goal will be to work up to 5 rounds.

I also had a 10 minute stretching session in between my resistance training and cardio.

ELO MMA Heavyweight Rankings

Top 10 (The number beside their names is how many points they currently have)


1. Fedor Emelianenko  2149

2. Junior dos Santos  2143

3. Alistair Overeem  2097

4. Josh Barnett  2076

5. Fabricio Werdum  2074

6. Daniel Cormier  2067

7. Cain Velasquez  2046

8. Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira  2001

9. Frank Mir  1982

10. Antonio Silva  1971

Why use ELO MMA Rankings? http://cinemakingdom.com/?p=256

New Workout Program: Day 1

I just got back from vacation yesterday.  After taking a week off and resting up, I am ready to get back to it but I am pretty burnt out on my previous program so I changed everything up today.  I’ll be posting my new workouts each day I do them for anyone who also wants to try it.

My slow weightlifting cycle is over.  Now I am going back to regular speed and cutting my exercises way down.  I just don’t feel much like lifting weights right now so I am sticking with a short, simple program.  But just because it’s simple doesn’t mean it’s easy.  Each week I will increase my reps or weight.  This is merely the beginning.  Today my resistance training looked like this:

Chest & Triceps

Push Ups -5 sets (I used push up handles for an increased range of motion, which makes push ups much harder).

Reps 16/21/15/15/21 (max out)

Bicep Curls -3 sets, 20 reps each (I am going to increase my weight a lot next time, this first workout was just experimenting to see how much I could do)

Hammer Curls -3 sets, 10 reps

That’s it!  It may not sound hard but all of those push ups were pretty rough!  I set a timer to make sure I finished everything in 25 minutes or less.

I enjoyed it.  After lifting weight slowly for the last few months it was nice to move at normal speed again.  I did way more reps this way and it definitely helped cure my boredom.  Not doing as much resistance training helped as well since I was becoming tired of it.

Cardio

I started my new cardio program today as well.  I am doing what is called caveman training.  I am starting with 3 rounds of 5 minutes each (with the goal of doing 5 rounds of 5 minutes each eventually).  You just move from exercise to exercise for the whole 5 minute round without stopping (or doing the best you can to not stop, it’s rough!).

I barely made it through my 3 rounds.  I did a mix of kettlebells, hitting my punching bag, MMA drills, and Ground & Pound on a Heavy Bag for each round.  For an example of what a caveman program can look like just check out this video:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UcznQd5cu0g

I feel great and it was a nice change of pace.  I also worked in 10 minutes of stretching.  The workout ran for a total of 50 minutes (and once I add two more rounds of caveman training down the road it will take an hour).  Looking forward to the next one!  Let me know how your workouts are going!

Street Jiu-Jitsu vs. Sport Jiu-Jitsu

They make a lot of great points. This video is definitely worth a watch. This is probably one of the reasons a professional fighter like Frank Mir tends to get pounded out whenever someone on top of him punches him. It's like he doesn't know how to react to it or deal with it and he comes from a sport Jiu-Jitsu background.

Lyoto Machida's Signature Moves

Pretty cool video.  Machida is one of my favorite fighters.  I'm going to be doing a breakdown between Machida and Bader before their fight.

 

Focus Mitts

If you are looking for an excellent cardiovascular workout that also builds some power and skill (and you have a partner), look into getting a pair of focus mitts.  These mitts are designed like gloves but with a striking pad on the front of them.

How to use focus mitts

If you don't have any martial arts training you can still use focus mitts to workout (just learn how to punch correctly first).  Just start simply.  Throw single punches like a jab, cross, hook or uppercut.  Once you master these you can start putting them together in combos.  Mitts are an excellent tool for getting into shape and will get you very tired, very quickly.  You don't have to try to kill the mitts when your strike, just be accurate and give them a little pop.

To punch correctly and not hurt your wrists, hold your arm straight out in front of you.  Turn your fist slightly to the outside so that your first 2 knuckles will be what make contact with the pad.  You want there to be a straight line running up your arm from your first 2 knuckle through your forearm.  This allows the impact to travel straight through your body.  If your wrist isn't straight the impact will cause your wrist to bend one way or the other. 

All weight is not created equal

This is why it's important to find out your body fat percentage.  Sometimes people lose weight and think they are doing good, but they have lost muscle.  Sometimes people gain weight and think they are doing good but it's fat.

Tabata training for MMA

If you haven't read my blog about the Tabata method, read this first:
http://www.shaolindo.blogspot.com/2012/06/arc-bobs-against-god.html

For MMA you can work Ground & Pound on a heavy bag laying flat on the ground.  Move around to different positions and use the same 20 seconds on, 10 seconds off method as before.  You can do up to 4 rounds of this.  You might want to sit in different positions in order to work your strikes from various situations you could be in during an MMA match or self-defense situation.

An example of a round would look like this:

1. Guard position 20 seconds, 10 seconds of rest
2. Half-Guard position 20 seconds, 10 seconds of rest
3. Side Control 20 seconds, 10 seconds of rest
4. Scarfhold 20 seconds, 10 seconds of rest
5. Mount position 20 seconds, 10 seconds of rest
6. Guard position 20 seconds, 10 seconds of rest
7. Half-Guard position 20 seconds, 10 seconds of rest
8. Side Control 20 seconds, 10 seconds of rest

End of round 1, take 1 minute break then start round 2.

Training like this can also help you if you have a chance to flurry on an opponent who has been dropped in order to end the match in devastating fashion.  

The Power of Front Kicks, Part 1

I'm a big fan of mixed martial arts, and with the exception of a handful of fighters, almost no one uses kicks very effectively.  Just watch some fights from Jon Jones, Anderson Silva, or Lyoto Machida and you will see the advantage of being able to kick and keep distance when all your opponent can do is punch.  Covering the wide range of kicks would be a huge task so I am going to focus solely on front kicks in this post.

Front kicks can be used both defensively and offensively.

For defensive purposes you will want to utilize the front push kick seen commonly in Muay Thai fights.  The vast majority of people in MMA or on the street will come straight forward and only attack using punches.  This is perfect for implementing the front push kick.  You simply want to lift your knee straight up and push him away with your lead foot (use the entire surface of your foot and push using your hips).  This will not only stop him dead in his tracks (keeping him out of punching range) but will frustrate him because he can never get close to you.  If you are a ground fighter you can use this kick to knock your foe into a wall, car, cage. etc. so you can close the distance and tie him up, to work for the takedown. 

The rear front kick is an offensive weapon.  It is thrown by lifting your heel back to your butt and thrusting the ball of your foot out like a cannonball.  This kick can be used to not only knock your opponent's wind out, but drop him as well.  He won't be able to take to many of these types of kicks and stay on his feet. 
Both of these kicks can be used to set up other techniques.

I would recommend watching some of those fighters I mention at the beginning to see how they set a kick up and if they used it in a combination.  If you are more flexible you can even use the front kick to the face to KO your opponent (generally done with your rear foot).  To see that in action watch Anderson Silva's fight with Vitor Belfort or Lyoto Machida's fight with Randy Couture.  It's always good to have more techniques in your arsenal, especially one most people can't defend and keeps you at a safe distance from their punches.  Both versions of the front kick do just that.